I was gonna be all sneaky and throw this up without any collaboration and see how successful it would be, but I'm looking to create a collective/community atmosphere to the site.

My GOAL is to create a site that has a wealth of information (reviews, interviews, articles, how-to's) as well as a forum for musicians who do funk - either record or perform live, don't matter.

Feature articles to include:
song/cd/instrument reviews from a musicians earpoint:
instruments and techniques used on the record. The motivation and/or political leanings of the artist at the time have been covered in a plethora of other sites (like, WHY James Brown wrote "Say it Loud") - I'm trying to stay more focused on WHO played on the record and what they were playing (what guitar, amp, etc) and HOW was the stuff recorded (all live? mics all over the drumkit, or just one overhead, etc). I have NO idea how I'll gather that info, so, if you know or can help, please let me know and you'll be credited on the site. Your contributions of ANY reviews would be greatly appreciated, and credited on the site, of course.

Must-have records
Partially collected from my "Name your top 10 funk records" post over in the related artists section, I'm looking to assemble SOME sort of definitive collection of CDs for funk musicians. And of course, it's an impossible task. Could you create the 10 MUST HAVES for Rock? No way. Too many sub-genres. Same with funk - tho, funk is usually a sub-genre of some other style - funk-rock, jazz-funk, blues-funk, funk-polka, etc... but I'm thinking that surely there's 10 ultimate records that a funk musician could benefit from.

Interviews
Yeah. This one's going to be tough, getting established artists to talk to an upstart site. But, the site will be professionally done and I'll start small, interviewing artists that I can try to get in touch with. If you got contacts, let me know. For now, maybe I'll just assemble 10 questions for all interviewees, sort of a litmus test from artist to artist. Who knows.

Tips/Techniques
A LOT of the stuff we talk about in this section would apply to the T/T section - recording/performing info. Again, input from here will probably be a key source for starters, I'll be org-noting you if I use anything you supplied.

lastly, for now at least,
THE TEN
Monthly, ten songs from up-and-coming artists. The ten songs will then be archived and either available on a CD or, who knows, I haven't thought that far yet, cuz I don't want to get into deep doodoo on royalties and crap like that. If I get the stuff and the artist is okay giving it away, then the CD price would be just to cover whatever it costs to provide the CD. I don't know.

The FIRST ten songs would be selected by me and 2 or 3 other people that are heavily involved in the site. After the first ten, I'd try to break the ten into two chunks - 5 that the site selected, and 5 submissions from members of the forum - and to submit a song would require some sort of post count - 25 posts within a month, I dunno. Again, working that one out. As you know about me, I really disdain folks that pop in here, throw up a link to their stuff to get some hits on their site, and then disappear.

ALL of this would be presented anonymously - meaning, I have no hidden agenda in the site - ain't pimping my songs, you wont see my songs on The Ten, I'll definitely be contributing lots of articles but I'll try to keep "me" out of it, so the site has a polished, professional feel to it instead of just some jerko knobbing off rants on a laptop in a closet.

I've got the initial layout of the site worked up, and I'm now in the process of putting together the first release. I'd like the site to start out pretty robust, so I'm asking you more verbose folks here in the musician section to pony up some tidbits. It can be a paragraph about a song you like, or a full blown article about something (there WILL be an article about the NFO in it.)

Let me know what y'all think. Ain't trying to pull focus from HERE, I just know that there's a lot of folks in here with talent and knowledge - and this is one of the few places I can find for funk musicians. (NFO being the only other one I could find).

Thanks. Don't laugh. Don't tell me my mom is a ho.

Let me know if I can help.

Okay now, dont everybody come bothering me at once, cuz I've got other things to do. So. Yeah. There you go then.

Thanks G. I was counting on your help.

I think its a great idea ! Sounds like a great site, plus the domain name is dope... I dont know of any place where you can get that kind of information. Sounds like you have a potential goldmine as long as it is done well. Dude, if you get a lot of hits consistently, you can get sponsorship, which is big money for you(I know thats not why u r doing it but.. ya know)...Im down, I will definatly be tuning in!!! Good luck

Plus(I dont wanna be a org hog but)
you have soo many resources
(+>: obviously...
Rick James
Parliment
Sly and he Family Stone
Cameo
Tower of Power
Brothers Johnson etc..
Anddd you can educate people about little known funk band like:
Lakeside, The Dazz Band etc...

I'm Telling you..Goldmine !!!

As you know, I'm in!

Great idea Otan, just so long as it doesn't overlap too much with any of the other funk websites out there which are more dedicated to the listeners of funk...ala GedUp.com, Funkbag.com, Groove Juicer, etc.

If you can have a site as wickedly designed as the new Gedup.com, but offering a perspective just for musicians, I reckon this could be a fantastic idea. Sites like these definitely survive by getting contributions (reviews etc.) by readers/members, and if there's anything useful I could do, then you can count me in.

It was refreshing when I checked out Hectims new site cos there's nothing out there that gives players new to the funk an insight into how its done...I dunno to what extent you want to design it all, but having a forum, and maybe some sort of fake book of funk standards, with breakdowns of riffs etc. for classic funk tracks would be tres coolio.

Otan, when do you have the time? Damn.

Whatever I can do (as long it doesn't include my shitty drum playing) please count me in.

Slave2daGroove said:

That is my dilemma. I wish I had time to:
- practice my soloing so every solo ain't the same
- work on my songwriting
- learn php/mySQL so I could finish this site.
- learn to build furniture
- finish my 3D animation that I've started 27 times.
- finish the 7 remixes of the songs.
- learn how to go without sleep.

If I don't figure out php/mySQL by next week, I'm going to go old-school and hard-code the entire site until I DO learn the crap. Honestly, the hardest part will be some of the nifty tricks I've got planned - once there's enough CD reviews, I'm going to have one appear on every page randomly... so there's always some CD review on each page, hopefully exposing visitors to records they didn't know about. Little things like that - THAT'S where the programming will come in handy.

otan said:

You sound like me only you also have to take care of a little one too. Sleep is for lazy muthas

Ican't help much with programming but Ican write, if that helps?

definitely.

great idea beau! Let me know if I can be of asistance on the php sql front . Im no expert but Ive dabbled in it a few times for my gig list & news areas on my site. Just recently learned how to encorporate it into flash too.

O...sounds like U givin' up your day job (the kid) and your night job (the gig)! Pretty funkin' ambitious project to MAINTAIN Beau. Ideas great but undertaking large. Not difficult to get up the first issue, but maintaining it takes sooo much time. Too bad that the NFO site never got off the ground, 'cause I expected most of the topics you're talking about to be part of this project (i.e. the magazine format with articles, interviews yadda yadda). I could be wrong, but it would appear to me at least, that the focus of the NFO project is thinning or maybe on hiatus. Everyone obviously has lives of their own to maintain and I suppose that's what makes me think, if you don't mind spending ALL your time keeping the site fresh, it's a great idea.

I know it's a huge undertaking initially. But damn - all the stuff I write in here - it all adds up to good info that I could put in that site as well, along with other stuff that I could hopefully garner from other peeps, like Groovement. HE'S going to get me some good interviews! I spend so much time pissing in the wind around here, might as well piss it all into one bucket and serve it up.

No. wait. that sounds wrong.

I meant, umm.

um.

hm.

otan said:

With some of the people's attitudes up in here, I may be able to throw acouple of solids in that bucket (to be served up)


gross, i know but the negative vibe brings the bucket.

not much negative vibe in this forum; to what are you referring to Slave?

Red said:

i understand also. I feel the same way. Especially after i was told by sum folks privately that they aint postin no mo. Otan i will definitley join in because funk should not be wasted.

paisleypark4 said:

Well I dunno about you freaks but I'll be posting again (music that is)...even if my work will get poopood - ousting the crap slingers is just as constructive as having positive criticism, it's fun and it's totally disease free.

Anyways, again if there's anytyhing I can do I'm ready. I can right. Erm, write.

MaggotBrain said:

Thanks yall. I'm not posting anymore either. This is my evil twin.

otan said:

so muh negativity goin on now. We need JD, he kept our juices flowin

Sounds like a great idea Otan.


Anything I can do let me know.




Cheers.

MaggotBrain said:

I'm not sure who said they weren't posting anymore but I'm working on quality before I post again (that's the hold-up)

Great article submitted to New Funk Order from Chad Riden.

http://www.mangydog.com/chad/063001.php

Read it. Good stuff.

paisleypark4 said:

I thought this kind of petty shit only happened in the General Discussion forum. Look, if people are negative, just avoid them. Ignore them. Ain't no need to ruin the groovy family we got here. This "I ain't postin' no mo" shit has to go. It's silly. We all got love here, and even if we don't have time to post on every thread, we all know who are friends are here. I don't even want to know what kind of drama is going on, but there seems to be lots of drama around the org lately. I'm kinda glad I've been busy moving and I have no computer set up at home yet.

I KNOW not everyone digs my music and that's OK. I'm not looking for "friends" to tell me it's good just because they are my friends. I want to communicate with composers/musicians I admire and respect and get feedback and advice. I do my best to return the favor. Negative people who have nothing constructive to say... I can see right through them.

VinaBlue said:

Fellin nothin but love for you Vina, well said.

See my thread about whiny ass bitches. That's all I'm saying.

Slave2daGroove said:

otan said:

I know, sometimes you gotta say , but most times I just .

ITS GOOD TO SEE THAT LOVE AND DRIVE
ARE ALIVE AND WELL IN OUR CHOSEN ART

O- IF I CAN BE OF ANY SERVICE, LET ME KNOW!!!



HYPNOCINEMA.NET