More Nerd News in Brief

It’s a good news/bad news type of thing.

The good is that I’m currently sitting on the bulk of the tracks for the forthcoming Hipster, please! compilation album and that they are excellent.

The bad is that I don’t think there’s any way I’ll be able to make the original release date of February 29th. Longtime readers certainly won’t be surprised by the fact that I was unable to stick to my own schedule, but I suppose that’s cold comfort.

I’m hoping to have everything ready to go by early March or, failing that, sometime before we rush my wife to the hospital to shoot out a baby. I’ll keep you guys in the loop as the new release date becomes solid.

• Sorry, Obama: While MC Frontalot has recently joined artists like MC Lars and mc chris in throwing his nerdy weight behind Barack Obama, I, sadly, have abandoned the candidate in favor of one who appeals more to my spirituality. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
• Nerd Ink, supplemental: Concerning matters that are just as geeky, though in an admittedly different vein, more nerd ink. It’s almost like Church has set some sort of oddly specific Google Alert.
• (Almost) ready to launch: Yesterday my pal Anthony from Game Music 4 All sent me news that his next compilation album, the Super Mario RPG tribute Heavy Troopa is Ready to Launch!, is also nearing completion. He was even nice enough to toss up a teaser track for your collective ass. It is a thing of beauty to which you simply must listen.
• Chiptunes, mouth harps, and geeked-out beats.”: Doc Popular has also entered the final lap with regards to his new album Me Geek Pretty One Day. The album page promises an early March release of a work that “shakes things up by mixing nerdcore hip hop songs with 8-bit instrumentals, electro-pop, and sexy r & b.” In addition to Doc’s work with Tanner (as demonstrated last week), MGPOD will also feature production from the great Baddd Spellah and guest rapper MC Router on her final nerdcore track. After a little good-natured needling last night, Doc also let me know that the album will come with extras (including cellphone wallpapers, remixes by Bomarr and 8bit bEtty, and iPhone ringtones) all for a meager 8 bones. He’ll also be releasing it using the SongNumber distribution system. That Doc Pop is full of surprises!
• ‘Blood brothers: Lizz of WizRockLopedia (who’s sporting a delightful new ‘do of late) has posted some live audio from The Mudbloods over at Archive.org. The set was recorded at one of the recent Whomp the House shows, and you should really check it out.
• A league of our own: In related news, my buddy Matt made a really good point about the lack of taping in the geek music community. With the exception of the Northwest's always on-point AlienBobz, there seems to be a glaring lack of nerdy concert audio. Matt even broached the idea of putting together a Netlabel with which to catalogue dorky shows at Archive. It’s something to think about.
• The ladies, the ladies: And since we can’t talk about Wrock without mentioning lady-geeks, Church pointed me toward this interesting piece about fangrrls. While I can’t say I’m in love with the terminology, the article is pretty damned thought provoking.
• I Want You to Whomp Me: To bookend this week, here’s a vid of Lauren of The Moaning Myrtles (one of my favorite Wrock outfits) singing a special song for The Whomping Willows (another of my other favorite Worck outfits). I’ve long said that the only two things missing from Wizard Rock were Cheap Trick and arboreal innuendo.

This Just In

Genuine information surrounding Nerdapalooza ’08 has finally surfaced, the most compelling of which can be gleaned from the following image.

First and foremost, we can see that the event will occur over a two-day period this July at Taste Restaurant in the College Park area of Orlando. Furthermore, it’s impossible to miss the much-touted artist roster, which boasts not only a fine selection of local and regional artists (Select Start, Rocker Propelled Geeks, High-C, EPP, etc.) but also cats from the UK (Pixel8), NYC (Schaffer the DarkLord), the Mid-West (Dual Core and Whore Moans), and Cali (ZeaLouS1).

There are also a number of “blanks.” These are, as mCRT was nice enough to point out to me, probablys as opposed to unlikelys, and should be revealed as they are officially confirmed.

Further research indicates that tickets should go on sale in March pending price negotiations.

And with all that said, the only real question is how do I convince my wife to let me sneak away to FL for a long weekend with Random, YTCracker, and Former Fat Boys and leave her home alone with an infant and a toddler? Suggestions are encouraged and appreciated.

Damn It Feels Good to be a Gamer

At long last the complete American Gamer album is available!

Produced by Random, K-Murdock, Ravage, and Macross, American Gamer mashes up the hip-hop goodness of Jay-Z’s first concept album with beats composed of loops from classic video games. The project’s title track “even features a verse from a certain Hip-Hop/Videogame head” that we all know and love.

Like any bootleg album worth its salt, American Gamer is available for free download so be sure to check it out.

In a quasi-related story – and I never thought I’d actually be typing this – someone from MSNBC totally got things right vis-à-vis Jack Thompson. Will wonders never cease?

Let's Hear it for The Boy(s)

Regular readers of this blog know that I have a very limited vocabulary. There are words that pop up fairly regularly, proper nouns that represent the cutting edge of nerdy music. Names like Frontalot, Beefy, Random, and the like.

You’re just as apt to know another couple of names, a pair that, though not attached to nerdy hip-hoppers or geek rockers, are still very much linked with nearly everything that goes on here at Hipster, please! Church and Matt feed me leads concerning everything from nerdy politics to new releases, give suggestions for additions to the podcast track lists, and, perhaps most importantly, act as the sounding board concerning my various hair-brained schemes.

This week they’ve both got some pretty interesting projects of their own going on, and I thought I’d shine the light on them… Which is a nice change of pace considering it’s usually those two pimping out my stuff.

Matt’s got a new piece up at the reinvigorated (Hopefully!) Headphone Sacrament. It’s a review of Slytherin Hearts, the Split Seven Ways EP that I mentioned yesterday. It gives an overview of the work, the artist, and her place within the scene.

Church – known thereabouts as Pike – has put together a DIY mixtape for the cats over at Galactica Watercooler. Essentially it’s an outline to make your own playlist using free, nerdy tracks that are easily available online. There are some old favorites as well as some new hotness.

Since this is a bit of a slow news day for items not related to a very languid GDC, I’d say that both of these demand your immediate attention.

Nerd News in Brief

Some products are simply too effective. Example: Hori screen protectors.

I bought a pair of these suckers for my Crimson and Black DS Lite last October and they did the trick. A defective stylus ended up giving the protector some pretty good scrapes, but the touch screen stayed clear and safe.

Over the weekend I decided to swap out the old, damaged protector with a crisp, clean, shiny, new one, but it took a goddamn act of Congress to get it off. I literally had to pry the little fellow away from his prescribed duty.

Damn that traditional Japanese work ethic and general over-exuberance!

• Lowercase “c”: I’d like to start today’s NNIB by congratulating my man High-C on his new arrival! Check out NerdcoreHipHop.org for the first images of young Gorlax Frontington Christie, AKA: Lil' High-C. And since we’re talking about High-C that could well be the child’s real name.
• Old news you already know: Let me apologize for the glaring lack of the following during last week’s documentary rundown – The MC Frontalot doc Nerdcore Rising will be premiering at SXSW! Immediately after this March 9th premiere, Front and crew will be performing a set and the great Prince Paul will be spinning some records. Holy fucking shit!
• Just Another Lazy Blogger: In other news that I should’ve mentioned, like, a week ago, Beefy will soon be launching a new weekly podcast. Beef mentioned this at the same time he revealed that he had acquired his first grown-up job. Unfortunately, his blog is dead at present, but trust me; I am not making this shit up. (Probably.)
• "Shmoos haint make believe.": Last week, Dual Core unleashed hip-hop fury on the attendees of hacker conference ShmooCon. This marked the first time a nerdcore group played the con’s after-party, and, in the words of int eighty, “It was a lot of fun, and … we sold a metric ass-load of albums and even had an encore when the set for our show was over.” You can check out some pictures from the show at their MySpace.
• Make music with your mouth: Another recent first is the real life, face-to-face collaboration of nerd music greats and two of my favorite cats in the whole world, Doctor Popular and Tanner4105. For those of you un-swayed by photographic evidence, I will direct your attention to this track. Rai willing, we’ll hear more soon.
• London Calling: Euro nerds looking to get down and/or drunk in the company of likeminded individuals will be pleased with the announcement of Dork Party UK. March 8th through the 10th in Southampton – which is actually pretty far away from London, but I stand by my tagline – there will be “lots of booze” and also, presumably, some gaming. Interested parties should PM Category for details.
• More from across the pond: UK alterna-folk Wizard Rocker Split Seven Ways has just released a new free-to-download EP entitled Slytherin Hearts featuring “8 tracks of Slytherin love and anti-love songs.” Download it and embrace the Dark Arts. Thanks to Matt for hipping me to this.
• Not to be confused with Katie Holmes’s kid: Florida MC and comic book aficionado Sir-Up was recently front-paged at CollegeHumor.com. They identified him as “Suro” for some reason, but that’s definitely our boy Up.
• Commence shilling: Game retailer Play Asia is currently celebrating the Chinese New Year with their annual sale. The Year of the Rat Lucky Sale boasts thousands of bargains at crazy-low prices, and purchases make you eligible to win free consoles, handhelds, and games. Sale prices are only good until the end of the month, so head on over and check stuff out.
• Censored: To wrap things up, here’s a little vid that Doc turned me on to. The accompanying music is the Lemon Demon edit of that old Sesame Street classic “The Song of the Count.” If you laugh, you’re just as immature and easily amused as I am.