A Few Good Shows: 9/28/12
September 28, 2012
Yet another show-filled weekend is in store for Nashville. We have a very good mix of touring acts and local shows to choose from, so choose wisely. Here’s what I recommend:
FRIDAY:
Wild Nothing, DIIV, and Ponychase @ Exit/In. 9pm $10
Polica and Canon Blue @ the High Watt. 9pm $12 adv/$14 DoS
QDP @ the 5 Spot. 9pm $1
Celebrate the City ft. Cherub, Rubblebucket, and Reptar @ War Memorial Auditorium. 7pm $15
The Blind Shake, Fancytramp, and Prince Coyote & the Dogmen @ The End. 9pm $7
SATURDAY:
Stars, Diamond Rings, and California Wives @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $18 adv/$20 DoS
Circuit Bender’s Ball @ Brick Factory ft. Roth Mobot, Blight Side of Life, Brain Lesion, Elegant Bassterds, Pineapple Explode & more. $15 (This is part of a very cool all-day workshop/educational experience/performance event. For full details check out the Brick Factory Facebook.)
PseudoMoto Rally @ Zombie Shop ft. daytime rally ride & bike contests, music at 6pm ft. Ranch Ghost, Ben Spinks Supermelt, Acorn Bcorn, Ri¢hie, and Lantern.
SUNDAY:
Sunday School Presents: NUDITY, The Maloneys, and Be My Doppleganger @ The End. 9pm FREE
Nick Waterhouse w/ The Allah-Las and DJ Jacob Jones of Keep on Movin’ @ the High Watt. 8pm $10
Daredevil Felix Baumgartner gets go-ahead for supersonic skydive
September 27, 2012
Image via Discovery News
From the department of “Is This Guy Totally Insane or Totally Badass or Both?” daredevil Felix Baumgartner is finally ready to attempt the world-record breaking skydive for which he’s been training and planning for many years. The Red Bull sponsored event is scheduled to take place Oct. 8th in New Mexico, weather permitting. Statistically early fall is the best time of year for balloon launches and other such experiments and atmospheric shenanigans. If successful, Baumgartner will become the first human to freefall faster than the speed of sound. He will also set the record for the highest skydive, jumping from an altitude of 120,000 feet. This is high enough that his capsule must be enclosed and pressurized, and his suit must be pressurized as well, all while being able to withstand the stresses of supersonic freefall. Just sit back and let that sink in for a while. The guy is jumping out of a balloon capsule at 120,000 feet and will freefall at roughly 700 mph or even faster.
On the surface the whole thing seems like a really expensive adrenaline rush, but it’s really much more. The technological advances required to build his dive suit, and the medical knowledge gained by the close monitoring if his body and vital signs during the freefall, all will contribute to future spacesuit designs and other areas of space exploration and human spaceflight. I’m really looking forward to October 8th, and hope the weather is good for them. (Via Discovery News)
Forget Cassettes returns to the spotlight with “O Cursa”
September 27, 2012
The name Forget Cassettes may not be as meaningful for those not familiar with the Nashville indie rock scene of the mid-aughts, but if you are one of those unfamiliar, you’d be doing yourself a favor to change that. I was a big fan of most of the Nashville bands on the Theory 8 Records roster back in those days, and Forget Cassettes was one of them. Their debut Instruments of Action from 2003 is still a fave of mine. In 2006 Salt featured a new 3-piece lineup and was also a fantastic record. Beth Cameron, the force behind FC, started work on this new album roughly 3 years ago, if memory serves. There were plans to release it under a couple of different names but ultimately she has come full-circle and arrived back at Forget Cassettes. I know she’s put countless hours and poured her heart and soul into this album, as is the case with everything she does, so I really look forward to hearing it.
The album as a whole won’t be officially released until January 2013, but leading up to it are three digital-only EPs consisting of songs from the album. Full details can be seen at her new website. Welcome back, Beth!
A Few Good Shows: 9/21/12
September 21, 2012
First of all, I want to wish Ben Todd & his crew at Nashville’s Dead a happy third birthday. They celebrated last night at Zombie Shop with Ty Segall, The Oh Sees, and a top-notch list of local support. I wish I could go to big shows like that on weeknights but my job schedule prohibits it most of the time. But if you didn’t party yourself silly with Nashville’s Dead last night, here’s a rundown of what looks interesting to me this weekend.
FRIDAY:
Mystery Twins, Grand Strand (ft. Kelley Anderson formerly of Those Darlins), Dirty Dreams @ The 5 Spot. 9pm/$5/21+
Maps & Atlases w/ Cory Brannan @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm/$12
SATURDAY:
Nick Lowe and Eleni Mandell @ Mercy Lounge. 8pm/$20
Majestico Love is God 7″ release party w/ Ranch Ghost, Promised Land, and Western Medicine @ The Groove Record Store. 4pm/FREE
SUNDAY:
Sunday School presents: Cry Baby, Tower Defense, Meadownoise, and NORM @ Exit/In. 7pm/FREE
That’s it. Have a great weekend!
Oh Shit: Soundland postponed till 2013
September 21, 2012
From the department of OH SHIT: Soundland is postponed until 2013. Straight from the horse’s mouth:
We’ve been so excited to bring you an all-new outdoor SoundLand experience in 2012 and have been working for months on creating a one-day extravaganza Oct. 6th at The Lawn at Riverfront Park. Unfortunately, issues out of everyone’s control have caused us to put this vision on hold until 2013.
Ticket buyers: check your email for details.
Well that sucks. I think the idea behind Next Big Nashville and Soundland is a great one, and I think their mission is not over. So don’t fear- I have no doubt they’ll be back next year with a bigger and better festival. Also, there are still plenty of good events happening on that weekend:
PS – we will still have some great shows happening over the original SoundLand weekend with JD McPherson, Jonny Corndawg, Generationals, The Tontons, HUSTLE: The Biggest Dance Party of the Year, and others. Stay tuned here in the coming days for details.
Personally, I’m a fan of Generationals and will make an effort to see them wherever they end up playing. And that HUSTLE dance party will be off the chain- it’s all of this town’s finest dance party producers all in one night/event. That’s an OH SHIT in the good way.
Warp Drives and Fire Tornadoes: your daily dose of awesome
September 20, 2012
What could possibly be more awesome than a TORNADO MADE OF FIRE?!? Not much. This is a spectacular natural phenomenon that occurs in wildfires. It’s the same atmospheric process that causes dust devils- the difference here is that the strong updraft is from the heat of the fire, so it’s much more intense than a normal dust devil. The hot air rises rapidly and the surrounding winds happen to be flowing into the updraft at just the right angles so that the rising column of air gets a twist. From there the law of conservation of angular momentum takes over and the vortex becomes self-sustaining. This one was captured recently in Australia.
Also from the department of TOTALLY AWESOME: Warp Drives (like the ones they used in Star Trek) may actually be much closer to reality than ever thought. NASA physicist Dr. Harold White has recently done some tweaking of the theoretical design of the famous Alcubierre Warp Drive, originally proposed in 1994 by physicist Miguel Alcubierre. The original design, while theoretically possible, was completely impractical because it required more energy than a human mind can comprehend. But with Dr. White’s tweaks, the amount of energy required to run this thing suddenly became more plausible. Essentially the ship would be able to travel much faster than light, without actually traveling faster than light. It does this by literally compressing a region of space-time ahead of it and expanding a region behind it. The ship itself is in a bubble in which it never breaks the speed of light relative to the space-time it’s in. Think of it like surfing a wave of space-time. Granted, the amount of energy require to run the Warp Drive is still roughly equivalent to 1.5 million Hiroshima bombs, but with a little antimatter (about 500 kilograms) that number is not out of reach. The problem is that the idea hasn’t been tested in real life. So Dr. White and his team are currently attempting to actually warp space-time on a microscopic scale in their lab. Take a moment to digest that. Right now, we are attempting to warp space-time in a lab. It doesn’t get much more awesome than that. For more info on how the drive actually works check out this article on Extreme Tech or this article on Discovery News.
New Breakbot video/”By Your Side” album out now!
September 19, 2012
That’s the awesome new video for first single from Breakbot’s new album “By Your Side,” which is out now via iTunes and Beatport. I’ve made it quite clear before how much I love Breakbot, but let me say it again: I FUCKING LOVE BREAKBOT. Everything the dude touches turns to pure chill-funk gold. Has anyone used chill-funk before? Surely someone has… but I’ve never seen it, so for now I’m gonna claim it. This video is 
just about everything you’d expect from Breakbot- a hot girl in a vintage car, driving on a breezy road, etc… but toward the end it gets a little odd. In a good way. Just watch it, and make sure it’s on HD. As I said, the album is out now on iTunes and Beatport. Ed Banger is notoriously finicky about the timing of their releases on various platforms, so who knows when/if it’ll show up on Spotify.
A Few Good Shows: 9/14/12
September 14, 2012
It’s a rock explosion, get it?
This weekend, specifically tonight, is a Nashville rock show explosion. Shit’s officially gettin’ crazy. But this is a good problem to have. I’d much rather be stressed about which awesome band or show to see, than be sad and depressed that no good tours are coming through town. Here are some shows that I’d see… now if I could only clone myself and see them all….
FRIDAY:
Built To Spill, Helvetia, Sister Crayon @ Exit/In. 9pm $20 (SOLD OUT)
Metric, w/ Half Moon Run @ The Ryman. 7:30pm $30
Makeup & Vanity Set, Sugar Sk*-*lls, Robocotopus, and Afrosaxon @ Richland Ballrom. (4208 Murphy Rd.) $3
Little Bandit EP release w/ Derek Hoke and Birdcloud @ The 5 Spot. 9pm $5 21+
The Biddies, Phil Hummer & The White Falcons, The Maloneys @ Zombie Shop. 8pm $???
SATURDAY:
Beach House and Dustin Wong @ Marathon Music Works. 8pm $22
Conestyle album release show w/ Yautja and No Christmas @ The End. 9pm $5
Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes, Lulu Mae, and Neulore @ Exit/In. 9pm $5
SUNDAY:
Turbo Fruits Big Shred/Album Release/party @ the Groove Records. 2pm/FREE. Their label Serpents & Snakes are throwing a big ass pig roast and party to celebrate the release of their album Butter. The band will play as well. More info on facebook.
Of course there’s the Americana Music Festival, which has been happening since Wednesday. My taste for what’s generally referred to as Americana is somewhat limited, so I’ve stopped short of posting all the various lineups and showcases here. Their website has the full listing and info on wristbands, etc… so please check it out if you’re interested in any of their offerings!
Have a great weekend!
Science roundup: Higgs boson passes peer review/Antimatter propulsion looks feasible
September 12, 2012
Click to enlarge. Trust me- you want to do this!
Before the newsy stuff I had to give you that eye-gasm of a photo of our nearest star a.k.a. the Sun, blowing off millions of tons of hot gas into space a couple weeks ago. This image combines two spectrums of light that we can’t see with our eyes, both of which are in the ultraviolet range and show the magnetic activity better. Both were taken with NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). We should be glad this enormous eruption wasn’t aimed directly at Earth, else we could have had serious satellite and power disruptions.
Now for the headlines:
- The teams of physicists at the Large Hadron Collider have officially published their findings on the Higgs boson in a legit, peer-reviewed journal- Physics Letters B. This is the same journal in which Peter Higgs first published his revolutionary paper that began the hunt for the boson to begin with. Once a discovery passes this level of scrutiny, it’s DONE. That means we did it! Scientists have been a little hesitant to actually call this discovered particle the Higgs boson, however, since all the properties and attributes of the particle are yet to be nailed down. Over the next few years we’ll start to get a better picture of just what this particle looks and feels like, so to speak, and I’m sure there will be many more questions raised than answered. (Via NewScientist)
- Star Trek is starting to look a bit more like reality than science fiction thanks to new research being done into anitmatter and fusion propulsion. That’s right- antimatter, as in the stuff they used to run the Enterprise‘s Warp Drive. NASA teamed up with consulting firm the Tauri Group for a presentation that included a prediction that human technology will have advanced to the point that antimatter and fusion propulsion will be possible for spaceships by around 2060. The technology will not, however be capable of faster-than-light travel. According to the 2010 report the presentation was based upon, it would take about 4 months to get a ship to Jupiter with this technology. That’s significantly faster than current technology, but still a very VERY far cry from Warp speed. (Via Space.com)
A Few Good Shows: 9/7/12
September 7, 2012
The rock just won’t stop. Here are my picks for shows to see this weekend in Nashville. As usual there’s no shortage!
FRIDAY:
Turbo Fruits Butter album release w/ Ranch Ghost, King Karl, and Fox Fun @ Exit/In. 9pm $8 adv/$10 DOS.
Flesh Vehicle (reunion show) and Young Wires @ The End. 9pm $5
SATURDAY:
Magnolia Sons, Lonely H, Kate Tucker, and Quiet Company @ The 5 Spot. 9pm 21+ $5
12th South Concert Series presented by Grimey’s ft. Luella and the Sun, Wild Cub, and Snakeyez @ Sevier Park. FREE, ALL AGES
FEASTival 2012 @ East Park ft. Buffalo Clover, Lonely H, Lowry Sisters, Dirt Heavy, Tessla Rosa, and DJ Chozen. FREE, ALL AGES
That’s it. Have a great weekend!
steve cross loves music and science 