September 1st 2008 Hatchet Day

If you want to know more about what "hatchet day" is, visit my Sellaband profile and read my info section.

This month's gainers and losers
I've just made my most reluctant part removal to date and finally taken my last part out of Matt Byers. This is yet another classic case of someone who shows a lot of talent and promise just disappearing from the face of the earth. I even contacted Wetwerks and some of their friends a few months back to see if they could persuade him into at least sending a message round if he was still interested. Got a response within a few hours from the Wetwerks boys as always to say they'd give it a go, but from Matt, nothing, nada, zip.

She Tells Lies were one of the artists I tried to promote with my Christmas special on the forum. Sadly I never received any response or thanks from them for buying a part, and with their profile not updated since January either, it should be obvious why I feel I can no longer keep them on my list of belief.

Other removals this month have been fairly obvious ones. Douglas Jordan has only visited the place a couple of times since he signed up and even posts on his page by his friends from Spellbox seem to have failed to make any impression. Johnny UK was another of the complete non-responders who has never thanked or contacted me.

As always, where I remove parts through inactivity these always go back immediately to other artists. This month's recipients are Phil Tweed, GD Allan, The Black Doves and Katie Thompson

I have quite a list of artists I haven't removed this month but will definitely remove next month unless they show me some sign of life between now and then. BillyJon, Off the Bridge, Immortality, Rotten Cheri, Worow, Joel John, Guy Barnes and Striving in Greater Hopes are all definitely under threat. There are others I'm watching but there's only so many parts I want to move every month because I like to put some of those parts back into acts new to my belief list rather than just increasing in existing artists.

In addition to all the above, I've also done some parts reclamation from artists who claim to no longer be here, yet whose profile still remains. I seriously wish Sellaband would get this sorted. I had hoped that they would have used "Sellaband 2.0" to save me some work and improve the situation, but no, to date they've put a proper forum in and made the site look "prettier" (even though the new colour scheme sucks) rather than tackling any of the real underlying problems inherent in the system. So if you have parts in Awake, Private Nation or The Tonic Rays now's the time to find a new home for them.

New investments
All money in this section comes from money received from Sellaband or where parts are returned/reclaimed through artists leaving the site. I only ever buy parts in artists I like or grow to like - I'm certainly no Sellaband collector, so what you see here is always a reflection of my own musical taste. And as always, where it's an artist new to my belief list I often have no idea just how active they'll become. (that's why hatchet day exists of course).

I've added (or increased) parts today to Bleeding Black, Percy Mejhagen, Boej, Toz, Tarball and Silverimage. In addition I joined Inge during Gisel's countdown chat earlier this month. Check out the music of these artists and see if it's something you could believe in too.

Watching
I watch artists for all kinds of reasons. The most usual reason is that I'm interested in their music and am looking to buy parts later, but I also try and keep an eye out for artists whose music may not appeal to me, but who I spot around the site trying (and usually failing for one reason or another) to gain interest for their music. I also like to keep an eye out for bands leaving, seeing as Sellaband is too lazy to weed them out itself. (If you don't believe me when I say Sellaband is lazy check out the dates on this old post, which references an even older one, follow the threads and decide for yourselves how much is still relevant today!). I'm a firm believer that believers can help each other find artists they like that are worth their time spending parts on, but I also believe Sellaband is (still) doing a lousy job of making this possible.

So who has caught my attention this month and why?

Shelley has been on my belief list a while now and she always has new music appearing on her profile, even though you won't see her making a big noise about it on Sellaband itself. Her latest song is called "Cheeky, Lovely, Naughty, Bossy" and is well worth a listen.

Blister also posted new music fairly recently so if you haven't stopped by their profile in a while, now's a good chance to see what they've been up to.

I was going to buy a part in Leave this month because I've been watching them a while and felt it was long overdue, however I'm wondering from the change in name whether they are going to be one of the "leavers whose profile remains."

Dandelium is being rather too quiet for my liking at the moment. If you know me, you know I'm still waiting to hear the songs with the vocalist(s) they intend to use before committing parts because it could well turn something I love as an instrumental into something I can't stand due to the vocal style used. Under normal circumstances I'd remove the band from my wishlist, but Erik has usually surfaced sooner or later, so I will be keeping an eye on what happens over the next month.

As to some of those who've dropped by my profile this month to leave messages, I will be continuing to keep an eye on Banshee, Chump and Sandbox as they're all obviously active and keen for believers, but at the moment it's looking unlikely I'll be buying parts in any of them because I haven't found anything I like yet. Marie Dance however is one I may buy into later, just not this time around.

Sellaband
Well the new website is out, and I noticed a "last updated date" appearing in the list when you search for artists. Fingers crossed this one can help people filter out the inactive from the interested but quiet in future. It's still early days on the upgraded site, so I think it's unfair to start looking for progress until next month, but I'd have to agree with the comments so far that at the moment, there doesn't seem an awful lot of difference compared to the old site. As for Sellaband on Second Life, I'll probably have more to say about that in a later post - let's just say for now that I've been to the island and I'm still not sure about the toilet full of plants decorating HQ (yes I am serious.. go see for yourself if you don't believe the toilet exists!).

That's all for hatchet day this month. Hopefully I'll have some more postings for you to enjoy before the next hatchet day posting. In the meantime, check out some of the music I've highlighted and have fun!