Greetings from Taipei, where Lunar New Year festivities ended earlier this month and the Year of the Tiger has come roaring in! To celebrate, [ai] have released a new video for “I Don’t Belong to You.” Difficult to classify—alt-country? country rock? rockabilly?—the song is something of an anomaly in the [ai] catalogue, but Texas-born singer-songwriter Mark Will considers it an exile’s tribute to the troubadours of his native state: Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Don Henley, Sonny Curtis, Roy Orbison, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Townes Van Zandt, et al. Have a listen and let us know what you think! We hope you’ll agree that while there may be no cure for the princess disease, “I Don’t Belong To You” provides the perfect panacea for the honky tonk blues!
To Spotify or not to Spotify?
As you no doubt have heard by now, certain well-respected artists of the boomer generation have pulled their music from a certain monopolistic streaming service. For the time being, [ai] have elected not to follow suit. While we agree with Uncle Neil and Aunt Joni that Spotify exploits artists and pays them a pittance, we want our music to be heard by as wide an audience as possible and unfortunately that necessitates maintaining—for now—some sort of presence on all the major platforms. Thus, in keeping with our mission to fill the world with the sound of [ai] and thereby grow our audience, we have been pitching songs from the new album to those very picky playlisters on the aforementioned streaming service of dubious reputation. So far, we’ve placed “Dirty Old Man,” “Rondo Polynésien,” “You’re So Lame,” and “Residence.” We’ll keep pitching the other tracks until we find homes for them as well.
Get your kicks . . . when you hear the remix!
Believe it or not, [ai] have already begun to remix No Cure for the Princess Disease (which was released in November of last year). Tentatively titled Still No Cure for the Princess Disease, the forthcoming remix album will feature keyboard wizard Tewei Chou. Tewei contributed to our previous remix album Carmina Formosa Deluxe and he has already provided some lovely arrangements for the first three tracks of Still No Cure for the Princess Disease. We’ll keep you updated on the progress of this project in future installments of the newsletter.
[ai] = aye = Yes
Another band [ai] “share a name with”:
N.B. Although we don’t consider ourselves full-on proggers like Jon Anderson & Co., our song “Residence” is definitely “prog rock-adjacent”—and the remix is certain to further accentuate that vibe.
Coming in March . . .
Please watch your inbox for next month’s newsletter. We plan to start a new feature called “Meet the Band,” whereby we introduce members of the [ai] collective. Will an announcement for a new video release be included as well? One can only hope.
Gracias, 謝謝, salamat, 감사합니다, terima kasih, ありがとうございます, merci, សូមអរគុណ, obrigado, баярлалаа, sự cám ơn, ευχαριστώ, merci, धन्यवाद, etc.
Before signing off, [ai] would like to say thank you to all our fans, friends, and followers in India, Venezuela, Mongolia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Egypt, Angola, Vietnam, Bolivia, Madagascar, Indonesia, Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, Thailand, Ecuador, Mauritius, the UK, the US, Canada, Malaysia, Greece, France, Peru, Norway, Macau, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and wherever else you may be! With your support we now have over 70,000 views and 1.3K subscribers on YouTube, over 2K followers on Spotify, and over 1K subscribers on Substack! We feel your love and want you to know that we reciprocate! Always remember: [ai] 愛 you!