World, meet mini-Stephen Hawking…

 
Releasing a series of four albums is a huge undertaking for any band, but with the release of Renmin Park (streaming free at their official site or simply looking under the seats right here), the band has already started this endeavor and is apparently going in a whole new direction for the band; described as completely starting over as they are now “completely free of any recording contracts and obligations.“

Thanks to RSL for allowing us to embed this track titled “Cicadas” from his site.

Cowboy Junkies – Cicadas by rslblog.com

The tracks I’ve heard so far sound great and are perfect for relaxing late night on the patio after a night of heavy drinks or maybe a blistering summer afternoon on the porch with some icy lemonade. Haunting and lovable at times, southern and gritty at others, the album soothes for a plethora of moods.

This album will soon be followed by Demons, on which Cowboy Junkies will cover the songs of their late friend Vic Chesnutt, who passed away in December 2009. “His catalog is so deep and, for the most part, so overlooked,” says Michael. “It will be a labor of love.” The final two volumes of the Nomad Series will be titled Sing in My Meadow the contents of which are still being discussed and The Wilderness, a full album of new songs.

 
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Nothing I can really add to this video other than technical garbage. You can find all of the details about this new device over at the official Google Blog. I guess all I have to say is, “it’s about time!”

Wampa rug. Don’t know what’s better, the idea of having sex on this thing or the prospect of it being with slave outfit Leia…

As I strapped on my iPod the other day for a long, not so sunny bike ride, I figured Led Zeppelin would do as well as anything else (or better) for this day of musicness. I’ve been listening to Zep since about the 7th grade and really got into them in college. I can’t really stand any of their later stuff with all the synth and pianos. But everything up through “Physical Graffiti” is at worst, very solid or stellar at best.

Two of these stellar albums are “Led Zeppelin IV” and “Houses of the Holy.” On this particular day I decided to get the Led out with “Houses” and while listening made a gut level statement to myself that this is my favorite Zep album. Then instantly I had pangs of regret over that silent statement as I remembered how awesome “ZOSO” (“Zep IV”) is.

So now I’m caught in a dilemma: is “ZOSO” a better record, or is it the masterpiece that is “Led Zeppelin IV?” I’ve decided to do two things: one, pose this questions to reader(s): Which of these two albums is better? And is there another Led Zeppelin record that you like better than either of these? And two, I’ve listed out the tracks and assigned each one a grade. We’ll see which album comes out on top with the better GPA. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you today’s title bout…

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He needs better equipment.

Using gmail labs, you’ve been able to insert images into your emails for some time now. You’ve also been able to drag files right into the email rather than clicking “attach” and so on. Today, Google is launching a feature that combines those two features.

You can now just grab an image from your computer and drag it into your email and there it is in all its glory for your recipient to see. It’s unclear as to whether they will make it so you can drag images straight off a web page into your email or just from your computer’s hard drive. Either way, this is one more little piece of awesomeness from Gmail.

I just tried it out and it works like a charm. This isn’t even a lab feature, it’s built right into the software. You even have the choice of resizing the image once in its place within your correspondence.

PS – it only works if you’re using Google Chrome as your browser (for now). Which you should be anyway.

Apple pipe. I actually did this once. Except I didn’t puss out and use a lighter. I used a magnifying glass and the sun – just like Jesus did it. To be fair, I didn’t have a Rene Russo look-a-like under my blanket either.

Picked up The National’s newest effort today and it’s likely their best yet. “High Violet” has been getting pretty high marks around the nets today and to help celebrate both the release of this great new album and also the prospect of getting to see them live again this summer, the band has released a new video for the song “Bloodbuzz Ohio”. The video is a little uninspired, but it fits with the mood of the song pretty well. Which, by the way, is just so hard not to close your eyes and just revel in. You can see and listen below…

It had to be shown.

Not your daddy’s Rolling Stones.

Ok.

Marlboro exhibit.

That’s prob’ly gonna leave a mark or two.