Start: Jun 13 2010 – 1:00pm
End: Jun 13 2010 – 3:00pm

Event Description: Artists, scientists, and enthusiasts of all ages come together to celebrate the intelligence and wonder of the cephalopods: octopus, cuttlefish, chambered nautilus, and squid. We’ll share some of our favorite scientific facts, enjoy cephalopod-inspired music, poetry, art, film, fashion, and more - then sit back to watch a cephalopod nature documentary to see these amazing creatures in action. All ages, $5 suggested donation, free stickers!

For more information, contact songsforsquid@gmail.com

Location:
Northwest Film Forum
1515 12th Ave (between Pike & Pine on Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA

(Via Artist Trust)

In this clip, the song used to defeat the octopus is “Eight Arms to Hold You” by Goon Squad. Here’s the original video, full of stop-motiony goodness. It’s a classic tale of Octopus Meets Girl, Octopus Helps Girl Win Band Audition.

(via io9)

Last night I went out to Chapel Hill to see MC Frontalot perform at Local 506. The opening act was singer/songwriter Brandon Patton, who also plays bass for MC Frontalot under the pseudonym BL4k Lotus. It turns out Brandon is a fellow aficionado of squid shirts, and he was sporting this awesome Gama-Go hoodie featuring their classic giant squid design. (Not available anymore, sadly.)

Unfortunately, I only cought the tail end of Brandon’s set, but I did get there in time to hear his rousing cover of The Pogues “Sally MacLennane.” Check out Brandon’s music at www.brandonpatton.com.

The MC Frontalot set was, as usual, nerdcore perfection. His brand new album Zero Day officially came out today, and you should buy it! With money! Go to Frontalot.com to find out how.

If you are not familiar with Front’s brand of intelligent, geeky hip hop, here is a video I took this February at his previous local show. The song is “Bizarro Genius Baby” from his second album Secrects From The Future.

• Into the Water by Dethklok
• She-Devils of the Deep by Future Bible Heroes
• The Octopus Is Gonna Get You…Dad by Boss The Big Bit
• Creature From The Black Lagoon by The Happy, Happy Jihads

I also do a Halloween music show every year on my podcast. Today’s Halloween show is the fist episode of Random Signal I’ve recorded since June. I tell myself that this temporary hiatus is because of Kid Indie Kid Squid, but the fact that I started doing daily posts on this blog might also have something to do with it…

logo designed by Leah Riley

In theory, Random Signal is produced bi-monthly (on average) and I either host the show solo or with my wife Ryn Nasser. I usually describe the podcast as equal parts geek talk and indie rock—we talk about comics, movies, TV, books, cephalopods, etc., and each show usually features 3-5 songs by independent musicians. I actually do two Halloween-themed shows every year. One on Halloween proper, and one in April on tax day, which I have declared to be the holiday of Aprilween.

I now want to switch gears entirely and talk about cephalopod-themed jack-o-lanterns. I don’t know exactly why, but there seems to be a strong correlation between cephalopod appreciation and artistic talent (although I seem to buck that particular trend). Case-in-point, the following awesome jack-o-lanterns:

Ninja Squid! by Vicious Bits

Vampire Octopus by alexfiles

Cthulhu by Sketchy-Stories

Cthulhu by timailius

And in case you were wondering, our jack-o-lantern this year was sort of a goblin-bat kind of thing…not a cephalopod at all. I’m not completely single-minded!

Underwater Land is a CD of marine-themed children’s songs, and it was Shel Silverstein’s last musical project before his death in 1999.  The Silverstein estate has finally released the album as both a CD and MP3 download, and both can be purchased from the Underwater Land project website, where you can also hear samples of several of the songs. The CD comes with a 32 page booklet featuring the lyrics of all 17 songs and previously unpublished Silverstein illustrations, and the download comes with a PDF version.

Underwater Land contains two cephalopod-themed songs: “Cuttlefish” and “Captain Octopus.” On the website you can hear a sample of “Captain Octopus” which is about all the different things an eight-armed sailor could do at once. Here’s excerpt of the lyrics…

And he can…

Raise the flag,

And paint the mast,

And lower the boom,

And polish the brass,

Squeeze the Juice,

And shine the boots,

And iron the captain’s sailor suit,

And still have one hand free

To give a salute.

(Via BoingBoing)

Via Matt’s Marine Music Medley

Update: I just realized this is post #100. Go me!

Brooklyn’s favorite sons (sorry JoCo, but the Johns have this one!) make their second Music Week appearance. (The first being their tentacular collaborations with Hine Mizushima.)

For my money, TMBG’s fourth studio album, Apollo 18 (1992, Elektra Records),  is the mark to beat when it comes to squid-themed album art. What’s more awesome than Architeuthis dux vs Physeter macrocephalus? That same fight…IN SPACE!

The Gourds are a honky-tonkin’ alt-country band from Austin, TX, and their album Noble Creatures (2007, Yep Rock Records/Redeye) could almost be the sequel to Apollo 18—if the cover art is any indication. The Giant Squid, having either defeated or escaped from the Sperm Whale, now faces down a longboat full of lunar whalers! Man, that Space Squid is having a bad day!

Finally, we have To the Bottom of the Sea (2008, Projekt Records) by wacky Goth troubador Voltaire. No Space Squid this time…unless he has followed the whalers back to their ship to exact his final, horrible revenge. The title track mentions a “She-Kraken,” so Voltaire gets points for actually including a cephalopod in his squid-covered album! (Shout out to Kevin Z. at Deep-Sea News for posting this one first.)

Here’s the first image I saw (via Dinosaurs and Robots), but one photo is not enough! There is so much cool detail here, that I would be remiss if I didn’t share the entire set.

The CD is available on its own, or paired with a fully illustrated songbook featuring original watercolor paintings of each animal alongside the lyrics and guitar chords for each song. You can buy it directly from the band at www.artichoketheband.com, as well as at CD Baby. You can also download it from iTunes and Emusic.

While we are on the subject of awesome alphabetical aural acquisitions, I also highly recommend Artichoke’s 26 Scientists Volume 1 (Anning-Malthus) and Volume 2 (Newton-Zeno).