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March Numbers, or: How Bobby Liebling and Solace Knocked The Obelisk into the Bigtime

Simply put, March’s numbers are the kind I never thought The Obelisk would see when I started it up. To think, just 13 months after going live with this site, we broke 20,000 page views in a single month. With no advertising, no paid promotion. And sure, we didn’t break 20,000 by much, but what the fuck. I’m not about to rain on my own parade here. This is fucking incredible and I can’t thank you enough for the support you’ve shown this endeavor. 20,000. Shit. I’m gonna have to start paying attention to my spelling.

Or, more likely, not.

Of course, numbers like these wouldn’t have been possible without the Bobby Liebling interview, which aside from upsetting some ex-members of the band, also resulted in the biggest single-day digits The Obelisk has ever seen, and the premiere of “Za Gamman” from Solace‘s new album, A.D., which did not too shabby either in that regard. I hope some of those who showed up first to catch either of those stick around, but the internet is fickle and we’ll see how it goes.

Big things in store for April, though. Interviews with Brant Bjork, Cathedral‘s Lee Dorrian, Barren Earth, Sasquatch, Phased and several others are already done and just waiting to be posted. And don’t forget Roadburn, which will be covered here and on the festival’s blog. I’m hoping to work in some killer multimedia-type stuff, but don’t want to give too much away until it’s confirmed. In the meantime, here’s what else is in store:

The Maple Forum: Yeah, that’s right, I’ve got a label now. The focus is short-run, limited, collectible releases that I’m passionate about, and most likely — since I don’t see this as being something that I’ll ever break even on — they’ll be few and far between. Basically, the dudes from Seattle‘s Roareth asked me to help them put out their upcoming record and touched on my “I’ve always wanted to start a label” nerve. The disc will be out in May (hopefully — you never know), and will be sold here and, with any luck, a few other places around these crazy internets. You’ll see a label page linked in the sidebar shortly.

audiObelisk: Since I’m currently in San Francisco, the podcast is going to have to wait until next week, and even more likely, next weekend. But that’s more timely for what I want to do anyway, so I’m looking at it as a good thing. I think you’ll dig what’s coming though.

Merch: The t-shirt design should be finalized hopefully within the next week, and then it’ll be delivered into the capable hands of The Patient Mrs., who will take it in for screenprinting. If you didn’t see the rough sketch, check it out here. Needless to say, I’m ridiculously stoked on how it looks and can’t wait to get the finished thing in my hands.

Other than that, I’m just gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing. I can’t remember the last time I did something Monday to Friday for over a year straight with no real break and enjoyed it as much as I’ve been enjoying this, so maybe this is what I should be doing. Fuck it, dude. Who needs income anyway?

Thank you all again for the support, the kind words in the comments (and periodic fact corrections). I don’t know where all this is going, but so far I’m having a blast finding out.

Cheers from San Fran,
JJ Koczan
Hot Potato Taskmaster

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5 Responses to “March Numbers, or: How Bobby Liebling and Solace Knocked The Obelisk into the Bigtime”

  1. Congratulations! Keep the good work :D

    Cheers from Portugal

  2. paul g says:

    Keep up the bad ass work!!!

  3. paul g says:

    Have you contacted cheeto over at the sludge swamp about helping out your label? Cheeto and his team are some good guys with a lot of loyal readers.

    I love your blog and respect what you are doing! I have been spreading your site around! Also, your contact pages doesnt seem to be working.

  4. Gary Rosas says:

    I’ve been reading your blogs on a regular basis ever since I stumbled across a review for our bands latest release, The Shadow Tradition. Thank you very much for the kind words and all the hard work that you put into the site. I am really looking forward to the Lee Dorrian review, so hurry up with that already. Ha! Looking forward to the shirts too. Cheers!

  5. UKGuy says:

    I love this website. Found lots of new music through it and leading from it. Many thanks for all your efforts. I’m not able to go to Roadburn so looking forward to being kept up-to-date about it. Cheers and best wishes.

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