Soundtrack to my Science: Shake your rump-ah

Well.

Not many things can break up the monotony of a slow day in the lab like the Beastie Boys. The new album, The Hot Sauce Committee, was supposedly set for release in September. However, the album release was delayed following Adam Yauch's (MCA) diagnosis with cancer. I want to revisit the complete catalogue (minus any compilation albums) before the The Hot Sauce Committee hits stores. Today seemed like a good time to get started since purifying proteins was once again on the agenda. I decided to take the chronological approach and listen to the first two albums, License to Ill (1986) and Paul's Boutique (1989), respectively.

As many of you may probably know, License to Ill was a huge hit. What you may not know, is that over 5 million copies of License to Ill were sold, making it the best selling rap album of the 1980s. It was also the first rap album to hit #1 on billboard.

My personal favorite, Paul's Boutique, was initially a huge commercial disappointment, as albums sales were much lower than License to Ill. However, this sample-heavy album turned out to be the bands most critically-acclaimed release, and routinely appears on "greatest albums" lists. Paul's Boutique is considered a landmark hip-hop album by many.

I love this album from start to finish, and some of my favorites tracks are Shake Your Rump, High Plains Drifter and last, but certainly not least, Shadrach (included below, check it out).

Soundtrack to my Science: Coming down the mountain

I find myself in front of the old FPLC machine again. As I've mentioned before it's boring and is mostly just baby-sitting and switching out buffers. Time to find some music. 

Since it's really easy to get caught up in listening to new music and neglect or even forget about other groups that you used to love, I decided to listen to some tunes that, according to my iPod, are underplayed.

So, for this round of FPLCing I chose Jane's Addiction. In case you are wondering, both albums aided my purification nicely and I've got the fat, single bands to prove it.

On a side note, if I ever hear a female speaking spanish over speaker, the song Stop gets stuck in my head immediately and plays on a continuos loop. This happened upon arrival at the hotel in Mexico a couple of months ago.

Soundtrack to My Science

As I mentioned previously, this week and the end of last week are largely defined by a significant increase in work. Unfortunately, most of this work is a bit on the monotonous side, due to the insane amount of time spent standing in front of the FPLC. Normally when a machine is working for me, like say a thermocycler, I find other experiments to start and/or finish. However, unlike a thermocycler, the FPLC needs a babysitter, providing few opportunities longer than five minutes to step away. (Yes, it’s an old FPLC.)

Another constructive option for filling in these small amounts of time is reading scientific literature. Like most people, I typically have a stack of papers I need to read, but frankly, I just don't want to read the papers, especially if I am going to get interrupted in five minute intervals. Not to mention, I am already reading a shit-ton of papers in an effort to catch up with the work in my new lab. So, instead of finding something constructive to fill my FPLC baby-sitting time with, I opted to listen to my iPod.
I recently watched a broadcast of the Arcade Fire performing on Austin City Limits and decided to listen to Funeral. As it turns out, it was exactly what I needed.


Fig. 1: The Arcade Fire Debut Relaease– Funeral. SOME of my favorite songs from this album are Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) , Wake Up, Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #2 (Laika) This one reminds me of the Talking Heads, and Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).


I love this album and whenever I listen to it I remember seeing the Arcade Fire in a tiny club just before the band exploded. The club over sold the tickets and it was packed, but the show was awesome and people were going crazy. This band is a must-see in my opinion.
The Arcade Fire is made up of several members, all of whom change out instruments during the set. The instruments include, but are not limited to electric guitar, synthesizer, organ, piano, accordion, xylophone, percussion, violin, cello and horn. One guy even plays a helmet. Hell, my description can’t do them justice, so check out the videos below.