If you downloaded "Australia", you probably saw that it was apart of the Sponsored Songs Giveaway put on by Microsoft Windows and ReverbNation.  To help promote the giveaway, Mitch put together an interesting video during his Independence Day festivities in Chicago. If you like free music, watching things blow up, and strange interviews, you’ll probably dig this:

Sweet Summertime is now available for download!  Click here to visit the Sweet Summertime page.  It’s an Independence Day release, celebrating our freedom to create Independent Music!  A big shout out to everyone that enables us to have that freedom – there are a lot of people that make that possible, and we simply wouldn’t have this ability without them. 

Happy 4th of July!  Now go celebrate… shoot some fireworks… drink a stiff drink… and take a cab.

Last week we released our first song in over 2 years, entitled "Australia" (if you missed the memo).  In all honesty, we had no idea what to expect since we haven’t released new music in a while or been on the road.  Nevertheless, everyone has truly exceeded our expectations.  We are thrilled with the repsonses we are getting and we thank everyone for making the promotion such a huge success.  Australia has been downloaded over 600 times in the last 6 days, and we couldn’t be happier about that.

As many of you may know, we are releasing a new song EVERY WEEK (indefinitely).  This week’s tune is entitled "Sweet Summertime".  It was played during our 2007 tour at almost ever show, so you may have heard it. (it’s the only song with clapping)  It’s a pretty energetic, eerie, and emotional tune about love, regret, growing old, and diners.  While it’s topic is kind of similar to "Australia" (along with most of the other tunes on this upcoming album), "Sweet Summertime" packs a bigger punch. 

We will be adding more stuff for "Australia" this week, in addition to an entire new page for "Sweet Summertime", containing the lyrics, download link, and all that jazz.

I guess it’s time to get to work… Follow us on Twitter for the latest.

It has only been 48 hours and we have had well over 300 downloads of "Australia"!  We are in the top 4% of the music giveaway being put on by Microsoft Windows and ReverbNation, with other artists like Todd Snider, the Lemonheads, Kottonmouth Kings, and Slightly Stoopid.  If you haven’t checked this giveaway out yet, visit this link. 1001 songs for FREE.  Good stuff.

If you haven’t already heard, Australia is FINALLY available for download.  It feels amazing to have something new out.  Please help us promote the release!  You can have people visit this site (www.20mtp.com), the actual link (http://www.myspace.com/windows?homepage=20minutestopark), or tell people to check us out on Twitter (@20mtp). 

We will be releasing an acoustic version of "Australia" soon, along with some other stuff. 

Thanks for your patience with the release – we know it’s been a long time coming… much more to come though!

Just wanted to give you a quick heads-up: We will be making some changes to the site to prepare for the release of "Australia" today.  So, if you are clicking around the site, you may run into some errors or links that aren’t available yet.  They WILL BE though, so hang in there.

We will notify everyone of Australia’s release via e-mail first, then Twitter, then all of the other social networking site.  New MUSIC feels so good.

As you can see (if you’ve already visited the new site) we made a few changes, mostly aesthetic changes.

Obviously, the header is a bit different and much smaller.  We really didn’t like that massive header.  We will probably use this area for the latest news, which now states: "Australia, new song, June 24th, free". 

So, Australia, our first single in over 2 years, will be released NEXT WEDNESDAY!  YES!  We are aware the song was scheduled for a 2007 release, but we just couldn’t stay away from the road long enough to record it.  At least you are getting it before July 4th, which was the original release date.

Aging?  I meant growin’ old.  No, I mean Sweet Summertime.  That’s it.  Our second new release is entitled "Sweet Summertime" which will now be released on July 4th.  We figured it was perfect for summer, even though it’s kind of a dark tune.  Nevertheless, it says sweet summertime many times throughout. 

As of this moment, we will probably be selling these songs strictly from THIS SITE until the album is released.  Then you will be able to purchase it from other online retailers like iTunes. 

We added an "all" link to the "Wall/Message Board" so you can view all of the comments at once. 

By request, the "Where Should We Play Next?" poll has been updated to include "Morgantown, WV" and "Somewhere in Canada".

We are also working on adding some videos, photos, lyrics, and merchandise to the mix.  I am looking forward to my new Australia coffee cup, which will simply state "Ain’t Nothin’ Like Australia."  I hear that!

We need your help deciding on where we should play next.  There is a poll on the bottom right where you can place your vote.  These are some places we have played in the past or places people have recommended… you can recommend another city on The Wall to the right, or e-mail us at band@20minutestopark.com

We will be announcing the next show in the coming weeks! 

It feels great to have something new up, even though we are probably going to change this in about a week.  Regardless, it’s nice to have a place where everyone can communicate and figure out what’s going on with us. 

The sidebar on the right is THE place to find stuff - leave us a message, network with us, participate in the polls, or find places that sell our music.  We will be adding a lot of new, exciting things to this site, so stay tuned! 

If all goes as planned, we are gonna have a BIG surprise for you next week… TRIBE20 Members will hear it first, then e-mail subscribers, then Twitter followers… then we will fill in the rest of the world. 

Sign Up for the Newsletter and/or Street Team on the right to get first dibbs on the latest from 20MTP!

I feel so alive!!!!!

Finally, it seems that we’re getting back to where we’d like to be. So far we have 9 new tunes recorded including…

1. Australia
2. Darlin’
3. Growing Old (Sweet Summertime)
4. Changing Tones
5. Drinkin’
6. Own Wind to Sail
7. Kick it Up
8. Stranger of Mine
9. Guilty Pleasure

Currently we’ve about another 9 songs to record. We’re looking at possibly putting them out on a weekly basis starting in July…July 4th to be precise – celebrating our independence and independent music!

Look for "Australia" to come out on July 4th, and then a song per week after that.

Feels good to be back in the saddle again. Soon we’ll be planning some shows and such…hopefully with a full band.

Until next time…

Mitch