A Thousand Stars - Pale Saints

[link] One of the original 4AD bands that kicked off Shoegaze.  All about the atmosphere.  90s college radio was full of this sound.  Possibly the last truly formative time for me, musically...

Cosplay

It's one of the coolest phenomena in the universe.  It just makes me happy, even thought I don't know half of the movies/comics/manga/anime/video games these people are dressing up as.
I'm bummed that there was no I-Con this year.  I've only been once but I like being on campus when it's going on.  I was once an avid D&Der.  These are my people.

The Last of the Famous International Playboys - Morrissey

[link] This is a great great song.  Reflects Morrisseys apparent fascination with 1960s London gangster/club owners Reggie and Ronnie Crayne.  A two chord hook with M's epic lilt over the top - perfect.

Don't Wanna Fall In Love - Jane Child

I really like this 1990 hit. Really all about the chorus hook.

Turn to You - the Go-Gos

[link] They were great. The 80s were great precisely because acts with this kind of freshness were all over the place.

Winning the War - Til Tuesday

[link] One of my favorites of theirs.  Just really fantastic pop song writing.

Red Ball 1, 2, 3 (Vintage Sesame Street)

[link] I loved this on Sesame Street, although I think it was a different version.  In the end there was no little girl eating a sundae with the ball as a cherry.  Instead, it became powder.  The synthesized soundtrack (which is like the Moog album I listed to a lot as a kid) seemed to really go with the film, providing a sort of atmosphere for this highly abstracted setting.  Cool stuff.

Hit - The Sugarcubes

[link] One of the freshest sounds of the early 90s era.  These guys did so many things right, starting with Bjork's look, attitude, and amazing vocal style.  And the rhythm tracks were always rock solid.  Songs like this will never grow old...

Kiss on My List - Hall & Oates

From 1980.  Heard it on the radio in the car today.  It's supreme pop.  Terrific keyboards, bass line, and vocal harmonies.  It's sing song happy pop, but a really sophisticated version.  These guys have just a ton of really great pop songs.  They are masters.

Answers to Nothing - Midge Ure

[link] I really like the rhythm track to this song. Up-tempo and with the keyboards sets a really nice atmosphere.  The lyrics and vocal track are just OK, but as a composition it works really well.  The song got some good airplay on alternative stations in 1988 when it came out.  Seems to have aged pretty well.

Pepper - Butthole Surfers

An alt-rock classic from the 90s.  The chorus is a pop-rock hook.  Yeah, it's sort of about heroin.  So are a lot of things in rock...

Kidney Bingos - Wire

I love this song, although I have to idea what it's about.  Great chord progression in the guitar and really good sounding bass runs.  This live in-studio version is interesting.

set

Starting to think about my set for Earthstock in a few weeks.  So far: Evangeline, Layla, Thousands are Sailing, Southern Cross, Girl Like Jesus, Folson Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, New Years Day, After the Gold Rush.  The last two I have to work on memorizing...

The Toadlickers - Thomas Dolby

[link] Hadn't seen this before.  Dolby arrives about 30 years late at a (hopefully) fascination with rural Americana. Not much here.

867-5309/Jenny - Tommy Tutone

There's a reason why this song was such a huge hit.  It's the hooky chord progression, predominantly.  Everything else in the song serves it.  The lyrics are clear and tell a story everybody gets.  The B part is pretty good too, ending in the break back into the intro/progression and then the instrumental.  It all works.  Seamless pop.

The Chauffeur - Duran Duran

[link]  Probably came across as a bit of an outlier amongst their huge pop hits of the time.  But songs like this grow on you and bear the test of time.  A simultaneously atmospheric and joyously bouncy (once the rhythm kicks in) song.

Laughing Man - Red Rider

Great song off their 1981 "As Far As Siam" album.  Hooky little verse makes it.  Nice integration of keyboard and guitar sounds.  They were much more of a band in those days than a vehicle for Tom Cochrane's vocals, although that component has always been a crucial component of the band's sound.

what to use

On my FaceBook page, there's a bit of a discussion between R users and Python users about which is better, but neither of these groups does what I want to do: population genetic simulations.  So for the moment I'm sticking with BASIC and studying sorting protocols and seeing how fast they are on various sized arrays.

Money's Too Tight to Mention - Simply Red

[link] A classic of the 80s. Hadn't seen the video before.  I guess the setting is meant to be realistic; rough. Vocally, you pretty can't be more sort of quietly powerful than Mick Hucknall.  The A part is a great simple chord progression groove. I wonder if the whole social class thing is why the Brits have always understood and had the chops for real blues and soul.

first success in R

R is pretty opaque, looking at the code and all the argument names, from what I'm used to.  But I successfully input a starting data matrix for population genetic simulations (1000 individuals with genotype/phenotype data at two loci).  Baby steps...