Of The Year – 2011

January 1st, 2012

After 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!

Tags: , ,
Posted in Music | No Comments »

His Name Is My Name Too

December 24th, 2011

Stumbled 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…

Posted in Misc Debris | No Comments »

3:11pm, 311s Day

November 13th, 2011

Someone bought a TP eBook via Smashwords at 3:11pm on 11/11/11.

311s 311s

I’m easily amused…

Posted in Behind the Scenes | No Comments »

Friendly Persuasion

August 21st, 2011

I’d never heard of this book/movie before last week.

Posted in Misc Debris | No Comments »

Newermind Track by Track

August 6th, 2011

Been (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.

Posted in Music | 1 Comment »

Ramblings VI

May 1st, 2011

I 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…

Tags: ,
Posted in Misc Debris, Music, Time Travel | No Comments »

Read an eBook Week 2011 – Free TP at Smashwords

March 6th, 2011

It’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!

Posted in News | No Comments »

iPad 2 + iBookstore Optimization?

March 1st, 2011

Apple’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.

Posted in Misc Debris | No Comments »

Trickshot Finale

February 27th, 2011

I’ve mentioned the illustrated web-based time travel serial Trickshot a couple of times previously during its work in progress days, but now that it has reached completion I decided another full-blown post was in order.

What’s the best way to tell a time travel story out of order? To tell it in order. That’s the easiest way to sum up the brilliance of Trickshot.

Most time travel tales follow the time traveler:

Marty is in 1985 –> 1955  –> 1985 –> 2015 –> Etc.

Trickshot presents a chronology from the viewpoint of a normal observer living year to year. Time travelers pop in and out from time to time, which really makes you think about the perception of time and the natural order of things.

Doc is in 1885 –> Marty is in 1885 –>  ’55 Doc meets ’85 Marty –> Etc.

Of course, we’re not talking about Marty & Doc when it comes to Trickshot. We’re talking about Jacob, Markos, Ricco, Richard & Saul plus a whole bunch of other folks. But saying much more than that would give too much away. Let’s just say that it’s epic, it’s fun, and it’s the only web serial to ever hold my attention — which is quite a feat considering the hundred episodes comprising Trickshot ran over the course of 945 days.

Not enough?  Here’s a little more with some minor spoilers:  The story spans 165,000+ years from biblical times to the year 3096, but where it starts depends on your frame of reference.  The plot has four main arcs that interconnect in a unique sort of tesseract revolving around determined time traveler Jacob Barnes, the Chronodynamics Guild, time travel inventor Richard Garrison, and time travel inventor Saul.  (Yes, references to 3 different creators and 165,000 years are not typos.)

Each section works well as a stand-alone, while uniting together to solve a larger mystery involving a mysterious historic event in the Earth’s history known only as “Jericho.”  The story also contains nods to a number of other time travel classics, much like Timely Persuasion.

Intrigued?  An eBook version is allegedly on the way.  In the meantime you can check out Trickshot at thetrickshot.com.

Posted in Time Travel | No Comments »

Painting Tasters Done Good

January 29th, 2011

Ever since Timely Persuasion came out back in 2008 I’ve always wanted to do some sort of tie-in soundtrack type thing featuring covers of the Local Boy songs, but various attempts to get a project like that off the ground always stalled for one reason or another.  Until now…

Lounge Act by Ken Gordon

Back in the summer of 2009 I heard a cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by a band called the Painting Tasters (aka Ken Gordon) on an indie hodgepodge episode of Coverville.  It was a great version in a Local Boy-esque kind of way, but my interest was really piqued when Brian Ibbott said there were also covers of “Drain You” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the band’s website.

I especially dug those covers and the way they were billed as “how I imagine Dylan or Tom Petty would play it,” so I sent Ken Gordon an email. We chatted back and forth about Nirvana and cover songs for a few days, he generously offered to take a stab at “Lounge Act” from TP, and eventually the conversation tapered off as we both got busy with real life.  I had more or less forgotten about the whole thing until he found me on Facebook in late December 2010 with a link to a huge cache of “Nirvana Country” covers he’d been working on!

Ken has put together a great batch of songs, somewhat reminiscent of the “Local Boy Does Nirvana” set I’ve envisioned previously but with different songs and so much better since he’s actually recorded them with his own unique spin and voice while still staying true to Kurt’s original lyrics.  The things he does with some of the heavier songs really blow me away.

Check out the full set along with some non-Nirvana songs on Ken Gordon’s Facebook, and get a bonus preview below of his rendition of Tourette’s — my favorite of the bunch since it’s almost unrecognizable going in and probably should have made my Local Boy short list:

Tourette’s by Ken Gordon

Thanks, Ken!

Tags:
Posted in Music | 4 Comments »

« Older Entries