Thomas J. Webb’s Ecology Blog

Here’s the latest band-collab.net flier. (more…)

Music is in our genes : Nature News

Here is an interesting article on Nature. It’s a study that show a correlation between genetics and singing patterns in African tribes. This reminds me of how me and my dad would joke that we’re good at drumming because of our Afro roots (there are unverified, yet plausible family legends of Sub-Saharan African ancestry on the English side of the family).

The study used an arbitrary set of ways to measure singing patters, such as presence of yodeling, pitch, etc and looks at correlations with geography and with genetics. The strongest relationship was with genetics. Of course, this doesn’t rule out the possibility that culture passed down generations can be more powerful than influence from neighboring tribes especially given that people move around a lot, so it would only add up to noise.

Now, if a child adopted from another tribe had difficulty with his or her host family’s singing style (unlikely, though it was a good gag in The Jerk), this might give credence to the notion that “Music is in our genes” and even to the absurd racialist notion that culture is burnt onto the EEPROM, not installed on the hard drive. That being said, it’s not too far-fetched to think that people who’s ancestors were in tribes that placed greater importance on music in ritual would, on average, have more innate musical talents. The musical sense in general is universal and that would mean that we’ve been doing this stuff as long as, or even before, we were human.

Unfortunately, since it’s been long enough, you need a subscription to Nature to read the article now, but it was free when I read it.

Here’s the latest press release for band-collab.net. When I finish additional features (like the note editor), I’ll do more. Gotta toot your own horn, kids.

Band-collab.net Online Music Collaboration Released with WebDAW™

Wrightwood, CA - - 12/8/2007 - - Osaka Red, LLC officially makes band-collab.net, a web-based platform for collaboration between musicians, available to the public. Band-collab.net promises to revolutionize the way musicians work on music, delivering on great as-yet undelivered promises of the internet. (more…)

Just saw POLYSICS this past Þorr’s day. Man, were they awesome! The lead singer, bounces around like his energy is limitless! The girl on the keys acts exactly like a robot, even when she plays the keys (she moves her arms up and down as if they were controlled by levers). They even have this weird dance routine..

ポリシックスは最高だった！先の木曜日、コンサート見に行った。歌う人は元気がいっぱい。キーボードする女の子はロボットみたいで可愛い。みんなすごく上手だよ。また見に行きたい！！！

Oh yeah, I was gonna tell y’all how cool Current 93 was. I was there both nights, but I tell you the first day was a little better. There were fewer people there (and fewer metalheads for, ugh, Om).

It was kinda funny. The first day before the concert, I approached some darkly clad people afore the concert hall and asked them if they were there to see Current 93. It was visibly pissed I didn’t know who they were Om. Hah!

The first night was awesome. David Tibet shaked like he was possessed for the long introductory part of “Judas as Black Moth.” It added a sort of beat to the violins and pianos. He has such a stage presense and I was right there in the front both nights. Well, my descriptions always manage to make the awesome sound tedious so I’ll stop.

I shall see them this Friday and Saturday. If you haven’t heard of them, they epitomize and define apocalyptic, occult folk music. The central figure is David Tibet, a loony man who makes eerily beautiful lyrics. Anyway, this weekend, ostensibly, is their only US appearance this year and it’s in S-kewl ‘cisco. Good sourdough bread and Little Osaka, here I come.

Those who want “religion” to have a bigger part in peoples’ lives, those who want to “save” their “religion” from extinction do not understand religion at all! The culture war between the little-endians (secularists) and the big-endians (evangelists) has absofuckinglutelynil to do with religion! Those who say people should believe do not understand mystery - in fact, they try to destroy it and science. If only everyone would open their eyes, they would see that religion is alive and well in its last refuge - music.