Geological Fine Arts

Fossiliferous Weekly has returned to the geoblogosphere with a post about Usher’s attempt to recreate Pangea in a music video.  I believe Usher’s hypothesis is that plate tectonics is driven by the pathos of a human life torn apart by heartbreak.  Wait a minute ... that limits the role of plate tectonics to the last one-point-something million years.  Maybe the pathos of dinosaur and cyanobacterial lives played that role earlier.

Stromatolite Angst

This prompted me to post about the ‘avant-progressive’ ‘heavy metal Baroque’ ‘avant-garage’ band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.  This has been on the back-burner as I wasn’t sure a geologically-named band playing geologically-titled tunes was a geological subject of any depth.  Checking BoM’s website and wikipedia revealed that some musicians from broken-up bands met for recording sessions, needed a name and chose "Birdsongs of the Mesozoic" for the Birdsongs of America album sampled during the sessions, as well as theories about dinosaur ancestry of birds (a member had been a dinosaur aficionado as a child).

Or maybe they just like the sound of geological terms:

CD:  Iridium Controversy

Tracks:  Primoridal Sludge | The Iridium Controversy: Before | The Iridium Controversy: After | Make The Camera Dance | This Way Out | Lost In The B-Zone | Tectonic Melange | Sherpas On Parade | 100 Years Of Excellence | Race Point | Centrifuge | The Best Of The Mesozoic

Their music is interesting, I like much of it when in the mood for “instrumental music that fuses rock, classical, minimalism, punk, garage/pop, and jazz. Two keyboardists (one on grand piano and one on synthesizer), guitar, saxophone and electronic/computer percussion produce a unique sound that fuses the youthful energy and anarchism of rock with the structure (and process) of classical music ... a soundtrack to a primordial epic that harkens to the future as well as the past”. (now that IS profound:)

Check out Primordial Sludge (audio), Lost in the B Zone (video) and Dancing on A'a (Amazon samples).

I first heard Birdsongs on their Extreme Spirituals CD with Oral Moses, a great singer of Black spirituals.  His rich bass-baritone voice works well with the non-traditional bold “accompaniments” by Birdsongs.