

While music has long been recognized as an effective form of therapy to provide an outlet for emotions, the notion of using song, sound frequencies and rhythm to treat physical ailments is a relatively new domain, says psychologist Daniel J. "Music very much has a way of enhancing quality of life and can, in addition, promote recovery." Music to treat pain and reduce stress "There's just something about music - particularly live music - that excites and activates the body," says Loewy, whose work is part of a growing movement of music therapists and psychologists who are investigating the use of music in medicine to help patients dealing with pain, depression and possibly even Alzheimer's disease. The music therapy also lowered the parents' stress, says Joanne Loewy, the study's lead author, director of the Armstrong center and co-editor of the journal Music and Medicine.

Singing also increased the amount of time babies stayed quietly alert, and sucking behavior improved most with the gato box, while the ocean disc enhanced sleep. The researchers found that the gato box, the Remo ocean disc and singing all slowed a baby's heart rate, although singing was the most effective.

The two instruments were played live by certified music therapists, who matched their music to the babies' breathing and heart rhythms. They examined the effects of three types of music: a lullaby selected and sung by the baby's parents an "ocean disc," a round instrument, invented by the Remo drum company, that mimics the sounds of the womb and a gato box, a drum-like instrument used to simulate two-tone heartbeat rhythms. Researchers at Beth Israel Medical Center's Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine conducted the study, which included 272 premature babies 32 weeks gestation or older in 11 mid-Atlantic NICUs. While the sounds of such life-saving equipment are tough to mute, a new study suggests that some sounds, such as lullabies, may soothe pre-term babies and their parents, and even improve the infants' sleeping and eating patterns, while decreasing parents' stress ( Pediatrics, 2013).

There’s a lot of cool bands on this thing like MIDDLE CLASS RUT and DANKO JONES.The beep of ventilators and infusion pumps, the hiss of oxygen, the whir of carts and the murmur of voices as physicians and nurses make rounds - these are the typical noises a premature infant hears spending the first days of life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). I’m of course good pals with the JANE’S ADDICTION guys. I’ve known John’s kids since they were bumps in bellies. Reese was my tour manager in Guns N’ Roses. We talked about it, and John Reese who co-owns Uproar spoke to me. Sean knew our record would be coming out about the time of this tour starting. They approached Alice In Chains about co-headlining the festival, and Sean was really pushing to make this a sort of different Uproar with a mixture of bands that could really interest and challenge an audience. Jerry Cantrell, Sean, and I have been pretty tight buddies since 1990 or something. "Well, initially, (ALICE IN CHAINS drummer) Sean Kinney called. What attracted you to the Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival? The Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival caught up with WALKING PAPERS bassist Duff McKagan (ex-GUNS N' ROSES, VELVET REVOLVER) to talk about Uproar, judging the Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival’s Ernie Ball Battle Of The Bands and more an excerpt follows:
