Something Shiny

Two weeks in a row, that’s like a pattern or something… This is the second installment of the Thursday Shuffle feature. Here’s the lineup for the week:

Sugar Water by Cibo Matto
And the Same by Fugazi
Make You Cry by Jonathan Coulton
Five Man Army by Massive Attack
Life of Leisure by Rainer Maria

I almost wound up with two silly Jonathan’s in one mix, but alas, Reno from Jonathan Richman was nowhere to be found. In the spirit of full disclosure, these are song that came up on shuffle, I wasn’t able to include because they were not available on Grooveshark:

Bunny Boom by All City Affairs
Reno by Jonathan Richman

How did I miss this, or, nearly miss this? Jonathan Coulton will be performing at the Guthrie Theater on Monday, 10/26 (next Monday). Check out some of my other posts for more tracks from JoCo, or just head over to the Guthrie site to order your tickets.

GO GO GO!

Order tickets at the Guthrie site

Previous Jonathan Coulton posts

So we started the Week of Coulton with monkeys, it seems only appropriate to close out the week similarly. If you enjoyed what you’ve heard this week, why not pick up one or more of Jonathan’s albums?

Jonathan Coulton on Amazon

	Jonathan Coulton – Baby Got Back
	Found at skreemr.com

Although, not his best song, it seems most appropriate for a Friday… Behold Jonathan Coulton singing “Baby Got Back.” I really don’t see how I have anything to add to that.

Ah, I do feel the need to explain the picture though… it seems when appropriate filters are in place, “white butt” really doesn’t return much in an image search.

	Jonathan Coulton – Ikea
	Found at skreemr.com

Ikea is both inherently funny and kinda cool. It’s at this point that I must admit that my new found man-crush on Jonathan Coulton is based on an ad I found on Scott Meyer’s Basic Instructions site. You may recall I’d posted a cell (frame? square? whatever…) from Scott’s Ikea strip. If the WordPress what’s related plugin is worth anything, I’m sure there will be a link to it below.

In summary, Scott Meyer and Jonathan Coulton are both awesome. The end.

Hey, look, a video! Yes, that’s right, Week of Coulton marches on. Figured you might want some visual stimulation to go with the geektacular tune for today.

via BoingBoing

	Jonathan Coulton – Re Your Brains
	Found at skreemr.com

Ok, I’m on a roll, so I think I’m just going to stick with Jonathan Coulton songs all week. Re: Your Brains blends business-speak with zombie-ism. Come on everyone, sing along!

	Jonathan Coulton – Code Monkey
	Found at skreemr.com

Ok, obviously, my selection of Jonathan Coulton’s Skullcrusher Mountain based on monkey references was made prior to listening to Code Monkey, which made me laugh out loud repeatedly.

Basically, imagine a song about Jim from the TV show The Office as a software developer.

And, to whet your appetite if you’re holding off on hitting the play button:

Code Monkey have boring meeting with boring manager Rob. Rob say Code monkey very diligent, but his output stink. His code not functional or elegant, what does Code Monkey think? Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god-damn login page himself. Code Monkey not say it, out loud. Code monkey not crazy, just proud.

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	Jonathan Coulton – Skullcrusher Mountain
	Found at skreemr.com

Now that They Might Be Giants seem to be focused on kids albums (not that their non-kids stuff was much different), Jonathan Coulton seems to be the heir apparent to the goofy/geeky alt-rock crown. Given the size of the audience that encompasses, it’s probably more like a Burger King crown than actually anything involving gold and gemstones, but I still respect the crown.

I haven’t made it all the way through his catalog yet, but what I’ve heard so far, I’ve enjoyed. I chose to include the song above due to it’s high use of the word “monkey,” as well as the suggestion “ruining a pony” is a positive component of a failed plan. I don’t have anything against ponies and don’t advocate ruining them per se, I just think they’re over rated, smug, and need to be taken down a rung or two.

I guess it also fits well with Catherine Jinks‘ Evil Genius, which I’m still reading.

Stupid smug ponies…

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• Dorks Rejoice! Tron + Jonathan Coulton + RiffTrax = Nerdgasm (cinematical.com)
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• Feel Good Friday (newscoma.com)
• Shorties (John Vanderslice, Frank Black, and more) (largeheartedboy.com)
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