The folks here at derekwebb.net have partnered with Blood:Water Misssion to help in the fight against AIDS. The best part is… YOU CAN HELP! Not only can you help but you could get a cool piece of swag too!

Starting today we will begin a charity auction with the proceeds being donated to Blood:Water Mission. What are we auctioning off, you ask?

Well, If you’ve been to a stop on the Black Eye Tour (if you haven’t there is still a chance) you’ve probably noticed all the kick drums on stage. Chances are you’ve heard them too! We are getting the boys to sign a special kick drum head that will be given to to person with the highest bid at the end of the auction. We are also looking into some possible prizes for the first and second runner up. The auction will end the day after the final stop of the Black Eye Tour, November 2nd at 5:00 PM. (CST)

Email your HIGHEST bid to kickdrumvsaids@derekwebb.net. You may bid as many times as you wish with your highest bid being the one that will count. We will periodically update this post with the current highest bid.

Please seriously consider your bid before emailing it. We only want legitimate bids here as this is going to a very serious and worthy cause.

Let’s work together to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We, here at dw(dot)net did want to let you know that we have a twitter account. We’d love you to give us a follow and in return you will (hopefully) get some cool DW info.

our username is @dwdotnet

As we sat next to Fort Sumner in Derek’s backyard we discussed the whole fiasco with the man who was one of about three folks driving the Stockholm Syndrome train. As things came out this thing got more and more beautiful. But I digress. Let’s go back to the beginning of the night.

Going into the event at The Rutledge in Nashville, even Derek didn’t know how many (if any) people were going to show up. Rest assured, folks showed up. From as far a way as Seattle, folks lined up to get into an event that they knew little to nothing about. Such was the spirit of Stockholm Syndrome.

As we were let in, the place filled up quickly. In fact, the floor and walls that lined the place were filled too. There was a screen and two microphones on stage. I was pleased that the event got started pretty quickly as Derek stepped out into the spot light and up to the microphone. “Well done,” he said. “”Well done everyone for making it out here.” He said they had many things including a few more surprises in store for us. First, though, he wanted to bring Jeff Moseley (head of INO Records) out to say a few words. Mr. Moseley said that he had read things describing the label dispute that caused this as ‘fake” or a “sham.” He assured us they were not (more on this later). He talked about how what transpired was two stubborn men butting heads, but it had all “worked out.” I have to admit that even in this little bit of interaction, it seemed that their relationship was still suffering some strain and ill-effects from all that had transpired.

As Moseley left the stage, Derek introduced an hour-long documentary of the making of Stockholm Syndrome. Edited and mostly filmed by Brannon Mcallister, the film documented the making of the record in a barn outside of Austin, TX. For the most part, Josh Moore (of Caedmon’s Call) and Derek wrote and recorded the album in the said barn. The video also documents the beginnings of the viral twitter campaign that was so central to Stockholm Syndrome as well as showing what amounts to “music videos” or song performances (the highlight of which is an acoustic performance of “American Flag Umbrella,” the album’s last track, which is worth the price of the movie by itself)

As the movie was going on, however, the @ssyndrom twitter account put up a tweet:

THE BARTENDER CAN SEE IT. MAKE THE CALL.

When I saw this, I left the table that fellow dw.net’er Geof Morris and I were sitting at and headed to the bar. Across from the bar a row of posters hung on the wall. One of the posters was actually one of those pull-tag posters advertising a bulldog named “Patty” for sale. The poster had the now very familiar barcode with a heart. I called the number and an automated message told me to “find the person wearing their heart on their sleeve and ask them for a ticket to ‘the white noise.’” It said that I could bring one person with me but that both of us had to be present. Immediately, I ran and grabbed Geof and said, “I found a clue.” We walked over to the bar area and began looking for the person wearing their heart on their sleeve. Geof spotted her. A young woman wearing a black shirt had a white ribbon tied around her sleeve. We asked her for a ticket to the white noise and she gave us each armbands telling us that we were to meet outside the venue ten minutes after the event and look for the white noise. We were also allowed to bring one person with us since we each got armbands.

As we went back to the table, it was hard to focus on the rest of the documentary as my mind was going 100 mph trying to imagine what might be in store for us.

I must say, at this point, the room was “A-Twitter.” A local Nashville artist named Matthew Smith said it well that “If Twitter were audible the roar in that room would have been deafening.” Even later, Derek mentioned that none of this would’ve been possible without Twitter.

After the movie finished, some lights came up and Derek came out and introduced Josh Moore. They then took some time to answer some questions. One man asked about a particular line in the record sounding pro-choice. Derek said that he has learned that he doesn’t like giving “short answers to long questions” but that if the guy asked him in a one-on-one discussion, he would be more than happy to discuss it with him. This led Derek to say something about this record that did a very good job of putting it in better perspective. He said that this record was one of his most personal records and on this record there were moments that he was using his art as a shield between his community and people that he loved. To me, this is what Derek meant when he talked about this being his most important record.

Some weirdo (wink) even asked him, “with the news of Sarah Palin’s resignation, will you be heading up to Alaska to run for the governership of Alaska?”

Right as Derek said that they time for one more question, a voice (the same voice I heard on the phone message) came over the PA announcing that the event was over. It gave instructions for folks to head to “the beginning” and that those who were involved the “white noise” should meet out front in ten minutes. So the majority of the audience, headed to Ugly Mugs Coffee Shop, while those of us with tickets to the “white noise” met out front. After about ten minutes, a white van pulled up outside The Rutledge with a white sign in the front passenger window that said, “THE WHITE NOISE” and had the barcode with a heart. Those of us with tickets (except for Geof Morris, who took his own car) loaded into the van, which was driven by Derek’s manager, David McCollum.. David drove us into East Nashville and we pulled up to a gate behind a house and he said, “here is your gate.” Derek let us into his backyard, but not before I impatiently tried to break in. After saying hello to each one of us, he let us into Fort Sumner, which is his home studio. He then told us that he wanted something special for the most diligent followers of the whole Stockholm Syndrome process. He told us that a lot of the record had been made in this room and that he couldn’t think of a better place for us to hear it. He informed us that not only would we be listening to the record, and would be receiving copies of it, but we each would also receive the top tier pre-order as well.

As I sat in the back of the room sipping one of Derek’s Yazoo Dos Perros and watched each of the 17 people’s heads bob up and down, I was glad that I was here at what J. R. R. Tolkien would call, “the end of all things.” I can think of no better ending to this “hostage situation” than that. After asking us about ourselves and thanking us for our involvement, he led everyone back to the van to be taken across the river, back to The Rutledge, back to their cars, and ultimately back to their daily lives. Since Geof had driven, however, he and I got to stand around and laugh and reminisce about what had transpired these past few months.

This post is already going to long, so I will come back in Part 2 and discuss the reality of the label troubles and tie up a few more loose ends. Thanks for reading.

MT

My name is Robert Gay. I’m a 20-year-old student and musician, but more relevantly, I’m the guy who snagged the first “artifact” this morning at Ugly Mugs in East Nashville. It was a silver thumb drive, printed with the barcode/heart logo, and in theory a photo of me holding it should serve as my profile picture here.

My story’s pretty simple — after deciphering the clues and driving to the coffeeshop, I asked for the fake drink and was given the thumb drive, which contained the “in San.wav” file which is now hosted on paradiseisaparkinglot.com. Also on the drive were 2 images: one was a square image of the barcode-heart labeled “dwss.jpeg,” which I presume to be the album’s cover. The other image was a snapshot of an eye — in fact, the eye photo from the rss stream is a cropped version of my image, which contained additional instructions for me.

Upon realizing that all 5 of us must have received different photos or instructions, I’m willing to bet that the other 4 artifact finders had the 4 remaining rss items contained on their thumbdrives. I have the feeling there’s some kind of clue to be found here.

I’m happy to answer any other questions you have, as well as to give you more proof that I am who I say I am.

-Robert

PS: I was notified that I will recieve “a tier 3 preorder of Stockholm Syndrome and 2 tickets to the Black Eye Tour.

What are these preorder tiers?
How many tiers are there?
What is the Black Eye Tour?

Stay tuned for the answers!

So here we go!

It began at about 6AM this morning. The following email went out.

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 r_eal, and not as simple as one word; we’re backed 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

the spaces spell out “paradise is a parking lot” Searching for clues someone stumbled upon www.paradiseisaparkinglot.com wich takes you to a site that looks like this:

This site let’s us know a few things:

1.) There are 20 sets of artifacts to be found
2.) It lets us know the rules for finding artifacts ..etc.

-Follow instructions to location
-Do what instructions require
-First 5 people to each location will receive artifacts
(First person’s name to be posted on this site)
-Email verify@ssyndrome.info with code found on artifact
-When all 5 artifacts are found and verified, their audio contents will be available to all
-Assemble audio content (stems) to hear complete track
-Tell no one

3.) Each set of artifacts found will unlock a set of wavs that will be spliced together.
4.) The “RSS” link points to several files (including a few pictures and a few movies)
5.) The “Follow” link is a pointer to the twitter account that was set up (@ssyndrome)

A cryptic link on derekwebb.com led you to a screen that asked

What do you want?

based on tweets that were posted here a few weeks ago this question pointed to lyrics from the new record.

What you want? “kickdrum”

After entering that code you see a big picture if Derek with a URL on/near his eye that says “www.black-eye.me” Going to that site give you another question that can be answered by our twitter post “What time it is?” which is answered with the code “youneverknow” which opens a video showing clips of instruments; Houston, TX; and plays a bit of a song.

So. At the end of Day One, where are we?

- We know the 1st set of artifacts were located in Ugly Mugs coffee shop in East nashville and they were flash drives. More on this in our next post
- We have a videos that range from off camera discussions to teepees to what looks like an intro video of some kind.
-we have several pictures of derek’s face and a black eye
- We know that things derek has posted on twitter in the past can be used as clues for further puzzles.
- We alsop know that based on the newest file in the RSS feed that the next artifact set may be in TX at Royers Round Top

Stay tuned for daily recaps and special reports here on dw.net!

We don’t figure we’re going to solve the puzzle; we will, however, summarize what’s known about the puzzle to date. So, here’s what we know as of mid-morning on May 19th:

• Derekwebb.com is offline. The cryptic message from derek’s email is paradise is a parking lot, and paradiseisaparkinglot.com looks like it has some fun goodies for us.
• With derekwebb.com being offline, his message board is gone. Some of the regulars have reconstructed their community at She Must and Shall No Longer Exist: the webboard reloaded.
• We also have discussion of Stockholm Syndrome on our message board at rocksmyfaceoff.net.

There are 20 stems on paradiseisaparkinglot.com … what could that mean? A 20-track record? 20 stems of one song? We’ll find out together.