Screenshot of Slicing Up Eyeballs about 5 days after launching in 2009
Well, well, well. We nearly let the day slip past without acknowledging an unexpected milestone: Slicing Up Eyeballs, the very website you’re now perusing, turned 10 years old today. With an asterisk, of course, considering that ill-fated hiatus we took from May 2015 to February 2017.
Nevertheless, it’s true. This creaky internet outpost dedicated to old music made by (increasingly) older people did, in fact, have its inauspicious debut on Feb. 20, 2009, with, as we’re fond of noting, a 91-word digital welcome mat emblazoned with a headline cribbed from an R.E.M. song.
It is, in all sincerity, hard to fathom it’s been 10 years, especially considering we threw in the towel back in 2015. But that didn’t last, and here we are — back to being a news source devoted to following and celebrating the ’80s college rock and alternative bands that so many of us still cherish.
This is Slicing Up Eyeballs’ 5,561st post. That’s an average of 1.5 posts a day over those 10 years — a figure obviously skewed by the roughly 20 months during which we didn’t post anything (well, except for the time we were name-dropped on basic cable). Over this past decade, the site has logged 15.9 million pageviews from 5.5 million different people in 233 countries around the planet.
That, honestly, is staggering, considering this has been — since Day 1 — a one-man operation. But it’s a testament to the readers, the people who stop by every day, who comment, who retweet and share on Facebook, who send in all of those great news tips. That’s what keeps Slicing Up Eyeballs going, even if, admittedly, time and age have conspired to slow the pace considerably around here. (And yes, we’re waaaaaaay late with the Best Songs of 1984 poll results.)
So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It’s been a great 10 years.
Here’s to… some more years.
— Matt Sebastian, founder/editor
Happy birthday! Can’t wait for the next Artist Poll – perhaps The Fixx, Eurythmics, or Robyn Hitchcock?
Congratulations, thank you and continued success!
Thank you Matt!
Just want to say again that I’m glad you’re here, and even more glad that you came back
Congratulations! One of my fav sites ;-)
Congratulations!
Always happy to read your posts
Thank you I appreciate this site very much!
Congrats, Matt! Your website is still great after all these years. And no wonder the pace is slowing down lately .. as the news and output of the ’80s generation is getting slower as well.
But .. visitors from 233 countries? I thought there are just 195 countries in the world ..
Apparently Google Analytics has a different way of counting
Glad you came back!
thank you I need you youre the best source of information !!!
Thanks Matt! I look forward to your Sunday evening show, Dark Wave! It’s amazing show! I’ve literally stayed up Sunday evenings for the past 6 years listening to it song by song. It’s gotten my through some difficult times. It’s an essential part of my life. The song selections are brilliant!! I can’t thank you enough!
Phil
Matt, you’re website and show are amazing and essential listening to any fan of that era. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth mentioning again. Dark Wave is by far the only show that matters any more! By the way I love how you slip in a Smiths song every Sunday near the end of the 3rd hour!! Your brilliant Matt!
Happy Birthday! Love the site.
so…what happened to the song poll from ’83? did I miss the results?
“considering that ill-fated hiatus we took from May 2015 to February 2017.”
AKA the days when evil and darkness descended upon the earth.
Happy birthday SUE!
Yeah!
Happy birthday!!!
Happy Birthday!
Happy B Day! Big Congrats
Thanks for all of your hard work & dedication Matt! I’ve only been on board for about 9 years and was late to the game. Please keep the SUE branding cassette theme as is and/or no need to update it with compact discs [that will hit too close to home for my preferred format]. Wouldn’t it have been ironic if you used vinyl ten years ago?
Long live SUE! Thanks for all of your hard work over the past 10 years.
Many Happy Returns, Matt!
Just keep on doing a terrific job!
Cheers!
Congratulations on this milestone. I’ve only been reading SUE for less than a year but enjoy the content immensely. Looking forward to more wonderful news!
Happy 10th birthday, SUE–and here’s to many more! Congrats to you, Matt, and heaps of thanks for all you put into this!
Keep up the great work! Congrats on the last decade, here’s to the next one!
Thanks for all that you do, life would be missing some kind of wonderful without you. A thousand thanks Matt, keep up the phenomenal work! Wishing you a Very Happy 10th B Day!
Thank you for this.
Thank you!!!!!
Thank you, Matt for all of the incredible work you have put toward this site through the years! Happy Birthday to SUE from a daily visitor!
Thank you Matt for all of your hard work over the years. Have been a daily visitor for years now.
Glenn
Congratulations and thank you Matt! Love this site!
Now if our beloved groups could keep putting out music …
Congrats on the 10 year anniversary. Keep up the excellent work. This is one of my must read sites. I am looking forward to the next 10 years.
Oh hey happy birthday one of the two retro ish sites I hit up on the regular.