timothy sellers: guitar, vocals, etc; daniel leyson: guitar; steve collins: theremin; juli crockett: vocals and percussion; lisa dee: vocals and percussion; david hurlin: drums; christian gonzalez: bass.
how about some swell bands that begin with "b" -- the breeders dave brubeck beck bix beiderbeck bjork blur big black frank black francis bauhaus beatles B-52s beethoven (ludwig van) beethoven (camper van) beat happening beastie boys billie holiday buddy holly bonzo dog band bob dylan bongwater butthole surfers belly belle and sebastian syd barrett benny goodman the blues explosion brian eno count basie
Sounds Like
Michael Erard writes in The New York Times science section "It’s been years since Timothy Sellers, then a budding naturalist, licked a slug. Now he writes pop songs about scientists who were less absurd about their empiricism."
RS at www.usedwigs.com writes about "26 Scientists Volume One: Anning - Malthus" : "What if…They Might Be Giants, Ween, and Camper Van Beethoven broke into Robert Pollard’s studio with a stack of science textbooks and more than a few six-packs? I imagine you’d wind up with something sonically similar to Artichoke’s latest. A fun and stylistically diverse collection of DIY pop-rock, this disc is the first of a proposed two based on the concept of stringing together 26 catchy musical biographies (one for each letter of the alphabet, of course) of historical scientists. That sounds way more highbrow than it actually comes across, though. From the cowboy swagger of "Einstein, Albert" to the percolating "Burbank, Luther," and from the megaphone-voiced rave-up "Galilei, Galileo" to the Beatle-chorused "Darwin, Charles Robert"," this is more School of Rock than science class. This should fit nicely next to the hotly anticipated 5-disc collection by Jay-Z addressing the elements of the periodic table. I hear that "Ununnilium" is particularly bangin’. Standout Tracks: "Malthus, Thomas Robert", "Fuller, Richard Buckminster", "Einstein, Albert", "Burbank, Luther" - RS
"26 Scientists, Volume One: Anning - Malthus." Sounds like a boring book? No way! Its an über-cool new album by the band ARTICHOKE. Featuring eclectic power-pop tunes, one written for a scientist for each letter of the alphabet, its brain-snappingly groovy. Could these folks be the next ARCADE FIRE?" So writes Michael J. Ryan, Ph.D., Curator and Head, Vertebrate Paleontology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
KUCI’s music director kyle olson writes:
"Previously, all I knew about this band is that KUCI had a copy of their album “20 Grit” which was covered in sandpaper and fucked up CDs around it and it sort of always twisted my biscuit. Now, when this album came, I learned that they are working on a two-album set of songs for Scientists (one for every letter of the alphabet). So far, they have one volume, Anning through Malthus, done. Now they put out an album which is, as the title suggests, a song-by-song cover of the famous Sex Pistols album. I was completely ready to pass it off as novelty, but you REALLY haven’t heard “Pretty Vacant” until you’ve heard it sung over a ukulele. No joke: this is REALLY FUCKING GOOD. It’s sort of folksy with great vocals, but with some more upbeat songs fused with electronics. “God Save the Queen” has a kazoo solo for Christ’s sake. What will it take to sell you this?!"
ARTICHOKE - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
Echangeriez-vous votre baril de Sex Pistols contre deux barils d’Artichoke? Non? Et bien vous avez peut-être tort… Non pas que les Californiens soient plus sauvages et brutaux que leurs collègues britanniques, bien au contraire, mais parce qu’ils proposent une relecture fort sympathique de "Never Mind the Bollocks," l’œuvre emblématique des punks londoniens: l’album est repris titre après titre dans un registre plutôt folk et avec beaucoup d’humour (le groupe aime les albums concepts originaux puisqu’il a déjà sorti un album intitulé "26 Scientists Volume One" célébrant 26 scientifiques célèbres, d’Einstein à Marie Curie, et s’apprête à sortir un "Volume Two"). Le groupe de Timothy Sellers s’attaque donc à celui de John Lydon et les chansons des Pistols, dépouillées de leur rage, révèlent des trésors mélodiques insoupçonnés; il faut dire qu’Artichoke les y aide bien en les accompagnant de guitares acoustiques, d’accordéons bucoliques et d’harmonies vocales habiles. Les morceaux, s’ils perdent bien évidemment en agressivité, y gagnent en ironie. Ainsi, le monumental "God Save the Queen" devient une ballade (faussement) enfantine qui rappelle le "I’m Sticking With You" du Velvet Underground. Le terrible "No Feelings" flirte avec la bluette. "Anarchy in the U.K.," dans un registre un poil plus jazz avec sa basse ronde et ses cuivres, est calqué sur le "Close to Me" de The Cure – Artichoke y a ajouté les bêlements d’un troupeau de moutons. Les coups de semonce de "Holidays in the Sun" sont reproduits en frappant une caisse à outils sur le sol. "EMI," charge contre la maison de disques des Sex Pistols, devient une folk-song enjouée. Mais Artichoke ne s’impose aucune règle: "Liar," "Problems" ou "Sub-Mission" conservent une tension rock… Les Sex Pistols sont les premiers à s’être parodiés (sur "The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle" - avec notamment une hilarante version disco de "Anarchy in the U.K."); mais ici, chaque morceau est subtilement réinventé, recyclé, détourné d’une manière tout à fait réjouissante. (Ré-)inventer, recycler, détourner : une démarche très punk finalement...
-- Christophe Dufeu POPNEWS Avril 2007
Am I the first one to get that "Abstract Red Adam" is about the short story, "The Circular ruins" by Jorge Luis Borges? Cool! Thumbs up to 26 scientists too, from a fellow traveler.
-- Lee
Few if any know what he means, but Mark "Flyingman" Caldwell of WAWL 91.5 FM somewhere in Tennesseesays "It makes u ponder over your smooth and wrinkled college cafeteria peas. Fun loud GMO Punk well deserving of a "nobel" spin on the radio."
most of the songs we perform these days are from the forthcoming concept record on the theme of honeybees, to be called, um, yep -- "bees." they are fascinating creatures, whose lives can be easily compared with our own, especially for the purposes of writing pop songs.
artichoke is best known for 2 concept records about scientists, one for every letter of the alphabet, called "26 scientists, volume one: anning - malthus" and "26 scientists, volume two: newton - zeno." the new york times science section focused attention on volume one when it was released in 2005. volume two is now finished (at last!) and will be out later this year once i finish painting the cd cover.
also in the live set are a few songs sung from the human perspective about our neighborhood. recordings of these will soon be available on "historic highland park." i dunno the exact song order yet, but the songs are: "highland park" (an ode to our piece of northeast los angeles) "trash day" (indeed it was written on a tuesday, which is trash day in highland park) "here come the hipsters" (a paranoid fantasy of sunset strip creep creepage) "figueroa street" (once the longest street in los angeles) "mr. t's bowl" (where we have played and seen many a show!) "charles lummis" (a biography of a humanitarian booster of the southwestern united states, its people and history) "old man brunk" (the first white dude in the arroyo seco) "arroyo seco" (behold the concrete trough! but touch not the waters, especially in august.) and "el dorado" (artichoke's first 7-minute song, including a short history of california and our place in the grand scheme).
past artichoke records include "sing in traffic" (our canter's kibitz room days!) "evaporation" (the 17-song extravaganza from "artichoke 1.0") "20 grit" (the sandpaper-covered 4 songs from 2004) "26 scientists volume one: anning - malthus" (the best one so far) and "never mind the bollocks, here's the sex pistols by artichoke" (yes, i paid for the rights to make it.)
all of these cds can be purchased at the official artichoke website www.artichoketheband.com, at our shows, and several independent record stores in los angeles including amoeba records in hollywood and poobah records in sierra madre.
and these 3 can be purchased like this:
thanks to all the wonderful friends, fans, and musicians who have been involved with artichoke since it started in 1999!!!
Helllllloooo Highland Park... God knows when we'll make it out there to play, but we're gonna keep keepin' on til we do. Hope all is well with you. ROCK & ROLL!
We are very excited! Gonna do some fun covers and keep things mellow and vaudeville-y. Thanks so much for helping us get our first Highland Park show experience! :D -shayne
Great! So glad to hook up again with here thru these pages... It already seems a long way from Jackson Browne... Say a big "HEY!" to David and the whole family at Juanita's for me! See ya'll next time (soon!) ciao4now..."caris".
- neely
