music
terrasig | October 8, 2006Okay, the last bit about Billy Bragg, Woody Guthrie, and Stetson Kennedy before getting back to natural product medicines....
So, the folk musician in me had prepared for Stetson Kennedy at his 90th birthday celebration this weekend a new verse to the Woody Guthrie lyrics set to music by Billy Bragg.
As a US Airways snafu kept me for singing these verses this weekend in Beluthathatchee/Fruit Cove, Florida, I wanted to leave these for posterity until I record them under my musical persona.
These may not mean anything to most readers, but recall that Guthrie's Stetson Kennedy lyrics…
terrasig | October 8, 2006Thanks, all, for sharing in my initial disappointment with missing Stetson Kennedy's 90th b'day party and then the happy accident of being home to take the call from Billy Bragg yesterday afternoon.
My response to the comments began to grow so lengthy that I felt it necessary to create a whole new blog post.
Here is the original post and here is the beginning of the comments - my responses:
Sweetpea: The only think I can think of that would be better than sharing wine with you and Erleichda would be to strum a real Martin - I've only been able to afford a couple of Taylors, myself. We will…
terrasig | October 7, 2006I'm sitting here, miserably pissed off, because a US Airways snafu has kept me from attending the 90th birthday party of Stetson Kennedy, legendary Southern author, rebel, and soldier for human rights and social justice, in Fruit Cove, Florida.
For readers who may recall my admiration of Mr. Kennedy and visit with him earlier this year, Stetson Kennedy was also a good friend and host of Woody Guthrie during the late 1940s and 1950s, during which time Guthrie wrote a lyric sheet called 'Talking Stetson Kennedy', about Stet's 1950 write-in campaign for US Senate between Claude Pepper and George…
oracknows | October 7, 2006Music fan that I am, I found a particularly amusing video of album covers battling it out in a hysterically ultraviolent and cartoon-bloody manner. (Via Stereogum.)
If you're like me, and have many hundreds of albums, you'll find yourself counting how many of the album coveres featured in this video you actually own. I own quite a few of them, although I will tell you off the bat that I most assuredly do not own the Shaun Cassidy album featured. (I do, however, have Metallica's Master of Puppets.)
Genius!
goodmath | October 6, 2006It's friday again, which means I get to bore you with my bizarre taste in music.
1. **Spock's Beard, "A Guy Named Sid".** SB is a fantastic neo-prog band, one of my favorites. This is a track off the first album after their long-time lead singer/songwriter left the band. It's definitely a big change in sound for them, but they're still excellent.
2. **King Crimson, "The King Crimson Barber Shop"**. A few years ago, my wife bought me a set of special KC reissues. The reissue of "Three of a Perfect Pair" included a bunch of extra tracks - remixes of "Sleepless", extended versions of some of the…
oracknows | October 1, 2006I have a weakness for kitschy and campy stuff, and album covers are a particularly fertile ground for tacky and silly stuff. Fortunately, thanks to Dennis Catron, I get to indulge my enjoyment of such things with his lovely collection of camp album covers. Most of them come from the 1950's and 1960's, but there are a few more recent than that.
Here are but a couple of examples:
And what collection of cheesy album covers would be complete without an inner sleeve with Satanic imagery:
Geez, that last one looks like it came from a Spinal Tap gatefold. And what band is it? Believe it or not,…
oracknows | September 30, 2006Today is just the kind of day when these lyrics speak to me:
And you run, you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say
From Time by Pink Floyd
goodmath | September 29, 20061. **Steven Reich, "Explanations Come To An End Somewhere"**: one movement from one of Steven Reich's recent works, the "You Are" variations. I think it's some of the best stuff he's ever written.
2. **Fiddlers Four, "Pickin' the Devil's Eye"**. Another Darol Anger project, and as usual, it's very cool. This is basic old-time country fiddling, full of energy and fire.
3. **Seamus Egan, "To An Old Rose"**. Seamus Egan is a brilliant Irish musician; he's one of the finest Irish flutists in the world, and he also plays tenor guitar, regular guitar, banjo, keyboards, lap steel, and who knows what…
oracknows | September 29, 2006Here he is on Extras, providing a little impromptu song:
What an honor, to be dissed by Bowie in song, and a song that rather sounds like some of his really old stuff.
You know, it'd be really cool if Bowie were to record this tune. Speaking of which, it's been three years since his last album. Yes, I know that he suffered a small MI and had to undergo angioplasty, but that was a couple of years ago. He's due to get back in the studio.
Come on, David, we want new material!
oracknows | September 26, 2006
As a long time Led Zeppelin fan, I'm not sure whether I'm amused or appalled by this. Yes, it's 101 cover versions of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, including a reggae version by Dread Zeppelin. (Actually, I kind of like Dread Zeppelin. I even saw them in concert once in Cleveland back in the early 1990's. Great show. I mean, come on. How can you resist a Led Zeppelin cover band that's fronted by an Elvis impersonator? I know I can't.)
In any case, you can find reggae versions, banjo versions, backward versions, straight versions, symphonic versions, and more. I had no idea that Frank…
goodmath | September 22, 2006It's friday again, so in addition to a bizzare programming language, you get a random ten.
1. *Transatlantic, "Mystery Train".*: very cool neo-prog rock track.
2. *Darol Anger and the Republic of Strings, "Dzinomwa Muna Save".* Darol Anger is one the most creative artists of our generation. He's a violinist who is constantly out pushing his limits. He's played classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, rock, and stuff that just can't be classified. This tune is his take on a traditional african song, performed by his latest band. Brilliant, amazing, fascinating, and beautiful.
3. *Bach, "Erkenne Mich…
terrasig | September 21, 2006This post should actually be called, "Driving Mister Tim," in recognition of the delightful day I just spent here with Pandora Internet Radio founder and chief strategic officer, Tim Westergren.
Tim was in the area for a couple of town hall meetings and chats with groups in the Raleigh-Durham community, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
What is Pandora Internet Radio?
Before I talk more about Tim, let me tell you about Pandora if you have not yet experienced it. Their thumbnail give you a good idea but here is my view as a user: Pandora is a streaming…
terrasig | September 20, 2006A very exciting day here in the Southland as Tim Westergren, Pandora co-founder, comes to the area for town hall meetings with Pandora listeners at UNC and in Durham.
Have you used Pandora and its Music Genome Project algorithm for listening to music and learning about bands like those you already like? I've got four stations setup, one each for Wilco, Dire Straits, the Avett Brothers, and Modern Skirts. The system then allows you to "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" each song so that the algorithm refines your musical tastes for future selections.
Well, the Music Genome Project is on the road…
goodmath | September 8, 2006Haven't done one of these in a while. In light of the "Geek-off" this week, I made a playlist out of what I think of as my "geekier" music, and let ITunes assemble a random list from that playlist.
1. **Elizabeth and the Catapult, "Waiting for the Kill"**. E&tC is a NYC band that plays what they call "baroque pop"; pop music, with heavy jazz and classical influence. I heard them interviewed on the local NPR station, and immediately grabbed their first album - isn't just an EP, but it's fantastic. This is the best track.
2. **Flook, "The Tortoise and the Hare"**. The worlds greatest trad…
terrasig | September 8, 2006Next month, the family Pharmboy is headed down to Beluthahatchee, Florida, to help celebrate the 90th birthday of famed human rights legend, Stetson Kennedy, the subject of some Woody Guthrie lyrics put to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco. Among ScienceBloggers, I've learned that Janet and Steinn are big Billy Bragg fans and Josh is a big Woody Guthrie fan, so it seems apropos to celebrate Mr Kennedy here. This is one post I've been meaning to move over here from the old blog, where it first appeared on 15 May 2006.
[I'm currently on the road and I've somehow screwed up the code for…
oracknows | September 6, 2006Amazing.
Maybe there is hope for the music world after all:
NEW YORK Sep 6, 2006 (AP)-- Bob Dylan is back at the top of the charts for the first time in 30 years. His new album, "Modern Times," reached No. 1 on the album sales chart, selling 192,000 units in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released Wednesday.
The critically acclaimed disc is Dylan's first No. 1 album since 1976's "Desire."
I picked up the album last week. Although I've only listened to about 2/3 of the cuts, I can confidently say that it's the best Dylan in a long time. It's at least as good…
terrasig | September 6, 2006From BBC News,
"With the fight against illegal downloading of songs starting to pay off, the music business has set its sights on a new enemy on the internet - websites which transcribe pop songs into musical notation."
Not content with suing Moms and kids who illegally download mp3s, the recording industry is looking to further alienate a core demographic, the amateur hack musician.
Millions of scientist and non-scientist rockstar-wannabes around the world make use of guitar chord and tablature postings (tabs) to learn how to play complicated and not-so-complicated songs, trade ideas, and…
terrasig | August 22, 2006A Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, New Jersey, writes in and says,
Dear Roseanne Roseannadanna,
I just read of some bizarre Southern ritual whereby Durham-Chapel Hill-RTP bloggers are meeting this coming Friday for a barbecue.
What have Triangle bloggers done to anyone such that they should be barbecued?? The ones here at ScienceBlogs.com seem nice enough, but even getting past the horror of the thought, that Coturnix would need a little more meat on his bones to be considered even remotely tasty.
Sincerely,
Richard Feder
Ft. Lee, NJ
Well, Mr. Feder, you've got it all wrong. It seems that…
oracknows | August 17, 2006You know, as a native Detroiter and Tigers fan, I'm not sure whether to be pleased or appalled by this picture of one of my more--shall we say?--"illustrious" fellow Detroiters getting married. The least he could do would be to wear the jersey along with the hat, don't you think?
oracknows | August 11, 2006I haven't done this in a while; so now seems as good a time as any. I fired up iTunes and let 'er rip on "Shuffle Play," and this is what came up:
Woody Guthrie, Talking Dust Bowl Blues (from: Dust Bowl Ballads)
David Bowie, Lady Stardust (from: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars)
The Sisters of Mercy, 1969 (from: Enter The Sisters)
The Mamas & The Papas, California Dreamin' (from: Greatest Hits)
The Stooges, Little Doll (from: The Stooges)
Do Make Say Think, Bruce E Kinesis (from: Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead)
The Animals, Monterey (from:…