Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
‘Pour a little poison …
on my good name.”
This song seems apt given the recent controversy about a recent post of mine that sparked some controversy:
The sad professor
P.Z. Myers strikes me as the embodiment of the following song. Just an observation.
Crazy catchy song
This is actually better than the versions from which it borrows:
Life in the major key
Evidently, some enterprising people with too much time on their hands have been creating remakes of songs, this time in rendering minor-key songs in the major.
Here is a major key version of R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” which was originally written, and for good reason, in A minor:
Yuck. Yes, there’s a reason why it was written in a minor key. This is the original by comparison:
Here is another bizarre ear-bleeding tune:
Music musings
This post is mostly unrelated to the type of content that I typically post here, but I wanted to take a minute to highlight some music that I have recently found to be quite exceptional. Within the last couple months — I wish it had been sooner — I have become acquainted with Spotify, which makes available nearly every recording ever produced, with a few notable exceptions like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, etc.
I “came of age” when grunge was cool, so my favorite bands are from that early- to mid-1990s era: Nirvana, STP, Pearl Jam, Bush, Dinosaur Jr., R.E.M., Counting Crows, Green Day, etc. But for 30-somethings like myself, there is still plenty of new stuff to appreciate and dive into. Here are some selections that I have been enjoying as of late:
- New from Green Day: Stay The Night and F*** Time. Check out the new albums Uno and Dos.
- Tame Impala – Be Above It
- Tame Impala – Why Won’t They Talk to Me?
- Tame Impala – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
- Tame Impala – Elephant
- Fiona Apple – Daredevil
- Cloud Nothings – No Future/No Past
- Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless
- Cloud Nothings – Separation
- Japandroids – The Nights of Wine and Roses
- Japandroids – Fire’s Highway
- Japandroids – Evil’s Sway
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Mladic
- The Smashing Pumpkins – Quasar
- The Smashing Pumpkins – Panopticon
Feeling gravity’s pull
Here is a map showing the wide fluctuations in gravity concentrations on the surface of the moon:
compared to gravity levels on Earth:

ESA's GOCE mission has delivered the most accurate model of the 'geoid' ever produced. Red corresponds to points with higher gravity, and blue to points with lower gravity. CREDIT: ESA/HPF/DLR
For further reading:
Best Gravity Map Yet Shows a Lumpy, Bumpy Earth
Violent past revealed by map of moon’s interior
And now for R.E.M. on the subject:
R.E.M.
I hate to see this end. It would be impossible for me to articulate what R.E.M. has meant to me in the last 20 years. The influence is immeasurable.
Here is a compilation of songs, news coverage from the BBC:
Ryan Adams mashup
REM: Country Feedback
Arguably the saddest song ever written (and Michael Stipe’s favorite REM song):
And here is a live version:
Arcade Fire on Austin City Limits
This is not your grandfather’s Austin City Limits:
Watch Arcade Fire on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.


















