geekosystem

There is possibly nothing nerdier in the world of music than progressive rock, and in the world of prog rock there's nothing geekier than Rush, the Canadian trio described as "the world's biggest cult band." While they've been around since 1974, making them one of the most enduring prog rockers out there, this last year has been a momentous one for both Rush and their legion of smart-but-awkward, fanatic-but-quiet fans who stand in the shadows or at least stage left. Here's why: They've recently announced a continuation of their Clockwork Angels tour -- in which they performed nearly the whole eponymous steampunk concept album they released last year. And oh yeah, this year they're being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- after years of exasperation from fans, though they were totally cool with the exclusion. So, what's the actual news? Tomorrow they're releasing Clockwork Angels: The Watchmaker's Edition.

As of today, three of the major Internet service providers in the United States -- Verizon, Time Warner, and AT&T -- are teaming up with the MPAA and RIAA to let you know that they're watching when you use torrents  to download music, movies or TV shows, and that they don't approve. That disapproval will initially be registered by warnings that remind you that Big Brother your ISP is watching -- the digital equivalent of a disapproving glare -- but that's not the only measure they have at their disposal. Repeat offenders could find themselves blocked from certain sites or even have their connection cut entirely, if temporarily. Keep reading to learn what we know about the new policy, what we don't, and how it could impact the way you use the Internet -- especially if you use it to download media, and come on, who doesn't?

It's true that there's no accounting for taste. You may love music your best friend loathes, but have you ever watched a music video on YouTube that's just so crazy that you had to share it, no matter what the music was like? The new Bat For Lashes video, "Lilies," may be one of these. You probably know someone who'd love it just because it's got monster puppets and stop-motion fun. It's kind of like if David Bowie's Goblin King kidnapped Big Bird and Snuffleupagus, fused them together with Jeff Goldblum's Telepods from The Fly, then brought them to the land in Where the Wild Things Are. Oh, and then the monstrosities danced with a girl who was possessed by the ghost of Björk. Yeah, that's about right.

The consensus here in the Geekosystem office is that Bob's Burgers is among the best cartoons going right now. And as of right now, we're officially also huge fans of Bob's Buskers, a behind the scenes extra brought to you courtesy of Behind Bob's Burgers, a blog maintained by the show's writers, who brought in Annie Clark -- better known by her stage name, St. Vincent -- to cover the "Bad Tina" song from earlier this season, and it's amazing. Even better news? The video is marked as Episode One, meaning we can hope for more covers coming down the road.

The godfathers of nerd-rock They Might Be Giants have a new album, Nanobots, coming out in March, but you don't have to wait -- you can check out three tracks from the new album on the Nanobots EP released today on iTunes and Amazon. If you're not sure you want to buy it yet -- you totally do, by the way, but that's just one man's well-thought out and very valid opinion -- you can listen to one of the tracks from the new EP right here. Just keep reading to check out the free track, 'Lost My Mind' and also get the latest news on the band's new free app, because the days when you could be a band and not need a dedicated piece of software to prove it are dead and gone. Good riddance, we say.

We think it's safe to say that Glee's propensity for taking classic songs and mutating them into teenybopper renditions that stab away at both our ear drums and patience knows absolutely no bounds, but it's still -- as much as we hate to say this -- 100% legit given that the original artists willingly sign away their souls to the show's executives for their thirty pieces of silver. Today, however, it was discovered by geek culture's favorite singer/songwriter, Jonathan Coulton, that what Glee wants, Glee will most certainly take without so much as permission and proper licensing. The show has apparently given a take on Coulton's cover version of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" practically verbatim, and the singer and his army of fans are up in arms over the show's apparent audacious and ill-conceived move.

Proving that dreams do in fact come true on the night of New Year's Eve, worldwide internet phenomenon PSY -- to clarify, we are not saying that he is in any way deserving of such a title -- announced that tonight's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve will play host to his final "Gangnam Style" live performance in North America. Let us say that once more, because we simply cannot get enough of how sweet it sounds: Last time. In North America. As in EVER! While PSY will still be performing "Gangnam Style" and its signature dance move in other countries around the world as a farewell tour of sorts, we on the western side of the globe can be the first to finally stop stuffing cotton and other nearby objects into our ears to muffle the auditory garbage. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves, people, because according to sources, one rubbish song-and-dance from PSY apparently begets another.

There's no experience quite as entertaining as scouring the petition board on the White House's official website and reading the truly offbeat ones, but sometimes, between the fits of laughter and the wiping away of a jovial tear, we find a few that make us wish we had thought of it first. On December 26th, an apparently enthusiastic fan of the Mountain Goats posted a petition seeking that the band's sole permanent member, John Darnielle, be recognized as the United States Poet Laureate. Here's hoping that one fan's dream can become a reality, assuming he can get the required 25,000 signatures by the end of January to get a review.

Scientists have long debated the topic of whether or not the melodious chirping that constitutes birdsong qualifies as music. But the results of a study conducted by then Emory University undergraduate Sarah Earp and neuroscientist Donna Maney have shown that birds, namely the monitored behavior of the white-throated sparrows used in the analysis, exhibit similar neural activity that humans do when listening to music that is either acoustically pleasurable or a discordant mess that pains the ear drums -- such as listening to Björk. Not only does this mean we share a mutual admiration for the musical arts with our feathered friends, but also that scientific discoveries are gradually turning our world into a wonderful fantasy land seen only in animated Disney movies.

There's something to be said when antiquated technology is totally hip to today's music scene and reproduces it in their own computerized language. Now the machines have something to play over the loud speakers to boost the morale of human slaves as they toil away, assuming our soon-to-be technological overlords even choose to keep us meatbags around. While that day is still a ways off, why not get a jump start listening to the rigid and lifeless rendition of Fun's "We Are Young," which we guarantee will be topping the charts in our not-too-distant-post-apocalyptic future!

If there's one thing we here at Geekosystem like quite a bit, it's anything that's done in space. Okay, well, not anything, but certainly most things. Whenever these things also happen to be the first of their kind done in space, we're even more interested. Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, has just accomplished one of those firsts. He's recorded a song, with him playing guitar and singing, while aboard the International Space Station. Yes, folks, "Jewel in the Night" is a song from space and you can listen to it after the jump.

Rock stars and pop idols are well known for their propensity to live hard, die young, and leave behind a grotesquely booze-swollen corpse. According to a study in the journal BMJ Open, though, solo music stars are twice as likely to die young as entertainers who make their name as part of a band. Presumably, this is because while being part of a band has the detrimental effect of meaning you always have someone around to help you mainline a shot of Jack, it also means that there's someone awake enough to call the amublance when that goes pretty much the only way it can.

With enough time and patience, research has proven that you can get slime mold -- specifically Physarum polycephalum -- to do pretty much anything you want it to, such as finding its way out of simple mazes and other talents that make you forget the little critter doesn't even have a brain to begin with. Recently, man's obsession with slime mold has led them to once again test the capabilities of Physarum polycephalum, namely whether or not it's able to produce sound. And as it so happens to turn out, you pump enough electricity into the slime mold and they'll, in a fashion, start to produce "music." That is, of course, if you find its tiny, anguished screams of pain melodious.

What do you get when you cross the remains of a dismembered guitar with an Arduino powered robotic glockenspiel? In the interest of full disclosure, we've never had occasion to ask ourselves that question. We have an answer to it today, though, and the answer is glockentar, a musical chimera of bells, circuits, strings and light projections that...you know what? Just check out the video. It's one of those "you have to see it for yourself" things.

Starting a band is usually a lot of work, especially if you have no musical aptitude. It's surprisingly difficult to convince folks to let you be their drummer if you don't know how to drum. Thankfully, Google understands and has now provided a way for all the wannabe musicians out there on the Internet to fulfill their dreams: JAM with Chrome. The new Chrome Experiment web app allows four people to play a selection of 19 instruments together, regardless of actual ability.