So, thank you for voting everyone. It is much appreciated!
Full list of winners here.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

I’ve updated the lyrics section with new additions. You can now find lyrics for the new tracks on Bottled At Source (Rise, Time Machine, Cumulous Clouds and The Seagull) and new unreleased songs Paper Heart, The Sea Change and Never Stops.

The Gigography and History sections will be updated soon enough.

People may notice that the header is not clickable when you want to go to the Dutch section, shop, rss-feed and contact page, but you can reach those places via other ways. I had to change this when upgrading the layout recently. Those buttons will disappear and I’ve yet to find a new nice place for them. I’ll think of something.

If anyone encounters any problems, let me know. I’m writing a new feature for the site that will be up by the end of the week in the State Of Things. I can’t tell you what it is, but I like it.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

In other news: sometime soon the domain turin-brakes.com will expire. The hosting provider that I registered this domain with has quit. I have decided not to move this domain and it will therefore expire as soon as the hosting provider quits. One can still reach this site via www.turinbrakes.nl, www.turinbrakes.info and www.ethersite.tk.

If you have www.turin-brakes.com in your bookmarks / favourites, please update it to www.turinbrakes.nl (or www.turinbrakes.info).

The main thing is that I have switched to WordPress as my CMS. While Movable Type wasn’t bad at all, it took more time to customize and some thing were just downright confusing. For a long time I build the whole site from scratch, but time prevents this these days. So I want something that is easy to manage. WordPress is very easy to manage.

Now the website looks basically the same as it used to, apart from the fact that Trebuchet MS is no longer the font I use and Georgia has left the building as well. The font I use now is easier to read. Another thing that has changed is the layout: it is a bit spacier and easier to use. Browse around and you’ll see the difference. The only section of the website that’s still in the old layout is Writings, but the articles will soon be transferred to the new layout.

I also cut back on the ads. They didn’t really seem to be bringing in any real money and if they’re not going to help support the website, I might as well remove them. From now on I’ll be selling ads directly via Paypal. More info on that here. You will also find some related product links here and there, but no more annoying flashing banners for now. Also as soon as I’ve raised the money to pay for the site, the ads will be gone. If you wish to help, please consider buying a T-shirt or donating money via Paypal (more info here).

Now, one reason why I switched to this new system, is that it allows me to implement new features faster. Despite 2009 looking to be a rather quiet Turin Brakes year (mind you, I still hope Album 5 will be released in the second half of 2009), I plan to keep working on the website, revealing various new features (like the Burning Fires Audio Player). If you’ve got ideas or tips, feel free to send me an e-mail.

There’s also a new form for the Song of the Year 2008 election. If you encountered problems with the last one, try this.

The RSS-feed hasn’t changed. However, if you encounter any problems, you might want to re-subscribe anyway. Also, in the sidebar you’ll find an option to get new news items via e-mail.

That’s it for now! What do you think? Let me know! And easy on the fireworks this week and hopefully see you around!

- There’s a special Album 5 page, where you can read all about the next album (or at least everything we know). That isn’t much right now, but it will stay up to date! Check it out here.
- The Lyrics & Tabs section has been revamped. I hope it’s a lot clearer now. More tabs will be added soon. I’ve added lyrics for Theme From Cheers and removed a duplicate entry.
- The State Of Things has been updated with some nice wallpapers in various sizes and more importantly the FAQ. If you’ve got a Turin Brakes question, please e-mail me and I’ll answer it to you personally and the question might be added to the site.
- Finally, the DUTCH version of the site has been updated. Most importantly, the URL has changed to www.turinbrakes.nl/nl. The whole site looks a little more tidy now and some pages have been updated. I’m working on a Dutch discography.

One more thing: The Ether Site Audio Player makes it return soon. Only including the best live and sessions tracks, enabling you to listen to Turin Brakes at work or at school. Isn’t that awesome? More news on this near the end of the week!

To celebrate the new products and allow fans to get some early Christmas presents, you can get a early bird 15% discount on anything you buy from the shop!. To get your discount, enter EARLYSHOPPING into the voucher code area when you buy the product you’ve chosen (please check whether the price you’re paying is correct after you’ve entered the code!).

If you have a great idea for an Ether Site T-shirt, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do! Click below to go to the shop!

By buying products in the shop, you support Ether Site – all profit will flow back into Ether Site.

http://ethershop.spreadshirt.net

Also, I fixed some links in the media streams section and added one of a 2003 WFUV interview. It’s quite nice and long and features an acoustic session with Painkiller, Self Help and Stone Thrown.

Finally: you might notice some ads on some pages of the site. These are an experiment to help the site pay for itself. I don’t think it ever will, but who knows… I tried to find the least annoying kinds… So no pop-ups, no annoying iframes loading over the site asking you to “skip this” etc.