As a companion piece to Steve Albini’s famous rant about how the pop music industry systematically screws its artist, theToo Much Joy blog provides a look at their royalty statement: I got something in the mail last week I’d been wanting for years: a Too Much Joy royalty statement from Warner Brothers that finally included… Continue reading Why the Record Industry Sucks, Aleph-nought in a Series
Category: Music
Poll: Holiday (Music) in Hell
The Onion kindly provided this Patton Oswalt demolition of the “Christmas Shoes” song. while it’s funny, it is a reminder that we have reached the time of year when radio stations across the country will begin inflicting holiday “cheer” on their listeners. which seems like an excellent subject for a poll: Which of these holiday… Continue reading Poll: Holiday (Music) in Hell
An Important Public Service Announcement
If you want to be a musician, there are some simple rules you must follow: And now you know…
The Internet Is a Weird and Wonderful Place
Via somebody on a mailing list, Eric Whiteacre’s virtual choir: The post I got this from doesn’t contain any details, nor does it contain useful links to the making of this particular video, but looking around the top level of the blog it’s fairly clear that this was put together from a large number of… Continue reading The Internet Is a Weird and Wonderful Place
Sports and Music Poll: Super Bowl LIV
I’ve been up late all this week grading things, and I have lab all morning, so I’m not going to do any detailed blogging about subtle aspects of physics. So here’s something from the pop culture side: I was listening to Bill Simmons’s ESPN podcast with Chuck Klosterman yesterday, and at one point, they talk… Continue reading Sports and Music Poll: Super Bowl LIV
Two-Word Lyrics Quiz #7
I was up until almost midnight grading labs, and I have forty-odd grant proposals to read today, so I’m going to be unplugging from the Internet and working on, well, work. For entertainment while I’m paying for my procrastination, here’s another two-word lyrics quiz. These two-word phrases each uniquely identify a pop song (I hope).… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics Quiz #7
Two-Word Lyrics Quiz #6
(I think that’s the right number…) I’ve got a ton of stuff to do today, and it’s the last Friday of summer, so here’s a little light entertainment. As in previous editions, each of the two-word phrases on the list below should hopefully uniquely identify one pop song. If you think you recognize the song,… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics Quiz #6
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, SPAC 8/25/09
For my birthday, my parents got me two tickets to see Bruce Springsteen play in Saratoga Springs last night. The idea was that Kate and I would go, and they would come up and spend an evening with the grandbaby. Unfortunately, Kate had some sort of intestinal bug (which I now have, joy), and couldn’t… Continue reading Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, SPAC 8/25/09
The Importance of Distraction
Kate recently signed up for Facebook, and I was talking to her earlier about some of the options for wasting tons of time entertaining yourself with Facebook, and mentioned the ever-popular trivia quizzes and “personality tests” and the like. Of course, I had to caution her that most of the quizzes are really lame, because… Continue reading The Importance of Distraction
Two-Word Lyrics: Proper Name Edition
I should queue up some more PNAS posts, but I think I’m going to save a bunch of them for when we’re at Worldcon. And I do have more serious science-related stuff that I’ve marked to talk about, but it’s Friday, and everybody could use a break. So here’s a silly pop-music thing instead. As… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics: Proper Name Edition