Sci-Fi Superhero

I sometimes struggle with how to categorize artists. For example, while Kirby Krackle is straight-ahead nerd rock and Dethlehem plays fantasy metal, John Anealio is more a… guitar geek troubadour?

The words, sometimes they fail me.

John and I recently made some time to talk about his unique style and his own circuitous musical evolution. Further, amid all this, he also hit me with his official bio. It reads thusly:

John Anealio performs geeky anthems for writers, librarians, lovers of Sci-Fi, Best Buy customers & robots. His music sounds like John Mayer, Weezer & James Taylor playing Dungeons & Dragons together on their iPhones. Check out his music at www.johnanealio.com

I reckon that about sums him up. Read on to discover the hidden mysteries of hair metal and John's own secret identity!

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John, despite the acoustic singer-songwriter slant of much of your contemporary output, you actually come from a metal background. Was that the style of music that originally inspired you to create, or was it something you discovered after picking up the guitar?

Definitely. Being exposed to the playing of (hair) metal guitarists like Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big), Vito Bratta (White Lion) and Reb Beach (Winger) inspired me to play. I was determined to compose and perform those types of fleet fingered solos. Looking back, it's pretty easy to see the connection between metal guitar and geek culture. Thumb through an old guitar magazine from the '80s/early '90s and check out those photos. Those guitarists look like Sci-Fi Superheroes! Long hair, spandex and bright, multi-colored guitars that looked like laser rifles. Musically, the distorted, finger tapped solos sounded like the soundtrack from an '80s video game.

Stylistically, you seem to be drawing from a number of places, so what about lingering influences? Are you still steeped in hair metal? What about lighter fare?

I've always had a voracious musical appetite and I've always been curious about music history. I always wanted to find out who influenced the musicians that I admired. My favorite metal guitarists would usually cite Led Zeppelin. Zeppelin's Jimmy Page would talk about his love of the blues, folk and world music. If you have an inquisitive mind, it's pretty easy to get lost in all of these different styles of music and over the course of my musical life, I have.

Eventually, my love of metal led to instrumental guitarists like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, which led to prog rock. As I became more interested in singing and songwriting, I got into The Beatles and Crowded House. When I started playing the coffee shops, I started to explore folk and acoustic blues. All of these influences impact my creative process in some way. It often depends on my mood or what seems appropriate for a particular song or piece of music.

Your latest release, Laser Zombie Robot Love, has an fascinating title with an even more interesting story behind it. How did you arrive at this unique name?

I co-host The Functional Nerds Podcast. Each week we interview a different sci-fi or fantasy author. Through the podcast, my music and my attendance at conventions, I've gotten to be pretty good friends with quite a few of these folks. I didn't have a set title for the album yet, so I thought it would be fun if some of my author friends submitted title suggestions by looking at the artwork and the track list. I my Twitter/Facebook friends and people on my mailing list to vote for their favorite. Chris F. Holm, Mur Lafferty, Paul S. Kemp, Robert Jackson Bennett, Myke Cole, Matt Forbeck and Karin Lowachee came up with excellent titles, but Chuck Wendig's Laser Zombie Robot Love pulled out the victory.

Speaking of, what's coming down the pike for The Functional Nerds?

More of the same. The strength of what Patrick and I do is consistency. We put out a show every single week. Each week we interview a Sci-Fi or Fantasy author and chat about geeky topics and make music, tech and book picks of the week.

I know from Functional Nerds that you're also a voracious reader; what books or authors are you currently digging?

Well, I'm an enthusiastic reader, but I'm terribly slow, so I don't know if I can describe myself as voracious. Here's a list of my favorite books from the past year:

1. The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett
2. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
3. Dead Harvest by Chris F. Holm
4. Control Point by Myke Cole
5. The Hammer & The Blade by Paul S. Kemp
6. Empire State by Adam Christopher
7. Awakenings by Edward Lazellari

Okay, back to the new release front. LZRL boasts 11 of what I like to think of as "John Anealio classics" as well as 9 bonus remixes and alternate takes. Do you do all your own remixing, and what inspires your continued experimentation with the sounds of electronica?

I did all of the remixes for LZRL. I know a lot of traditional musicians look down on electronic music because it isn't "real" and you're not really playing. I love the "sound" of electronic music. I love how insanely creative some electronic musicians are with the development of their sounds. I also dig that a lot of this type of music can't be played on a traditional instrument. Those flurries of arpeggios and off-kilter rhythms just sound so cool and I like seeing how those sounds can combine with my traditional songwriting.

What's your recording setup like? How do you go about producing, mixing and mastering?

Here's my gear list:

1. Rode NT-3 and NT-1 Condenser Mics
2. M-Audio Firewire 410 Audio Interface
3. MacBook (5 years old)
4. Logic Pro 8 Software

I use the mics to record my voice and acoustic instruments. My electric guitars go directly into the audio interface and are then processed by Logic's amp modeling software and effects.

All of the piano, organ, synth and drum sounds are produced in Logic. I arrange, mix and master everything in Logic too.

In your day job you're a music educator; do your students know about your secret life as a geek rock super hero?

They don't! Anealio is actually my middle name, spelled phonetically. Years ago, I released music under my real name, and I started to get uncomfortable when students or parents would show up at gigs or tell me that they saw my website. When I started doing geeky and sci-fi inspired music, I decided to perform under a pen/stage name. It was a good decision. It really liberated me to write about whatever I felt like.

You recently mentioned to me that you're on the Ladies of Ragnarok bill with Molly Lewis and The Doubleclicks when they pass through New Jersey. What's the skinny on that show?

I'm really excited about this. I've had the pleasure of opening for Paul & Storm in Salt Lake City in Nerdtacular as well as Marian Call in NJ a while back. I've been online friends with The Doubleclicks for a few years now, so it just made sense for me to open for them when they come through New Jersey. This is a house concert show, with limited seating, so reserve your space now! Here's the info.

Any other gigs lined up for those who'd like to experience your live performance?

I just performed as the musical guest of honor at Fencon in Dallas, Texas, which was great fun. In addition to the Ladies of Ragnarok show in New Jersey, I'll be performing another house concert in Maryland on Saturday, October 20th. Looking to book some more concerts/cons for 2012.

So what's the rest of 2012 look like for you? Any new projects planned or holiday releases in the works?

I've got a pile of unrecorded songs that I need to get to this year. Even though my songs are fully arranged with electric guitar, bass, drums, synths etc. on record, live I perform them all with just one acoustic guitar. To sound fuller, I finger pick and use various alternate tunings. Quite a few people have been pointing out how they want to hear more of this on my albums. A friend at my recent show in Dallas went as far as to say that my live guitar playing is what makes me sound like "me." He suggested making the acoustic guitar the focus and using subtle electronics and samples to support the guitar playing. I'm really inspired by this idea and I think that is the approach that I'll be taking with my next batch of songs.

And finally, John, what single track from this new release (or any of your previous efforts) best represents what you're about musically? What's the one song that potential fans should check out to get a proper feel for who you are and what you do?

It has to be "George R.R. Martin Is Not Your Bitch." It's poppy and funny and gives a good feel for my melodic and harmonic sense. Has a prog-ish guitar solo and outro and bits of electronica.

Yeah, that's all you, man. That's definitely you.

Sax and Violence

John Anealio has a brand new track out--one that you can cop, I am inclined to add, for free over at the Bandcamps. It's a commission piece for Mur Lafferty and Angry Robot Books based on Adam Christopher's alt history noir thriller Empire State.

Y'all know I'm a big fan of John's, but this selection is particularly interesting as it channels some cool prog rock and groove metal elements alongside a swingin' saxophone solo. Give it a listen below, and don't forget to give Mr. Anealio some well-deserved love.

Re: Your Brains

May really is a workhorse of a month when it comes to dubious holidays. In addition to containing the well-meaning but thickly commercialized Mother's Day it has also been recently minted Zombie Awareness Month. Oh, and this year it likewise played host to Not-Quite-the-End-of-the-World Day, which I think we can agree is a nice touch. To commemorate two of these three delightful fauxlidays – and the third as well if you're willing to stretch a bit – the Zombie Research Society has released a fun new book that has been described as "a cautionary tale that teaches kids how to recognize a zombie outbreak in its earliest stage."

Written by the Matt Mogk, head of the ZRS, and colorfully illustrated by Aja Wells, That's Not Your Mommy Anymore is what could easily be called a children's book for adults. Falling somewhere between the classic Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book and the currently buzz-worthy Go the Fuck to Sleep, it's a simple, lyrical anti-bedtime story that explains with childlike wonder the warning signs of early-onset zombism.

Combining nods to touchstones like Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead and Zombi 2 with a certain skewed Seussian sensibility, it's really little more than horror film fan service. But that's enough for me.

Written with tongue firmly in cheek, That's Not Your Mommy Anymore doesn't bother to step outside its kiddie book shtick, and it doesn't have to. At 32 pages, it never overstays its welcome, and, though neither the art style nor the simple sing-song narrative are exactly ground-breaking, both are competently managed and play extremely well together.

A mere 8 bones at Amazon That's Not Your Mommy Anymore is what I would term an easy recommendation. Leave a copy around your den, office or dorm room to shock and amuse unsuspecting guests, or maybe snap one up for the new geekparent in your life.

And while I'm making this solitary sojourn into the Hipster, please! Undead Book Club, let me also shine my own gritty light on 2010 Philip K. Dick Award nominee The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell, a book I picked up on the good word of Seattle Geekly. The first real grown-up book I've managed to read this year, this novel runs the typical zombie apocalypse survival story through the filter of naturalism, both philosophical and literary.

While properties like The Walking Dead tend to project the arc of the zombie holocaust to a fairly linear mid-point, Bell takes a different approach. His tale of adolescent protagonist Temple, a girl who's lived her entire life in a world populated by ravenous meatskins, takes place after the hysteria and the looting and roving bands of gangs vying for control of meager resources.

It is instead a world that has at last achieved an odd equilibrium, a land of scarce reconstruction where hope for the future is tempered by a measured acceptance of its present reality. Beautifully penned in the voice of a hardened southern illiterate who, despite both her own flaws and those of the world around her, still manages to see the beauty and order of nature's machinery, The Reapers Are the Angels is a tale that begs to be experienced.

And thus concludes what appear to be reviews of two books. As opposed to, y'know, albums. Which are more firmly in my wheelhouse.

I hope that the shock of this unlikely missive hasn't driven anyone to an early grave. But if it has, I reckon we can all agree that's an oddly appropriate outcome.

Comic Shop Rockers

I am an unapologetic fan of comic books. Not "sequential art" or "graphic novels" or any of those other terms that folks use to try and sidestep the seemingly geeky nature of the pastime, mind you, but regular old comic books.

Oddly enough, I actually got into comics approximately the same time I got into music – at around age ten. The mid-1980s were a strange and wonderful time to be a fanboy on both fronts. It was an era of Watchmen and the Mutant Registration Act. A time that saw the death of The Clash and Black Flag as well as the birth of Geto Boys and The Dead Milkmen.

Stranger still was the odd intersection of both my passions, which also occurred nigh simultaneously. Metallica thanked (alongside The Young Ones and Absolut Vodka) a then virtually unknown Mirage Studios title called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the liner notes for their landmark 1986 release Master of Puppets while Anthrax unapologetically repped UK comic icon Judge Dredd in the single "I am the Law" from 1987's Among the Living.

I provide this brief little history lesson so that when I arrive at the topic at hand you have a bit of context. For you see the music/comic book connection didn't die with American thrash metal. Today geeky musicians are still embracing comics not simply as inspiration, but as yet another vehicle for their creativity.

An obvious mainstream example comes to us compliments of prog rockers Coheed and Cambria. Each of the band's concept albums ties directly to frontman Claudio Sanchez's epic sci-fi tale The Amory Wars, which is simultaneously being published by Evil Ink as an ongoing if admittedly loose print series.

But if you're looking for something a bit less convoluted expansive, there are subtler options.

Geek rockers Americans UK regularly release their own free digital comics via the Literate Machine community in both PDF and CBZ formats. (Holler at some ComicZeal regarding the latter, iPhone users, and you'll be glad you did.) Part sci-fi murder mystery part illustrated lyric sheet, each issue packs in ample action and snark due to the efforts of frontman Jef UK, who is also the writer behind Oni Press's Odd Schnozz and the Odd Squad.

More recently the mad scientists behind FuMP act The Consortium of Genius launched a similar product tied to their most recent release Music for Supervillains. Though the album itself does a solid job or relating the story concept through skits interspersed between each song, Music for Supervillains: The Comic really brings the story to life amid visual interpretations of key plot points, illustrated song lyrics and comic strip-style non sequiturs.

Still, my favorite (vaguely) music-related comics project in recent memory comes from Halifax hip-hop superhero SJ the Wordburglar. Burg's love of comic books is well documented in verse, as is his predilection for the action-heavy pastiche of classic G.I. Joe, and the Snakor's Pizza project leverages the two nicely. Written by Burg and skillfully lettered and illustrated by Kody Peters and Dave Howlett, it has a surreal and distinctly urban feel to it that I immediately equate with the great Jim Mahfood. Following the life of the deposed leader of a snake-inspired terrorist organization turned restaurant manager, it refuses to take itself too seriously. The creators themselves, however, are obviously firmly committed to producing a high quality product despite its laughable premise. You can check out the story up to this point in full color online for the very low price of free, and a limited black and white print run of issue #1 was made available to Nova Scotian geeks through Strange Adventures Comix & Curiosities.

Book It!

Apparently it is shameless plug week here at Hipster, please! But then again, when is it not shameless plug week around here?

I plug things. Shamelessly. It is my only skill.

Please humor me whilst I ply my trade.

As those who follow the happenings over at my other primary project, the Wired GeekDad blog, already know, our fearless editor Ken Denmead has recently written a book. This book is slated for release early next month – May 4th, to be exact – but it's already available for something you kids call "pre-order."

Which involves ordering an item. Preemptively.

Essentially, it's a lengthy kid-centered project book with a nerdy slant, so if you have children of your own and are looking for some cool activities to bust out during the summer doldrums it may be advantageous to snag a copy. The current Amazon price is under $12, so it's not like a huge investment or anything.

Give the product page the once-over and peep its recent write-up in Wired proper to see if it's for you.

Oh, and if you're over there pre-ordering stuff anyway, you might also wanna peep this retro "red box" edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Essential Starter Set.

I never tire of helping you spend your money!