It was only a matter of time before The Long Winters would record a song by the most famous bearded band of all. And ZZ Top's Gimme All Your Lovin' is quite obviously the perfect choice for Starbucks Valentine's compilation called Sweetheart. Described by John Roderick as 'so fantastically wimpy that it's an act of violence against rock music' , expect to be surprised by a dressed down version of this 80's classic.

Other contributors to Sweetheart 2010 include Spoon, Yo La Tengo and fellow Barsuk act Mates of State. The album is available on iTunes and can be purchased in Starbucks stores.
» See complete tracklist on iTunes

A couple of months ago the folks at GIVE asked me if the Long Winters could drum up a song for their benefit project, and it put us in a tough spot. We didn't have a finished track from our new record, but we DID want to contribute something. I'd been playing a couple of new songs live during a short tour I did with Jay Ferrar and Ben Gibbard--trying out different endings, messing around with the feel--so I suggested recording a song in raw form. GIVE liked the idea and doubled down, offering to help make a video to go with the track.

Luckily my good friend, Toronto's Kathleen Edwards, was visiting me at the time, so the two of us popped down to the studios at Clatter and Din and recorded the song in a couple of takes. I couldn't resist playing a little piano on it too, because I'm a sissy who likes sad piano on everything.

Over 30 Seattle artists have contributed tracks to GIVE Seattle 2009, a downloadable music and video compendium for charity. The Long Winters recorded an acoustic version of new song Not Moving to Portland especially for the GIVE project, with Kathleen Edwards singing harmonies, and then filmed a music video for it. Watch the video now on our video page.

The song is now available for download, so if you haven't bought the compilation yet, this is the time to do so. For just $7 you will get the best Seattle has to offer, and 100% of the proceeds go to the GIVE beneficiaries.

» Buy on GIVESeattle.org

When I was first introduced to Twitter it sounded to me like another in a long line of social networking tools that I could happily live without. Conventional wisdom seems to be that MySpace and Facebook and Twitter are giant convention centers full of kids, parents' stolen credit cards in hand, desperate to interact with musicians great and small. I am supposed to be out there hawking my wares, instant-messaging with teenaged super-fans in Nebraska and Smolensk, presenting myself as just the right blend of charming and superficially complicated to be intriguing without being dangerous. I'd rather eat ground glass. This almost universal consensus that social networking is the ONLY way for musicians to promote and distribute their music sounds like a bunch of publicist crap. God help us if it's true.