Epistasis III

In many ways, the two different definitions of epistasis in the previous posts are a bit like blind men describing different parts of an elephant.  Statistical epistasis at the population genetic level can be caused by genes whose products directly interact, as in biochemical genetic epistasis, but it can also be cause by indirect interactions between gene products (i.e. one or more intervening molecules in a developmental or metabolic network).  Many traits, including human disease states, are affected by epistasis among multiple genes.  These types of higher order interactions are difficult to characterize and understand.
There are other complications.  From a population genetic standpoint, many compensatory epistatic situations, such as the parallel pathway example given in the previous post, many not "read" as epistasis statistically.  Genes can be viewed as adding pluses (+) and minuses (-) to an overall trait value, which can be obtained by adding up the sum of the + and - alleles. A mutation that turns a + into a - can be compensated for by a second mutation that changes a - to a +.  If their effects simply add to a sum, then this is not considered statistical epistasis, it is simply "additivity". Additive gene actions formed the original basis for the field of quantitative genetics, and such additive effects are still believed to provide the basis of most adaptive evolution and responses to artificial selection (as in agricultural and domestic animal and plant breeding).  However, quantitative genetic experiments have uncovered a great deal of statistical epistasis in the "genetic architecture" of trait differences between different strains of the same species and between different species.  It now appears that epistatic gene action is just as important as additive gene action in these architectures.  Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying these gene interactions is a large task that still mostly lies ahead.

Epistasis II

Cell and developmental biologists have a different working definition of what epistasis is from what I described in the previous post.  In these fields, multigene pathways whose normal function is required for a particular phenotype are studied. Two genes show epistasis if the double mutant phenotype is either (a) the same or not much worse than either single mutant phenotype, (b) similar to or the same as wild type (a compensatory interaction), or (c) worse than the sum of the single mutant effects.
(a) can occur in a linear molecular pathway [e.g. compound a is converted by enzyme A to compound b, which is then converted by enzyme B to compound c, which is then converted by enzyme C to compound d].  In an individual with a mutation in the gene enconding enzyme B, there is not much production of compound d.  Likewise, an individual with a mutation in the gene encoding enzyme C also does not product much of the compound d.  In an individual with both mutations, there is again very little production of compound d.  Thus the presence of one of the mutants masks the effects of the other mutant in the same genetic background.  Biochemical methods that quantify the amounts of all of the compounds in the pathway (a,b,c, and d) can be used to identify which steps(genes) are effected in each mutant.  This type of biochemical genetic work in bacteria and fungi greatly helped to initially characterize most of the pathways of basic cellular metabolism in the middle part of the 20th century.

Two pathways may act in parallel, such that when one is knocked out by a mutation, the other is able to mostly or completely compensate.  In this situation, the first mutation may be nearly or completely undetectable, or it may cause only a modest decrease in the function of its pathway and hence a mildly deleterious phenotype.  The second mutation would knock out  the parallel "backup" pathway, resulting in a great or completely loss of the product of the two pathways, and hence a severe phenotype or lethality (a dead organism).  This is the basis of many "enhancer suppressor screens" in model organisms (predominantly Drosophila and Caenorhabditis in animals) that have been used with high effectiveness to characterize developmental and cellular signaling pathways.

The parallel pathway situation can also be the basis of compensatory epistasis..  If pathway 1 and pathway 2 both contribute to the production of compound A and a certain amount or concentration of A is needed (i.e. not too much and not too little), then a mutation that increases the production of compound A from pathway 1 can be compensated by a second mutation that decreases the production of A from pathway 2.  Of course, many parallel pathways likely have this type of compensatory action built into them.  A could act to inhibit gene expression or protein/enzyme activity in either or both of the pathway, such that an excess of A acts to turn down its own production until its level falls below a certain threshold.

Epistasis

Now for some science.  Epistasis, something my lab group has been interested in for a number of years, is interaction of alleles (the versions of genes that diploid individuals in sexually reproducing species have two of, one from each parent) such that the effects of two (or more) alleles do not equal the sum of the individual effects of each allele.  For example, at two gene loci a and b if there are wild type alleles (a+ and b+) that each contribute 1 unit to a phenotype and two mutant alleles a1 and b1 that each contribute 3 units by themselves (thus the diploid genotypes a+a1 b+b+ and a+a+ b+b1 both have values of 1+3+1+1=6), if there were no epistasis then the genotype a+a1 b+b1 would be expected to have a phenotypic value of 1+3+1+3=8.  However, it is often found in real biology that the effects of two mutant alleles (or two alternative wild type alleles) do not precisely add up to the sum of their individual effects, such that a+a1 b+b1 might have a genotype of 10 (synergistic epistasis) or 6 (masking epistasis; there are other terms for this that are escaping me at the moment).
If this seems complicated now, it gets a lot more complicated, especially when more than two loci are involved. Population genetics theory has been done on positive and negative epistasis for deleterious alleles.  Positive epistasis occurs when as deleterious mutations accumulate, they have their worst effects when there are few of them in a genotype, with decreasing magnitudes of effect as more are added (this resembles the masking case above).  Negative epistasis occurs when the effect of adding another deleterious mutation gets worse and worse as more are added (this resembles the synergistic case above).  There turns out to be little empirical evidence of the latter in nature (or at least when genetic experiments have looked for it).  However, in theory negative epistasis is required for sexual reproduction to evolve in an ancestrally asexual species (i.e. for sexual reproduction to confer an evolutionary advantage greater than its costs).  This latter point is something I read about today (Peck JR, Waxman D, Welch JJ. 2012 Hidden epistastic interactions can favour the evolution of sex and recombination. PLoS One 7:e48382) and am still trying to wrap my mind around.
In general, epistasis determines the effect of a mutation. This depends on the "genetic background" (the genotypes at all of the other loci in the genome). In a population, there is typically a near- infinite number of potential genetic backgrounds, and some very much smaller number of predominant types that are largely determined by the major genes that interact at the molecular level with the gene of interest (either at the DNA, RNA, or protein level).  This becomes very important when trying to find and decipher the effects of disease genes in humans.

Resolutions

New Years resolutions are interesting experiments in will power, although most of the ones I make are pretty trivial.  One of last year's (2012) was to not buy any shoes this year.  I was successful in that and am thinking about extending that for 2013 (although my main pair of sneakers is getting ragged on the inside).  One of the ones from 2011 was to stop putting sugar in my coffee.  That was successful and is now permanent.  I recently switched to decaf and am making some pretty good decaf espresso at home these days.  It is pretty good without cream.  So I'm thinking for 2013 to drop cream from my coffee.  Another one for 2013 is going to be to take more family pictures.  All of the stuff since 2010 has made this pretty hard.  But I'll try.

Fat Chance Hotel - Public Image Limited

Not sure I've blogged about this song before.  Great low tempo underneath-hook, with Lydon's nearly monotone looming over all.  The build from the verse to the chorus here is tremendous.  I also love the background dissolution into some kind of discussion and then the very end mandolin and echo.  A gem of a song.

We Close Our Eyes - Oingo Boingo

[link] Not an expert on their stuff but I really like this song.  The sweeping vocal chorus does it.  Basically a one hook song.  Seems to map somewhere between Style Council and General Public.

Another commercial I loved.

Lite Brite.  We never had this and I have never played with one.

Another classic 70s Christmas commercial

The Norelco Santa commercial.

Carol of the Bells

The Andre commercial from the 70s really helped solidify this song for me as a, essential Christmas song.

Running to You - the Cars

One of my favorite tracks off their vastly under-rated (popularly, although critics usually praise it) 1980 Panorama album.  I've always loved the Cars' abstract blend of keyboards and guitars.  They lyrics are never much but the guitar and keyboard figures and constructions are quite sophisticated.  The production is very well done as well.  Altogether I get a complete atmosphere from them about the ambivalent turn of the decade aesthetics.  A lot was going on and a lot of different sounds were being broadcast.  The Cars' sounds have aged very well since then.

Girlfriend is Better - Talking Heads

[link] Few did it better than the Talking Heads, in terms of original sounds, grooves, and deep commentary on things.  For many of us who perform rock on stage, when we think of the absolute maximum of what we can effect up there, it's this.

We Stand a Chance - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

[link] One of the many great songs on the 1982 Long After Dark album.  One of my favorite all time albums.  Great chord progression.  Terrific integration of guitars and keyboards, like a lot of their early stuff.

Chiquitita - ABBA

ABBA gets unfairly stuck with a cliche label.  Most people know "Dancing Queen" (a great but way overplayed song in its time and after) and not much else.  This song had huge airplay when it came out in 1979. There are few pop songs with more power. I love the harmonies and the old world, cabaret-like, feel of the song.  There are a lot of qualities in this song that never appeared again in anything heard in America.

Desperate But Not Serious - Adam Ant

[link] Despite all the flamboyance, Adam Ant was full of good musical ideas and had a very successful, if unconventional, pop instinct.  I love the brass in the intro and choruses here.  The chord progression is gothic, and as such seems part of the first wave of goth sounds into pop.

Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses

[link] From 1981. A great modern holiday song. I love the sort of laconicness of the lead vocal (Patty Donahue), which may derive a bit from Debbie Harry.  The song and band are classified as "new wave", which was a pretty diverse phenomenon.  This song has brass and sax, which quite a few 80s acts featured. There weren't nearly as many rules than as the later decades.

Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison

From 1996. Another one that hit me at a certain time in a certain mindset.  Can't really explain it.  It is hooky.  Love the mid-tempo groove.

The 12 Days of Christmas - Bob and Doug McKenzie

Another fun take on this song. Got into these guys a bit late because I never stayed up late to watch SNL and SCTV like everybody else in high school did.  But the stuff is still pretty funny.

Going Down to Liverpool (live) - The Bangles

[link] Playing drums and singing lead vocal is hard. I did it a bit in the bands I played in in Madison. Debbi Peterson does an excellent job here. This is a great song. The video is a really nice example of the pure talent The Bangles had.

Find Another Fool - Quarterflash

From 1981. Always overshadowed by the aesthetically similar Pat Benatar, I've long appreciated Quarterflash.  The songs are simple, with hooky chord progressions.  Rindy Ross's voice goes to some good high places (and she plays a pretty good sax as well).  Takes me back...

Christmas song list

For today's Dept. holiday party.

1. The 12 Days of Christmas

2. Jingle Bells

3. Silent Night

4. Deck the Halls

5. Frosty the Snowman

6. Santa Claus is Coming to Town

7. Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer

8. Silver and Gold

9. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

10. Up on the Rooftop

11. Good King Wenceslas

12. Silver Bells

13. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

14. Blue Christmas

15. Holly Jolly Christmas

16. I Saw Three Ships

17. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

18. We Three Kings

19. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

20. Let it Snow!

21. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting...)

22. O Christmas Tree

23. Walking in a Winter Wonderland

24. White Christmas

25 What Child is This (Greensleeves)

26. I'll Be Home For Christmas

27. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

28. Here Comes Santa Claus

29. Here We Come A-Wassailing

30. Do You Hear What I Hear

31. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

32. Feliz Navidad

33. Ding Dong Merrily on High

34. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley

My version is pretty different. But his is interesting.  More like a jam in this video.

Crybaby - Utopia

Great rock song (from 1984).  Never really understood the tight, almost overwrought production, especially apparent in the vocal and drums tracks.

The 12 Days of Christmas - Allan Sherman

I've always loved this.  A funny slice of the 60s.  And I would love to find a statue of a woman with a clock where her stomach ought to be (the one in the video is kind of lame, although the video itself is pretty fun).

Outside - The Fixx

[link] A couple of my high school friends got me into the Fixx and it stuck with me.  This song is one of their more obscure earlier songs.  Long and atmospheric.  (the only thing sort of strange about this live video is how the drummer is sort of over the top getting into this rather slow and cerebral song)
I used to take naps listening to tapes in those days and the Fixx were very frequent in my playlist.  There is a point where one starts to wake up from a nap and has sort of an altered consciousness.  This is one of the songs that would typically be playing during those moments.  Another Fixx song that tended to occur then was the song Camphor.

Stardom in Acton - Pete Townshend

From 1983.  This song was played a lot on rock radio.  Warmed up to it pretty quickly and I've always enjoyed it since then.  Complex dynamics, behind a pretty simple chord structure.

Yule Log

I remember this on WPIX from my youth.  We never watched it because we always had other sources of music.  I guess people did and now it's a kitchy nostalgic thing.  And of course it's on Youtube like everything else.  It's also a really safe outlet for viewers who are pyros.

Just Another Night - Mick Jagger

[link]  I've always liked this song, and actually most of Jagger's first solo album in 1985.  Great hooky chord progression.  Really that's all there is to it. Probably also hit me at a really formative time.

Christmas songs groupings

I've always mentally formed the following groups of songs:

Up On the Rooftop, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride

Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow

I Saw Three Ships, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

There are more.  And higher level nesting.  I'll continuing putting this together...

Another Christmas music thing I have

The Nutcracker. Especially Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. Completely atmospheric. This music is winter for me. Probably just early conditioning, but still...

Snow, Snow! Beautiful Snow!

A lot could be written on this topic. This song is a pretty obscure song sung by school choruses in the early 80s (and I don't know how much longer before that).  I wasn't in the chorus in high school but my older brother Tom was and I remember seeing this song sung by them at least a couple of times.  It made a huge impression.  It became part of that feeling that I described in the last post.  So I have a lot of nostaligia for this piece.
The lyrics can be found here.  I can't find a date or author on this song.

As you can tell

I have a thing for Christmas songs.  I grew up with Christmas music.  When I was a kid there was a real "Christmas Feeling" I used to feel when hearing a lot of these songs (certain versions, certain records my parents had, e.g. Fred Waring holiday records).  It was mixed in with the excitement of getting gifts, but I like to think it was a distinct, special kind of feeling.  I don't feel it so much any more when the holidays come around, but I still really really enjoy playing the music of the holiday season.

New Christmas Learns

Feliz Navidad
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Do You Year What I Hear?
Here We Come A-Wassailing
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Here Comes Santa Claus
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Let it Snow

I Still Do - The Cranberries

One of the only bands of the 90s era that I got into.  This is one of my favorites of theirs.  A sublime song.  They have a lot of really good ones.  Breathy high female vocals will get me every time.

Warp Drive

I love stuff like this:

How NASA might build its very first warp drive

The comments are even wilder than the article.

2 possible Christmas sing-a-long gigs coming up

The departmental Christmas party and Ru-Jun's day care room (which I did last year).  For this I don't memorize lyrics.  I have them printed in a binder (and I want to make a few extra copies of the binder for the participants to use).
Here is my song list so far:
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Frosty the Snowman
I Saw Three Ships
Holly Jolly Christmas
Blue Christmas
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Jingle Bells
The 12 Days of Christmas
Silent Night
Deck the Halls
Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer
Silver and Gold
Silver Bells
Good King Wenceslas
Up on the Rooftop
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Save it For Later - The Beat (The English Beat)

From 1983. One of my first introductions to British alt pop.  I always loved this song.  It actually got some play on pop radio in the US (or else I would have missed it until college).  These guys were one of the rulers of college radio in the 80s.  And a great example (although not so much in this song) of ska merging with rock.
The jangling guitar riff and the raspy vocal.  Perfect.

Behind the Wheel - Depeche Mode

Another one of my favorites of theirs.  The video really got my attention.  The atmospherics and aesthetics.  Minimal.  Retro. Timeless in a lot of ways.

Stripped - Depeche Mode

[link] Listened to the 1986 album Black Celebration a lot during my early grad school years.  A great soundtrack to the isolation I was experiencing at the time.  This song is definitely the highlight.  It does a great job of building intensity and then sort of disassembles nicely at the end as well. Totally abstract. Total atmosphere.  Two keys to my personal aesthetics.

Girl Can't Help It - Journey

The musunderstanding and underappreciation of Journey, mostly by non-musicians, has led to them being widely considered merely an historical cliche. This song, from 1986, is one of the many examples of why they are great. Every part of the song is a hook, and the end part introduces yet another hook on top of it all. Steve Perry's towering vocals are masterful throughout, and perfectly complemented by the harmonies. These guys can play their instruments with the best in the business and the production, which takes hard rock and transforms it into accessible pop, is unparalleled.

We Ride Tonight - The Sherbs

[link] Rock radio in the late 70s and early 80s was really diverse.  A lot of really small-following bands had hits and got played.  A lot of these bands were great.  The Sherbs were one of these.

Talking in Your Sleep - The Romantics

From 1983. My first concert was these guys with Red Rider in 1984. I really like their tight, rhythm section driven pop/rock formula. This song has aged well.

Two current things

A. Dust Bowl - I like it a lot.  (I like most of the Ken Burns stuff, even though there are lots of cliches about his style by now).  I learned So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh, last night.  Woody Guthrie was a really interesting guy.

B. PSY - Gangnam Style; like it, especially the original video.  Good beat; musically it's OK.  It seems fresh.  And it's about a very specific part of Seoul, which is interesting.  There are places in Taipei that something like this could happen with.  Extreme local culture, especially from East Asia, fascinates me...

Ana Ng - They Might Be Giants

From 1988.  I haven't fully embraced TMBG.  Their raw brilliance and genius, in all its prolific display, is undeniable.  Their music is sort of a world unto itself.  A world their devotees would seem to be able to lose themselves in.  One of the former members of Megachild knew all their music and gave me mp3s of most of it.  I've been sort of afraid to go through all of it, actually.  Kind of like how I fear getting into chess.  In order to truly get into it, one must really study it.  Or else it's not doing it right.  Or really unsatisfactory.  Or both.  Or something.

There's Only One Way to Rock - Sammy Hagar

[link] Sammy Hagar had some decent, if mindless (like the genre), in his solo career.  Don't hear much revisitation of this era of rock too much these days.  But it had lots of good moments.  Some of it ages pretty good.

ZZ Top - My Head's In Mississippi

It's hard not to like Zztop.  They're originals, have been doing it for a long time, and represent a direct line to a blues sound that gave birth to and has always underlain rock.  All of this ameliorates the Southern, back country patriarchal, misogynistic urges that their raw sound is also steeped in.
This song is one of their later hits and one of my favorites, although they do tend to repeat themselves in songwriting, playing, production, soloing, etc.

Alsatian Cousin - Morrissey

One of my favorites.  Very simple construction.  Really like what they did with it live.  This song cuts and drives.  Acid in a love=hate wound.

This Charming Man - The Smiths

Really one of the best pop songs of the 80s.  I could listen to Marr's guitar all day.  And for some reason, Morrissey's lilt never wears out on me either.

Red River Valley

My cover of the classic cowboy and folk song.  You can also see here why I'm not able to make a lot of recordings these days.

Getting Jiggy With It - Will Smith

[link] These were probably more or less throw away songs for Smith, but I like this one, Miami as well. I like him on screen as well. Smart, funny, just kind of the whole package.

I Can't Find My Baby - Lisa Stansfield

From 1989.  Another one of those pop songs that I have a thing for. 

Evolution in Pokemon

is actually metamphosis.  Ru-Jun is really really really into Pokemon for a while.  Which is cool; Shian-Ren and I liked to watch the early episodes when we were in grad school.  I'm not worried about the show's use of the term evolution right now.  Ru-Jun will learn the real meaning of evolution soon enough.  Right now we're having a lot of fun with Pokemon.

I'll Drink To You - Duke Jupiter

[link] Were big locally in Rochester in the 80s.  Fun song.  Chorus is a great hook. Co-genric with Huey Lewis, I would say.

King For A Day - Planet P Project

From 1983.  I really liked this song, which briefly got airplay on album rock stations.  It's all about the chord progression (gets quite repetitive though).

Don't Pay the Ferryman - Chris De Burgh

From 1983. This was played incessantly on rock (and maybe pop) radio. My friend Scott was obsessed with the song. Seems to have aged OK, not great.

Her Head's Revolving - The Three O'Clock

[link] One of my all time favorite bands.  No one sounded quite like them.  The high male vocal, the instrumentation, the songwriting.  Hooky and bright.  Takes me away to around 1990.  Another one of the bands my friend Dave K in Durham (and later in Madison) introduced me to.
This song has power.  Hard guitar work.  Interlaced keyboards.  Nice breaks.

Neal and Jack and Me - King Crimson

[link] In the late 80s, early 90s I was somewhat into the album Beat by King Crimson. Late stuff from them. I never really got around to investigating their earlier, apparently more influential material.

New established songs

Please Come To Boston
A Girl Like Jesus
Stickleback
Blue-footed Booby Blues

What to do with my music

If not for dad and husband responsibilities, I would have been out with my uke this past year singing folk songs with the OWS people.  In the future I'll have some more time.  I think I'm going to have to get out and start singing for the Earth.  Might be just me in a lawn chair along the state highway somewhere with a sign and my banjo.  But it's gotta be done.

Banjo set so far

Camptown Races
Country Roads
Walking the Floor Over You
On the Road Again
Frankie and Johnnie

Jolson

Weirdly fascinating. And the blackface thing. Apalling but has a huge long history of nuance, appropriation and counter-appopriation. Culture is complex.

Mandinka - Sinead O'Connor

[link] This whole album was a huge breath of fresh air in alternative rock when it came out in 1987-1988. Her voice, the rhythm tracks, the production on these songs were just amazing. Big influence on me in my college years, when I was starting to write songs.

Blue Kiss - Jane Wiedlin

Always my favorite Go Go.  Love the vulnerability in her voice.  It contrasts her strength and confidence as a writer and performer.

Sandy

Yesterday and today we've been dealing with Hurricane Sandy passing through these parts. Very scary wind gusts and we list power for about 5 hours yesterday evening. But we are OK. Today will be some cleaning up around the yard and hopefully back to a normal schedule tomorrow.

Galbi - Ofra Haza

[link] Israeli singer Ofra Haza, who died in 2000 of cimplications from AIDS, was huge on college radio in the 90's. She probably would have been even bigger today had she survived. Her stunning voice and exotic (to the western ear) genre stylings are perfectly suited to the way world pop has gone since then.

The Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton

A blast from my childhood.  One of my Dad's favorite songs.  Just learned it (pretty easy).  I'll have to play it for him sometime.

Don't Let Him Go - REO Speedwagon

A blast from my hard rock past.  I like the rhythm - very tight on the bottom between the rhythm guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums.  The little keyboard figures in the chorus have always been infectious for me. (Although you can have the solo.)

Camptown Races - Johnny Cash

One of Ru-Jun's and my old favorites.  I like the lyrics of this version and Cash's facial expressions are great here.  The people in the background are funny.

Lady - Little River Band

From 1978. A blast from my youth.  Deep pop atmospherics here.  High narrative content in the chord progression and instrumentation/production.  Particularly in the verse.  In the chorus, the vocal harmonies take over the song (in a good way but the atmosphere isn't there like in the verse). The jazzy verse-break about 2/3 of the way through sort of reduces the impact for me.  But it was an arrangement of its time, so that kind of thing probably couldn't be avoided...

North, South, East, West - the Church

One from the times of Saturday nights alone with a 6 of Rolling Rock, writing and sitting on the back steps of the apartment in Durham.  Kind of which I knew how to play uke back then.

Considering a banjo set

Songs like When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again and Frankie and Johnnie.

Soma Holiday - G.O.L.

One of the find from my since-2007 or so exploration of ambient (thanks to Groove Salad).  There is so much good stuff meshing in this song: low-mid tempo, juicy synth bass line, reggae-ish keyboard beat, beautiful synth washes.  Lush yet despondent vocal.  It doesn't get much better than this.

Steel Town - Big Country

The cover track of their best album (IMHO).  Great great great work. Listened to it incessantly in 1984-1985. Huge influence of mine.

Hard to record

In the evenings these days. Too little time and Ru-Jun is too demanding of my time most nights.

Walking the Floor

Here's my cover of the Ernest Tubb classic.  I first saw this song in the movie Coal Miner's Daughter, performed at the Grand Ole Opry by Tubb himself IIRC.
The string situation is not good on the banjo uke.  I think it can sound a lot better than this.  The kazoo is a custom made one made for me by Doc Kazoo.

Banjo uke

With some help from the store I bought it from (Elderly Instruments), i was able to get a string set that sort of works. The high strings are too tight and the low strings are too loose such that things don't want to stay tuned at all, but I have to play around with it more. The few moments I had it in tune it sounded cool. I had no idea my tuning would be so problematic for this instrument.

Jackie Blue - Ozark Mountain Daredevils

From 1975. Another song that takes me back. Never saw this band on TV or anything before. Interesting that the drummer does the lead vocal. In tge video you can see how restrained the composition and playing are for rock. I really like the transition between the minor A part and the major resolution in the B part. Nice songwriting.

Blister

Played Stickleback and BFBB for my intro bio class today (about 330 students were present) and it went pretty well.  I'll try to get the Echo video clips and put them up on Youtube.  Only thing that went wrong, which I realized a bit later, was that I gave myself a blister.  I was using the acoustic electric, which I'm still not used to and my hand was sweaty.  I guess I should get used to this, from what I've heard from guitarists I know.

Theme 1

Something I've been jamming on recently.

I'm Not in Love - 10cc

This song (from 1975) always struck me as innovative for pop of the time.  The structure of the song is pretty conventional.  The production seemed pretty experimental for pop.  It hasn't aged badly, in my opinion.

Dave Loggins - Please Come to Boston

Always liked this song.  From 1974.  I spent a lot of 70s listening to top 40 on an AM transistor radio something like this one.

Picked up a Beatles song

Eight Days a Week.  Pretty easy learn.  Everybody knows it.  I've always liked their earler poppy stuff better than their later, darker, complex stuff.

BFBB video

[link] Finally got a chance to record it this evening.

BFBB full lyrics

When you're out there every day
Flying above the waves
With fish as your pay
And there's no other way
You've got the blue-footed booby blues

And then you go home
You feed the hatchlings some bones
Your mate's been with them alone
In the nest on the stone
You've got the blue-footed booby blues
Yeah you've got the blue-footed booby blues

[chorus]
So Blue, So Blue
Why is the world so blue?
The sea and the sky
My feet and my eyes
There sure is a whole lot of blue

The horizon doesn't move
Some days you win some days you lose
It's all you can do
You're just a spot against the gloom
You've got the blue-footed booby blues

The days just advance
And you finally get your chance
To do your little dance
But you've lost the romance
You've got the blue-footed booby blues

[chorus 2x]

The Model - Kraftwerk

[link] It's hard to do much else in a genre after its inventor pioneers it, defines it, and elaborates it close to its complete potential. 

My Little Stickleback

A song that goes back even before Megachild, when the basement band went through a bunch of names. Just picked it up on the uke.  Here are the full lyrics:

V1
Little fish about three inches long
That's the reason why I'm singing this song
Kinda ugly and it's got big eyes
And it's got - three little spines

V2
Alaska's got a lot of lakes
Thousands of years ago the glaciers made them
And from the ocean little fish came in
In each lake - It's happenin'

Chorus
Oh, my little stickleback
You truly amaze me
On, my little stickleback
How you evolve so rapidly
Oh, my little stickleback
Evolution is so cool

V3
Up in the water there are many dangers
That's why they've got these little pelvic spines
And they've got armor plates too
If you lived up there - so would you

V4
Down in the bottom you don't need armor
Not many predators can find you there
So all the plates of the ocean cousins
Disappeared from the benthic dwellers

Chorus

V5
Someday soon we'll understand
The genes and processes that made you so grand
All these adaptations gave you such fame
Gasterosteus aculeatus - remember that name

Chorus

BFBB

The Blue-Footed Booby Blues is a song I wrote for Megachild.  It was pretty easy to learn it on the Uke but it was a little short (the Megachild version has a guitar solo).  So I wrote another stanza:

The horizon never moves
Some days you win, some days you lose
And it's all you can do
You're just a speck in the gloom
You've got the blue-footed booby blues

Seattle - Public Image Limited

This song was a revelation when I discovered it.  Great hard rock high end, beautiful mid tempo dance groove. Lydon's voice is the complementary acid edge of the buttery rhythm track.

Imitation of Christ - Psychedelic Furs

Earlier and rawer Furs. The live version is very similar in sound to the studio version. All the shards of the raw production, especially the whirling guitar grind and the throbbing sax, create a live garden of murk for the song to slither through.

Love My Way - Psychedelic Furs

From 1982. Every once in a while the pop chart is absolutely right about a song. This song is unconventional enough in structure, lyrical phrasing, and instrumentation that its hook became an instant classic.

Another for the set list

Evangeline by Icicle Works. Learned and memorized. The vocal nuance is the key to that song.

99 - Toto

From 1979.  Another really nice rock/pop song from this era.  Toto went on to huge heights in the early 80s.  This song disappeared compared with Rosanna and Africa (the latter of which the instrumental part presages in a huge way).  But still highly listenable at this distance.
The D&D swords & rings imagery on Toto albums was always curious, since it didn't seem to have any referents in the songs (or at least the familiar ones).

Nostalgia

For some reason I was thinking of this today.  One time my Mom brought one of these Kingsway Florentine chess sets, not in great condition but still a good set, home from a rummage sale at our (then) church (she was working there and she picked it up before it went on sale).  It was very cool and my brothers and I played with it, although we may not have played any chess with it.  Feeling a lot of nostalgia about objects from my childhood these days.  ebay is a great place to see what this stuff actually was and look at it again.

Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes

And of course, this classic pop song of its time seemed to disappear for the 80s and 90s.  But it never gets old and stands up to the test of time.  Still sounds great...

Steal Away - Robbie Dupree

Here's a song I would put in the same genre as the previous song, and from the same era (1980).  Really nice pop/rock.

Sweetheart - Franke and the Knockouts

From 1981.  Bought the 45 rpm vinyl single.  Very typical pop/soft rock sound of the time.  This, and their look, has not aged very well.  Definitely a piece of the period.

Uke stuff

Is still happening. Just no time to make vids these days. Hopefully some new ones before too long...

Power - Cassandra Complex

From 1987.  The late 80s is rich territory for keyboard driven gothic pop.  It wasn't virgin territory by that time, but from this distance, even the later bands into the movement bring back the time well.

One Story Town - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Great song from the Long After Dark album, my favorite of theirs.

Manna And Quail - Caterwaul

[link] One of the better goth-alt rock bands that came out of the late 80s.  Siouxsie influenced but tighter and more polished in production.  Need to listen to more of their stuff...

Who's Behind the Door? - Zebra

[link] New Orleans hard rock band that relocated to Long Island and may still be around.  I've seen their stickers on cars.  I really got into the first album (and one song on the 2nd album, "Bears") in the mid-late 80s.  It's got a lot more hooks than most hard rock/metal and the ballad parts are really nice, not cliched like the hair bands that were about to emerge a bit later.  Just enough of a prog component to be interesting.

Breakin the Law

Or the user agreement, at least.  I never give my birthdate to places like FaceBook.  And they of course want my real name and data. Now they are starting to ask people if they know whether friends of their are using their real names. They have a right to kick anyone off that they want to. They can claim me as a user, but they cannot claim my real name and data and keep me as a user.  That's the choice.

Beds are Burning - Midnight Oil

Speaking of driving songs, or at least driving videos.  Here's one.  Saw these guys live in the late 80s.  Excellent show.  The drummer had a section of culvert pipe behind him that had a mic in it.

Driver's Seat - Sniff 'N' The Tears

Great late 70s song.  The chord progression is a rel-minor, 5,4 (e.g. Cmin, Bb, Ab) which is a staple of mine.  It's the hookiest progression in pop/rock.  The use of keyboards/synthesizers and their fusion with the guitar track, so that both are vital but neither dominates, is adept.  The understated vocal and the effects on the vocal track combine with the rest to make for one very atmospheric rock song, as well as an excellent driving song, of course.

I Want Your Love - Chic

No one did disco better than Chic. The bass lines are the essense that disco pulled out of funk and the rhythm guitar, almost machine-like in its tightness, pulls everything together.  The brass part at the end also takes the best out of that element and smooths it right into the mix.  Nile Rodgers, the guitarist, still works and was one of the essential pop producers in the 80s.  Right up there with Prince and Michael Jackson in terms of prolific pop geniuses.

The pirate idiom

Pop culture is over pirate-ized right now for sure.  But One Piece and Pirates of the Caribbean are two examples of extreme creativity in the theme.

New Years Day - U2

Iconic song.  One of several from that time for U2.  In my opinion, their sound peaked with War, Boy, and October (i.e. all of the stuff that hit in the US during the first few years when they became known).  After The Unforgettable Fire (1984) their stuff became a lot less interesting.  But their popularity continued exponentially for a long time after that. Was a pretty easy learn and it gives me shivers to play it.

The three

Neil Diamond songs I mentioned earlier are in development (Cracklin' Rosie, September Morn, Forever in Blue Genes)_ They have pretty simple structures and limited number of chords for the most part.  Fun to play and people will like them. One problem is that the studio versions of these songs fade out.  Neil's TV appearances, which are the youtube videos I've been studying, also just fade to applause. So I have to figure out how to give them hard endings.  I'm still experimenting with all three of them...

an alternative dream job

One of my top dream jobs would be to be an independent paranormal investigator in a small town.  I don't believe in any of the phenomena but they are really cool as stories.  Especially UFO stuff.  Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster and stuff like that, also ghosts, are somewhat less interesting.  William Gibson's short story The Gernsback Continuum has an interesting treatment of paranormal sightings as pop-cultural semiotic ghosts.
I also am intrigued by political conspiracy theories.  These I find much more chilling because they are based on series of events and people that in many cases are real.  Many conspiracy theories, while not likely to be true or explanatory as wholes, have threads of true history running through them.  It's interesting to unravel these and think about why the theory developed.

The Flat Earth - Thomas Dolby

One of my favorite songs ever and one of his very best. Just realized watching The Two Towers tonight that the descending line of the orc/evil theme of the LOTR movies is very similar to the first phrase of the bass line of The Flat Earth.

Hyperactive! - Thomas Dolby

Dolby's version of funky dance pop. He brings his rich, bass-driven hooks and atmospherics to the song.  The transitions are really well done, even if the lyric quality kind of falls of toward the end (just before the flute solo).

No Rain - Blind Melon

Most of the instrumental jams of Megachild over the year ended up sounding something like this 1993 song.  Pretty simple song, with one of the most delightful videos ever.

Groovy Train - The Farm

A fun song from 1990.  Picked it up in iTunes some time ago.  Probably doesn't repay too many plays.  But sounds pretty good every once in a while.

Burning Down One Side - Robert Plant

The first song on his first solo album.  I really like his first four solo albums; kind of lost track after that.  It's a different sound than Led Zeppelin, but still very hard edged, both instrumentally and vocally.  This song got a lot of airplay on hard rock radio of the day.  The album (casette) was one of my first purchases after buying my first stereo.

E A D G

That's the tuning I settled down with the strings I have.  The high one is tight and goes flat quickly.  The others are loose, which means I need different strings for this tuning.  Sounds pretty sweet and is fun to play though.  Not as much sustain, but the percussive qualities are great of course.  Working on some known and new folk songs.  Such as Old Dan Tucker. Lew Dite's work has been an inspiration ever since Ru-Jun and I started watching him when she was less than 2.

woops

This arrived today.  Tried to use the strings it came with to do my B E A D tuning.  Broke the top string.  I have other strings in the office.  No big deal.  But I can't get it up to a B or even a C up top.  So for now I'll do a G C F Bb tuning and see how that goes (might be better for singing some songs; others will be worse).  I can probably work with the vendor I bought it from to get a set of strings for my unconventional tuning.  This is a beautiful instrument that is going to be very fun to play.

Hella Good - No Doubt

This song is indeed hella good.  Great mid tempo rock groove.  The empty space in the mix provides for great atmosphere.  Saw it first as a video, which strengthened the impression.

I Don't Remember - Peter Gabriel

From 1980. One of my favorites of his. Very driving, which overcomes the lack of contrast between chorus and verse. I had not heard this version before. Interesting but disturbing video.

key changes

Key changes in songs are interesting, but they're a bit of a pain when playing them on the uke (at least for me; they wouldn't be much of a problem for me on keyboards).
I was watching the video for Neil Diamond's Cracklin' Rosie (1971) and there was a lot of room noise so I couldn't really hear the key change.  So I googled "Does Cracklin' Rosie have a key change" and found several references confirming that it does.  One was an entire blog on songs with key changes.  Cool.

Forever in Blue Jeans - Neil Diamond

Another one I'm nostalgic about.  From 1979.

September Morn - Neil Diamond

From 1979.  I was 12 and still listening to a lot of top 40 on AM radio.  This song got played incessantly and it makes me pretty nostalgic hearing it now.  Top 40 was much different then.  Much more diverse.
Might take a stab at this song on the uke.  Could be a fun play...

Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls - Book of Love

Quintessential American electronic dance pop from the 80s, but alternative pop.  Not something that fit well with the top 40 of the time, and that's good.  It stays fresh over time.  I saw these guys live at University of Rochester.  They were great.  Different than anyone I had seen before, both in music and in setup.  There's nothing complicated about their songs.  Simple, well-produced, well executed. Fun and light hearted too.  The machine groove of this song in particular really impressed me.  I've long had an idea that one pull of technopop dance music is the feeling of giving oneself away to the beat, in the manner of an automaton or android.  Tranformation into a machine, a desire for perfection.

Yoda - Al Yankovic

Ru-Jun's current favorite song (based on Lola by the Kinks).  I've memorized the lyrics and most night she asks me to do both Yoda and Lola,

First week

of the new semester. Science going very slowly. No time at home this week for music either. So it goes...

What Do I Know - Saga

Saga showing their poppier side in 1985.  I didn't keep up with much of their stuff after this, but I really liked this song.  Probably had something to do with the detatchment I was going through in my early college days (well all of my college days pretty much).  Pretty scary thinking back, how much development I still had to do as a person even in the early 20s.

Smooth Operator - Sade

[link] I have a thing for Sade.  Always have.  Always will.

Absolutely Immune - Act

Lush dance pop.  Among the lushest.  Great chords.  Great layering of sound.  Claudia Brücken is powerful.  This is from 1987.  The clubs I went to at that time played alternative pop like this, and DJing consisted of mixing one song into another, not creatively mixing stuff into new compositions, which is what DJing has come to mean since then.  There were dance mixes of songs meant for clubs.  This particular song was pretty much club ready as is.

We Are What We Are - The Other Ones

1989, my senior year at college. I was still MTV deprived and MTV was still playing music videos then. Saw this really cool video and was mesmerized. It's a great song. Deceptively simple chord changes. Incredible vocal.

Behind the Wall of Sleep - The Smithereens

One of my favorites of theirs. Also a pretty easy learn. The "the" in the song title should really be an "a" in my opinion.

S.O.S. - Abba

Abba has a lot of really great songs, from a purely pop music standpoint, no matter what you think of their pop cultural status.  This is my favorite.  Multiple hooks.  Really well thought out transitions and instrumentation.  Vocals are sparkling and rich.  These guys could write and produce songs.

This is scary.

Soybeans Susceptible to Man-Made Materials in Soil. Specifically nanomaterials that are already in consumer products.  I'm not surprised by this.  We are stuck with these things.  Now we've got to hope that this doesn't become a serious or irremediable threat to our food supply.

Co-sleeping

Seems so maladaptive for the adults involved. So inconvenient that the co-sleeping urge/need wasn't purged from our lineage eons ago.

science gives way to teaching

starting next week, a lot of the time anyway
I'm way behind on getting ready for the teaching...

The Human Jungle - The Jazz Butcher

College radio was really into these guys in the late 80s, early 90s.  They seem to be in the XTC/Camper Van Beethoven/China Crisis vein of quirky, intellectual rock, with jazz and funk influences.

possible setback

I've been breeding a bunch of Drosophila melanogaster third chromosomes, from five populations along the East Coast, from one X:2 background into another through a four generation crossing scheme involving balancer chromosomes.  The new background has white+ on the X and they are coming from a white- background.  In the current generation I'm seeing white eyed males when I should not see them.  The simplest explanation, which would not be good, would be if the new background stock (Ral[303]; Ral[303]; TM2/TM6) is contaminated with a white- X chromosome. If this is the case then the stock contains recombinant chromosomes and about a month of work would have to be discarded and restarted.  A less likely possibility would be if the above Ral 303 stock has a high incidence of X nondisjunction in females and the white- males are X:0.  This would not pose a problem to the stock or the lines because these males are sterile.  I'll probably know in the next two weeks as I collect the next generation whose mothers are from the Ral[303] stock.

Send Me and Angel - Real Life

From 1983.  Bought the vinyl 45 of this (which means it is packed up in the basement or on a shelf somewhere in the house).  Great pop song with a gothic edge.  Still sounds great after all these years.

Music and Wine - Blue Six

Love this deep house track.  The chords establish the atmosphere.  The rhythm touches are subtle.  Very nice mid tempo atmosphere. A great ride into the night.

Benny Benassi - Love Is Gonna Save Us

Don't remember how I found this a few years ago.  But I went for it in a big way.  Unlike autotune, which I hate, the vocal effect in this is terrific.  Very atmospheric.  The break is not my favorite, but the main A part of the song has such a drive that it doesn't even matter how it is broken up.  If I were a club DJ, my instinct would be to take tracks like this and literally make it a different planet on the dance floor.

She's in Parties - Bauhaus

Bauhaus's sound and look became quite polished, and Peter Murphy's voice translated well into pop.  This set a sound for a lot of bands like the Bolshoi and  Blancmange and even extended into the huge mainstream sounds of bands like Depeche Mode and Erasure.

The Passion of Lovers - Bauhaus

From 1981.  By many accounts, these guys originated the goth idiom in rock in pop, although it is arguable that hard rock in the late 60s and 70s had a lot of the elements lying around (Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, the black magic references in Led Zeppelin, just to name a few).  Bauhaus injected punk/raw-postpunk elements, which was novel.  (I don't see the aesthetic connection with the Bauhaus artistic/design style, but that's OK). The vocal (and deep, echoing production) is there, which seems to have started everything off.

Blue Water - Fields of the Nephilim

[link] Fairly mainstream Goth, complete with the imagery.  The zombie-esque lead vocal seems to be a prerequisite for the main line of this genre.  Pure and literal.  Doesn't do as much for me as some of the earlier posted songs...

Bittersweet - New Model Army

[link] Kind of in the same vein, but even more drive from the rhythm section.  The punk side of goth.  Really like the base line here.  This song is a very sharp and thorough expression of a strong musical idea.  It gets there.

Inside Out - Into a Circle

Another one off the Goth compilation.  The only thing I could find on YouTube is this compilation - it's the second song (just a clip of it).  Great verse hook.

Hex - Specimen

Another one in the Gothic Rock 3 compilation.  Dance-gothic with a little glamminess thrown in.  Pure atmosphere.  It's right in the chords and synth lead.  The B part is especially nice.

Lucretia My Reflection - The Sisters of Mercy

Their material becomes fairly redundant fairly quickly (not unlike their fellow Yorshirian goth-oid rockers The Cult in that respect), but The Sisters of Mercy mined a very tight wavelength of gothic rock to produce a very big sound, grandiose in its heavy, romantic poetics, which is what goth is all about. Here is one of my favorites of theirs, Lucretia My Reflection.

Walking On Your Hands - Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

I forget whether it was in Durham or Madison, but at some point in my days of going to used CD stores I picked up a 2 disc compilation called Gothic Rock 3.  There were a lot of great tracks, some fairly obscure (at least to me).  Here is one (from 1986).  I would love to get the first two CD sets in this series.

Monastic mode

Me. Alone in lab. At the scope. Collecting/sorting/scoring flies.  Notebook to my right.  How I best like to do science.  Doing it a little bit these days.  Not enough though...

My Favorite Led Zeppelin album

Houses of the Holy, from 1973.  Amazing from start to finish.

The Song Remains the Same
The Rain Song
Over the Hills and Far Away
The Crunge
Dancing Days
D'yer Mak'er (pronounced 'Jamaica' BTW)
No Quarter
The Ocean

One of the best album covers of all time, as well.

The lab

The lab still needs a lot of cleaning up.  There are a lot of things from when things came to a halt in 2010 that need to be cleared out, including most of the material in the freezers.  I am slowly getting around to things, mostly clearing out the space that we use the most: the fly and computer benches and the bench where we video behavior and one molecular bench.  We are doing a lot of phenotype work on two projects, the elegans/gunungcola project and the melanogaster project; myself, Rocio, and a group of undergraduates working with me.  They are both huge projects and everything we are doing is working well.  I just need more time there.  When summer runs out, my lab time largely runs out...

Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

The grand daddy of all hard rock songs (ballad and otherwise).  Learning it and should be able to come up with a passable derivation.  Not simple but not as complicated as I thought.

No technician

Other than Shian-Ren on a part-time, volunteer basis, I've never employed a lab technician.  These days I manage everything with my own hands (we are not doing cloning any more or much molecular stuff these days other than fly DNA preps).  I've never wanted to worry about keeping a tech supported.  It's pretty impractical in terms of my own schedule.  But I like being in the lab and I have things streamlined enough (am gradually cleaning up the lab from the remnants of the way things were during the first eight or so years) that things go OK.

Some people meditate

My substitute for that is to do repetitive manual labor.  Mostly in the lab but elsewhere too (dishwashing, lawnmowing).  It lets me think.  I'm sort of notorious about this around the department.  It's also because I've never hired a technician (don't want to without long term support, which doesn't exist).  Good for the soul and good for the mind...

Favorite Band Names

Microdisney
Telefauna
Killdozer
Bikini Kill
Swervedriver

(I'll post others as I remember them)
I like hybridizations of concepts that can have multiple connotations.

A Girl Like Jesus

My version of the 1998 Right as Rain song.
Starring Ru-Jun.

lawns

Lawns have a very interesting community ecology, if they aren't sprayed and watered into a monoculture, that is.  Ours has been maintained as what I call "natural" since we moved in in 2002.  It was maintained by a lawn care company before that (and there is an in-ground sprinkler system put in by the previous owner).  We don't water, and whatever can grow we let grow, including probably dozens of different kinds of weeds.  Many of the weeds flower in interesting and beautiful ways.  Overall, I think it regulates itself better than a monoculture lawn and generally needs less mowing, even in wet years.  It doesn't look like a manicured lawn, but that is a matter of aesthetics.  I like the look of our lawn better than high maintenance (which are also high carbon and water footprint) lawns.

On the Road Again

My version of the Willie Nelson classic.

19 - Paul Hardcastle

This track, esoteric for top 40 in any era but a pretty big hit in 1985, was part of the post-Vietnam recovery culture of the early 1980s.  This period included movies like the Rambo films, Platoon, and Full Metal Jacket, and informed US culture and foreign policy into the 90s (e.g. the Powell Doctrine in the Gulf War, which reflected an existential fear of committing ground troops to a conflict without 110% assured victory and low likelihood of casualties).  The rehabilitation of the images of veterans and US enlisted troops also began during this era resulting in their exalted status in the popular culture (even if not exactly in government policy) today.
Musically, I like the haunting narration from a TV documentary.  Wikipedia lists the genre of the song as "New Wave, freestyle, post-disco".  But I hear a lot of house in it.  It's truly excellent as a mid-tempo dance track, although not often usable as that because of the sampled narration.

White Hot - Red Rider

Red Rider's first single, from 1980.  Poppy with progressivity around the edges.  And it is inflected with the band's apparent obsession with Vietnam-era arms smugglers.

Living on the Ceiling - Blancmange

Blancmange is another 80s UK band that was well represented on US alternative radio and that I need to explore more.  They have a sound that has kind of grown on me.  Here is Living on the Ceiling, from 1982.

Cross The Border - Icehouse

From 1986.  Seems fairly poppy in retrospect, and I think in their native Australia and in Europe they were.  In the US they were played on alternative radio.  I first heard it on WBER, an alternative radio station in Rochester, which was truly amazing in the late 80s and 90s (and probably still exists).  At the time I was just getting my feet wet in alternative rock.  Loved this song...

Not much playing lately

Things too crazy both at home and work. I managed to get Lola memorized over the weekend, however.

Escapism

It's why I watch most of the movies/TV I watch.  Possibly sports as well.  I'd rather watch a movie I like with a known good ending for the 30th time than take a chance on something that might not be a good escape.  I hate being manipulated by movies.  I avoid entire genres, like horror and psychological horror, and depressing subject matter.  Why waste precious time on something so negative.

Worlock - Skinny Puppy

From 1989.  Didn't get into much industrial.  This is one of its high points to my (not well studied) ears.  The chord progression of the chorus does it.  The samples are good as well.  My late high school friend Keith (a different story for a different day perhaps) introduced me to this band.

Love Will Find a Way - Yes

A bit later.  Qutie a bit poppier.  It's got my chord progression (variations on 4-5 with the relative minor).  Exquisitely produced, in a good way (which is not usual; there is way too much overproduced stuff out there since the mid 80s).

Changes - Yes

90125 is as progressive a rock statement as ever hits the mainstream.  The whole album is really good.  Changes got a lot of airplay but continually rewards relistening.

And then there's Space Disco

Ganymed - Music Drives Me Crazy (1978)

Just one of many fun and interesting things going on in the late 70s.  Europe never trashed disco.  And that's a good thing for most of the pop music that came after that.

Reckoning - R.E.M.

From 1984. Tremendous album. Harborcoat is just the beginning. Had this on vinyl but not on CD. Until a few days ago.

Miss Gradenko - the Police

One of the sleeper tunes on Synchronicity (1983).  According to Wikipedia, it's "a song about a romance in the middle of a communist bureaucracy."  Interesting in that it is not listed as one of the singles of that album but it got airplay on rock stations in the US.  As I recall it was announced that the Police were breaking up as that album was being released.  I was very sad at that news, but given how bands tend to go stale, in retrospect it's a great thing that they stopped there.  Just about everything they every produced is superb.

White Hot Day - Simple Minds

Another good track from Sparkle in the Rain.  Pretty unconventional - harking back to their earlier, more experimental work.  I especially like the drum track.

Something to Grab For - Ric Ocasek

From what I've heard of Ric Ocasek's solo career (first three albums; i.e. about half of his stuff), it sort of exposes the parts of his songwriting that the Cars' virtuousity and the stellar production they always had covered up.  But the songs are always really good a affecting the atmosphere and imagery that Ocasek was about, and there are some real gems.  The best was the first single, Something to Grab For, off Beatitude (1982).

Book of Brilliant Things - Simple Minds

Every Simple Minds album up to and including Once Upon a Time (didn't follow them after that) is different.  Sparkle in the Rain, from (1984), was a transition to their shimmering danceable pop of New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84 and their harder but inferior Once Upon a Time material, which launched them to worldwide fame (following Don't You (Forget About Me), which was not on any of their album and which they did not like and was not written by them.
This is a great song.  Very simple chord progression, driven by rhythm and keyboard figures and the vocal.

In development

New Years Day.  Fun to play.  Also in development: R.E.M.'s Disturbance at the Heron House and Lola by the Kinks.  Need to practice these every night.

New Year's Day - U2

None of the stuff U2 did after their early hits approached the power of this simple, powerful, punk-inflenced rock.  Heard this working out today.  I think I can do a version of it.

Wind Him Up - Saga

It was 1981.  They were progressive and used lots of synthesizers. I was pretty into them. This song was the beginning for me.  They have a lot of other good ones.
They are apparently still going.  Good for them.

More on Lola

Thanks to the Al Yankovic take off Yoda, Ru-Jun now loves that Lola video.  She even recognize that Ray and Dave Davies look similar.  My friend Scott and I used to listen to taps of Dr. Demento (which was on the radio way too late for me to stay up) and Yoda was among our favorite (and one of the most clean) songs. I have huge respect for Yankovic.  He is a hugely talented and funny musician.

Jingle jangle jingle

Simple cowboy song, but the lyrics have resisted memorization.  I actually attempted it at the Earthstock gig but was only good for a couple of stanzas.  So I decided to sort of make the stanzas up as I go along.  It doesn't matter if they are exactly like the song was played before.  Just needs to be something like

(1) Oh Sally Jane, Oh Sally Jane,
Though I'd love to stay forever this is why I can't remain

(2) Oh Betty Lou, Oh Betty Lou,
Though we've done a heap of dreamin' this is why they can't come true

(3) Oh  Lily Bell, Oh Lily Bell,
Though we've shared some special secrets, this is why I never tell

(4) Oh Mary Ann, Oh Mary Ann,
Though you tell a pretty story this is why I never can

etc.

There are a lot of possibilities.  Just have to come up with them on the fly...

Southern Cross - Crosby, Stills, and Nash

I learned this song (a pretty derived and faster version, as I play it) a while back.  The song gets massive play on classic rock radio.  Very hard to do justice to the vocal.  I'll try to record it when I get a chance.  No time to do that kind of thing this past week.  Crazy schedule with not much relief in sight.

Lola - the Kinks

As I may have said before, I never really appreciated this song musically until I started to learn it.  Fairly complex for a pop song.  The thing I really like about this video is that the band members are really having a good time lip syncing it.  Probably aided by some substances, but nonetheless...

Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love - Van Halen

The original Van Halen incarnation with David Lee Roth was a pretty good hard rock band. This song is so simple, but one of the best ever hard rock song.  It has two just chords.

Pat Benatar

It's hard to overstate what a breath of fresh air Pat Banatar was in hard rock in the late 70s-early 80s.  Brilliant, straight ahead rock.  Very clean.  Her vocal range was very wide but strong everywhere, especially on the high end.  My favorite two songs of her many great ones are "Treat Me Right" and "Heartbreaker", both from the 1980 Crimes of Passion album.  Scintillating rock.

Harden My Heart - Quarterflash

I really like the sound of Quarterflash.  They were contemporary (maybe slghtly following) with Pat Benetar but seemed to get a pop label as opposed to the hard rock labeling Benetar's early hits got.  1981's Harden My Heart was their first and biggest hit, achieving massive overplay.  It never got old with me.  Very simple chord progression.  Mid tempo bouncing beat. The vocal is very pure and the song is a rare case of a sax lead that really augments the song as opposed to detracts from it.

The Warrior - Patty Smyth and Scandal

[link]
I guess I have a soft spot for this kind of pop from the 80s. This has a nice chord progression in the chorus. And the B part between the verse and chorus works quite nicely.  I even like the brief instrumental part; it's quite atmospheric.

Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA - Devo

[link]
Devo is known for a lot of things. They constantly innovated and are still going. As a musician, I respect them a lot. They rocked hard in the traditional rock and punk senses, which formed the bedrock of their ideas that went beyond the music. They have a LOT of great songs. I hope there is a complete works box CD set available someday. (There was one released in Japan that can be had on Amazon for ca. $250).

Roads Go Ever On

This is a song with words written by J.R.R. Tolkein.  It appeared in the Hobbit and a couple of times in the Lord of the Rings.  The version sung by Glenn Yarbrough was in the 1977 Rankin Bass cartoon version of the Hobbit.  That cartoon was very dear to me, even though it is for kids and greatly truncated from the original story.  I have been learning the song but have not had time to do a recording yet. Parenting and work have been impinging on music this week.

Mulu The Rain Forest - Thomas Dolby

Beautiful song on one of my all time favorite albums, The Flat Earth. The main keyboard figure over the shifting bassline in the instrumental section (starting at 2:42) seals the deal for this song. Also the descent just before the rallying chorus (3:39).

Imagination - Belouis Some

From 1985. Not much productivity from this guy; but his few singles were of high quality.  Tightly produced pop, strongly rhythm-driven. Like a lot of stuff - derives from Bryan Ferry.  Phrasing of the chorus is very nice.  There was a bunch of British pop that sounded like this but I think this was toward the front end of that sound.

only a little

time to practice these days.  But I think most of the songs are staying fresh in my brain.  No gigs on the horizon.  But still having fun with it when I can at home...

Emotion in Motion - Naked Eyes

[link]
Less well known then their major hits and the chorus is a bit weak on ideas.  But the lofty melody line of the verse makes the whole thing scintillating.

Promises, Promises - Naked Eyes

[link] (gotta wait through an ad - sorry)
Brilliant pop.  The verse has an absolutely on mid tempo groove.  And the verse is pure genius - nothing like it in pop, from what I've heard.

Dixie Storms - Lone Justice

Beautiful song that I used to play on piano.  Not sure if I could develop it for the uke.  May give it a try.

Athena - the Who

This song was played incessantly in the summer of 1982. Never figured out what it was about and never really studied the lyrics, which are:
***
Athena, I had no idea how much I'd need her
In peaceful times I hold her close and I feed her
My heart starts palpitating when I think my guess was wrong
But I think I'll get along
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

Athena, all I ever want to do is please her
My life has been so settled and she's the reason
Just one word from her and my troubles are long gone
But I think I'll get along
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
She's just a girl

Athena, my heart felt like a shattered glass in an acid bath
I felt like one of those flattened ants you find on a crazy path
I'd of topped myself to give her time she didn't need to ask
Was I a suicidal psychopath?
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

Consumed, there was a beautiful white horse I saw on a dream stage
He had a snake the size of a sewer pipe living in his rib cage
I felt like a pickled priest who was being flambed
You were requisitioned blondie
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

I'm happy, I'm ecstatic
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
She's just a girl

Look into the face of a child
Measure how long you smiled
Before the memory claimed
How long would children remain
How long would children remain

Athena, you picked me up by my lapels and screamed "leave her"
It felt like waking up in heaven on an empty meter
And now you're stuck with a castrated leader
And I hate the creep, I didn't mean that
She's a bomb
I just said it
She's a bomb
I didn't mean it, please
She's a bomb

Athena, I had no idea how much I need her
My life has been so settled and she's the reason
Just one word from her and my troubles are long gone
But I get along
She's just a girl, she's a bomb
She's just a girl, she's a bomb
***
According to Wikipedia, Pete Townshend wrote this song about his frustration about being rejected by the actress Theresa Russell.  And they have only played this live about 10 times, and not since the 1982 tour.  I knew it would somehow be interesting.  You don't have lyrics like that without some kind of backstory...

Face Dances Pt. 2 - Pete Townshend

From 1983. [link is the studio version of the song as the soundtrack to a compendium of pics from Ru-Jun's first year, which always amazes us when we look back on it]
This was one of the first videos I ever saw on MTV and the song immediately infected me. Most of it is in 5/4 time, which is pretty rare but works amazingly.  This is a truly progressive song, and yet has all the pop and hard rock instincts that characterize Townshend's entire career.

You Belong to Me - Carly Simon

From 1978. A very formative year for my musical brain. This song is ahead if its time yet also right in one of the grooves that was hitting in the late 70s. The jazz/rock thread that Steely Dan was farming is here. Yet elements also anticipate post disco pop trends (e.g. Sade, house music).

Too Late For Love

My version.  Had to get rid of a lot of the middle. Simplification is good, though...

Charlotte Anne

my cover
Far from perfect.  Was using the Oscar Schmidt acoustic-electric in the office.  Still not 100% comfortable with the feel of the instrument.

Screen Kiss - Thomas Dolby

[link]
My favorite Thomas Dolby song.  I don't think I would ever be able to do a version  of this.
It's hugely layered and almost doesn't rely on rhythm.  How he fits the lyrics in without compromising him is a major part of his brilliance here.

Treason - The Teardrop Explodes

Never really studied Julian Cope's early band The Teardrop Explodes back in the day.  Can definitely see where some of his smooth, angular, pop instincts came from.  Here's Treason from 1980.

One Red Rose

Here's my version.  Couple of small mistakes.  The end of the chorus actually goes lower than I can sing, so I did my best with that.

Earworms aid song learning

If a song you are trying to learn can be an earworm for some significant part of the day, it really aids learning.  Going through the words and arrangement over and over in your head is almost as good as playing it over and over.

Against the Wind - Bob Seger

Got overplayed, but still a very listenable song.  A classic. In starting to learn the song, I have a new appreciation for the subtlety of its chord progressions, and for Bob Seger's songwriting.

Lovedust - Luna

[link]
Luna was known as an American Dream Pop band but the flavor here is different from the UK's Shoegaze version of the genre. You can hear some of the same hard-edged rock experimentation that the Pixies had, as well as influences going back to Lou Reed, among others.

Take It Easy - Jackson Browne/Eagles

[link]
One of my wife's favorites and mine too, despite heavy radio overplay that continues today. The newest learn, thanks to an online lyrics/chords site.

Terra Nova Cain - the Church

[link]
In grad school in the early 90s, the Church formed a significant portion of the soundtrack to my down and out existence. The studio track of this is much better of course. I like the hybrid title. The landscape of the sound is bleak and sort of post psychological apocalyptic, like a lot of their stuff. It definitely spoke to me.

Front Porch

Had a chance to play a little this week on the newly renovated front porch at the Palmyra house where I grew up.  Very enjoyable. Front porches are the best places for my uke music.
In other news: Southern Cross and Scarlet Begonias are good enough to move up to the main set.

Stages of getting a song down

1 listen to it closely and decide to try it
2 play along to it 5-10 times
3 grab the lyrics off the web
4 play and sing along with it 5-10 times
5 try playing while looking at lyrics only
6 if 5 is successful, play it that way 15-50 times
7 work on memorizing lyics in head during work days
8 start playing it without looking at lyrics
9 play regularly and polish

Save a Prayer - Duran Duran

Just one of many amazing pop songs from the early Duran Duran work.

Evangeline - Icicle Works

From 1987. One of the sweetest pop songs of its time.

Proposition - Duran Duran

In the early 80s, during the Duranie craze, Duran Duran did not get enough credit for being the superb crafters of pop songs that they were and are. When the Notorious album came out in 1986, the craze had faded and they had the space to continue honing the craft to its next level. The entire album is really good. Proposition is my favorite song on it. It's mid tempo, atmospheric, with strong narrative content even absent the lyrics.

Kiss Them For Me - Siouxsie and the Banshees

[link]
This band had come a long way by 1991 from its goth-punk roots of the late 70s. But they were still honing a pop sound that really effectively harnessed the hard sweetness of the gothic aura and texture. Very nice song.

Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty

This song was ubiquitous on American pop radio in 1978 and the ensuing years. I've always thought of it as an American song but Rafferty (who died last year) was Scottish and the song was written when he and former bandmates were dealing with the band's (Stealer's Wheel) breakup and it appears to be sonewhat about that angst. The feeling of the song nevertheless coincides with a general angst that was strongly present in 70s rock and which I've long been interested in. This was a time when my developing musical brain was forming strong impressions and preferences. This is one of the songs that transports me back to that time.

The Scholar's Life

There is a traditional meme in China about the solitary scholar, working far away from the center of events, perhaps in exile from the current political order. I find this image deeply attractive. Things are so messed up in the US right now and the people in charge are too stupid or evil to fix them. I just want to ignore the politics and the press and concentrate on my family life, my work, my music, and my ideas.

Layla

Here's my version of the classic Eric Clapton/Derek and the Dominos song.

Urgent - Foreigner

[link]
The studio version of this 1981 song is one of a few songs that I bought the vinyl 45 of upon hearing it for the first time in a record store. It made a huge instant impression on me. Much later I found out that Thomas Dolby played keyboards on this album.
The studio version is not on youtube. This recent live version lacks a lot, including Lou Gramm. But I highly recommend the original.

My 1st Singapore Rice Noodles

I was introduced to Singapore Rice Noodles by my Ph.D. advisor, at the Hong Kong restaurant in Durham, NC. which apparently still exists (or a restaurant by that name), but appears to have changed locations. On edit: the Hong Kong on Guess Road is still there on Guess Road.  There are two other restaurants with that name in the Durham area.  Somewhat apropos, the first Chinese food I had in my adult life was while I was in college at the Hong Kong restaurant in Rochester, which at the time I recall being on Alexander St.  It may not be the same business as the Hong Kong House on S. Clinton.

Charlotte Anne - Julian Cope

From 1988.  Another great alt pop gem from my college radio listening days.  Pretty simple song but it's all about the nuance.  And the sweet, high, declarative chorus.

Going Down to Liverpool - the Bangles

This 1984 song is a (better known) cover of a Katrina and the Waves song. Very simple. Relaxed to the point of almost being laconic. Wistful. Thinking about covering it myself. Classic, curious, understated for what it is, video.

One Red Rose - John Prine

A singer songwriter with whom I should probably become more familiar with. An online acqaintance suggested I try this song. It's got a really nice late 70's feel to it. One Red Rose (1980) (cover by Step - Prine version not available on youtube for mobile)

State of the Set

Songs ready to play just about at any time:

Country Roads
Sunshine on my Shoulders
the Gambler
Smoke on the Water
Roxanne
Ring of Fire
Folsom Prison Blues
Last of the Famous International Playboys
Alsatian Cousin
Happy Birthday
the Zoo
Homeward Bound
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Here Come Cowboys
Thousands are Sailing
Layla
American Girl

Songs that are only some lyrics memorization away from being in the set:
Southern Cross
Scarlet Begonias
After the Gold Rush
Sundown

Still need work learning the song
Too Late for Love
Charlotte Anne
Kiss an Angel Good Morning
On the Road Again

This is the rock/country/pop set.  I'll probably develop a folk/traditional set at some point.  Then there's the kid's set and the holiday set.

Fortress Around Your Heart - Sting

When the Police broke up ca. 1985, I was pretty bummed.  Sting's first solo album, Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985), eased the pain a bit.  Sting's later work is far inferior, in my opinion.  Fortress Around Your Heart, is one of the more conventional rock songs on the album, and my favorite.

Bringin' on the Heartbreak - Def Leppard

The 1983 album Pyromania was overplayed yet under-appreciated as a pop masterpiece. This song was one of several high points. None in the hair band coterie that came later ever achived anything like what Def Leppard and producer Mutt Lange achived multiple times on this album.

Happy Boy - the Bolshoi

link
A very good and underappreciated (in the State) band from the 80s. Kind of combines the goth-ness of the Cure with the techno-ness of Depeche Mode and their ilk.
This song is bass-driven with a cure-esque held augmented minor guitar chord in the verse.  Song structure pretty effectively builds from verse to B part and then back down. Very atmospheric.

After the Gold Rush

Here's my cover, recorded in a free moment this morning.

Goodbye To You - Scandal

A fun, chord driven song I've always liked. Call it a guilty pleasure.

Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot

Recorded this tonight.  With special appearance by Baby T.

Scarlet Begonias - Grateful Dead

Really nice song.  Never got into the Dead, but never really tried to. The few songs I heard all sounded a bit the same.  Didn't really like the jam form, and frankly I wasn't attracted to the stereotypical deadheads.  But their songs are well written, especially the lyrics.  They are well suited to the folk-rock form.

Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

From 1988. always loved this song. Tight coupling between verse chords and lyrics. Powerful rallying chorus. Hooks throughout. A poignant slice of life if there ever was one. Probably couldn't pull it off solo on the uke because of the lead in the verse and the chorus being driven by the rhythm section.

De Luxe - Lush

link
My favorite band from the 90s, as I've discussed previously.  A wall of sound but in a controlled range of frequencies, not the whole board like so much of today's stuff.  The product with the vocals is a carefully cultivated sound and feel.

Baritone Banjo Ukulele

Thinking about buying one of these.  It's a beautiful instrument and it would be fun to have this sound.

I Wanna Be Adored - The Stone Roses

From 1989.  Simple, throbbing, a song to lose oneself in, as the video seems to illustrate.

A Girl Like Jesus - Right as Rain

link to video
Possibly the most perfect pop song ever. This was from 1998, the band being from the Atlanta scene, which along with Athens ruled the college/alternative pop sound at that time. I got exposed to this song when I was a grad student at Duke from 1989-1995, when I listened avidly to WXDU and WXYC. I might pick this up for my rapidly expanding uke set.

Mental song jamming

I was working on Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" and then Ru-Jun asked me to play "Sundown", which I haven't played in a while. The first line of the verse is similar to "After the Gold Rush", so I couldn't do "Sundown" without listening to it. As a solo performer, it's sometimes hard to get a song clearly into my head enough to start playing it. This happens more often with particular songs than with others.

Subterranean - The Fixx

This band was in popular decline in 1988 when the underappreciated album "Calm Animals" came out. Subterranean is one of my favorites on this very listenable album. I listened to this album as a habit whenever I drove home to Palmyra from the University of Rochester and the song still gives me strong recollections of that time.

Hunter and the Hunted (Live) - Simple Minds

Not quite sure how they pulled this off live so well.  Best song on my favorite album of all time - New Gold Dream 81/82/83/84 (1982).  Saw them live in 85.  I don't think they played this song in that show.

Folson Prison Blues

Here's my cover of the Johnny Cash classic, Folsom Prison Blues.  I have to credit my old bandmate Eric, from Seed Pod 17 and U-Pump, in the Madison days, for my knowledge and appreciation of this song.  He does Johnny much better than I can.

She's Lost Control - Joy Division

A classic, very bass driven.  Probably can't work this up for the uke, though.

Working on learning...

a couple of classics

Clapton's Layla and CSN's Southern Cross

don't know if they'll turn out yet...

Indian Summer - Dream Academy

Thought of these guys for some reason while in the grocery store today.  Very wistful sound from the mid/late 80s.  Here's Indian Summer from 1987.  I remember listening to this while home from college on vacation.

Illegan Alien - Genesis

Some songs are really good despite what their lyrics are about.  Case in point: Illegal Alien, by Genesis.  This was on their eponymous 1983 album, which was extremely good and for represents the high point of the Genesis brand of (by then very poppy, but still original and idiosyncratic) art rock.  It was meant as a lampoon of peoples' stereotypes, and the video really goes over the top with the concept.  This was all OK in the early 80s in both the US and the UK. But I imagine they could not put this out, at least as a band as prominent as they were in the charts back then (a totally different time in pop with totally different chart dynamics, of course).  And the song probably does not get very much air play these days because of the political correctness angle.  Which is too bad, because musically it is a really excellent and inventive piece of pop.