Songs

There must be various sort of internal definitions, to musicians and more specifically, songwriters, as to what defines a song. It might be a melody, or a certain organization of stanzas (verse chorus bridge etc.). But to me a song, at least a pop/rock song, is largely a chord progression, or a series of chord progressions. Chord progressions provide both the hooks and a lot of the narrative content of songs. This is not to say that every song with the same chord progression is the same song. Certainly a great deal of variety has been produced using similar chord progressions (e.g. "stock" chord progressions like 1-4-5, and relative-minor-4-5 type progressions). Blues is largely centered around a very universal and limited set of chord progressions (which is why I prefer rock as a more free form arena of expression).

[Drat, Wigan lost its most recent match, 1-0, to Middlesbrough, a higher ranked Premier League team. Now they are in the bottom three of the Premier League, and hence in danger of dropping down to the lower league next season. Hopefully they can get some more wins soon.]

A Fascination

I've had a growing fascination for several things British lately. Firstly, we watched four episodes of Eastenders on PBS last weekend. It's a soap with people with messed up lives and relationships, but the atmosphere is actually quite charming. It would be great to have a community centered around a pub that you go to every night. Next, we discovered the British version of Project Runway, called Project Catwalk, on Youtube. British design aesthetics are a little bit different in a way that is hard to describe. It's fun to watch. Finally, I've decided to start to follow English Premier League Football. I needed to pick a team that isn't very good, so I chose Wigan (Wigan Athletic F.C.), who apparently recently entered the Premier League from the The Football League in 2005. They only have five wins this season and are near the bottom. They have cool blue and white jerseys. We'll be upgrading our cable service soon, so maybe I'll be able to catch some Premier League games on the telly.

Creationism in America

Yes it's ridiculous that when polled, a large plurality of Americans profess to not "believe in" evolution. In my view, I don't think most of these people have really thought about it (most of these folks probably don't spend time reflecting on much in their lives). These are not all biblical-literalist fundies; probably less than half of them are. These are people whose kids get a pretty standard (albeit probably evolution-poor) science education in public schools and are exposed via educational activities to plenty of either explicit or strongly implicit evolutionary content, e,g, dinosaurs and other aspects of the history of life on Earth in museums, on TV, and in school.

Students who go on to a college level education will get, at most colleges and universities, a modern evolution-based background in biology. Biological careers will require many courses that have a strong evolutionary component. And this component is getting stronger.

America will probably continue to be a mosaic of modern and unenlightened views on this issue, as it is for many social issues. But as long as we keep the unenlightened views out of our public education (many states need to do a better job of this) and away from influencing science policy at the state and federal levels, the supposed widespread hold of creationist views is not a threat to this country, only to the career prospects of those who hold them, if they care. Hopefully the next presidential administration will purge US science policy of much of the unscientific right wing contamination of the current administration.

Isopleiotropy and Allopleiotropy

And now for a rare science post. My laboratory studies genetic correlations between traits. Such correlations can be caused by pleiotropic genes, which are genes that affect more than one phenotype. Recently, I thought of classifying these pleiotropies into two different types. If the two traits are very similar, or essentially the same trait, such that you would expect them to utilize essentially the same set or a very similar set of genes, just at different times and places during development, then these traits are hereby be defined as isopleiotropic. On the other hand, if the traits are quite different and would not be expected to involve the same genes (but nevertheless they do), then these traits are hereby be defined allopleiotropic.

An example of isopleiotropic traits would be legs on different segments of an arthropod or eye spots on different parts of a butterfly wing. An example of allopleiotropic traits would be pigmentation and phototactic behavior in Drosophila, both of which are known to require tan, ebony, and several other genes.

How Can I Refuse? - Heart

This is a really solid pop song from an established rock band that was at the time (1982) breaking it big in the Top 40. It doesn't have the really strong guitar and vocal work from earlier classic rock songs like "Magic Man" (1976) and "Barracuda" (1977) that the band was known for, but it still captures their essential sound. The chord progressions work really well and the transitions are seamless. Rock-flavored pop at its best.

Rock Evolution

My fellow Long Island music blogger Kenosha Kid has a fun phylogenetic tree of rock as he sees it, posted on his blog. There are some inside jokes here, many of which can be eventually deciphered by reading the Powerpop blog, where some have been disparaging the Velvet Underground lately.

Single Gun Theory

Great collagist electronica band from Australia whom I've enjoyed since my grad school days, thanks again to college radio. Here's "Fall", from 1994 (they don't seem to have released much in the past decade, so I don't know if they are still together):

Sesame Street

If you're my age, you grew up with Sesame Street. Vintage 70s Sesame Street. This was a multicultural, quite urban, experience, which made it exotic to this kid who was growing up in the semi-rural suburbs of Rochester, NY. It was a microcosm of progressivism of the 70s which at that time had a temporary foothold in mainstream pop culture (which largely disappeared in the 80s/Reagan era; much of it was explicitly repudiated, and still is, by political conservatives). This song about the subway encapsulates a lot of the Sesame Street experience pretty well:

Face Dances Part II - Pete Townshend

This is a terrific keyboard driven song. Most of it is in 5/4 time. The album All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes is really great, probably his best work.

This video is one of the first I ever saw on MTV. It consists of Pete waking up, doing morning grooming, interspersed with clips of old puppets and dolls with moving facial parts. And then after the song ends, he prepares breakfast (humorously) while the soundtrack has him talking about the album and his work as a solo artist and life in general.

Saturday Jam

Some dudes jamming with guitar, bass, synthesizers, lots of drums, and an Indian banjo (bulbul tarang). They even appear to have a guy mixing their sound nodding the whole time.

Singapore Rice Noodles of the Month

From the Tea Garden restaurant in Port Jefferson Station, NY. Everything was really fresh with just the right oiliness. They captured a great smokiness in their wok as well, which is rare. Definitely one of the best SCMFs around.

Genius of Love - Tom Tom Club

Speaking of greatness, this is one of the all time great pop dance tunes. For a mid-tempo piece it's amazingly popular (always gets people out on the floor, in my DJ experience). The catchiness of the song stems from a few things: very solid yet simple dance rhythm track, the synthesizer licks, the high vocal harmonies in a very hooky chord progression. The song is both sexy and childish. It is kind of analogous to the child-like speaking voice adopted by urban women in Taiwan, which is considered stylish and sophisticated. There seems to be some kind of universal charm to such cuteness. The video is also an arty animated classic.

Eminence Front - The Who

One of the great mid-tempo rock grooves of all time...

Drop The Pilot - Joan Armatrading

One of the great things about the 80s was the huge variety of pop and rock that you could hear on US radio. This disappeared starting in the 90s and is totally gone now. American commercial radio is now a bland, worthless wasteland.

Joan Armatrading has been a legendary rocker in the UK since the early 70s. Her amazing song "Drop the Pilot" (1983) got some airplay in the US in both the rock and pop formats. I highly recommend checking out her other stuff as well (some is available on Itunes).

Negativland- NEU!

Here's some contemplative kraut-rock for your chilly Monday. This sound is one of the aesthetic precursors of industrial music (as well as a lot of 80s new wave; NEU! shared heritage and personnel with their contemporaries Kraftwerk). This particular song (from 1971) was the nominal inspiration for the American tape loop-sample artists of the same name.

Industrial III

Then of course, there's Nitzer Ebb. Other than Nine Inch Nails, which completely cracked the mainstream rock bubble in their heyday, and Ministry, which carried banners for both industrial and goth for quite a while, NE probably achieved the greatest early success for industrial music in the US, although it seemed brief. "Join in the Chant" from 1987 was ubiquitous for a while. It doesn't stand up to time as well as a lot of the other industrial stuff, in my opinion.

Industrial II

Here's another one of my favorite industrial tunes: "Worlock" by Skinny Puppy. It's a live video but the track is pretty much the studio version. The visuals of the live show are pretty impressive, depicting a lot of the post-apocalyptic industrial aesthetic. The synth-string washes in the chorus of the song are extremely beautiful.

Industrial

I'm not a huge fan of the genre but I also haven't studied it extensively. It was a staple on college radio from the mid 80s thru mid 90s and still echoes in various places today. Here is one of my favorite industrial tracks, "Quite Unusual" by Front 242. The two chord progression (major to a relative minor) is probably the reason why it stuck with me. The video is quirky and interesting, capturing a nice swath of industrial atmosphere.

On the Border - Al Stewart

Here's some Al Stewart for your Tuesday. Rock from the mid-late 70s that still goes a long way today.

Stop Draggin' My Heart Around - Tom Petty & Stevie Nicks

This is a song that has been massively and continuously overplayed on a number of different radio formats, from rock to top 40 to adult. But for me it never gets old. It's that good a song. Really simple construction. Contrasts two distinctive rock vocal styles, with some great unconventional harmonies. And the instrumentation perfectly blends keyboard and guitar work, as in all of the best of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' work, a band that was turning out the best rock and roll in America in the late 70s and early 80s.

Globus Haw

This is a product that Mrs. Slig bought recently at our local Asian grocery. I have no idea what it is (she ate them all). Some kind of dried fruit snack that she likes. But I think Globus Haw would be an excellent band name.

Tom's Diner - Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega, in addition to having one of the best names of any singer songwriter, has made some amazing and varied music over the years, from folk to pop to rock. One of the most interesting things she made, and one of her biggest hits, was "Tom's Diner", an a capella slice of melancholy urban life. I couldn't find a Youtube video of the original studio cut of this song, but here is a very interesting performance that she did on Second Life (a place I find not a little creepy, but that is a topic for another day).



Of course, the most played and familiar version of this song, which places the original song atop a very nice house rhythm track, was the version by DNA, which was eventually released in cooperation with SV.



Finally, an extremely delightful parody of both the song and the classic TV show I Dream of Jeannie, was done by Marilyn E Whitelaw & Mark Davis (one of a number of remakes that were compiled on an album called Tom's Album):

Last 10 plays on the ipod

"Good Things" - the BoDeans
"Nothing Natural" - Lush
"Strange Fruit" - Catherine Wheel
"Don't Be My Enemy" - Wang Chung
"Lithotripper" - U-Pump
"Budapest by Blimp" - Thomas Dolby
"Candy" - Talk Talk
"Stop Me if You Think That You've Heard This One Before" - the Smiths
"What's in Your Mind" - Mexico 70
"Unsatisfaction" - Men Without Hats

Bright as Yellow - Innocence Mission

A band with an amazing sound that I have yet to thoroughly explore is Lancaster PA's Innocence Mission. Karen Peris's vocals are simultaneously haunting and enchanting and the country tinged backing provided by the band is completely atmospheric. Highly recommended.

Year of the Rat

The upcoming new year (doesn't officially start until early Feb.) is the Year of the Rat in the Chinese astrological calendar. So here's "Rat Race" by the Specials. Happy New Year!