Burning Shadows v. Burning Shadow's

Damn kids.

Mike from Division informed me of a Facebook page for a band called "Burning Shadow's". Their profile picture was our old logo (that we still use when the time is right, mind you).

So, I wrote to them:
"Adding an apostrophe to our name doesn't give you the right to steal our logo. Please discontinue use of our name and logo."

I also provided links to the Amongst the Dying Waves CD, which uses that logo, as well as our website and our iTunes page.

The next day, they responded, "O_O i really didnt know there was a band named burning shadows"

To which I wrote, "You had no problem finding our logo, but you couldn't figure out where it came from? And I see you haven't bothered to delete the images with [our] logo in it yet...."

Them: "i said im sorry gosh dnt gotta be mean"
Me: "Actually, you didn't say you're sorry."

Later, someone jokingly suggested, "Fierce Allegiance would be a good band name!"

You'd think they would have done an ounce of research after stealing our name. They went ahead and changed their named to Fierce Allegiance. So, someone posted a link to the real Fierce Allegiance's logo, writing, "Here's a good logo for you guys!" (They responded with "thank you dude ur great")

Minutes later, "DAMMIT THERE IS ALREADY A BAND NAME FIERCE ALLEGIANCE =("

I won't bother to tell you what they changed it to now, but rest assured, the name already belongs to a group that has music on iTunes. And as far as I can tell, these kids haven't even played a single note.

Epilogue: After the dust had settled, they asked me, "hmmmmmm r u guys like a real official band like on youtube nd stuff O_O"

Sigh.

It's a Death Metal Xmas v. Gorilla Music/Productions

There's a productions company Burning Shadows, RVG:TZM, and It's a Death Metal Xmas have been at war with since they first spammed RVG:TZM. Well they contacted me once again (It's a Death Metal Xmas, to be specific). But first, a little history....

NOVEMBER 2008:

A note I posted on Facebook

There's this company that offers battle of the band type shows to random bands on myspace. They tend to have them at Jaxx or Fletchers or whatever. Basically they promise all these prizes then make you bring as many people as you can to vote for your band. Your time slot is also related to how many tickets you sell usually. These shows just make all kinds of money for the promotions company. Anyway, trust me, it's evil.

Whenever they send a message to Burning Shadows, I always ask if there will be judges or if it's just based on how much money the band can make the company. They always respond with something like "no it's based on votes so sell lots of tickets!" So I tell them that it's stupid to base the winners on how many friends they have and not how good they are.

Whenever they send a message to Recently Vacated Graves: True Zombie Metal, I make all sorts of ridiculous demands. I demand top billing, no photography or video, sound check prior to all other bands, and cash in lieu of prizes. Plus whatever else I can think of. They tend not to respond to RVG.

Today I got one for Death Metal Xmas to play in January. My response was: "Christmas music in January? Are you fucking retarded?"

(Yes, they are.)

--------------------------

Update:

Their response was,

What are you talking about?? It is a battle of the bands. Our company works with over 90 venues across the United States on a daily basis. This isn't just for "Christmas music."

My response to that was,

IT'S A DEATH METAL XMAS = CHRISTMAS MUSIC

You obviously don't pay any attention to what you're doing when you invite bands to these shows. You don't care about what the band sounds like or anything like that. You're just blindly emailing everyone.

Case in point, you've had 2 chances now to realize you're talking to IT'S A DEATH METAL XMAS. You obviously didn't listen to any of the music. You obviously didn't even look at the page. You didn't even read our fucking name.

Let me guess, were we to for some reason play XMAS DEATH METAL in January at your show, we'd have to sell tickets and the winner is somehow based on ticket sales and/or votes by people who bought our tickets? Shows aren't booked based on genre or talent, it's based on who is going to sell tickets, right? You all can eat a bag of dicks.

Love,
IT'S A DEATH METAL XMAS
(DEATH METAL CHRISTMAS MUSIC)
"TAKING CHRIST OUT OF XMAS SINCE 2003"
http://www.myspace.com/itsadeathmetalxmas

LAST DECEMBER:

Another note I posted on Facebook

From Gorilla Productions:

[blah blah blah]

Hey guys. My name is Rachael and I work @ Gorilla Music based out of Cleveland, Ohio. I am now booking for Jaxx Nightclub on Feb. 22nd in Springfield VA!!

[blah blah blah]

From It's a Death Metal Xmas (i.e. Me):
Note: This is before I realized this is from the same idiot using a different account.

Are. You. Fucking. Retarded?

Christmas music in FEBRUARY?

From Gorilla Productions:

Look dude, you really don't have to be so damn mean. I am sorry that you get the messages I send.. Just don't respond or block me... one of the two. Please don't demoralize my well being. Fuckin Christ... I am just doing my job.

From It's a Death Metal Xmas (i.e. Me):

How about you think about what you're doing? You're spamming bands on myspace. These messages aren't solicited. You're violating the myspace terms of use:

MySpace Terms of Use Agreement
(dated February 28, 2008)

8. Content/Activity Prohibited. The following are examples of the kind of Content that is illegal or prohibited to post on or through the MySpace Services. MySpace reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in MySpace's sole discretion, violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending Content from the MySpace Services and terminating the Membership of such violators. Prohibited Content includes, but is not limited to, Content that, in the sole discretion of MySpace:

8.9 involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing, instant messaging, "spimming," or "spamming";

http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.terms

We both know you're not sitting there going to each band's site and writing a message. Otherwise, you wouldn't be sending a Christmas music band offers for shows AFTER Christmas TWICE from TWO different accounts.

Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if I see another message from you.

Merry Death Metal Xmas. (By the way the new CD comes out December 23d. If you like I can personally send you the ordering information so you can be sure to get yours.)

JUNE 2009:

From Gorilla Productions:

Hey,

My name is Rachael and I work at Gorilla Music, based out of Cleveland, Ohio. I am now booking for a Battle of the Bands July 26th @ Jaxx. If you think you might be interested, get back to me with a contact number and I will give you all the details regarding the show.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Rachael Galassi
Gorillamusic.com
216.322.6056

My response:

Here we go again. Back in December I said "Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if I see another message from you."

FUCKING PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE DOING, YOU MORON.

And you can suggest that I block you again, but you've messaged me from THREE different accounts now. What's wrong, is MySpace closing your accounts because you keep spamming people?

Anyway I'll play the show on the condition that we get top billing and you call the show "GORILLA MUSIC PRESENTS: IT'S A DEATH METAL XMAS IN JULY FOR SOME REASON!" We want 50% of the door, too. (For all bands, not just mine.)

Nyarlathoblog

There. I named it. The blog is no longer What the Fuck Should I Name This Thing?; it is now Nyarlathoblog. Other names I considered: The Blogging Chaos, The Blogs in the Witch House, The Blogging of Unknown Kadath, The Blogger of the Dark.... They're all (poor) plays on words of H. P. Lovecraft stories about Nyarlatotep (with the exception of the Blogging Chaos).

Nyarlathotep wanders the earth and gathers legions of followers, often by invading their dreams. The followers lose awareness of the world and eventually end up as his servants and/or part of his ever-growing army. I figured it was a good theme because you will no doubt be enthralled and mesmerized by my unending genius and will end up serving me.

A series of Lovecraft's short stories are about Nyarlathotep, including "The Haunter of the Dark." As you may or may not be aware, I wrote the Burning Shadows song, "Haunter of the Dark" way back in 2000 or so. (Little known fact: I played bass on that song on Into the Primordial.) The story and song are centered around a man who unwittingly summons the Haunter, an avatar of Nyarlathotep. However, the Haunter is banished by light. This would be fine if the city didn't keep having power outages during thunderstorms. The Haunter kills the protagonist.

The stories that involve Nyarlathotep are: Nyarlathotep (1920), The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927), the 21st sonnet of Fungi From Yoggoth (1930), The Dreams in the Witch House (1933), and The Haunter of the Dark (1936). Other authors wrote about or were inspired by Nyarlathotep, including Robert Bloch (best known for writing Psycho) and Robert E. Howard (who wrote the Conan series).

What his fate would be, he did not know; but he felt that he was held for the coming of that frightful soul and messenger of infinity's Other Gods, the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.
—H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Drupal & zombiemetal.com

I have started the process to get Drupal on zombiemetal.com.

However, GoDaddy's menu system is a big fucking headache. After a couple HOURS of not getting anywhere, I finally installed Drupal. Last I checked, it was "creating database." Then I got site errors.

Once it's done I should be able to build a new zombiemetal.com that will be marginally more interesting than the current one.

Coming next, a new burningshadows.com, which I intend to look extremely similar to the current site.

Also, I was thinking that Burning Shadows should create a short EP for no reason. My intended tracklist:

1. Oathbreaker
2. Stormrider (Iced Earth)
3. Battle Hymn (Manowar)
4. a live song?