Next Best Records Blog

I was just browsing our logs to see how people get here through web searches.  Pretty interesting.  Unsurprisingly, Google is by far the number one referrer, accounting for 77% of the searches that end up here.  Yahoo comes in second, follwed by MSN, AskJeeves, and one lonely AOL search that ended up here.

By far, my entry listing my top five favorite coaching meltdowns has been this Blog's greatest hit.  That entry alone accounts for the three most common search phrases:

• coaching meltdowns
• famous coach meltdowns
• famous hermans

Other notable searches:

• osu sucks ut rules (Some unsuspecting disgruntled Longhorns fan must have been disappointed with my running diary.)
• "gilmore girls", "talk too fast" (Looks like I'm not the only person who has trouble keeping up with the pace of the dialogue on that show.)
• miller light girls ausin texas (In fact, last week I was just going on and on about how proud I was that I didn't give in to those sirens posed as sexy-librarians.)
• wearing jerseys tucked in (I guess if I want more readers I should write more about sports.)
• what is infinite resignation (Maybe I should post some of my scholarly analysis of Kierkegaard.)

I'm sure there's many other great ones, but I'm limited to viewing the top 50 searches on my weblog software, because we're too cheap to upgrade from the lite version.  Oh well.

Posted by Renaldo at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Big news afoot at NBR.  Not only will we soon have Lee Wadlinger's Twentieth Century Apprenticeship CDEP available, but we're also going to have Knights of Infinite Resignation t-shirts for sale!  The shirts will feature the band name on the front, and a cryptic, currently super-secret phrase encapsulating all that the Knights are about on the back.  In other words, they'll be similar to the one from last year (the one that Mr. Wadlinger kindly modeled for this Blog), other than having different text on the back.  Unfortunately, they won't be black (I know, white T-shirts aren't very knightly), but they will feature uber-stylish ringed collars and sleves (available in black and limited-edition red).  More news to come when they're ready to be shipped....

Posted by Ian Wying at 01:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I just logged on to The Guided By Voices Database (www.gbvdb.com -- a great resource for any GBV fan) to see how long the fourth side of the first Acid Ranch album is (FYI--the Database doesn't list this, but I was able to find out that the second record is 41:56 long ... these are the things I wonder about during the day).  Anyway, in the "On This Day in GBV History" box for today, it was noted that on this exact day, four years ago, GBV played in Columbus at the (I assume now-defunct, because I haven't heard anything about it since) Music Factory.

Why is this significant?  Well, I guess because it's one of the 20+ GBV shows I attended.  Ron House played a great opening set, and of course GBV rocked the house.  The show was so good, I even wrote a review for the Flyer News (securing my position as the only person that year to write for each of the FN's four sections--News, Opinion, A & E, and Sports).  I have to admit, though, four years later my lead ("On a weekend when the Grammys seemed to captivate the music world, the real action took place Friday at The Factory in Columbus, where Guided By Voices reminded everyone that awards are meaningless.") doesn't sound as cool as I thought it did then.

Looking back, though, perhaps the most memorable thing about that show was MTV-VJ Dave Holmes' appearance on the side of the stage.  I guess he was there as part of some MTV-sponsored event at the club attached to the Factory.  Actually, come to think of it, some of my friends from UD ended up at the MTV thing after the show and met Craig Krenzel there (they said he was a pretty cool dude, actually).  Anyway, Dave Holmes' appearance is a distant second in my pantheon of Columbus "Where the hell did ____ come from?" concert moments (#1 being Eric Clapton's appearance on stage with Stevie Ray Vaughn's brother before a Bob Dylan show that I wrote about here).

Why aren't there any more bands like GBV, for whom a 49 song set is routine?  We may never see their likes again....

Posted by Renaldo at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Just added two new shows to our concerts page.  Two bands Lee's in--the Backup Plan and Fourth Street Only--will be playing in the next week or so.  First, the Backup Plan will be playing at Lodge Bar in Columbus on Friday, February 23 as part of an OSU Law School event that's open to the public.  Second, Fourth Street Only will be playing Little Brother's in Columbus on Wednesday, February 28th.  More info at the above link (the one with the words "concerts page").

Posted by Ian Wying at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I've had a productive weekend working on the new EP.  For now, I think I have the song lineup set, though there's one song I'm thinking about cutting and replacing with something new.  Regardless, we're seriously very close to the first release on Next Best Records.  I need to touch up the recordings on one or two songs, then mix everything and finalize the artwork.  Perhaps we'll have CD's by the end of February, but the first week of March is probably a better estimate.

To whet your collective appetite, I've had a demo for "Nightlight"--the song that will close the EP--posted on my MySpace page (complete with lyrics!).  "Nightlight" is a semi-humorous take on a number of topics, including the media, Ohio, songwriting, and post-post-modern existentialism.  The demo version actually is pretty close to the final version.  Let me know if you think the vocals should be louder in the mix (seriously).

Posted by Renaldo at 02:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The front cover (a preliminary version of it, anyway) of Lee Wadlinger's upcoming EP is finished.  Take a look at a lo-fi version:

Obviously, the EP is going to be titled Twentieth Century Apprenticeship.  I know we say it's going to be a four-song EP on the news page, but now it might be a five-song EP.  One of those four or five songs will be "Please Be Careful," which may or may not chronicle a certain night when Mr. Wadlinger took a date to Steak 'n Shake (how's that for some inside info?), and which currently plays on his MySpace page, if you'd like to get a sneak preview.  If we get our collective behind in gear, we may even be able to move up the release date.  (Is February 20 too optimistic?  Probably.)

Posted by Ian Wying at 02:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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One of my bands, the Backup Plan, received a mention on Professor Lee's Utube Blog.  Pretty sweet.  He dropped the name during an interview with Terry Naomi, who apparently is a big sensation thanks to some strategic (and innovative) YouTube marketing.  I admittedly know nothing about Ms. Naomi, but given that she lists Dylan, Lou Reed, and Bowie as influences, she must be worth at least checking out.

Posted by Renaldo at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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