New News

For those of you who have been following the updates, I’ve got a decent portion of the image gallery fixed up so that it *should* come up in Google searches sometime this year. There’s a bunch of new MP3’s that I put up and there’s more coming. I know I need to update the audio interview section as it is sorely outdated. Basically, I want to get the majority of the files on my hard drive formatted for the web and uploaded by the end of this year. It’s amazing how much stuff I had to archive myself in addition to what Matt had already saved prior.

ROCKLINE. That’s right. I just got my hands on the two Rockline interviews that were MIA and I’m currently formatting them for the web. So look forward to them in the next couple of days. I need to get in touch with Matt about a couple trades as well. I found a few more concerts from 2008 that have amazing setlists. Publications… there’s a few more I’ve managed to save that are worth my time to archive on the site. Tons of new (and old) video interviews… yeah. You get the picture. Lots of stuff. And at some point, I want to do at least two more webcasts this summer. I just haven’t had much time since I started working with this one client on a website.

For anyone who’s curious what I’m up to… I’m freelancing web design to get through college. I’m paying a butthurt amount of money this next year and I don’t have all my loans secured yet, nor do I have my house finalized for renting with my friends yet. I’m also extremely busy this week working on layout for the latest issue of SFL Onstage. We’ve got some great bands featured in this issue, including my interview with HURT. While I’ve let the artist of the week go to the wayside, I might get a few more in the future. Not sure what I’m going to do with that yet since it’s so time-consuming, and there’s better energy spent in getting content for the site online. Basically, one day… too late… I’m in hell. But hey, there’s Seether.

I hope you’re all enjoying the summer. It only lasts so long, especially where I live. So go out and enjoy it. I’ll still be here uploading stuff in the near future.

Summer Webcast Series and Guitar Center Sessions

Hey friends, there are a couple new things happening with the website over the next couple weeks. First, I’ve got the webcast page set up at seether-online.com/webcast. I’m trying to find a date near the end of May to broadcast the first concert, which will be a show from the summer of 2002. The next big thing is that I have the Guitar Center Sessions online here.

I’ve begun the maintenance process for a large chunk of the websites. In that, I’m hoping to better optimize the video pages so they don’t take as long to load. It might take some time.

And to answer a question that keeps popping up, SeetherOnline on YouTube is not me. It’s been around for years, and was the guy who almost got Matt sued for posting content that was never supposed to end up online. You an imagine how big of a stir he caused with Wind-Up records. I’ve tried getting him taken offline, but to no avail. So I apologize for any confusion that may have been created.

When am I going to upload that?

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have a bunch of stuff sitting on my computer waiting to get uploaded, but I haven’t had much time to get around to it. I suppose first thing’s first and I should organize everything into the right folders and names in case they get taken off the web before I get to it. I have hundreds of bookmarks I need to sort through at some point. Images…. I’ve found more than what I had originally. (and you have no idea how time consuming it is to make thumbnails of each image.)

I also need to get the Guitar Center Sessions uploaded as well as Seether’s part of the Golden Gods Awards and make the video section a little friendlier. Load time takes forever with all of them on one page, but it makes it impossible for search engines to find hidden content. I don’t know. I’ll work something out. That’s all technical stuff.

So what have I been up to? Well, for starters, my dad goes in for surgery on Thursday, so that’s been on my mind a lot. I have to finish a final web project for my class. You can see that at HURTrapture.com. Good old fan site for the band HURT. I don’t know how I’m going to manage two simultaneously, as gathering content is a massive chore. Especially organizing it. I landed a job with SFL Music as a layout editor for their magazine. I graduate in three weeks and have to work on finding a place to live for my BA next year. It’s a mess. So again, I apologize if there haven’t been any updates recently, but they’ll be coming. More than likely in one big chunk over the summer.

What’s Happening With Seether-Online?

I’ve recently begun the process of archiving all the old articles and magazine publications into one giant section located in EXTRAS. You should be able to find 100+ interviews and write-ups that are all different. Believe me, it’s no easy task to get everything working right. I’ve had to re-code numerous pages so they display right. It’s all worth it, though. I managed to dig up an old Guitar World magazine article from 2008… there’s a few other clippings that are from the early 2000s. I also know a guy who should be able to get most of the old Seether magazine/newspaper clippings scanned in and emailed to me.

What else do you have to look forward to? The picture database is halfway completed. Everything from 2007 until today is still missing, but rest assured, they will be put up before summer. There are a few MP3’s that I want to upload when I get around to it. Seether has been covering a few new songs in their live shows. One is “Another Day In Paradise” featuring Shaun singing with Brad from 3 Doors Down. Another is Staind’s “It’s Been Awhile.” Sadly, it doesn’t pay for me to keep updating the video archive further than to upload TV performances, features, and the like. Since YouTube came around with high-quality, it’s become the go-to place for all live bootleg videos. (I archive most rarities that are worth saving, just in case.) It’ll be getting updates from older, lost content, but most new stuff is few and far between when it comes to live performances.

Lastly, I’ll be doing whatever it takes to get word out about People With Signs. It used to be pretty huge in the Seether community, and since the original message board’s demise, it has completely dropped off the face of the earth. So. With that being said… start submitting your own Disclaimer designs in EXTRAS!

Help Promote Seether – “Here And Now” Downloadable Tour Posters

In a few months, Seether will be embarking on the “Here And Now” Tour with Nickelback headlining, Bush, and My Darkest Days. Help promote the band by downloading the tour poster that corresponds to your local music scene and printing a few copies to put up around town.

Posters can be found @
Seether-Online.com/Here_And_Now_Tour_Posters

If you need any help figuring out how to print them to size, or info about how to promote the band, email me at Seether.Freak@yahoo.com

Happy 7-UP Day!

Eight years ago, on Friday the 13th, I stumbled upon Seether.

Let me explain. No 7-UP CD, no Seether for me, no website. So let me put things into perspective how it all happened.

When I was in sixth grade, I started listening to the local rock station, 93X. My parents thought I did it to piss them off. Really, all I wanted to do was go to the dance with this one girl. I assumed she liked rock music, and I figured it would make me look more badass. She was the kind of girl who looked innocent enough, and yet if you looked at her wrong, she’d send one of your testicles into orbit. Painful. Long story short, I didn’t get the girl, but I got the music. And luckily, I didn’t lose my balls to a steel-toe boot.

And so, somewhere in the vast abyss of 2002 and 2003, I heard “Fine Again” on the radio. Once. That’s all I ever recalled hearing it. It got stuck in my head. It must have been right around the time my English teacher started showing Linkin Park and Evanescence music videos in class, because I ended up jumbling the lyrics with “In The End.” Sitting in the school psycho’s basement months later, I heard “In The End” and was disappointed when I discovered that it was the wrong song. (And may I add, my sixth grade English teacher did more for me to understand music and the lyrical content than anyone else ever will. Possibly even Shaun Morgan’s own interpretation of his lyrics and the countless interviews I’ve listened to over the years.)

So… being the little weirdo I was, I thought that I had come up with the few lyrics I remembered by myself. I might still have the words written down somewhere in an old notebook.

Fast forward to the day before Valentine’s in seventh grade. That’s 2004 for you math geniuses. Someone had stolen the candy I had bought for a girl. I left school empty-handed and sad. I don’t recall quite why I decided to take a walk, but I did. And there, in a snowbank, was a CD player. My bright light amidst darkness.

Once I had gotten home, I threw the CD into my computer and went for a glass of water. Upon coming back, I clicked on track 5 and fast-forwarded it, wondering to myself if the mystery song would be on there. And it was.

To this day, I still believe I’m one of a very few people to have listened to that song thousands of times on repeat. And I mean thousands. But aside from “Fine Again” keeping me going that year, the 7-UP CD managed to point me in the right direction for a number of bands. So go check out the full CD download @ http://www.seether-online.com/7UP. It helped me through a pretty bad patch in my life, maybe it can help somebody else.

The Tongue Inside My Mouth, Taco Bell, Girl Bands, and Tech Support

Where to begin? It’s been a crazy week. I’ve been sick with an inflamed tongue for the last three days. Goes to show that maybe Taco Bell’s spicy isn’t the best idea when there are a few irritated taste buds. It’ll make your whole mouth hurt for a week. In other news, while the band harassment continues, there has been one dude bugging me for the last couple months. Block him on Facebook, he gets somebody who knows me to give him my number, so I’ve been dealing with that tonight. Somewhere in-between working on the website, I’ve been trying to find leads on tracking down one of my best friends’ dad. She’s never met him and she only has a little information to go on. There’s also the music I’ve been listening to this week. Volbeat. Go check them out if you haven’t. Maybe it’s just where I live that makes me like the Johnny Cash/Elvis vibe this metal band has. And then there’s the slew of chick bands: The Veronicas, Veruca Salt, Portishead, and The Donnas. It’s hard to find decent female-fronted bands these days apart from Flyleaf and Halestorm. Dead Sara’s new and not too bad. And I spent over an hour on the phone with tech support to get this stupid HP TV tuner card to work and was transferred to five people before I finally hung up. But, the good news is that I should be having a copy of the Guitar Center Sessions coming my way soon. If you missed it, or don’t have DirecTV, it will be up here once I get it.

I’ve been working on getting the image section back up. So far, I have all the old Saron Gas photos from the old incarnation of the website up, along with two hundred new ones gathered from all over the internet. (Oh, no! The gov’t is going to censor this website!) It’s been a collection of everything from all over to begin with. I also finished the album artwork page minus two images from Karma And Effect. I don’t have the tongue picture… ironic, yes, I know. And I’m also missing the bullets picture from the promotional art. It would be nice to have a better version of the CD cover with the Asian guy breathing out, but oh well for now. I used to have the full t-shirt picture of the heart as well. If you have any that you want to contribute, just email Seether.Freak@yahoo.com. I’m almost finished with the 2002 picture gallery tonight. I’ll just keep plowing through it until I get them all done, and then I’ll upload them in one giant chunk. So, sorry for the lack of images right now, but they’re coming soon!

Uh, what else is there? Seether’s embarking on their tour this next week and they’ll be back on the road for a LONG time. Over 200 tour dates this year. Check the official Seether site for future dates until I get the tour section completely done. That one could take awhile. Peace, love, and Ramen noodles, friends!

Band Harassment: Cease and Desist

I don’t really know what authority I have to post this. I’m not employed by the band, and I don’t officially represent them with their label. But what I do know is that I made a promise when I bought this site. To make this the best Seether resource possible. To allow others to be able to see through the eyes of the band members and understand through their words. And most importantly, to attempt to the best of my ability to keep the band’s personal lives private.

Within the last couple months, members of Seether have started to be harassed. I’m not getting into the details, that’s none of my business. All I have to say is it is extremely uncool for people to dig into Seether’s personal lives. I think the vast majority of fans have an understanding and are really good about giving the band their privacy. However, I will say this. I am pissed about discovering that there are a few people bold enough to harass the members of Seether. So please, I suppose the only thing we can do is respect their privacy and to let others know to do the same. It’s not just about Seether at this point. It’s about the countless bands I know that have to go through the same bullshit time and time again. It’s cool to want to know more about the bands that have helped you through a tough period in your life. God knows they’ve helped me in ways they probably will never know. Where the line gets drawn is when people invade the privacy of those bands because they:

a:) Think they know the band personally just from connecting with music and can make assumptions based upon said connection.

b:) They feel that they have the right to know everything about the band because they’re famous. Because they are now public domain, and that gives everyone the right to know every little detail about their life. (feel the sarcasm in that statement) It’s untrue, and being famous doesn’t mean everyone owns the rights to them.

c:) They just want to be dicks. And yes, sadly, this happens more often than you’d think.

d:) Insert any other reason you can think of that fits into harassment.

Other than that, thank you to the people who have supported Seether in their decade-long career run, and those who respect Shaun, Dale, and John’s right to keep their personal lives and details, relationships, family, and friends to themselves. I’m positive they appreciate the respect. And most importantly, thank you to the bands who have to put up with the abuse.

Keep playing it loud and remember, “You can’t fight the Seether!”

Suggestions?

After all the hard work, the hype, and countless hours of double-checking my code, the site is up! The big question now is, where do I go from here? I’m currently working on getting the periodical section back up, along with reposting guitar tabs to the songs. I’ve managed to learn how to play most of Disclaimer II and Karma And Effect, so I’m a little behind on what’s going on. As I learn, I’ll start posting as accurate of tabs as I can. I generally go by their live performances, which correct the few parts that I’m off. So far… Fur Cue.

I want to revive People With Signs, if anybody’s interested. There used to be a huge archive of people with their disclaimers. And then it vanished. PostSecret took over. I want to bring it back. If I can figure out how to bring back MyCarelessWhisper, I’ll do it. There’s a few other features, but mostly just updates to the audio and video sections. If anyone has any suggestions, I want to hear ’em!

Chris at seether.freak@yahoo.com

Disclaimer

Seether-Online will be back up by the end of the month. It’s been a long road, but I think the latest update will be enough to do the band right. It’s been nearly two years since the last update. Not to mention the time before that where there were massive server issues and all the headaches.

Make no mistake, this blog is the official blog of Seether-Online, and it is different from the news page because, well, the news is short little blurbs about what’s going on with the site. This is the kind of thing where I’ll be posting about rock news, and just… random stuff I guess. New bands that you should check out, reviews of concerts. Now the only thing is getting people to come back to the site. The last time archive.org crawled it was at the beginning of 2011… really?! So, my assumption is going to be that Seether-Online is defunct. Or was… not sure which since I have the updates in progress.

I’m happy with the layout. It brings back the old Disclaimer feel with a touch of Karma and Effect, and Disclaimer II. New things to look out for: too many to list. Many of the sections have been merged for easy navigation. community.seether.com has been uploaded to the fullest extent to the server and is available. For those of you who don’t know, Wind-Up pulled the boards from the server because of maintenance issues, so I have the most complete archive of it. Webcasting! That’s a new feature I’m going to try out. Plenty of live shows that can’t be put up for download, so I will be webcasting them on certain days. The audio and video sections have their tickets for the next makeover. There are 100+ interviews to be heard that will go up. Song meanings and history, but still take your own interpretation of the song. That’s what they were meant for.  A brief history about the members in the band… yeah.

Oh, by the way, I’m Chris. I’ll be taking over for Matt permanently. Spent a good chunk of cash to get all the material he had for the site. So… yeah. I’m the new monkey who has absolutely nothing better to do with his time other than promote the band.

Anywho… back to work on the site!