Some great new photos from our pal Gregg Bleakney. View the photos here. This is from our 2009 Showbox show.
Here's a tune we kinda forgot about. It was recorded quickly in Daniel's bedroom a few years ago with Reggie laying the vocal idea down over a drum machine track and some "fake" scratch keys. This was all recorded directly into a lil' Mac laptop using Garageband. When we recorded the FIVE album in 2009 the band laid "real" instruments over the scratch tracks and just kept Reggie's original vocal (and Daniel's backup vocals). We've always written songs quickly, but this is one Reg conceived and captured while the band didn't enter the picture with real instruments for a few years. The original tune we called "Goodbye Yesterday". We changed the name to "Coffee" with the updated version. They're both interesting versions of the same tune. Listen to Coffee (the updated version):
Click the play icon below to hear the original Goodbye Yesterday scratch track. The vocals are the same in each but the original scratch instruments were replaced in the final Coffee version (above).
An experiment worth trying: Slash of G'nR fame and Maktub of Maktub fame, recording 3 songs together. Go vote for Maktub and participate in the strangest musical plot hatched in many moons.
It's been a while since we've had the entire Maktub catalog available for sale on maktub.com. Between trying to communicate through the crazy web with external ordering systems and not having all the product on hand ... well, let's just say that was then, this is now. As of yesterday, you can buy any of our 5 albums as such:
And as an added bonus, you can buy all our CDs as 5-Pak for $40. This includes free shipping in the US ($8 shipping if you're elsewhere). Such a deal!
Now for the lost track. We recorded "Holding On" as part of the Khronos sessions in 1999. Somehow the song didn't make it on the album and we just recently stumbled up on it. Turns out that it's a pretty great tune. Here you go:
HOLDING ON by Maktub
Daniel (that's me) ran into Luke at Banana Republic in Seattle's U Village yesterday. He introduced himself and we talked about the Neumo's show where he last saw the band. Time warp! I ended up scouring the sale for a sweatshirt ($24.99 if you're curious). But the real question about buying anything there is if you wait another month will it be $9.99 -- down all the way from $50? Sometimes you've just got to pull the trigger.
Nice to meet you, Luke.
We have about 50 Maktub shirts sitting in a box at my (Daniel's) house (mostly leftovers) and we're giving them away. Yes, we've done this before (and once before that). In 15 minutes (currently it's about noon on Friday November 20, 2009) I'm going to run these tees down to:
Porchlight Coffee
1515 14th Avenue (between Pike & Pine on 14th)
Seattle, WA 98122
Come by and grab one for free! Zack owns and runs Porchlight Coffee and is kind enough to offer up his excellent joint as the pick-up spot. While you're there:
- grab a cup of coffee
- snap a photo and send it to info [at] maktub [dot] com. I'll post the pics here w/ your free tee @ Porchlight
Did I mention these tees are free? You can thank us on Facebook. Here's the t-shirt stock that will be waiting for you:
womens:
- 4ea L, mint cap sleeve
- 14ea XL, mint cap sleeve
- 1ea M, orange cap sleeve
- 5ea L, orange cap sleeve
- 7ea XL, orange cap sleeve
everybody:
- 17ea 2XL, black
- 1ea L, black tank top
Todd returned from India with a pic of the gents he met in a bar swapping Maktub music files. No idea what your names are (from Tucson?) but here you are. Continue rocking gents ...
Tony introduced himself Daniel (me) at the first annual Seattle City of Music Awards last night at the Showbox. Thanks for being a fan of Maktub! There is a 37% chance that Tony's name is Chris. Conversely, I'm 63% sure Tony's name is Tony.
From a friend currently traveling in India ...
This morning I arrived in Kathmandu after a grueling 30 hour train and bus trip from India. Seattle weather here, stark contrast to the last few weeks. I stopped into a little bar to wait out a rain shower - a small, chill place with only two other people there, American ex-pats. Before I'd even finished pouring my first glass, one of them was enthusiastically name-dropping Maktub to his friend. I guess they were swapping digital music and Maktub was on the menu for sharing. I jumped in - the fan is from Tucson and has met (if not hung out with) some of the band members before, said Thaddeus was always asking where the party was when you toured through town. Says you're one of America's best kept secrets. Anyway, fucking crazy small world. Kathmandu!
wudmun
Reno
Jul 22, 2009 @ 4:24 PM
I must admit that my review of MAKTUB’s previous album “Start it Over” was a bit harsh. I called it “disjointed” and “forced”. But I still liked it because I have been a huge fan of this band since “Subtle Ways”. I just felt that MAKTUB was settling and no longer trying to make it big; their peak had passed. With Reggie in NYC doing comedy and other members leaving town and having babies (so did I), I felt that one of my favorite bands was leaving me (how selfish) and that I would have to listen to “Khronos” for the rest of my life thinking of what could have been.
But I was wrong. MAKTUB did what I consider the unexpected, they managed to put together more material and recorded yet another album, FIVE (V), to my and every other fan’s delight. And to my surprise, FIVE (V) might just be their best effort to date. Songs like “Took It All Away” and “Slippin' Away” reminded me that this band’s best recordings are not nestled in distant memory, but instead are booming though my car cabin’s interior like a kid with a new bike; I simply love this album.
First of all, the production and sound quality is on par with any major label and by far MAKTUB’s best mix. The dynamics of Davis’s drums and Kevin’s bass are so intricately linked, that I wonder if they might be conjoined twins, thinking, hearing and reacting as a single entity. Reggie’s vocals are breathing and gasping with Daniel’s smooth intonations and inflections. But I think it’s Thaddeus’s guitar work that is the unifying thread that weaves each number together and shows how the members of MAKTUB stay together, no matter the geographical constraints, making an endeavor like FIVE (V) seemingly impractical and, thankfully, possible. A truly great album, which may not become huge in terms of the standards of the music industry, MAKTUB’s FIVE (V) is a quiet sleeper that begs for music enthusiasts to wake up. Thanks guys.
Thanks Wudmun! Maybe we've met, maybe we haven't ... either way it's great to hear this from a fan of the band. We all read your comments and it meant a lot coming from someone who has listened since our first release Subtle Ways. Or as Reggie wrote after reading this, "Wow. That's a nice thing to read!"
My favorite iPhone apps are generally free. Not just because they're free, but somehow the free onces (Facebook, Mint, Amazon, etc.) are useful. Anyhow, the new Maktub iPhone app is free ... and it's fun. You can listen to all the tunes from FIVE, see pictures from the recording session and Twitter action from band and fans. You can even post comments to the app. But probably the coolest part are the slide puzzles made out of alternate album cover art -- these are comps that Charles Whiteside proposed before we settled on the final design.
Go get the app, write an review and pass it along to your friends.
 A week late, but we'll take it. FIVE is now available on iTunes, as is the entire Maktub catalog. That's right "catalog" as in five albums since 1999. We're officially an institution. When the Subtle Ways came out in '99 people ordered the CD direct from maktub.com and sent us a check when they received the album in the mail. Back then many people were wary of ordering online and we didn't have an easy system for accepting payment. Anyway, here we are in 2009 and your options have multiplied fivefold:
FIVE from iTunes
FIVE from Amazon as a CD
FIVE from Amazon as mp3s
FIVE from Maktub as a CD
FIVE from Maktub as a free download
In 2019 we'll be beaming it to your brain via your sonicare toothrush. You'll pay us in toothpaste commodities.
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