More auspiciously, however, her debut novel “STAY” is being released this week by Dutton.

I got my review copy last week but before I could get into it, Dr. O’C snatched it up and devoured it over the weekend. She declared it an ideal beach book, so good timing for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere.

Once I got my turn, I read a bit more slowly, I like to savour my books. And while Dr. O’C is right in a sense – I think there’s a lot more to it than, say, the latest Sophie Kinsella effort. (Not that I know too much about the genre. What?)

Allie writes with a precision and a dedication to detail that sucks the reader into her world. She’s got a gift for dialogue and bringing her characters to life. The musical references that pepper the book really add to it for me, almost like a soundtrack for the story. And if you’re a dog lover, or like me a dog lover temporarily without a dog, it’s an absolutely heart warming story. Makes me think it’s time to get another dog.

Most of all, however, it’s a ripping good yarn.

In short, if you’re looking for a great summer read then STAY would be a great place to start. It’s out Thursday, but you can pre-order by clicking the little ad over there on the right.

Allie was also kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions for me, largely about the craft of writing:

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AFM: I would be willing to bet that a majority of my readers – including myself if I’m being honest – would love to be sitting where you are. First novel finished, picked up by a major publisher. So, how do you do it? How do you decide to write a book and then carry it out?

AL: The characters and the story really kept me going. STAY started as a short story, and I hadn’t originally intended to write it as a novel, but I kept wanting to know more about the characters. Not finishing the book would have been like watching half of a movie you’re completely enjoying. I needed that sense of completion to the story.

AFM: I was talking to another author friend of mine the other day about the ritual (or lack thereof) of writing. Do you have a special place where you write? Pen or computer? Music or silence?

AL: I go through phases and rotate through work stations (my desk, couch, reading chair, kitchen table, lawn chair, bed) depending on my mood. I write on a computer for the majority of what I do, although, if I’m doing writing exercises, I like to write in pencil on paper.

I set up playlists for my main characters when I write. The playlists are a combination of music my character would like, and music that somehow makes me think of the story. It’s a great way to snap into writing mode and put myself in the right mindset for my character. When I first heard the song On Your Side by Pete Yorn, it made me think of Van’s relationship with Peter, so it went on the playlist. When I worked on some of the Van/Peter scenes I would listen to the song to put things in context for me. But in the last few rounds of revisions, I couldn’t listen to anything (and neighbourhood noises drove me nuts). Even the smallest change that I made had to be carried out through the entire storyline, so it’s like doing a 300+ page word puzzle. Anything that pulled my mind away from the process was hard to manage. I wish I had a sound proof room for that stage of the game.

AFM: For you, is blogging helpful for ‘proper’ writing or a distraction?

AL: Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc., are so helpful. I don’t have coworkers in the traditional sense. There’s no one to chat with in the break room. Being able to have a sense of community and a way to reach out to people on a daily basis while I’m working by myself is amazing. Of course it’s easy to procrastinate and get sucked in to spending too much time in the wrong direction, so I have to be disciplined about how I spend my time. But I think the chance to connect with people like you and the other Greenists and bloggers I’ve been following for years, adds so much to my life, and I really appreciate that connection.

AFM: One piece of advice for a fledgling author with a book in his or her head?

AL: Get your butt in the chair and start writing. Little deadlines are best. I work with a writing group. The first few drafts of STAY were written at a rate of eight pages a week that were due for my group meetings. That writing rate was a very good pace for me at that stage in the game. It was doable, even with work and other responsibilities that took up a lot of time. And I think that’s a stumbling block for a lot of writers. The blank page is scary and the idea of writing a whole entire book gets overwhelming very quickly. Don’t sit down and expect to write your book in a week. Allow yourself to outline, or write badly, or storyboard, or whatever you need to do to sketch out a first draft. Then go back and edit. Know that you will need to go through many drafts. Know that it will take you time. And make sure you like your characters enough to spend that much time with them.

BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott is an amazing book about the writing process, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to write. I read it several times while I was writing STAY, and found helpful advice at every stage of the process.

After you have a solid, polished draft, start doing research on how to submit work and how the publishing industry works. I found AgentQuery.com particularly helpful. But don’t get ahead of yourself. You can’t submit until you have finished work anyway, so finish something before you clog your head with all that other stuff.

AFM: Who is your favourite living author? Who most inspired your writing style?

AL: Oh wow! Hard question! I have many favoured authors. And one of the coolest things for me about this whole process is the authors who have come through with advice, support, and kind words about my book. They are people I’ve admired for a long time as a reader, and I am in awe of their kindness.

I’ve always loved women’s fiction. From Willa Cather to Claire Cook, I love stories about strong women who are trying to figure out who they are and what choices they need to make in their lives. And I’ve always read those stories voraciously. I also grew up reading any Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Pat Conroy book I could get my hands on, and I know that sense of story and a love of complex characters influences my work as well.

AFM: And finally, the obvious one: what’s next? Have you started working on your second book? Any hints as to what we can expect?

AL: I am working on something new with completely new characters. It’s still in the early stages, so I don’t want to say too much. I’d also love to revisit the characters from STAY some day. Van is one of my favourite imaginary people.

Allie Larkin’s debut novel STAY is out Thursday and available at a bookstore near you, or from Amazon.

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Belly was Throwing Muse Tanya Donelly’s brief solo project in the early 90’s. I had almost completely forgotten about Belly until stumbling on “Star” while browsing through eMusic a wee while back. Listening to”Star” after more than a decade was good fun. It’s not the best album of that period of time, not even the best dreamy girl rock band album of that period of time, but there are a few good tracks on “Star”. This is why I like eMusic, you can find albums that you may not want to pay iTunes or CD prices for, but would be willing to shell out a few bucks for on a whim.

This is the best I’ve got so far:

I’ll keep trying.

I’m also trying to find the ultimate Antipodean Christmas song. So far, the best I’ve got is Rolf Harris’s “Six White Boomers”. Now I like old Rolf, really I do.  But come on Aussies, is this the best you can do?*

I’ve been remiss, well, about a lot of things. But specifically, I wanted to draw your attention to a couple of links that are well overdue.

I did my monthly The Greenists post a week or so ago. Time’s been tight lately, so I cheated a bit and slightly modified a post I wrote for this site a while back. (Shhh, don’t tell Courtney). However, if you haven’t read about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, head over there and have a look.

I’m a big fan of a good interview and an even bigger fan of myself, so I signed on for Neil’s Great Interview Experiment. Bovidine** blogger Nanny Goats in Panties came up with some great questions, so for even more of me go over and check out the interview on her site.

Finally, and I hesitate to post this one, but I’ve done another guest appearance for everyone’s favorite blog review site. I hesitate because I really did not like this lady’s blog, so I was a wee bit more caustic than I could ever have been in real life. That’s the beauty of an alter ego. At the time of writing, my guest post was not up yet, but have a look some time on Friday for the nastier side of your underwhelming correspondent.

And with that, good night.

UPDATE:

Ask review won’t be up until Tuesday.

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“The Best of Rolf Harris” is available from .

*Also, if you guys lose to the West Indies tomorrow, I’m sending my sons to play cricket in England.

** It’s possible that I made this word up.

I wanted to reiterate the invitation and try to iterate my thoughts on this one. Last year, Neil of Citizen of the Month started something that he called the Great Interview Experiment. It was a blast and a great way to find new bloggers as well as new readers. Well, as anyone who has seen a movie lately can tell you, there’s no such thing as a new idea and I enjoyed Neil’s experiment so much that I thought it would be fun to try it again.

So, how it works: leave a comment on this post if you’re interested in playing the dual role of interviewer and interviewee. I’ll hook you up, pretty much at random, with someone who will write questions for you and someone for whom you will write questions. Then the interviewee will post that finished product and I’ll link to it from here. Easy peasy and, as I can attest personally, a lot of fun. You get to find some new people on the internets, get to sharpen your interrogation skills, maybe get some new readers and get to feel like a celebrity for a few minutes. What more can you ask from life?

So, let’s get interviewing, folks.

*I hate to exclude non-bloggers, it’s a bit reminiscent of my days as a frat boy, but it’s a difficult one to manage. How about this – if any of my civilian readers would like to participate as an interviewer, leave a comment and I think we can work that out.

**In the unfortunate event that someone doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain let me know (chris at afreeman dot org) and we’ll send Cheney over, he’s got time on his hands. But if that doesn’t work we’ll find you another partner.

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Okkervil River’s “The Stand-Ins” is available from .

Image credit:

Podium

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UPDATE

The interviews are beginning to roll in:

• Check out Agnes and Kitty’s chat about cricket, phone sex and The Sound of Music.
• Then pop over to see what kind of sense Rol can squeeze from the mind of an odd Scottish lass.
• Not Afraid to Use It and Nichole have a conversation about Swedish meatballs and Latin idioms.
• Angel and the Strange Scottish Girl play a virtual game of ‘Would you rather…’.
• Jud and Teri address the age old question ‘Flora or fauna?‘.
• Teri takes her turn as interview, giving Aussie Trish a thorough grilling.
• In one of my favorites so far, Mickey and Gypsy get down and dirty in a discussion of Neanderthals and Meatballs.
• Canadian Ginny learns the Southern way of life from a less than sane Alabaman.
• Heather puts People In The Sun on the couch for a discussion about Pit Bulls, national identity and inappropriate acronyms.
• Head over and find out how Joe got Lora to talk about tupperware lids and vaginas.
• Trish takes her turn with the jiggy Malfeasance who tells us all about her marital fantasies surrounding the new U.S. president.
• They’re streaming in today – blogging guru Nichole drills Arizaphale on Neils, step-parenting and elephants up the skirt.
• Concrete Circles’ Andrew gets Carrie, a woman of few words, talking about art and music.
• Turnaround is fair play as an evil-doer pins Andrew down on some issues musical.
• Carrie takes the mic to grill Ginny about stalkers (or lack thereof), secrecy and Owen Meany.
• In one of the more Thompson-esque interviews so far, Ryan and Rodger wax philosphical about flinging cats, Amber Tamblyn in leather pants and morphine. Good stuff, boys.
• Mongolian Girl and Mickey get points for thoroughness in their multi-part discussion of dicks, Pooh and Sammy Hagar.
• Rodger and Jud get down and dirty in a dialogue about Mexican roller skates, whispering oranges and the intricacies of doughnut presentation.
• The Insane Southerner is back grilling young Meghan on 60’s worship, personal hygiene and the sights of Boston.
• Polite Brit Dave sits down for tea with a former Colonial for a well mannered chat about well hung Canadians and scorn from beyond the grave.
• Meghan and Dave are back and talking Scalextric, British comics and the afterlife.
• They’re rolling in quicker than I can keep up – Florida Girl in Sydney on Heather from A Ghost of a Smile.
• Getting down Chicago-style with Sarala and Rassles.
• If we’re giving points for dirty, and of course we are, then this expletive laden dialogue between Mongolian Girl and Headbang8 wins. Hands down.

Won’t matter though, because I won’t be around. In fact, this could very well be my last post ever. I seem to have contracted some sort of Antipodean Death Plague and it’s all I can do to tap out these words with weak shaking fingers. It’s been nice knowing you all and I’m grateful now that I did the post about my funeral music when I did – prescient indeed.

For my last post, I’ve got another interview for you all. Unfortunately, it’s just an interview of me. I don’t usually do memes, but I saw this interview meme on People In The Sun and I’m a sucker for a bit of self-importance. So, I asked for some questions from my buddy in Baltimore and what follows is our ‘conversation’:

PIS: You gonna have another baby or what?

AFM: Why on earth would I want to do something like that? You have one, when’s the last time you made it out the door to work with a clean shirt? When is the last time you spent a Sunday afternoon reading a good book? When is the last time you spent a whole day without talking baby talk at least once. Double my misery? Are you shitting me?

PIS: If you had one day to have your hair back, what style would it be?

AFM: I’ve kind of come to terms with my hair loss, I’m not going to obsess about it or join up with the Rogaine, hair replacement and toupee crowds. But that’s not the question. If I had it back… I never wore a mohawk, I think I’d go with that for a little while – just to establish my punk rock credibility.

PIS: How come you’re not a nerd? Or are you? Or are you just one of them inter-lectuals?

AFM: I don’t know the answer to this question. I was definitely a nerd in high school. I don’t know what a nerd is anymore. Isn’t it a good thing these days? Does it make me a nerd to not know what a nerd is? Probably.

OK, I’ve googled “What is a nerd?” Here’s what Wikipedia, the arbiter of everything, has to say:

Nerd is a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests that are age inappropriate rather than engaging in more social or popular activities. Therefore, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and considered a loner by peers, or will tend to associate with like-minded people.

Well, that sounds a fair bit like me. So…

PIS: When was the last time you were violent?

AFM: What the hell are you talking about, fucker? Do you want to step outside?

Seriously, though, I’m a pacifist. The last time I was in a fight I was probably 13 or so. I suspect that I would have lost. I’m also a bit of a wuss and, apparently, a nerd.

PIS: What do you feel guilty about?

AFM:  I don’t really do guilt, I think that it’s kind of an unnatural emotion thrust upon us by four thousand years of Judeo-Christian badgering. I have a few regrets. Actually – with apologies to Paul Anka -  regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, too few too mention. I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption.

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Now this interview meme reminded me of something that Neil at Citizen of the Month started last year. He called it the Great Interview Experiment and it basically involved a lot of bloggers interviewing each other. I got totally sucked into it and not only did I meet a couple of bloggers who I still read today, but it inspired me to keep doing interviews – mostly of musicians and scientists -  something that still fills space on A Free Man today.

Well, with apologies to Neil, I would like to revive the Great Interview Experiment. Call it Interview 2009. I’d love it if you guys would participate. It’s a great way to meet new bloggers, learn a bit more about some of your favorites, to get some attention for your site and to feel, even for a moment, like a celebrity.

Here’s how it’s going to work. Leave a comment telling me that you want to play along. I’ll interview the first person to comment.. That person will post their interview on their site and then interview the second person who comments. That person will post their interview, and in turn, interview the third. The only way that it works is if everyone holds up their end of the bargain. If you have no intention of doing an interview yourself, then don’t bother commenting. I’ll post links to all the interviews and sort of moderate things. If it takes off, I’ll set up a separate page on my site with links to all the interviews. If it doesn’t take off, well, my self-esteem will take a hit. But I’ll probably be dead anyway, so what does it matter. Remember – The Pogues.

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Sid Vicious’ version of “My Way” can be found on “Sid Vicious Selected Favorites” available from .

Image credit:

Podium

Anatomically modern humans (AMH) arose in eastern Africa about 160,000 years ago and,  based on their success, began to seek greener pastures about 45,000 years ago. But at the time, our ancestors weren’t the only hominids on the block. Living happily in Europe, minding their own business, were the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalis). In a relatively short period of time after AMH arrived in Europe, the Neanderthals were gone. One of the long-standing mysteries in biology is just what happened to the Neanderthals.

For many years, the most popular hypothesis was that Neanderthals had been genetically absorbed by early humans to generate you and I. However, a number of studies comparing mitochondrial and Y chromsome DNA sequences of modern humans and DNA extracted from Neanderthal remains demonstrated pretty unequivocally that this is not the case. There is very little or no Neanderthal DNA in my genome, though the parentage of some far right pundits is still a bit dubious. One hypothesis disproven, but the question remained unanswered – what happened to the Neanderthals?

A recent paper in PLoS ONE offers some exciting new clues in the Case of the Vanishing Neanderthals. Led by American archaeologist Will Banks, a French group used a novel climactic modeling technique to answer some questions about climate in the Paleolithic and its effect on Neanderthal population. Rather than bumbling through it myself, I thought we might go and talk to the experts. Will was kind enough to take some time out to talk over their results with us:

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AFM: Let’s start with the basics. How did Neanderthals differ from early Homo sapiens anatomically?

WB: Neanderthals were more robust than modern humans. They tended to have larger chests, thicker bones, and were more developed musculature than moderns. They also had, on average, a larger cranial capacity than AMH.

AFM: What about culturally and socially? What sort of groups did the two species form? We know that humans were migratory, what about Neanderthals?

WB: Culturally and socially, it is hard to know exactly how they compared to AMH since we cannot observe social interactions. However, we do see from the archaeological record that they took care of individuals that would not have been able to provide for themselves, there are burials so we know that they cared for the dead, there is evidence for symbolic behavior, and it is clear that they were intelligent. So, it is not unreasonable to assume that they had well-developed social structures, and like modern humans, there was likely a high degree of variability concerning the nature of these social networks.

AFM: When did AMH begin to migrate out of Africa? When did the two species first begin to interact? When did Neanderthals become extinct?

WB: It appears that Neanderthals’ evolutionary separation from populations that eventually gave rise to genetically modern populations occurred around 300,000 years ago.We can recognize distinctive populations of AMH in Europe and Asia around 45-40,000 years ago.  So, the period between 50-35,000 years ago is when we see these two populations in contact in the Near East and Europe, but limitations in radiocarbon dating resolution makes it difficult to know how long this period of interaction would have been. Mellars (2006) points out that rather than being a few thousand years in length, the period of contact may have been as brief as 1,000-2,000 years, based on new high-resolution dating methods. In any case, despite some claims (which are based on problematic data and which are not viewed as being reliable by most of the archaeological community) that Neanderthals were present until ca. 28-24,000 years ago in southern Spain, the archaeological record indicates that Neanderthals finally went extinct during Greenland Interstadial 8 (39-36,000 years ago), or the subsequent GI 7, at the very latest.

AFM: I know that the idea that Neanderthals and AMH interbred to produce modern Homo sapiens has been discounted, but what type of interactions would we expect between the two? I’ve read some reports suggesting that Neanderthals may have had the ability to speak. Could there have been verbal interactions between the two species? What about trade? Would AMH have recognized Neanderthals as a separate species or at least “different”?

WB: Those are hard questions to answer since we do not have the luxury of being ethnographers for that period. I would imagine that interactions between the two populations would have run the gamut from friendly to violent interactions – remember we are dealing with two human populations over a fairly long time span. There could have been verbal interactions between the two, but I imagine it would be much like to people nowadays, who do not speak the same language, coming into contact – in other words, it would be difficult to express yourself in such a way that you are sure the other understands what you are trying to say. However, it is difficult to know how in-depth such interactions would have been. It is also possible that the two “species” avoided one another as much as possible. It is just really difficult to say anything with any degree of certainty. I think it is pretty reasonable to assume, though, that both Neanderthals and AMH would have recognized the other as being different.

AFM: Could you describe the two standing hypotheses regarding the fate of the Neanderthals?

WB: The two principal hypotheses are: 1) that climatic changes and rapid-scale climatic variability (known as Dansgaard-Oeschger variability) during Isotope Stage 3 were such that Neanderthals could not behaviorally adjust to them and over the course of time, their populations declined and they eventually became extinct; and 2) that AMH (modern humans) were more efficient at procuring resources (as hunter-gatherers) from the environments that they occupied than Neanderthals were and thus they had a competitive advantage over Neanderthals, thus eventually driving them to extinction. In our title we use the term competitive exclusion. It is important to point out that in biology and ecology, the term competitive exclusion refers to the principle that two species that exploit the same resources cannot stably coexist, and one possible result is the extinction of one of the species.

AFM: One of the aspects of your paper that I found quite interesting was the climactic modelling that your group used. Tell us a little bit, in layman’s terms, about how this modelling works.

WB: Quite simply, what the paleoclimatologists on the team did was to take a climate model, called a General Circulation Model, which describes how precipitation and temperature vary and describes climatic variability around the world, and introduced conditions that we know existed during the periods that we focused on – the interstadials (mild periods) before Heinrich Event 4, Heinrich Event 4, and Greenland Interstadial 8 – in order to simulate those prehistoric climatic conditions. For example, we know from radiocarbon-dated deep sea cores what the temperature of the ocean’s surface was during those periods, we know from ice cores what atmospheric CO2 concentrations were, we can estimate the volume of the ice sheets that were present over Scandanavia, and can estimate how much fresh water had been introduced into the oceans by the massive discharges of icebergs during Heinrich Event 4. All of these “boundary conditions” are used to “force” the general circulation model and thus simulate prehistoric climate conditions. We then refined these simulations with a very tight grid over Europe in order to achieve the high-resolution simulations (ca. 60 km grid squares).

AFM: In general terms, how do your results refute the climactic hypothesis?

WB: One of the powerful capabilities of the algorithm that we used is that one can take a reconstructed ecological niche for one time period and project it onto the environmental conditions of a subsequent period to determine where that niche would exist in the later period. When we did this for the reconstructed Heinrich Event 4 Neanderthal eco-cultural niche and projected it onto the relatively more mild conditions of Greenland Interstadial 8, we saw that the ecological conditions exploited by Neanderthals during H4 would have been present over most of Europe during GI8. However, when one looks at where we see Neanderthal sites during GI8, we see that they occupied only an extremely small geographic region of that much larger projected, potential niche. Therefore, we argue that climatic conditions did not cause their extinction. If this reduction of their territory had been climatically induced, our projections would have predicted that, but the opposite was indeed the case.

AFM: Your PLOS paper lends support to the idea that AMH simply outcompeted Neanderthals when the two species occupied the same ecological niche. Is there any evidence regarding the nature of this clash. In other words, what advantages did AMH have that allowed them to drive the Neanderthals to extinction?

WB: It is difficult to know for sure, but since modern humans were able to successfully outcompete Neanderthals for ecological resources during their period of co-existence, one could assume that there was likely some behavioural advantage or advantages.  For example, we see that their stone tool technologies were different, so perhaps AMH toolkits were more efficient at procuring resources. Maybe AMH social networks were better at allowing populations to cope with resource shortages, and perhaps these social networks allowed populations to remain more viable than what was possible with Neanderthal social networks.

9.    If you’ll indulge a bit of speculation – modern humans have demonstrated the capacity for genocide. Is there any evidence – mass graves, wounds on remains, archaeological finds – that would suggest that our ancestors demonstrated the same propensity for genocide. In other words, is there any possibility that the anatomically modern humans intentionally eliminated the Neanderthals?

No, there is no evidence of that. I think it was simply competitive exclusion in the biological/ecological sense of the term.

AFM: What’s next? Where does your research go from here?

The direction we are moving in now is to look at a single archaeological culture (called a technocomplex) and examine whether behavioural and technological variability within that technocomplex is associated with different ecological niches or suites of environmental conditions. So, rather than examining eco-cultural differences between two different archaeological cultures, we are shifting towards trying to see if it is possible to identify variability in human-environment interactions within a culture.

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Thanks to Will for taking the time to talk about his work. Will is an archaeologist by training with specialties in high-power use-wear analysis and modeling past human-environment interactions. He did his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas (rock, chalk) and then went to France to do post-doctoral work  aimed at developing the approach termed eco-cultural niche modeling with funding from the CNRS and U.S. NSF.  He is currently a research associate attached to the PACEA lab of the French CNRS and the University of Bordeaux.

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Image credits:

Reconstruction of a female Neanderthal

Human migration

European climate model

Neanderthal and human skeletons

Goldfrapp’s “Felt Mountain” is available from .

Catherine Boisvert knows a little bit about this particular scientific controversy. The Canadian graduate student (studying at Uppsala in Sweden) found herself in the midst of an ridiculous debate when some creationists took, completely out of context, a couple of quotes that she gave in an interview with The Scientist and loudly and ignorantly claimed that they supported their position.

In reality, Boisvert’s recent Nature paper offers irrefutable evidence supporting macroevolution. Boisvert and her colleagues at Uppsala used fossilized remains of Panderichthys, a prehistoric fish, to shed light on an age old evolutionary question: whether digits (fingers and toes) are an evolutionary novelty to tetrapods (four limbed critters like us) or were present in some form in the last common ancestor of tetrapods and our fishy kin.

Recently, Boisvert was kind enough to take a seat on A Free Man’s virtual couch for a chat about evolution, fish and creationism. In a nod to my audience’s diversity, I’ve tried to start the interview out with more general topics and to move into the hard science as we move on.

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AFM: My readers run the gamut from working scientists to lay persons. Can you clearly and concisely explain to the latter class why they should pay attention to your research?

CB: Anybody interested in their origins and how they evolved would be interested in knowing where their fingers come from. The origin of finger precursors in fish is fascinating given the fact that it allowed fish to transform into land animals and later exploit all ecological niches, from land, trees, air and even returning to the seas! The success of land vertebrates is closely tied to the evolution of limbs and fingers and I certainly would not be able to type this, or play violin for that matter, without them!

AFM: I’m interested in Panderichthys as a species. Where would it have fit in the food chain of the late middle Devonian? What kind of species roamed the sea with Panderichthys? What did it eat? What ate it? Paint a picture of Panderichthys’ neighbourhood.

CB: Panderichthys was a medium to large predator (1 – 1.5 m in length) living in shallow waters in deltaic systems (so probably a mix of salt and fresh water). It ate other fish, so you could say it was at the top of the food chain and I doubt that it had many, if any predators. At the time, the seas (in terms of vertebrate life) were dominated by lobe-finned fish such as Eusthenopteron and Panderichthys, placoderms (armoured jawed fish) as well as acanthodians. Sharks were beginning their radiation and so were ray-finned fish, which were still relatively rare and very small in the Devonian. There were of course an abundance of invertebrates at the time and insects were beginning their foray onto land, only preceded by plants.

AFM: It’s been proposed that the driving pressure to diversify limbs came from demands of feeding and locomotion in the Ordovician and Silurian seas (Shubin, et al. 1997). Do you agree with this assessment? What were the challenges faced by paleozoic fish?

CB: It is obvious that feeding and locomotion are main drivers of evolution since they are so closely related to survival. What Shubin and co-authors refer to in their 1997 article pertains to the diversity of fin forms observed in vertebrates in the Ordovician and Silurian seas and how much “experimentation” there was. As agnathans (jawless vertebrates) are being outcompeted by gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates) in the Silurian, the body plan of vertebrates stabilizes at two sets of paired fins (pectoral and pelvic) (the body plans of gnathostomes). The challenges of moving to feed and of moving to avoid predators are no different in gnathostomes than they were in agnathans and are therefore some of the challenges faced by Paleozoic fish.

AFM: Your paper has pretty much put the nail in the coffin of the hypothesis that gained some credence in the 1990’s that fingers and toes are an evolutionary novelty. What was that hypothesis based on? And for those who haven’t read your paper, can you briefly outline how your finding rejects that hypothesis.

CB: The hypothesis was based on the comparison of developmental data from Zebrafish and mice. Zebrafish lack the second phase of expression of the gene Hoxd13 which is responsible for the formation of digits in mice. This led Denis Duboule’s team to hypothesize that digits were novelty in tetrapods (four footed vertebrates like amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals). This was supported at the time by the fact that the pectoral fins of the fossil fish Panderichthys, then the closest fish to tetrapods, had been described as being composed of large plates at the end of the fin. This pointed to the fact that this fossil did not have any elements that could be identified as precursors of fingers. Our new analysis of Panderichthys performed by CT-scan showed that this was an artefact of preparation. Panderichthys has small elements at the end of its pectoral fins that we interpret as fingers precursors.

AFM: Macroevolution isn’t my strong suit and as a geneticist I’m often swayed by developmental genetic data. Is there any molecular work that has been done that supports your hypothesis?

CB: Indeed, there is. It is in combination with new fossil data (from Tiktaalik and Gogonasus for example) as well as developmental genetic data from skarks, the basal actinopterygian (ray finned fish such as zebrafish and salmon), Polyodon (paddlefish, a close relative of the sturgeon) and the sarcopterygian (lobe finned fish who gave rise to all amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) Neoceratodus (the Australian lungfish) that we are able to confidently homologize the distal radials to fingers. Several studies have been conducted in the past few years about the expression of Hoxd13 in those species and, in all of them, a second, late phase of expression is present. Zebrafish, being a derived ray finned fish, has a very reduced fin. It lacks the metapterygium, from which the entire fin of lobe finned fish is derived. It is therefore understandable that by loosing this part of the fin, genetic expression associated with it would be lost as well. Sharks and paddlefish have a more primitive fin retaining all parts and therefore show Hoxd13 expression in their fins where the metapterygium develops. In the Australian lungfish as well as all tetrapods, only the metapterygium is retained and the late phase of Hoxd13 is expressed where distal radials, or in the case of tetrapods, fingers, develop.

AFM: As you’re no doubt aware, creationism in the mantle of “Intelligent Design” is creeping back into schools in the U.S., Britain and many other parts of the world. What could a secondary school teacher take from your research into their classroom to serve as a counterpoint to the pseudo-science of ID?

CB: Our work shows how similar the fins of Panderichthys are to that of Tiktaalik, Eusthenopteron and the arms of Acanthostega while being slightly different. These similarities and how they differ can only be explained by shared ancestry and evolution. Paleontologists have hypothesised a long time ago that Panderichthys was more closely related to tetrapods than Eusthenopteron was and by examining the fossil and finding that its fins are intermediate in morphology between Eusthenopteron and Acanthostega for example, it proves the predictive nature of evolution.

AFM: The creationist Discovery Institute has pounced on some of the statements in your paper regarding sample quality as evidence that scientists are trying to backpedal on previous hypotheses regarding digit development and evolution. Can you clarify your statements regarding sample quality of Tiktaalik and Panderichthys?

CB: As you know, the “Discovery” Institute tactic is not to go to the primary literature in order to understand it but rather to use quotations from secondary, even tertiary sources, reorganise or use them out of context opportunistically to their own convenience. In this case, they used an article where the journalists unfortunately misunderstood me. Tiktaalik’s material is in fact exquisite, it is very well preserved, basically uncrushed and can be prepared out to be examined in three dimensions. I never said the quality was poor. I have simply explained that the morphology of the fin of Panderichthys is more tetrapod-like than that of Tiktaalik, which has nothing to do with the quality of the material.

AFM: Specifically regarding the sample quality of Panderichthys, how does CT scanning permit the type of analysis that you presented in the Nature paper?

CB: The material of Panderichthys is of high quality but it is material that is extremely difficult to prepare and manipulate because it is so fragile and preserved in clay. Previous analyses of the fin was based on prepared material but when I visited the institution in Moscow where the specimens were housed, I noticed that it was incompletely prepared, producing the results published in the 1990’s. It is almost impossible to prepare this material without destroying the underlying fin endoskeleton and I do not think many palaeontologists would have dared preparing this precious specimen. Our analysis was based on the CT-scanning of another specimen, housed in Estonia. This technique permitted us to visualise the endoskeleton, the scale covering as well as the shoulder girdle without destroying anything. We then produced three-dimensional models that can be rotated and manipulated to understand the morphology.

AFM: What’s next for you? I see that you’ve joined us Down Under. What have you got going on in Australia?

CB: I was indeed in Australia when you joined me. I was continuing developmental studies on the Australian lungfish, provided by Jean Joss’ laboratory at Macquarie University. I am interested in understanding how the pelvic girdle transformed during the fish tetrapod transition and, in addition to my fossil work, I am studying the development of that structure in the Australian lungfish and salamanders. I will be finishing my PhD soon, here in Sweden and will return to Australia for a post-doc in developmental genetics.

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Man, they don’t mess around in Uppsala. Catherine has two first author Nature papers to her name and is still working toward her Ph.D.! Thanks to Catherine for taking a time out from a clearly strenuous Ph.D. project to talk about her work today.

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Image Credits:

One Small Step

Devonian sea

Fins to fingers

Catherine Boisvert

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Radiohead helped to break the Big 4’s iron grip on musical sales last year by making their new album, “In Rainbows” on the net as a “pay what you will” release. It was a risky experiment, but one that worked out well, netting the band about $9 million (USD). This figures dwarfs the sales of their previous studio records and hopefully will encourage more artists to cut out the middle man. “In Rainbows” is the band’s best record since “Kid A” and if you like this track, support blogger-friendly artists by buying the whole record.

I haven’t been doing much of it lately (primarily because it requires more work than posting pictures of Boy Z or vitriol about the Sunshine State), but I do like to feature new music on this site. I tend to be pretty receptive to new music, and a lot of my favorite acts are made up of musicians that aren’t much older than my students. But a lot of times, and I cringe as I say this, I just don’t get it. Like emo, the much maligned musical and fashion trend that “these kids today” are inclined toward. Thing is, I don’t really understand emo, truthfully I don’t even know what it is.

The other day, Andrew at Concrete Circles posted a review of Joie De Vivre – a Rockford, Illinois emo band. Sensing an opportunity, I left a comment for Andrew professing my ignorance regarding the nature of  “emo”. This elicited an e-mail from Patrick Delehanty, Joie De Vivre’s guitarist, who politely (with the tone that one uses with aging aunties) offered to explain it to me. What a lovely young man.

Patrick was kind enough to sit down on A Free Man’s virtual couch to explain the emo movement in music to me and all my fogey readers:

AFM: I hate to put you in the position to be the spokesman for a genre, but what the hell is emo, really?

PD: There are a lot of misconceptions about what emo is. It’s supposed to music that’s emotional, which to us isn’t really a fair description. Honestly, that’s a pretty big umbrella to place over a genre. Almost anything that’s not a Top 40 single could, by this definition, be “Emo”. But we suppose that’s why the term is used so loosely to describe a band.

AFM: What are the roots of the genre? In your music, I hear a lot of the post-grunge bands of the mid-90s (Built to Spill, maybe a bit of early Modest Mouse or Yo La Tengo), but with a lot more dissonance and atonality. Who are the forefathers of emo?

PD: The roots of the genre go back to the mid-eighties. The term emo became synonymous with the whole post-punk movement (most notably the whole Ian MacKaye/Dischord records scene). The genre back then was quite different to the one most recognize now. It was a lot more raw, honest, and socially aware than the poppy cookie cutter stuff we see on MTV with the label. Later on, bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral, The Promise Ring, and Jawbreaker ushered in a more popular (and in our opinion: the best) version of what the genre should be. Now it seems to be taken over by things we always referred to as pop punk which seems a little ridiculous. We should also mention the whole screamo thing here… it’s a real shame that something so lame and fashion based was born from something so honest.

AFM: Another thing I don’t understand is why emo gets slagged off by the music press so much. Is it just aging hipsters like me who don’t get it? Or is there a legitimate beef?

PD: The music industry is very quick to judge all things emo (especially the more traditional style) as being whiny, pretentious, and drony. But, it always seemed more honest and meaningful to us than most “popular” styles of music. Emo music gets shunned by the press because it’s not trendy.

AFM: Do you bristle at the emo label being applied to your band?

PD: Not at all. Most people that like what we do either aren’t too put off by the label or have a firm grasp as to what real emo music was and still is; we’re happy to be influenced by actual emo, and we’re proud to write through it’s great influences.

AFM: OK, enough emo. Let’s find out a little about you guys.. How did Joie De Vivre come to be?

PD: Brandon, Chris, and Steve were in a band for awhile together, which broke apart in September 2007 and wanted to start something a little more traditional, along the lines with their styles. They knew Pat and Zach for awhile from other bands. It really wasn’t a difficult thing. Things fell into place pretty easily.

AFM: You’re a quintet from Rockford, Illinois with one EP under your belt. Where do you go from here?

PD: We’re almost done with our first full length, tentively called “The North End”, we hope to have it done by the end of the year. And hopefully a tour this summer. Things are pretty difficult without a label and it’s hard to keep everything balanced. None of us have degrees and we all have terrible part time jobs so money is always an issue with us. It’s hard to book all your own shows (tours included) and still have a budget for recording and merch. But we’ll see where things go. We’ve been getting a lot a decent press lately and hopefully things will get bigger and better once we finish this record.

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So, there you go gentle readers. Check out a couple of tracks from Joie De Vivre’s latest EP. I’ve got to go and listen to some Dad Rock and work on this ear hair now.

If you like Joie De Vivre’s music, buy their EP, “The Ghost of Kennedy Hill Road” here.

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Images:

Emos

There are, however, glimmers of talent in the void that is the Florida music scene. The Semis are a solid rock quartet from Florida’s west coast.These guys came highly recommended from a friend of a friend in Clearwater who swore that these guys put on a helluva live show. A claim that’s reinforced by the legion of myspace fans clamoring for more.

The Semi’s front man, Billy Summer, took a seat on A Free Man’s virtual couch for a chat about his crew and the state of music in his home state.

MP3: The Semis – “Crowned Out”
MP3: The Semis – “No Function”

AFM: Let’s get to know the band. Who plays what and how long have you been playing together?I like your music, it’s got a driving post-pop tempo, with the random cheeky sex-influenced lyrics thrown in for good measure. Describe your sound to me in ten words or less.

BS: The Semis were founded by Billy Summer, singer/guitar, Joe Harley, guitar, and Cristian Ripoll on Drums. The line up has fluctuated a lot over the 6 years that we’ve playing and recorded in the Tampa Bay area. The line up as of now consists of Billy Summer, guitar/vox, Matt Simmons, guitar/vox, Don Butler on bass, and Sean Crash Merrill on the drums. He’s our newest addition and has really adapted well to the chaotic life of a Semi!

Our sound in 10 words or less? : Self indulgent sub-southern voluminous rock with swirling loud guitars and infectious melody. Is that close?

AFM: Well, it’s more than ten words, but pretty good. And it’s the lyrics that sell me at the end of of the day – “Asian Girls” is brilliant. Who does the song-writing for The Semis? Which of your songs is the most Floridian?

BS: I, Billy, write the lyrics and the music. “Asian Girls” was actually a poem a wrote for class while in College out in Oregon. I got a c- cuz they thought it could be interpreted as racist. I didn’t mean it that way, of course!

AFM: Which of your songs is the most Floridian?

BS: The song Backyard from the Route 666 album is pretty Floridian. However, the new record we’re working on now is totally about the beach and how living on it makes you realize just how fucked up living in traffic jams can make you and, I tell ya, they figure that sprawl is the answer to Florida’s population problem, but, friend, the ghetto expands like the universe down here; one day it’s gonna implode. This album is tentatively titled A Year In The Sun. The lyrical content leans toward a more positive existence compared to the others which were all about the trials and sadness of a life committed to sinking into a demise of pure decadence. Smell me?

AFM: What’s the difference between a great live band and a great studio band? Which would you rather be?

BS: I’d rather be both. I can never accurately capture what I do in the studio when we play live. I’d have to have 16 guitar players and a 2 fingered keyboard guy or gal. The live shows come across with a more raw, aggressive sound. We leave a little room to expand when we play out. Plus, the tempos we use live often differ from what you get on the record. But if you can’t duplicate your record note for note live then you better put on a hell of an entertaining show! Lot of bands these days don’t seem to have a lot of charisma. I came up in the 80’s and, although the music was pretty corny, when those bands played live there was a whole lot of energy in the room. The sparks ignited from all things rawk in those times. I like to capture that when I play.

AFM: Who’s the best live act (living or dead) ever?

BS: Bon Scott era AC/DC, MC5, GWAR, Roth era Van Halen (but not this time around..), Thin Lizzy. Of course, I was too young to witness most of these bands in their heyday. My first real concert was Cheap Trick in, like, 82 or 83. That show left an enormous impression on me. Robin Zander lives round here. When I saw him I almost threw up on his shirt whilst I was shittin’ in my pants…. Alcohol and meeting idols is rarely a good mix..

AFM: Which artist (living or dead) would you most like to play a club show with? What about an arena show?

BS: I’d like to play with The Posies or maybe The Makers. They’re still alive, I think. But, really, and I mean I’d REALLY love to have played with The Kinks back in their day. Course that would make me about 400 years old now. So maybe I’m glad that never transpired. Also, there’s a great new band called Peachfuzz that I would love to play with if they ever venture down to the dangle of America… You should check em out!

AFM: OK, Now it comes to the part of the program in which we talk about The Sunshine State. I grew up in Florida and am trying to phrase this question in a way other than “Why does Florida suck?” I have really struggled to find talented bands from Florida. What’s going on down there? Is it a cultural wasteland or am I missing out on a scene?

BS: No, you have it right. But it’s more of a cultural vortex. There have always been great bands here, but the audience thins when these non-musicians leave to pursue a better job market. Can’t blame them. But it leaves great artists frustrated with a very small fan base. As far as limited opportunity for bands, well, it’s an 8 hour drive just to get to Atlanta! This makes touring tough because the bands that do the circuit up there tend to leave or forget about the Florida scene once they get on that rotation. Even most signed acts, most that I’d love to see live, usually turn the van around in Atlanta to save the time and the money it would cost just to get to St. Pete or Tampa. Recently, promoters such as New Granada, and especially Jack Spatafora, have brought bands that wouldn’t have come down here otherwise. The one thing, though, about this area is that most fellow musicians come out to support each other which keeps a communal spirit alive. And that alone inspires creativity and enthusiasm to keep rockin..

AFM: What other bands from central Florida should people be paying attention to?

BS: Other bands worth watching round here are: Military Junior, Holiday, Doll Parts, Car Bomb Driver, Have Gun will Travel, Dumbwaiters, and plenty more.

AFM: Have you toured much out of Florida, how are you received north of the border?

BS: We do Atlanta and NYC occasionally, but we haven’t toured proper in quite some time. Atlanta digs us. NYC didn’t seem to care. We were usually pretty out of it when we did those shows. Oops. Sorry Manhattan!

AFM: Describe in seven word or less your home.

BS: Hot, Sprawl, sand, long, wet, bugs, cops…

AFM: What’s next for the Semi’s?

BS: Next for us is the album Year in the Sun. We have gigs through July down here and hope to be playing material from said record. We’re doing a mass mailing as I type for about a zillion indie labels that I hope will at least listen for 30 seconds. The beach makes you sloth-like. Whatever happens, I bet it happens very slooooowwly….

AFM: Semi what?

BS: Semi hard? Semi good? Semi coherent?

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Thanks Billy Summer, you may be Florida’s only hope…

Purchase The Semis’ 2007 LP “White Powder, Black Power” here.

MP3: The Semis – “Crowned Out”
MP3: The Semis – “No Function”

One of the drawbacks of the digital music revolution is that I fear it means the end to album art. Beyond the very pragmatic use as a surface for drug preparation, album covers are an integral part of the album experience. As CDs start to go the way of cassette tapes, I’m not sure where the visual component of music fits in.

All this is prelude to a discussion of Sharon Van Etten. The Brooklyn based singer-songwriter passed on a hand made CD-R of some of her recent work. The package itself was so gorgeous and intimate that I was already a fan before I heard a lick. But, Sharon Van Etten doesn’t disappoint musically either. It’s spare, fragile folk music – powerful in it’s raw emotion.

Sharon was kind enough to sit down on the virtual couch for her first ever interview:

AFM: I was really enchanted by your music, reminded me a little bit of early Cat Power, with her coy ethereal tone, or P.J. Harvey, with her spare honesty. What are your musical inspirations?

SVE: Aw… thanks! PJ Harvey, for sure. I only just started listening to Cat Power, embarrassingly enough… but mostly Vashti Bunyan, Diane Cluck, Meg Baird, Sibylle Baier, and Anne Briggs.

AFM: The CD that you sent to me was beautifully packaged. One of the things that bothers me about the transition to digital music is the inevitable loss of album art. What do you think is the future of the visual aspect of music?

SVE: That’s hard to say. I am worried about the direction of it all. There has been some amazing artwork available online, and some beautiful graphic design online, but I guess I hope that there are people that still enjoy holding something. It’s hard to gauge how sentimental future generations will be with mp3’s.

AFM: I see on your website that you just got back from playing in the UK. How were you received in Blighty?

SVE: Surprisingly well. Especially that being my first tour over there. I was lucky enough to open up for Meg Baird every night and took many notes on how to be more calm and graceful and gracious. The people I got to speak with were very kind and receptive to what I was doing, although a bit different than what Meg is doing.

AFM: Did you run into any interesting bands or artists over there?

SVE: Yes. I met Cat Stevens, who is a great photographer who traveled around with us taking pictures. Musicians – Birdengine (from Brighton), Lucie Wren (from London) , Dean McPhee (from Lancaster) , David A Jaycock (from Manchester) – and randomly I got to see, hear, and meet Mariee Sioux (from California) in London. Gosh. I really lucked out to get to see all these amazing people.

AFM: There’s a lot of great music coming out of Brooklyn right now. Why Brooklyn rather than the more obvious Manhattan?

SVE: It’s more affordable out here. So more artists can afford it. Even some areas of Brooklyn people feel pushed out and feel living is getting to be more and more. Brooklyn is so much bigger than Manhattan there are more places to go and so many trains that it’s easy to go most places anyway… and since venues are strapped as much for money out here there is less pressure and more of a friend vibe from owners and such out here.

AFM: Who else should we be paying attention to from your neck of the woods?

SVE: Forest Fire, She Keeps Bees, Wild Yaks, Airwaves, Essie Jain, Power Douglas, Scary Mansion, Miles Robinson, Ivana XL… so many.

AFM: Fantasy time. You’re a solo artist, but if you were putting together a dream band, which musicians, living or dead, would you sign on:

SVE: Vox: Vashti Bunyan, Joan Baez, or Jessica Larrabee
Guitars: Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, or Geoff Farina
Bass: Jeff Goddard
Drums: Sam Baker or Gavin McCarthy
Horns: Zach Condon

AFM: What’s getting heavy rotation on your personal playlist right now?

SVE: Elvis Costello, Ryan Adams, Festival, Lights, Patti Smith, Mt. Egypt, Wildbirds & Peacedrums

AFM: Who’s your musical hero?

SVE: It’s a tie between Geoff Farina, Neil Young, and Vashti Bunyan

AFM: What’s next for Sharon Van Etten?

SVE: Putting out my first real album recorded by Greg Weeks at Hexham Head and hopefully doing and East Coast tour in the summer. (fingers crossed)

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Wishing her the best. Check out Sharon’s music on her mspace page. I’m sure she’d be delighted to send you one of her beautifully crafted CDs.

Sharon Van Etten – “Have You Seen”

Sharon Van Etten – “It’s Not Like”

AFM: I’ve only recently been turned on to your music and I’m really enjoying it. It’s a swirling, lo-fi, folk-tinged pop sound – that is regrettably uncommon on the Kaiser Monkeys ruled British Isles right now. Where are your musical influences coming from?

FR: Anything we’ve been listening to that particular day. We’re all big fans of pop music, and get a kick out of taking pop principles and twisting them ever so slightly. We all love The Band, TV on the Radio, The Twilight Sad and Band of Horses. To name a few…

AFM: What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of being in a band with your brother?

It’s not something that i think about a great deal – I suppose he doesn’t always feel like my brother as much as just a very close friend that it’s ok to argue with on a regular basis.

AFM: Where does the name Frightened Rabbit come from?

Again, its a family thing – my mother used to say I had a frightened rabbit look about me when I was wee and I was thrust into social situations with other children. Did not really enjoy that kind of thing and I still struggle with social situations today.

AFM: Scotland is home to some of my favourite British artists – Bert Jansch, Jesus & Mary Chain, Belle & Sebastian – The Bay City Rollers. Who’s the best act to come from Caledonia?

FR: There’s a lot to be proud of… I personally feel like Idlewild have been producing great music for a long time now, but the Bay City Rollers were so very pretty. Tough call…

AFM: You guys made your second trip to SxSW this year. How did that go? How do the American audiences receive you?

FR: Americans always seem to tap into our music very easily, without the same concern for whether its ‘hip’ or not that exists over here. We’ve yet to have a shitty trip to the US and we hope to take in the delights of SXSW many more times over the next few years.

AFM: What British bands are flying under the pundits’ radars? Who should we be paying attention to that we’re not?

FR: Glasgow wise, I’d say We Were Promised Jetpacks and El Padre won’t be flying under that radar for too much longer. Great bands. UK wise, I love a Leeds band called Sky Larkin.

AFM: Fantasy time. One show, one night. What venue, anywhere in the world, would you choose and what two acts (living or dead) would you ask to support you?
FR: I’d take the Barrowlands in Glasgow, with Right On Dynamite from NYC on first, then The Twilight Sad. I’d rather have my buddies there than anyone else.

AFM: What’s the best song that you’ve written? Or is that like asking a parent what’s the best child they’ve spawned?

FR: I feel very proud of a song called “Poke”, it’s on the new record. It was one of those ones that just appeared from nowhere and I still can’t figure out how I wrote it. It really does justice to a very weird yet wonderful part of my life.

AFM: I asked my Scottish colleague what she would ask a band from Selkirk – “Selkirk is south from the borders, ask them if they see themselves as Scottish or closer to English or maybe they’d get offended?”

FR: We are Scottish! Its about 50 miles from the border and even people who live 1 mile from the border count themselves as Scottish. Very, very offended!

AFM: Your second long player “Midnight Organ Flight” is due out on April 14. What has changed since your debut? What differences will fans notice between “Sings the Greys”?

FR: Sonically, its a bigger more produced affair. Lyrically its a little more intense. I’m happier with it.

Bonus: Who’s the best sibling act: The Jackson 5, Donnie and Marie or Lynyrd Skynyrd?

FR: Jackson 5 had some good moves. Great hair. Great clothes. Everything we are not, i’m afraid. Wish i had those moves…

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We all do. I’d be particularly grateful for the hair. Thanks to Frightened Rabbit for taking the time to talk to A Free Man. Their second LP “Midnight Organ Flight” comes out Monday. It’s available for preorder from FatCat Records or Amazon. They’ve also got a live EP available exclusively from eMusic. Frightened Rabbit is currently on tour in the UK and come back to the US in May and June. Check their myspace for dates.

MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “The Modern Leper” (Live)
MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “Head Rolls Off”