Soda Stereo

Soda Stereo was an Argentine rock band created in Buenos Aires in 1982, by the power trio made up of Gustavo Cerati (lead vocals, guitars), Héctor "Zeta" Bosio (bass), and Charly Alberti (drums). It achieved international success throughout the 1980s and 1990s, playing a pivotal role in the surfacing, development and dissemination of Latin and Ibero-American rock. They were the first Latin rock group to achieve success throughout Hispanic America.

Soda’s early sound was influenced by new wave bands such as Virus, The Police, Elvis Costello and post-punk bands such as Television (this influence particularly demonstrated in Soda's early works, e.g. Soda Stereo (1984), Nada Personal (1985), Signos (1986), and Doble Vida (1988)). The band gradually evolved into a heavier sounding alternative rock band, eventually drawing influences from classic rock, progressive rock, shoegaze, neo-psychedelia, britpop, and electronic music, particularly with the albums Canción Animal (1990), Dynamo (1992), and Sueño Stereo (1995).

Stereophonic sound

Stereophonic sound or, more commonly, stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that creates an illusion of multi-directional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two or more independent audio channels through a configuration of two or more loudspeakers (or stereo headphones) in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing. Thus the term "stereophonic" applies to so-called "quadraphonic" and "surround-sound" systems as well as the more common two-channel, two-speaker systems. It is often contrasted with monophonic, or "mono" sound, where audio is heard as coming from one position, often centered in the sound field (analogous to a visual field). In the 2000s, stereo sound is common in entertainment systems such as broadcast radio and TV, recorded music and the cinema.

The word stereophonic derives from the Greek "στερεός" (stereos), "firm, solid" + "φωνή" (phōnē), "sound, tone, voice" and it was coined in 1927 by Western Electric, by analogy with the word "stereoscopic".

Enanitos Verdes

Enanitos Verdes (Literally "Little green dwarfs", roughly equivalent to the English phrase "Little green men") is a rock trio from Argentina, formed in 1979 in the city of Mendoza.

History

The band started in 1984, with Marciano Cantero (bass guitar, keyboards and vocals), Felipe Staiti (guitar) and Daniel Piccolo drums. That same year, they performed throughout the Cuyo region. Later they traveled to Buenos Aires to record a demo, with unusable results that were never released. In spite of this failure, they continued doing shows in Mendoza and in Buenos Aires.

In 1984 the band added two new members: Sergio Embrioni (guitar and vocals) and Tito Dávila (keyboard). As a quintet they published the disc Los Enanitos Verdes, with the hit "Aún sigo cantando" ("I'm still singing"). Embrioni left the band in 1985.

In 1986 they published their second album, entitled Contrarreloj (Counterclockwise), with the artistic production of Andrés Calamaro. The album included songs such as "Tus viejas cartas" ("Your old letters"), "Cada vez que digo adiós" ("Every time I say goodbye"), and "La muralla verde" ("The green wall"). Their third album Habitaciones extrañas (Strange Rooms) would arrive the following year. Produced again by Calamaro, it included "Te vi en un tren" ("I saw you in a train"), "Por el resto" ("For the rest") and "El extraño de pelo largo" ("The stranger with the long hair").

Los Prisioneros

Countdown

A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the term "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and even "E-minus" for events that involve spacecraft that are already in space, where the "T" could stand for "Test" or "Time", and the "E" stands for "Encounter", as with a comet or some other space object. Other events for which countdowns are commonly used include the detonation of an explosive, the start of a race, the start of the New Year, or any anxiously anticipated event. An early use of a countdown once signaled the start of a Cambridge University rowing race. The first known association with rockets was in the 1929 German science fiction movie Die Frau im Mond (English: Woman in the Moon) written by Thea von Harbou and directed by Fritz Lang in an attempt to increase the drama of the launch sequence of the story's lunar-bound rocket.

Rocketry

A countdown is a carefully devised set of procedures ending with the ignition of a rocket's engine. Depending on the type of vehicle used, countdowns can start from 72 to 96 hours before launch time.