9 thoughts on “Review : The Shins, Wincing The Night Away”

1. Rob Caldecott January 30, 2007 at 3:59 pm

   That certainly is a concise review Cleek. Now, IIRC, you once cited “Chutes too Narrow” as your fave album of the 00’s – is it a similar vibe or have they veered towards a different sound?

   Saw “Garden State” last week and chuckled at the Natalie Portman “this Shins song will change your life” comment. That can’t of done their career any harm eh?
2. cleek January 30, 2007 at 4:47 pm

   is it a similar vibe or have they veered towards a different sound?

   i’ve given it another listen today, and i still stick with my initial reaction: while they don’t sound exactly like the Smiths, there’s a lot of Smithyness in there (some songs more than others): melodic, lilting, poppy, with the guitars used as more of a tasty sauce instead of as the meat of the dish, a lot of moaning in place of words. it’s not quite as spacey as their first record, but not as rocking as their last.

   i do like it, though. even though it reminds me of the Smiths in places, they still have their own unique sound, overall. and i wouldn’t say they were trying to copy anyone else.

   “this Shins song will change your life”…That can’t of done their career any harm eh?

   oh yeah. there’s an article in this week’s Rolling Stone that says their sales shot up 400% after that movie came out.
3. Tripp January 30, 2007 at 5:52 pm

   I was directed here from WashingtonMonthly to get your greasmonkey disenvoweler script.

   I am having trouble getting it to work. Coulod you give instructions, or perhaps the script customised for, say, “Al?”

   Thank you for any help!
4. cleek January 30, 2007 at 6:02 pm

   I am having trouble getting it to work. Coulod you give instructions, or perhaps the script customised for, say, “Al?”

   assuming you’ve installed FF2 and GreaseMonkey, go to Tools / GreaseMonkey / Manage User Scripts… .

   then select the Washington Monthly Disemvoweller. click Edit. that will bring up the script text (or it will prompt you for an editor, if you’re on Windows, use C:WindowsNotepad.exe).

   a few lines from the top, you’ll see a line that starts like this:

   var baddies = new Array(…

   change that to read:

   var baddies = new Array(“Al”);

   or, even better:

   var baddies = new Array(“Al”, “Real Al”, “American Hawk”, “egbert”, “Nathan”, “Frequency Kenneth”);

   —

   let me know if you need more help
5. Tripp January 31, 2007 at 10:24 am

   Thanks.

   When I select “edit” I am not prompted for an editor. I do see “Washington Monthly Disemvoweller” In the left most box of the Manage User Scripts window.

   I have manually edited the user.js file to add the line you suggested, but when I open the comments I do not see any changes that have been made. If the disemvoweller is working correctly is it automatic or do I need to press a button somewhere?

   Again, thanks for your help!
6. Tripp January 31, 2007 at 10:32 am

   Okay, it is working now. I had to uninstall the disemvoweller and reinstall it. I probably had not installed it correctly the first time. TO install it I opened Firefox and pointed it to the disemvoweller script in my filesystem. From there I had the option to install it.

   Also when I cut and pasted your sample line the quotes (“) got messed up so I re-entered those.

   Anyway, all is working now.

   Thanks!
7. cleek January 31, 2007 at 10:33 am

   When I select “edit” I am not prompted for an editor

   what do you see?

   note that there are three edit buttons on that dialog – one edits the script, the other two edit the sites the script can look at.

   I have manually edited the user.js file to add the line you suggested, but when I open the comments I do not see any changes that have been made.

   could be you’re editing a version FF isn’t using. it’s hard to say.

   If the disemvoweller is working correctly is it automatic or do I need to press a button somewhere?

   it’s completely automatic, once you’ve installed it. it’s possible to disable a script (or to disable GreaseMonkey). do you see a little brown monkey in the lower-right corner of the FF window ? if he’s gray, that means GreaseMonkey is disabled. also, make sure the “Enabled” box is checked when you select the script in the “Manage User Scripts” dialog.
8. Tripp January 31, 2007 at 5:48 pm

   For completeness I’ll answer your questions. When I press ‘edit’ (the one in the lower left of the Manage User Scripts window) nothing changes.

   The other thing I’ve become aware of is that I initially put the java script file in my downloads directory and edit it there. When I install it into Firefox it seems to copy the java script file into my %temp% location. At that point any changes to the original java script file are not noticed because greasemonkey is looking at the javascript file in my %temp% location.
9. Rob Caldecott February 2, 2007 at 9:51 am

   Cleek, I’ve stolen your mini-review idea for my blog. :) Check out this weeks batch. BTW I’m very impressed with the Cold War Kids album.

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