The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

SONG: Staring

SONG: “Staring” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Body of Sea Urchin is One Big Eye,” LiveScience , 28 Dec 2009, as used in the post “Spiny eyes. With legs and mouths.”

ABSTRACT: Floating down. How strange it must be to see always all around you, to be able to move slowly, but never speak or wave or pick up anything – only to watch, only ever to watch.

I remember going snorkeling with my mother as she showed us how the Greeks eat raw sea urchins fresh from the sea. I have eaten uni myself at sushi bars – hopefully they didn’t see me coming.

This should sound more like the Residents. My body keeps staring at you.

Entered on 23 February 2010 at 6:43 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: My Girlfriend’s a Robot (penitential cover)

SONG: “My Girlfriend’s a Robot” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant. Originally done like this.

SOURCE: This is a penitential cover with no specific scientific source. It’s by The Hanson Brothers, who are not these savage hockey players nor this bubblegum pop band, but some kind of combination of the two.

ABSTRACT: This cover involves no hockey, no Ramones and no unnecessary roughness (the only roughness is entirely necessary). It does, however, involve the excesses of love and the passion for the mechanical implied by the original song. I’m not sure how it wound up as a torch song, really – it’s not exactly what I set out to do, really. I just wanted to follow the emotional lead of the lyrics.
Please enjoy it… like you were programmed to.

Entered on 13 February 2010 at 23:01 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: A Tiny Golden Mean

SONG: “A Tiny Golden Mean” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Golden Ratio Discovered in Quantum World: Hidden Symmetry Observed for the First Time in Solid State Matter,” ScienceDaily, 7 Jan 2010, as used in the post “A tiny golden mean”.

ABSTRACT: Since the golden mean is the ratio that supposedly underlies our sense of beauty – the thing that describes the relationships that look or sound “right” to our brains – it was hard to resist this one. I already knew one song (written by this guy) called “Golden Mean,” so it was kind of interesting coming at the thing from a different angle. It seems strange to me that elementary school kids are taught 3.14… but not 1.618…, but I guess that’s human beings all over. Wheels are more important than portraits.

Obviously, this is not the day when this song should have been done (happy Imbolc, by the way). I’m in a new house, on the one hand, but also have a new Christmas condenser microphone, on the other, so all the flaws can shine through with crystal clarity. Yikes! There’s a borrowed banjo in there, and a couple synthy basses, but for the most part it’s the magic microphone sitting there with me playing guitar and singing the decimal places live in the room. I’ve never been mathematically minded, so numbers have a kind of mystique for me, I guess, which is where that chorus came from. The chords for the verses are *sort of* in the golden ratio (I-IV-V, that standard blues progression), but the choruses are a little different. I kind of felt like there should have been more of a mention of frozen magnetic atoms of cobalt niobate, or a diagram of E8, or at least a use of the phrase “quantum critical,” but the words kept going back to the simple fact that there’s a phi inside the atomic world. That’s pretty cool. (Oh, and the bridge about how the golden mean determines where most pop songs’ bridges are located – that was partially inspired by Douglas Hofstadter, who I’ve been rereading lately.)

So, here’s a song about it. Next up, a penitential cover. Mea culpa.

Entered on 2 February 2010 at 6:42 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: Dear Winter.

SONG: “Dear Winter” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Humans Have Hidden Sensory System”, LiveScience (via Yahoo! News), 8 Dec 2009, as used in the post “Skin sense.”

ABSTRACT: So, this is probably the geekiest thing I’ve ever done on here. Here’s an axiom: The longer one puts off recording vocals, the higher the probability of one being physically unable to do them. In this case, laryngitis. I couldn’t even talk, much less sing. So I got a ringer to turn the song into an Arab Strap-style spoken word piece. The well-spoken man’s name is Obadiah. He sounds nice, doesn’t he? He’s one of the speech synthesis voices at the MARY text-to-speech web demo. Other than the fact that “black” and “ask” don’t have an assonance in British English, I was quite happy with him.

The song itself was a confluence of two things. First, I love the idea of a hidden sense that we all have but aren’t normally aware of. Made me think of sense-deprivation tanks and deep meditation. Second, I wanted to write a winter solstice song – one that wasn’t necessarily astronomical or Christmas-oriented.

So. There’s this phenomenon in hypothermia cases. Shortly before the end, some victims will strip off all their clothes, because in a last ditch effort to maintain its temperature, the body dilates all the capillaries in the skin and flushes warm blood from the body core out to the skin and extremities. Suddenly, everything feels warm again. This always struck me as a kind of trick – it’s hard not to think of winter doing this to people with some kind of intent or personality. This song isn’t telling that story – the narrator here isn’t dying of hypothermia – but he is communicating with winter. Somewhere outside. Under the shadows.

LYRICS:
> Dear winter, I closed my eyes the way you asked
> and I stood there in the black
>
> I could barely find the sense of mind to cover up my ears
> Your frozen tears falling on my coat,
> your stinging whispers wound around my throat
> Before it all went numb – and I felt something else come
>
> CH:
> I could see you with my skin, in the movement of the air
> On the longest………. night…….of the year.
>
>
> Dear winter, I can hear you in a way,
> all the silent things you had to say
> While muffled in my gloves and boots,
> and woolen socks and a second-hand snow suit
> Your breath was almost bitter on my tongue,
> as my words hung beneath the sky…
> as something moved, unheard, on high.
>
> CH:
> I could see you with my skin, in the movement of the air
> On the longest………. night…….of the year.
>
> BR:
> The sky opened like a window
> as the night stretched on so widely
> Dear winter, I can’t feel your touch inside me,
> And I am blind. And I am numb.
> But I felt something wordless come
> I can’t begin to say its name, but felt it just the same.
>
> CH:
> I could see you with my skin, in the movement of the air
> On the longest………. night…….of the year.
>

Entered on 23 December 2009 at 17:31 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: A Strong Enough Lie

SONG: “A Strong Enough Lie” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Vanished Persian army said found in desert”, Discovery News, 9 Nov 2009, as used in the post “Like a wolf on the fold. Like an ocean of choking sand.”

ABSTRACT: It’s hard to get more poetic than an invading army swallowed by an angry desert. Even if, as may be the case here, it’s only a story. Yes, there’s a good chance the found army might be a stunt pulled by a couple of exploitation filmmakers. But I’ve built a career on not letting the facts get in the way of a good story, which is kind of apropos to the deaths of the notional army, too, since, after all, they were following orders (a kind of story) and attacking an oracle (who’d been telling the wrong kinds of stories).

So, this song is a story told in the voice of a ghost. It’s supposed to be a little discombobulated because, after all, he’s been dead for more than two millennia. What does he remember? Wanting moist things – red wine, oranges, the fountains of Isfahan, the cloths that she laid on his forehead and arms. And he remembers old fishermen’s tales about weather, and the competing lies of his leaders and their enemies. I guess that much never really changes.

I recorded this with a kid’s guitar tuned to an open C-sharp minor (looow) and some vaguely Middle Eastern soundfonts, to sound like the kind of ghosts you’d find in the Sahara. And I decided to leave my charming daughter’s complaints on the end because, well, how could I resist? Damn grownups with their loud music….

Entered on 23 November 2009 at 6:30 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: Let’s Take the Boat Out

SONG: Let’s Take the Boat Out
_{(To download, double right click and “Save Target As…”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “A Rocket for the 21st Century”, from SEED, 29 Sep 2009, as used in the post “Plasma drive. We have one.” (with necessary allusions to “YOU PUT IN OTHER DETAILS”).

ABSTRACT: First, I should say that I’m definitely bending one of my rules here – the one against “egregious” sampling. I don’t really think this sample is egregious, for one thing, and I think (hope) Mr. Gabriel would agree. I’m certain Mr. Gabriel approves of Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz’s work superheating hydrogen and helium to form plasma, then using magnetic fields to make an invisible bottle that directs the plasma into jets powerful enough to send people to Mars in 39 days, rather than the 8 months conventional chemical rockets would take. (Remember: plasma is scrambled eggs! Also, remember that “Mercy Street” may have been written as a tribute to Anne Sexton, but was really always about the psychological challenges of space flight. Really.)

I also used a vocoder in this, albeit crudely, and referred to the surface of Earth as the shore of an ocean to be crossed, which is totally a concept and recording method used much more artfully in that “A Glorious Dawn” video. Exploration, new horizons, faster ways of getting to places we’ve never been before – that’s all pretty universal stuff, isn’t it? Uh, so to speak.

Entered on 23 October 2009 at 6:34 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: Up, Up, Up_{sub 1}

SONG: Up, Up, Up_sub1.

ABSTRACT:
So, I wrote that song about New Zealand’s not-so-mythical giant eagle, (Harpagornis moorei), but I wasn’t really satisfied with the way the rhythm track came out. And the monks – they didn’t fit once the tempo got halved. That’s the problem with deadlines, even self-imposed ones. Sometimes you just have to get the thing done.

Which is not to say revisions after the fact are out of the question. Here’s a crunchy, Weezer-esque remix. It sounds more like the kind of thing you’d want to hear while being carried away by a flying predator with a 10-foot wingspan. It sounds better than the original (or, if you prefer, the rough draft). I may do another.

Entered on 27 September 2009 at 2:59 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: Up, Up, Up

SONG: “Up, Up, Up.” _{(To download, double right click and “Save Target As…”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Maori legend of man-eating bird is true”, from The Independent, 14 Sep 09, as used in the post “Behold the roc!”

ABSTRACT: I always wanted a pet roc. And I’m sure my pet roc would want me.

Besides guitar and voice recorded late, late at night, I used a Tweakbench VST instrument called “Padawan” as a keyboard in this, and the marvelously bizarre Delay Lama as a background chorus. The words were hard; I had to keep cutting up what I’d already recorded to fit around them.

But I think it’s OK now. A story. A story.

Entered on 23 September 2009 at 8:45 in the Songs file | 1 Observation |  Print

Song: Close Your Eyes

SONG: “Close Your Eyes” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Scary music is spookier with eyes shut “, New Scientist, 28 July 2009, as used in the post “Listen with your eyes closed.”

ABSTRACT: It’s hard to resist songs about studies about music. Especially creepy music. I’d originally thought of doing a mash-up with this song and Lux Aeterna” (and maybe “Jamming” for good measure), but had to make one of those time-based decisions. Quicker to whack in a saz soloist. Just listen with your eyes closed.

Entered on 23 August 2009 at 18:46 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: Like Salamanders Do

SONG: “Like Salamanders Do” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Regenerated legs no big trick for salamanders”, Reuters, 1 July 2009, as used in the post “If salamanders can do it….”

ABSTRACT:
If someone was to walk up to me and offer to replace any body part of mine with a new version, I still think I’d say, “My heart. I need a new one.” Not just because of the cardiomyopathy, either (although really, it’s hard for me to conceptualize the physical problems without the emotional history). A blastema is, if you’ve forgotten, the layer of cells that grows over a wound and eventually shapes itself into a replacement limb.

I spent last weekend in Miami, and there’s a certain genre of music that you still always hear in the chic eateries. It hasn’t changed much, even though over the last decade the restaurants with the lychee-grilled mahi-mahi and disturbing martini menus have mostly moved from South Beach to the Design District. It’s a kind of techno jazz thing with lots of reverb and vaguely Latin rhythms. This song isn’t that genre at all (I don’t think the cool Miami sound has room for lyrics like “my cells were embryonic” or “not maudlin, but modular”), but a lot of the parts kind of came out of it. If you’re going to sing optimistically about growing your heart back, it seems like that kind of music is the way to do it. I suppose I should have been using more drums and a guitar, but instead I stuck with the ukulele. Sounded right. Hope you like it.

Entered on 23 July 2009 at 6:48 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print