Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

Browse by Tags

• Blogging
• Innovation
• Marketing
• Music
• Personal
• Web 2.0

• Music of Note: The View

  The View is an indie/punk band from Dundee, Scotland. Perhaps the most obvious comparison is to Arctic Monkeys. Their debut album, Hats off to the Buskers , is currently topping the UK charts. Standout tracks for me are Same Jeans , Grans for Tens , and Skag Trendy . I'm not quite ready to put this in the same class as Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not , but it's an excellent record that I've had in heavy rotation lately. If you're a fan of Arctic Monkeys, you should definitely enjoy this album. Posted Mar 14 2007, 12:08 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Music, Recommendations

• Music of Note: The Good, The Bad, and The Queen

  I've been eagerly expecting this album since I first heard that Damon Albarn (of Blur and Gorillaz fame) was putting out a new album. What was originally intended to be a solo project turned out to be a supergroup . The Good, The Bad, and the Queen consists of group consists of Albarn, former Verve guitarist Simon Tong, former Clash bassist Paul Simonon, and legendary afro-beat drummer Tony Allen - wrapped up in the production of DJ Danger Mouse. This album , an album about London at war, is every good as it sounds. Better, even. The music is complex and tough to characterize, though Damon's influence is probably the greatest. The unique sound reflects the unique members, but result is beyond a formulaic "Blur + Clash + The Verve + Africa 70". The best way I can describe it is a toned-down version of the Gorillaz with less hip-hop influence. In other words, unique. Herculean and Kingdom of Doom were already released as singles. Other standouts for me are Three Changes... Posted Jan 23 2007, 06:33 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Music, Recommendations

• Buzzwords say all the wrong things

  As I've written in the past, I'm not a big fan of buzzwords because "they're vague, overbroad, ill-defined, and most of all trivialize what is really going on in the first place." Matt at 37Signals says there might be other reasons to avoid buzzwords . These buzzwords are often a mask. People who use them are covering up their ideas — or the lack thereof. They are overcompensating. They don’t have anything substantial to say so they try to use impressive sounding words instead. But people who abuse buzzwords don’t sound smart. They sound like they are trying to sound smart. Big difference. It's easy to use buzzwords and important-sounding words to gloss over your point when you don't really understand what you're talking about. It's a lot harder to be clear and concise. Aim for the latter. (Speaking of which, I'd recommend Plain Language for Lawyers , even if you're not a lawyer or law student). Posted Oct 10 2006, 12:23 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Personal, Web 2.0, Innovation, Marketing, Blogging, Recommendations