He took a face from the ancient gallery

As always, my most sincere and heartfelt thanks to all who came out to hear us last weekend. We inducted several new co-conspirators into the Society, including Mike McGinnis and John Ellis, whose solo work you can hear above -- Mike plays on "Desolation Sound" and John plays on "Phobos" and "Drift." And don't sleep on Sam Hoyt on "Induction Effect." I also unveiled a sparkly new tune, "Zeno," the premiere performances of which you can now check out at your leisure. Finally, be sure to take in Lindsay's photographs -- she's a busy girl, so it's been a while since she's been available to shoot the band, but you can check out her latest work here.

You can also read a very generous writeup courtesy of poet and blogger Karen Hildebrand.

Unfortunately, my trusty digital recorder seems increasingly untrustworthy -- first, it mangled the recording of the final show of our January tour, at Toronto's Tranzac (I forgot to mention this earlier, but if anyone in the audience at Tranzac recorded the show, please contact me... ) and now, the infernal device has also garbled the final set of our two-night stand at the Gallery. However, the Jazz Gallery itself records all events there, so I'm hoping to obtain a copy of their recording and have it uploaded before long. (UPDATE: April 19 Set 2 has now been uploaded.)

Finally, while I don't anticipate that Secret Society will be declaring Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the immediate future (sweet lord I hope not, at least), we are in fact still attempting to pay off many of the expenses related to our January tour up to Montreal and Toronto. Musically, it was a massive success, with hugely enthusiastic audiences and rave reviews all around. It opened some important doors for us and and I have every reason to hope it will lead to bigger and better things for the band. That said, what with gas prices being what they are (and the US dollar being what it is), it was also an extremely expensive endeavor, and we are still soliciting individual donations to help us pay for trip-related costs.

Of course, my undying love and gratitude goes out to those who have already made a donation. You are all awesome and I truly cannot thank you enough.

And thanks to you (this will be more "inside baseball" than "rock and roll," for which I apologize in advance) we are very, very close (like, within $120) to meeting our initial fundraising goal for this campaign. If that happens, then we will become eligible to apply for institutional donations to help us fund our next big project -- the nature of which I am not yet at liberty to reveal but let's just say it rhymes with "sudeo according."

If you can, please help us pass that important milestone. We are in a brave new post-record-company world here, folks, and we are trying our best to make a go of it. But we can't do it without your help.

Once again, all of your donations made via Fractured Atlas are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Alternatively, if you'd like something more tangible than my undying love and gratitude in exchange for your hard-earned cash, our stylish Secret Society t-shirts (silkscreened by Hemlock Ink) can be had for roughly 867% less than a shirt from the new Varvatos boutique.

And, of course, you can always help us by downloading the above live MP3s and sharing them with your friends. Thanks for supporting creative independent 21st century music, and thanks most of all for listening.

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MANDATORY DISCLAIMER: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society North's Winter '08 Tour is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society North may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.