thoroughBLED.com://main page - biography - photography - media - traitor & love is red music archive - linkage - myspace/...

Hello, and welcome to Thoroughbled Design & Photography. Over the past five years, this site has had many different purposes, but the first and foremost was always to showcase my web & graphic design skills and amateur band photography. During this site's most popular period, I offered hosting and design services; I also listed and kept track of local shows so that people knew what bands would be playing when and where. But like the Florence hardcore scene, all good things must come to an end... and Thoroughbled died along with the scene. Now it exists as one (and maybe the only) official source for Love is Red and Traitor albums, a monument to what once was, and as an example to clients and prospective employers of what kinds of things I could do before college five years ago with a point-and-shoot camera, a pirated version of Photoshop 5.5, and notepad - my three trusty weapons of choice at the time. Wonder what I could do now...



://Late for Showbread and early to bed/ ... August 15 @ 4:41pm

So last night me and Shannon went to The Rave Arcade to see Showbread, who I had been looking forward to seeing for like a month. It would be my second time seeing them because they were so good the first time, and also I couldn't really pass it up considering it was like a quarter mile away from my house. Anyway, we were running late and taking our time at the same time because Showbread was headlining so we thought we had quite a while to get there. The show was supposed to start at 7, and we got there right after 8. I asked some kid in the parking lot if Showbread was setting up yet, and he was like "Umm actually they're playing right now." So I told Shannon to hurry up and we paid and went up to the stage. There was not a very big turnout at all, and I heard like 10 seconds of singing and then there was about a 10 minute finale that sounded like a trainwreck. But I was not upset in the slightest because I thought to myself, "This band is not Showbread. That little kid was mistaken because they haven't played yet." Read on.

After the band finished their seemingly-20-minute finale, Maggie walked up to us and I asked her when Showbread was going to play. I saw this weird look come over her face like she was speaking to an idot, and then I realized that that was actually Showbread. It turns out that the venue had decided to put Showbread on as the second band so that all the little kids in attendance could see them before they had to get home for their bedtimes. I'm being totally serious. Hold on now... Showbread might not be one of my absolute favorite bands and actually I don't even own one of their cds, but I know enough about them after seeing them play before that they have a big black guy in their band, and there was no big black guy. I asked Maggie about this big black man and his whereabouts. Maggie said the big black man quit the band to do mission work. Okay, don't get me wrong, but I'm almost positive that this dude could have reached more people being in this band that seemed to be going places rather than quitting when he is on a roll and completely starting over somwhere new. But I can't complain when I haven't even heard how they sound now because we totally missed them. But I'm sure their sound is just one step closer to merging into the thick masses of bands exactly like them, seeing as how they replaced the big black guy with one more skinny white dude who looks exactly like all the rest of them, in turn making them look like all the rest of the bands they will be competing with.

The moral of this story is this: If you have something different that sets you apart from the rest of the crowd, embrace that difference and make it stand out forever. Do not change it and replace it with something that makes you look exactly like everyone else. Also, if you have a really good thing going for you and have the opportunity to do something else, look at the future. When you see the big picture, you might realize that where you currently are isn't so bad afterall. And finally, if there is a band that you are looking forward to seeing - it might be wise to actually show up on time.


://Stuff about Traitor, change, and site retirement/... August 11 @ 6:41pm

Well, I contacted Roger from Traitor to try and get their old demo tracks when I realized that the only way he could send the tracks was by email. I knew that a lot of people would want to download these tracks, and to save him a lot of time, I decided to give him a little webspace and make a page for people to download all these songs. In doing so, I decided to put the site back online after more than two years of dormancy. I have to warn people who view this though, that there will not be regular updates or many new features unless I feel like it. The only reason this site will be up again is to showcase my web design talent in order to make a few bucks and for people to see photos of old bands, most of which have broken up by now, but were awesome while they lasted.

I don't take pictures of bands anymore, mainly because my current camera does not meet my quality standards, and also because of the lack of *good* shows. Most of the punk and hardcore bands that play around here these days are carbon copies and wannabes, with a few exeptions. I have also matured quite a bit since the development of this site. I am now engaged to a pretty lady and actively pursuing a degree in digital media at the University of North Alabama. Between these two aspects of my life, aside from leisure activites, there is not much time left for running a time-consuming web site. So basically I am saying this: don't expect much from this web site and you will certainly not be disappointed.




://Desktop/...


://Updates/...

8/12 - Site back online
7/19 - Brazil photos added.
5/05 - HoldxFast photos added, shows section updated.

All content, including photos � 2004-2007 thoroughBLED design, inc.