Paraphrasing Ben Acker:
“You’ve never seen a Googlewhack; now you own one.”
Electronical Surgical Words
(This entry happens to land on April 12th, whack…)
Googlewhack
April 12th, 2012First Anniversary, Four Years Later
February 29th, 2012Time flies.
Timely Persuasion was released the last time February 29th rolled around, so I suppose today’s the day to celebrate on the authentic intercalary date.
Sincere words of thanks and praise go out to everyone who bought/read/reviewed/referenced TP over the last 4 years. Books are written to be read (sorry, Jeff Tweedy), and each of you helped make the whole process worthwhile.
Been a bit of a slacker on the blog while the world got in the way, but (hopefully) have some fun stuff planned for the near future. Stay tuned…
Of The Year – 2011
January 1st, 2012After a so so year for albums in 2010, this time around I actually have enough candidates for a proper top 10.
1. Pink Strat — Bahamas
This record came out in Canada in 2009, but just came out in the US in 2011. (Yay, time travel!) Quietly snuck up on me as my go to album this year. And I love that the band is named after a lyric in that old Wreckless Eric song.
2. Circuital — My Morning Jacket
Felt like a shoe in for album of the year upon release and sustained that for most of the year. Majestic and fun rock songs that go really well together.
3. Fixin’ To Die — G. Love
G’s best work since The Hustle. Whenever I start to think he’s all washed up he goes and does something like this to win me back.
4. Kiss Each Other Clean — Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine & Electronica & Orchestration…and it works really well.
5. The Whole Love — Wilco
Some are calling this a comeback record or a return to form, but I don’t think Wilco ever really left.
5.5 An Argument With Myself (EP) - Jens Lekman
I have this weird and arbitrary rule that an EP doesn’t qualify for album of the year. But if it did, this one would rank right around here. Very excited for the new full length Jens to land sometime in 2012.
6. Rome – Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi
Super group alert! Danger Mouse continues his impressive run, while splitting vocal duties between Jack White & Nora Jones was just about perfect.
7. Yes and Also Yes — Mike Doughty
Not quite as good as Sad Man Happy Man, but Doughty is still the infallible band for me.
8. Celebration, Florida – The Felice Brothers
2011 will go down as the year I began to embrace the Felices on my own outside of them being my wife’s favorite band. This guy has a review that’s better than anything if have to say about this record, so I’ll let him speak on my behalf.
9. Rave on Buddy Holly — Various Artists
Heck of a compilation. Hearing Paul McCartney go crazy at the end of “It’s So Easy” might be my favorite individual moment in a song this year.
10. Minnesota – Mason Jennings
Had high hopes for this going in and initially felt a little disappointed, but warmed up to it more with each listen. But just 9 songs? More, Mason, more!
His Name Is My Name Too
December 24th, 2011Stumbled onto this Twitter user the other day:
(Warning: link is somewhat NSFW)
Not sure exactly what to make of this. An imposter? A fan of Timely Persuasion? Schizophrenia? A time traveling other me? Or maybe just a bona fide coincidence?
He hasn’t made any updates in over a year, but from what’s there we obviously have a lot in common.
Guess I should Google myself more often…
3:11pm, 311s Day
November 13th, 2011
Friendly Persuasion
August 21st, 2011I’d never heard of this book/movie before last week.
Newermind Track by Track
August 6th, 2011Been (mostly) digging Spin’s cleverly titled Newermind cover album in honor of the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Song by song thoughts:
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” covered by the Meat Puppets
Great choice of band to kick things off, great cover that’s both true to the original while performed in an Unplugged-ish Meat Puppets style.
“In Bloom” covered by Butch Walker & the Black Widows
Groovy take that accentuates the bass line and funks up the guitar. Really like the vocals here too. A fun cover.
“Come As You Are” covered by Midnight Juggernauts
Gothy and ambient with a weird child-like vocal, I didn’t really like this one at first but it’s grown on me a little. Best part is the extended repetition of the “memoria” mantra in the middle.
“Breed” covered by Titus Andronicus
Straight up rocker gets a straight up cover treatment. One of my early faves from Nevermind back in the day that holds up no matter who covers it. Love what sounds like the whole band singing the “she said” bit.
“Lithium” covered by The Vaselines
I really like the Vaselines. I really like the concept of having the two bands Nirvana most famously covered return the favor here. But this version doesn’t really do it for me as much as the Polyphonic Spree cover of the same song does. (Related — I wish they took this “covers by bands covered” concept a little further with tracks by Devo, Greg Sage of the Wipers, and Lou Reed.)
“Polly” covered by Amanda Palmer
Haunting version that turns this into a creepy lullaby accentuated by music box sounding chimes.
“Territorial Pissings” covered by Surfer Blood
Another rocker gets the straight up treatment, right down to the “Get Together” opening. Doesn’t try to break any new ground, but doesn’t really need to.
“Drain You” covered by Foxy Shazam
Another one that’s grown on me a lot, starting off as a ballad before unexpectedly rocking out.
“Lounge Act” covered by Jessica Lea Mayfield
I’m torn here. This is my favorite song on Nevermind, so my expectations were probably a little high. And the Painting Tasters managed to hit it out of the park when Ken Gordon covered it. So this version here isn’t a bad cover per se, just disappointing.
“Stay Away” covered by Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band
Hands down the best song on this tribute. If you weren’t paying attention and heard this cold you might not realize what it is until midway through. A perfect example of what Brian Ibbott from Coverville is talking about when a band makes a song their own.
“On A Plain” covered by Telekinesis
Neat turn on a classic. Almost sounds like an electric cover of Nirvana’s Unplugged version, taking things full circle in a metaphorical loud-quiet-loud Pixies concept Kurt was so fond of.
“Something In The Way” covered by JEFF The Brotherhood
Speaking of loud quiet loud, this take on the not-quite closing track does just that. I dig.
“Endless Nameless” covered by EMA
Props to SPIN for including this, even if they didn’t try the ten minutes of silence hidden track trick. It’s a hard song to cover and pulled off admirably here — though I may have preferred a Local Boy style softer take that took the song in a different direction.
Ramblings VI
May 1st, 2011I seem to have hit another of those lengthy posting lags while the world gets in the way. Ramblings time:
- Been digging the new Back To The Future Game from Telltale. It’s essentially BTTF IV, starting off 6 months after the trilogy ends in 1986 and has Marty bouncing back and forth between 1931 and the present interacting with a teenage Doc. Right now I’m midway through episode 4 out of 5. It’s probably worthy of a full post once the whole thing is done.
- Discovered yet another Ziggy iPhone app. This one’s called Ziggy’s Time Traveler Emergency Reference and is basically a QL skinned offline Wikipedia viewer. Pretty much right along the lines of the real Ziggy, though it won’t tell you when history changes via an edit to the wiki…
- The Beastie Boys short film Fight For Your Right Revisited features an unexpectedly awesome time travel twist, complete with BTTF DeLorean cameo.
- Been so busy I realize I wrote but forgot to post my annual year-end music best of list. Wait, a minute, I got all the time I want! I got a time machine! I could just go back early and post it…
Read an eBook Week 2011 – Free TP at Smashwords
March 6th, 2011It’s that time of year again. Read an eBook Week (or as I like to call it, Bob Zonis appreciation week).
Same deal as last year. Timely Persuasion is available for free via Smashwords.com if you use coupon code RE100 at checkout. Works in a variety of formats including Kindle, iPad/iPhone, Sony Reader, etc.
Timely Persuasion @ Smashwords
(Offer good through 3/12/11. Exact timing is based on the rules set by Smashwords, not me.)
Enjoy!
iPad 2 + iBookstore Optimization?
March 1st, 2011Apple’s iPad 2 will allegedly be announced tomorrow, which may explain the newest search result I found for Timely Persuasion:
(At least it’s a search result I haven’t seen before. And Google claims it was updated 1 day ago.)
Wonder if this means iBooks will be getting a big promotional push to coincide with the new iPad and possibly the newest iOS release. Guess we’ll see soon enough. Early adopters can check out the iBooks version of TP here.
