Geek Pop: January 2012
This month, we asked you for the weirdest songs you could think of, and here they are. Somehow, whilst striving for "weird", everything got a bit sexy and/or rude, so brace yourselves, listeners.
Here is our extra-weirdo Spotify list for January and here's the one with *everything ever* on it. Download links below.
Walking on the Moon - William Shatner
Quantum Physics (from Quantum Physics/Remarkable medley) - Onion Flavored Rings
FULL PLAY: The Cervival Smear Song (Get on the Bed and Don't Run Away) - Zeph Churchill (YouTube link)
Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the online archive, it's here.
Intro/outro music by Intercontinental Music Lab.
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This month's session cast is our first Twitter-sourced song. It features the talents of Ardie Collins, the man behind the Cooper365 project, in which he wrote, recorded and published a song for every day of 2011. Including this geeky New Year song, that's a new song every day for 366 days! The theme we gave him was "scientific resolutions" - perfect for a New Year podcast. Happy 2012 Geek Poppers!
For more sciencey songs from Ardie, go here. If you have some of your own scientific resolutions, why not post them in the comments or tweet them at us?
THE SONG: My Scientific New Year's Resolutions - Ardie Collins
Live session downloads available here.
Lyrics: Currently being typed up by the lyric fairies...
Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the archive, it's here.
Intro/outro music: Intercontinental Music Lab. Image: @ArdieColl. Click here to sponsor this podcast.
Standard Podcasts [00:06:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (347)(1 ratings) Christmas appeal 2011
Hi folks,
It's that time of year again. On 4th January we have to renew our PRS licence, which is what allows us to keep bringing you all that lurverly music you hear in the Geek Pop Podcast. (Sample some of it on our bumper Spotify list). This year it's even more expensive - we need to find £140. So we're doing our annual push for podcast funds with extra gusto...
PLEEEEEASE put your hands in your pockets and donate your pennies to help us keep doing what we do. Last year our PRS licence was fully funded by you the listener. Let's see if we can do it again.
Everyone who donates will be put in a hat (not literally, of course) and entered into a competition to win a Geek Pop tshirt. Oh, and we will *actually* do a song and dance in the podcast... hopefully that's an enticement, but maybe not... If you just want the tshirt, that will help us too - buy a tshirt from our shop and get free delivery between 27th December and 2nd Jan.
READY TO DONATE? JUST GIVE WHATEVER YOU CAN AFFORD 
KER-CHING! THANK YOU! xx
(1 ratings) Geek Pop: December 2011
Look at that! It's a man wakeboarding with magnesium flares! What a dude!
For more stuff about magnesium, boron and indeed a number of other elements, dive into our Christmas "chemistry" themed podcast, which despite our best efforts actually turned out to be more about the things we hated at school (ahem, the nitrogen cycle), suicide, the water content of pensioners and mince pies. With some chemistry jokes thrown in for good measure. Thanks to Chemistry World and Jim's podcasting students, Jean and Leo, for their contributions.
December's Spotify list has a few extra chemically-oriented tracks, including the rather wonderful Oxygen by Willy Mason. This is the bumper Spotify list for the Geek Pop podcast, featuring all the songs (well, all the not-ridiculously-obscure ones) we've played. And December's download links are below. Happy Christmas one and all!
Rapping the Elements - Oort Kuiper (YouTube link)
Carbon Monoxide - Regina Spektor
Water Leaking, Water Moving - Jeffrey Lewis
FULL PLAY: Chemistry Set - Peter and the Wolf
OH AND! You'll need this spurious link for the Geek Poll.
Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the online archive, it's here.
Intro/outro music by Intercontinental Music Lab.
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Professor Karmadillo is a two-time Geek Pop festival performer and winner of the Graphic Science Most Contrived Rhyme prize in our 2010 songwriting competition
It's a few months shy of two years since I was motivated by Geek Pop to write and record a sciencey song that I'd had going round in my head. That turned into a dream of doing a live show featuring a whole set of science songs, along with visuals and dancing elephants. The other night, I got to turn that dream, sans elephants, into something as tangible as a live show can be, unveiling a set of specially composed songs at Norwich Arts Centre.
As well as a set consisting largely of never-performed-before material, I also had to contend with not having used visuals before in a music show. I arrived early at the venue to work through any issues with the setup... Fun was had with Quicktime on the provided Mac, which decided not to play the audio in the movie files I had brought with me. There was a hurried download of VLC Media Player, which then came up with an interface in Polish... or maybe Hungarian. It certainly wasn't English, Elvish or even Greek to me. Luckily the language of play and stop icons translates across user interfaces.
As this was off my home turf we were reliant on what and whom the blurb in the Norwich Arts Centre brochure and on their website would drag in. As it happened, quite a few families turned up – a slight departure from my usual audience of slightly tipsy University students. Now, while Professor Karmadillo is family friendly show – in that as well as being sans elephants, it is also sans swearing – even the simplest material I had written on Brownian motion catered for GCSE-level plus. GCSE being a qualification that some of the kids looked like they might be a few years away from encountering. I was reminded of John Christopher’s comments in the introduction to his Tripods series, in which he describes the challenge of writing for children – and their legendary short attention spans. Needless to say, the presence of so many young’uns gave me The Fear.
The gig itself was reasonable, with high points and wobbly points – in particular, trying to remember the words towards the end of the set. Definitely could do better. The material's good, but I need to gain some confidence in delivering it all the way through. And having gone on about how challenging it was doing so much new material, the low point for me was one of the songs I have played the most. It’s comedic and not too high level, but when the audience sits in silence at the lines that usually have them rolling, a bit of a “Gosh, this is a tough crowd” mentality creeps in. Having said that, the GCSE-level-plus 'Brownian Motion' was an unexpected high point.
So, some things to chew over, from my own experience and from the reading reviews. The main one being the difference between what I am trying to create and what the audience wants or expects. It was a conscious decision on my part to do an arthouse-pop-meets-high-level-science project, and I deliberately set out not to fit into the teaching science to kids model. The visual developers were given their artistic freedom, leaving me leeway in song and lyric writing to be more indulgent. However, there seems to be a demand for a show aiming at a slightly younger audience. Plus, someone had commented that with a name like Professor Karmadillo they were expecting a costumed kids character!
Anyway, I aim to tie up the arthouse side of things with an album launch in 2012, but am keeping ears and eyes open to inspiration for a show aimed more specifically at kids. And with my own first child due next Spring, it’s almost inevitable.
To this end I'm quite keen to work with live collaborators. So far collaborations have been through the music and visuals. But with a musical and/or stage show in mind, I think it will be crucial to have any collaborators or producers on board from the start. So if you think you’d like to be part of a sciencey music show aimed at young'uns, get in touch!
Like the rain soaked journey down the A11 from Cambridge, Professor Karmadillo has been a bit of a slog at times. But along the way, I'm indulging myself musically and motivating myself to learn more about the amazing world science offers, and (hopefully!) passing on my enthusiasm for both. I'm not quite sure what the destination is for Professor Karmadillo but this trip ain’t over yet.
(1 ratings) 
Onwards with our new two-podcasts-a-month mission. And this month we're bringing you a song specially commissioned by Geek Pop (yes, by us!) for Bright Club Bristol. Hoorah!
We asked Bristol-based musician Lori Campbell to write us something a bit silly for a sciencey sort of show. And well, she's done us proud.
Thanks to Lori's friend John Hendicott for putting all the mics in the right places and to Mr Lori for the inspiration.
THE SONG: The First Time - Lori Campbell
Live session downloads available here.
I can't remember the first time I saw your face, but faces change and so have I I always knew there was something unique about you and I let my curiosity get the better of me This is the first time I have loved an intellectual, mathematical, he always corrects my grammaticals Ever so practical, exceptional, electromagnetical man, who says things like: "The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, but that's not only blue and yellow you see floating high It's a phenomenological phenomenon, a trick of the light... The light is first refracted, entering the surface of the raindrop, reflected off the back of the drop and again refracted as it leaves the drop The overall effect is that the incoming light is reflected back over a wide range of angles, with the most intense light at the angle of 40 to 42 degrees The angle is independent of the size of the drop but it does depend on the refractive index." He's so romantic like that He is an intellectual, mathematical, he always corrects my grammaticals, ever so practical, exceptional, electromagnetical man If science and art could agree to agree that they're fighting the same battle, kind of like you and me Freedom from ignorance, striving for excellence There's a first time for everything - wouldn't you agree? Still I don't know how you ended up with me Because I am idealistic and slightly autistic, artistic and generally I like to risk it I'm hardy but tardy, I have a good heart, I erratically cry and compulsively lie and I can't tell you why I do what I do, I can not find my shoe And I can't tell you how I ended up with, probably can't live without, youSubscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the archive, it's here.
Intro/outro music: Intercontinental Music Lab. Image: Julianna Photopoulos. Click here to sponsor this podcast.
Standard Podcasts [00:09:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (368)(1 ratings) Geek Pop: November 2011
This month's podcast is a chocolate box of geeky treats - songs about dinosaurs, robots, space and... er... baked beans. Hayley wonders what the point of a mayfly is. Jim plays teacher, sending us all off to do our homework like good little children (see below in the Geek Poll). And The Hornblower Brothers do some right proper Northern accents. Lovely.
Here is November's Spotify list. Click here for the bumper list - all the songs we've ever played on the Geek Pop podcast, which is millions. Oh, alright, it's not... but nearly. This month's download links are below:
Here Come the Dinosaurs - MJ Hibbett
Autumn Constellations Song (YouTube link)
Android with a Heart - The Hornblower Brothers
FULL PLAY: His Last Few Days: Mayfly - Mind Map That (Mind Map That link)
Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the online archive, it's here.
Intro/outro music by Intercontinental Music Lab.
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Standard Podcasts [48:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (407)(1 ratings) Hello dear friends. Today we're beginning a trial of a new podcast format, so bear with us. Instead of releasing Geek Pop live sessions on our live sessions page as we have done for the last year, we're going to be releasing them right here in the podcast feed. We'll be sticking to the 5-song format for the regular monthly podcast, which means in total... (maths required)... you get 6 podcasts instead of 5!
In the coming months we hope to be bringing you interviews and all sorts of extra goodies in our live sessions podcasts, but while we get ourselves sorted out, here's a quick one from Nerd Song. Oh, also, they made a little video of it just for us (but you probably already saw that). Thanks to SciCast for alerting us to their genius.
THE SONG: The Particle Zoo - Nerd Song
Live session downloads available here.
People used to think that An atom was fundamentally indivisible Now we really know that Matter is made of 24 different particlesWe've classified these fundamentals Into groups called quarks and leptons 12 in each makes 24
Now, quarks are really kinda strange Because of their gluon exchange They only come in 2s or 3s
Up quark, down quark, strange quark, charm quark, top quark, and a bottom too. These 6 things are all a part of the standard particle zoo
It's time for us to move along From quarks over to the lepton The other fundamental group
Now, half the leptons carry charge The other half, by and large, Don't really interact at all
Electron, muon, tau and corresponding neutrinos too These 6 things are all a part of the standard particle zoo
Some of you may have figured out That particles have been left out Exactly half, to be precise
Each particle has got a twin, An opposite-behaving thing That's called an antiparticle
Every quark and lepton has an antiparticle too These 12 things are all a part of the standard particle zoo
The particles aren't finished yet We've got some things called bosons That are carriers for every force
Electromagnetic and weak and strong Are carried by 4 gauge bosons But gravity is unresolved
Photons, gluons, w and z bosons for force mediation But we haven't yet confirmed the particle for gravitation
People used to think that An atom was fundamentally indivisible Now we really know that Matter is made of 24 different particlesSubscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the online archive, it's here.
Intro/outro music by Intercontinental Music Lab.
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***Contains graphic descriptions of dinosaur sex (heh)***
So it's the MONSTERS podcast that you all voted for and you've made some right good song suggestions for it. Emmy the Great prompts a very frank discussion of stegosaurus sex, Jonathan Richman stumbles across a yeti in the freezer section and we ask whether Jim's sister is an alien. Remember to cast your vote in this month's Geek Poll (below) and enter our Monster Moves competition by emailing crew@geekpop.co.uk
We've made a MONSTER playlist on Spotify, including a bunch of other listener suggestions we collected but couldn't fit on the podcast. Click here for the bumper list of songs played on the podcast. This month's download links for iTunes below:
Abominable Snowman in the Market - Jonathan Richman (YouTube link)
Monsters in the Parasol - Queens of the Stone Age
FULL PLAY: Tianchi Lake - The Mountain Goats
Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the online archive, it's here.
Intro/outro music by Intercontinental Music Lab.
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Image: Toho Company Ltd (1956).
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Time for some topical science-based music on the podcast. This is a special show to coincide with the news that neutrinos *might* be able to travel faster than light, and therefore some of Einstein's theories *might* have been a bit wrong, and therefore time travel *might* be possible... Anyway, thanks to Andrew Pontzen, Geek Pop 2011 alumnus, for making that into a song and sending us a live recording of it. We were so pleased, we had to tell you all straight away.
Don't forget that next month's show is MONSTER themed. Send your song suggestions to crew@geekpop.co.uk
P.S. Sorry for any sound quirks - it was all a bit ad hoc and the usual equipment was on loan...
THE SONG: Spare A Thought - Andrew Pontzen (also on our live sessions page here)
Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the online archive, it's here.
Intro/outro music by Intercontinental Music Lab.
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Image: Andrew Pontzen
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