#60: New LCD Soundsystem MP3 & Eden Prarie Tosses in the Towel.

It seems as though certain people never sleep. We've blogged about James Murphy once before; the multi- instrumentalist and producer is half of DFA and all of LCD Soundsystem. Having already released two compilations of DFA remixes this year as well as the amazing 45 minute workout anthem 45:33 he's already eyeing 2007.

In late March, LCD Soundsystem will release his sophomore full-length, The Sound of Silver. Even Amazon doesn't have this up for pre-order yet, but we thought we'd whet your appetite with the second track, "Time to Get Away." Enjoy the download and let us know what you think--we're definitely loving it.

Meanwhile in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, some folks and even the local newspaper are lamenting the fact that their town is effectively out of the running in the voting. Things are getting very interesting as of late, with Plano, Texas having been dethroned not once but twice--first by South Bend, Indiana and this morning by Denver, Colorado. I wonder if this has something to do with the disenfranchised Fort Collins voters who held a big lead for so long in the early stages of the vote. Looks like we're in for a nice finish!

xoxox
Danny

#59: A Trip to the Zoo, New Shins & New Pas/Cal!

Nina and I took a trip to the zoo a couple weeks back and never got around to posting any photos, so please enjoy these creatures. Our only thought about the elephant is that the lady elephants are all either terrified or very, very happy. While I thoroughly enjoy the occasional trip to the zoo, Nina revels in it with a glee surpassing that of the children around her. It's really adorable to witness her wide-eyed appreciation as she darts from species to species.

Our favorite live band in the world, Pas/Cal, just released their third EP. Entitled Dear Sir, it offers another five excellent songs from a group fond of exploding pop songs with falsetto harmonies and unexpected bursts of melody. We hope the boys (and girl) don't mind, but "The Lot We Came Home With" was so wonderful we had to share it with you. They also do the world's best cover of Wham's "Last Christmas," but we'll get to that later. As always, visit their page if you like the MP3.

Nina and I have debates about the relative merits of the Shins (she really likes them, I tend to find them a little boring and they certainly didn't "change my life") but we both agree that the first track from their upcoming record, Wincing the Night Away, is not only excellent but also reminds us a lot of... Pas/Cal. "Sleeping Lessons" (not to be confused with "Wake Up Wake Up Wake Up" on the new P/C EP) simmers to a boil and then bursts forth with precisely the sort of enthusiasm a record should begin with. Even I have to admire this one. Although the album doesn't come out until 2007 you can buy the Phantom Limb single now.

xoxox
Danny

#53: Jarvis Strikes Back.

Whoa, I don't think we've ever received as many messages on our MySpace account as we did regarding yesterday's Harry Potter post. Apparently all of his fans are equally rabid.

The other day, Nina and I were listening to Separations in the car; chronologically, it was Pulp's first thoroughly great record ("Countdown" is their first perfect song, I'd argue) and on it you can hear frontman Jarvis Cocker finally wrapping himself around the repressed-yet-dauntingly-sexy persona he later perfected on His 'N' Hers and Different Class.

Well, Mr. Cocker is back with a new record, Jarvis, and while some people are greeting it with a lukewarm reaction, I find it difficult to dislike anything he lends his voice to. (In fairness, I'm not alone in that opinion; The Guardian deemed it an "idiosyncratic triumph"--take that, Pitchfork!) The record is incredibly textured yet cohesive, the many facets coming together to form a very satisfying whole. "Black Magic" feels like a send-up of Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane"--in a good way--while "Heavy Weather" sounds like it could've been co-written by Teenage Fanclub.

It seems like what people react most negatively to is the lack of uptempo material, but then again, that's what Relaxed Muscle was about. Anyway, Jarv does provide a couple of those songs anyway. For instance, take "Fat Children," a song about being killed by overfed kids and then coming back to haunt them. Download here or watch this live performance and marvel at Cocker being the youngest-looking 43 year old you've ever seen:



Don't you think he and Moby could be cousins? There's something of a resemblance there...

xoxox
Danny

#50: Lobster attack!, New Bloc Party & Vote for Amp Camp.

Nina and I were at the grocery yesterday, and as everyone knows, half the fun of going grocery shopping is taking samples from the products being 'demonstrated' around the store. I had an unusual run-in with the demo employee as a I reached for a sample of some lobster spread that went as follows:

Employee: (gesturing to previous sample-taker) Are you together?
Me: No.
Employee: (keeping me from lobster spread) Well you need permission.
Me: (confused) Permission?
Employee: Yes.
Me: Permission from whom?
Employee: An adult.
Me: I'm twenty-three years old.
Employee: Oh... Well you're lucky to look so young!

I wasn't angry or anything, just sort of thrown off by the unexpected nature of the exchange. After all, it's been a while since I've been carded for alcohol at a bar and I certainly didn't expect something similar at the grocery store... over some lobster spread. Once I was able to realize what had happened, I figured it must have something to do with keeping kids with seafood allergies away from that product. Still, how young could she have thought I was? What is the cut-off age? 16? 18? 21?

Bloc Party has a new record coming out in February and since Nina and I are unapologetic fans of Silent Alarm, we thought we'd share an MP3 of one of the tracks. You can download "Prayer" and let us know what you think. Personally, I thought it was a little underwhelming (especially since this is what they are intentionally putting out on the net via their MySpace page), but it did prove to be catchier upon repeated listens.

Finally, the website I ran and helped launch, Amp Camp, is up for a PLUG Independent Music Award for "Online Record Store of the Year." Show some love with your vote and tell your pals to vote, too! You also get to vote for other fun things like "Live Act of the Year" (Art Brut!).

xoxox
Danny

#39: Timberlake vs DFA: "My Love" remix.

Here's a song that roughly 89.7% of folks can agree is pretty bad-ass: NYC powerhouse duo DFA remix Justin Timberlake's latest single, "My Love." Sure, it isn't their best work to date, but it's pretty fun nonetheless.

Plus, we know you already downloaded Justin's record anyway... you know, just out of curiosity. Maybe this will get us our first cease and desist.

Also, if your thieving heart is looking for a way of giving back, LCD Soundsystem (aka James Murphy, DFA's more rugged half) has a new MP3-only release available via iTunes. It's one long mix entitled "45:33" and is a great guilty pleasure for those in need of one.

xoxox
Danny

#36: NYC Halloween Parade, Virtual Drum Machines & The Mary Onettes.

First off, we weren't there, but Rocketboom covered the NYC Halloween Parade. Check out the fun. We'll have some of our Halloween photos up soon.

I have a soft spot in my heart for ancient synthesizers and decrepit drum machines, so the dork in me thinks this collection of virtual drum machines is pretty much the coolest thing ever. Thank you KeyboardMuseum.org for fighting the good fight.

Our favorite record label in the world--Sweden's Labrador Records--has a new EP out today by recent signings The Mary Onettes. They are one of the few acts on the label that was initially recruited by another label; The Mary Onettes had a critically-acclaimed EP in 2005 through Sony/BMG. Their sound isn't a particularly novel one (splashes of Echo and the Bunnymen, Jesus and Mary Chain, the Cure, and New Order are easy to single out), but they do it very well.

This song, "Lost," is the title track from their new EP. The video below is for "Make Me Last" from their debut EP:



If you're enjoying them, you can stream all of the new EP over at their MySpace page.

xoxox
Danny

#30: Enjoyable Disasters, George Romero, Gothamist Love, and A New Sloan Record.

The other day, I came across Enid Crow's photography site and was immediately drawn to a section entitled "Disasters." The images are very reminiscent of Cindy Sherman's work in that they are actually all self-portraits with the artist assuming the characters of various people. The general feel is humorous in its overly dramatic presentation, like stills taken from Hitchcock's The Birds. The colors are fabulous and although the idea for the series has its roots in the terrible events of 2001, the costumes, locations, and kitschy overacting make the photos more amusing than shocking.

(Speaking of which, last night Danny and I watched Dawn of the Dead for the first time. We had to do it after listening to "George Romero" by Sprites about ten times a day for the past couple months. The movie was a lot of fun, it's easy to understand why it's a cult classic. Anyone know why the zombie children were so much faster than the adults?)

I'm also looking forward to more photos in Enid Crow's "Manhood" series, where she dons moustaches and beards to portray characters like a monocle-clad, Guy Fawkes-bearded aristocrat and a backwoods AC/DC tee-rockin' bumpkin.

On Friday, we received a nice mention courtesy of NYC blog Gothamist. The comments are a little rough, but Jen Carlson, the site's editor, reassured us by saying "It's amazing how angry blog commenters are. I could post a picture of a cute baby animal and they'd be pissed off." Amen. That's the power of the cloak of anonymity the internet provides.

Finally, one of our all-time favorite bands has a new record coming out tomorrow... in Canada. Sloan have worked their way through a slew of musical genres in their almost 15 year career, with their early My Bloody Valentine tributes through bouncy, piano driven Beatles pop through more recent fixations with classic rock. The appropriately titled Never Hear the End of It is a whopping 30 tracks long and is as fun as we'd hoped. You can listen to the first single, "Who Taught You to Live Like That," on their MySpace page. The boys from Halifax have also been busy posting lots of short clips up on YouTube, like this one, where they consider possible titles for their hypothetical bio-pics:



Heart,
Nina

#28: Art Brut Makes Us Want To Rock Out!

Nina and I love Art Brut. Seriously. We've seen them play a couple times, have cranked up the volume in the car stereo and crooned in our best (worst?) British accents, and have even managed to hang out with some of the boys pre-show in relatively un-groupie-ish fashion. That's why we are so excited about our first ever giveaway!

Two lucky folks will receive:

* An autographed copy of their debut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll
* A copy of the Modern Art single
* A copy of the Good Weekend single

How does one enter this fabulous contest? Just sign-up for our newsletter over at dannyandnina.com. On October 31st we're going to pick two newsletter subscribers at random to receive the loot. Why do it on Halloween? Because all the hipsters are trick-or-treating as Eddie Argos this year. Aww yeah.

So what have Art Brut done for you lately? Well, they've finished recording a new record due out November 13th on Mute. If you're anything like us, you're chomping on the bit in anticipation, so here is a new track entitled "Nag Nag Nag Nag."

I'm assuming the title is a reference to Cabaret Voltaire's classic "Nag Nag Nag," but if it is, it's lost on me... unless of course they are alluding to the tenuous connection of "art brut" the art term for 'outsider art' and the fact that Cabaret Voltaire was also both a painting and a Dadaist club in Zurich. If you ever want to learn more about the band and their contemporaries, I recommend checking out Plexifilm's Made in Sheffield.

And once more, for old time's sake... "Modern Art"!



xoxox
Danny

#22: Vote Graphs, People of the World & Pelle Carlberg.

I've got a secret crush on line graphs. It's true. I think my old co-workers were onto my addiction, but they never tried to intervene. When Nina wisely suggested the other night that I start keeping daily records of each day's vote tallies, my eyes glazed over. "Yes," I thought to myself, "then I can turn the data into graphs. Bwahaha!"

The one up top shows how quickly our vote count has risen since last Tuesday, 10/3. If you look at the past two days, you can see that the total votes have risen by almost 10,000 in 48 hours. That's a nice exponential-ish looking curve.

This other one to the right (click to magnify) shows how the current top seven towns have performed over the past two days. A few of the interesting observations to be had: Jacksonville seems to be intensifying its gains (picking up about 2,500 votes) compared to towns like Birmingham, which are practically dormant. Denver has experienced a meteoric rise the past two days, as has Fort Collins, which has added nearly 2,000 votes that span. Something in the water in Colorado, I guess.

Not so long ago, I wrote about the world's shrinking population and the United States' imminent 300,000,000 population milestone, so I thought it only fair that I pass along this cool site I discovered yesterday. Breathing Earth is a simulation that uses birth and death rate data along with CO2 emissions statistics to show you in 'real-time' where and how often people are being born and dying across the world. It uses a simple, attractive map of the planet to pinpoint where these events are happening and the result is truly mesmerizing. Breathing Earth also illustrates how much carbon dioxide pollution each country is releasing, again in 'real-time' so you can see who the biggest culprits are (gee, I wonder). Miniature Earth, on the other hand, takes the old "what if the world's population was only 100 people" premise and turns it into a flash presentation that is interesting, if also a bit of a bummer.

By now you know about my Swedish indie-pop fetish. Well, it turns out that one of my favorite imports of 2006 is going to be released domestically in the U.S. on Twentyseven Records: Pelle Carlberg's Everything. Now!

Mr. Carlberg was the former frontman for a lovely band called Edson and this is his debut solo record. You should visit his MySpace page (because he's sorely lacking friends), download an MP3 of "Riverbank", and watch the video for it:



xoxox
Danny

#21: Big Voting Day, Celebrity Lookalikes(?), New Radio Dept.

Yesterday was a huge voting day--our total number of votes broke the 20,000 ballot barrier (and the 21,000 one, too) and in one day the total tally increased by nearly 1/3! It was the largest single-day increase to date and our thanks go out to everyone who voted... we're 2.1% of the way there!

Interestingly enough, it was the first day we experienced a 'push-back' in the votes. Portland, Maine went up a lot (over 1,200 votes) as expected due to the article there, but it didn't own the voting. Indeed, the big winners yesterday were two cities that began the day in the #1 and #2 spots respectively: Jacksonville, Florida picked up over 900 votes but Fort Collins, Colorado went to town with nearly 1,500 votes! Honorable mentions go to Denver for surging into the top 7 with nearly 500 votes and Fort Wayne, Indiana, which had a nice gain thanks to this mention in Fort Wayne Observed.

We hope that by now you have also stumbled across the free web-based Facial Recognition software over at My Heritage--if not, you're in for a time-wasting treat. You visit the site, upload a photo of yourself, and the software scans your face searching for recognizable attributes. When it's done, it provides you with a collage of the celebrities whom you most resemble. Nina and I have both done this and I'm not quite sure what to think of the results except that there usually is a faint glimmer of resemblance. Still, why does she get 80% Keira Knightley and I get 72% ('Lil) Bow Wow? I smell a conspiracy...and take offense at the Conor Oberst connection (low blow!):

Previously-mentioned Swedish faves The Radio Dept. have a new MP3-only single out called "We Made the Team." If you're interested, you can pick it up here or go to their MySpace page and give it a listen free of charge. While you're at it, why not download Devolve's unofficially officially sanctioned "Marble House Edit" of "I Wanted You To Feel the Same," off their latest record--my favorite of 2006--Pet Grief.

xoxox
Danny

#20: Portland, Celebrations, and Of Montreal Ads Pt. II.

First off, our thanks to Justin Ellis who wrote a lovely article about us in today's Portland Press-Herald. The piece has already moved Portland, ME up to fourth place in the voting, although I suspect it may rise even higher in the competition before the end of the day. Please read it and enjoy!

Although it was painful to watch the Yankees take a drubbing to the Detroit Tigers over the past weekend, it was refreshing to see a team celebrate a post-season victory so heartily with their fans. Amazingly, I can't seem to find the revelry on YouTube yet, but the old-fashioned among us can read about it. In a nutshell, the post-victory elation saw players running into the locker room for rations of champagne, then running back out onto the field to give endless high-fives to exhilirated fans. Some players took to standing atop the dugouts and drenching fans in champagne, with one player even dousing an uncomfortable-looking police officer. Never thought I'd say it, but kudos to Fox for staying with the celebration coverage much longer than typically happens with these things.

On the sports theme, apparently all I need to do to stay abreast of the world of independent music is watch football. Just the other day I wrote about Of Montreal's Outback Steakhouse ad; well, exactly one week later, again while watching Thursday night college football on ESPN, I heard them providing the score for another advertisement, this one for NASDAQ. Yes, the stock exchange. Again, I'm surprised I can't find this on YouTube yet, but it's definitely them. Curiously, it's an excellent non-album track, taken from the bonus EP to last year's The Sunlandic Twins. The song is called "Everyday Feels Like Sunday" (no relation to Morrissey's classic "Everyday Is Like Sunday"), and you can download it here or listen to a stream below:



If that weren't enough, that same football viewing session included this new Geico commercial featuring a somewhat dated Royksopp (featuring Erlend Oye) track, namely "Remind Me" from their Melody A.M. record:



It seems that--like an abandoned puppy--when one leaves the 'indie' world behind, it merely comes following after.

xoxox
Danny

#18: Crash, Audio, Ingenting... Rebirth!

Apologies to anyone who had problems accessing our site and blog yesterday; we experienced a rare server hard drive failure that kept us out of the game for a while. The good news is that votes have been restored and we are fully functional yet again.

On Tuesday, we had our first radio interview ever. It was for a program called The Ride Home which originates out of station KOA in Denver, Colorado. According to their producer, the show is broadcast to 38 states and 3 countries. Yikes. Danny and Nina were both originally scheduled to call into the show together, but through some misunderstanding, only Danny ended up on air. Nina was actually phoned by the station at the appointed time, but when they got her on the line they just asked for Danny. When she gave them his number, they proceeded to hang up on her, leaving Danny to make the on-air realization that he was all by his lonesome.

That snafu aside, things went very well and it was actually a really fun interview. The show's hosts were great at keeping the interview moving, and what was originally scheduled to be a 5 minute piece ran well over 12 minutes before being interrupted by breaking news of a plane crash.

Here's how it went (MP3 download here, if you prefer):



Any feedback from our readers about the piece would definitely be appreciated since we're both very new to the interview game. Nina and I also spoke to a very nice reporter named Justin Ellis from Portland, Maine's Portland Press-Herald yesterday; if you live in the area, there should be an article in Monday's paper!

If you've ever wished you listened to more music sung in Swedish--it's not just for muppets, after all--then you should check out [ingenting], our favorite Swedish-language band. They've got a new record coming out this month called Mycket väsen för ingenting (which you can pre-order here) and have been kind enough to share a track with us. Download "Punkdrömmar" here.

If images are more your thing, here's the video for "Släpp in solen" from this year's Sommardagboken EP (psst, the photo up above is what the band actually looks like):



with love,
Danny&Nina

#15: Nicholas Roerich, Feral Children, & Biker Boys.

So it seems I post one out of every five posts, which makes a solid 20%. How Danny finds the time to write so much is still a mystery; perhaps he leads a secret double life.

The other day while sifting through the books I have in my old bedroom here at my parents place when I came across one about Nicholas Roerich. He is a Russian artist who spent much of his life traveling across Asia and painting colorful, expressive mountain scenes. He also wrote a bunch of books detailing his spiritual adventures. For those of you living out in NYC, there is an amazing small museum of his works uptown on West 107th Street. It's free (bonus!) and even has some music concerts and poetry readings on a weekly basis. I promise you won't be disappointed. The museum features quite a few of his works which were confiscated by the IRS when he failed to pay his taxes.

I think we've all heard stories of feral children, people who have been raised by animals in the wild without human contact who are suddenly discovered and then re-assimilated into human culture. Despite the tales, I was surprised to find that this seems to happen a lot more often than one might think. Case in point: this article from 2004 about a man in Fiji who was raised in a chicken coop or this bit about a Chilean boy found in a cave being cared for by dogs.

Most compelling of all, however, is this story about a Ukrainian girl who was brought up by a pack of dogs. The BBC produced a short documentary on her that includes footage of Oxsana after she was found and follows her through a few years of acculturation. In the beginning, she seems to have more in common with her canine friends than with the folks who found her. She jumps around on all fours, snarls, even drinks in the unmistakable fashion of her protectors. The video is incredibly riveting but a little jarring, so watch at your own discretion:



It's no L'Enfant Sauvage, but it is pretty amazing.

On a more fabulous note, here's something for the folks who sent us messages about the Le Sport video the other day. Swedish rainbow-club-ready indie-pop act Biker Boy recently released an EP called You Got Me Wrong that features four songs and four remixes of the title track, including one by kindred spirits Le Sport. You can download the song here or the remix here. And goodness, wouldn't you know there's a video, too?



Heart,
Nina

#13: Tiny Cities Made of Jello, MySpace Gets Active, Wikipedia Widgets, Le Sport.

Ever feel like owning a piece of the former Soviet empire? How about an entire city? How does a $3 million price tag sound? Sold! Well, maybe you can't have Moscow for reals, but you can own this 400+ square foot model of the city constructed by artist Efim Deshalyt in 1976.

If you're feeling a little more nationalistic, there's always San Francisco rendered in Jello. It's the latest project from Bay Area artist Liz Hickok and is definitely worth a view. I love that even the fog has been recreated (although presumably with a smoke machine). Doin' Mr. Cosby proud!

MySpace and voting are obviously two themes common to our site visitors, so it's fitting that the two are now officially in cahootz. The social networking site has teamed up with the nonpartisan, non-profit Declare Yourself to help get its users registered to vote. So what if they don't have anywhere near 100,000,000 users--every vote(r) counts.

For the other Wikipedia junkies out there (or at least the Mac-using population), here's a new widget to help keep your focus during those ever-tangential information gathering sessions.

A couple years ago, a Swedish band called Eurosport released a guilty-pleasure filled EP of bouncy '80s-inspired synth-pop. Two years and a name change later, Le Sport has finally delivered their first full-length, the appropriately titled Euro Deluxe Dance Party. It's a little more New Order and a little less Pet Shop Boys than their EP, even if there is a track called "If Neil Tennant Was My Lover" (and even if that track should be called "If Neil Tennant Were My Lover"... we'll let that ride on the ESL tip). Here is "It's Not the End of the World" in both MP3 and video form:


Unfortunately, according to their site they've just broken up. Way to tease, guys.

xoxox
Danny

#12: 10,000 Votes, Secret Twins, People Talkin' Funny, Camera Obscura.

First off, a pat on our collective back for passing the 10,000 vote mark! At this point, Jacksonville, FL is still in the lead, but as we've already witnessed many times, there is no such thing as a solid lead so early on in the proceedings. You can vote here.

Apropos of nothing, I'd also like to point out that British comedian Jimmy Carr reminds me an awful lot of British singer/songwriter Lloyd Cole. Separated at birth?

October's edition of Smithsonian Magazine has an article stating that, despite the seemingly contradictory effects of national media outlets like radio and television, regional dialects are actually becoming stronger across the United States. I wonder how much this has to do with the relatively short time elapsed between the rise of television and the current generation of parents and children, but hey, who am I to argue with linguists. Their argument is that people cling to dialects because they want to emulate their friends and bosses but I suspect it has more to do with the sheer volume of certain speech patterns and pronunciations one hears growing up someplace. See how the folks in your neck of the woods talk funny by using this map.

But hey, speaking of Lloyd Cole, the first single from Camera Obscura's latest record, Let's Get Out of This Country has a neat video. "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken" is a not-so-coded reference to Cole's stellar 1984 single, "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken" (click to download); the song is fantastic, though, and the video is a campy send-up of the mod/twee trappings the band's fanbase has wrapped them up in:


And since I mentioned the man twice in one post, here's a classic from Mr. Cole, the long-forgotten video for his moody "Forest Fire":


One last item from the Department of Crazy Huh What: the New York Times writes that outspoken superstar wide receiver Terrell Owens of the Dallas Cowboys tried to commit suicide yesterday. The T.O. story only gets stranger, it seems.

xoxox
Danny

#9: Vintage Style, Tan Mice, Kind Words, & Chapterhouse.

First off, congratulations are in order: this past week, Nina won the People's Choice Award in an exhibition at the Old Firehouse Art Center in Longmont, Colorado. If you live in the area, you can view her work through October 14th.

I was leafing through a magazine the other day when the SpeckTone Retro console caught my eye. Festooned in deliciously '70s lime green and brown, it's an iPod stereo similar to those produced by Bose and other companies... except the design is much. What makes me like it even more is the fact that it only has one knob, the volume control. It seems even Luddites can get in on the MP3 revolution.

In more weighty matters, it seems that scientists have discovered a way to give mice fake tans that chemically recreate a natural suntan (instead of just dyeing the skin). I bet those bronzed mice get all the lady mice. Joking aside, were such a treatment perfected for humans it could have many benefits, with protecting folks from skin cancer chief among them. The link will take you to the NPR story, which is definitely worth a listen.

There is a fantastically written article about our project in today's Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, FL's largest newspaper. Out of more than blatant narcissism (I swear!), I implore you to give it a read.

Something about Sundays makes me want to listen to music that holds a special, sepia-toned place in my heart. Today, that means Chapterhouse, one of my favorite groups from the early '90s British shoegaze movement. Although they frequently get back-seated to other amazing acts like Slowdive, Ride, and Lush, Chapterhouse's first album (the recently re-issued Whirlpool) and the many EPs that sandwiched it are all pretty flawless. Exhibit A is "Mesmerise," the title track from a 1993 EP. Download it here and watch the video:


It's got that quintessential shoegaze feel to it: bright colors, blurry camera shots, a vibe that is both ethereal and trippy. The video is horribly dated, no argument there, but the music still feels timeless to these ears.

xoxox
Danny

#8:Toddler Portraiture, Interviews, Google Mars, and Pulling Our Weight.

I was over at my sister's house for dinner the other night and for dessert my nieces, ages six and four, did portraits of Nina and me. When I promised to put them "on the internet," the elder niece excitedly freaked out, although I'm not too sure how solid her conceptual grasp of the internet is. In any event, here they are in all their glory. I'm especially taken by Nina's blue eyes and my askew eyeballs. Click on the image for a bonus treat, my younger niece's rendering of me. Hint: the thing that appears to be impaling my frontal lobe is actually the brim of a baseball cap.

In very exciting news, Nina and I gave our first interviews yesterday, for The Greenwich Citizen and The Florida Times-Union, which is the largest newspaper in Jacksonville. As part of my pre-interview research, I was shocked to discover that Jacksonville is actually the most populous city in Florida and #13 in the country. This was corroborrated by our interviewer, a very friendly man named Mark Woods. We'll post the links to the articles once they're available on the internets; they should run today and on Sunday respectively.

Ever feel like Google Earth is pretty neat but so... 2005? You're in luck, my friend--behold, Google Mars. Those Google boys are unstoppable. If it's your bag, you can even view the terrain through topographical relief maps instead of satellite imagery. It's pretty awesome to spend some time navigating around the various craters and dunes of a planet that is sometimes as far as 250 million miles away from us.

My favorite album of 2006 has been The Radio Dept.'s Pet Grief, so I went scrounging for a video from it to post today. However, I was a little disappointed with the video for "The Worst Taste in Music," so I decided I'd compromise a bit: you can download the title track from the new record and watch the video for "Pulling Our Weight" (from the EP of the same name) here:


It's a beautiful clip reminiscent of some of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' old music video work. And you've seen Little Miss Sunshine, right?

xoxox
Danny

#7: First Press, New Paintings, Laughing Last & Rubicon

First thing's first: last night via Google, Nina spotted our first bit of press: a newspaper article from the Northwest Arkansas Times. It was a surprising find considering no one from their staff tried to contact us, but we are thrilled that they decided to run something on us nonetheless. And it certainly goes a long way toward explaining the Fayetteville phenomenon.

My favorite line from the article is the closer--"Our strange little world just keeps getting stranger." So true. By the way, don't get weirded out when you notice the address is nwanews.com--it's not that NWA.

In other exciting news, Nina just finished work on three paintings which are now up for viewing on her site. All three are portraits of people with birds, much like a self-portrait she painted last year. Check them out and let her know what you think--I think the lady's got talent.

An article in the latest issue of Time Magazine correlates life expectancy to the state in which one lives (the literal, United States sort of state, not the mental kind). Turns out folks in Louisiana have the third-lowest life expectancy of U.S. residents. Who'da thunk?

Not to be outdone are their neighbors to the east, Mississippi, and in the number one slot, winner of the life expectancy booby prize, Washington D.C., the "chocolate city with a marshmallow center... and a graham cracker crust of corruption." Best off? Hawaii, of course.

Continuing with my personal theme of songs I love but didn't know there were videos for, yesterday I stumbled across a clip for Alan Braxe and Fred Falke's "Rubicon," a track featured on both Braxe's The Upper Cuts and Erlend Oye's DJ Kicks:


Some folks don't like the video, but I think it really nails the essence of the song. The devil's in the details: the boxy car she takes her test in, the wardrobe choices for the girl and her DMV supervisor, the hokey teen drama tension. Download the track here.

xoxox
Danny

#6: Datarock, Cosmopolitan Politeness, & Early returns.

This project is giving me an excuse to go through all of our old photos, like this one, which was taken on a road trip to Nova Scotia not long after Nina and I first met. In the image, the really big Mac appears to have a powerful magnetism over Nina while I have been rendered incapacitated at the mere site of such a daunting order of fries. Needless to say, it's the second-biggest hamburger I've ever seen.

Speaking of things I don't ordinarily do, I noticed in--of all places--Reader's Digest that they proclaimed New York City the world's most courteous metropolis. Of course, it was based on a rigorously unscientific test that involved things like seeing if someone would pick up "accidentally" dropped papers, but it does seem to corroborate something I've long felt, namely that New Yorkers are actually quite courteous and genial people. Of course, there are a lot more, um, personalities in NY as well, but I suppose you've got to take the good with the bad (or at least the friendly with the crazy).

I was surprised to discover that Norway's Datarock, who released one of my favorite records of 2005, have a whole bunch of music videos out in the ether. While the band has much better songs (I'll give you "Fa Fa Fa" as proof thereof), the video for "Computer Camp Love" is pretty tough to beat, especially if you were ever forced to learn BASIC or lost a file thanks to a bent floppy disk:


My only beef is that Datarock's signature in all of their videos is their matching red track suits and awkward dancing--something that we've seen before with another great band out of Norway, namely Kings of Convenience in their clip for "I'd Rather Dance With You":


Of course, there's no way to beat Erlend Oye at his own game, particularly when said game is dancing in a manner at once awful and awe-inspiring. Still, the Grease aping is the right blend of ironic and reverent to work, methinks.

Meanwhile, off in the voting, Salt Lake City came out of nowhere to take the lead yesterday with a strong 202 ballot push. However, whomever is behind the Fayetteville fever responded; not to be outdone, Fayetteville reasserted their lead by a slim margin. Our eyes are on New York City and the two Portlands (Oregon and Maine) which round out the top five. Have you voted yet? Come on, y'all!

xoxox
Danny

#5: Nina Update: S'mores Are Good.

I'm part of a couple art shows in Boulder, Colorado, so I'm spending some time visiting my parents right now. The most striking thing when I arrived was that it's already fall here. Maybe it felt so completely bizarre because I was in Miami prior to heading here, but I'm not complaining. Quite the opposite - it's breathtakingly beautiful all around. The crisp cool air, the smells, and of course, all the colors! I've been enjoying making fires in their backyard fire pit and toasting marshmallows. I don't remember myself being quite so enthusiastic for fall in a long time, but maybe that's because in NYC you don't get to feel it in the same way.

Basic s'mores recipe:
Melt some chocolate in tin foil on the side of the fire while you roast the marshmallows. Grab a graham cracker and slide the marshmallow on to it, then pour a bit of melted chocolate on and squish together with another marshmallow. Voila! Now make "s'more".

It seems obvious, I know, but it's all about melting the chocolate beforehand. Danny thinks you could use Hershey's syrup, but we all know he's daft. Keep in mind: sugar-free marshmallows work great, too and you can add other toppings like bananas or almonds... Or, if you're lazy, it never hurts to just eat marshmallows out of a bag.

And speaking of having lived in New York, The Baskervilles (who are from NYC themselves) sum up a lot of why it is so difficult to find places to have a good time in that great city on "Midnight at the Underground Club." Of course, they do it in their typically whimsical fashion and there's a lighthearted video to match:



Heart,
Nina