iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Just saw a TV ad for some medication that said, one of the side effects is "unusual urges.' And now I just want to know who's been feeding me that medicine all my life.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

It's release day! Big Takeover Magazine calls it, "an album that, no kidding, is a masterpiece." Jim Testa says, "They’ve only been doing this for 40 years, yet somehow, they just keep getting better at it." So maybe it's worth a click? (It's definitely worth a click.)

wonderlick1.bandcamp.com

Wonderlick Loves You, by Wonderlick

11 track album

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thanks to our pals at Big Takeover Magazine for premiering the latest Wonderlick album in its entirety. Comes out everywhere else tomorrow! (I love how the preview below somehow includes all the html tags -- Wonderlick Strong!)

bigtakeover.com

Album Premiere: Wonderlick - Wonderlick Loves You (People Suck Music)

Wonderlick Loves You is the seventh full length effort from Wonderlick, two founders of Too Much Joy. The album was recorded in Virginia with local talents i...

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Liberty Hardy @libertyhardy.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Song-a-day! Today's song is the answer to this Jeopardy! clue, from an album I listened to so much in high school that the tape inside the cassette snapped: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZZt... What song are you loving these days?

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I usually yell at the screen when contestants don't know bands I love, but this time was understandable.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I hear @kenjennings.bsky.social is an XTC fan, so there's a slight chance he'd heard of Too Much Joy before reading that clue, but I assume there's just a fan among the writers. We're obscure enough to be a 2k answer, apparently.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Many thanks to @cantkill.bsky.social for this effusive write-up of "Eric" at No Fences Review. You should subscribe and read all of his and @charleshughes2.bsky.social's other recommendations: nofencesreview.substack.com/p/turn-it-up...

Wonderlick – “Eric” (from Wonderlick Loves You, 2026)

Tim Quirk and Jay Blumenfield have been frontmen for esteemed indie rockers Too Much Joy for pushing forty years and a dozen albums now. By contrast, their Too Much Joy side project, Wonderlick, is merely a quarter-century-and-seven-albums old. Quirk and Blumenfield are funny guys who like to foreground what Robert Christgau judged their “smart-ass words” (while twice awarding them an A-). As they’ve gone along, though, especially in their Wonderlick years, the yuks and ironies tended less toward defense-mechanism safety and more toward hoary old humanities like poignancy, sentiment and, dare I say it, wisdom. The music itself, here provided by the Floyd Five—old time Virginia pickers led by fiddler Mike Mitchell—italicizes the shifting tones of voice in the lyrics and provides big-hearted scaffolding for contemplating human absurdities. As they phrase it at one point on the album, “we use our art to feel what we are thinking.” The pinnacle of this approach is “Eric,” a story song where Quirk tries to make sense of his fifth-grade obsession with a book about the titular dead child, written by the boy’s mother. (The song feels like close kin to a paper Quirk once delivered at Pop Con, “The Hidden Depths, and Odd Backstory, of the Literally Mortifying ‘Seasons in the Sun’.”) With Quirk and Blumenfield trading plain-spoken lines, “Eric” layers grins with tears, childhood pain and self-indulgence with adult pain and self-awareness like nothing I’ve ever heard, and its mournful mid-tempo is also catchy as hell. My favorite song of the year, and one I’ll be returning to for however many years I have left. –David Cantwell

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The Childcatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang terrified me for years.

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schcrt.bsky.social @schcrt.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

@tbquirk.bsky.social and KRS-One convinced me (via www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnAw...) to be extremely anti-death penalty ages ago and I continue to abhor this. There is no justification for any of this.

youtube.com

Good Kill

YouTube video by Too Much Joy - Topic

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I was in high school! Christgau called out Bono's arena rock pretensions in his original review of Boy!

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Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Based on extensive reporting and analysis, I have concluded that everything remains super dumb.

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David Cantwell @cantkill.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

At some point I'll write more, but for now I just want to say that Wonderlick's "Eric" is one of the smartest, most moving songs/records I've heard this century...

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Karl Rove is not complaining about racists in the Republican party because he suddenly developed a conscience. He's doing it because he can see the coming blowout for Democrats, and is trying to distance himself from what he helped build.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

That Wonderlick/Busy Signal collab whose lyric video premiered on PunkNews the other day is now available to play or purchase on Tapedeck -- available on both Android and iOS.

tapedeck.sng.link

Tapedeck - Apps on Google Play

Tapedeck is a music store and streaming service for music fans

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

SF Bay Area peeps: this calendar has been making my weekends extra excellent for all of 2026 so far.

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Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

There are still good people

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Really enjoyed this interview, in which I got asked 9 rapid-fire questions (3 for the head, 3 for the heart, and 3 for the soul). Knocked me out of telling the same old stories the same old ways.

youtu.be

Tim Quirk on Wonderlick, Empathy, and Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone | THE 513 #006

YouTube video by Heartdea13r Podcast with Christopher Gonda

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Maggie Vail @magicbeans.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I will always watch this, at least a dozen times, when it makes the rounds.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I'm Tim Quirk, a musician and the h exec living in Oakland, CA. The way Clarence Carter draws out the "give" the second time he sings What would I give?" In "Slip Away" makes me melt. Would you like to introduce yourself with a small song moment you like?

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The full article has sample lyrics. The headline only hints at the madness...

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Mission of Burma's was pretty great, but they stopped after 3 LPs, I think. The Too Much Joy one is decent, too, in my biased opinion.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Is it still a reunion if they put out a new record every 4 to 5 years?

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Two songs into the latest Dinosaur Jr. record, and so far it's pretty great.

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Bear Claw Billie (1590/5000) @bearclawbillie.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

HEY THIS IS JUST A PAINTING OF A THEATER SHOWING COYOTE VS. ACME

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Hilariously, I wound up on Zoloft because I was losing any ability to function day to day in the months after Trump's second inauguration. I look forward to going off it if and when these maniacs are out of power.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Tapedeck link, just in case: apps.apple.com/us/app/taped... (Android app coming in a few weeks)

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Second single from Wonderlick Loves You is now live on all DSPs. Includes a non-album track, "Reverse Van Winkle." Bandcamp link below, but if you have an iPhone we recommend playing/purchasing it on Tapedeck.

wonderlick1.bandcamp.com

You Are Loved, by Wonderlick

2 track album

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Just spent 10 days in rural Maine myself, and saw a grand total of 2 Trump signs.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Different rules for absurdist theater

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Wildly excited to see one of my favorite plays in a few minutes. And just found out Tatiana Maslany is in it, too! (I already knew it stars Paul Giammati and John Turturro.)

The poster, wearing a Rhinoceros t-shirt, standing next to a poster for the play, Rhinoceros

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Caryn Rose @carynrose.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

My first salon column this month pays tribute to the almighty Ramones who should have been superstars and were nowhere even close except in our hearts! www.salon.com/2026/08/10/5...

salon.com

50 years later, the Ramones' debut still defines punk

The band's first album flopped in 1976, but its influence on popular culture remains undeniable.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Drove past a house in Maine flying a "Don't Tread on Me" flag. Was sorely tempted to ring their doorbell to thank them for supporting abortion and trans rights.

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I have chosen one path. Sadly, you have chosen the other. That may bring you great wealth in the here and now, but you will end up poorer in the eyes of history. newsletters.democracydocket.com/my-open-/let...

newsletters.democracydocket.com

My open letter to David Ellison

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

He's saying, "More moderate candidates might also lose because they will get branded as dangerously leftish even without such baggage. So trying to elect ACTUAL leftists is preferable to that, and I disagree that the risk with AES is as great as you suggest."

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I understand you're arguing that AES has baggage that might make him lose, and being tight with Piker is an example of that. But your summary of the response to that to which you're now replying to is unfair. Your respondent isn't saying, "Let's elect a lunatic." 1/2

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

You set your own prices on Tapedeck, and keep 80% of whatever our customers actually pay (since we make it simple for them to pay you MORE than you ask for). If you choose to distruibute to other DSPs as well, you get 95% of whatever they send us in royalties for your music.

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Tim Quirk @tbquirk.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Attention artists/labels: you can now upload your music directly to Tapedeck -- and most every other DSP, too, if you so choose. revelator.tapedeck.app

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