Music by Mitchell Vaillant.

New CD with 16 new songs!

This Can Free - CD

Music Videos by Mitchell Vaillant
FLASH Animation: King Kong

Music Videos by May Ling Su
The One That Got Away
Moontide

Visit Mark at: NobodyRecords.com
Visit Steve Berson at: TotalSonicMedia.com 

Listen To Music by Mitchell Vaillant on The Super Fantastic Ultra Show Podcast!

Mitch was always good for a surprise or two. Many

This Can Free was very loose, and each time we got together something would be different. Mitch likes to mix things up, so there was always a twist or two for Longmaid and I to keep up with. Whenever we played for art openings at the school's galleries, or the weekend parties of our artist friends good old Joe Cardarelli would be there smiling proudly of the band he created. A funny footnote, Cardarelli and I later realized that we both spent our summer in the same teeny tiny Maine village called Washington. Many of my stories that I wrote for his class were set in Washington, little tales about the wise farmers I grew up around, and all of a sudden he realized I was describing the very town where he had a small summer cottage. Being that we unknowingly had been neighbors all our lives, Joe and I had quite the bond, and it was tough when he unexpectedly died just a few years later. I think it was a heart attack. I cannot imagine my life now without the subtle influence Joe had. Here it is 20 years later, and Joe's "Poetry Band" is still going strong. We've changed a little over the years, but that was inevitable. As I said before, the This Can Free line up was always changing anyways. We are more of a posse than a band anyway. Grab a beer bottle and a drumstick, and join in, always seemed to be the attitude.

After college I moved back to Maine for a while, and Mitch moved to New York City. I got sick of the cold winters and moved out to the Bay Area of California where I met up with a very fine fellow named Mark Harvey. Mark and I were simply aquaintances for quite a while, until something amazing happened. A friend of mine had volunteered at Viacom Public Access in order to get free production time for a talk show pilot she wanted to tape. Just when her time came, her original talent was put on tour, and she was going to lose the chance to make her show. She called me to brainstorm, and I thought we should hire Mark Harvey because he has the perfect look and attitude to head a fun Bay Area variety show. The whole thing took off, and the next thing I knew I was producer for several episodes of the Mark Harvey Show. All this lead to making little low budget movies, and because movies require sound track, I began to hang out in Mark's recording studio making music together to add as soundtracks to our home made movies. Our repore in the studio was so great, the two of us decided to get a place on our own so that we could totally focus on our music together. Our new home was very close to the Pacific Sunset of San Francisco, which was very foggy and grey and rainy, so the place was nicknamed the Rain Station. Our recording duo was also known as Rain Station, and together Mark and I released over 5 CDs worth of original material. Rain Station's discs are, Criminal Goat, Fancy Fancy, The Living Room Sessions, Stonedozer, and Dark Ride. All these discs are available through Nobody Records at www.RainStation.com.

Nearly a decade had passed, and I missed the east coast. I wanted to be able to visit my folks in Maine more often, so I decided to hunt Mitchell down in NY, and move there. I got in touch with a friend in NY and asked her if she knew where Mitchell was. She said she sees him some times, but does not know how to contact him. She said I could stay with her if I wanted to visit NY, so I flew there, and in just 2 days was able to find Mitchell. He was staying in a place in the lower east side that was at that time known as the Gargoyl. The place is rather famous now, even though it burned down, it will forever be remembered as the place the Broadway musical RENT was written about. The place was an artist's collective with lots of room mates and low rent. I found Mitch sitting on the curb as it was too hot to be inside. Although it had been about 12 years since we had last seen each other, we took off like it was only yesterday.

Mitch took me across the Hudson on the Staten Island Ferry to a place called "The Mansion." Richard, the owner of the Mansion likes to rent out rooms to artists in order to surround himself with interesting people. After meeting with Richard and seeing the incredible Victorian Mansion, wheels began to turn in my head. If Richard would have me, I would move to NY permanently. He and I got along great, and the next thing I knew I was heading back to California to tell Mark that I planned to move east. Mark was getting ready to get married at that time, so it made total sense. I moved east, and he moved in with his new wife to be.

Since I had last seen Mitchell I had taught myself how to play guitar, and had written over 200 songs. The two of us began to frequent open mics and other gigs in Manhattan. We would go places that had a piano for Mitch, sign up, and play. It was great to be performing in public again, as Mark and I had spent so much time in the recording studio, I had gotten so far away from performing live. New York was great for trying out my new songs on, and Mitch and I started making music together again. After the Gargoyl burned down, the same group of people put together a place called the Collective Unconcious, where they would stage performances. Mitchell, along with Steve Berson, Sean McCaul, and myself put on a show for the first time in over a decade. It was evident that This Can Free was being re-born in some sort of way.

During one of our open mic parties, I met a lovely young woman by the name of May Ling Su. After I was done with a solo acoustic performance she and a friend started talking to me. It seems that May's friend was there with a date, and her friend wanted to hook May up with someone, and I was the chosen one. We all went back to the Mansion and played billiards. May and I made a few dates, we did things like getting sheet music from the performing arts library. Who could have guessed that we'd be married a year later. Now with May and I both living in the same small room I was renting at the Mansion, we all started making music together, but we really needed to get our own place. May and I decided to move to California, as I missed the weather. After a few NY winters, I was reminded why I left the east coast in the first place, so we packed up our stuff and things, and headed west.

Mitchell missed us very very much. We had all lived so intimately together at the Mansion, that he asked to come out for a visit. While Mitch was out in California, we got together with Mark Harvey and recorded some of Mitchell's music. May had written some songs, and we recorded those as well. Mitchell had the idea that we should all team up, put our best recordings forward, and put together a CD of all our music. So this is how the new This Can Free CD was born. A few songs by Mitchell, a few by May, and a couple from Mark and I. We all worked on various parts, in various locations. Most of Mitchell's music was recorded and produced by Steve Berson at Total Sonic Media in Brooklyn. Some other tunes of Mitch's was recorded at Philip Glass's studio engineered by Sean McCaul. Mark Harvey recorded and produced all the music by himself, May and I. Together the mix is moody, heartfelt, and powerful. There's a lot of love put in to this independent music project. Give the disc a spin and let us know what you think. Love and kisses, your friends from This Can Free.