Nerd News in Brief

For years my people have dreaded this day. A day when we at last feel the icy grip of our own obsolescence. A day when our kind is superseded by a laboratory-grown, scientifically enhanced version 2.0.

It is the dawn of the test tube nerd!

Yep, you can grow ‘em yourself. So let us bide our final hours with some Nerd News in Brief.

• FTW: Today’s nerdy affirmation is brought to you by Church H. Tucker. In the end, we always win.
  
• Desu or Not Desu: While I can’t imagine any of you are awaiting its appearance to decide whether or not to buy The Fourth Estate, my review of the new Ultraklystron album is taking a bit longer than expected. But if, for whatever reason, you are dragging your feet in purchasing it, why not peep Karl’s free Desu Desu Desu mixtape in the interim? It is sexy.
  
• The Virtual Airwaves: Thanks go to Dekker for hipping me to a new venture known as 8bit FM. It boasts streaming chiptunes, nerdcore, VGM and traditional game soundtracks 24/7. Give it a listen and pass the word along!
  
• Give Something Back: Did you know that April is Support OverClocked Remix Month? As it comes to a close, why not head over to OCR and throw a little change their way? Think of all the hours of enjoyment you’ve garnered from that particular community. Also, think of djpretzel’s winning smile. Don’t you wanna see it shine?
• You, the People: April is also the month for Wizard Rock People’s Choice Awards nominations. Head over to the Wizrocklopedia and toss some support behind your favorite witches and wizards!
• Pottercore: And speaking of WRock, Harry and the Potters have a new release in the works. Slated for release in May, Priori Incantatem is a 2-disc collection of demo, unreleased, out-of-print and compilation tracks. And to answer your (read: my) burning question, it will feature the songs from your (read: my) favorite Potters EP Scarred for Life, produced by your (read: my) friend Dan Brennan!
• Weaponized: Also promoting a new album is dynamic chiptune duo 8 Bit Weapon. You can currently snag a hand-numbered limited edition copy of 8BW’s Electric High EP in a 5.25" Floppy Disk for $9.95 with free shipping. Outmoded storage solutions be damned! And the musicians among you can also snag the new 8 Bit Weapon: A Chiptune Odyssey loop library from Sony. This purchase comes with a free MP3 copy of Electric High. Bargain!
• Sadly, I Can Only be Awesome in 2-hour Increments: Of all the various flavors of nerdery, one of the most fascinating is the movie nerd. With that in mind, behold Awesome All Day. It’s a love letter to pop culture and niche cinema with a healthy dose of nerd culture. Good times.
• Eve of Destruction: One of my favorite web series, Little Miss Gamer, has recently released a new episode. Peep "Adam and Z," in which LMG looks back on her very first console, at her official site.
• Spillage: Did you see Beefy’s interview with Atomic Town’s Bethzilla? It was riveting, thought-provoking and informative. It was also messy.
• 5 of Those Calls was From Me: Also available on YouTube are a pair of hilarious hip-hop vids, which I discovered compliments of my Texas-based brother Antisoc. The first is a glimpse of what happens when pitch corrections meets current events. The second is Shawshank Redemption in rap form.
• Straight Outta Stockholm: This week, our own MC Lars got some much deserved props from NPR. His track "True Player For Real" was Wednesday’s Song of the Day. He also dropped another freestyle video which, in the face of a forthcoming Australian tour, sees him rap over Men at Work. We’ll end this week on that little gem.