A great tribute to DIY science: two Canadian teenagers designed a balloon with cameras that ascended into the fringes of the atmosphere, recording cool images and then plummeting back to Earth. That link has a great video summary.
Guilty ’80s pleasure uncovered: The Front
26 January 2012Oh wow. I found an old friend.
Back in the ’80s I belonged to mail-order music club Columbia House. I belonged several times, in fact; the presumptive plan was to join for their massive “several albums for a penny” entry deal, fulfil the minimum commitment of a few albums at full cost plus shipping, then quit and join again. I was with them during tapes, and remained during the CD era for a little while.
At some point I somehow picked up a self-titled album by a band called The Front. I don’t remember how I chose it. I knew nothing about the band. But I enjoyed the album. It was fairly cheesy hard rock. It was very close to The Cult, but with some slower grooves – plus a singer’s voice – that are a lot like The Doors. I played it a lot.
I never did learn any more about The Front. Eventually I got rid of the CD. I think I might have traded it to my brother for something, I’m not sure.
But I’ve thought about the album a lot over the years. As the Internet grew in scale I would occasionally look for it. But I never found anything. There were a couple of obscure bands with that name, it seems.
That changed this morning.
I did a Grooveshark search for The Front, and the second song it brought up was called “In The Garden”. That immediately triggered a memory of a track from the album I had. Sure enough, it was a song from that now fondly-remembered album.
From there I was able to find more songs, including that whole first album, which I’ve playlisted on Grooveshark. God, it’s cheesy. Awesomely, nostalgic-ly cheesy. I also found out that The Front were from Kansas City, and (clearly) had a short, obscure career. They renamed themselves Baker’s Pink, and the singer eventually went solo. I’m not going to bother with any of that. I’m just going to jam to the awesomeness of listening to these songs and pretending I’m a teenager listening to them for the first time.
Cloud quantum computing could be just as secure
23 January 2012Cloud computing is using (possibly renting) computing power elsewhere via the internet.
Quantum computing is using the seemingly-odd behaviour of quantum mechanics to do computations in parallel, thereby multiplying computing speeds.
Some dudes have written a paper about research they’re doing into whether quantum computers could do calculations in the cloud securely.
That is pretty seriously cool.
Sydney Festival: 41 Strings
23 January 2012Last night was another Sydney Festival event: 41 Strings, an orchestral piece by Nick Zinner, guitarist of the rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, based on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. I know that’s a lot of cultural references to take in at once, but bear with me.
It was at the Opera House. It started with a drum piece, IIII, created by some of the drummers that also perform with Zinner. It’s also based on Four Seasons. There were a couple of dozen percussionists and two synth players, all arranged in the round. And my god, it was a thundering, impressive bit of playing. The rhythms weren’t super complicated – I imagine that would be hard with such an ensemble – but they were mesmerising. There was a lot of heavy crunch from the synths, of the sort that the Brooklyn bands have been producing in the last couple of years. It was cool and heavy and jubilant and compelling. I loved it.
Then came Zinner, his 40 other stringed accompanists (including a large contingent from the Australia Youth Orchestra) and a few drums. The four pieces were a blend of classic and contemporary – the lead guitar unmistakable Yeah Yeah Yeahs sound – and none were dull. In reflection perhaps it could have had more slow, quiet pieces. But it was certainly a big, lush sound, and one that was easy to engage with.
I liked both pieces, but I think that IIII affected me more. There’s something about that many drums, that much booming rhythm, that affects me primally.
Neither work instrumental work overstays its welcome; the whole show was over in 90 minutes, including an intermission. But that worked for me. Any longer would have devolved into stuffiness.
Sydney Festival: Asa and Féfé
19 January 2012Last night was my third Sydney Festival event. It was a gig, part of the festival’s So Frenchy, So Chic series, and took place at the Keystone Bar at Hyde Park Barracks. I like that as a festival venue: it’s downtown and feels busy, and has a good mix of semi-indoor (in the tent) and outdoor areas that flow very well.
First was Asa, whose gentle, jazzy set was pretty average for the first few songs. But the groove and impact picked up as she went on. Her soulful songs – part R&B, part rock – became catchier and punchier. And she’s irresistibly likeable herself: she dances, she plays the trumpet, she chats with the front row, and she looks like a funky librarian.
Soon followed Féfé. He and his band were fun from the start. They play hip-hop with lots of pop and funk. And he will not leave the crowd alone: the (moderately obliging) assembled listeners had to do our fair share of hand waving, clapping, jumping, singing, running left and right, and screaming. That almost all of the songs were in French was fine. Between Féfé and his DJ there was lots of energy going on, and the point was clear: have fun.
Sydney Festival: Band of Gypsies
13 January 2012Last night was a hyper-joyful night of Sydney Festival folk music at the Enmore Theatre.
The first act – which I did not know about – was of a style called Shangaan Electro, hyper-fast electro dance from South Africa. The group of four dancers and singers, and one DJ, carried on the most hyperkinetic dancing I’ve ever seen for a solid 30 minutes. It was dizzying and tiring to watch. The dancers moved with such joy you couldn’t look away; it also helped that the men wore orange jumpsuits with ridiculously fake beer bellies. The beats flew at breakneck speed. It became almost psychedelic.
The main acts, collectively named Band of Gypsies, were comprised of Romanian folk troupe Taraf de Haïdouks and Macedonian brass band Kočani orkestar. They played song after song of gypsy music: wild violins, three accordions, tubas, clarinets, and lots more. It was a Balkan/middle eastern/Slavic/Latin amalgam of high-energy Romani epics. Bows were flying, fingers were snapping, trumpets were blaring. Everyone took their solos, and a few would occasionally sing. It was irrepressibly jubilant. It was the gypsy spirit.
It’s hard for me to imagine seeing either of these sort of acts here at any other time. Way to go, Sydney Festival.
Newfoundland Showcase at Notes
6 January 2012The Woodford Folk Festival takes place in Queensland between Christmas and New Year’s each year. This time it was attended by a contingent of folk acts from eastern Canada (mostly Newfoundland & Labrador, though a couple from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island as well).
I didn’t get up to Woodford, but I did notice that those Canadian acts were doing a Newfoundland showcase night at the tiny Notes venue here in Newtown (which has a tradition of booking folk and roots acts), on their way out of Oz. So last night I got the chance to see several Canadian acts – all new to me – for just $15, and ten minutes from home. As a certain Mr. Sheen would say: winning.
Ron Hynes
I dragged along a few Aussie friends, snagged one of the last tables, and settled in for some listening. Seven acts played, pretty much non-stop through the evening.
I came in most of the way through the first set, by a couple of members of The Dardenelles. Very quiet, very pretty guitar tunes.
Next was Ennis, a group taking the surname of centrepiece sisters Maureen and Karen. The Celtic influence started in earnest here. They played some guitar and mandolin songs, harmonised as sisters can, told a few jokes, and brought out a sheet of plywood for some stepdancing.
Dwayne & Duane followed: that’s be Cape Breton fiddler Dwayne Coté and Newfie guitarist Duane Andrews. Things jumped up a notch at this point. Both were impressive masters of their instruments, especially Coté. They ranged all over the place, playing Irish reels and Django Reinhardt swing. Very cool.
Ron Hynes was next, and was the only name I sort of knew. He’s been recording since 1972, and is a minor legend in Canadian folk circles. Maybe a major legend if you count the people who know he wrote “Sonny’s Dream”, a very popular Atlantic Canadian tune (also the last song he played, and the only one of the night that some crowd members could sing along to). But I thought his best song was “Dry”. Hynes is one of those guys who must be a great songwriter, because neither he nor his voice are pretty (cf. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits).
Richard Wood is a fiddler from PEI; he was accompanied last night by guitarist and singer (and fellow Islander) Gordon Belsher. They brought a lot of energy to the night, with upbeat fiddle folk-pop. We were initially concerned by Woods’ Nickelback-hair-and-tight-pants look, but he delivered the musical goods. Anyone riffing Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” into a folk night is alright by me.
Next was The Once. They had both feet firmly planted in the Irish sea shanty tradition. Singer Geraldine Hollett had a forceful but calming delivery, and the group harmonised exceptionally well. They also played one of my very favourite songs by the great Stan Rogers, “The Maid On The Shore”.
Last was Sherman Downey & The Silver Lining. They were a full-on folk rock band. They were smooth and catchy and laid back, just a bunch of guys having fun playing songs. And they had an electric banjo, which is kinda cool.
Way to go, Newfies. You put on a super show. And you made me pretty homesick for a night.
The Best of Starts With A Bang: Top 10 for 2011
31 December 2011Starts With a Bang is my favourite science blog. Ethan does a great job of spelling out, in (literally) graphic detail, all sorts of difficult but fundamental topics. He’s very prolific and funny, too.
Here are his top 10 science stories of the year, as described on his blog:
- We Think Our Universe is Just One Tiny Bit of a Multiverse.
- How the Entire Universe Could Have Come From Nothing, to Give Us Everything!
- The First Atoms ever Formed in the Universe: Found, Direct from the Big Bang!
- The James Webb Space Telescope: Saved from the Brink of Termination.
- The Smallest Mini-Galaxy in the Universe: its Discovery and its Dark Matter.
- Why Claims of Cold Fusion Don’t Stand Up to Science.
- The Closest Supernova to us in a Generation.
- The Saga of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos: Are They Real?
- The First Earth-like Exoplanets: Habitability and Size-wise.
- The Large Hadron Collider’s First Evidence for the Higgs.
The Beards + Claire + Matt Andersen at The Vanguard
23 December 2011Earlier this week I went to a gig The Vanguard, in Newtown, for the first time. It’s a pretty cool little venue.
First up was Matt Andersen, the massive Canadian blues guitarist I’ve already seen twice as he’s toured Australia. He displayed the same pyrotechnics as before; maybe a bit more, as he was the first opening act. The crowd seemed to think it was cool, though a lot of them remained sitting on the floor, which I found a bit odd.
Second was Claire, a relatively new and very young Australian act. Heavy art rock, sort of. Modern, and theatrical, but not emotional enough for me after seeing Matt. The crowd stood up, though.
Finally it was The Beards in their last show of the year. They were as tight and hooky and beard-y as the first time I saw them. You’ve got to have chops if you’re going to be successful as a one-joke band, but they really do it.
Here it is again, because you need to hear it: “You Should Consider Having Sex With a Bearded Man”. Listen, then vote it into triple j’s Hottest 100.
Still got the blues: Claude Hay and Matt Andersen at The Beaches
19 December 2011The other week I saw Aussie one-man blues band Claude Hay and Canadian acoustic blues guitar wizard Matt Andersen. We thought they were good enough to see again, and so Sunday afternoon we drove down the coast.
They played an early evening set at The Beaches, a popular pub in the seaside town of Thirroul. And it was a free show!
They were as good as the first time. Hay’s set was exactly the same, I think, but I’m still amazed at the stomping jams he can create with that loop machine. And I love his bass lines.
Andersen mixed it up a bit more, and we got a couple of crowd-pleasing covers (including “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “People Get Ready”). In fact, the crowd was so pleased they cheered him back for two encores.
As luck would have it, I’ve discovered that I’m going to get to see Andersen yet again before he returns to Canada. I’ve just noticed that he’s going to open for The Beards, another band I can’t get enough of, in Newtown on Wednesday night. And since Andersen is now rocking a beard, that fits perfectly.
Matt Andersen. Photo from QuinteLive Magazine.
NASA gives nod to first private spaceflight to ISS
12 December 2011A private U.S. company will attempt the first-ever commercial cargo run to the International Space Station next year.
NASA announced the news Friday, one year and one day after Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, became the first private business to launch a capsule into orbit and return it safely to Earth.
On Feb. 7, SpaceX will attempt another orbital flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This time, the unmanned Dragon capsule will fly to the space station and dock with a load of supplies.
Claude Hay and Matt Andersen live at the Brass Monkey
11 December 2011We got an early Christmas present from my mom, who tipped us off to the fact that Canadian blues guitar wizard Matt Andersen was touring Australia. So last Thursday we took the train down to Cronulla’s Brass Monkey to see him.
It’s a co-headlining tour of two stringed-instrument masters. First up was Claude Hay. First impressions were of a stereotypical Blue Mountains muso: tattooed, semi-hippy, happy, and multi-instrumentalist.
Second impressions: a fantastic Louisiana-blues-based one-man-band. Hay played a twin guitar (lead and bass) he made himself, and a tricked-out sitar. He utilised a loop machine to lay down his own backing tracks, then jammed over top. His kick-drum and kazoo and bongo rounded things out. I thought he was fantastic.
With only a few moment’s changeover Andersen got on stage. First impressions: my god, that is a huge man.
Second impressions: wow, that guy is an amazing guitarist and singer. He sits and plays his acoustic six-string alone, with no other accompaniment. There are no effects pedals or backing tracks, just his fretwork frenzy and his massive blues howl. The songs are, to be fair, pretty ordinary, both lyrically and melodically. But the power of the voice from the man, who must be 180 kg, and the speed and passion from the fingers on the strings, are pretty damn impressive.
We’re going to go see Hay and Andersen again next weekend when they play at the Beaches Hotel in Thirroul down the coast. Thanks, mom!
Google Adds Graphical Math Calculator To Search Results
6 December 2011This is awesome! Enter a function in Google’s search bar and it’ll display that function plotted on a graph.
RocKwiz Christmas tour
4 December 2011I went to a live show of Aussie funny music TV quiz show RocKwiz on Friday night, at Sydney’s State Theatre. It was hilarious.
When I bought the tickets I’d assumed that it was a taping for a Christmas show, but it turns out that it was just a live show, done in a similar style to the TV programme, but all around Australia at this time of year.
It was just as silly, irreverent, music-geeky, Julia Zemiro-hot as the show. They randomly selected quizzers from the crowd (not me, dammit), interspersed the show with musical acts by artists whom I didn’t know (but who were good), and had lots of funny jokes and banter from Julia and Brian Nankervis. They wound up with some hilarious folks from the crowd (once they’d weeded out the drunks) who not only knew their music facts, but weren’t afraid to have a laugh or to throw down some karaoke.
The one exception to the “who is this performer, anyway?” rule was Jon English, who belted out some bits from Jesus Christ Superstar, and was very funny on the quiz panel.
RocKwiz takes music seriously, but it isn’t at all serious about doing so. That results in a great night for like-minded people. Like me.
Rebecca Barnard, Shellie Morris, Jon English, Julia Zemiro, Ross Wilson. Photo from jeaneeem via Creative Commons license
The Beards to play Newtown’s Vanguard
22 November 2011My obsession with Adelaide beard-rockers The Beards has not yet run its course.
The hirsute band are playing at The Vanguard in Newtown on Wednesday 21-Dec. I’m going. I’ve convinced four people to go. You should come too.
Harvest Festival Sydney
17 November 2011Last Sunday – after flying back from Spain – I went to Harvest Festival in Sydney. It was a good day out, and a great way to stave off jetlag.
It was a very chilled, hippie vibe out in Parramatta Park. With no under-18s, it was a fairly grown-up gathering. It was never ridiculously crowded or annoying. It was, as it was billed, civilized and relaxed.
I got to see:
- TV On The Radio (Fantastic, once their sound guy got things levelled out)
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Rub Your Hands Say Meh)
- Bright Eyes (just a bit, which was enough)
- Mogwai (good as always, and a great soundtrack for laying on your back in the grass and watching the sky; chattier than normal)
- The National (just a bit, they weren’t as god as I’d hoped)
- The Flaming Lips (always a super experience; I welled up during ‘Do You Realize’, like I always do)
- Portishead (only a bit, as the jetlag finally caught up; good, but a super downer after The Lips)
The Flaming Lips explode onstage. flickr photo from gunslingr
Quantum locking makes for a cool levitation video
23 October 2011Check this out. This is not a special effect. This is a quantum effect, made possible by magnetic flux tubes through imperfections in a very thin superconducting film. Be astonished, then read about it here.
New Tom Waits album later this month
1 October 2011
Alice Cooper at the Enmore Theatre
27 September 2011Last night was living legend night: Alice Cooper. I’ve never before seen the master of shock rock, the inventor of gig theatre spectacle, play live. But last night I saw a wrinkled, potbellied 63-year old do everything that rock ‘n’ roll is about.
Nice hat. Image from sezzles via Creative Commons license.
It’s always been clear to me that the best rock is big, dumb (but in a clever tongue-in-cheek way), brash, and ugly. And that’s Alice and his live show to a tee. He’s undoubtedly doing it by numbers now, but those numbers are hilariously bizarre and catchy. No one can tell me that “I’m Eighteen” isn’t one of the best rock songs ever recorded: it perfectly expresses the youth and alienation we’ve all felt.
He’s doing the same songs every night on this tour, but I thought it was a pretty good selection. Alice knows when his golden era was, and half of the songs come from Billion Dollar Babies, Killer, and Welcome To My Nightmare.
Highlights: opener “The Black Widow” with eight-legged jacket; “Only Women Bleed” followed by “Cold Ethyl” (with a loved/abused mannequin the object of Alice’s crooning); a full psychedelic version of “Halo Of Flies”; a monster-stomping “Feed My Frankenstein”; “I’m Eighteen”; the metal tune “Brutal Planet”; a selection from his New Wave phase, “Clones (We’re All)”.
What didn’t work: I’ve never liked the song “Billion Dollar Babies”; “Hey Stoopid”; the guitar mix (there were three) was pretty muddy, and the sound board often didn’t switch in time with the solos.
Alice sounded better than I expected, not that he ever had dulcet tones. He strutted, and swirled his cane, and was decapitated, and brandished a sword, and impaled a music journalist, and did all the amazing rock spectacle things that we wanted from an Alice Cooper show. Sure, a lot of it would be considered trite if someone else did it, but he invented this stuff.
The lesson: be more creative, and don’t take yourself too seriously. And songs about loving dead people are big crowd-pleasers.
