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August 31, 2006
2nd Joanna Newsom LP On The Way
Like many of you, I fell in love with San Francisco based harpist/songwriter Joanna Newsom's debut album The Milk Eyed Mender.
Good news -- her new album titled Ys [sic] is on the way and slated for an official release November 14 on Drag City Records. The album runs almost 60 minutes but only contains 5 songs (one of them clocks in at over 16 minutes!).
For your listening pleasure here is the shortest song from the album. And if you're curious how this album is so widely available almost 3 months before its release date, click here.
:::Joanna Newsom - Cosmia mp3:::
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 08:50 AM | TrackBack
August 30, 2006
New Podcast Posted
Podcast, or rather Pulsecast, number 4 is up and ready for your consumption.
This one features music from Sonic Youth, Junior Boys, M. Ward, Chin Up Chin Up, Six Organs Of Admittance, Magnolia Electric Company, Edan, Four Tet, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Les Savy Fav, and more.
It is available through chattanoogapulse.com or you can download it here.
You can also subscribe to the podcasts via Feedburner.
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 05:08 PM | TrackBack
August 29, 2006
I Love The 21st Century
Maybe I'm getting soft, but I constantly look around and wonder how people ever lived without things we take for granted everyday.
Air conditioning for instance -- I couldn't have lived in Tennessee before air conditioning, or at least I never would have slept with beads of sweat dripping into my eyes all night long. The internet and telephone, while they do cause stress and aggrevation from time to time, are invaluable.
Mostly though the things I appreciate about the 21st century have to do with hygiene. I would not like to have lived before toilet paper. Consider this from The Straight Dope:
"You may not believe this, but it was once common practice in rural America to leave a corncob hanging from a string in the outhouse for purposes of personal hygiene. The string, I gather, was to permit the cob to be reused. For those who were punctilious in these matters, or else blessed with an abundance of corncobs, a box of disposable cobs might be provided instead. In coastal regions, the cob might be replaced by a mussel shell.
For those who had access to it, paper from discarded books or newspapers was often preferred to either of the foregoing. The meteoric growth of the Sears Roebuck company, for instance, is thought to be partly attributable to the protean nature of its catalogs, which, historians tells us, might serve a family of regular habits for an entire season. As with the cob, the catalog would be hung in the outhouse on a string and pages torn off as needed. It is said the use of coated stock, which was nonabsorbent, was a source of great consternation to farm families when Sears began printing color pictures in the catalog earlier in this century.
English lords, in attempting to teach their sons to be cultivated gentlemen, often advised purchasing an inexpensive volume of verse for use in the loo. The idea, of course, was that while you were sitting there in a contemplative state you would be able to read a few stanzas, subsequent to which the paper could be put to other ends, so to speak."
I also really like Q-Tips...I mean really like Q-Tips; I can easily use 10-12 Q-Tips a day.
So imagine my excitement when I finally figured out what this attachment for my Norelco trimmer is for:
It's a nose/ear hair trimmer!!! I am not feigning excitement here either. I have some serious nose hair, and up until now dealing with it has been an ordeal. You can of course use small scissors, but it's hard to cut your nose hair when a) you can't see it and b) your nasal passage is barely large enough to open the scissors at all.
So then I began pulling it out. It's not as painful to me as it is to some (see Jean Jeunet's short film Fountaises), but it doesn't feel good, and since you can only grab the hairs that are already sticking out of your nose it becomes an almost daily ritual as the hairs that only a day or two before were out of reach start protruding from your proboscis.
NO MORE!!! I now have a nose hair trimmer! One small step for man...
This is how we do it:
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 01:41 AM | TrackBack
August 23, 2006
What is the deal with the old YMCA building?
Last night I was driving to Sawasdee in St. Elmo to pick up some yummy Panang curry -- the light was beautiful, and I had my digital camera with me, so I stopped by the old Chattanooga YMCA building on Mitchell St. (right off Main St. on the southside of town) to take some pictures.
I have loved this building since I first saw it. It almost looks like a large Spanish mission, and seems more suited to the streets of Havana than Chattanooga. I assume it has not been used since the newer YMCA building in Golden Gateway was built. It is in very bad shape, but it is such a unique and beautiful building that I wonder if there are any plans to renovate it.
Does anyone know who presently owns the property, or if there are any plans to renovate (or demolish) the building? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, and here are some of the pictures I took last night:
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 01:35 PM | TrackBack
August 22, 2006
I'm Tripping On L.S.T.
I just got the new album L.S.T. from Japanese songwriter and multi-instumentalist Shugo Tokumaru and it's mind-blowingly good.
If you even marginally like the music of Adem, The Books, Cornelius, Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective, etc., then check it out. It is available for a reasonable price in the U.S.
:::Shugo Tokumaru - Mushina mp3:::
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 12:17 AM | TrackBack
August 19, 2006
Listen To My Podcasts
You may already be aware of this (especially since the Pulse's blog is hosted by Chattablogs), but I am producing a one hour, bi-weekly music podcast for the Chattanooga Alt. weekly The Pulse.
Bill Colrus at the magazine assures me that it is getting a lot of hits and downloads, but I have gotten precious little feedback about them.
If you haven't already, please download one or all of them and let me know what you think. You can find them at The Pulse's website, and I've also included links to them below.
Podcast No.1
Features: TV On The Radio, Islands, Gnarls Barkley, Regina Spektor, Tapes 'N Tapes, Aloha, Band of Horses, Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, Plan B, Matt Pond PA, and more.
download it here (Click to listen. To save, right click and select "save target as." Use Internet Explorer if you have problems saving file)
Podcast No.2
Features: Thom Yorke, Hot Chip, Beirut, Destroyer, Sunset Rubdown, Dungen, David Thomas Broughton, Girl Talk, Sufjan Stevens, Erlend Oye, The Walkmen, and more.
download it here (Click to listen. To save, right click and select "save target as." Use Internet Explorer if you have problems saving file)
Podcast No.3
Features: Mew, Espers, Awesome Color, Sparklehorse, Oneida, Fiery Furnaces, Lansing-Dreiden, Susumu Yokota, Danielson, Wolf Parade, Richard Buckner, and more.
download it here (Click to listen. To save, right click and select "save target as." Use Internet Explorer if you have problems saving file)
You can also subscribe to the podcasts via Feedburner
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 01:29 PM | TrackBack
August 18, 2006
We Got Snakes!!!
As you probably know, Snakes On A Plane opens today. I'm willing to bet that this song from snakesonaplane.com is a lot better than the movie itself.
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 02:52 PM | TrackBack
Illegal Art
Philadelphia based Girl Talk, a.k.a. Greg Gillis, just put out a new album titled "Night Ripper" on Illegal Art Records, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite albums of the year so far.
He has (illegally) sampled around 200 highly recognizable albums to construct his new album. See how many samples you can identify in this song:
:::Girl Talk - Bounce That mp3:::
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 01:59 PM | TrackBack
August 17, 2006
New Sparklehorse Album On The Way!
Mark Linkous and his band Sparklehorse will release their first album in five years on September 25. The album is titled Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain [sic], and features such artists as Dangermouse, Stephen Drodz of The Flaming Lips, and Tom Waits.
Overall the album sounds very similar to his 2001 release It's A Wonderful Life, only a bit more upbeat, even sounding (believe it or not) happy at times. Even Waits' contribution to this album sounds great, unlike his garbled contribution to It's A Wonderful Life - "Dog Door" - which was the album's only real achilles heel.
Take a listen to "Don't Take My Sunshine Away," the album's opening track that has almost the exact same melody as The Beatles' "Dear Prudence."
:::Sparklehorse - Don't Take My Sunshine Away mp3:::
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 09:40 PM | TrackBack
Gizoogle
As you can see, it's been awhile since I've updated this blog, but I plan to start blogging on here a bit more.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you peeps know about Gizoogle, which will translate any text or URL into straight-up gangsta jive.
For example take the understated simplicity of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken in its original form:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
NOW, let's Gizoogle this mofo and see what we get...
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel bizzle
And be one drug deala long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in tha undergrowth;
Tizzle tizzy tha otha, as J-to-tha-izzust as fair,
And messin' perhaps tha gangsta claim,
Coz it was grassy n wanted wear;
Though as fo` thiznat tha steppin' there
Had worn them really `bout tha same,
And both that straight trippin' equally lay
In leaves no stizzay had trodden bliznack.
Oh, I kizzay tha F-to-tha-izzirst fo` anotha day!
Yet trippin' how way leads on ta way,
I doubted if I should ever come bizzy.
I shall be ridin' this wit a sizzay
Somewhere ages n ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, n I—
I took tha one less traveled by,
And T-H-to-tha-izzat has made all tha difference.
See what I mean, I mean mizzie?
Posted by Joshua Daniels at 01:52 PM | TrackBack