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Underground > Creation >

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

grant

17:26 / 23.08.07

I've made this thing. It's a website. It's meant to create FAME and FORTUNE by turning SCIENCE into MUSIC.

So far, I'm the only one turning science into music. But if any of y'all are interested, you should help.

Here:

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours.

Read about the science. Listen to some songs.

Or... just let me know what works, what doesn't and all that stuff. I'm a novice designer, a total lo-fi geek and, in some important ways, dangerously asocial.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

17:45 / 23.08.07

"Have Another Plum" is awesome. It's a privilege to know you, grant.

grant

17:54 / 23.08.07

Awww.

There's another one under the "Songs" tab, too.

electric monk

20:06 / 23.08.07

They're both very cool. And the site is delightful. Well done!

NansiBoy

09:01 / 24.08.07

I came up with this little ditty, which ought to serve to make your gorgeous MFish stylings look even better. Probably go trawling through the magazine section of WH Smiths later looking for some better inspiration.

http://minorcrisis.net/files/Chopping board.wav

grant

14:44 / 24.08.07

MFish? I'm lost on that one.

Is that a ukulele in the background?

I love a uke.

NansiBoy

16:52 / 24.08.07

Magnetic Fieldsish, a World Without Us made me think so much of their sort of style, all except for the drums. Unfortunately not a ukulele, just a guitar being played with sufficient ineptitude to make it sound like it's been castrated, or at any rate mutilated in some way.

grant

17:34 / 24.08.07

That's the best compliment ever.

And your guitar does not sound mutilated! It brings joy.

NansiBoy

18:10 / 24.08.07

Kinda makes you sad for the guy doesn't it? Knowing he can never experience the honour of being compared to himself, must be hard at the top.

I found an article in the New Scientist I reckon I might be able to write a song around, their front page story this issue about the possibility of using the energy given off by humans to power personal devices like iPods and mobile phones, and perhaps even bionic implants one day. Was wondering though what kind of equipment and software do you use for making your recordings? I'm aware that windows sound recorder and a standard desktop mic isn't the most ideal set up, but don't have much idea how to go about bettering the situation.

Chiropteran

20:47 / 24.08.07

This is one of the best ideas ever. I'd take the pledge myself, but my own music tends to be a little too full of "egregious samples." *sigh*

grant

21:14 / 24.08.07

Are they *egregious*??

I mean, like MC Hammer/Rick James egregious?

---

Nansi: You might get a kick out of two Music forum threads - one recent one on recording and another on The Mountain Goats.

Really, a decent mic, some kind of mixer/pre-amp and some program with a record button are all you need to sound good. But (as early Mountain Goats proves) you don't even need that to sound GREAT. That was just one dude with a portable stereo.

At home, I used Garageband going through a big old Tascam mixer (was a pro or "pro-sumer" model in the 80s) until the Powerbook ceased to be. "Beautiful" was recorded through a little Behringer mixer onto a 1997 Compaq running the demoware version of Acid, Soundforge to do the compression, AudioCatalyst to turn wavs to mp3s. I have an SM-7 mic (not SM-57).

Chiropteran

02:01 / 25.08.07

I mean, like MC Hammer/Rick James egregious?

Maybe not that egregious, but probably actionable...

I'm spreading the word around to my song-writing friends, though.

rizla mission

11:55 / 25.08.07

I very much approve of this project, and whilst science as such is not generally my "bag", I will endeavour to come up with something to contribute.... perhaps a vague, metaphysical number about the sad fates of obselete technology or something..?

grant

20:03 / 25.08.07

Science is, to abuse a metaphor, a large church. If you can find some kind of "scientific" coverage of it, then it's fair game. Like plum-eating baboons.

There was actually just something about them realizing they may have discovered life on Mars in the 1970s but missed it at the time - strange chemicals in some Mariner probe or something.

The extinction of the baiji. That'd be sad.

I suppose the Antithykera Mechanism would be a little *too* obsolete, huh?

Anyway, the business is really METAPHOR, so if there's a song ready to be made that needs a little filling in, fill it in with SCIENCE!

Blake Head

00:00 / 27.08.07

Beautiful (Have Another Plum) is, um, beautiful. I mean it's clever and strangely, bittersweetly funny as well, but it's beautifully sad. What Matt said really.

Leigh Monster loses its cool

20:38 / 28.08.07

Grant, how would you feel about it if I asked to do a cover of Beautiful? with voice and cello?

grant

20:56 / 28.08.07

Flattered. Go and do.

Leigh Monster loses its cool

21:01 / 28.08.07

huzzah! I'm on it!

Saint Keggers

21:27 / 28.08.07

Leigh, you should post it here. In this thread.

grant

Lab thread!!!!

I'd join if I had the slightest whiff of an iota of musical talent.

rizla mission

07:48 / 30.11.07

This would seem like a good moment to mention how much I'm enjoying the site purely as a weird science blog... keep it coming Grant, and if there are songs, all the better.

electric monk

14:36 / 28.03.08

*bump*

Just catching up today after not checking the blog for a while. Damn, you've been productive! And you covered "First Man in Space"! Can't wait to hear that one.

BTW, have you considered doing a song about the Doomsday Seed Vault?

grant

17:07 / 28.03.08

Oh, dear.

That cover should come with some sort of "lo-fi nightmare" warning. It really was penitential.

You should see the instrument that sounds like a harmonica. It's an amazing thing to behold. Can't get it to make a proper scale at all, but it looks awesome.

The seed vault really would make for a good song, wouldn't it?

electric monk

04:07 / 28.05.08

You magnificent bastard! You made a Doomsday Seed Vault song. Can't wait to hear it. I'll download it tomorrow on the hyperspeed work connection and play it for my co-workers.

Also, "1st Man is Space" was...odd...on first listen, but I was digging it after the second. The down tempo penitence works well with the lyrics.

grant

14:13 / 28.05.08

Many of these songs don't turn out the way I want them to. I kind of think of them as rough drafts, in a way. Some of them surprise me after a few listens, though.

grant

14:22 / 28.05.08

Which is really just a hedgey sort of way to say I kinda wish someone with a voice could cover them someday.

grant

12:27 / 03.06.08

I... I just made another penitential cover.

It's by... it's by SMOG.

I'm so sorry.

grant

14:12 / 21.07.08

Blogger's Choice Award? Oh, why not.

electric monk

15:35 / 19.06.09

The songs just get better and better, g, and the latest batch are among the most head-sticky of the lot (especially "Iguana Rosada" and "Mama Never Taught Me"). Very much enjoying them, and knowing that I will eventually have to sign up on WordPress to make with the commenting.

And BTW, did you see this?

James Watson and Descartes were hip to it. Song-tential!

grant

17:10 / 22.06.09

Oh, aces! Thanks!!!

(And really, it's just registering on the site itself - it uses WP software but isn't on the WordPress site.)

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