Disc Two, Track One: Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year
This blog hasn't seen a lot of action in a few years. I built it on Squarespace in 2019 to fill the time between classes and continued to use it as a writing outlet during Covid-19 quarantine. Then, once I was able to get back out in the world and go to shows, the posts dried up.
So, where have I been?
Well... I got a new job, bought a home, and continued gathering up material to write about on this blog. I've written some things too—most of which is in nearly finished states. It's been sitting in my drafts folder.
I've also been building out the infrastructure to make my goals for this website more attainable. I've developed a library of scripts to help in preparing files for sharing and built a brand new platform to blog to live on. Farewell Squarespace, hello Eleventy.
I'm a big proponent of loving where you publish. The old site was fine, but had its limitations and costs. Part of my inability to publish came from the shame of letting my billing cycle complete for 4 years straight while the plans for a replatforming swirled in my head. $200/y for a business page is fine. That cost cannot be justified for a music blog, not when alternatives exist.
The new site is hosted for free on GitHub pages and I've built out a bunch of custom snippets that will let me format tracklists and other media embeds how I want them. There's more metadata on each post, including mirrored or archived links where I find that old links have died. The site is also static with minimal client-side Javascript, so it's very fast! I hope you like it.
For the geeks who care: I've kept the old urls as they were, but will switch to a /YYYY/MM/title format going forward.
While I don't have search on this version of the site, I've fleshed out the tag archives to make them easier to search. I plan to build a complete archive page with article titles that will be ctrl+F'able. More plans available on the roadmap.
I've also been sharing material to YouTube. I haven't promoted it much, but this project does have a channel that I've been populating with rarities that are hard to find elsewhere. Recent uploads include:
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Bacon Ray's 1994 self-titled cassette (reupload)
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Two releases from Nate Ruess (The Format, Fun.) and Sam Means' (The Format) first band This Past Year / Nevergonnascore
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Stacy Clark's debut EP (the first time this has ever been shared online)
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Some demos from By A Thread
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A higher-resolution copy of The Panic Division's "Versus" music video
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A rare punk / ska compilation
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Some '90s Christian Hardcore from PA
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Fall Out Boy TTTYG Director's Cut Q&A clips
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Some high-def live footage from some gigs I've been to (Including The Beths, The Hotelier, and Milk Carton Kids)
In terms of written content, I have some of that too!
I got ahold of a bootleg DVD of a Copeland show in 2006 that was barred from sale by the band's label. The label's owner has since sold it to me. 🤫
I've published a long-in-progress discography of Christopher Browder (Mansions), which dates back to the very beginning of his musical career. I did this to prove out a format I intend to use for other bands and musicians. I'm working on a sessionography as well, which will document all the live session recordings the band has done and make the audio available to download.
The site's about page has been expanded with information on how to contribute (please contribute!) and there's now a blogroll-style list of other archiving endeavors that relate to what I'm doing here.
That's it for now. More to come. Thanks for reading.