Friday, July 20, 2012

Your Nerdapalooza is in Another Castle

A cursory glance at the calendar indicates that we're just a couple of weeks out from this year's (unseasonably late) Nerdapalooza. This time around your favorite nerd's favorite nerd festival has once again changed location – to Orlando's twin night spots The Beacham and The Social – and with that shift comes a few more rules and regulations than in previous iterations. But such is the price you pay for the pleasure of experiencing a musical event at a proper musical venue.

Event Director Aaron has gone to great lengths to compile a helpful list concerning rules of conduct and simple dos-and-don’ts. I suggest you give' em a gander, and pay special attention to the all important Rule 621. Learn it. Love it. Live it.

In case you haven't heard, I will not be in attendance this time around. I'm actually prepping for a journey to the fabled O-town with the whole famn damily in October, so I'm afraid as a result this visit had to be sacrificed on the altar of Conserving Annual Leave Days. Y'all know how it is.

Now that being said, my boys will be in attendance. (And in this instance "my boys" does not actually refer to my testicles.)

New homies Tribe One and Adam WarRock will both be there, performing Friday and Saturday evening respectively. I've seen 'em both rock the mic on numerous occasions, and if you happen to miss either set I'm afraid we can no longer be friends.

Sci-Fried is playing an afternoon slot on Saturday. Those cats are – and I don't use this phrase lightly – my brothers. I love 'em, and missing them hurts more than any other single act on the bill. Please scream extra loud for 'em. I know they've got some amazing stuff planned.

My hometown heroes The ThoughtCriminals are going on immediately after. It's their first official showing at Nerdapalooza-proper, as their hotel room gig last year was some hardcore underground shit that must not be spoken of in the presence of respectable ladies and gentlemen.

The TCs have just released a Bandcamp fundraiser project to help them scrape together gas money for next month's trip down Florida-way. The minimum price of The Game Changer EP is nothin', but anything you'd be willing to chip in goes to getting my crew to where they need to be.

I'll be with 'em in spirit, so think of it as a metaphysical donation to yours truly.

Sheer Tourture

I reckon with all that's been going on this week it's difficult to remember that there are more geeky rappers than just mc chris, but, alas, 'tis true! There's this one cat named Random. Perhaps you've heard of him.

Ran is currently celebrating the successful Kickstarter campaign that funded his recent multimedia project with The Summer Sessions Tour. He's on the road throughout July and August with cats like Open Mike Eagle, DN3 and K-Murdock. Later dates also put him on the Monster Hunter Tour with mc, Richie Branson and Powerglove.
Tour Dates:
*With Open Mike Eagle and DJ DN3
^With Richie Branson, mc chris and Powerglove
#With K-Murdock
7.16 Berbati's Pan, Portland, OR*
7.17 Nectar, Seattle, WA*
7.18 The Glow, Bellingham, WA*
7.20 Velvet Lounge, Washington, DC*#
7.21 Capital Comics, Annapolis, MD*#
7.24 Dobbs Upstairs, Philadelphia, PA*
7.25 Cameo Lounge, NYC*
7.26 Empire, Portland, ME*
7.27 Con-Bravo, Burlington, Ont, Canada*
7.28 Pixel, Ithaca, NY*
7.29 Precinct, Boston, MA*
8.1 White Rabbit, San Antonio, TX^
8.2 Mohawk, Austin, TX^
8.3-5 Nerdapalooza @The Social/Beacham, Orlando, FL#
8.6 The Haven, Winter Park, FL#
8.7 Granada Theater,Lawrence, KS^
8.8 The Waiting Room, Omaha, NE^
8.9 Varsity Theater, MPLS, MN^
8.10 Gabe's Oasis, Iowa City, IA^
8.11 Subterranean, Chicago, IL^
8.12 Intersection, Grand Rapids, MI^
8.14 Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI^
8.15 Mickey Finns, Toledo, OH^
8.16 The Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH^
8.17 The Basement, Columbus, OH^
8.18.12 Mr Smalls, Pittsburgh, PA^
8.19.12 Mohawk Place, Buffalo, NY^
Now on to the elephant in the room. A few people have asked for my thoughts on Redditgate, and they are as follows:

Well goddamn that was uncomfortable to watch.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up my take on the whole thing from start to finish. I could say more, sure, but given that a legitimate tragedy recently unfolded on the periphery of nerd culture, it seems rather pointless to dwell on it.

If you're looking for sharp but even-handed commentary I suggest you check out Beefy's post from yesterday. He's a dude that's closer to the source than most – not to mention a guy that I genuinely trust – so I tend to believe that his words hold a good bit of water.

Plus he has a pretty fuckin' great new track too, so you should probably head over there anyway.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

OverKicked StartMix

It's always a little weird to promote a Kickstarter that's already met its goal, but, as this one involves both OverClocked ReMix and the Final Fantasy series, I figured it couldn't hurt to help get the word out there to additional interested parties. McVaffe and zircon – two of the community's most talented and industrious remixers – are currently heading up a project that marks the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VI with an epic musical tribute.

Since this is OCR we're talking about, of course the final product will be available as a free download, but chipping in helps finance a limited edition physical pressing, covers studio/mixing/mastering fees and paves the way for OverClocked ReMix to continue the good work they do for game music and game music composers. Peep the video below for the skinny on all things Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin.