Back To Square One - Website Launched

[bpmolder]

Here is a basic website I threw together that can be updated as we go. It will compliment the Myspace page nicely I believe, as well as allow a central location to download files from.

http://backtosquareone.bravehost.com/

What do you think? Suggestions? Comments?

[cwta eugene]

Way cool! Seems like all the bases have been covered: demos, lyrics, album tracks, video, art, etc. Perhaps I'll make some video samples of the early demos.

Edit: OK, I took a look again and found there is no link to the album artwork. We need to create a link quickly so we can get Floydcouncil involved.

[bpmolder]

Good eye, Tanner. I will get right on that.

EDIT: It is done. I found out that I am only allowed 7 pages with the free package, so I had to do some shuffling. It works out fine though I think.

[bpmolder]

*BUMP*

New song added to the website, Broken by filthyfish. I posted the lyrics, credits and a download link for the MP3.

[davidjay]

very cool. i guess i'll have to get off my ass and finish the song that i've been playing around with. great job!

[bpmolder]

Thank you, sir! Since we are in the demo stages at this point, something that is a clear enough representation of the feel and structure of a song will suffice. Once you get one done, if you will include lyrics and credits, I will be happy to add it to the three songs we already have.

Besides, if you are also still on board to do the DJ work, this would be a good opportunity for you to come up with a name for yourself if you want to use a persona. Then again, you playing yourself could be very cool as well. Your choice.

[Massed Gadgets]

Looks good, Geoff, though I do have a question. Is this project going to take the form of a radio documentary, or of a concept album? The way I see it, it is more of a concept album, a collection of songs, from every period of our band, tied together by short instrumental bridges over and through which we'd hear snippets of interviews, also from different eras, so in the early days, for example, the interviewer might have a dry, BBC style voice, bemused and clearing not understanding these "crazy young hippies" but doing his job nonetheless...in the later years, the interviewer might be a young radio producer who obviously worships the band and is a real fan...the voices of the band would change through the years too...from youthful enthusiam and chummy comraderie to world weary, perhaps with anger and recriminations...but the focus would not be on the interviewers, but on the voices of the band themselves to tell snippets of their story...the story as a whole would not be explicitly laid out by a narrator/radio announcer, to leave some mystery for the listener to piece together, because in the end, it's the music that is important. Creating it as a radio documentary might make it too wordy, and limit the appeal of multiple listens, in my mind anyway. But I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on this.

[bpmolder]

You raise an interesting point, Jeff. I have been pondering just how much space a spoken DJ dialog would take up on an album. It might indeed be better to just stick with your suggested format.

How about this: We do what you suggested for the album, then do the retrospective through the video documentary? That would satisfy both things and round out the project, wouldn't it?

[Massed Gadgets]

It would, though it's pretty ambitious...how are we going to get video footage of the band through the years? Use actors and apply "aging" make-up? Do we have anyone who can do that kind of thing?

[bpmolder]

It would, though it's pretty ambitious...how are we going to get video footage of the band through the years? Use actors and apply "aging" make-up? Do we have anyone who can do that kind of thing?

I don't know that just yet. It's one of those things where we will just have to see how things go. If we are creative enough, we can have a documentary that skates around band mate footage while still having a pretty good feel. I figure that it might be better that way anyway, because an air of mystery would be good, but then again, it's just my two cents.

[cwta eugene]

Maybe, if the people we designate as our band feel comfortable enough, they can send in some younger pictures/videos of themselves, possibly ones playing their instruments. I know atleast Geoff and Sean are/ have been in bands. Possibly they got pictures of themselves playing on stage with their band behind them, hopefully darkened, so the rest of the band is not easily identifiable as not being are fake band. Does that make sense? I could very easily make a picture that was taken 5 years ago look like its 30 years old. As for pictures/ video of an older band, I still haven't figured that out yet.

[PooF]

Maybe, if the people we designate as our band feel comfortable enough, they can send in some younger pictures/videos of themselves, possibly ones playing their instruments. I know atleast Geoff and Sean are/ have been in bands. Possibly they got pictures of themselves playing on stage with their band behind them, hopefully darkened, so the rest of the band is not easily identifiable as not being are fake band. Does that make sense? I could very easily make a picture that was taken 5 years ago look like its 30 years old. As for pictures/ video of an older band, I still haven't figured that out yet.

Can you make me 15 years younger?

[Syd'sSexy]

Can you make me 15 years younger?

Bran, the Photoshop master, could!

[PooF]

Can you make me 15 years younger?

Bran, the Photoshop master, could!

I'm talking about alchemy here. No! I need a miracle worker.

[davidjay]

Looks good, Geoff, though I do have a question. Is this project going to take the form of a radio documentary, or of a concept album? The way I see it, it is more of a concept album, a collection of songs, from every period of our band, tied together by short instrumental bridges over and through which we'd hear snippets of interviews, also from different eras, so in the early days, for example, the interviewer might have a dry, BBC style voice, bemused and clearing not understanding these "crazy young hippies" but doing his job nonetheless...in the later years, the interviewer might be a young radio producer who obviously worships the band and is a real fan...the voices of the band would change through the years too...from youthful enthusiam and chummy comraderie to world weary, perhaps with anger and recriminations...but the focus would not be on the interviewers, but on the voices of the band themselves to tell snippets of their story...the story as a whole would not be explicitly laid out by a narrator/radio announcer, to leave some mystery for the listener to piece together, because in the end, it's the music that is important. Creating it as a radio documentary might make it too wordy, and limit the appeal of multiple listens, in my mind anyway. But I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on this.

i agree. it would be much more "floydian" to use short snippets of dialogue rather that try to work up some kind of a mockumentary. if it winds up with a dj character(s), let it be something like jim ladd on kaos. woven into the fabric of the music, rather than some presenter introducing a song on the radio.

still, it might be interesting to continue with the pseudo anthology idea. arranging the tracks in "chronological" order and using different style dj voices to mimic the period.

i'm not really sure which approach is the best.

on another note, below are some lyrics that i came up with a few months ago when this idea first came up. i've been calling it "the incident". it centers around roger's infamous "spitting incident" and how his sense of isolation on stage and his estrangement from the audience led him to visualize building a wall to seperate him from the fans he was growing to despise. the tune that i have in my head for the first four verses is somewhat like "your possible pasts". i'm trying to emulate roger's style without resorting to outright parody. it can be an awfully thin line!

it's still very much a work in progress. i've only got a few bits worked out so far.

---

the song was shattered
by fireworks and screams
does anyone in here still
know what i mean?

with shout-outs and requests
and catcalls that fall
i wonder if sometimes
you can hear me at all

i realize there's nothing
to do or to say
no wall there to hide me
and make you go away

---

the taste that you crave
of fans and the stage
turned to ashes in your mouth

it happened one day
with contempt and rage
the performance headed south

"let's build up the fences with barbed wire and death traps..."