UPDATED WEDNESDAY 2 Mar 2011:

Hi, Folks- Just a quick note to let everyone know that we're so grateful to everyone who has contributed to this campaign that we've started trying to figure out the best way to get free stuff to our fans.  Here's our opening offering:  Below is a link to download a .zip archive of mp3s of our most recent Eddie's Attic Acoustic show, with William Tonks playing electric guitar and dobro.  The recording was done by the incomparably talented Shalom Aberle.  Enjoy!

http://www.fiveeight.com/sounds/five_eight_Eddies_attic_1_15_11.zip

That's a direct link to the download!  If you click it, you're it's going straight to your hard drive.  Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks again.

-Patrick

UPDATED Monday 14 Feb 2011:

Well, here we are a week into the campaign and we've already met our goal.  We're both stunned and incredibly grateful.  Thank you, Five Eight fans and friends (and family!). 

It seems safe to say that we'll be able to pay our remaining costs for releasing and promoting the record.  Now we're starting to wonder if it's possible that we'll be able to go to SXSW in March.  There are a couple of shows we may be able to jump on in Austin for SXSW.  Or this may just allow us to do some touring.

However it is spent, please rest assured that we're going to use it continue to get "Your God is Dead to Me Now" out to the world.  It's hard to put into words just how much this means to us.  After more than twenty years of long drives and icy loadouts, sleeping on floors and riding in vans of questionable safety and a hundred disappointments both small and large, you folks are giving us our dream back.  Every musician has The Dream, whether they're willing to admit it or not. It varies for every musician, but I'm sure our dreams aren't that different- we all dream of "making it."  For Five Eight, it's never been so extravagant a dream- it's mostly just been about being able to focus on the music that we make.  But every musician keeps his own version of The Dream close to his heart and it sustains him through the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

But, life happens.  Bands make bad decisions, get tangled up in questionable deals, learn hard lessons about the relationship between art and commerce and sometimes they just drift apart.  The Dream gets pretty battered- it shines a little less brightly, gets adjusted for inflation, gets put aside for More Practical Concerns, and gets held up for ridicule by people who don't get it.  For most, it eventually loses it's capital D and just becomes "a dream," an old one, from when we were just kids and foolish.

We've continued to make records because it's what we do- both together and apart.  Even though we dreamed big once, Five Eight was never about just grabbing the brass ring.  We are, first and foremost, musicians, and we've always remembered to be grateful for that and not let it wither on the vine.  So, we practiced, kept writing and eventually recorded "Your God is Dead to Me Now" as an act of love.  Also, because we enjoy each other so much.

Then this happened.  It's not just your contributions-it's the emails we're been getting.  "Here's $200, but just send me a CD.  Thanks for being my favorite band."  "You guys have really been part of my life, especially the hard times.  Mike sings things in exactly the way that I feel them.  Please keep doing what you're doing."

It's humbling and it's been very moving, but most importantly, it's given us hope for this record beyond just getting it out and selling a few copies.  I can only speak for myself, but it's made me cautiously pull out the old capital 'D' Dream and have another look at it.  It may have some shine left in it, after all.

Thank you.  If for nothing else, for letting me imagine what "might be" again.

humbly,

-Patrick Ferguson
drums and microphones
Five Eight


Previously:

An IndieGoGo appeal to help release "Your God Is Dead to Me Now" by the rock band Five-Eight:

In 2006, after more than two decades of writing intensely personal and confessional songs about love, mental illness, dread and loss, Mike Mantione of Five-Eight set out to do something risky: He decided to write a political record.

When work began on the record that was tentatively titled "What Can One Man Change?", Mike felt that it was time for him to address topics that were less personal and intimate.  He wanted to tackle broader and more universal themes.  He wanted to write songs that addressed the prejudice and insanity he felt were being cynically used to drive us apart.  He wrote a song about the President.  He wrote about anti-gay bigotry.  He wrote about fathers estranged from sons and about people using God as a justification for their fears. 

Ironically, with the idea of a less personal record as the goal, the band ended up creating their most introspective and intimate record to date..  'Your God is Dead to Me Now' is an intensely emotional examination of life in Mike's America.

The record is the first with the original line-up of Five-Eight since 1996's 'Gasolina' : Mike on guitars and vocals, Dan Horowitz on bass, Patrick Ferguson on drums and Sean Dunn on lead guitar.  Before beginning rehearsals for this record, they had not played together in more than nine years. 

It's been four years and many, many, MANY studio hours in the making, but the record is done.  We're terribly proud of it. 

Now we need a little help from our friends.

We've still got expenses we incurred while recording the record, as well as the additional expense of promoting and distributing it.  With a little help from you, we can get out there and play some shows all over the country and maybe even pick up some new fans. 

In exchange for your contributions, we'd like to offer you the following:

Level One "Not really crazy, but prone to mood swings"-  $20 - you get a signed copy of the new CD and a Thank You message on the website.

Level Two "Just a little bit out there" - $30 -  A signed CD and a copy of the vinyl LP (180 gram vinyl!  Yes, we're vinyl nerds, too.)  There are only 250 copies of the vinyl, so don't dick around and miss your opportunity to get a copy.  The LP has cover art painted by Portland-based artist (and longtime Five Eight compatriot) Casey Burns. 

Level Three "Outpatient" - $150- You get the signed CD, the LP, a disk with all of the alternative mixes from the record PLUS the new recordings of "I'm Still Around" and "Goddamnit Paul" which are completely unavailable any other way, a t-shirt with the cover of the LP on it, AND [burned straight from analog tape (ok, it was cassettes, but it's still analog tape!)] the two cassette-only releases from the early Five-Eight days, "Passive/Aggressive" and "Inflatable Sense of Self."  Also, if you're doing any kind of case study or just need to look into the writings of a deranged mind, Mike and Sean plan to assemble a book of all of the lyrics notes and pages, along with all of the alternative artwork and photographs.  Dang, y'all, that's a lot of stuff.

Level Four "Inpatient" - $1000- We come and play in your house, if it's within a five hour drive from Athens. 

Level Five "Actually more insane than Mike" - $3000- we get on a plane and come to your house (in the continental US) and play in your living room.  You may incur some additional expenses that we'll have to work out beforehand, but come on, if you're throwing $3k at a band you got some jack.

Thank you for your continued support.

-Five Eight