23Dec00 - Token UpdateI saw GK in concert last week at their show in Detroit last week, and it rocked (even though the crowd sucked). They played a strong show and after the show me and my friends got to hang out on the tour bus with chat. I really like "Superstarved", by the way. Thanks guys.
Contentwise, you're probably wondering why there hasn't been anything new on this site in a while. Well, at the moment I'm at home and not at my dorm, so my internet connection is now a phone line as opposed to a high-speed network, so I'm really not surfing or anything much. Christmas stuff is taking up a lot of time too.
Fear not, at the moment I'm working on redesigning the site. I've been spending time reading the W3C HTML 4.0 and CSS2 specs and playing with graphics and stuff. I plan to be spending a good part of my winter break working on the site, and I hope to have lots of stuff automated with PHP so updating in the future will be easier than ever.
I actually have a small backlog of links and stuff to look through and add, but it seems kinda pointless to do so when I'm gonna rewrite the whole page later, so I haven't done it. But sometime in mid-January, you'll see a much different look, and hopefully new content.
11Dec00 - Please don't repost Enemy or Personal Jesus mp3sHopefully you all know about the Enemy mp3 demo that you can find at mp3.com. Jeff has let me know that the band doesn't want it posted anywhere else. mp3.com has music charts in each category that are based on the number of downloads a file has. These charts will help get Gravity Kills' name out there again. That's besides the fact that mp3.com also pays bands who are high on the charts.
So, to reiterate, don't post Enemy for download on your web sites, and don't post it on Napster. It's freely available at mp3.com, so you don't need to mirror it anywhere anyway.
The situation is similar with Personal Jesus. The only way you can help the band is to call and request Personal Jesus on radio stations across the country. File sharing won't help GK any. Even if you do get PJ from Napster (and I'll admit that that's the only way I've been able to hear it so far), keep trying to get your radio stations to play it.
And other news: Here's a recap of known track names from the new album: Personal Jesus, Superstarved, Enemy, Shame, Suffocate, and Forget Your Name. Since PJ and Enemy demos have been officially released in one way or another, I've updated the songlist.
If anyone's interested, I'll be at the Detroit this Saturday. Hell, Jeff put me on the guest list. Frankly, that rocks. I'll put a pic or two of myself on my personal site so maybe if anyone recognises me you can say hey. Note: In real life I respond to "Grant", not "JimTheta".
Oh, and I took the TVT records link down, since GK's no longer with them.
21Nov00 - Jeff, on concert recordingsSomebody emailed me and asked me what the band's policy was on bringing recording devices into live shows. I forwarded that on to Jeff, and here's his animated response, unedited:
If you can get a camera, tape recorder (DAT, Cassette, 8-track, whatever) or any other means of recording into a venue then fucking go for it. We dig bootlegs of live shows. We don't dig bands who are so uptight about bootlegs that if you put coal up their ass, they would shit diamonds. You have to remember that venues are usually far more strict about it than bands. In fact, many live venues have contracts with companies that give these companies rights to anything that is recorded in the building. Talk about bullshit. We wanted to do a web-cast at our show in Columbia, Mo but the company that had the contract with the Blue Note threw a fit and was completely inflexible on the subject. This company can suck my fat cock. Just another snake trying to make money off of bands. Whatever. Record us. If you do, please give the recordings to anyone who ask and spread the word about the mighty GK.
This quote now has a permanent home on the live mp3s page.
21Nov00 - New official site is upGo there. I told you it looks really nice. It's gonna be great once they fill the "under construction" pages. And link me :)
And the last two updates had the wrong month. Duh on me.
13OctNov00 - I've seen the new web site......but Jeff asked me not to post it. It looks really nice, even though there's no content yet. Jeff says the site'll be up in a week or so, so you'll all just have to wait. Don't worry, from the looks of it, it'll be chock full of info and well worth the wait. (And no, I will not send you the address if you email me.)
13OctNov00 - I'm real busy, and there's no newsThe only real news I have is that which appears on the official Gravity Kills site, and I didn't set this page up to just mirror another site's news all the time. From now on, I don't consider content from the official site to be info fit for this page. That would be redundant. Besides, why would you go to an unofficial source of info instead of the official source? Updates to this page will consist of stuff that the official site does not cover, like, well, everything I currently have now.
That said, there's a lot of stuff I'd like to do, but it'll have to wait -- my classes must take priority over this site. Over Christmas break, though, this site is gonna get a complete overhaul. I've been learning/using a lot of PHP is one of my class projects, and I'm gonna try to automate the site and change the layout and stuff. In addition, I'd like to try to create a message board and web counter (one that won't freeze this time). I'm also gonna make it absurdly easy to add new news items :)
So, in not so many words, I have not and do not plan to abandon this site. It might be relatively stagnant for a month or so, but after that I'm gonna turn it upside down.
25Oct00 - Wicked GK site update - lots of news!Just go to the official site. There's no reason for me to reprint it when you can get it right from the source. But if you want a summary, "Personal Jesus" is getting radio airplay, GK has left TVT (which many of us saw coming), Purge has a track available on their site which is remixed by Jeff Scheel (this is actually old news - my bad), some tour info (including who the drummer is at the moment), more more more...
Also, John Tracy wants you to know about how you can get a "@gravitykills.zzn.com" email address. Click here to sign up for that.
By the way, if anyone sees new news stories/interviews about GK now that there's actually news happening, let me know since I'll probably miss some of it. (Please though, no album reviews; those are a dime a dozen and not worth linking in most cases.)
11Oct00 - Big GK site news!The official site has finally been updated! And news on the message board from Matt! Here's an email I got from the new GK webmaster this afternoon:
Hello...
You are (if I am not mistaken) the webmaster for "Perverted" - a Gravity Kills website.I am the Abby Normal Man, Gravity Kills' new webmaster. I have taken down the website as it stands and have put up an "under construction" page, if you will... The new site will most likely be done within a month, depending on GK's tastes in what I am doing with their site. It will include some cool stuff that will blow the old site out of the water, Flash content, AND it will be updated regularly.
And within the next few days, they'll be some exclusive news on the site that you will find NOWHERE else. Guaranteed.
Rest assured, I'll fill you in ASAP, but I don't want to spoil the surprise just yet. As well, your site will be linked from the official site when it is up in full working order. Don't hesitate to contact me with questions or suggestions...
-The Abby Normal Man
Abby Normal Productions
(primary email withheld -Jim)
E-mail in regards to GK
thegravitymaster hotmail.comThere's no link to the old message board on the official GK page anymore, so if you want to read Matt's note, you can click here or read it down here:
Name: matt dudenhoeffer
Website: gravitykills.com
Referred by: Just Surfed On In
From: st.louis
Time: 2000-10-11 04:38:13
Comments: To all readers/signers of this guestbook. Our webmaster has been awol, thus the site not being updated. We are getting a new webmaster who will be updating the site in the middle of October. Our third album is almost finished. We still have to go mix down. The record will be released as soon as possible thereafter. We are very excited for the release. Also, we may be playing shows in the near future, possibly St. Louis and Columbia as well as a few other dates to be announced soon. So please be patient and stay tuned for the updates. Thanks to all of our fans, we hope to have a new record and shows for you soon. Sorry for the delay. The business side of things has slowed us down, but not for long. We anticipate things starting to move more quickly now. Our fans are the best. Thanks for your attention, Matt - Gravity Kills
01Oct00 - New mp3s upSome new mp3s are up. I've had these damn things since the 04Aug00 update, but I've been kinda slackin' now that school's started again. But I finally got them up, though I had to sacrifice the first 4 songs from the 28Jun96 mp3s to fit the new ones on the server. You win some, you lose some. I'll bug my girlfriend and see if I can bogart some of her web space so I can get all the tracks up again.
And I added a new link. It's really dumb, but I couldn't resist.
And Purge (see the 20Sep00 update) sound pretty damn good. Check them out.
20Sep00 - News mixed with a plugJust got this email from Eli Purge, the lead singer of Purge. Aside from being a shameless plug for his band (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), it's got a little info.
Hey the New GK site will be done by the guy who does our site. www.purgemusic.com I am the Singer from Purge (We are good friends of GK - Jeff is going to be in my wedding). Jeff is currently working on a re-mix of one of our songs called "Therapy" Doug and Matt are also pitching in. Please dierect people to our site and to the Rock Listening Room @ www.farmclub.com We are aselected band and we need votes for our other song "Ransom" Also please have people e-mail eachother and go to the message boards everywhere to help us out. We have Free MP3's available from our site as well. Please help us any way you can.That's cool. I'll check out their site/music later, and probably add it to the links page.Also, that issue of St. Louis Magazine that has Jeff in it is online at their site. Click on the August back issue. Never did get that paper copy mailed to me (unless my folks did something that prevented it from getting to me). The article is about a whole bunch of St. Louis musicians, but there's not much about GK, since GK is eclipsed by some much more prominent old-school musicians. Regardless, you can still look at the pictures of Jeff's new 'do. I'll probably add this to the interviews page soon.
20Sep00 - My email address has changed.Just a quick blurb to let you all know that my email address has changed. My old address, 'jimtheta beer.com' is now dead as beer.com has changed its service. Whereas before they would forward all the mail to my real email account, they've now changed to being just another Hotmail wannabe and eliminating the forwarding (probably because they couldn't sell ads that way).
My only email address now is '(old address removed)'. I think I've changed all the links around the site to the correct address now (even in the archive), but if you see one still pointing to the old address, then let me know
And many of you have probably noticed that my web counter doesn't seem to be working anymore. I'll have to find a new one. It's been stuck for about 3 weeks now probably. Darn.
01Sep00 - No news... is f***ing boring.There is zero real news today, as there has been for quite a while now.
I added a link to The Pit Fiend. It's a good homegrown music news site covering the harder end of modern rock/metal/hardcore/whatever. The site's creator was in the 19Jun00 chat under the name "ARTMAN".
I actually did some stuff on my personal home page, if anyone cares. It's not even adequate, though.
I hope there's some better news soon.
10Aug00 - 1000 hits! Also: news about GK official siteToday this site reached 1000 hits on the counter! That's great! Strangely enough, the 1000th hit was none other than me... I checked the site from work this morning to see if it had reached 1000 yet, and well, it was exactly 1000. Wierd.
Also, I asked Jeff Scheel (GK lead singer, for those not paying attention), what was happening with the official site, and he replied with this:
We are getting ready to change webmasters again. This time we are getting a guy that actually does it for a living. I am going to have a meeting with him by the end of next week. Anyway, thanks for everything you have been doing and I will updat you on whats going on. Later.I'm very glad to hear it. I'd hope that when the new album comes out, people visiting the official site for more information will find something a lot more comprehensive and up-to-date than what is currently there. Also, Jeff is gonna send me a copy of the St. Louis Magazine I mentioned in the last update, so in a couple weeks I'll have that scanned and posted here for all to view. So, everyone say thanks to Jeff.
04Aug00 - Not much important to sayThe page may seem kinda stagnant right now, but that's how it is when there's nothing going on. Aside from minor adds and changes to the interviews page, I really haven't done a lot, and there's really no news to report.
I do have more live mp3s in my possession, thanks to a guy some of you might remember as "Limp_Erection" from the 19Jun00 online chat. They sound pretty darn good, but I don't have enough web space (51.7MB vs. approx 25MB left) left to post them. But wait! My girlfriend has a bunch of web space on her school server, so maybe I'll have them up there in the near future. You'll just have to wait, unless one of you has got 51.7MB free you'd like to donate to the cause.
There's word that there's some GK stuff in the August issue of St. Louis Magazine. Could someone who has access to that mag scan it and send it to me? Or heck, mail me a full copy of the issue even, and I can scan it myself? I'd like to post it.
Lastly, I'm thinking of giving this site a facelift. No promises, as I've been rather lazy lately, but I was thinking of making this page look a little more... professional-looking? I don't know. It just looks amateurish, I think. Any thoughts?
25Jul00 - Revamped interview pageI revamped the interviews page, adding a couple of interviews and fixing the layout so that it's more informative and complete. It now can more or less be considered finished, although I may tweak it a little yet. Of course, if anyone knows of any interviews I may have missed, by god, let me know.
15Jul00 - All live mp3s online, more interviews, note from JeffWell, today I found out that I have 100MB of web space (holy damn!), so naturally, that means more mp3s for you. All 16 of the mp3s I have are up for download now. Screw rotation!
I've put a little more into the Interviews page, including some mp3 sound bites that I've had. I'm still not done with that page yet.
And as a final note, Jeff Scheel recently posted the following on the www.gravitykills.com guestbook:
Hello everyone. If any of you would like to see why so many artist are in an uproar over the Napster/MP3/Music Industry debate, go to www.thethe.com and see what Matt Johnson is currently going through. Maybe then some of you will start to undarstand why artist are so protective when it comes to their "intelectual property." It's not just about money. It's about the ability to be heard by your audience and attempt to make a living at it.(All typos are his, not mine.) Give the article a read, it's interesting (though it isn't much I personally haven't heard before). Here's a link for the lazy: www.thethe.com
11Jul00 - Interviews, etc.I'm not gonna pretend that I'm really finished with the Interviews page, but I'm putting it up anyway. Enjoy!
There's also been a couple recent updates to The Complete GK Songlist, so if you're interested, check that out.
I should've mentioned this awhile ago, but in the last online chat, GK mentioned that some of the song names for the new album are "Shame", "Suffocate", and "Forget Your Name" (that last one will be the first GK original song to have a more-than-one-word title). Also, they said that if you want to send them demos or anything, send it to: Gravity Kills, PO Box 2184, St Louis MO, 63158.
And finally, my shit list. Both the GK webmaster and the Yahoo people suck, because they haven't linked me proper yet.
06Jul00 - New mp3sI finally got the next rotation of mp3s up. Enjoy Down, Goodbye, and Never from the mp3 page.
01Jul00 - Make your own foldy-thingAfter a brief struggle with Photoshop, I now can bring you the pictures to create your very own version of the limited-edition japanese flippy-foldy thing that came with the first 25,000 or so copies of Perversion. Enjoy!
And the next rotation of live mp3s will be up next Thursday, if I remember.
23Jun00 - Oops. Fixed the chat pageWhen I prettied up the latest chat transcript two days ago, I forgot to change the links on the Chat Transcripts page, and the link has been broken since. I fixed it now. Sorry 'bout that. Thanks to Butane for telling me.
22Jun00 - Jeff Scheel says thanks for chatYou can read the lead singer's post reprinted here or go to the guestbook at www.gravitykills.com:
Hello again. Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who stopped by the chat last Monday night. It is interesting to us how different each chat has been based on the personalities of everyone that has participated. You could say that Chat #3 was the weirdest one yet. Soon we will post a time and date for the next chat that will be held sometime next month. Thanks again.
21Jun00 - Small UpdateMy Complete GK Songlist has been updated slightly, and the chat transcript from the other night is all prettied-up. Also, I made a news archive. I know I said in the chat that I'd scan the Perversion foldy-paper thingy by today, but I didn't. I'll have it up before the end of next week, though. Maybe sooner.
19Jun00 - Post-ChatWell, the chat transcript is up, in a very raw form. I'll make it pretty later. Use the "Chat Transcripts" link to the right. Thanks a hell of a lot to Butane. If you're wondering, they have not chosen a drummer yet, and they hope the new album will be out in late 2000. Put it on your Christmas list, I guess.
I suppose soon I should start archiving the news, since this page is getting pretty long. Look for that in a week or so. Otherwise, it's time for bed.
19Jun00 - Chat with Gravity Kills TONIGHTThere is a chat with the band again tonight at 8:00pm Central US time, or 9:00pm for those of us in the Eastern time zone, as I am. The announcement (I don't know when it first went up; I've been out-of-town and away from PC this weekend) is on the official site and you'll find it by following the Chat link from that site. As always, the transcript will be found here on my Chat Transcripts page as soon as possible. That is, assuming the damn chat program doesn't crash on me. Like it always does.
13Jun00 - Small updateThe Live mp3s page is finished properly (except for the title image)and I added a link: Mr. Fang has a monster Tour Date Archive that you can click to on the right. I don't run it, so don't email me about it. I also added a link to Mr. Fang's Tape-Trading Page on the links page. He has a hell of a lot of bootleg GK (and other artist) concert recordings, so check it out.
And hey, Pitchshifter gives props to Gravity Kills in the liner of their new album. That's as good a reason as any to go check them out, right?
12Jun00 - Every Monday?! Was I on crack? (and mp3s!!!)Welcome to the second update. I must've been some kind of drunk last week, claiming that I was gonna update this every Monday. There won't be enough GK news to sustain a setup like that, and once I fill this site with everything I have planned, there won't be much to put in this box every week.
So, from now on, plan on a new note in this box during the first week of every month, at least. If there isn't one, send me harassing emails. I will also update this page at random intervals, whenever I have stuff to add.
Also, this week I have mp3s up! Jeff Scheel told me in an email that I can put up mp3s of some live stuff that I have collected. You'll find those through the "Live mp3s" link right there on the right. I have 16 live tracks, but only 20 megs or so of web space, so they will be on a monthly rotation of 2-4 mp3s per month, in time with the monthly mandatory update mentioned above. These files will be up for download by 12:00 noon EST, Monday, 12Jun00. Until then, the links will be broken.
The next big update to this page will feature the most comprehensive set of GK interviews that I've found on the net. So, stay tuned.
(And one last thing... My page was up for a full week and nobody noticed I had the wrong month in the date? C'mon, what's wrong with you guys? :)
05MayJun00 - Opening Day
Welcome to Perverted, my GK fanboy contribution to the net. I've been planning to do a page like this for a while, to replace that half-assed page that was housing my Complete GK Songlist, and I've finally forced myself to do it. The images are all created by me, as is all the code; no HTML editors here.
It's a little low on content for now, but I'm planning to add some interviews, a bio, and some other assorted crap. I'll also take suggestions, submissions, and whatnot, so if you think you got something good, let me know. I'd like for this place to be a key source of assorted GK info and stuff.
I plan to have steady updates to this page every Monday, or at least something in this box to let people know that I am still actively maintaining it if there is nothing new to add. For now, this page will be growing little-by-little as I add stuff to it.
I have no guestbook yet, so simple email will have to do.
-JimTheta aka Grant Birchmeier