Boogie Board downtime

The following message appeared this morning on Excoboard:

All Excoboard forums will be unavailable while we perform database maintenance this Saturday, 5 AM to 6.30 AM EST. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Being a Saturday morning, it likely won’t affect many of us on the East Coast, but that’s only 2am in California (and I think mid-day in Europe) and we often have at least a handful or so online at that time so I wanted to give a heads-up.

Happy Birthday to The Boogie Board

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been two whole years that we’ve been Boogieing together.  Ash started it all with her blog – a blog which she basically gave over to “the cause.”  If I remember correctly, despite the title it was more or less a personal blog, but Taylor has a way of taking over these types of things (I know from my own experience!)

When Gray Charles announced he was shutting down (the first time), Ash launched the message board and a community was born.

I remember the first big Boogie get-together: The Florabama Mama Jama (with or without a Llama) … okay, so it was really called the Flora-Bama Takin’ It To The Beach Weekend, but we did have fun with the Mama Jama name.  I didn’t make it to that one, but it was in July 2006 in Orange Beach.  A house was rented, LiMBO was playing, and much dancing and frivolity was had by all.

We had our first cellcerts that summer, too.  A mysterious poster named PhantomofSoul made a cryptic post in a brand new thread: “Be here tonight for a special surprise!  Mwahahahaha!”  How intriguing!  The early cellcerts were not like the ones we have today.  Phantom was the only one on the phone and gave us as descriptive a play-by-play as she could.  It wasn’t long before we had the conference calls set up and the evolution was on its way.

Workplay Week was our first Boardwide adventure.  So many Boogiers and other Taylor Hicks fans from around the world descended upon Birmingham for a long weekend that we still talk about fondly.  That weekend encompassed a LOT of firsts – several people met Taylor for the first time, for many it was our first chance to see Taylor perform live, and for most it was our first time to visit Birmingham.  I met so many Boogiers for the first time then, too, when we all met at Cobb Lane for lunch.  My first experience with the generosity of The Boogie Board was when Soulkaren PMed me the opportunity to purchase an extra pair of tickets to the AI show at face value just days beforehand.  My Mother was thrilled and she had a great birthday (made even better when Taylor’s Jailhouse Rock entry found him running right past her!)

There are so many more memories to follow (and not all of them are mine), so please visit The Boogie Board Birthday thread and drop us a memory or two (or three, etc.)  We’d love to hear from you. 

Speaking of the Early Works

We have a couple of excellent discussions currently going on The Boogie Board regarding Taylor’s Early Works album.

In HICKS FINDS NICHE we started by commenting on the Google Alert (see previous entry) and have continued from there.  The question now is  – what exactly are the “early works”?  A reissue of IYT and UTR?  A double disc or a single?  Re-recorded, digitally remastered, or a simple re-issue?

In Early Works – Modern Whomp Records (2) we’re discussing Taylor’s evolving sound – where he’s been, where he’s going, possible influences, etc.  What about those emotional walls?  Can he tear them down completely?  Would we really want him to?  Can we possibly hope for a collaboration with Charlie A’Court?  Please??

Feel free to come join us and put in your two cents.  As always, I encourage you to read the entire threads before jumping in (they are both just one or two pages at this point anyway).  It’s just an easy way to get to know your fellow Boogiers just a touch better and also to avoid any confusions.

Charlie A’Court’s Official Website
Charlie A’Court on MySpace

Hicks finds Niche

Please be sure to read our “About” page.  Thank you.

I received the following Google Alert very early this morning:

HICKS FINDS NICHE
New York Post – New York,NY,USA
June 20, 2008 — ‘AMERICAN Idol” winner Taylor Hicks has finally landed with a record label more in-tune with his personality …

Click the headline to read the entire article.

It’s an intriguing blurb.  Short and vague, to say the least.  It sounds like Vanguard is the absolute perfect partner for Taylor and I’m glad he is involved with them for his distribution deal.

This sentence is amusing to me:

“The disc is expected to be comprised mostly of Hicks’ pre-”Idol” tunes and is slated for release in August.”

It appears that the New York Post didn’t get any more info out of Taylor than we can.

Whatever the Early Works album turns out to contain, I know I for one am eager to see his face looking back at me once again from the store shelves and online retailers.

Esperanza Spalding

Please be sure to read our “About” page if you are confused by the presence of this website. Thank you.

Ms Spalding’s official site

Ms Spalding on MySpace

(AmyH says, “wow!!”)

Cinematic Orchestra

Please be sure to read our “About” page if you are confused by the presence of this website. Thank you.

The Cinematic Orchestra on Wikipedia

An excerpt:

The Cinematic Orchestra is a British-based jazz and electronic outfit, created in the late 1990s by Jason Swinscoe.

The Cinematic Orchestra’s sound, in both live and studio contexts, employs a live band which improvises along with a turntablist and electronic elements such as samples provided by Swinscoe. In their studio releases Swinscoe will often remix the live source material to produce a finished product that is a seamless combination of live jazz improvisation with electronica, such that it is difficult to tell where the improvisation ends and the production begins.

Cinematic Orchestra’s official website

Taylor Hicks has his own label

Please be sure to read our “About” page if you are confused by the presence of this website.  Thank you.

What a perfect opening post for the Boogie Blog Mirror Site!

Last night, Boogie Boarder splitpersonality dropped a tantalizing tidbit in the form of a brief and to the point post:

Early Works, release date Tuesday, August 12th.

---

… and that was that.

It wasn’t much and had absolutely no backing, but it was enough to pique the interest of The Boogie Board and set the searchers in motion.

And griz found the info on New Music Tipsheet around 4am EST this morning.

There it is – all nice and verified. Don’t you ever sleep??

Several people wrote to Vanguard (the early reported label/distributor) and caniegirl just now posted this on The Board:

Hi,
Unfortunately the sites that posted this information were misinformed. Vanguard Records is only distributing this album so it’s not a Vanguard release. Taylor will be releasing this on his own label which is called Modern Whomp Records.

Sorry for the confusion.

Best,
Vanguard Records

Well, well, well. Thank you very much, caniegirl!!

Did you see that?

Taylor will be releasing this on his own label which is called Modern Whomp Records.

Can I get a “woot!” from the crowd, please?

He has his own label and a major distibutor for his early recordings. Very very cool, if I do say so myself.

splitpersonality dropped this bit of helpful info, too: Stop by this link to sign up for Amazon’s First To Know Notification and know exactly when you can pre-order the Early Works.

The Boogie Board is the best!