Apparently MySpace is a “must” if you are:

A. In a band

B. Wanna be in a band

C. Have friends in a band

D. Want to communicate with friends in a band

Who knew? Oh okay, of course I knew. I just went there kicking and screaming. I have a hard time with using other people’s software on their servers with their own TOS and all that other junk that could potentially make my work, their work. You know — like where I actually AGREE to give up the copyright to my work? That’s a tough pill for a designer to swallow.

But, the guys in my band wanted a MySpace page. I wanted to communicate with my friend Jimmy from LA who is always setting up shop somewhere new and only communicates via MySpace. And, since I’ve been bringing the old bass guitar out of retirement more and more, I wanted to find out how to work this “MySpace” all my musician friends talked about all the time. I just did a jam session with this guy, (amazing bass player!) and this girl (Awesome singer!) and they are all fabulous musicians and they are all on MySpace!

Me! Me too! I want to be cool and on MySpace!

So I went on MySpace. And immediately — Oh! My eyes! My eyes!! Ow OW OWWW!!! Could the graphics BE any larger? Could they BE any more annoying??? The flashing ads — the table cells dropping off everywhere! Ewwww!!!

Once I calmed down I started thinking about how I could generate a MySpace page for the Rangers that:

A. Would appease my design sense.

B. Use existing graphics so my original stuff can’t be stolen used by someone else.

So first I did a search for custom Myspace layouts. Holy Moly! Could there be more websites like: pimp my space and profile pimp and getcha pimped up space. So I visited. Yeah. If you like skulls or skullz or Britney Spears you would have it made with these layouts!

However, I think the guys in the band would kill me if I did a layout with skulls and Britney — I have a feeling that won’t quite jive with our image.

I finally found a nice layout I could use the css graphics structure on to compose graphics that approximates the Lonely Rangers look of Old West meets today. It complies with Myspace TOS (meaning you can’t take the myspace generated ads out or they shut you off) It is similar to Kubrick on Wordpress, and once I tweaked the graphics, I think it works pretty well.

So, here ya go: http://www.myspace.com/lonelyrangers