I don’t usually post about music or interesting bands here, but I figured that I make an exception for these guys. Mike from freeindie.com emailed me today letting me know about The Kode. It is a band which specializes in making covers for old SNES era video game theme songs.
After checking out out their rendition of Super Mario or Mega Man I have to admit they are pretty good. You can download their album for free at the Free Indie site.
But I must say this – using a myspace profile as your official website is incredibly lame and retarded.
[tags]music, video game, console, theme song, super mario, the kode[/tags]
I couldn’t agree more! What if I was discussing webdesign with a potential client and gave them my card and it said “Website: jjschiffer.unicorns.angelfire.com/funtastic/balloons.html?” It’s extremely unprofessional. Make a freakin investment, people, it’s not that much!
Actually, now that I see that URL typed up, I don’t hate it.
Well, it’s even worse here – these guys actually invested in a domain name (thekode.org) but were to lazy to set up a legitimate website so they just pointed it to the myspace page.
So you look at the card, and you see “thekode.org” and it actually looks professional and all. Then, you go to visit and it’s like: “Ew! Myspace!? WTF?”
Of course having a website done totally in flash, with your music blasting in the background, and your concert pictures transitioning on the screen is also lame.
IMHO a good band website should have:
1. good readable layout (so no flash, and no stylish gray on black bullshit)
2. song lyrics to every song they ever made ever
3. lots of downloadable mp3 samples without DRM
4. actively updated RSS news feed or blog
5. guitar tabs/music sheets for every song they ever made ever (unless you are disco/pop/techno in which case I don’t know if that applies)
5. community building tools (ie. wiki, forum)
6. dedicated webmaster who would regularly update the news feed, galleries, mp3 samples, tabs and moderate wiki/forums to prevent vandalism
But, unfortunately such a website is a big investment both in terms of time spent on development/maintenance, and actual monetary cost of upkeep.
I agree that the myspace isn’t the best way to go but when it’s all you got, it’s all you got. Our website is officially going up tomorrow. Help support future website development by coming to the show on Saturday.
John
http://www.thekode.org
Awesome! I’m glad you guys are expanding your web presence. :)