I usually mark this past weekend — the last in January — as the anniversary of The Obelisk, since that’s when the domain was originally registered and things began to come together on the back-end, before I finally went live with it on January 31, 2009, and put up the first test post. The real kicker came a couple days later, Feb. 3, when I lost what was then my job (that post here), so when the site actually began to take shape is a little nebulous. The January numbers seems as decent a time to note the occasion as any, so here we are. Three years of The Obelisk.

Visits were actually up for the month of January 2012 over December 2011, but the average number of pages-per-visit was lower, so it wound up being a little down at 184,861. Whatever. People still checked in from 126 countries and we passed the 900 mark in registered forum users, so I was pretty stoked on both of those things. As of right now, there are 904 users, with 59,766 posts in 4,045 topics. Hard not to like that.

Germany passed Canada for the number three spot among countries sending visitors; the top five were the US, the UK, Germany, Canada and Australia. Among American states, California and New York led the charge, followed by Texas, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. It was a pretty good month, and over time, the ups and downs bother me less, as I seem to be able to accomplish what I want to regardless. Much as I ever can, anyway.

On that note, there are some changes I’m going to be making in how the site works starting this month with a series of new columns, the first of which will go up next week. They’re all pretty open in terms of what people will be covering, but here’s a quick rundown of what each is about and who’s doing what:

Tommy Southard, former and once-again guitarist for Solace, will be writing about beer. His first column covers a visit to the Dogfish Head brewery and that will hopefully start us off next week, and he’ll take it from there in talking about brews from around the globe and whatever else hoppy and barley-y he wants.

Tim Catz, guitarist of Roadsaw, is going to contribute a column called “70 RPMs” that will cover the ’70s and other classic heavy. He’s already turned in his first column and it rules, so stay tuned for it. Tony Reed of Stone Axe/Mos Generator/HeavyPink may also have a video series on the subject, depending on his schedule.

Mario Lalli has signed on to write about life in the desert and/or whatever the hell he wants. I just figured that someone who helped shape desert rock into what it is today in Fatso Jetson and Yawning Man has to have stories to tell. Plus, as a restauranteur, maybe he’ll share a recipe every now and again if we’re lucky. Maybe not.

Chris “Woody” MacDermott of Brooklyn’s Mighty High will be putting his unique and formidable expertise on ’80s metal to use in a column called “Spine of Overkill” and reminding us all that there was a time when we called albums “tapes” and that heavy rock never actually disappeared. The man is a walking encyclopedia.

And though for the moment he’s busy doing promotion and press for his band’s soon-to-be-released album, Ben Ward of Orange Goblin has signed on to contribute regular columns about classic and cult horror films. He’ll be starting later, owing to the prior-mentioned obligations, but I look forward to getting a whole new education in terror and hope you do as well.

The plan right now is to establish a kind of weekly rotation of contributions around the usual batch of reviews, interviews, On the Radars, Buried Treasures, Wino Wednesdays, etc., and like everything I’ve done on this site since day one — three years ago now — I’m going to play it by ear and see how it goes. While I have the platform to do so, let me please express my gratitude to all the parties above for their willingness to sign on and donate their expertise on the above topics, or even just to take time out of their lives to add something to this site.

I’m humbled to have each and every one of them involved, as I’m humbled every time I look at the numbers. Thank you.

Some other business to attend to: A podcast next weekend to try and get back on track a little bit time-wise, and interviews this month with Selim Lemouchi of The Devil’s Blood, Joey Toscano of Dwellers and a couple others. Light on shows, at least so far, but Hail!Hornet‘s coming around and I’m not about to miss them, so be on the lookout for words and pics from that as well as reviews of Sun Gods in Exile (Friday), Bushfire (Monday), Naughty Mouse, Pallbearer, Temples, Venomous Maximus, The Dirty Streets, Pale Divine and others.

Plus, tomorrow I’ll have a writeup of the new Stubb album and a video premiere to go along with it, so stick around for that because the record is a riffer’s delight. Next week I’ll also be giving away a few copies of the recently-streamed Rising record, so good stuff abounds.

Thanks for three killer years.

Sincerely,
JJ Koczan
Habromaniac Portreeve Taskmaster

Just a brief pause to mark this as post number 2,500 on this site. I was kind of hoping it would line up with doing the numbers at the end of the month — sort of kill two birds with one bit of self-aggrandizing, but apparently I’ve posted more the last couple weeks than I anticipated. Big change. Anyway, it’s only been six months since I marked post #2,000, so I guess the last half-year has been pretty busy. I hope that time was good to you.

We march on. Thanks for checking out The Obelisk, whenever, however, whyever you got here. If I could plot my own course, I would, but I’m pretty sure I’d fail miserably. I’d rather take that energy and put it into the next post, which will be up shortly. Until then, I know it’s kind of weird because chances are if you’re reading this, we don’t know each other, but take my word for it, I’m a real person, and I really appreciate your reading this site. Thank you and thank you again.

Once the holidays came around, things kind of took a dip, and I guess that’s understandable. People travel, people celebrate, people spend time not in front of their computers. I mean, not me — I’m still in front of the computer — but people do those things. Or so I’m told.

The numbers were down again in December, but try though I might, I have a hard time feeling like 193,650 isn’t exhilarating. I remember when this site got like 10 hits a day and I thought that was cool, so maybe I’m working on a different scale. It’s not the biggest of the blogs out there, but screw it, I’m still having a good time, and I find the more I keep going with it, the more I’m refining the process of what I want this site to be. So far it’s a good bit of adventure.

And seriously, in 2011, The Obelisk had 2,867,775 page views. 2.8 million! I don’t care if it’s one dude sitting and clicking refresh that many times, I’m fucking blown away by that. It’s satisfying to know people are out there and I hope that as we move into 2012, you continue (or start) to get some use out of what goes on in this space.

In December 2011, visits came from 126 countries. The top five were America, the UK, Canada, Germany and Australia. In the US, it was business as usual among the top five states: California and New York in the lead with Massachusetts, Texas and New Jersey behind. And Wyoming — perpetually last among the states — wasn’t. Wyoming sent a whopping 16 visits, which is twice as many as South Dakota. Change is afoot.

Visitors came from Oman, Yemen, Madagascar, Nepal, Cyprus, and a bunch of other beautiful countries I’ll probably never be lucky enough to see in real life, and as of right now on the forum, there are 881 registered users, with 57,421 posts in 3,887 topics. Last month’s podcast, the second part of the year in review, was downloaded 191 times, and also featured on Grip of Delusion Radio (website here). Awesome.

Some business to attend to before I actually get into the swing of this year, so let’s do it:

HeavyPink: Two more sold after the last post, so there are 74 copies of the HeavyPink 7″ left, and just this morning, I typed in the link from the download card and it absolutely, 100 percent worked. So there. Thanks to everyone who’s made a purchase so far. If you haven’t yet, the Maple Forum store is here.

The Maple Forum: Speaking of, the latest on the label is that Riff Cannon, who’ve changed their name to Summoner, are going to shop their record around some more with the new name. This was my suggestion to the band, wanting them to be able to get the most out of their new moniker and hopefully get their music out to as many people as possible, and they agreed. The Maple Forum may yet do the release, but in any case, it won’t be for a while. Right now, it’s looking like Clamfight next. They’re in the mixing process for the record, and whenever it’s done (I’m in no rush), we’ll press up a bunch and get them out. After that, the Cortez CD is still a possibility, and then I think I’m going to dial back on stuff. This one-to-the-next thing is cool, but I don’t like feeling like I’m always trying to sell something, so I’d rather do a release every now and again when something comes along I really want to get behind, and I think that’s the model I’m going to follow. I’m not a label guy, anyway. I’m a schmuck with a keyboard.

Features: Barring catastrophe, I should have a couple 2012 preview posts up. That might take the place of an interview this week, depending on time, but as soon as I get my hands on a Y-adapter for my mic (it’s complicated), I’ll be Skyping with Grifter, and hopefully that will open up more international phoners as well, so stick around for that. Next week, I’ll have my Q&A with Mike Dean from C.O.C., and I’m also hoping to get on the phone this month with Clay Neely from Black Pyramid and I’d like to hook up and emailer with Sula Bassana, so stay tuned for those, which will hopefully come together in good time. I’m also slated to swing by a Kings Destroy practice on the 17th to check out their new material, and that’ll be fun, whatever comes of it post-wise.

Outside Writers: I’ve been kicking around the idea of bringing in other contributors to this site for a while, and I think I’m going to get the ball rolling on it. I think I’ve found a decent compromise point that I can live with, and while I’m not taking on a whole staff, you might hear from some people who aren’t me in the next month or two. It’s all pretty nebulous at this point, but I figured advance warning was only fair.

audiObelisk: I said when I did the first podcast that I reserved the right to speak on them in the future. Well, this month, I’m going to do that. It won’t be every month from here on out or anything, but for January at least. I think it’ll be a fun change. Should be up next week sometime. As regards audio, I’ll also have a track premiere tomorrow from Black Pyramid and hopefully King Valley in the next week or two.

Reviews: As soon as I finish this post, my plan is to get started on my review of the Clutch/C.O.C./Earthride New Year’s Eve show in Philly from this past Saturday. I’ll have photos with that as well. Also on the calendar for this month are recent top-20-toppers Graveyard playing in NYC and Monster Magnet the next night in Brooklyn. Backwoods Payback are playing ABC No Rio this weekend with several terrible metalcore/post-hardcore bands I didn’t think were still together, and I might swing by that as well. For discs, on the list are C.O.C., Cherry Choke, Pyramido, The Devil’s Blood, Fire Faithful, Trucker Diablo, Iron Man, Against Nature, among others.

I think that’s it. Actually, I know it’s not, but it’s all I can think of. Thank you for all your support in 2011, whether it was just checking out the site, lurking on the forum, leaving a comment, sending a CD for review, downloading a podcast, any of it. I know it’s hard to tell from words on a computer monitor, but I’m an actual person running this site — at least biologically speaking if not in terms of sociability — and the encouragement means a lot.

So thanks — as always.

JJ Koczan
Hoddypeak Perisologist Taskmaster

Well, I had a feeling November was going to be down, and it was, so whatever. I almost feel at this point that it’s not really worth giving the numbers, since except in rare occasions, they have little to do with that I’m actually doing on the blog and are more about what is or isn’t happening on the forum, but anyway, I’m thankful people are coming here, seeing this, still signing up for the forum and hopefully getting some enjoyment out of it. It’s fun.

In November, The Obelisk had 215,403 page views from around the world. They came from 127 countries, with the top five being the US, the UK, Canada, Germany and Australia. In America, California beat out New York by a large margin to be the highest-attending state, and Texas, Massachusetts and New Jersey rounded out the top five, the latter only beating out Oregon by 31 visits. Wyoming checked in 4 times.

As of right now, there are 871 users registered for the forum, with 3,750 total topics and 54,966 total posts. It’s been a year almost to the day since the forum went up, and I thank everyone who has signed up, lurked, oggled tits, whatever. I’ve found a lot of killer music through the forum and I hope I’m not the only one. Thanks again.

The first half of the year-end podcast has so far been downloaded 254 times. I hope to have the next installment ready to go next weekend, and on that note, let’s take a look at what else the month will bring:

audiObelisk: This coming week, as I said in the Frydee post, I’ll have the new Sun Boxes 7″ streaming, which is a cool drone project from the artist Craig Colorusso, and I hope this month to have new audio from Lantlôs and psych doomers Uzala, and more. The next podcast should be up by the end of next weekend, so stay tuned for that as we start to wind down 2011.

Top 20 of 2011: Speaking of, if you haven’t yet submitted your top 11 to the Top 20 group poll, please do so here. I’m going to leave that post at the top of the page probably until the podcast goes up, then I’ll have a link in the sidebar, but there’s no time like the present, so please, fill out the form and contribute to the overall list. I’ll have my own top 20 posted as soon as I get the chance as well. I was debating doing it all one at a time countdown-style like I did last year, but I think that was just too much. Better to just get the list out and do a couple wrap-up posts if need be. Anyway, that’s all coming, and the poll closes for top 11 submissions on Dec. 31. I’ll have the results New Year’s Day, which is four weeks from today.

Reviews: Tonight I’m going to see Hull and EyeHateGod, and this week is also The Atomic Bitchwax, Black Cobra and Kyuss Lives! in Jersey, so I’ll be out for that. Mighty High and Cortez are playing the night before in Brooklyn as well, and I might hit that up if I’m not too dead after work on Friday, and on next Sunday, Black Cobra is at the Saint Vitus bar in Brooklyn with The Body and Zoroaster, who I’ve yet to see with their new bass player. There’s also a shit-ton of albums waiting to be reviewed, so I’ll be whittling away at the pile as well.

If You’ve Emailed Me and I Haven’t Responded: I’m sorry. I have a backlog of people who’ve reached out who I haven’t had the chance to get back to. This semester has broken my ass, and I appreciate your patience.

Interviews: I hope to be able to get my conversation with Ken-E Bones of Negative Reaction posted this week. Next week will be Eric Wagner, formerly of Trouble and currently of the new band Blackfinger, and I’ve also got Six Dumb Questions emailers out to ultra-doomers Blut and sludgy bastards Morbid Wizard, so hopefully those will be in before the month is out, and I’ll be sending questions to the German band Wight this week as well, which should make a good complement for the SDQ with Wiht that went up last week. Words are great.

The Maple Forum: There are 85 copies left of the HeavyPink 7″, and if you want one, they’re available here. You can pay with PayPal or a credit card. I think the plan for next year is going to be to first sell out of these, then do Riff Cannon‘s new record (tis excellent) sometime around March, then probably Clamfight and Cortez over the summer or after, if everything comes together for those. It’s all so nebulous with the label, but that’s what it’s looking like right now. Tasha-Yar was talking about their next album too, but I don’t know if I’m going to have the time or the money to do it. We’ll see how it all shakes out. First thing though is HeavyPink, so if you haven’t gotten yours yet, please do, and if you want to hear a sample of the two songs on the record, click here.

Lots happening either way, lots to stay tuned for, and check back in on. Hard to believe we’re almost through 2011 already, but it’s been an interesting year — had its ups and downs — and I’m looking forward to 2012 and the inevitable apocalypse it will bring. Until then, thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of this.

All the best in the next month,
JJ Koczan
Hastate Proboscis Taskmaster

Yeah, yeah, there were 290,166 page views last month. Much of that I owe to the sundry shitstorms that took place on the forum, but whatever. Thanks for checking in either way, whichever trainwreck you may have been there to see. I’ve got a note on the forum below, if you want to check that out, but yeah, I’m glad people are getting some use out of it. It’s there pretty much for whatever you want it to be.

I don’t have much time before I need to be at a dentist’s appointment, so here’s a quickie rundown. People checked in from 133 countries around the world, which, if I’m not mistaken, is the most ever. The top five were the US, the UK, Canada, Germany and Australia, and surprise visits came from the Isle of Man, Burma, Bahrain, Sudan and Haiti. Other than Guyana and Suriname, every country in South America checked in. Mongolia sent three visitors.

That’s just one less than Wyoming, which was last in America with four. The top five states were California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The top five cities were New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and  Chicago. The numbers there among those cities and around the world are staggering, and much as one might expect the novelty of something like that to fade, it hasn’t. I continue to be humbled.

To date, last month’s podcast has been downloaded 270 times. As of this moment, there are 845 users registered on the forum. We passed the 50,000 mark in posts this month and are currently at 51,764 total in 3,543 topics. Right on.

The forum seems as good a place to start as any for the business end:

The Forum: I’ve gotten a few complaints over the last month or so from people who view others as having violated what I pretty much view as the board’s only rule: “Don’t be a dick if you can help it.” I’m considering appointing another moderator or two to handle this stuff, since I’m both bad at it and short on time between work, school and the rest. I’ve always been a better lurker anyway. If you’re interested, get in touch and we’ll compare philosophies.

HeavyPink: Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered the HeavyPink 7″. Those records have shipped from the plant and I’m expecting them any minute now from Tony Reed. Obviously they’ll go on sale as soon as they come in, and the pre-orders will ship as soon as I have the records to send. If you haven’t placed your order yet, feel free to do so here, and know you have my appreciation for your support.

The Maple Forum: I’ve also heard some rough mixes of the Clamfight CD and I’ll just say it: it’s better than the first one. I think and hope you’re going to be stoked on it, because I certainly am. 2012 looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Top 11s: Before we get there, though, I asked Slevin to build me a form that feeds into a database so we can collect everyone’s top 11 of 2011 and compile a big group list. I need to check in with him on it, but hopefully we’ll be able to get that happening this month so people can start submitting if so inclined. I think that kind of thing is good times, anyway.

Giveaways: The Moth Eater/Black Thai splits have gone out to their respective winners, and thanks to all who entered that contest. I have an idea of what I want the next giveaway to be, but I haven’t reached out yet to the other party involved, so I’ll just say stay tuned and hopefully when/if it comes up, you dig it. Either way, now that the door’s open, nothing to do but keep walking.

Interviews: I finally transcribed Black Cobra last night, so that’ll be up today if I’m up to it after the dentist or tomorrow at the latest. I’ll also have Fu Manchu before the end of the week as well. Next week will be French heavy psych purveyors Mars Red Sky, and after them, Elder. The holdup with Skype has been figuring a way to record the calls, and I think I’ve got that worked out now, so maybe I’ll finally be able to get Ollie Stygall from Grifter on the horn this month. It shames me that it’s taken me so long to make that happen. This month, also expect a Six Dumb Questions with Wiht and hopefully a Q&A with Negative Reaction, who have a new album out on PsycheDOOMelic I’ll also be reviewing.

Reviews: There’s a lot. I’m backlogged as usual, but not as backlogged as usual, so at least that feels somewhat good. I seem to have fallen into the habit of listing the next week’s reviews (or most of them, anyway) in the Frydee posts, so I think I’ll stick to that rather than try and lay out a whole month ahead of time and have things get screwed up timing-wise.

That’s it, I’m out of time and have to split out of the office. Thank you all for checking in this month, as always. I wish you all the best from New Jersey.

Much appreciated,
JJ Koczan
Hailing Porpoises Taskmaster

This post doesn’t actually have anything to do with the Bongzilla track “Champagne and Reefer” from their 2005 album Amerijuanican (or with Muddy Waters‘ original version, for that matter), I just had it stuck in my head as I often do. Miss that band.

Anyhoo, as you can see above, The Obelisk received a whopping 255,132 page views for September, which is fairly awesome. Some of that is directly attributable to the forum and the fallout over Black Pyramid breaking up, but there were a few other spikes across the month, and they helped out as well. It may or may not be a fluke (each month I always think there’s no way I’ll ever be able to top that month), but over a quarter-million hits in 30 days is pretty killer any way you look at it. I’ll take that.

So thanks as always. Visits came in from 120 countries around the world, with the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia comprising the top five (Sweden was sixth). Among American cities, New York City was tops as per usual, but California edged out New York for top state, followed by Texas, Massachusetts and Oregon. My home state, New Jersey, was sixth, and Wyoming — which is perpetually last — sent a whopping 8 visitors this way. I’m pretty sure that’s a new record.

The podcast, which I fear is being outshined by all these track premieres and streams of albums, was downloaded a meager 115 times. On the forum, on the other hand, there are 817 registered users as of right now, with 46,551 posts total in 3,293 topics. General Discussion alone is nearing the 40,000-mark at 39,443. It’s pretty awesome and I’ve managed to find some killer bands on there. If you missed it, Curse the Son posted their album for streaming, and that’s good stuff.

Lots to come in October though, so here’s a quick-ish rundown:

The Maple Forum: I’ll be putting the HeavyPink 7″ up for pre-sale tonight or tomorrow. What that will consist of is the same ol’ link where you can buy it, so basically it’s the same thing as ever. The difference is I put aside a shipping label with your name on it and send you a record when they come in, which should be in two or three weeks. The system works. More soon.

I’m also in talks with Riff Cannon, Cortez, When the Deadbolt Breaks and Tasha-Yar about doing albums with them in 2012, and there’s still Clamfight to come when that record’s done, so yeah, a lot of good stuff in the works as far as the label goes. I don’t think I’ll get to put out all those albums, but those are quality bands you should check out one way or another, and I’d be proud to work with any or all of them, time and finances permitting.

audiObelisk: The plan is to have a new podcast coming this weekend. Not sure when I’m going to have time to actually make it, but that’s the timeline I’m working on anyway. Until then, enjoy the Colour Haze track, which I was thrilled to be able to post, as I’m a total nerd for that band. I’ll also have Lonely Kamel and Sandrider tracks up this week, Isole and Samsara Blues Experiment next week, and more after that, I’m sure. Music on a blog about music. Crazy times, indeed.

Features: Rwake goes up this week. I still need to get my questions out to Mars Red Sky and Sungrazer. Email interviews always take me forever to put together. I’m still trying to work out how to Skype with Ollie Stygall of Grifter — hopefully that doesn’t take me this entire month to make happen — and I’d love to get on the phone in the coming weeks with Elder and Black Cobra as well, as their albums are pretty stellar. I’ll also be putting together a Six Dumb Questions with Wiht, who were just reviewed today, if you missed it. Speaking of reviews…

Reviews: The list goes on. I’ve got a bunch of stuff at home that still needs to be logged in, but on my list here at the office for the next month is Ogressa, Sea of Zyn, Morbid Wizard, The Heavy Co., Samsara Blues Experiment, a Groan/Vinum Sabbatum split, Hull, Eggnogg, The Dive and plenty more I hope to get to. The plan for the rest of this week is Elder, Sandrider, Beastwars and The Wounded Kings. Always a lot to review. I’ve more or less accepted it as a fact of life. Won’t hear me complain.

Live Reviews: Seemed to be something of a glut this month with the Small Stone showcase and the rest, perhaps at the expense of a couple disc reviews, but I’m doing my best. This Friday I’m headed to Brooklyn to see Archon, When the Deadbolt Breaks and Earthride, and I’ll be at shows Saturday and maybe Monday as well before next weekend, so it doesn’t look like there’s much of a slowdown. Hope you’ve enjoyed the recent live review stuff, anyway, and the pictures, despite the weird flash trickery. I need to buy a flash, I guess.

I know there’s more, but as always, I haven’t a clue what it might be. Instead of pushing it, I’ll just say thanks again for reading, writing and all the rest.

Much appreciated,
JJ Koczan
Hamartia Pabulous Taskmaster

We’re getting on toward 1AM as I start this numbers post, and I’m at my office doing it because my internet at home is still out following its lost battle with Hurricane Irene. I’m so tired my eyes are starting to blur, and the office’s air conditioning runs on a timer, which lets it get just hot enough for me to think my head is going to explode before it kicks in. It’s like some obscure kind of torture.

Nonetheless (not sure what it is with me and that word lately), as you can see above, The Obelisk pulled a remarkable 220,135 page views for the month of August. That might have been a little higher had Irene not come through the Eastern Seaboard this past weekend, but honestly, that’s an impressive enough number that I’m not gonna sweat the math. Thank you as always.

Visits came from the US and 116 other countries around the world, including Honduras, Botswana, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and just about the whole European continent. Badass. America, the UK, Canada, Germany and Australia were once again the top five hitters, and in terms of American states checking in, all 50 did once again.

California was first, followed by New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Texas in the top five. My home state, New Jersey, moved back down two spots to number seven, with Pennsylvania in sixth place. Wyoming had a grand total of 3 visits. Always like to check on Wyoming.

On the forum, as of this second, there are 784 registered members, a total of 42,282 posts in 3,025 topics. That tends to change quickly, for which I’m thankful. I’m so glad people are using that and hopefully having some fun with it.

I feel like the proverbial broken record saying it every month, but thank you all for reading, checking in here or on the forum, commenting, signing up, finding me on Thee Facebooks, or none of it, and just clicking a link that brought you here. Whatever it is that led you to read this sentence, I appreciate it.

Here’s how September looks:

The Maple Forum: Well, if you didn’t see it, I just announced today that I’m putting out the debut 7″ from T. Dallas Reed‘s latest project, HeavyPink, and I’m way stoked on that. Two songs, but a cool vibe. Different from anything he’s done before, but still kin enough to it that fans will dig. I’ll have more on it as we get closer to the release (hopefully first week in October), but I’m excited.

In the meantime, the Blackwolfgoat disc sold out and an extra special thanks to everyone who picked that up. I know progressive drone isn’t exactly the most accessible sound in the world, but I thought Dronolith was a genuine achievement in terms of what it did with just guitar and I hope everyone who got a copy agrees.

As for Clamfight, they’ve had some delays (it’s called life, and it happens), but I’m expecting the album will be done before November, so I might press it and put it out come January as a kickass start to 2012. Depends on the timing with HeavyPink and all that. I’m still awfully raw at this stuff, so we’ll see how it comes together.

audiObelisk: Last month’s podcast has been downloaded 196 times so far. I’ll have another installment up this weekend, and I’m hoping in the next month to introduce a few newer-type bands with track premieres. Don’t want to give away anything yet because it’s not nailed down, but there’s good stuff to come besides the regular podcast, which will kick ass as usual.

Features: I’ve got interviews with Totimoshi and Michael Gira of Swans in the can as of now, I’m waiting on a few emailers back (Wizard’s Beard, Sleestak, etc.), and the more I listen to this Rwake record, the more I want to get CT on the phone and talk about it. Also want to chase down Grifter, Mars Red Sky and Dixie Witch, but those might not come together before the end of the month. Kyuss Lives! will also happen. Hopefully next week.

Reviews: I don’t know how many I’m behind and I’m not going to look. Whatever. I’m gonna do my thing and take the time I need. I’ll say this though: what’s most pathetic about me being at my office typing this so late is that I’m annoyed at myself because I’m too tired to review Skraeckoedlan before I head home. That’ll be tomorrow, then Rwake Monday if all goes to plan. This month I hope to visit records from Black Skies Dawn, Lord, Ivy Garden of the Desert, Iron Claw, Whitehorse, Sandrider and the aforementioned Dixie Witch, among others. I’m sure one or two emergency gotta-review-this-right-now things will pop up too. They usually do, and I haven’t gotten the new Sungrazer or Elder records yet, so there you go.

Wino Wednesday: Is a thing now. The first one was this week. Good times.

Where to Start: Any requests?

And you New Yorkers — whatever you do, don’t forget the Suplecs, Lo-Pan and The Brought Low show this site and BrooklynVegan are teaming up to present at Union Pool in Brooklyn. That’s on Sept. 20, and it’s going to be ridiculous amounts of fun. It’s NYC‘s unofficial pre-party for the Small Stone Records showcase that weekend in Philadelphia.

I know there’s more, but shucks, it’s even later now than it was when I started, so I think that’s plenty. Thank you all again. I’m too tired to think of synonyms for “grateful,” and that’s what I am. Let’s roll with it.

You rule.

Much appreciated,
JJ Koczan
Habilable Polliwog Taskmaster

Well, as you can see above, in July, The Obelisk pulled in 228,282 page views from across the world. That’s almost precisely 10,000 more than last month, which, if I’m honest, is perfect. That’s exactly the kind of growth I think is ideal: not some sudden upshot or anything like that, but steady, encouraging and enough to show that the people out there who read keep coming back. If you couldn’t tell by the new header for the site, it’s much appreciated.

It’s been a crazy couple of months, and this summer is a vicious, humid bastard. I expected after the semester ended that there would be some kind of slowdown, and there really hasn’t. Looking ahead to August, I need to finish my masters thesis and complete and independent study class that, were I not a total jackass, I’d have been working on this whole time instead of drinking, listening to music and watching baseball. My own fault, but that doesn’t make it any less overwhelming.

Nothing to do then but keep going. That’s been the thing all along, and that’s what I’m sticking by. Thanks to everyone who stopped in this month. There were visits from a total of 117 countries (US, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia being the top five) and in the States, California was even with June to lead the pack, but NYC still had the most single visits of any city, with Portland beating out Los Angeles to come in second. Maybe that’s not surprising, since half the bands I covered last month were from Oregon, but still, I’m pretty sure that’s the first time that’s happened. Hello, Portland.

New Jersey, my home state, moved up two spots to come in fifth among American states, and in terms of places very far away from where I’m currently sitting, visits from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, New Zealand, Paraguay and Nepal were highlights. I find it completely awesome that someone in Kathmandu has heard of this site. Hello, Kathmandu.

Thanks to all as ever, whether you’re in Chongqing or Philadelphia or anywhere in between, north, south, east, west, whatever. Thank you.

Here’s a rundown of where we’re at for August:

Giveaways: I don’t know how often I’m going to get to do them, but I put one up today for the UK and would like to do more of this kind of thing. I’ve had a couple copies of the Moth Eater/Black Thai split vinyl for what feels like forever waiting to go out. I’ll have to see if I can develop/incorporate some kind of entry form into posts, but in the meantime, if you want to go to the Supernormal Festival, hit me up either by email, on the forum or via Thee Facebooks.

audiObelisk: New podcast this weekend, and it’s looking like next week for the Grifter track I alluded to in the Frydee video post, and hopefully I’ll have more track premieres in the weeks to come. There are still a lot of killer records coming out this year and I really like posting audio on the main page, so I’ll see what I can get going. The site’s kind of in an awkward in-between place in that it’s popular but has no hipster cred (not a complaint), so what I can get is kind of limited compared to some of the bigger names out there. I’ll do the best I can.

Features: This week I’ll be posting an interview with the dudes from Borracho, and the coming weeks will hopefully see chats with Faces of Bayon, Moab, The Quill and Sigiriya (the latter I pushed back at the band’s request so as to more closely coincide with their album release next month). At some point, so help me robot jebus, I’m also going to do a Kyuss Lives feature, though it might not be until September since I want to time it to the NYC show for work. I know I said also I wanted to do an interview with The Book of Knots, but my email was never returned, so I guess that’s a no dice. Too bad, since that record ruled.

In the meantime, I also want to get some Six Dumb Questions stuff going with the likes of Lamprey and Sleestak (both of whom will be reviewed this month as well), though I haven’t hit up either band yet and they could very well tell me to fuck myself. Obviously, whatever comes together, I’ll let you know.

Reviews: I just updated the review list this morning with last week’s mail, and it’s by a manageable 39 reviews that I’m behind. It’s actually one more than last month, but I think I had a bunch of stuff I hadn’t logged yet when I did the numbers last time, so it might have been skewed. In any case, I’m going to keep chopping away, and yeah, it’s frustrating sometimes when I’m not timely on shit, but I figure the flipside of that is extra effort put into the review of whatever it might be. I haven’t heard any complaints yet, but that might just be because no one other than me cares. Whatever.

Blackwolfgoat: Darryl is playing with Totimoshi on Aug. 17 at O’Briens Pub in Allston, Massachusetts, which will be killer. If you missed the news, his former and once again outfit Milligram are going to be supporting Kyuss Lives in Worcester a month and three days later. Badass. Congrats to him and to anyone who gets to see him play, because it’s a treat. As you can see in the sidebar, I have 13 copies left of Dronolith for sale.

The Maple Forum: The latest from Clamfight is they’re going to finish their album this month, so I’m thinking maybe October or November for the release of Volume III, depending on the timing. Also in talks with two other bands for after them, but it’s all pretty nebulous at this point, so no sense in going into detail. In the meantime, Kings Destroy debuted their video for “The Mountie” over at Brooklyn Vegan, and I’d highly recommend watching it.

If there’s anything else, I certainly can’t think of what it might be, so I guess I’ll leave it there. Thanks again to everyone for reading, commenting, posting grammatical and/or factual corrections, etc. As of this post, there are 765 registered users on the forum (some of whom are not spambots), and a total of 38,505 posts in 2,753 topics. Not too shabby.

With gratitude,
JJ Koczan
Hardly Philanthropic Taskmaster

The last couple months have been pretty consistent in terms of the numbers, and that’s more than cool by me. If the people who find this site amidst all the rest of its ilk on the intertubes think it’s worth coming back again, that’s the best I can possibly hope for. I’m not much for promotions, and it’s only me operating this thing, so yeah, I’m all the gladder when things hold up as well as they have been.

Also cool is that we topped last month’s numbers. Only by about 500, but in one less day (June being a 30-day month), so that works out to be up a bit per day. In total, as you can see above, there were 218,240 page views for June. As of this post, there are 737 registered users on the forum, where there are 34,269 posts in 2,449 topics. General Discussion alone has 28,650 posts, and it’s hard not to be stoked on that.

There were visits in June from 118 countries, including the Sudan, Angola, Uganda, Cambodia and every country in South America except Suriname. Hey, Suriname, what the hell, dude?

The US and UK still led the pack, with Canada, Germany and Australia behind. In the US, New York City had the most visits, but California won out overall among the states, and Oregon saw a jump too (it beat Massachusetts), which isn’t really all that surprising since it seems like every other band I’m writing about these days is from Portland. My own beloved Garden State came in seventh.

Good fun, and much thanks to all. I can’t even tell you how much nerdy glee I get from seeing these numbers and seeing the different countries, regions and cities. Needless to say, plenty.

Let’s do a little business:

audiObelisk: I owe a podcast, and the plan is to have one up before I come back to work on Tuesday. As of right now, I don’t really have a theme, but rest assured, I’ll spend the weekend obsessing over it and something will hopefully be posted by Monday night.

The Maple Forum: There are 19 copies left of Blackwolfgoat‘s Dronolith. If you want one, buy it here. I saw Darryl play this week in NYC and it was killer. I was going to write it up but lost track of time. I’ll probably post some pictures anyway in the next couple days.

Live reviews: It killed me to miss Sleep in June, but so it goes. If I can get away with it, I’ll go see Sourvein at the Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn next Friday (Kings Destroy are also playing). Even if I don’t make that, though, I’ll be at YOB/Dark Castle on July 12 and Truckfighters/Kings Destroy/Blue Aside/Borracho at the Cake Shop in Manhattan on the 15th. The next weekend, The Patient Mrs. and I are roadtripping to Detroit to investigate a possible move down the line. I hope to catch Clutch in Flint while I’m there.

Album reviews: Okay, let me do the count. As of my list today, I’m 38 reviews in the hole. I’ve started to turn people away in my email, which it physically disgusts me to do, but it’s gotten to the point where I feel like I can’t do albums justice by saying yes to everything, and if people are going to take the time and spend the money to send me a CD, they deserve the best I can give. All I have here is my work and I need to be able to stand by it. Which I do. So if you get an email from me that says I can’t review your stuff, or if it takes me forever to answer you at all, please don’t take it personally.

Features: Well, we just wrapped the Top Five of the First Half of 2011, if you missed that. This month, I hope to nail down interviews with The Book of Knots, YOB and Sigiriya. I’ll also have Six Dumb Questions with Sons of Alpha Centauri and (although I haven’t hit them up yet about it), Borracho, whose album I just reviewed today. Ben Smith and Bob Russell from The Brought Low were kind enough to send me a track-by-track on their new EP — it’s hilarious and should be up next week — and at some point I want to revisit last year’s top 10 and see which of those records I still give a crap about. That should be interesting.

And of course there’ll be the usual stuff as well: news, track premieres, Ons the Radar, Burieds Treasure and the rest. I’m about to sign off before my head drops on the keyboard from being so god damned tired, but before I split out of the office, I want to say thanks one more time to everyone who reads, comments, emails, capital-L Likes posts, or any of it. It’s huge, and it’s awesome, and it’s more important to me than I feel comfortable saying. So thank you. You. Right there. Thank you.

Onward,
JJ Koczan
Housekeeping Porcupine Taskmaster

I’m not a sentimental person by nature, not the type to look back and say “remember when?” — except perhaps in cases of bitching — but I just wanted to take a second and mark this as the 2,000th entry I’ve done on The Obelisk. Pretty sure I had no idea on January 31, 2009, when I put up the first test post what was going to happen 1,999 posts later. Hard to remember what I was feeling, other than pissed at being recently-laid-off, but yeah, here we are.

Thanks as always to everyone for reading. I know some of you have been with it since the beginning, and if that’s you, or even if you just stumbled on this site while Googling to find out what happened to StonerRock.com, found this post, and aren’t ever coming back, it’s appreciated. Obviously more in the case of the former than the latter, but whatever. There have been days where this site has been my only reason for getting out of bed. Here’s to the next couple thousand posts to come.

Well, there they be. We were up a bit from April, which was good, and between May 1 and 31, 2011, The Obelisk received a whopping 217,772 page views. I continue to be amazed. April was an exhausting month, May was too and June doesn’t look like it’s going to be any different, but it’s great to know people out there are checking in on the site and hopefully getting some use out of it.

I’m supposed to leave in about an hour to catch Ghost in NYC, and I have a shit-ton of work to do before I do that, so I’ll make this quick. The 217,772 page views came from an astounding 125 countries. Most visits were American (the UK was second), with California dwarfing New York, despite NYC having the single most city hits. In the “faraway places with one hit each” category are Bahrain, Oman, Montenegro, the Palestinian Territories, Kyrgyzstan and, Azerbaijan. Wherever you are, hi from Jersey.

If you kept up with the battle from last month between Finland and Sweden, then you’re probably Swedish. This month, Sweden was up 628 to Finland‘s 488. Yes, Finns, I know, I should have interviewed Amorphis, and for that, I apologize. I’ll see what I can do to rectify the situation as promptly as possible.

As I write now, there are a total of 700 members registered on the forum, with 2201 topics on all the boards and 30,399 total posts. If you haven’t registered yet, go for it. Rumor is they’re starting pantsless Thursdays on there and moderation is nil. Internet chicanery at its finest.

Let’s get down to business:

audiObelisk: I owe a podcast, and I know that. I’m away most of this weekend and I can’t seem to stop working until like 7PM every day, so it could be next weekend before it’s up. I put a poll on the forum to see what people wanted it to be, and a heavy psych theme is currently kicking “all-Black Sabbath“‘s ass, so unless the tide turns before the poll ends, that’s what we’ll roll with whenever we can roll with it. As soon as possible.

In the meantime, tomorrow I’m going to post an album from a band called Ex that rules, so make sure you check in to catch that.

Reviews: I’m still behind. Woo hoo. In the next month, you’ll see reviews of Ulver, Zombi, Dark Castle, the Melvins, Tank86, The Book of Knots, Nero Order, Lord Vicar, Zombi, and many more. Tomorrow is Orthodox. After that is Clutch. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine, but there’s a whole pile of stuff that needs to get done and so help me Robot Jesus, I’ll get there.

Features: Having Karl Simon from The Gates of Slumber pick out his favorite Saint Vitus tracks ruled. If you have any ideas for other features like that, let me know. I’d love to make more of that happen. In the meantime, I’ll have interviews coming up this month with Sourvein (that should be by the end of this week, next week at the latest), artist David D’Andrea, Witch Mountain, and more.

The Maple Forum: If you look at the frontpage of this site right now, you should be pretty well informed of what’s happening with The Maple Forum. The Blackwolfgoat album, Dronolith, fucking rules (thank you for emailing in your comments on it), and is available here. I have 25 copies left. Clamfight just issued a studio update on the recording of their next full-length, and of course we’ll have more on that as they get closer to finishing and we get closer to the release. And in case you didn’t see it, Kings Destroy killed when they played with The Gates of Slumber and Orange Goblin this past weekend. You can get their record here or here.

Live reviews: Not much news here, but I hope you’ve been digging the photos. Like I said, tonight I’m going to see Ghost in Manhattan, and then this weekend is Sea of Bones, Curse the Son and King of Salem (among others) at Fuzz Fest in Connecticut, so fun abounds. Looking forward to it.

That’s about the long and short of that. I think the air conditioning in my office has been shut off (pretty sure it’s on a timer), so I’m in a hurry to move it along with the evening, but thank you for reading, commenting, posting, whatever you’ve been doing, this month. Keep doing it. I think there’s something cool happening here and the momentum going into this summer is excellent. I can’t wait to see where this all ends up.

As always, much appreciated,
JJ Koczan
Halving Piecemeal Taskmaster

I knew the April numbers would be down from March. It’s getting warmer, people are on the computer less, and as we’re still up by nearly 10 times what we did in April last year, I’m not at all about to start complaining. Thank you all for reading and for commenting, registering on the forums, lurking, whatever. It all makes a difference, and I mean it.

The numbers for this month alone were 211,114 page views. As of this post, there are 664 registered users on the forum and a total of 26,753 posts, with 22,243 in General Discussion. That rules, no doubt about it, but what’s even cooler is that in just this last week, we passed the one-million mark for 2011. Between January 1 and April 30, 2011, The Obelisk received 1,028,995 page views, Unbelievable. I don’t even know what to say about it other than “awesome,” so I’ll stick with that. Awesome.

But back to April and the matter at hand. The map shows hits from all 50 states and 116 other countries around the world. In the US, California trounced New York 5,422 to 3,202, and in a close battle I’ve been watching for at least the last two weeks, Finland beat out Sweden by 682 visits to 678. Oh Sweden, you already got your own podcast. What else must I do?

There were hits from Uganda, Kenya, Uruguay, Senegal, the city of Shanghai, one from Afghanistan, one from Mongolia, one from Uzbekistan, and over 4,000 from the UK. Yes, the UK beat out the major urban metropolis less than 25 minutes from where I’m sitting. Go figure.

Lots to talk about and I’m short on time, so here goes:

Reviews: Can we talk seriously for a second? Does anyone read the reviews on this site other than the bands involved? It’s okay to say they’re too long, or they’re too wordy, I can take it. I’m starting to wonder if they need to be toned down. I don’t want people to go all glassy-eyed every day when I start a post with an album cover. That’s not what I’m shooting for here. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, if you’d be so kind, and in case you’re keeping track, I’m about 35 reviews in the hole, which is better than last month’s 40. By about five.

Features: Well, Justin Broadrick of Jesu/Godflesh is this week, and at some point after I write up the questions I’ll have an email interview with artist David D’Andrea, as well as Six Dumb Questions with Nether Regions, and there are a few other things in the works. I’ve had horrible luck in doing so in the past (I’m not even going to give you the link), but I’m trying to set up a chat with someone from Orange Goblin about their return to American shores, so we’ll see how that goes, and I want to get Lo-Pan and Sourvein going too over the next couple weeks, so stay tuned. Now that the spring semester is over, I’ll hopefully have a little more time to set these things up so I don’t get so backlogged like I have been.

The Maple Forum: As previously reported, I’m expecting the Blackwolfgoat CDs this Wednesday, and I very much look forward to their arrival. I haven’t talked to the Clamfight dudes in a couple weeks (it was kind of nuts leading up to the end of the term, doubly so with the Roadburn trip), but so far as I know they’re scheduled to start recording soon, so I’ll have updates on that as well. Kings Destroy are going to be playing this month with Orange Goblin and Naam in NYC at Santos Party House, and although I’m sold out of it, you can get their album, And the Rest Will Surely Perish from the band here, or at All That is Heavy at this location. Like all the best things in life, it is cheap and wonderful.

audiObelisk: I’ve been doing more single-track stuff, and that seems to be going decently well. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying it. This month’s podcast, now off the frontpage (download it here or by clicking the banner in the sidebar on the right), has surpassed in a week what the last one did in more than a month, so that’s a cool sign. Glad people are listening to that, as it’s pretty much a day’s worth of work to make. But fun, like all this crap.

Roadburn: No news here, but I wanted to take a second to reiterate my appreciation to everyone who took the time to read the posts from Roadburn in The Netherlands this past month. If you missed it, all the posts are here, but if you already saw the writeups and the pics, thank you again for bothering to look it up at all. I had a blast over there once again and hope to make it over in 2012, but you never know what a year will bring, and either way, it means a lot to me to know someone other than The Patient Mrs. and two other people saw it. Not that it doesn’t mean a lot that The Patient Mrs. and those two other people did, but you know what I’m saying. Extra special thanks to Walter one more time.

I guess that’s pretty much what I have to say to everyone too. Thanks. I don’t mind admitting that this spring semester — even more than the fall one, which I didn’t think would be possible — demolished my sorry ass. Seriously, it was not pretty. I’ve got to head to my last class of the term in about 10 minutes though, and it occurs to me just how much The Obelisk is what I wake up for every day. Yeah, I have to be at work, yeah, I have to be at school (obligations of my own doing, and I don’t want to seem like I’m complaining about either, because I’ve got it pretty good as regards both), but it’s the chance to write and gradually shape this site over time into what it’s become that I really consider to be most pivotal, and you should know you’re a huge part of that. A much bigger part than I am.

So yeah, thanks again. All my best to you as spring turns to summer, and whether you’re inside on the computer or outside living what I’ve heard referred to as “real life,” I hope all is well on your end and that if I can be of any service one way or another, you’ll please let me know.

Much appreciated,
JJ Koczan
Half-Timbered Protestant Taskmaster

We were up a bit in March, and by “a bit,” I mean 44,000 page views ahead of February’s numbers. That’s encouraging to see. I don’t know what to say. Things are cool right now. I’m breaking my ass to keep the blog side of the site updated, with work, school and “real life” (whatever that’s about) taking up a goodly portion of my every day, but something like this makes me feel like it’s worth my time to do so, so thanks. I’ll keep showing up as long as you will. Probably longer, but only in that “tragic fall from grace can’t let go” kind of way. Cue the sad music.

The Obelisk received an astounding 284,538 page views for the month of March 2011. As of the writing of this post, there are 23,541 posts and 621 registered members on the forum. The General Discussion board alone has 979 topics, and the new TV/Movies Discussion has already passed Live Reviews in both topics and posts. I guess people watch more tv than they go to shows. Probably better for keeping their jobs, which I can relate to.

Looking at the map, the site had visits from all 50 states — doubled the Wyoming numbers going from 3 to 6 — and 115 other countries around the globe, including the much-in-the-news Libya, Syria and Iraq. There were also hits from all over the South American continent, including Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile and Peru. In the US, sunny California gave not-nearly-as-sunny New York a vicious spanking. Not even close. A special “hello” to whoever checked in from Napa. I liked Napa.

Alright. We’ve got business to handle and this is the last thing on my to-do list before I can go home for the weekend, so let’s get to it:

Kings Destroy: I’m putting them first for a reason. I have FOUR (4!) copies of the album left. I’ve been saying all along, and it’s been true all along, but never quite so much as now: if you want one (and you do), get one while you can. You can buy from the link in the sidebar, or the official Maple Forum shop.

The Maple Forum: Well, you already saw the store link, but here it is again, just in case. Monday or Tuesday I’ll be officially announcing that forum030, the third release, will be Blackwolfgoat. Figure I’ll let the cat out of the bag early for anyone who reads this far and give the details after the weekend. As with Clamfight — the impending forum040, in case you missed it — we’ll be working with the good people at Earsplit PR (site here) on the Blackwolfgoat record, so there will be plenty of information to come, including the release date. Like everything else so far, it will be a limited edition pressing.

audiObelisk: The latest podcast seems to have been reasonably well received, and we’ve had two track premieres in the last two days (here and here), so I guess there’s no shortage of activity there, which is fun. Music on a music blog — who’d have thought? These things seem to be a measure of the webublog hierarchy these days, so while the likes of Stereokiller and MetalSucks get the big first tracks, I’m happy just to be included where and when I am. Hopefully there will be more of that stuff going forward.

Features: My interview with American Heritage will go up next week (it just has to!), and after that I have Hour of 13 and Graveyard in the can. I kind of went nuts with interviews in February, but I’m almost caught back up, so I’ll get on setting up more phoners one of these days. I apparently just don’t know what to do with myself if I’m not buried nostril-deep in work. Speaking of…

Reviews: Remember how last month I said I was 30 reviews in the hole? Well, after a month of hard work and perseverance, I’ve managed to whittle that down… to 38. I’m an idiot.

Again, if you’re waiting on a review, your patience is appreciated. In April, we’ll have discs from Liturgy, Megasus, Against Nature, The Osedax, Bong and more, but I just can’t do more than one of these reviews a day (did you see that Pentagram writeup???), so thanks for sitting tight.

Roadburn: I fly out to The Netherlands on Wednesday, April 13, to attend, and write about, and photograph, this year’s Roadburn festival at the 013 Popcentrum in Tilburg. If you’re going, I hope to see you there. I’m the guy drooling over all the merch and shelling out Euro after Euro for the espresso machine, for future reference.

Visual Archive: Basically, it comes down to Slevin being busy at work and me not wanting to bother him. That’s really the holdup on the process. I was thinking of making a board on the forum for live photography and poster/album art in the meantime, as a kind of compromise, but I need to see how far along he is with the coding and if that’s just completely undercutting work and time he’s already put in, which of course is not what I want to do. One way or the other, we’ll get there.

That’s enough out of me. If you’re reading this (and even if you’ve stopped reading already and gone to get a sandwich or do whatever it is people do when they’re not sitting in front of computers), thank you, thank you, thank you. And thank you, too. For commenting, for posting on the forums, for correcting my factual and typographical errors, for liking stuff on that Facebook thing I keep hearing so much about. All of it. Really. Thank you.

More to come,

JJ Koczan
Hoax Poke Taskmaster

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

My friends, it’s a whole new day. We’ve switched hosting companies, and two years in, I feel like The Obelisk is a brand new website. You’ll notice the banner atop the page says “No Longer Under the Command of General Error,” and if you’ve tried to get to the forum in the last couple days, you know what that means. We were simply getting too big for Yahoo to handle, and the site kept crashing as a result.

With the new host, not only do the blog and the forum stay operational, but they’re both also much, much faster. Posts go up quicker, you don’t have to wait as long for things to load, and most importantly, the forum doesn’t take a shit every time more than 15 people are on it. I couldn’t be more stoked. I’ve been nerding out to my new webmail interface all afternoon.

Now, the numbers. Being off Yahoo‘s hosting means we’re also off their count for page views. Google is now the official count, and they put it at 293,161 for January, which is pretty damn good. I expected some settling down after December’s chaos, the demise of StonerRock.com, repopulating album reviews, etc., and what’s also killer is that more than 30 percent of those page views were from new visitors. Hopefully if you were one of those people, you saw something here that made you want to come back.

According to the map, The Obelisk got visits from all 50 states again (California once more beating out New York) and 119 other countries, including Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan. I don’t want to take full credit for the rise of democratic rebellion in those nations and elsewhere in that part of the world, but I’m sure the hearty debate taking place every day in General Discussion played no small part.

Seriously though, these are beautiful places that I probably won’t ever see with my own eyes, and I thank you all for checking in to see what’s happening here. My mind is continually blown.

Even after losing some posts in the server switch, at the time of this writing, the forums have 502 registered members, 1,023 topics and 14,173 total posts and counting. Unreal.

Let’s do some business:

audiObelisk: Before the week is out, I hope to be streaming a track from The Georgian Skull‘s new album, as well as the entirety of the second Hour of 13 record, which is up for reissue on Earache this month. This month’s podcast is killer as well. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you should.

The Maple Forum: Well, the third Maple Forum release is kind of on hold while the band entertains offers from… uh… better labels. Maybe affirms my good taste, but it doesn’t do much for giving me stuff to announce. I’ve got 35 copies of the Kings Destroy disc left and I have the feeling a few more are about to go. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, use the Paypal button in the sidebar or click here.

I still have a couple things on the docket for later this year, so stay tuned for announcements to come.

New Stuff: I have a couple ideas for new sections of the blog. If I’m feeling brave, I might try and implement one or more of them in the next month. Like the dude who’s taken six years to put out his next album, I don’t want to force anything and want to see how it all happens naturally.

Interviews: Wino goes up tomorrow or Thursday, depending on time and, honestly, the weather and whether or not I have class tomorrow. Also in the can at this point are Weedeater, Earth and Wo Fat, and I’ve got chats lining up with Suplecs and Shroud Eater among others not yet confirmed or spill-beansable. Good stuff coming though.

Reviews: Crowbar, Tia Carrera, God Ox, Desert Storm, The Devil Rides Out, Grayceon — there are a lot to come. I still have that Agalloch too that’s been sitting around for ever. They’re not hurting for hype, but hopefully I’ll get there.

Where to Start: I like that these always get a good response. If all goes according to plan, I should have another up by the end of this week. Next week at the latest.

It’s been kind of a crazy winter so far with snowstorms, downtime for the forums, my semester starting and all kinds of crap going on, but I hope February settles down a little. Shows this month with Wino/Scott Kelly and the aforementioned Agalloch and Weedeater should keep things interesting either way. I also bought a new camera, so maybe my pictures won’t suck so much anymore.

Or, more likely, they’ll still suck, but with more megapixels.

The Obelisk is two years old today.

Thank you as always.

JJ Koczan
Hoebag Pearshaped Taskmaster