Mike Vitale

DESERT DOGS: A New Album by Me

News, information, music, and performance schedule for the Los Angeles, California singer, songwriter, and producer, Mike Vitale.

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May Single Release Schedule | Rare Bird is LIVE on Streaming Platforms

April 25, 2025 by Mike Vitale in Music, New Music, Cover Song

This year and the end of last year has been a trip. However, as I’ve been getting older, I am learning to focus on the positive as much as humanly possible. I’m thankful to have you here if you fancy. 

Here is the release schedule for singles in MAY as well as my last song for the month of April, which came out today; it’s called RARE BIRD (video above), and I’m working on the full arrangement right now with my friend Geoff Pearlman producing this song. It’s beautiful. I watched and listened to him work on the song on my birthday, Monday.

In the meanwhile, this acoustic arrangement is available now on all the streaming services at the link below:

https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/mikevitale/rare-bird

For the month of MAY, I’m once again aiming to release one new song every week:

MAY 2nd - If I Only Had a Brain 

MAY 9th - Silver Lining and the complete album DESERT DOGS

MAY 16th - The Curious Case of Phineas Gage and His Brain

MAY 23rd - Jambalaya (On The Bayou)

MAY 30th - Karma Police

Please consider becoming a paid patron as every one of these uploads costs me money, on a yearly basis. I have to pay to keep them on streaming services. Covers cost me $12.99 per song every year, because they are not my song that I wrote. An original song, is $1 per year if I do the lowest tier, which I do:

https://www.patreon.com/mikevitalemusic

Alternatively, I have recently set up a GoFundMe account to help repair my car for a short tour that I am doing in Texas in May. Everything and anything helps. Believe that. All contributions get me to where I need to be as an artist and creator:

https://gofund.me/f6189a80

As of this morning, $850 has been raised to help me fix my car, re-up on merchandise, as I can’t sell music as easily anymore (vinyl is expensive y’all, it’s fragile, it’s sensitive to heat, and it takes a long time to make), dental work, and other assorted odds and ends that I put aside because I’m poor and no one wants to pay money for music. This is how you help an artist you love. Do it directly.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

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April 25, 2025 /Mike Vitale
Rare Bird, Mike Vitale, May Single Releases Mike Vitale, GoFundMe Mike Vitale, Patreon Mike Vitale
Music, New Music, Cover Song
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New Songs for the Month of April and The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

April 14, 2025 by Mike Vitale in Brain Droppings, Life, Love, Music, New Music, Photos

I find that taking the time to talk about things that are going to be done, or have already been done, is something I would one day love to delegate to someone else. It could be my cat—but more likely a bi-pedal human with an awesome brain, sense of humor, and kindness, and an aptitude and pension for music business.

If that’s you and you like my art, please reach out.

I’m doing the juggle.

Speaking of juggles, I wanted to drop you a quick line—so I am, to let you know about all the new singles I am releasing in April.

One of the new singles, has brought me good fortune—but I can’t announce it until later in the week. This is the release schedule fort April though.

April 5th - Mess It Up

April 11th - Graceland

April 18th - And It Stoned Me

April 25th - Rare Bird

My goal is to be releasing one song a week, so I have been since February.

On a side tangent that also is not a side tangent: I’m concerned about the economics of musicians. Having been a professional musician for a number of years, I have continuously watched musicians be mistreated in a myriad of ways: whether it be as a gigging musician or even within the realm of selling the art (as an album or singles).

I posted yesterday about reading “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith. I am trying to solve the problem of musicians being taken advantage of.

If it wasn't a record label in 1996, it is Spotify and Apple Music now.

Musicians should not have to invest $10,000 in an album, only to essentially provide it as an expected service to be consumed for free. Sure, someone pays Spotify $11 a month, but we as the creator of the art being consumed, do not see that distribution of wealth. That doesn’t feel right to me. It feels queer, in the traditional sense of the word. We even do it with words: take them and repurpose them without thought of how that effects others around us.

So, I consult the book that fashioned the use of what Smith referred to as “Commercial Society” but what we now call “Capitalism.”

Self interest was of huge concern to Adam Smith. He devoted chapters to it in the “Wealth of Nations” as pointed out by Prasannah Parthasarathi in the introduction of the edition I purchased yesterday. Wisely so. Look at how musicians have been getting fucked for years.

My solution came from a friend I made in Photo Club named Matt Sloggy. He is an Economist based out of Riverside, California. He spoke to me about Reciprocating Economics. What does that look like? Allow me to show you.

A company like Spotify or Apple Music or Deezer, could have a department devoted to publishing Songwriter and Full Band Material to Television, Netflix, HBO, Movies, Commercials. We flood their service with art: they could be reciprocating by doing the work of getting high paying placements for us. It’s a lot of work making music: thank you for being selfish and not paying attention to how musicians are literally dying from suicide overworking themselves. If new companies in America are going to be subsidized with Tax Payer Money, pay it forward to those who are from those taxpayers, who are directly providing the service you are offering. What you have done Spotify, is shoved your service between the musician and the audience with a shoe horn: a shoe that has no damn sole.

People make the argument that humans are innately selfish. Even if that is true, Smith mitigates this notion in the following manner:

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never to talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”

We have value, brothers and sisters. It is time we take our value back rather than give it away. Adam Smith was a wise and intelligent person. We should listen to wise and intelligent people who take the time to write a treatise of Economic Theory. Because holy shit, have we not lost sight of the beginnings of “Commercial Society” in favor of what we now call in modern nomenclature, repurposed: “Capitalism.”

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

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UPCOMING TOUR DATES

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April 14, 2025 /Mike Vitale
New Music, Mike Vitale, And It Stoned Me, Rare Bird, Mess It Up, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, American economics, Music Economics, Reciprocating Economics, Capitalism, Matt Sloggy, Commercial Society vs Capitalism, Musicians getting fucked, Musicians being taken advantage of, Economic Theory Music, Wealth of Nations, Reciprocal Economics
Brain Droppings, Life, Love, Music, New Music, Photos
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Rare Bird and the Roman Genius

February 18, 2025 by Mike Vitale in Music, New Music

I wrote the vast majority of this song while I was touring last year. I was in Portland, Oregon at the time, staying at my friend David Greco's house. David is a singer-songwriter himself. A very talented one.

I met him in Los Angeles, at a songwriter night when I first moved to LA. He was living in Los Angeles, at that time, but was originally from Portland and moved back there with his wife, shortly after we met.

Him and his wife are incredibly kind and fun and smart and artistic. Both of them read incessantly and their house is just covered in book shelves and literature of all varieties. A television is nowhere to be seen.

I had made a trip to Powell's Book Store a bit earlier that morning (which a marvel of a place in Portland) and came back to their place to take a crack at writing.

As I sat at their kitchen table, writing: either one of them might stop for a second as they passed by to ask how the song was coming along, might stop to listen if invited.

Earlier on we had been talking about books either of us were reading and she keenly noticed that the title from the book she was reading had ended up in my chorus.

"We are remarkable brightness of creature".

I'm a sponge—or maybe that is the wrong way of looking at it. Perhaps I'm like a collage. If one were in mean spirits: perhaps I paint by numbers.

When I showed it to David, he said that it reminded him of Rufus Wainwright. I can see that. I love Rufus and his music. I used to listen to his first two albums a lot, many years ago. He was working with all the music producers I loved: Pierre Marchant for "Poses" and Jon Brion for his self-titled. I hadn't listened to Rufus for probably—15 years or so. Yet, I would say that is a very viable explanation to where I could have listened to much music reminiscent of Judy Garland and all the amazing songwriters of her generation. Beyond compare. Masters of the craft.

Even as the writer, I have no idea where this stuff comes from precisely, in terms of an origin, aside from the most obvious explanation of non-executive functionality to the human psyche.

I don't try to sound like anyone but me. I just write. I hadn't been listening to any music that sounded anything like what I was writing here in the moment. It is like that for every song that I write. My brain tends to do the opposite of whatever I am currently taking in.

It's like magic. It feels like the song comes from somewhere special that is deep, dark, and mysterious. A little dangerous, but also sacred.

The Unconscious. The subconscious. Whichever you prefer. It's not conscious. That's the point.

The older I get, the more I want everything that I make, to come from this place. Perhaps they all do. I'm not certain.

More importantly, I want everyone to make something special, even if it is just special to themselves. I feel the most alive when I am creating, I want everyone to experience that feeling. It feels—incredible. Rare.

We all are incredible and rare. It can be said without a doubt, that we are all part of the same genus. However, it's the subjective nature of our being, that puts the I in that word.

Genius.

It comes from Latin. The Romans believed that there was a guiding spirit that accompanies you from birth to death. They called this spirit Genius. This spirit would help you to be the best version of yourself, to create, and to guide you on your path until the moment you left this mortal coil.

By the 15th century Middle English, it meant traits that define you as a person.

By the 17th century—it meant someone that is exceptional.

I don't mention any of this because I think I'm exceptional.

I saw exceptional last night. They were on stage together, being themselves.

I wish I would have filmed them on camera. It always seems to spoil the moment though, and my enjoyment of it—so I just took it in, instead.

I moved to Los Angeles, to bear witness to that. It is the sort of place that can quickly remind you that there are exceptional people in the world. To remind that there are pinnacles to achieve yet still, far beyond what is currently on hand.

I'm the most interested in the origin of the word genius. I'm interested in the folklore of its origin. This spirit. The Genius the Romans believed in. A mediator between God and Self.

I'm also interested in the notion of Genus and Genius being separated by one small vowel, that also just happens to represent our own inherent uniqueness.

I

Regardless of all this nonsense that I spout about—Rare Bird is a celebration of the unlocking of a door that resides within every human. Behind that door, there is adventure, dragons, a journey, a purpose, and long forgotten events, amongst so much else that is ripe with mystery. Perhaps I visit this space much like I do Portland and my friends there. A constellation, inside and outside of my being.

It's also, just a bunch of words over some music. I listened to 50 seconds of it, and it sounds nice. It's a lot of things to a lot of people. Nothing to no one. Maybe everything between too.

It's time for a walk. Thanks for reading me.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

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February 18, 2025 /Mike Vitale
Rare Bird, New Music, New Song, Mike Vitale, Michael Patrick vitale, Judy Garland, Rufus Wainwright, Singer Songwriter, Songwriting, The Unconscious, Subconscious
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Rare Bird

February 08, 2025 by Mike Vitale in Music, New Music

This my latest song that I have completed writing. It’s called Rare Bird.

It’s a gift for you.

I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about the amount of suffering on this planet that people experience. While not all problems stem from here, I feel that a great deal of issue arises from people not feeling beautiful and unique. On the inside I mean. Not the outside.

I have seen this first hand in friends who have taken their own life as I have gotten older. Artists and good folk of all walks.

I wrote this song, in first person, to remind you how beautiful and special you are, in case you ever feel like you’re not, becauae you are. Through and through.

Rare Bird

By me

I am the rarest of bird

Friendly and forthright, then taciturn

Singing melodies I swear I’ve never heard

Unconsciously chauffeured

I’m a rare bird

I’m like action in hand

Reaching for something thoughts didn’t command

Certifiably absurd, or so I’ve heard

Unconsciously chauffeured

I’m a rare bird

We are remarkable brightness of creature

Mysterious ways and colorful features

Idiots and sages

Paradoxial phrases

And mazes of every kind

I could be slight of hand

There was a bird who sang

Yet it vanished again

I could roll up my sleeves

Or repeat the prestige that just occurred

Then again

I’m a rare bird

We are remarkable brightness of creature

Mysterious ways and colorful features

Idiots and sages

Paradoxial phrases

And mazes of every kind

I am the rarest of bird

Friendly and forthright, then taciturn

Singing melodies I swear I’ve never heard

Unconsciously chauffeured

I’m a rare bird

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS
February 08, 2025 /Mike Vitale
Rare Bird, New Song, Mike Vitale, Michael Patrick Vitale, Michael Vitale
Music, New Music
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