Hello Burlaps!

Van Walker,

How do you get over the so-called difficult second album syndrome?

Why, you release your second album first!

As you may or may not know, the L.D's - myself, Michael Barclay, Liz Stringer & Brother Cal - came together through absolute serendipity. Dumb luck. A happy accident. A pleasant surprise. A fortuitous mistake... Call it what you will, just some musical friends, siblings and partners who felt like getting away for a bit and rocking our socks off beachside, with the good fortune of a supportive community and generous friends who offered us their beach shack to stay and record some new music in.

"New toons ahoy!"

It was the family beach shack they'd all enjoyed since childhood, through adolescence and still into adulthood. The magic gaff. The party pad. The love shack. The fortified HQ with the force field of love and lots and lots of spare beds. And it was offered to us, dirty musos, with great affection and trust. It was their haven, their home away from home, filled with good times and memories (and atrociously fun behaviour) that they were determined to share with us and help us kick out the jams. And we readily accepted. Why not? What is the point of having a good thing if you can’t share it with those you love? These folks were more than happy for us to utilise the space and make some musical memories within the walls - just adding to the positive energy in an environment that had housed so much already.
So we picked a weekend, organised our transport and instruments, dozens of friends guitars and amps, our boards and bathers, our sound man and musical guru, Steve Fraser, who brought his mobile studio with him and enough herb to see a small army through a long winter.

All we needed to do was get there and press REC:

So the day we were set to hit the road in a three car convoy, all but one vehicle set off, due to an empty petrol tank and no money between two brothers!

We were screwed. So what did we do? We went to the pub.

Again, luckily, another good mate of ours and tireless local music supporter, Terry Young, was manning the bar.“What are you 2 up to?” sez Tez. “I thought you were recording this weekend....”We told him our predicament and without a second thought he produced $100 and we were on our way.

(Listen to the first single from album #2 below!)


So we made it to the shack by late friday afternoon, had heaps of fun, worked our arses off, recording 16 or so new songs over the weekend, gave it a nudge every night and stretched into some new territory.

A lot of the material turned out somewhat different from what we’d each done publicly in the past, just in trying to have fun as much as expand for any artistic purpose, and in the process we realised we shared a lot of the same broad infulences, from Teenage Fanclub to Tom Petty to Neil Young to Chris Bailey's Saints. The songs were picked almost out of a hat, played, constructed, recorded and sung and we had so much fun together doing it, we decided to make it an ongoing project and form a group, and sitting around the piano pissed one night, name it after something as stupid as the slang for busty women that, like the flower, bloom big time in summer!


Our shack patrons loved the results and the new sound, and we were all very excited about the possibility of the new project. So much so, before we knew it, we were back down at there, beachside, doing it all again.

So we ended up having recorded two full length albums before our first live show.

For whatever reason, we decided to release our second session as our debut, feeling it was more uniform in overall sound and thus a more solid introduction for a new band, under the title Don’t Know What Happiness Is.

The album received a heap of great press and critical thumbs up and we played a bunch of shows and festivals to packed audiences around the country and felt so grateful for our continued fortune. Our happy accident. And yet.....

The first album remains unreleased!

So the question is: Do You Wanna Hear It?

If so, please get on board and pre-order the album. There are a numerous rewards and incentives, from small donations and pre-orders, to personal songwriting workshops to meet the band home concerts.

If we get enough support to release the album it will happen early 2014, preceded by a new single with exclusive bonus tracks in before the end of 2013.

Everybody knows these are tough times for independent artists. The costs of recording and releasing quality produced music are the same as ever yet the revenue streams and earning opportunities are decreasing. But the good news is the old business models are out and being replaced by fresh and flexible alternatives such as this.
Think of this as simply buying the album before instead of after. This way we can by-pass all the expensive middlemen, and get you involved in the process with your name among the credits on the finished product, along with all the others who've helped fan the flames.

Make it happen.

Join the BURLAP UNDERGROUND and help the group release album %232 (the first album!)



You will also become part of a select group who get goodies and rarities and first dibs on stuff like ticket sales and singles and secret tracks and gigs and basically the inner circle of good rockin, jangly band love!

Onya
Van
on behalf of the Livingstone Daisies

The monies raised in the “Pozible” campaign will be directly used to cover album costs such as Artwork, Mastering, Manufacturing, Publicity and Advertising for the release.

We understand that launching over the busy X-mas NYE period is potentially risky. There are also many worthy crowd sourcing and funding projects happening at the moment, but we're confident that with our fan base, the right incentives and marketing, we can pull these resources and get over the line.