Swans on Tea

Rockin’ with the Muppets on Sesame Street
Feist, counting to four
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R.E.M. singing “Furry Happy Monsters”
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via Madam Lamb

Musical Relativity at the ArXiv blog
From the paper:
It is known that certain triads sound “happy”, while others sound “sad”.
Why this is so has been a question on minds of many musicologists, composers, musicians and
music lovers for a very long time and theories have been put forward. References to some works in
this area can be found [...]

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via The Quantum Pontiff

Name that tune in three elements
Best song of the 80s? Gold by Spandau Ballet. But it seems that the frilly-collared Spandau boys were far from original in their lyrical choice. According to a survey undertaken by Santiago Alvarez, in the department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona, the most popular elements referred to [...]

Guitarist Bo Diddley dies at 79
“This distinctive, African-based … rhythm pattern (which goes bomp-bomp-bomp bomp-bomp) was picked up by other artists and has been a distinctive and recurring element in rock ‘n’ roll through the decades,” according to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
Guitarist George Thorogood, a Diddley disciple, put it more bluntly.
“[Chuck Berry’s] [...]

On the vagaries of random playlists on the iPod:
The transition from Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” to RHCP’s “Funky Monks” at oh-dark-thirty in the morning, before caffeine and not really fully awake, is a little harsh.
I’m just sayin’

Physics Floundering saved by Disco Parody
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And just like that when I had given up all hope,
I said nope, there’s just one way to find that slope.
And so now I, I will derive.
Find the derivative of x position with respect to time.
It’s as easy as [...]

Pat Metheny on Kenny G
I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like [...]

Cool musical step sequencers that use optical input.

Joan Jett’s “Do You Wanna Touch Me” came up on the exercise playlist this afternoon, and it reminded me of this quote about music:
“All pop music is about sex. Rock is about wanting to do it, jazz is about doing it, and country and western is about feeling guilty after you’ve done it.” - [...]