Boredom Busters – New, Notable & Nerdy

It's Thanksgiving week here in the old US of A, and that means I'll likely not have a lot of time to post over the coming days. You know, family and turkey and parades and shoppin' and all that.

Still, since many of you will also be in a similar time crunch, I figured now would be a great time to direct you to some new projects to keep you occupied during that Black Friday assault of the local Toys 'R' Us.

In case you missed it, meta-mash-up artist Girl Talk dropped his 5th full-length last week. While his previous release Feed the Animals didn't exactly do it for me, All Day is a really quite an enjoyable mix. Tracks 3 and 4 ("That's Right" and "Jump on Stage" respectively) are easily among his best showings to date, and the entire project is freely available at Illegal Art.

Another musical must-have is Doctor Popular's Beeps and Smudges, an album for which I recently expressed a sincere and desperate longing. It too is now available, and I gotta say the project is even more enjoyable than I anticipated. Built entirely around iPhone and iPad music apps, it's niche creation obviously inspired Doc to do great things. It's available for as a little as $1, and since Doc Pop is selling it through Bandcamp you can preview the album in its entirety.

While you're over Bandcamp way, also be sure to cop the latest from seminal Wizard Rockers Harry and the Potters. Remixes is an 8-track collection of – wait for it – remixes. It features a fun selection of reworked material from the classic HatP catalog including Paradise Dan's original Old Nerdy Bastard contribution, a dash of reggae dub and a damn-near stirring a cappella interpretation of "Save Ginny Weasley." It's a pay-what-you-want release, so you have no reason not to check it out.

Additional Potter-related musical goodness is available from our friends at the Funny Music Project. FuMPer Insane Ian has dropped the Weezer parody "Harry Potter" just in time for the release of Deathly Hallows part 1. Ian's also offering an "evolving album" of classic and contemporary covers via his site. Check it out now for a trio of selections, and keep checking back as the project continues to grow.

If for some reason all this music doesn't slake your thirst for nerdery you are also welcome to check out the most recent addition of The Bonebat Show. Episode 57, on which I guested along with my nor'western brothers Death*Star, is presently available at bonehand.com, Itunes, and your aggregator of choice. It's a fairly robust encounter that features live music, political rants and lots of talk about wangs. Suffice it to say it is a classy good time.

Those of you in the market for a more visual style of entertainment are encouraged to peep the newest from chip/sprite artist Doctor Octoroc. Oct created a bead sprite piece a while back entitled "Firewall" that served as his own commentary on the current state of the console wars. More recently he's translated this concept into an elaborate 16-bit-style animation. Check out his site for the requisite background information or his YouTube channel to head straight to the vid itself.

And I can't mention YouTube without pausing to pimp the latest from Florida's Krondor Krew. Your favorite ninjas teamed with a local Orlando-area production team, Arcani Pictures to craft the band's first official video. It's for the track "Sneaking" from their album The 6th Rotation of the House of the Chaos Star. Give it a look and add a little Ninjapendence celebration to your Turkey Day.