music
neurophilosophy | February 28, 2008
One shouldn't really need an excuse to embed this fantastic performance by Thelonious Monk, but now there is one: NIDCD researchers believe that they have identified the cognitive neural substrate of jazz improvisation.
For the study, which is published in the open access journal PLoS One, Charles Lamb and Allen Braun recruited six professional jazz pianists. The participants were asked to play a specially-designed keyboard whilst their brain activity was monitored with functional magnetic resonance imaging.
In the control condition, the musicians were asked to play an ascending or…
oracknows | February 24, 2008One of XTC's best songs:
I actually heard this on the radio the other night, hence my looking for it on YouTube. I hadn't heard the song in several years, and I don't recall ever hearing it on the radio. In any case, it caught my mood this morning.
terrasig | February 23, 2008
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Celluloid Heroes, The Kinks, 1972
Star-generator hat tip: Pharmagossip
With gratitude to Johnny G. for taking me and T.P. to our first big concert, The Kinks at Nassau Coliseum, 1979-ish.
goodmath | February 22, 2008
Boiled in Lead, "Blackened Page": An interestingly mysterious song, written by one of my favorite fiction writers, the brilliant Steven Brust.
J.S. Bach, "Cantata #77": Bach's Cantata's are some of the finest pieces of music ever written. Amazing.
Mandelbrot Set, "And the Rockets Red Glare": very good post-rock.
Yes, "Going for the One": One of my all-time favorite Yes songs. Great stuff.
Pink Floyd, "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun": a live recording of some brilliant Syd Barrett material from Pink Floyd's psychedelic era.
The Flower Kings, "Black and White": As I've said in past…
aardvarchaeology | February 20, 2008
After work today I had dinner with my friends Asko & Eva and then went to the Cirkus concert venue to hear the Mars Volta. For those of you who have missed them, they're a US psychedelic progressive rock outfit whose fourth album just entered the US top-10 at #3.
The band was an octet tonight: singer, lead guitar, drum kit, bass and keyboards, plus a rhythm guitarist who also played keyboard, a saxophonist who also played flute and percussion, and a percussionist who also played a keyboard. Yes, there were at least five keyboards on stage.
The set was about 2.5 hours long, covering all…
terrasig | February 14, 2008It seems that everyone in the sci/med blogosphere is offering Valentine's posts reflecting their areas of professional interest. So, here's mine:
Your humble Pharmboy came of age with glam, punk, and New Wave music but thanks to PharmMom, RN, and her then-college-aged ER co-workers, I have a soft spot for 70s soft-rocking singer-songwriters. Yes, Jim Croce, John Denver, James Taylor, and Dan Fogelberg.
So it was with great interest and nostalgia that I opened this e-mail a few days ago from the Prostate Cancer Foundation:
Dan Fogelberg, the singer and songwriter whose hits "Leader of the…
aardvarchaeology | February 11, 2008
I'm a big fan of Swedish-Finnish ethno band Hedningarna ("the Pagans"). Centred around three musicians working with a series of very fine singers, the band released five albums from 1989 to 1999. Their method was to go for the most primitive acoustic instruments known to Swedish ethnic music and plug them into various exotic electronics, producing a sound heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix yet unmistakeably rural and Scandinavian. Most aficionados count the second and third albums (Kaksi and Trä), where two amazing Finnish traditional female singers dominate the sound, as the band's creative…
aardvarchaeology | February 8, 2008
The past week I've twice heard Nirvana's 1993 song "Heart Shaped Box" on the radio. I realised that its lyrics have a number of remarkably powerful lines. Kurt Cobain was a talented man. Here are the song's two verses.
She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black
Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet
Cut myself on angel hair and baby's breath
Broken hymen of your highness, I'm left black
Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right…
aardvarchaeology | February 6, 2008
As chronicled here in many entries over the past months, computer consultant, New Age author and homeopath Bob G. Lind has carved out his own niche in Swedish amateur archaeology with controversial interpretations of Scanian archaeological sites Ales stenar and Höga stenar. Another Bob Lind is a famous US folk singer. Yet now I've learned that Bob G. Lind is a singer and a song-writer too!
My Malmö colleague Ingela Kishonti has kindly sent me scans of the cover and labels of a 45-rpm vinyl single that Bob G. put out in 1978 on NCB/K.M.C. Records. (This does not appear to have been be the…
goodmath | February 1, 2008
Metaphor, "Call Me Old and Uninspired or Maybe Even Lazy and Tired but Thirteen Bodies in my Backyard Say You're Wrong": Very cool (if silly) track from one of the best neo-progressive bands I found via Bitmunk. I love Bitmunk.
The Beatles, "Mean Mr. Mustard"
The Flower Kings, "The Devil's Danceschool": Brilliant instrumental piece by
the Flower Kings, built around an improv by a Trumpet fed through a synth bender.
Do Make Say Think, "You, You're Awesome": one of my favorite post-rock groups. Very typical of their sound.
Tony Trischka Band, "Woodpecker": Tony used to be my banjo teacher. I…
aardvarchaeology | February 1, 2008One evening last week in North Carolina, walking back from Chapel Hill to the Holiday Inn along road 54, I heard this brilliant send-up of everything Barry White ever recorded on the radio. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you "Business Time" with Flight of the Conchords, live on stage!
omnibrain | January 25, 2008If I only had a brain:
According to this highly intelligible comment from YouTube this song was featured on Beavis and Butthead - surprise surprise!
DaDrizzL31214 (2 weeks ago)
On Beavis and Butthead, they were waatching this vid and Beavis started going with the tune for the whole song. He wouldn't shut the hell up even after Butthead smacked him upside his head a couple of times. Lol then Butthead started doing the same at the end. XD
goodmath | January 25, 2008
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "Antennas to Heaven": What can you really say about the greatest post-rock ensemble ever?
The Windmill, "Please Keep War Stories to a Minimum": a recent post-rock discovery of mine, via bitmunk. Excellent group.
Rachel's, "An Evening of Long Goodbyes": Rachel's is one of the more classical-leaning post-rock groups. They're wonderful.
Peter Schickele, "Listen Here, Tyrannosaurus Rex": The discoverer of PDQ Bach, actually doing something really goofy in his own name. Fun, but silly.
The Flower Kings, "Man Overboard": The Flower Kings are, without the slightest…
goodmath | January 18, 2008 Haven't done this in a while: 10 random tracks from my iPhone:
Porcupine Tree, "The Sky Moves Sideways"
Mogwai, "I Chose Horses". Mellowness from one of the greatest Post-Rock groups around.
Thinking Plague, "Lux Lucet". Thinking Plague is one of the strangest things
I listen to. I don't know quite how to describe it. Often atonal, seriously dissonant when not outright atonal, oddly structured. It's very peculiar stuff, definitely not to everyone's taste.
Gordian Knot, "Singularity". A very hard/loud instrumental piece. Definitely in the prog genre. Beautiful guitar solos, great bass…
grrlscientist | January 9, 2008tags: Deroptyus accipitrinus, hawk-headed parrot, red-fan parrot, pets, birds, avian, parrots, behavior
Okay, my peeps, a regular reader was inspired by the earlier blog entry, Songs About Birds -- Can You Name Some? to write a poem about birds, Dirty Bird! Dirty Bird!, except this reader claims this is actually a song because there is a tune that goes with it .. I would like to challenge this reader, Digital Cuttlefish, to sing this song and post it as an mp3!
grrlscientist | January 9, 2008tags: music, songs about birds
Some birder pals of mine are discussing an interesting topic that I thought you would also enjoy; can you name any songs (or other musical pieces) that are about birds? If so, do you have any favorites?
Here's my contribution to the conversation; John Denver's The Eagle and the Hawk, which I think captures the feeling one gets when experiencing an eagle or hawk in flight. This piece reminds me of birding on the prairies of central Washington state where I had the opportunity to experience soaring and courting golden eagles, prairie falcons and sometimes, a very…
oracknows | January 1, 2008Regular readers of this blog may remember that I'm a bit of a music critic wannabe. This pretension began very early in the history of this blog and persisted every year. Usually, sometime around the end of the year or the first day of the new year, I'll compile my list of my favorite CDs of the year. I had planned on doing this for 2007 yesterday, on the last day of the year, but somehow I didn't manage to do it. So, what the heck? Before I get back to the usual medical and scientific topics of this blog tomorrow, I can't resist indulging my college age pretension once again. A word about my…
oracknows | December 25, 2007Bowie and Bing. Christmas. What more needs to be said?
Consider this making up for the last Christmas video.
Simply awesome.
oracknows | December 24, 2007I think my eyes are bleeding:
Maybe this one will be better:
Only a little. At least it rocks a bit and is a tad warped in its outlook. That counts for something.
In any case, what are you doing here messing around on the Internet and watching silly Christmas videos? Shouldn't you be with your family? This post was timed to autopost, you know.
sb admin | December 24, 2007 "Why do those holiday tunes get stuck in your head so much?" I was invited to pose this question to Dr. Robert Zatorre, Co-Director of the BRAMS: Brain Music and Sound lab at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University. Dr. Zatorre is a leading expert in neuroscience research on the biological basis of music; if anyone is able to explain why Jingle Bell Rock is haunting me, it's him.
Commonly known as earworms, some songs repeat in our mind. They are "typically annoying," said Dr. Zatorre. We often can't control it, the sounds won't go away, and they loop, repeating a refrain or…