"Bam Thwok" is a download-only single by the American alternative rock
band Pixies. The song was written and sung by bassist Kim Deal
(pictured), and released exclusively through the iTunes Store on June
15, 2004. It was the band's first recording since the 1991 studio album
Trompe le Monde; the Pixies broke up acrimoniously in 1993 and reformed
in 2004. Frontman Black Francis, the band's principal songwriter, said
the recording session "was very relaxed, a nice way to break the ice".
Originally composed for the movie Shrek 2, the song was not selected for
the final soundtrack. The lyrics display a surrealistic and nonsensical
nature typical of the band; Deal's inspiration was a discarded child's
art book she found on a New York City street. She commented "This kid
had written ... about a party that took place in another universe, about
people and monsters that were partying together." The song is structured
around a four-beat guitar melody which incorporates major chords
throughout. It begins with full instrumentation, over which Santiago
layers a short guitar solo. "Bam Thwok" debuted at number one on the
first release of the UK Download Chart.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bam_Thwok>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1667:
French physician Jean-Baptiste Denys administered the first
fully documented human blood transfusion, giving the blood of a sheep to
a 15-year-old boy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_transfusion>
1896:
A 7.2 Ms earthquake and a subsequent tsunami struck Japan,
destroying about 9,000 homes and causing at least 22,000 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Sanriku_earthquake>
1944:
In the Saskatchewan general election, the Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation led by Tommy Douglas won enough seats in the
Legislative Assembly to form the first socialist government in North
America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Douglas>
1954:
The Union of European Football Associations, the administrative
and controlling body for European football, was founded in Basel,
Switzerland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA>
1996:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb in the
commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring over 200 people and
causing widespread damage to buildings.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Manchester_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
encapsulate:
1. To cover something as if in a capsule.
2. To epitomize something by expressing it as a brief summary.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/encapsulate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
All world-images are apt to become corrupt when left to
ecclesiastic bureaucracies. But this does not make the formation of
world-images expendable. And I can only repeat that we deny the remnants
of old-world images at our own risk, because we do not overcome them by
declaring them — with all the righteousness of skepticism —
something of a secret sin. They are not less powerful for being denied.
--Erik Erikson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erik_Erikson>