The Guardian recently ran an article on how science was cool again – a real ego boost for a practising research scientist like me (especially after I failed to make this list) – and they had a group of scientists and science journalists to give a mixture of interesting and facile comment to this effect. I find it pretty hard to see how this ‘cool science’ zeitgeist (assuming it existed and were not made up, so we are talking hypothetically) would do much apart from trivialise science. Individual scientists are cool, and can inspire people to become more interested in science; individual bits of science are cool, like levitating a frog magnetically; but science as a whole, and people understanding and engaging with it is more important and serious than these individual whizz-bangs. Is curing cancer cool? What about modelling climate change? Or building a better nuke? “Science” is trying to do all of these things, and presenting a ‘funky science’ flattens these nuances to an ephemeral cardboard cutout. Ok, cardboard is hardy, so maybe that’s a mixed metaphor. Ironically, the Guardian also recently ran an article taking a series of cheap shots at “middle-class” comedians, in many cases seemingly on the basis that they espouse the rational skepticism, lack of anti-intellectualism, and enthusiasm for learning and discovery intrinsic to the science that’s apparently so ‘cool’ at the moment. Or, to summarize, meh.

And so, the digital economy act, a wet dream that an EMI executive had in 1995 and which inexplicably popped through a wormhole, in time for close of Parliament last week. People smarter and better-informed than me have said this better before, but from where I’m standing, the response of major label record label to the mp3 revolution has been a case study in greed and denial. Their delaying getting their good quality legal downloads to the consumer turned a whole generation raised on the idea of convenience to the dark arms of that black widow, filesharing. They continue to view mp3s as a way to charge nearly as much as a CD, but with none of the overheads (or, to put it another way, justification), allowing small labels and independent artists to undercut them, charge what people want to pay and STILL make a better living. I find it difficult to believe that ISPs and the internet-reliant industries who have no vested interest in increased net bureaucracy will get behind with this ambiguous and watered-down bill. It’s probably a good time for them to get legal advice.

The latest SOTL podcast is out now, featuring the brand-new, hot-off-the-presses “What we did with our lives”. This will be on the new SOTL album this summer, which is finally approaching completion.

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or you can subscribe to the podcast for free via iTunes. If you’re a web-listening type, you may have noticed that I didn’t exactly, uh, get around to posting the link to the last podcast on the blog. Sorry about that. Here it is now:

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The Sound of The Ladies feature on the Rewind podcast this week (also available on iTunes), Richard Wilson’s* podcast for up-and-coming independent musicians. Richard featured The Grand Tour and we had a lovely chat about (amongst other things) science, advice for struggling independent musicians, and Fallout 3 on the PS3. You’re never more than 3m away from a geeky anecdote. Anyway, head over to iTunes or his website to hear some under-the-radar music – supporting independent artists and podcasters will give you a warm glow in your tummy (next to the cadbury’s cream egg).

*no, not that Richard Wilson – this one’s Scottish. Yes, you DO believe it.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks of interviews for the Sound of the Ladies – suddenly everyone wants to know my thoughts about the latest fashions. Well, not exactly…

I went to the London launch of geekpop on Thursday, where they interviewed me about my doctorate and what my favourite heavenly body is! You can hear the full interview here, and they featured The Grand Tour on their podcast (you can get this on iTunes here). An unplugged version of The Grand Tour will be a forthcoming feature on the same show. Oh yes. It was a great night, with geekPop from the ever-melodic Spirit of Play, geekUke from Helen Arny, and geekROCK! from Dr Stu and the Neutron Stars. Good stuff.

I did a lovely interview with Richard from the Rewind podcast a couple of weeks ago too. Rewind is a brand new podcast that brings together tracks from unsigned and undiscovered indie bands with interviews with bigger and more established musicians. Episode one is out now on iTunes and features a really interesting interview with the chap from Wheatus* – the Sound of the Ladies will appear in episode 2.

*I can’t claim to be au fait with their entire recorded output, but it made for an interesting interview

The Sound of The Ladies have had a fairly geeky couple of weeks* – last Thursday we were playing Songs about Space at The London Word Festival – my very big thanks to their inviting me to play again – at a night hosted by everyone’s favourite Carl Sagan fan, Robin Ince, and featuring everyone’s favourite keyboard-playing Professor, Professor Brian Cox. This week I’m performing at the virtual festival Geekpop, in the Tesla Tent. Named after the maverick scientist Nikola Tesla, rather than the 80s rock band, I’m going to hedge. I’ll also be going along to their London launch event on Thursday and although I won’t be performing, the excellent Spirit of Play will, as well as some other topnotch geekpoppers. See you there.

In other news, Jason and Zoe at the milk bar featured an interview with The Sound of The Ladies in their latest podcast -  in which we discuss noise pollution, space probes and celebrity connections to Brewood village hall. The latter will probably be of more interest to Staffordites than others. 80s legend Nik Kershaw is interviewed later in the show and seems very confused by TSOTL’s “We went to the bottom of the ocean” -  not an uncommon reaction.

Work on the upcoming Bright Club podcast continues, as does the recording for the debut (really? After all this time? Yes, really) album by The Sound of The Ladies, provisionally titled “We went to the bottom of the ocean” after the song of the same name. Watch this space.

*not that we’re complaining -  and to be honest, most weeks are fairly geeky with the sound of the ladies

UPDATE:

The Londonist wrote a rather lovely review of the London Word festival gig, comparing my beard to John Krasinski’s in Away We Go and being generally upbeat and nice about the whole thing. They also took this fetching photo of my rocking out:

Visit their site for more pictures and the review of the night.

The Sound of The Ladies will be performing songs about science at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch on Thursday (March 11th), at the London Word Festival night hosted by Robin Ince and featuring TV scientist extraordinaire, Dr Brian Cox. Expect comedy, science – and from the Sound of the Ladies? Some songs about space, of course.

You can find more details, and buy tickets, here:

http://www.londonwordfestival.com/?p=1257

and the venue, here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&q=st+leonard’s+church,+E1+6JN&ie=UTF8&hq=st+leonard’s+church,&hnear=London+E1+6JN,+UK&ll=51.526395,-0.077548&spn=0.010106,0.027788&z=16&iwloc=A&cid=14478587937091126271

If you haven’t downloaded your free copy of The Sound of the Ladies’ “…sing songs about space” EP, you can do so here:

http://thesoundoftheladies.bandcamp.com/album/sing-songs-about-science-and-knowledge-volume-1-some-songs-about-space

And that way, you can sing along to all the songs when you come to the gig. Sweet.

The Sound of The Ladies will return to The Green Dragon in Croydon on Tuesday for another Freedom of Expression, featuring the cream of London’s acoustic music and trombone poetry. Alright, featuring the cream of London’s acoustic music and London’s *only* trombone/poetry crossover.

You can find the venue here, and the night also features Cellar Door and Will Stevens. See you there!

This month’s podcast is out, featuring Department of Homeland Security, part three of the Squid Roast trilogy. The trilogy is somewhat of a murder-mystery. Part One of the series, Straight, Boy, sets the stage via one of the main protaganists’ woolgathering – an instrumental version of this song featured in the podcast last summer. A full version will be on the next Sound of The Ladies recording. Part Two, Every Single One, is the deranged tale of the events during a fateful night of revelry, via an almost certainly unreliable and possibly dead narrator, and was on the podcast a few months ago. Part Three, Department of Homeland Security, takes place in the aftermath, beginning with the discovery of a body on the beach, and following the attempts to unravel the mystery by someone lacking both the ability and desire to do so. But with an overactive imagination. This trilogy structure is a new idea for me, but I just couldn’t fit the whole story into one song!

You can listen to the podcast here

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or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

This is the last you’ll hear from me for a couple of weeks, as I sojourn in the US – but I’ll be sure to note points of interest at @martinaustwick on Twitter. So far, Mount St Helens (which erupted on my second birthday, fact fans), the shooting locations for Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure (Snoqualmie, North Bend and Roslyn, WA) and any shops stocking the Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins are on my “to do” list. Any other suggestions gratefully accepted.

The more observant of you will have noticed that all of the paid downloads on thesoundoftheladies.com/music are now available for a “pay as much as you like” fee (apart from Songs About Science and Live in Gipsy Hill, which are free, at the time of writing). I actually don’t mind people paying under the odds, and I don’t even mind giving away content (the free podcasts and EPs should convince you of that), but I’d resisted giving everything away for a couple of important reasons. Firstly, I wanted to include mechanisms so that, if people liked the music, they could support it by buying downloads of the older recordings. Obviously, I benefit from this, but I think good-hearted people out there who have been given a bunch of free stuff and enjoyed it want to support it, and make sure more can be created. Not everyone will feel like this – but being one of those people who is actually helping to support the artist, being part of something not many people know about – that can feel pretty good.  Secondly, and more pragmatically, I really worry that people see something low-cost as something low-value and ultimately not worth having. I don’t want giving away free stuff to mean fewer people listen to my music!

But attitudes are changing. Do people increasingly see recorded music as something you don’t pay for? If that’s true,  free no longer means valueless. Well I’m not so sure. I love live music, but I love recorded music too and it would be a shame if it just became an advert for the gig* (as many have suggested). If people responded to the decline of the film industry by saying theatre will cover the shortfall, you’d think they were nuts. Well, what I want and what the world wants are two different things, but I think there are enough people who enjoy recorded music and want to support independent artists to keep us indies going. I suspect I’m about to find out…

So. The Radiohead model. Pay as much as you like. But do download! Do share it with people you think might enjoy it, do come along to gigs and buy the mug, but most of all… do have a listen. And then do tell me what you think.
* incidentally, I know maybe one or two acoustic musicians who ever get paid for gigs – and they are very successful and/or very niche

The latest Sound of The Ladies podcast is out now, featuring a cover of Pulp classic Disco 2000, via All Apologies by Nirvana and Cherub Rock and 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. It’s less novelty song than it sounds. It’s like the 90s never died. Please say the 90s never died. You can listen below:

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or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

In other news, music blog Large-hearted Boy has included my top ten albums of the noughties in a (admittedly large) roundup of such end-of-year lists -  so thanks to them. There’s also a nascent campaign to make The Sound of the Ladies Xmas number 1 in 2010. For the usual x-factor hating reasons. Now, I don’t agree with all of this blogger’s arguments about why the Rage Against the Machine Number 1 was an epic fail, but I’m up for a Christmas #1. Let’s do this, people.