Years ago, Custom put out an album entitled "Fast". It was a great album, but it was on the experimental Artistdirect label and everything fell apart shortly thereafter.
I came on board Team Custom in 2004, rescuing the teamcustom.com domain from Artistdirect and helping out with the web parts while Custom recorded awesome new material.
That awesome new material hasn't seen the light of day, and it's a shame. I'm hoping he'll let me share some of the tracks one day soon so you can see what I mean.
Anyway, my involvement with Team Custom means I'm always getting emails asking where he's at and why he's not touring. If you're able to get to New York City tomorrow, this email I just got from Custom will be of interest.
Looking forward to seeing you Thursday, June 11th at 9:30 PM.
Guastavino's 59th and 1st.
Thanks to all of you for your interest and support in The Jed Foundation. On
the evening of June 11th, 2009, we will celebrate our collective power
to improve and save the lives of young people struggling with
emotional issues. We have a stellar evening
planned as we honor Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Sheila Nevins
from HBO for their contributions to the cause. We have Brittany Snow
hosting the party, an amazing DJ as well as a special live performance
by CUSTOM and open bar all night long!!!!
Do you remember Custom? He had a rock radio hit back in 2002 with the single "Hey Mister" from his debut album Fast. Shortly thereafter, his label went under and that's where I came in. I got to come in and rescue his teamcustom.com domain from the defunct label and set him up with an official site while he worked on securing a new label.
About a year ago, I was asked by one of Custom's peeps to put up a "New Site Coming Soon" page. It sounded like a new record deal was imminent and my services were no longer required. I did what I was told and waited for the good news to break. I waited, and waited, and waited...
I got tired of waiting. I know Custom, one of the sweetest dudes you'll ever meet, and I know he's an interesting, multi-talented freak, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I changed hosts, threw down Movable Type, hacked away at some HTML and built a blog for Custom. Custom himself can maintain this sucker, I'm dummy-proofing the entire process.
I used to have this feature where every Monday I'd shuffle my entire MP3 collection in iTunes and list the first ten songs that played. I'm not sure why I stopped. I think I'll start it up again.
Here are the ten tunes I heard today with a personal story about one of them.
120 - Custom
What A Difference A Day Mad - Sarah Vaghan
The Sorrowful Wife - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
16 Horses - Soul Coughing
Natural Beauty - Neil Young
Sweet Home Chicago - Robert Johnson
1989 - Mindless Self Indulgence
New Year's Day - U2
World Container - The Tragically Hip
Church For Thugs - The Game
I haven't written about Custom in a while because I'm baffled. Custom is a multi-talented Canadian musician and director living in Manhattan I befriended a few years ago. He released a very cool album in 2002 called Fast which includes the wicked "120" that just played during my shuffle.
Custom contacted me in early 2005 after he stumbled upon something I wrote about "Hey Mister". We hit it off instantly, and I ended up helping him rescue his domain name from his old label that went under. He also let me build him a site and start up the official Custom forum. He also sent me his new material which sounds fantastic. Over the past few years, I'd hear that he was "this close" to signing a new deal and getting his tunes back in the airwaves. Now, I'm just baffled. This stuff is awesome but the only place you'll hear it is on my iPod.
Custom, you multi-talented freak. Screw the record companies. Let's get the music out there and let it spread organically. Enough of this "hurry up and wait" bullshit. We can do this ourselves.
I spoke with Custom today. Custom is a great guy who has had a few bad breaks over the past few years trying to get his music back on store shelves. His 2002 release Fast is solid.
It sounds like I might be able to make a very cool Custom announcement soon. That's all I can really write on the subject right now. I'm pretty close to his new tracks, having had a lot of them for three years now, so he asked me to rank the pure-Custom tracks as he prunes them down for his next release. Here's what I sent him.
I got the latest issue of Rolling Stone last week, but I'm only getting a chance to read it now. There's an interesting article about how January 2007 was the worst week for CD sales in SoundScan history. The Dreamgirls Soundtrack led the way by moving 66,355 units which would have placed it in twentieth place ten years ago when No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom shipped 250,842 units in a notoriously slow month for CD sales.
I'm sure digital music sales will offset this 67% decline over the past decade, but I'm positive digital sales aren't making up the difference. In 1997, if you wanted an album or a song, you bought it. The technically savvy might burn the disc from a friend, as we did in the previous decade when we dubbed cassette tapes, but most of us shelled out $20 for the CD. It's hard out there for a musician, especially those in the large tier beneath the likes of Justin Timberlake and Norah Jones. That has me thinking about my pal Custom.
Custom had a big hit back in 2002 with Hey Mister and he released an album called Fast. I actually heard Hey Mister this morning on CFNY Edge 102. Back in January 2005 I became fast friends with Custom after he came across our SLS discussion about Hey Mister. All my Custom-related entries are here if you want to catch up. Long story short, I started doing web work for him and I've had access to all of his unreleased material since Fast.
Custom's material is good. Actually, it's really good. Since his label died in 2004 he's been looking for a new deal, but here we are in 2007 and the follow-up album we were hoping to hear two years ago is still stuck in limbo. P2P networks are giving artists more exposure, but is it reducing the bottom line to a point where great new material is suppressed? And if it is, how much great stuff is out there that we haven't heard?
In Tragically Dipping I noted the clear and dramatic drop in album sales for the Hip since Fully Completely. The Hip make their money these days touring, but they're touring behind a wealth of material and for a devoted fan base. How does an artist like Custom build his catalogue and fan base in this era to a point where he too can make a comfortable living touring?
I remember buying many new CDs a month in the early to mid-nineties. I'll be the first to admit this isn't happening any more. Is anyone out there still buying music or are we all "borrowing" new tunes and sharing the love gratis?
If you want more doom and gloom, here's a very cool video for an unreleased Custom song, USA.
Only six days ago I went off on MySpace. I believe I called them facist bastards and worse. They cancelled my myspace.com/teamcustom account without indicating why or giving me a chance to appeal. I was pissed.
Custom and I chatted about it that night and he, like many in the biz, knew somebody. This somebody knew somebody on the inside, and in less than a week not only was the account reactivated with the old friends and comments but we were given the URI we always coveted, myspace.com/custom. I'm guessing they just turfed the guy who's had it forever. That, my friends, is rock n' roll.
To recap, I went from cursing the SOBs out to appreciating their help in less than a week. We went from nothing and no chance of anything to what we had and a whole lot more. myspace.com/custom is now live and to celebrate we're sharing two gems from Fast, "Beat Me" and "Hey Mister". Two new tracks will be online soon. Thanks Rupert!
Personally, I hate MySpace. The pages are ugly as sin, the users are perpetual pre-teens completely void of depth and the network is a cesspool of scams, abuse and danger. For these reasons, I don't have a MySpace page, but as the third most visited page on the web, you've got to respect the power MySpace beholds. That's why I created a page for Custom and started streaming his new tunes there last year.
I checked email tonight after a game of Trivial Pursuit in the backyard and I found this gem sitting in my inbox from hjyn___hjynxffw.rfh@message.myspace.com.
Hello,
MySpace has deleted your profile because we received a credible complaint of your violation of the MySpace Terms of Services.
Prohibited activity includes, but is not limited to:
-Any automated use of the system, such as using scripts and/or bots to add friends, send messages, etc.
-For band and filmmaker profiles, MySpace prohibits sexually suggestive imagery or any other unfair, misleading or deceptive content intended to draw traffic to the profile.
-MySpace also investigates credible complaints of copyright/trademark infringement and will delete any materials that infringe upon the intellectual property rights of third parties.
For a more thorough list of prohibited content/activity, please refer to the MySpace Terms of Service located at the bottom of MySpace.com.
If we delete your account, it cannot be reinstated.
Thank you,
MySpace.com
At first, I thought it was a piece of spam. Just in case there was some weight to it, I tabbed over to http://www.myspace.com/teamcustom where I was greeted with a cold "The account has been deleted" message. This was the real deal. Everything was wiped away, the hundreds of friends, the comments, the emails... it was as if it had never happened. The was no opportunity to appeal, nowhere to turn, no chance of getting the old account back... the account was gone for good.
We never used an illegal script or bot, Custom owns the copyright to the tunes we shared and, in my opinion, nothing on the page was overtly sexual except a few of the lyrics to "Hey Mister", which we only added eleven days ago. Check out the lyrics to "Hey Mister". Did someone complain about the F-bomb in that song? Would someone on MySpace really be offended by that? What else could it be?
I created a new account and secured that same URI, so http://www.myspace.com/teamcustom is back but we're starting from scratch. Damn MySpace and their fascist policies without recourse. To kick off the second go round for Custom's MySpace page, we're sharing one song. Wanna guess which one?
Ever since I started Custom's MySpace page we've stuck to sharing new, unreleased tunes. People seem to dig the new stuff, but requests for one older song have been flooding in ever since. Today, we decided to give the people what they want.
Now streaming at http://www.myspace.com/teamcustom is Custom's one and only hit thus far, "Hey Mister". Even if you haven't heard of Custom, you've probably heard this tune and might enjoy hearing it again. As someone who maintains Custom's official site and MySpace page, I can vouch for the fact "Hey Mister" continues to be a very popular song that's constantly in demand.
Enjoy "Hey Mister". The people want what the people want.
Over on Custom's MySpace page I've taken down "Fogg" and am now sharing "Beautiful". We've actually shared "Beautiful" before, but people seem to really dig it so it's back by popular demand.
Years ago, Custom put out an album entitled "Fast". It was a great album, but it was on the experimental Artistdirect label and everything fell apart shortly thereafter.
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I used to have this feature where every Monday I'd shuffle 
I got the latest issue of Rolling Stone last week, but I'm only getting a chance to read it now. There's an interesting article about how January 2007 was the worst week for CD sales in SoundScan history. The Dreamgirls Soundtrack led the way by moving 66,355 units which would have placed it in twentieth place ten years ago when No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom shipped 250,842 units in a notoriously slow month for CD sales.
Unreleased Custom songs I believe would be hits
Only six days ago 
Over on