Since I’ve been extremely busy with development on the new Web site for The Books, I haven’t had much time to work on An Umbrella, other than a little bit with Andy. However, myself and two other members of the art team for the An Umbrella site have created a collage which can be currently be viewed at CG Channel. This will eventually be featured on the An Umbrella site once The Books site is completed. Click here to go directly to the full-size collage. Also, be sure to cast your vote on the image and let us know what you think. You can post your comments on that page as well.

About the Site:
This Web site features 14 different ‘rooms’ each of which holds multiple animations, creating an exploratory environment. Three of these represent The Books’ three albums, in which there is a separate animation and sound for almost every track. In addition to this, the site features Flash integrated video clips, a photo gallery, tour dates, easily updatable news bytes, a huge catalogue of the band’s abum reviews, and an online store where customers can purchase t-shirts and CDs with credit cards. On top of all that, you can also listen to all 36 tracks from the band’s three records in their entirety before purchasing them.

About the Band:
The Books are a two-man band from Massachusetts which consists of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong. They combine electronically manipulated acoustic instruments, spoken sound samples and vocals to create one of the most unique sounds to emerge in years.
Their debut album, Thought for Food received high honors from independent music’s most widely read publication, Pitchfork Media and was included at the top of their annual “best of the year” list in 2001. Since then, they have released two more albums to widespread critical
acclaim – The Lemon of Pink (2003) and Lost and Safe (2005).

A screenshot from the formal information section of The Books site.
A screenshot from the front page of The Books site.

I’ve been working late almost every night for the past two weeks on the renovated Web site for The Books (see February 3rd entry) and everything has gone very well thus far. The band is enjoying it, and I am too (when the test site isn’t crashing). Since the site is far more massive than I initially realized, we’re aiming for an initial launch on March 1st, with lots of updates leading to the release of “Lost and Safe” on April 3rd. Speaking of the new album, I’ve heard the whole thing and it’s quite good, as expected. Anyone who enjoyed their previous stuff will probably take a liking to most of it. I’m really excited to get done with this project and put it up for everyone to see, so be sure to check back here if you want to know how development is going!

Some quick notes about this site — All of the video (which was not previously working) now works, so anyone interested can download the three videos here. The news section has now been re-organized once more, so all entries from 2004 are in the 2004 (surprise!) section, which contains many of the details of last year’s band efforts. Other sections of this site have updated to reflect the Cardboard Canary end as well. In new, and much less dreary news, things have gone well thus far in working with drummer Andy Roberts as we plug away on new material. Also, Erik and I are planning to go into a studio and record early next month for a five song EP. Once again, everything seems solid on this, but I’ll let you know when and if it comes to pass. Songs we hope to place on this album include some of the never-performed-live material from last year’s first attempt at the An Umbrella band and some of the first collaborations between Erik and I from 2002, when we played under the Taxidermy Penguin moniker.

The next Web project I will be working on, along with An Umbrella, which continues to slowly progress, is the re-designing of a Web site for my favorite currently active band, The Books. For those unfamiliar with The Books, they create awkwardly beautiful audio collages filled with guitar, cello, vocals, and samples they’ve collected over the years. They’ve been awarded wtih a horde of fantastic reviews, and have been placed on Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of 2003 at #2. Pitchfork is the number one read indie music publication in print or on the Web, so that says a lot. Their new album “Lost and Safe” arrives on April 3rd, so be sure to check that out. I’m predicting their new site will be up within the next two weeks, judging by the current rate of progress. For more information about The Books, click here to visit their current site or click here to buy their albums from Tomlab. For information about their upcoming Web site, feel free to e-mail me. Also, all MP3 links that were previously not working in the Audio section have been fixed. — Justin Norman, An Umbrella