Author: mcshanahan

Listening to music with friends can bring shared laughter and the pleasure of  giving and receiving new musical treasures. Sometimes it leads to disgruntled listening to hair metal bands. Last night was a case of the latter. Continue reading “Apologizing for mocking hair metal, Laika is my peace offering”

The last time I wrote about beat frequencies and harmonies, it was in praise of the smooth consonance of Deep Dark Wood’s Sugar Mama. It’s a song with sweet pleasing harmony and one of my favourite soul soothers to turn to when I need a few moments of calm escape. Today I’m feeling all about the opposite: a Song of the Week in praise of dissonance! Continue reading “In praise of lo-fi dissonance with Eric’s Trip”

Yes, I just served up a 15-minute Song of the Week. And I’m not sorry. An extended Neil Young guitar solo is totally worth it. It really starts to get good around the halfway mark. This thing of beauty, though, owes at least something to a largely unacknowledged pioneer: an electrical engineering student named Sidney Wilson. Continue reading “Neil Young and Sidney Wilson’s winning engineering fair project”

Last week, I got on the topic of replication studies. Dan Mangan’s new EP got me thinking about how our human desire to be pleasantly surprised is one way of thinking about why readers, reviewers and editors often prioritize novel findings over careful verification. This week, I’m pleased to present what I think is my favourite musical example of a replication study. Continue reading “Walking with a Ghost: A Musical replication study”

Dan Mangan is no stranger to using scientific references and metaphors to communicate larger meanings about life. His lovely track About as helpful as you can be without being any help at all uses a quote from science illustrator Charlie Harper to beautiful effect (and was a previous Song of the Week). The song that follows it directly on the album (2011’s Oh Fortune) is called How Darwinian and pivots on the lines I should know better by now/there’s only so much to go around.  Continue reading “Scientists and Dan Mangan both Want To Be Pleasantly Surprised, Not Expectedly Let Down”