SITE TIME MACHINE
VISIT PREVIOUS VERSIONS! FOR SOME REASON!
VISIT PREVIOUS VERSIONS! FOR SOME REASON!
Be warned: some of these, particularly the older ones, may not display nicely or even coherently on that fancy modern browser and device of yours. Even if they do, a lot of the links and images will be broken as there's little if any maintenance I do with these once they've been outmoded and archived.
But if you're all in for a potentially janky trip to old news and what this site's front page used to look like through the years, here's your off-ramp:
But if you're all in for a potentially janky trip to old news and what this site's front page used to look like through the years, here's your off-ramp:
v25
news • shows / merch • discography / mp3s • videography • writing / comics / sites • games / gaming • podcasts / press
• This is easily the most drastic overhaul in this site's history, as every bit of legacy code and design was scrapped, then reimagined and built from scratch.• The front page is simplified even more than the previous version's had been, removing anything more verbose than descriptions and headlines. The upcoming project section is gone completely from the site now.
• The menu is back to the top of the screen after living on the left side functionally unchanged for eight years. As much as I'd grown accustomed to seeing it here, it was far easier to lay out the pages without having to accomodate a drape.
• The site no longer stretches infinitely percentage-wise with the browser window but is now fixed at two layouts, desktop and mobile, that it switches between depending on the width of the browser.
• The majority of the site's content now operates on a uniform three-part system: buttons, grids, and modals. Push the button to populate the grid with the category of items you want to see, then pick an item to open a modal window with all the information and relevant links to that item. To my reckoning, it's as simplified as it could possibly be to handle as wide a span of disparate media and projects as this site serves. If nothing else, it's far more intuitive than any of the past attempts to present it have been. No more endless scrolling and vague hovering menus.
v24 (10 months)
news • shows / merch • discography / mp3s • videography • writing / comics / sites • games / gaming • podcasts / press
• The front page has been significantly simplified from the massive text-clusterbomb it had grown to become over the years.• As a result, a completely separate Updates page returns after, oh, just 18 years -- all the news, most recent releases and upcoming projects that used to clutter up the front page have been migrated there.
• The static navigation menus that were on the side of each page are now fixed to the bottom of the window (the way the mobile layouts had it), making for a much cleaner layout as some display resolutions would cut off up to half of the old side menus.
• Thanks to a complete flushing and overhaul of the CSS code, the site's device-driven resolution changes are much more legible and logical.
v23 (1 year, 8 months)
news • shows / merch • discography / mp3s • videography • writing / comics / sites • games / gaming • podcasts←↑press
• The menu words are now colorful and have descriptions under their headings.• News updates are now very brief, making room below them for the latest items, though they begin to grow in verbosity as months pass.
• The tabbed pages in each section are gone, replaced with a static navigation menu on the side to jump around the page information.
• The Podcast section has been renamed to Talk and the long-dead Press section returns as part of Talk.
• The show list now dominates the right column, followed by the list of live act press kits and then the upcoming works.
• The site now changes layout depending on the resolution of the device it's being viewed on.
v22 (2 years, 2 months)
news • shows←↑merch • discography / mp3s • videography • writing / comics←+sites • games / gaming • podcasts
• The demos for the three live acts at the time are placed above the news updates.• Nothing new here other than the news updates.
• The carousel is gone now, allowing for the return of more verbose updates.
• The show list is larger and easier to read. Merchandise returns, now part of the Stage page.
• Webites have been added, albeit awkwardly and in a tacky tacked-on fashion, to the Page section.
• The latest items are moved to the right column above the upcoming works, and the mailing list form is now gone.
• While by appearance not much else has changed, everything under the hood has been recoded to be much more efficient and clean.
v21 (3 years, 6 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • videography • pictures • writing / comics • games ←gaming • podcasts
• The background for all pages on the site is now chosen randomly on each pageload from a collection of previous versions' backgrounds as well as new designs which will expand as time goes on. • The indecisive Film once again becomes Videos and links to flyers are added to the front page show list.
• Oh and the background turns another shade of red.
• The background turns blue and the Video section is renamed once again to Film.
• A mailing list subscription form is added to the front page, and notably the calendar is now a much easier to read (and much less obnoxious to maintain) list of the upcoming shows.
• Annnd just like that the Mail List section is gone again.
• The Gaming section disappears from the menu, integrated into Arcade. In its place is the Mail List section once again.
• The background changes to a deep red.
• While the background hasn't changed, the entire layout of the site has, with the menu moving once again to the left where it started. This is the menu template that will be used on the site for the next eight years.
• The latest items live below the carousel once again with the right column now being used for the calendar and what works are currently upcoming or in progress.
• Shows has been renamed to Stage, Writing becomes Page, and Videos and Podcasts have subtle renamings to Video and Podcast. Images is gone, never to return -- everything that was grouped here will be scattered to relevant items and sections.
v20 (4 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • videography • pictures • writing ←comics • games • gaming • +podcasts
• The latest items move to the right and the calendar is squashed awkwardly above the menu bar now.• The background changes to yellow stripes, brightening things considerably.
• The news updates are now displayed in a scrolling carousel.
• The latest releases are relegated to three items below the carousel and the calendar moves to the right again, still esoteric as ever.
• The MP3s section is now renamed to Music.
• The Comics section disappears, now unified into the Writing section. • In its place is a new section, Podcasts.
• The menu bar loses all its color and the background is now a rather oppressive dark grey for some reason.
v19 (1 year, 2 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • videography • pictures • merch • writing • comics • games • +gaming
• The biggest change other than the background is with the sections of the site which now have all their content organized and accessible via tabs within their pages.• The Gaming section is added to the menu here, covering the livestreams and game videos I started doing around then. Oh and the background changed to a pale blue.
• News updates are now far more to the point than ever, some only consisting of a headline, a picture and a sentence. The background becomes a garish pink and yellow.
• The Latest becomes more verbose as well and moves to the right side, with the left side now showing a color-coded and somewhat difficult to parse calendar of the next two months.
• The Words section is now called Stories, and the color scheme shifts to bolder primaries from the previous version's pastels, with a beige paisley for the front page.
v18 (6 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • videography • pictures • press • merch • writing • +comics • +games
• The front page news items become even more verbose with multiple paragraphs on this version and are interspersed with updates such as show bookings and uploads.• A new front page section called "The Latest" appears here that displays the most recently released album, story, game, video, etc.
• Lots of renaming has happened too, all for the best: Wax is now MP3s, Tour is now Shows, Codex is once again Words, Film is once again Videos, View is now Images, and we've added new pages for Comics and Arcade.
• Press is gone again and Store is now relegated to a front page only link.
v17 (2 years)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • ↑videography • pictures • press • merch • ↑writing
• The front page appears more unified with this sub-version, bringing the menu to the top on the front page, but the biggest cause for celebration is the renaming of Swag to Store.• The main difference is additional links on the front page as well as minor sitewide improvements and a full (albeit still inefficient) transition to CSS.
• The news updates dominate this version's front page, each now with its own image, heading and writeup, though the other sections show only small differences in layout.
• On the menu we see the return of Archive, Codex (previously Words) and Film (previously Videos) after years of absence.
• The menu is split between sides on the front page but remains on top on every other section.
• The upcoming shows start using the color scheme for the different acts that's currently used today.
• Also I finally start transitioning to CSS, something everyone else had already done years and years ago.
v16 (2 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • merch
• We've left the box layout behind here and shifted aesthetic to a more stark white with pastel-hued schematic-style backgrounds in this overhaul of the site.• The menu's back to the top too, with Pics changing its name to View.
v15 (3 years, 7 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • forum • ↑merch
• We're back to a side menu with this long-lasting version.• Buzz and Forum are gone, as is Archive, replaced with a link on the front page to the news archive.
• Live has been renamed to Tour and Mailing List alternates between being a menu item and a front page link.
• The Swag page returns and still hasn't picked a better name yet.
v14 (9 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • forum • merch • misc / links / art / writing / faq
• A return to both the box layout as well as unique page designs, with the menu shifting to the bottom once again.• Ops has thankfully changed its name to Pics, Buzz now links to the front page and its previous function is now handled by the new Archive page, and the Swag and Etc pages are no more.
v13 (8 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • forum • merch • misc / links / art / writing / faq
• Another color change from grey to maroon this time, along with some improvements in certain sections to make them easier to browse.
v12 (5 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • forum • merch • misc / links / art / writing / faq
• Changes from blue to grey but offsets it with a new two-column scheme throughout the pages that, while still extremely bland, helps it look more presentable and readable.
v11 (3 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • forum • merch • misc / links / art / writing / faq
• While it breaks out of the box layout for the first time in two years, this version is a massive step back in aesthetic, changing the colorful and unique pages to a stark void of blue. Must have been going through something.• The Forum link returns to the menu bar, which is now a fun take on an LCD display.
v10 (5 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • forum • ↑merch • misc / links / art / writing / faq
• The decor shifts to full-color backgrounds here.• Lots of section renaming, some better than others: Media is renamed to Press, Scans is renamed to Ops, and Misc is renamed to Etc. The Merch page returns, though this time unfortunately called Swag.
• The site shifted through many hosts during this version's era, as free hosting universally began to become overrun with intrusive and layout-breaking ads around this time. It had a brief run on Angeltowns, then Gexus before finally landing at Worlord, a friend's domain where it still is today.
v09 (3 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • misc / links / art / writing / faq
• More of a graphical update than a functional one, though now the menu titles have been replaced with an admittedly unintuitive icon-only display.
v08 (3 months)
news • shows • discography / mp3s • pictures • press • ↑forum • misc / links←art←writing←faq
• Every section of this version has a unique color scheme and graphic aesthetic as well as pixel-graphic section icons I designed that still remain in use today on the current version of the site -- similarly, many of the sections' color schemes have carried over to the present from this version.• The menu's back to the top and has been culled to eliminate the Art, Words, and FAQ pages and place their content on the Misc page.
• Also linked from the front page is a full-featured forum new to the site.
v07 (1 month)
faq • news • shows • ↑discography←mp3s • pictures • press • forum • merch • art • writing • misc←links
• While the aesthetic is drastically different, the underlying code is nearly identical to the previous version, though the menu has been moved to the side once again.• The art, writing and miscellania websites from the previous version were condensed into three new sections, Art, Words and Misc.
• The Merch, Forum, and Surf sections have been dropped (Surf having its content moved to the Misc page), Scoop has been retitled to FAQ, Press has been retitled to Media, and the Disco page returns now renamed as Wax and with the MP3s that used to be on the old Media page on it.
v06 (4 months)
faq • news • shows • mp3s • discography / videography • pictures • links • press • forum • +merch • +art • +writing • +misc
• This was my first attempt at building a site in HTML instead of a page builder, a large portion of it utilizing Renee's code from the previous version as a framework.• The D/V page was scrapped and replaced with the Merch page, and the menu was moved to the bottom of the box.
• More significantly, three additional entire websites were added dedicated to my drawings/paintings, my writing, and other miscellania, each with their own set of subsections.
• This site was a monster to maintain and was way too sprawling for the comparatively small amount of content it hosted at the time but if nothing else it was a good exercise in figuring out how to code.
v05 (2 months)
faq • news • shows • mp3s • discography / videography • pictures • links • +press • +forum
• This version was designed from the ground up in HTML by Renee Allemand who was a lot more advanced at site design than me.• A Press section was added as well as a Forum page, though it was a free messageboard rather than a full featured forum.
• The site was also moved to Tripod.com from GeoCities at this point.
v04 (1 month)
faq • news • shows • mp3s • discography / videography • pictures • links
• We're back to a side menu layout, and the site is now condensed into a box which will be the reigning design ethic it remains in for the next several versions.• Though it likely looks nearly microscopic now, it used to fill the screen in the common resolutions then.
v03 (1 month)
faq • news • shows • mp3s • discography←videography • pictures • links
• The menu was moved to the top and the discography and videography pages were combined into the unfortunately named D/V category. (Images and code of the other pages for this version were also not saved anywhere and are long gone).
v02 (2 months)
faq • news • shows • mp3s • discography • videography • pictures • links
• Though only the color scheme and picture have changed on the news page, the rest of the site had significant and more logical layout improvements. (Unfortunately images and code of the pages other than the news page were unarchived, so there's no surviving record of them.)
v01 (3 months)
faq • news • shows • mp3s • discography • videography • pictures • links
• The beginning of the site in all its uneducated haphazard GeoCities Page Builder placement glory!• This is the only version of the site whose HTML has been archived here in full; the rest are the news or front page only, though most will have screenshots of the various sections available.
• It started with a home page and eight sections: Scoop (an FAQ / bio), Buzz (updates), Live (show calendar), Media (MP3s), Disco (discography), Video (videography), Scans (pictures), and Surf (links to other websites of varying relevance).