Terrestrial & Interstellar Updates by Shark's Teeth Soup (transmitting from Cat Plan Universal Headquarters!! Meow!!!!!)

Terrestrial Update first: As some of you probably know from our posts on Facebook and tweets on Twitter, we've teamed up with a bunch of really amazing musicians to sell our songs through a project called Music for Japan and donate the profits from the sales to the Japanese Red Cross Society to help out with the relief efforts. There are more than 450,000 people in Japan who are homeless and living in shelters set up in schools, gymnasiums and community centers after the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, and we want to do what we can to help out. The people in Japan affected by this disaster need help and will for quite some time to come - temporary housing is at least 4 to 5 months away. So, we are hoping you can help us raise money by purchasing this collection of songs. There are 24 songs in the collection (including three by us that aren't available anywhere else!), and the price for the entire collection is only $12! The other artist who have contributed to this project are:

Clavius Crates
Crushed Velvet Explosion
John Holk & The Sequins
JThrill (from Thrill Train)
Kira Lesser
Mykehouse
Nick Bertsos
October Babies
Paradox Explorer
sedition world orchestra
Sir Lord Sean Ike
Skate Laws
Soundpropeller
Swimsuit
The Afternoon Round
The Corvairs
Tree City
UltraIndigo

We think it's a really amazing collection of songs (at a very low price too!) and it's for a good cause! Please check it out! (The main website has short previews of all the songs - if you would like to listen to the songs in their entirety, please go here! Thank you!)

'Kay, Interstellar Update time: Maestro Shinken and I are finishing up the pre-mixing for the long overdue 'Interstellar Groove Manual' album (we've been sidetracked a couple times...), and are pretty much at the point where we're just waiting for the other Origami Kittens to make their way to Cat Plan Universal Headquarters (a.k.a. Kitten Cool Studios) and lay down their parts on the virtual tape recorder. Groove Ninja is a little busy this month - he's attending 5 weddings in 3 different countries in the next 4 weeks - and Kaji no Joou is... well... we don't actually know where she is... but we're sure she's having fun and we hope she gets in contact with us soon or we'll have to switch on the Cat Signal. Oh! We also have a couple honorary Origami Kittens that will be making guest appearances on the album (we're all very excited by this!!!!!!) - more information about these guest Kittens will be divulged soon! Secrets and surprises!!! In other noise news, Shinken and I will be remixing two of the songs Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, and Damian Kulash recorded last Monday (just to do it, they recorded 6 songs in 8 hours - check it out!) We'll be remixing "Because the Origami" (naturally) and "One Tiny Thing" - our remixes will be called "because the Origami Cat Plan - world come home mix" and "and a whole bunch of other bigger things", respectively. We are going to try to remix both songs in 8 hours, which will be difficult - some of our songs have taken a month to mix - but we're looking forward to the challenge. We will post them for listening when we are finished.

And... that is all (for now!) Once again, please check out the Music for Japan compilation!

Groove On everyone!!!! Peace!!!!!!

Interstellar Update by Shark's Teeth Soup from Origami Cat Plan Universal Headquarters (transmitting from the Paper Feline Constellation!!!)

"What are Origami Cat Plan up to these days?" is what you've probably been wondering. Well, wonder no more - this blog post will reveal all!!!

First of all, Koneko-hime has decided to quit the band and move back to Paris and sing in nightclubs again! It was an unexpected decision and we miss her, but it is her dream to be known as a great Parisian chanteuse and we wish her the best of luck! The remaining Origami Kittens are carrying on in their frolicsome musical fashion and we're all excited about finishing up recording for our album! (Soon!)

Shinken and I have been kicking around some new musical ideas and are pleased with the results so far. We're composing with a more organic funk sound in mind, and plan on adding more band members for our live shows to incorporate the new direction we're heading in. Kaji no Joou (we just call her Kaji - she's not too fussy about her royal title) will be recording her vocals for "Down to the Groove" next week and we should be posting it soon. We're also reworking "Down to the Groove" into an extended funky jam version we plan on releasing on the SUPERnova Sexxxy EP (where we'll be calling it "Baby, I'm In... If You Are Too"), and so far it's sounding pretty tasty. Another track called "Meow Funky!" should be released in the next couple weeks - this version will just be Shinken and me messing around and having fun, and we'll probably put it up as a free download (a different version of "Meow Funky!" will be recorded for the album with the full band!) I've been finishing the instrumental mixes for the album and am planning on posting some of the interlude pieces as I finish them - Shinken is against this idea (he's very serious at times), saying he thinks we should wait until the album's done, but I think some of them will probably be posted before that.

John Holkeboer, a good friend of ours in Michigan, has offered to record the string parts for our song　さようなら！We're very excited about this! He writes and records in many different styles and does it quite well. Not only that, he's just a really nice guy. We suggest checking out his music (he's in a few bands): John Holk & The Sequins, Some Velvet Evening and The Oblivion Project. It doesn't sound like our music, but who cares? Good grooves are good grooves no matter what style they're in!

And, while we're on the subject of hyping bands we like, this is the band we've been listening to lately around Cat Plan Universal Headquarters when we're not working on our own stuff: October Babies (videos here). We are warning you ahead of time: their music is highly addictive.

Let's see - Koneko back to France, new tune info, John Holkeboer, October Babies... yep, that's the update! More news and tunes soon! May the groove be with y'all 'til then!

STS