ampcorp#15 - Goodbye 2010 - Welcome 2011!

Well

There it is.  2010. All done.  I figured I’d be at this point and having a nice relaxing time over Christmas and New Year

Wrong.  The Octopus is only just beginning. And that is an undertaking every bit as massive and weird as The Octopus itself.  

Well I guess that the enormity of putting it out is only fitting and in keeping with the vibe of the record.

It is, after all, a multidimensional undertaking. An odyssey into the unknown.

Well, we jumped into this venture born partly out of desperation, partly out of stupidity and partly out of pure stubbornness.  But we feel vindicated in our decisions to do this.  Most importantly because of the almost universal feelings of love and applause that we have received from everyone who has so far jumped in with us.  But also, because it is just so much fun – all of a sudden it is much more than just making a record – it is becoming a kind of art experiment involving everyone else.

I won’t pretend it hasn’t been a titanic effort.  Even when the music was finished, every single step has been beset by problems to numerous and annoying for me to be bothered to go into here.

Anyway, the important thing is that The Octopus shaped genie is out of the lamp now – and it isn’t going back in.

So,

I’m sorry to announce that the main thing is - you have all been tricked, and that you are now all - in a cult. 

Ha ha!

Ideally we won’t have to all move into some seedy ranch in Texas together, but rather we can make our place wherever we go, spreading the “humanistic vibes “of the The Octopus.

That sounds a bit wank actually – let turn the hippie control down :

Basically the idea is that we all adopt The Octopus icon as our symbol.  And essentially that symbol can be loosely interpreted as:

"I am not a dick”

We can start with that – and schism later...

So, like all cults we need some shady headquarters:

www.cultoftheoctopus.org

And any ideas for cult like activities are welcomed.  However, at the moment, please note that we don’t have the facilities for mass weddings, orgies or suicides...

So, our main goal for 2011 will be to get The Octopus icon wherever we can and give ourselves a thrill and a laugh.  Let’s face it – that’s about as good as it gets.

Champion.

We would like to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone that has spent their hard-earned money with us and which has enabled us to do this odd record / anthropological experiment type thing.

We hope that you can adopt some element of it beyond “just some music”, and that like all good honest myths, it will grow into something that is larger than itself.  

If in doubt – consult the manual.  All these ideas are contained in the text of The Octopus itself.

Now, unfortunately because The Octopus hasn’t been planned out by some sharp and intuitive marketing department as some kind of commercial campaign; and because basically we’re just 3 hippie slackers who are making it up as we go along and don’t have any long term goals apart from just having fun trying to spark off something bizarre and unique, we don’t really have any definitive plans or timeline.  Here’s what I can say will happen:

30/1/11 – Official Release

Feb/March -  We’re going to do some travelling around to have drinks in bars in various euro cities.

Here’s vaguely where we’re looking at:

London, Manchester, Berlin, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Zurich, Hamburg

That’s not a definitive list – so we welcome other suggestions – but do remember that we are restricted by money and the amount of partying that we can handle now that we are getting more senior...

So - If you or your friends own a bar and want to host us and all the other people who want to come and say hello then get in touch.  We promise we will drink heavily and hopefully not make too much of a mess...

May onwards - Touring etc

We’ve got plans about other stuff, but better not to commit to anything yet... 

Anyway – The Octopus is predominantly about you guys –

We’ll just provide a soundtrack.

How we do this is only limited by our combined imaginations – so the more ideas the better.

In fact – the crazier the better.

Please send all information and insights to the brain

informer@theoctopus.info

Hopefully if we can get enough people in on it maybe we can trigger some kind of  CIA investigation.

You know you’ve made it when the CIA investigates you.

Actually, why stop there?! – if we can achieve being recognised as an active religion, then there will be tax breaks all round; and then we can universally bring down the cost of merch.... 

So – anyway - that’s all for 2010 – pretty full on.

I’m sure 2011 will be hectic too.

Anyway – Happy New Year...