The post-StonerRock.com settling process continues, and while I’m sorry to say it doesn’t look like The Obelisk is going to be getting 300,000 page views every month, I’m extremely thrilled to see there’s a real community developing on the forums and people are beginning to relax and post freely about whatever they feel like. As I’ve said all along since I started the blog more than two years ago, it’s a learning process. We’re still growing.

As of this post, there are 556 registered users for said forums, 762 topics in General Discussion and a total of 18,646 posts on all the boards. Compelling numbers, and if you’re a part of them, thanks, but if you’re just lurking and checking out what other people have to say, thanks too. Whatever. I’m just glad people are interested and I’m not posting to myself.

The Obelisk as a whole had an astounding 240,152 page views for February, with visits from all 50 states and 111 other countries around the world. People checked in from everywhere from Guyana to Kenya, Turkmenistan to Mongolia. In the US, California once again beat New York for the most visitors, and there were a whopping three hits from Wyoming. I’m pretty sure that’s either Dick Cheney or Kevin Costner, as between the two of them they own most of the state, so hi to whichever it is.

No matter where you come from, thank you for checking out the site, or for reading, or for coming back, or for leaving a comment to a review or anything else. Anything. It’s easy to forget because that’s the nature of the intertubes, but I’m an actual human being, sitting at a keyboard, typing this. And when I say that your involvement means a lot to me, please know that I’m sincere.

There’s a lot to come in the next month and I’m pressed for time (which seems to be eternally the case these days), so let’s get to business:

Poster/Live Photo Archive: File this under “coming soon.” As a kind of third-arm extension of The Obelisk and another way to kill time looking at stuff to blow off work, I’m looking this month to launch a user-contributed live photo and poster archive. If you’re signed up for the forums, you’ll be able to post pictures and/or show fliers for concerts big and small, or just click through and browse as you will. Slevin (bless his heart) is working on the hard coding now, and hopefully within the next month or so we’ll be ready to go. Accordingly, I hope to integrate the visual side more with the regular blog, as you can see in recent live reviews and the interview with artist Brian Mercer. Look for more stuff like that to come.

Kings Destroy: Have tour dates posted. If you missed them, they’re here. They’ll be in Florida this weekend and they have a couple killer shows in New York coming up as well. I just sold another copy of And the Rest Will Surely Perish, and so have 11 left. You can buy it using the PayPal link in the sidebar or in with the tour dates.

The Maple Forum: Kind of up in the air at this point. The next release was going to be from killer Massachusetts rockers Cortez, but they might be working with another label now instead (can’t really blame them, given my lack of distribution), and I got the second album from Darryl Shepard‘s drone project Blackwolfgoat for consideration, but now he’s got a new band going and I’m not sure what’s up with that. I’ve put out feelers for a couple acts, and I’m hoping things come together for a Clamfight full-length release on The Maple Forum over the summer, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if some other label snapped them up as well, what with all their unapologetic ass-kickery. We’ll see how it goes.

Reviews: As of today, I am no less than 32 records in the hole for reviews. That means I’ve got 32 items on my “Review to Do” list here on my desk and a couple more at home waiting to be added. I’m sorry if you’re waiting on one, if you’re in a band or are a PR or label representative. Please know I’m doing the best I can, but part of really wanting to get to know a record before I review it and wanting to give each album its fair due means it takes time. There’s a long line, but in the next month, expect reviews of Grand Magus, The Glasspack, The Machine, Grails, Nether Regions, Baby Woodrose, SubRosa and more. I’ll keep trying to do one a day and hopefully that’ll wear down the pile some, but if you’ve been waiting, that’s why.

Interviews: If all goes according to plan, Wo Fat will be posted before this week is out, and I’ve also got Suplecs, Shroud Eater, Red Fang and American Heritage in the can. Bit of a backup there as well, but some really cool chats that I think are worth the wait, and a few new Six Dumb Questions features too. Those are always fun.

audiObelisk: I owe you a March podcast. This past weekend was basically dedicated to homework and this weekend I have more work to do and less time to do it. Maybe Sunday evening I can put it together, but it might be another week before it goes up. In the meantime, there’s a lot of killer sounds lately from the likes of The Flying Eyes (new song), Rwake (reissue stream) and Hour of 13 (new singer demos) to keep busy with. Look for new Godstopper and Black Cowgirl shortly.

Alright, that’s enough news. Time to get back to work and start transcribing that Wo Fat interview so hopefully I can get out of the office by 10PM tonight. Here’s to the night shift.

Thank you for reading and being a part of this.

JJ Koczan
Hobbledehoy Pragmatist Taskmaster

Tags: self-aggrandizing, The Numbers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 at 9:03 pm and is filed under The Numbers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.