Severed Fifth

One of the things that has been awesome as the Severed Fifth train keeps on chugging along around the world, is how people are using the music and their skills in different ways. In particular, we have seen a lot of videos hitting the net, some live videos, some tuition videos, and some other fun videos. Here are some of the latest…

Live Videos

First up, thanks to Wayna Marsala for putting together an awesome video of a live performance of Fallout when Severed Fifth played MADHOUSE in San Francisco a few weeks ago:

Next, thanks to John Ryus for videoing our live performance of Machines Of War on Saturday night at Chris’s Club in Vallejo

Fun Stuff

My father in law, Vance Smith, is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Vance works in real-estate and his company J. Rockcliff made a rather amusing video of a bunch of their team making a music video. Of course, Vance was representing Severed Fifth!

Street Team regular torontomario (author of most of the Severed Fifth Wallpapers) has been sharing his skills and using the Severed Fifth eagle as the source of this. Check out his Inkscape tuition video:

Next, check out Mountain Trail, a video of him playing Guild Wars, by Street Team regular Che:

Finally, it is always awesome to see Severed Fifth music in videos. Check out Drill Down on this Mudfest 2011 video:

Remember, folks, part of the reason why we are working to change the music industry to help create a culture in which it is awesome to take any music and share it in videos or elsewhere. \m/

Awesome Severed Fifth Community Art

The Severed Fifth community seems to draw the most awesome artists from all around. First Torontomario making over 50 wallpapers and dozens of fliers. Blixems kicking off a forums thread with chain mail art and creative fliers. Now back for more along with 3Djesus and his sharp looking stickers. Check out more details in the forum thread here: Severed Fifth Art Thread. Be sure to show your appreciation to the artists and add your own there! \m/

3Djesus

Awesome looking sticker design, great work.

This version of the sticker uses less ink.

Blixems is back.

Returning to the thread to post some really excellent band profile pictures.

Ben Gibbs – Drums

Ron Crockett – Bass

Jim Adams – Guitars

Jono Bacon – Vocals & Guitars

Spreading the word in Toronto and beyond

Torontomario has been in the Severed Fifth community a long time. He has contributed many wallpapers, fliers and is the primary artist for the Fanzine. Just today he has posted some of his design at a local business, a most excellent way to spread the word. You can check out the fliers and the other artwork of torontomario at his homepage here.

Severed Fifth: Live In The Studio

Check out the live video Q&A and community report with Jono Bacon. Feel free to participate in the free Ustream chat to meet community members and ask your questions to Jono directly.

Folks interested in attending, please blog about the cast ahead of time so others that are interested can join in as well!

You can tune into the cast every Wednesday at 3pm Eastern/8pm UTC on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/severed-fifth-live-in-the-studio

Blixems, another contributor from the awesome UAE Street Team community, has created great Severed Fifth artwork. This includes chain mail art, metallic looking fliers, and a multi-coloured eagle crest. Not to mention rumours of a Severed Fifth art competition in the works. The artwork itself is quite excellent and I am pleased to present it here. You can also find the artwork at Blixems page on Flickr.

Feel free to participate in the fun and share your artwork on the forums thread here: http://www.severedfifth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=210&p=1118

SF Chain Mail

SF Chainmail 2

Blue Flames

Metal

Invert Lightning

Street Team contributor Chris C. (itnet7) has created a Facebook Cause about the Severed Fifth Recording Campaign.

The goal of the campaign is to raise enough money to comfortably cover the studio costs to record the new album. You can find out more or make a donation at: http://www.severedfifth.com/pay/ Facebook users are encouraged to join to help support the cause.

1. Joining the cause requires a Facebook account. First simply go to: http://www.causes.com/causes/585595
2. Click the button labeled join.
3. And then share the cause with others on Facebook. Thanks for your support! \m/

Neil Oosthuizen, a South African living the UAE is off to a great start for his Street Team.

Neil has previously been noted for being the creator of awesome SF ring tones, is now creating fliers to distribute in his local area. He also has bigger plans in the works, planning to spread the word further at an Ubuntu installfest he will be attending. You can find a link to the flier image below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59930315@N03/5473619703/

Some Severed Fifth fliers in action!

Anyone from the UAE interested in helping Neil, please join the forums and introduce yourself, and we would be glad to help you out! \m/

http://www.severedfifth.com/forum/

Just a quick heads up for you folks to let you know of two important events this week:

• Severed Fifth Video Update – today (23rd February 2011) at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 8pm UTC – I will be running a live and interactive video update to discuss the latest happenings in the band, in the Street Team, the latest studio news (we started recording at the weekend), and more! See it here!
• Street Team Meeting – Thu 24th February 2011 at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 8pm UTC – we will be hosting our weekly Street Team meeting in which we put together plans for the next week for growing our global Severed Fifth Street Team in preparation for the album and beyond! To join, simple join the chat channel – everyone is welcome!

I look forward to seeing you at these next two events!

One of the main reasons why weprovide Severed Fifth Music entirely freely is because we want to give our fans the freedom to use the music in different and interesting ways, whether it is downloading it and sharing it with your friends, or in this case, using it in a video game.

Carry the One is an agile software development company focused on developing novel solutions in up-and-coming areas of the information technology space and they are actively working on a game called Tank Maverick for the iPad. They describe the game as:

Charge recklessly and gloriously into the line of fire in this uniquely immersive, first-person tank combat game that will amaze you and your friends.

Take on the role of an elite tank commander in a war that has raged fruitlessly for many years. As one of the best in the business you and your crew are key to defending the base against waves of attacks from the enemy.

But not for long.

Fed up with the relentless waste of war, the time will come when you must take matters into your own hands. The plan will be simple. Take the war to the enemy’s door step and settle the score once and for all.

What is exciting is that they are using Severed Fifth music inside the game in cut-scenes, namely using Machines Of War and they are also using Severed Fifth music on the trailer and over the credits.

What’s more, they have released some videos on YouTube that show the action with our music included:

Machines Of War from Nightmares By Design (2010):

Kickback from Denied By Reign (2008):

Thanks Carry The One for using our music, and we look forward to seeing more and more games devs using it in the future, particularly with the new album coming soon!

In the last week we have seen some more buzz about Severed Fifth and our philosophy hitting the net. I just wanted summarize this so you folks cna check it out.

It started with this article that I wrote for the O’Reilly Radar website. The article discusses the band, our goals in changing how the industry will work, and much of the work done so far. I was absolutely stoked to be offered the opportunity to write the article for the site; the O’Reilly Radar is well known in the technology world for spotting forthcoming changes in different industries, and it was a great place to spread the message of Severed Fifth.

The article was well recieved and tweeted about over 250 times. Not only this, but Tim O’Reilly, the founder of O’Reilly Publishing tweeted it himself to his 1.4million+ followers:

Can open source reinvent the music business? Severed Fifth thinks so. Report by @jonobacon http://oreil.ly/eP9b3U

One person who read the piece was Todd Hoskins from Thrivable. He asked me to do an interview with him, which was published here. The interview continues the discussion about our philosophy. It is a good read if you are interested in what we want to do to bring change:

Jono Bacon is a changemaker in a seemingly paradoxical sort of way. He’s a headbanger and a diplomat. He plays rhythm guitar, swims in big ideas, and has an infectious “Let’s do it!” attitude. He sometimes screams into the mic, but speaks and writes persuasively. As the author of The Art of Community, he shared his experience working for Ubuntu, one of the largest open source online communities. As a musician, Jono recently launched Severed Fifth, an “open band,” that was recently featured in O’Reilly Radar for its potential to reinvent the music business. Jono sees a new music industry emerging, and he wants Severed Fifth to serve as an example. The band is in the final stages of crowdfunding their studio album. (You can help). But it’s about more than the music.

Finally, today I saw an interesting article from We All Make Music discussing our approach compared a more community orientated record label approach.

Severed Fifth, on the other hand, treats the industry’s entire economic model as suspect. Bacon’s project doesn’t trust the idea of recordings as purchasable goods. In fact, his decision to rely on donations suggests quite the opposite. At its crux, Bacon’s intent is to prove the viability of a new cultural paradigm, not a new business model.

Finally, I missed this as I was on a trip, but a big thanks to Dennis d’Entremont for blogging about Severed Fifth – blogging is a wonderful contribution to help spread the word. Thanks to everyone who has helped to spread the message of what Severed Fifth is trying to achieve. Every single word in every single paragraph helps.