Video: Micah Schnabel – “Coin$tar”
Single out now on Bandcamp.
Hey it’s Bandcamp Friday so what better time to support your favorite independent artists than right now? Micah Schnabel has a brand new song out today featuring “special guest vocals” by
Lydia Loveless. In the video Schnabel and Vanessa Jean Speckman play a couple of hapless burglars.
So if you’re looking for artists to support today, throw the guy a bone or two. Really, you should buy up his entire discography as well as that of his band Two Cow Garage because it’s all good.
Schnabel breaks my heart. For almost two decades now, we have seen him work as hard on his craft as anybody out there. In a just world he would have “made it” by now. But it’s pretty clear from his lyrics and the size venues he plays that he’s still scraping by. This isn’t meant to be a pity party but it’s the cold reality of making uncompromising art on your own without much help from a label or trust fund or even a decent day job. The music business is a motherfucker and it hasn’t slipped Schnabel many breaks.
As far back as 2007, he was already trying to convince himself that “There ain’t no shame in just giving up and walking away.”
Six hundred pages
All filled with regret
And hundreds of songs
That I ain’t finished yet
And a job application getting
Harder to ignore.
But he hasn’t given up. He keeps releasing good songs, year after year. Grinding. He deserves a break. Some music supervisor needs to use one of his songs in a high-profile tv show or something. Something.
From one green participant ribbon of a human being to another, take care buddy and stay well. Keep on keeping on. Know that there are people out here who appreciate what you’re doing.
Audio: Two Cow Garage – “No Shame”
From III (Shelterhouse, 2007).
Audio: Micah Schnabel – “Oh, What a Bummer”
From Your New Norman Rockwell (Last Chance, 2017)