Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Artichoke "26 Scientists Volume Two Newton - Zeno"
(Greeen) Not in alphabetical oder! Part two of a two volume 26 letter suite honoring renowned and under appreciated heroes of science. This is, of course, the most challenging of the two volumes because they have to tackle a pair of theoreticians who have already been grandly immortalized in song. Of course the art-metal band Tesla actually does write songs about Nikola Tesla, their true inspiration. And of course Olivia Newton John wrote "Physical" about her great, great, great grandfather Sir Isaac (check Wikipedia -- it's true!). I'm happy to say they have put Sacramento's favorite sons and the shame of Australia to shame (further shame in the case of the latter). These are amazing tunes, far more than the cloying cleverness they might be in the hands of They Might Be Giants or Ben Folds. The diverse song stylings, while all pop-perfect, musically adapt to their subjects (though Darwin is not alphabetically included here) and you will drool hearing the driving rock salute to Pavlov and you'll do the twine to the funky Quine. Occam's razor is (musically) sharp! Charles Francis Richter's seismology breakthroughs are simulated with awesome rumbling bass playing (unless this is a tribute to his awesome bass playing, which also works). There's even a bonus 14th track, a spaceout tribute to unknown scientists (or perhaps to unknown science fictionists as it seems to involve flux capacitators). This will blind you!
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