Ten Albums, Last Fifteen Years (Episode 117)

So what are your ten favorite albums of the last fifteen years? That’s the question that makes up the main topic of this week’s episode of Encore. The rules are simple: favorite albums, 2001-2015, there can be only ten. We’d love to see your lists in the replies where you’ll find our super-sized episode goes into detail on how we picked the albums on our own lists. This was way harder than I expected. This week’s episode also covers some news on Kanye West and his new album, some first impressions of The Hotelier’s new album, and a discussion around walking into a very anticipated album or band for the first time. Oh, and of course there’s our usual random banter about life and things. We went long on this one to make up for last week! Hope you enjoy it. You’ll find show notes, ways to subscribe, and links to stream and/or download this episode by hitting read more.

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Cool App: Fluid Browser

Apps

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

One of the better features to emerge in iOS 9 is support for picture-in-picture mode on the iPad. But when you’re trying to surf the web while watching Netflix on your Mac, it’s not as easy to do – you often end up moving separate windows around on the screen, or switching back and forth between the playing video and other browser tabs.

A new floating browser app for Mac called Fluid solves this problem by offering a way to view your work alongside your media content from places like YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, Hulu and more.

As I’m writing this I have Plex running and playing The Social Network in the corner. Pretty great.

More Pineapple Drinks Please (Episode 116)

It’s coming out late, damn has it been a long day, but this week’s episode of Encore is here. This week we discuss Thomas going on a cruise, some about the Super Bowl and the half-time show, and the internet’s reaction to the halftime show, and some about the commercials. We then tackle the main topic this week: Discussing albums we don’t like in the most productive way, how our feelings on an album may be swayed by someone else’s impassioned defense or take-down of an album, and how this may or may not be related to the new Say Anything album. We finish up with a few questions about long distance relationships, noise-canceling headphones, and Thomas being in early on The Front Bottoms.

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Music I Liked Last Month

One of the things I’d like to do more of is put together playlists. Maybe sometimes they’ll have a theme, maybe they’ll just be a bunch of music I’ve played recently, and maybe I’ll be able to bring in some guests to help out in the future. But, it’s all got to start with the first one. I’ve put together a playlist of a bunch of stuff I’ve listened to, and enjoyed, over the past month or so. The goal was to try to cover a few diverse genres and keep the length right at the hour mark. You can find the playlist on Apple Music and Spotify or via an embed if you hit read more.

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Tell Your Mom About Our Show (Episode 115)

This week’s episode of Encore starts with a discussion about fostering creativity and how we try to stay sharp and inspired and not fall into a rut. It’s hard. We want to be better at it. Then we look at the RIAA changing up how they certify albums, Brand New selling out MSG and announcing some kind of release this year, and looking at the difference between huge stadium like shows versus the small venues we’re used to. We then answer some questions about favorite movies about music, the idea that bands should feel obligated to play “fan favorites” on tours, favorite bands from the UK, and the first albums we ever really anticipated. This week once again (fingers crossed) has chapter marks, so if you subscribe in a podcast player that supports those you should be able to jump right to a topic you want to hear about — if you so desire.

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Andrew McMahon ended his seven-week “Wilderness Politics Tour” at the Fillmore in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 28, 2015 to a sold-out crowd. We’ve got a fantastic gallery of photos from the show from photographer Staci Altomari. You can view those below.

Get That Superhero Money (Episode 114)

encore

This week’s episode of Encore looks at quite a bit of the news that broke over the past week. We talk about Kanye West releasing information about what is now Waves, Brand New and Modest Mouse going on a huge tour, Yellowcard’s Lights and Sounds turns 10, and Brian Wilson is doing a 50-year tour for Pet Sounds. We also do some follow-up on last week’s great “wrong tracklistings” discussion and all sorts of other fun stuff like guessing if Brand New will release an album and what it would sell, plus Thomas’s thoughts on Panic’s album now he’s heard it, and a few brief thoughts on the new 1975 album at the end.

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A Batman Army (Episode 113)

Encore - 113

This week’s episode of Encore has us looking at a variety of interesting, and diverse, topics. We talk a little about the next Star Wars being pushed back, a little about Thomas’s collection of Funko collectables, and a little about Thomas wanting to buy an iPad Pro. We also discover that Thomas has had the wrong sequencing in his iTunes for Everything in Transit for almost a decade now. He discovers this live on the podcast. We tackle a variety of user questions related to Panic! at the Disco’s new album, the TV show “Making a Murderer,” and if we prefer soft or energetic album closers. We also talk some more about Brian Fallon and his upcoming album since Thomas caught him live recently. We finish with some Blink-182 talk and discuss the three big tours that got announced this week.

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Miscellaneous Recommendations

Most of my recommendations can be found in nice little categories: Albums, movies, tv shows, books, software, podcasts, blogs, and audio-equipment. Or, when I post one-off recommendations they’re all under the “recommendation” tag. However, this is kind of a “catch-all” post for a bunch of different things that I think are great but don’t really have a place to put them. It doesn’t make sense for them to all be separate posts, so instead it’s a giant long list of links! I’ve added some commentary in a few places as well. I have personally used and recommend all of the products on this list and I’ll try and keep it updated semi-regularly for when you’re looking to buy new toys or find a cool gift for that special someone.

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Favorite Software

Technology

One of the more frequent questions I’m asked is what software do I use for insert a task here. This post hopes to keep a running list of my favorite apps, programs, and tools that I use on a regular basis. I’ve tried to break up the list into helpful sections and linked out to the app store when appropriate. Everything listed here I personally use and recommend. I’ll try and update this post on a semi-regular basis.

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Favorite TV Shows

There’s something about a cold beer and watching a good TV show that is the perfect end to a day. This is a running list of some of my favorite TV shows. This page is updated on a regular basis by pulling in TV shows I have rated an eight or above (out of ten, and very few shows are worthy of a ten).

You can follow me on Trak.tv for a running list of what I’ve been watching.

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Favorite Movies

Here is a running list of my “favorite” movies of all time. It’s by no means complete, but it’s a good starting point for a bunch of movies that I really like and enjoy. If you’re looking for something to watch and haven’t checked these out yet, well, I think it’s a damn good group of movies. This list is updated on a regular basis by pulling in movies I have rated an eight or above (out of ten, and very few movies are worthy of a ten).

You can also follow me on Letterboxd or Trakt for a running list and ratings of the movies I watch.

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Favorite Albums

Looking for some great music and not sure where to start? Here’s a list of some of my favorite albums of all time. Because this is a list that is updated every time I discover a new album I love, I’ve automated this page by pulling from Last.fm my most played albums of all time and combining it with a hand curated list of “favorite” albums.1

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  1. This is an automated system that includes my entire listening history, so there may be “problematic” artists on this list. This list will automatically update on a regular schedule.