rabid gorilla

On December 7th, 2010, the website RabidGorilla.com was launched. My purpose for doing so was to teach myself how to use the WordPress content management system. After my ‘Hello World.” post, I started posting memes, jokes, links to YouTube videos, …anything I could find. The website was a mirror of my Facebook page and It didn’t get any visitors, with good reason.

At the time I was also deep into the hobby of collecting bootleg recordings which I found and downloaded by way of bittorrent programs. I began a Song of the Day featuring a track from my collection that I hosted on Soundcloud. It quickly became the most popular item on the website and after a few months I redesigned the site so the music was the focus.

Despite my eclectic taste in music, the site gained in popularity and as it did, I was inspired to keep adding new content and finding new ways of promoting the site. I went from posting individual songs to posting entire concerts. To keep the music available I had to purchase advanced plans on Soundcloud.

I tried advertising programs and posting ads on the website but it never gained the audience it needed. The cost of hosting the music could no longer be justified and so I shut the site down in April of 2012 with a promise to return.

Jump ahead to 2016.

I repurpose the site to promote a new business venture: Rabid Gorilla Video Production Services. I had started recording friends and local musical acts with the videos being hosted on YouTube. The business never took off but the videos of the local (Central Maine) punk-rock scene were mildly popular. And they were a blast to make. I thoroughly enjoyed traveling around Maine to record friends and young people who appreciate original live music. From August of 2015 to April of 2019, I recorded over 175 shows from over 75 different bands.

In 2017 I temporarily closed the site again for another re-invention. This time I called it Rabid Gorilla Records. It was a record label that I developed to promote some of the bands I had met and recorded in the post: Angusisdead, Frankie Moon, and Uncle Spudd. Later on I was contacted and ‘signed on’ with a band of young punk rockers from Portland called The Chives.

On April 24th, 2019 I released a physical CD compilation of 21 songs by bands that had been featured on the website. It was a limited printing of 200 copies and most have been given away. The bands on the CD allowed me to produce the CD using the studio recordings of songs that had been on the site in the past. The collection is available on Bandcamp.com.

Although I was unaware at the time, that would be the last act of Rabid Gorilla records. The website has been closed and I have lost touch with the local music scene. I retain the URL for the next incarnation, …whatever that may be.

To be continued.