leftovers

Seasons greetings! It's been the usual mad dash for the holidays around here, with lots of party mix, puppy chow, and orange slice cookies being prepared in our kitchen as gifts, and the usual decorating, party going, and shopping (although we're trying to minimize our shopping this year, along with many places we're boycotting).  I had the ambitious idea to have not just one holiday party here in Sacramento, but an additional party in Los Angeles. And of course each party would feature a special performance by yours truly, since I haven't performed my own music live in over three and a half years. This year being particularly productive for me, as I released a full-length album in August along with four single EP's that featured bonus tracks and remixes. I also filmed four music videos which I had a great time doing. But I hadn't performed any of these songs for anyone other than Dylan and our cats, so I really wanted the opportunity to dust off the keytar and ...

Next Friday will see the release of the fourth and final "single" from "The White Tomato," "Indigo Cassinova." For this album, my third solo (and fourth when you count "Mixed Signals" which was recorded by my band, Devin Tait and the Traitors), I have been more prolific than usual. For each of the four single releases, I created EPs which each had four songs. The EPs included alternate versions, remixes, and each had one exclusive "b-side," because I am a huge fan of b-sides! The White Tomato Era has been extremely fun for me, and even though - or perhaps because - I haven't been playing any live shows, I've been more focused on producing these single EPs and doing video and online promotion. If I had any influence over the world, I would have won an award for my video diaries leading up to the release of the album, and I'm proud of the videos that I've made to accompany the songs.  With Indigo Cassinova, and it's ac...

I've surprised myself by releasing a new album in the year 2025! My last actual collection of new songs was back in 2019, and my - how so much has changed since then! I'm counting "The White Tomato" as my fourth album, and they are all so different yet I do believe my sound and songwriting has stayed true to myself throughout. With four albums under my belt of songs I've written, performed, and produced, I definitely have favorites over the years but I am so proud of this new work because I believe so many of the songs are very strong both lyrically and musically, and really am excited for people to hear it. I'm trying to get back into writing more, too, so here I spill the tea on all nine tracks on "The White Tomato" plus the one exclusive non-album track (so far) of the White Tomato era!!! Before we begin, you need to know a couple of things, most importantly, that I have an alter ego named Mannifred LaCroix. Manni, as he is affectionately known, p...

  Civil Twilight by Devin Tait I'm tripping out over here that it's 2025 and I have released a new single today! As detailed in my previous blog, when I was younger, I told myself I would not allow myself to still be playing a pop star by the time I was over 28. Well, that was quite awhile ago but I'm still doing what I love, chasing my dreams, and making music that I want to hear. "Civil Twilight" is a song that came about very quickly, about a year ago. I first decided I liked the title one day when going down a Wikipedia hole and reading about civil twilight, which is "the brightest phase of twilight, the illumination of the lower atmosphere when the Sun itself is not directly visible because it is below the horizon." When I wrote the lyrics, I was actually imagining the music video at the same time, but it remains to be seen if I'll ever actually shoot that video. The video being released later today is a lyrics visualizer, meaning it includes t...

It's been a very long time since I've written anything here, but I wanted to get some thoughts out of my head and onto the world wide web, in advance of the release of my fourth-ish solo album (counting the one album I did with my band, Devin Tait & the Traitors). This has been a long, strange trip, as this album actually began life way back in 2018 when I was recording my third album, "Art Damage" in Hollywood. At that time, my alter-ego, Mannifred LaCroix was working on an EP titled "International Agent" which I was recording concurrently with "Art Damage." During the final vocal recording session for that album, at a studio called The Room on Melrose, I banged out all the vocals for "International Agent" - or so I thought! Later, when I listened to it, I realized it just wasn't working. I realized I didn't have the time or energy to complete two projects at the same time, so I focused on "Art Damage" and released ...

I'm getting older, I'm writing less, I'm living in a city I've only known for a little over a year, and nostalgia looms larger and more intensely than ever before as beloved family members leave us and the state of the world seems to devolve by the day. With that, I'll add that my family celebrated my parents 50th anniversary earlier this year, and I got to travel to Hawaii (the big island) earlier this spring. In October, we moved across the river to a new apartment. Musically, I completed and released a posthumous Shitting Glitter album "Damn Skippy Baby" in September which included a new music video "Microscope," directed by Jasten King and featured at the NSFW Film Festival in Los Angeles. Also, Boynanarama reunited for a one-off performance at Bisbee Pride in Arizona over the summer, and we got to march in the parade there, hosted by our lovely friend Gretchen Bonaduce. As for consuming music this year, my Spotify Wrapped really only tells a...