derek webb stockholm syndrome: spirit vs. kickdrum vs. utter confusion
By Ryan Byrd
music, favorites, websites, recommendations, videos, personal
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this is one of those posts where i don’t know exactly where to begin. if nothing else, this post will help to spread my confusion to you, the reader. 🙂
so…for a quick background of the current status of derek webb and his new record, stockholm syndrome, go read my post from a couple weeks ago here.
since that time, there’s been a lot more information as well as a mound more confusion. after the first email sent out (which is in my previous post), webb sent out another email. from the moment i saw it, i knew something screwy was going on, but there was absolutely no indication of anything beyond the ordinary. here’s the email:
friends-this is turning into a bigger deal than we expected. as a result, we’re having to temporarily _pull everything online down (can’t explain now). and to be on the s_afe side, i’m going to pe_rsonally go offline while we sort this out. i re_ally shouldn’t use my twitter account for now either so _don’t expect any updates there.make no m_istake, our trouble with the label over content i_s very real, and not as simple as one word; we’re back_ed into a corner. but we have applied all of our creative resources to th_is, working furiou_sly to create something that we believe not only subverts any leg_al issues but should also be a _pretty wild ride.so this will be the l_ast email for a while. we’ll t_ry to lea_k information via a new tw_itter account, @ssyndrome. you’re o_n your own so start payin_g attention. i’l_l see you _on the o_ther side-derek
so, you’ll obviously notice the underscores, as did i when i read it. i realized quickly after reading it that the letters after the underscores were a code that, when put together, would give some kind of clue. the letters spell out paradiseisaparkinglot. not really knowing where to go from there, i just decided to google it and sure enough, i found the website paradiseisaparkinglot.com.
in essence, on that site, spaces for 20 “stems” are allotted, which, over the next unspecified amount of time, clues will be given to how you can locate “artifacts” that will eventually unlock the stems. at this point, 3 stems have been unlocked (after clues led people in nashville, greenville, north carolina and waco, texas to the artifacts, which are flash drives with varying other cryptic clues). once “unlocked”, you find that the stems are zipped files that contain 5 very short (1-2 seconds long) wav files with similarly cryptic names like “in san.wav” or “everyting.wav”. it’s unknown this point if the stems, once all 20 are unlocked, will form one song or if these are all independent in nature.
confused yet? i am just writing this. seriously.
if you want to explore more, be my guest. there’s much, much more to this whole thing. basically, it’s very clear that derek webb is a HUGE fan of lost. even if he hasn’t talked about it (and his wife, sandra mccracken) near incessantly on his twitter, it would be very clear by this whole thing—whether its purely a fabricated marketing scheme or a “forced” marketing game because of legitimate trouble. seriously, this stuff is so tangled and complex that i swear derek webb should be hired by the writers of lost.
you know, i was going to give this list of all the other hidden clues and various intricacies of this whole thing, but i honestly can’t keep it all straight enough to offer a just explanation. so, if you want to know more, i suggest checking out a couple blogs that have a blow-by-blow explanation of the whole thing. they are the following:
1. wearethestories.blogspot.com: fairly thorough, although they stopped actively updating due to international travel
2. bloggable music network: this has the most succinct and easy to follow directions/explanation
alright, go figure it out for yourself. there’s all kind of connected crap: music, videos, pdf’s, etc. i think i’ve gotten everything at this point, but it’s hard to say.
via the rss feed and a coded hidden link, there’s been 4 very cryptic videos (a la lost) posted so far that i just happen to have. here they are (i believe these are in order of the date uploaded):
and last, but certainly not least (in fact, this is the most important part of the whole deal), via a hidden coded series of links and paste’s “save paste” campaign music vault, 2 brand new derek webb tracks have been discovered. if you donate any amount to the “save paste” campaign, the song heaven (pre-mix) is included in the vault download. so, whereas that’s easy enough, the other new track, the spirit vs. the kickdrum is one of the most convoluted hidden/coded things i’ve ever seen. again, either derek webb needs to either write for lost or come up with security codes for the u.s. mint. i won’t explain exactly what it takes to find it (it includes a hidden link, a series of codes, past coded twitter messages and finding hidden words in a relevantmagazine.com article…yeah…), but i’ll certainly post it here for your listening pleasure.
while both tracks are amazing (and show the new programmed type of sound webb’s experimenting with), the song the spirit vs. the kickdrum is the standout and is seriously incredible. i could have never guessed he’d be putting something out that sounds like this, but it’s truly forward and lyrically, it’s clever and insightful. so, here they are. enjoy.
