I had so much fun with the Rock Album meme that I went ahead and mocked up another album cover, just not a random one. Back in high school while bored in Calculus, I made up the lamest possible name for a punk band ever, Johnny Derivative and the Indefinite Integrals. For years I have imagined the exploits of this imaginary group of nerdcore musicians. Guys who put the "rock" into "rocket scientist." And the ultimate album name for them would be The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.
I’ve vacillated on what the stage image should be. Sometimes I think they should be clad in leather jackets with black plastic glasses, like The Ramones meet Devo. Other times I feel they should go for the skinny tie hipster look like The Specials. Either way, they would have a great playlist of math inspired songs:
- Rise Over Run
- As Epsilon Goes To Zero
- ∫ex=f(un)
- Unit Circle Run Around
- Points of Inflection
- Square Root of i
- Leibnitz Was A Loser
- Plus A Constant
- Un-Normal Distribution
- Kiss My Asymptote
- Imaginary Numbers (Never Let You Down)
- Velocity, Acceleration, Jerk
BlatantCommentWhoring™: Think of more song titles. Better yet, come up with lyrics for some of these.
12 comments:
Very cool. And an interesting playlist. Rise Over Run looks like the single, followed by Imaginary Numbers and Square Root of i (though that one wouldn't do quite as well).
The obvious look for them would be inspired by Timbuk3's Future's So Bright video: sort of Blues Brothers but hipper and more stylish. Are they a math rock band or more New Wave?
BTW, it's LEIbnitz not LIEbnitz.
Fixed.
As for exact style, let's just say one band member is a master of the keytar.
Not a math person myself, but I have a bunch of math friends--so I know just enough to find this funny. Seems like you're missing some good geometry jokes--can you work "hyperbola" in there somewhere?
Obviously a subgenre of nerd rock. But as the years have passed, did they make an attempt to crossover (like the Stones' disco album) into geeksta rap and how well did they do?
The less we say about their short-lived collaboration with MC Squared, the better.
Dang, there already is a real MC Squared.
Not to mention an Optimus Rhyme. Take a look at the Wiki article on Nerdcore. Some of them are parodists and filkers, but some of them mean it.
Is the playtime for track 4 3' 14" or 3' 8.5" (=3.1416 minutes)?
Reminds me a lot of the cover to the Loud Family's Interbabe Concern.
I imagine that track 11, "Imaginary Numbers (Never Let You Down)" is a power ballad, complete with a swaying crowd holding their mobile phones in the air. I'd say lighters, but geeks know these are far too dangerous and would so embrace the glow of the mobile phone screen.
There's a Howlin' Wolf compilation called Real Folk Blues; following up on Flasshe's link to the Loud Family's Interbabe Concern, I titled a collection of miscellany by Scott Miller (that band's mastermind, and an object-oriented computer programmer or something like that, whatever that means) Irreal Folk Blues, a title that dammit someone should use.
On "MC Squared": The musician Mark Everett, leader of Eels, who bills himself as simply E, put out a sort of hip-hop album a couple years ago under the name "MC Honky." That's pretty amusing...but he obviously should have used the name "MC Squared" - what with his name being "E"...
Don't forget the bonus tracks, "Why Intercept?" and the song which led to the Parental Advisory: "Explicit Function".
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