Year of the Horse

I am a creature of habit. I toss out phrases like "regular feature" and "annual tradition" a lot around here, and that's because these things, in their own weird little way, give me hope. The fact that this blog has been around long enough for me to have go-to pieces reminds me of how fortunate I am to still be able to do this.

I don't write full-time, I haven't yet arrived at that ultimate blessing/curse of doing what I love to do as my for-real employment, but Hipster, please! and, to a greater extent, my work at GeekDad has allowed me to supplement my income by actually doing something I dig. And I have you to thank for that.

'Cause it's what I do. I'm a thanker.

It's also *ahem* tradition that in this year-end wrap-up I thank longtime backers like Jason, Matt and Church (AKA: The Shadow Council), faithful supporters like Larry and Chris and Jarod, and new-found homies like Euge and kHill.

Which I guess I kinda just did.

It's also required that I hem and haw over what were the standout releases of the year, and this time around that's even more problematic than usual. I mean, I reckon I have my top spot reserved for either Kirby Krackle's Super Powered Love or Supercommuter's Products of Science depending on which way the wind blows at any given moment. But with stiff competition from (aforementioned homeboys) Adam WarRock and Mikal kHill, The Bossfights' phenomenal debut full-length, Illbotz hilarious Pudding is Delicious, that brilliant Weird Al tribute album and significant major label showings from old favorites like Anthrax, there really are no losers in this race.

But what I do most in this little year-ender is spotlight one particular geek that set the tone for the previous 12 months. Sometimes I single out a long-established musical innovator. Other times I point toward the future of our tribe. Mostly, though, I cheap out and pick a whole group of people as my "nerd of the year."

Which I'm about to do now.

As nerd culture becomes pop culture, fandom, long our secret, hidden shame, becomes our currency. Whether in a bar or at the supermarket, I'm just as likely to hear cats rattling off baseball stats as passionately discussing Galactica, and that's an interesting paradigm shift. But, lest you fear that this wholesale adoption of nerddom will somehow sour your loser-makes-good victory of brains over bros, let me point out that 2011's most potent, virulent and widely remarked upon flavor of fandom came from a very unlikely source.

Over the past several months, as the brony ranks have continued to swell, I've heard their little enclave often damned and even more so observed with a sort of stunned journalistic silence. But while I can't claim to be one of them – my casual association with the property likely paints me more as at most a "brony sympathizer" – I am here to say that they are no more confounding (or annoying) than any group of motivated Trekkies, Browncoats, Wrock kids, Juggalos or Volunteers fans. They merely represent a new breed of fanboys that are less afraid to let their geek flag fly, even when it does so in the face of the traditional trappings of masculinity.

In a culture where gender roles are so ingrained that we almost refuse to think about them, the idea of men in their 20s and 30s latching onto a "girl's TV show" for no other reason than they recognize its artistic merits gives me renewed hope. Sure, nerd life has long existing in a space that often avoids some common masculine pursuits – sports, to use one stereotypical example – but the idea of men willfully embracing a series aimed at females represents a small but significant shift.

If nerdism stands for anything, it's the dogged refusal to put away childish things. It's a willingness to cling to the joys and wonder of youth even as we feel ourselves getting older. We are eternal adolescents, reminders that one can grow old without ever growing up. This is personally liberating, but the larger specter of gender disparity stills haunts us as a group.

If we are ever to get past not only our own culturally propagated sexism but that of the greater world around us, we must learn to avoid our own long-laid traps. If we're to raise our daughters to understand that chemistry and coding and Call of Duty are as much within their realm as that of their brothers, then we need to set examples. Even minuscule ones. If we're ever to make the words "geek girls" – surely as buzz-worthy a phrase as "steampunk" or "dubstep" was in 2011 – an obsolete relic of our divided past, then we have to change the way we allow our culture to be defined, from within as much as from without.

A violently promiscuous new Catwoman or a line of fem-LEGOs don't represent steps forward for our nerd sisters; they stand out as further examples of our general miscalculation of what the women, young and old, in our midst both desire and deserve. And if a group of a dozen dudes getting together and combing the hair manes of their pony dolls while talking about the symbolic importance of The Wonderbolts can ever so slightly nudge us in the direction of a community that's somehow a little less dependent on bullshit gender identification – many bronies even refuse to differentiate between male and female members, eschewing the designation of "pegasister" altogether – and a bit more welcoming to nerds of all genders, backgrounds or orientations, then I say go the fuck on, bronies.

You go the fuck on.

In 2011 bronies made news and music and memes and, yes, waves, and they did it all for the love of a cartoon. And if that ain't nerdcore, then I don't know what is.

A Brave New Nerd

I have truly been dreading the writing of this year's closer post. Not because this has been a bad year for nerd music and culture, mind you, but because I've spent the last several months making a concerted effort not to sermonize. And I reckon this will blow all that hard work straight to hell.

So please forgive me if I climb up on that well-worn soap box. If I filibuster. If I testify. Know that I take no pleasure in it.

Okay – know that I only take a modicum of pleasure in it.

Perhaps more than any year before, 2010 was a contest of opposites within the nerd community, a study in stark contrast of who we are and what we do. Case in point: this year started off with a bang as a geeky white rapper explained to us how geeky white rappers making geeky white rap was inherently racist, and we got all up in arms and shit. Like we do. Meanwhile on the other side of the meta-community, those kids who make music about that one book series were working in a concerted effort to raise money for disaster relief. Peep the dichotomy.

I'm not really sure if this set the stage for the events to come or simply opened my eyes to the very duality that defines the modern nerd, but regardless it colored my understanding of all that transpired thereafter.

It also gave me a newfound respect for subtlety.

You see, while some of us were debating the nature of geeky art others were making geeky art and employing it to positive ends. While we were mistaking self-importance for actual importance others were breaking ground and moving mountains. While we were debating what it means to be a nerd others were being – with apologies to John and Patrick – functional nerds.

This was the year that finally drove home the fact that nerd life can be whatever you make of it, and that terms like nerd, geek and nerdcore are all deceptively flexible. The trick is in making sure that those words actually mean something special. The magic is in giving them legs and, in some cases, teeth.

The best nerd music of 2010 seems to clearly acknowledge this fact.

On the nerdcore side, genre mainstay MC Frontalot seemingly ignored the unfolding drama while crafting his best album to date, the eclectic Zero Day. Likewise YTCracker favored us with the THC-laced genius of his Space Mission. Both releases powered nerdcore forward, refining its artistry and strengthening its community through example.

There was also amazing movement outside of the stylistic fence that is recognized geeky hip-hop. Navi (formally Myf of the nerdcore-adjacent Metamystiks, Inc.) dropped Lo Fi Muey Thai – a veritable roller coaster ride of beats, rhymes and aural intelligence. And he was joined by a growing number of underground hip-hoppers from east (Never Yet Contested) to west (A-1) willing to fully mine the nerdier side of pop culture for artistic inspiration. Hell, 2010 is even the year that former attorney Adam WarRock proved to us that comic books and hip-hop were not mutually exclusive concepts.

The chip music community also saw amazing strides from stalwarts like Inverse Phase and Doctor Octoroc, both of which released genuinely inspired cover albums that helped push minimalist electronica further into the minds of the masses. These were only surpassed in quality by the vocal bit-pop of works like Stenobot's emotionally wrenching Sink or Swim We'll Go Together and Doctor Popular's exquisitely day-dreamy Beeps and Smudges.

Still, I was most impressed by the musical output from our friends making what I collectively refer to as geek rock. The aforementioned Wizard Rock community – long lambasted as single-note niche acts – expanded into everything from LOST-themed concept bands to indie pop. (Big ups for my friend Matt for introducing me to the concept of post-WRock!) Nerdcore heavy-hitters ZeaLouS1 and Dr. Awkward even tossed a dash of geek metal into the mix with their own project The Bossfights, heretofore known as the band that changed Nerdapalooza forever.

The common thread throughout all these artists and releases is clearly a focus on musical nerdery that is in no way devoid of talent or craftsmanship. I can't help but see 2010 as the year when quality control came full circle. The output was so astounding that you couldn't just slide by on a couple of Zelda samples or a Star Wars tribute – you really had to create a quality product to get noticed.

For my money, no act did this better than Kirby Krackle. E For Everyone built on the formula established by 2009's self-titled release. It combined pop hooks, smart songwriting and non-stop nods to gaming, comics and nerd culture without ever alienating the uninitiated audience. Jim and Kyle have become so adept at blending equal parts geek and rock that they don't have to use one to sell the other. They are the ultimate nerd songwriters in that they are both comfortable within their niche but not afraid to step outside (as Kyle's additional body of work is sure to attest).

In a year where geek became a marketing term, a time when making actual art often took a back seat to alternately clinging to or rejecting the nerd artist label, some soldiered on. And those are the artists that truly matter. They represent the community that I support and wish to be a part of.

You see, for years I've had this grand idea that we as the burgeoning nerd community stand for something. That we have some deeper, righteous purpose, and 2010 really did a lot to shit all over such high-minded idealism.

For an example we need look no further than the recently published Wired piece from Patton Oswalt. While it is the nerd's first instinct to celebrate and devour such gems from one of our kind in such a position of notoriety, the subtext of his piece on the death of geek is really just another example of the "get off my lawn" posturing for which we dorks are famed. It doesn't matter that our hard-fought pop culture has been absorbed into the mainstream, because the grand secret of ultimate nerdery is that everyone is and has always been a geek. Whatever passion you feel for whatever diversion you find most palatable is your own shade of geekiness. In Patton's own words, "It’s the method of consumption, not what’s on the plate."

The problem here is that we've let the bright lights of the outside world blind us. We want to preserve the sanctity of nerd, but we don't want to actually have to do anything with it. We want our studious nature and our sacred minutiae, but we don't want to acknowledge that these came from a place of self-realized degradation. Ill-content to simply be accepted or even valued, we have succumbed to the urge to feel superior. We don't want to see Boba Fett on the shirts of "gym douches hefting dumbbells," instead we want to be the gatekeepers of these geek artifacts. Essentially we have squandered our cultural heritage to hedge out the dreaded sell-out syndrome.

But in the end talking about nerd culture is no way to spread the news that we really need to stop talking about nerd culture before all the straights gobble it up. In fact, the things that those we deem as outsiders can easily assimilate – Star Trek or D&D or birth control glasses – are the least important elements of our civilization.

We retreated into such nerdy passions because we felt different, because forces both internal and external told us that we were incapable of meaningful interaction with our betters. But folks like you and me and Patton and Frontalot realized that this was bullshit and we worked through it. The trick is to leverage that strength into something meaningful, be it a song about the power of fan conventions or a charity event to benefit the world at large.

And while a lot of you are likely applauding Oswalt's words regarding our obsolescence, I'd like to conclude by explaining why nerd culture is in fact more important than ever.

You likely remember the story of Katie Goldman, but in case you missed it here is the skinny. Earlier this year 7-year-old Katie was bullied by the boys in her first grade class for liking Star Wars. An adopted kid with glasses and a lazy eye, she was an easy target, and the combination of her gender and a Star Wars water bottle proved a proper lightning rod. Her mom Carrie wrote about the experience in her blog at Chicago Now, and the news spread like wildfire.

Social media sites and blogs passed the word along, and support began to swell. Clone Wars' Catherine Taber weighed in with her own words of wisdom, ThinkGeek sent her a lightsaber of her very own and a hashtag trended on Twitter in Katie's honor. Normal, functional nerds, people who were more concerned with supporting the next generation than debating fucking semantics, let their voices be heard. And I'll bet that at least a few of them were those oft-maligned n00bs only now dipping a toe into our culture.

This surely won't be the last time Katie encounters resistance in her life, but just knowing you're not alone has a steeling effect on minds young and old. Being a part of something bigger, a veritable fraternity of freaks and weirdoes has a distinctly therapeutic quality. And I can't help but think that in a time where geek culture is acknowledged (if not always positively), in a place where Kirby Krackle plays the stage at your favorite con and Adam WarRock gets love from the BBC and anyone in America can walk into a mall and absorb a little of our heritage by buying a Punisher hat and a copy of Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, the next generation of nerds of all stripes are keenly aware that they are a part of a larger whole.

In Da Club

There was a time when I viewed my annual year-in-review post with a kind of disconnected irony. I did it slyly. Wryly. Because it was easy and expected. But, somewhere along the line, all that changed. And I blame YTCracker.

You see, last year I recognized YT for his creative output, his dedication to craft and his undeniable hustle, and it's hard to go back to casual yearly observances after crowning a "Nerd o' the Year" like that.

Thus, from the very earliest moments of 2009, I have been taking notes. I have, to turn a phrase, been making a list and checking it twice, so as to discern who's been nerdy and nice. And this year's seen a number of notable ups, as well as a few downs.

Early in January, that bastion of mystical geekery, the Wizrocklopedia, changed hands. Lizz stepped down to pursue other artistic avenues, leaving Dinah and Freya to captain the ship. Suffice it to say they have kept the old 'Pedia spirit alive, while summarily injecting their own unique energies. Likewise, my pal Anthony launched a staggering array of VGM projects from his own Game Music 4 All, before eventually re-launching the site itself as a bigger, better entity.

Heavy-hitters like YT and Random continued to spit fire with nerdy projects all their own throughout '09, while artists like Shael Riley, Schaffer the Darklord, Epic-1 and Dual Core released what can undeniably be termed the finest albums of their respective careers. And lest we forget the amazing showing from Wheelie Cyberman's first post-Optimus project Supercommuter.

Musically-speaking, 2009 was a banner year for nerds across the board! For the community itself, however, things were rocky at best.

While events like Nerdapalooza, Nerd Invasion and PAX sought to further strengthen nerd solidarity, we still managed to busy ourselves with petty in-fighting. Even as mc chris once again found himself warming to the nerdcore audience (if not the term itself), MC Lars proudly proclaimed that nerdcore was dead. And while we worked ourselves into a collective lather regarding the nature, future and overall health of nerdcore-proper, misfits at large similarly dissected the culture itself. Yes, my friends, 2009 will long be remembered by our kind as the year that many decided that geeks and nerds had become two wholly different animals.

As such, 2009 also came to be the year in which I finally realized the transient, fragile nature of our nomenclature. Rather than attempt to use nerd culture as a galvanizing force, an inspired outreach engineered to embrace our fellow dorks, we reduced it to a set of buzzwords and house rules. Nerdcore wasn't a style that one could apply at will to his music or even a catch-all reference employed to proudly display one's quirky intelligence; it was a genre that you either fully bought into for an easy aesthetic crutch, or avoided like the plague so as not to be associated with those deemed less talented than yourself. Nerd and geek, likewise, couldn’t suffice as equal self-identifiers for the champions of overzealous passion, and instead became a pair of ill-tempered camps: one a slave to the mainstream's pet "geek chic" and the other a casteless cadre of social inepts.

In short, while we moved forward with music, this year we took a step backward with regard to heavy-handed bullshit doctrine.

And while I could easily preach on the ills of nerd-on-nerd violence – including my own unfortunate contributions to the blight – for another thousand words, I will instead jump from my soapbox to extend a congratulatory hand to those who truly wowed me in 2009.

As I said, I've kept a mental tally of geeky highpoints over the past 12 months, and, though it surely belies my obsessive-compulsive nature, I have seen an odd pattern emerge from my findings. In fact, I found a distinct thread that runs through many of my favorite artists and releases of 2009.

Surely no one can deny that a banner year was had by UK chiptuner Superpowerless. Not only was he the winner of an illustrious MTV/Vodaphone contest in early March that afforded him the opportunity to have a single and a music video professionally produced, but Oliver also went on to expand his musical horizons further into the realm of geeky folk-rock. Still, somehow, amongst public touring and personal experimentation, Superpowerless managed to continually release a positively staggering array of new tunes. Truly he is one of the most prolific individuals in our midst!

The same can be said for the mysterious artist that we know as KABUTO THE PYTHON, who, much like YTCracker back in '08, supplemented his own phenomenal yearly output with a nigh ridiculous number of cameos. Under various guises – Beefy once famously referred to him as "the Hannah Montana of nerdcore" – KABUTO has been involved, on one level or another, with nearly every notable geeky hip-hop release of the year.

And while established acts like Superpowerless and KABUTO have continued to rip shit up, notable newcomer Dr. Awkward quickly proved himself more than capable of spitting fire on par with nerdcore's best and brightest. His Next Gen EP was, to put it bluntly, a thing of beauty, a release as literate and self-aware as it was fiercely powerful. As a result, the listener response was equally astounding, on par with the rapidly-developing ZeaLouS1 fandom of '06.

Though the more astute among you have already connected the dots, let me explicitly state that the common theme here is Scrub Club. Over the past year, Scrub Club Records has shown remarkable growth and foresight, along the way bringing each of the aforementioned trio into the fold as well as well as longtime favorites like The Ranger, Benjamin Bear and Z1 himself. But Scrub Club has done so much more.

By embracing Superpowerless, the net label's first distinctly non-hip-hop artist, MadHatter and company sent a message that the Club was open to trailblazers of all striped, regardless of established musical dogma. If it is tuneful and nerdy, Scrub Club welcomes it with open arms.

Most recently, Hatter brought on board Seattle's Southside – winner of my own coveted See-Motherfuckers-I-Told-You-They-Was-Dope Award (originally bestowed to the legendary Schaffer the Darklord) – via an online contest designed to help rappers hone their craft. This, it seems, further elevated the Scrub Club mission by using its already community-centered focus to foster give-and-take between new and existing artists. In essence, they abandoned the a who is best mindset still plaguing much of the musical community at large in favor of asking: how can we all benefit from each other's specialized strengths and experiences?

For years I have spoken about cross-pollination, about the power of true community, artistic outreach and shared ideas, and I am thrilled to say that these are the ideals I see reflected in Scrub Club. Though their methods may seem strange – the "no dough" motto seems to be particularly disconcerting to some outsiders – they have coalesced into a genuine musical family, and I anxiously anticipate what's to come lumbering from the cornfields in 2010.

Along Came a Spider

I should, by rights, be wrapping up my year-end post this afternoon, but instead I have paused to pass on a nerdy public service announcement.

Yesterday I heard some whisperings on Twitter regarding Jeanne Robinson, wife of sci-fi author Spider Robinson, and her delicate health. I didn't actually know the extent of the Geek Family Robinson's woes until my pal Church pointed me toward this post from Matthew Sanborn Smith, which spelled out the problems and what the StarShipSofa online literary community is doing to try to alleviate some of them.

Matthew, for those who missed it, recently gave me and Church a nice shout-out on his podcast, Beware the Hairy Mango, and StarShipSofa is very much a geek lit hub in its own right. In short, this is another case of us simply trying to help our own.

Here's the skinny from Church:

SF author Spider Robinson and his wife have encountered some difficulties. From Spider's blog:

Earlier his year a brilliant surgeon, Dr. Andresz Busczowski, helped Jeanne Robinson beat back a rare and virulent form of biliary cancer. But it’s so rare even he can’t say how much time he‘s bought her, how soon it might recur—and her latest blood tests have been so discouraging they’ve now decided she needs to start chemotherapy as soon as possible. Besides the prescription drugs to counteract the chemotherapy, she needs special therapies and supplements, counseling, and extensive diet and lifestyle changes, to reduce her stress level and the strain on her liver to as close to zero as possible. All those things are expensive...and like many artists today the Robinsons were already running on fumes financially.

By way of Matthew S. Smith, we learn that StarShipSofa, a podcast that has featured Spider's work in the past, has put together an ebook by Larry Santoro (another SSS favorite) with 100% of the proceeds going to the Robinsons. And it's only five bucks. The catch? You have to order it before the year is out. So you should go do that. Sooner is better...

Disclaimer: SSS has put out a rare Z/Church collaboration in the distant past.

So there you have it. Considering some of the things my own clan has been through over the past 12 months, projects like this hit especially close to home, and if you've got a spare 5 bucks I would consider it a personal favor if you'd use it to pick up Santoro's charity ebook. There's only about 12 hours left before the deal disappears forever, so act now.

Think of how good you'll feel knowing that you ending 2009 by supporting nerds in need!

Nerd News in Brief

Why the hell am I the only person using the "geek rock" tag? Seriously. Church recently mentioned that if you use it as a filter it makes it looks like Technorati has a damn Hipster, please! category!

I think that's my New Year's resolution: get other people using the phrase geek rock.

Come on, say it with me now. Geek. Rock.

Doesn't that feel good?

• Nekkid Nerds: For some of you, there is no higher form of art than a group of nudists in Star Trek themed body paint. Those people are encouraged to click this link. Though probably not while they're at work.
• Nerd Girl, I Don't Deserve You: You know what we haven’t talked about in a while? geek girls. Thankfully, Autostraddle is there to pick up the slack. As Church points out, blogger Taylor manages to work in the usuals (Tina Fey and Felicia Day) as well as some new candidates (like Rachel Maddow).
• Very Stimulating: Also from Church comes this link the Seattle Times recent interview with geeky hip-hop pioneer Paul Barman. Read up and get schooled.
• Exterminate!: Meanwhile, Matt has found a new hero. UK crafter Rob Bosher has built his own life-size Dalek. Powered by an electric wheelchair, this bad boy works via remote control and can even bark poorly digitized orders at unwitting humans.
• Totally ReTARDIS: Tracy V. Wilson over at How Stuff Works has uncovered a great secret. I am talking some Dan Brown shit here, folks. Apparently Wesley Crusher is a Time Lord!
• Official Beer of the Empire: What's weirder than a Doctor Who-related Star Trek revlation? Storm Trooper-themed beer.
• Gabe, Tycho & Dave: Ever wanted to create your own web comic? Well, Dave "The Knave" White has got you covered. His recent session at Podcamp Pittsburgh covers all the basics, especially with regards to technical, behind-the-scenes issues.
• Because Canadians are Just Better: Sure you've seen nerdy burlesque shows and geeky stand-up routines, but have you seen them in the same place? If you have, you probably live in Toronto. Or you are Schaffer the Darklord.
• Las Mascaras: Speaking of Schaffer, Coolzey, who guested on STD's recent release, is preparing to drop his new album The Honey late next month. In the meantime, peep the video for "Look." It features ladies and luchadores. And lady luchadores!
• Paranoid Android: Lately I've been thinking of upgrading to an Android phone. Turns out that our own MC Frontalot was an early G1 adopter, and he recently sang the praises of the device over at Android and Me.
• Too Many Summers: Wizard Rock aficionado Dinah has made public a demo by WRock group Standing In Line. The release, originally handed out at Wrockstock in very limited quantities, is for personal listening only, so download it and add some more magic to your collection.
• Science, Every Day: Did you know my boy funky49 has become the official nerdcore rapper of science? I mean, after repping MOSI and now Fermilab, he's really only got one place to go: outer space!
• Hope Aboard My Starship: My high school chum Brooks directed me to this Gizmodo piece from Joseph Shoer, a Ph.D. candidate in aerospace engineering, about the physics of space battles. It's a lengthy and fascinating geek out concerning theoretical combat.
• In Space: Earlier this month, Game Music 4 All Records released its very first EP. Challenge!, by Scottish chiptune musician Comptroller, is an outer space adventure aboard an LSDJ-fueled rocket ship. Come along.
• On the Fly: On the subject of chiptunes, nerdy ally Jonny Nero is positively aflutter about the NESynth virtual synthesizer for the iPhone. Here's why.
• To the Nines: And I can't talk about chip music without plugging the latest from the great Videogame Orchestra. VGO's Werk is available from Treble Death System for the super-low price of nothing. Get on that shit!
• Intervention: I would like to applaud Mike Damanskis for finally bringing Yoshi's bulimia to light. He needs our support now more than ever.
• Grassroots: Excited for Mega Man 10? Of course you are. But think of how much more exciting it would be if the game featured our old pal Mega Ran! It just so happens that there's an online petition for that.
• Heart and Soul: MC Lars cares about your health and well being. That's why he released "Be the Beat" in association with the American Heart Association. Can a song teach you CPR? Give it a listen and decide for yourself.
• Romantical: Face it; you need more romance in your life. A hard copy of Ultraklystron's Romance Language 2, that is. But he's only selling them through year's end, so act fast!
• Mash-tastic: It wouldn't be December without a bevy of mash-up best-ofs. Currently, my two faves are DJ Earworm's annual meta-mash "United States of Pop" and the Best of Bootie 2009 collection. Collect 'em all!
• Great White Wyrm: Hipster, please! would like to officially welcome the first of what will surely be many I Fight Dragons tattoos. Big ups to Ben Ruberg for going all fanboy on our collective ass. IFD fans will also want to peep Chronicles of the Nerds' recent video interview with Brian and crew.
• You Can't Kill a Symbol: In other YouTubery, Church tells me that Key of Awesome has put out a musical interpretation of The Dark Knight. Alfred is the shit.
• Stars and Angels: Closing out the final Nerd News in Brief of 2009 is a bit of Star Wars music. It's "Shut Up & Party" by Pseudo Rebels, and it’s a club banger that harnesses the power of the Force.

Good Music = Good Times

It is currently News Year's Eve. Or New Year's Eve Day. Or… Wednesday. Something like that.

At any rate, I have a sneaking suspicion that you'll be getting extravagantly drunk tonight. The kind of drunk that requires a soundtrack. Thankfully, you have me to turn to with regard to such matters.

First, let me remind everyone that today is the last day you'll be able to download Optimus Rhyme's TransfORmed EP for free. It's from Optimus, so you know it's a quality release, but moreover it's all about growth, evolution, and moving on. Thus, it's exactly the kind of thing that would suit an epic New Year's party. Grab it before the ball drops.

Also on the subject of relevant music for tonight's festivities, it's been brought to my attention that a pair of retrospective mash-up compilations have recently been released, also on the free. Simon Iddol, whom I am proud to consider one of my Tweeple, dropped his Mash-ups of the Year a week or two back. It's an exemplary collection that manages to touch on a number of tracks that stayed under my radar throughout 2008.

Also on tap – and I actually got a message about this directly from A plus D, which makes a lad feel important – is Best of Bootie 2008.The Bootie collections are always heavily slanted toward the most danceable bastard pop constructs of the previous year, and this is certainly no exception. It boasts a 20-track continuous mix plus 13 bonus cuts; not a bad deal for the low, low price of nuthin'.

So listen in good health, and happy New Year to all.

Oh, and my suggestions for your last song of '08/first song of '09 are as follows:

"Darryl Hannah" - Optimus Rhyme available on TransfORmed
"Paper Rump (Wreckx-N-Effect vs. M.I.A.)" - DJ Tripp available on Best of Bootie 2008

I'm just sayin'.

WWYTD?

I typically like to end the year in one of two ways; either by thanking all those who contributed to the success of Hipster, please! and the greater nerdy music scene in the preceding 12 months, or by simultaneously congratulating and challenging our meta-community.

This year I said fuck that shit.

First off, the usual suspects – folks like Matt and Church, Dennis and Denika, Hex and Ant, Beefy and Soc, Snake Eyes and Doc Pop, Baddd Spellah and DON VITO – know how much I appreciate them. They understand that this project exists no less by their whim than mine, and, though I seldom remember to say it outright, I'm pretty sure they know that I am eternally thankful for all they do. And further, whether you send me music, help out with comps, offer artistic support, or just read this blog on occasion, you are my kung fu action hero, and I am genuinely in your debt as well. I reckon that's a given.

Secondly, we've been doing this dance for so long that I am positive everyone knows my steps by now; I am a proud but minuscule part of the greater whole of music-minded geeks, and, while I revel in the progress we've made, we could sure as hell use a little more inter-scene support and artistic interdependence. Our energies are better expended there than in looking for some "big break" from the ever-fickle mainstream. We are our own greatest strength. But that too should be obvious.

Because I tend to focus on these broader issues, I am often slow to crown a "Nerd of the Year" or a "Most Valuable Player." This is partly because I understand that the success of one depends on the work of many, and partly because it simply doesn't seem like my place. This is the year I make the exception.

So, rather than take this post into the familiar territory described above, I am going to forge new ground by saying what I am fairly certain everyone else is thinking: that 2008 belonged to YTCracker.

When I look at my favorite songs, events, or projects from '08, Bryce Case, Jr. is the silver string that runs betwixt them. When I scrutinize all that was good and pure and truly geeky about the year, he seems to be a party to the overwhelming bulk of it.

He was featured in what I consider the most entertaining of G4's "It's a Nerd's World" promo spots and was interviewed by Web geek Martin Sergeant. He contributed to a number of the best tracks of the year, including "911 AM (Rudy Giuliani)" with Doc Pop and MC Lars, "Fantastic Four" by Dual Core, nYgel's "1to3for," and both the 8-Bit Boys and Sinister Six projects. His own Nerdy South Records released exemplary albums in the form of Beefy's Rolling Doubles and his Serious Business EP, which boasted yet another best track of the year, "I am a Pirate." He toured with fellow heavy-hitters Lars and Frontalot, and he took part in arguably the biggest single musical event in nerdcore history, Nerdapalooza 2008.

And that, my friends, is just the shit I can think of off the top of my head!

I have long since abandoned my aspirations to rip people off help out my fellow humans as a motivational speaker, but, if you take anything away from this post, please let it be this: YTCracker, after all these years, all his triumphs and failures and ups and downs, still has love for this nerd game.

He works with established and up-and-coming artists with an equal measure of DG swagger, and thereby elevates both himself and those around him.

Sure, he's always going to have that hacker side that likes to cause trouble, but he also has a nurturing, almost paternal instinct that leads him to chip in, help out, and simply share the wealth of his credibility.

An easy high-point of my year was when, at a local show, YT gave me and Hipster, please! a shout-out on stage. He didn't have to; it didn't serve him to do so, but he gave some lyrical dap because that is what YT does. He gives respect. Even when it doesn't necessarily behoove him to do so.

So with 2009 already breathing down our collective neck, I only ask that everyone from the realms of nerdcore hip-hop and beyond take a little YTC with them into the awaiting proceedings.

In the words of my boy Beefy, ask yourself "What would YTCracker do?"

Holla at P.Nis for more info.

Draw the line

It’s December 31st, ergo I am honor-bound to write a year-end wrap-up post.

I’m serious. It’s blogger law.

Last year around this time I enumerated our many triumphs as well as our missteps of 2006. Moreover, I challenged readers and artists not to focus too much on the uncertain future, but instead to concentrate on the now. I wrote – and it’s always odd when you have to quote yourself – "This is the golden age, and whether we rise or fall, we have this moment. Today we are all stars." I stand by that statement.

But we didn’t fizzle out in 2007. We grew bigger and brighter and we commanded just as much attention as the year prior. Nerdcore hip-hop (as well as many other delicious flavors of nerdy musical goodness) was seen on MTV, written about in Esquire, and even mentioned by the BBC.

mCRT put together the first successful nerdcore-centered festival with Nerdapalooza SE, Beefy became the first 2nd gen nerdcore artists to take the stage at PAX, and mc chris rejected, adopted, and then once again rejected the genre.

It was a big year, and, yes, once again we were stars. But that’s all. We were stars, but stars are very much islands in the sky.

While other nerdy scenes continued to coalesce into communities, nerdcore maintained its status quo as merely warring factions with fragile alliances.

A while back, I received the following communiqué from nerdcore artist Luzid outlining just that:

Yo, Z.

I wanted to ask your opinion on something that's been troubling me recently - the crumbling community that is nerdcore, versus the explosion of the wrock community.

Considering that the entirety of wrock could be absorbed into nerdcore due to its subject matter, it's odd that (at least in my view) the latter has a very thin fanbase and community, while the former seems to be growing in scope. It's particularly telling that wrock is not being held back by its limited vision (i.e. mostly being about Harry Potter), while nerdcore - for all its vast horizons (so many geeky topics) - doesn't feel like a cohesive community.

Your thoughts? Am I just seeing it differently due to not being into the wrock scene?

-Luzid

My (abridged) response was as follows:

Interestingly enough, this is exactly the kind of thing I've been discussing with my two chief conspirators Matt and Church for some time now. Why is it that something as conceptually thin as Wrock manages to flourish while the promise of nerdcore remains mostly unfulfilled? No one can know for sure, but, after weeks (Hell, months!) of deliberation, I think I'm beginning to get down to some glimmer of truth. And I reckon it's pretty simple, now that I spell it out.

In short, Wrockers - both fans and artists - seem to have a genuinely honest interest in community building.

Matt pointed this fact out really early on, but it wasn't until recently that I finally realized that this summation, as simple as it is, is what it all boils down to.

Unfortunately, that leads us to yet another question: why?

Why them and not us? Aren't we all just nerds expressing ourselves musically? Why do those of us on the nerdcore side seem to suffer from this odd disconnect that the Wrockers tend to be able to avoid?

This one's a lot deeper, but I think I have some ideas.

First and foremost, it seems to me that nerdcore fancies itself as being created in a vacuum. From the earliest, we've had artists creating in solitude. MC Frontalot, YTCracker, mc chris, MC Hawking: these cats got their start with very little outside input, with very little outside involvement. It wasn't until Rhyme Torrents (when High-C made a legitimate effort to build bridges) that anyone even considered pinning Front's ample label on all these obviously related artists.

Wrock, on the other hand, got its start with bands. Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, et al are all natural artistic mini-communities in and of themselves. There was already this social aspect to what they were doing. By and large it wasn't one guy in front of a computer; it was a group of friends making music together.

But does that make them instantly more community-minded than nerdcore artists? Not necessarily.

So maybe it's the inherent personalities in question. mc chris is obviously more interested in mc chris as an individual than in mc chris as the de facto spokesperson of a musical community, and that's certainly understandable. Frontalot, though far more personable in this aspect than mc, is really more passive than one might anticipate with regard for nerdcore as a genre. He lets other folks use the term - gladly, I might add - but he has his own livelihood to worry about; this is also perfectly reasonable.

But do these examples speak to our root cause? Let's examine further.

On the other hand we have the bigger names in Wrock: the aforementioned HatP, The Remus Lupins, and The Whomping Willows, just to name a few.

These cats are really down there in the trenches. They seem to speak reverently of Wrock itself, like it's a force greater than the sum of the bands that everyone recognizes. For whatever magical (I made a funny!) reason, these guys see what they're doing as a community effort as opposed to a one-man, or one-act, show.

They are, in short, in it for the team. They - the big guys - are down for the movement.

But again we arrive at that dreaded word: why. What makes what they're doing so different?

Regarding this I also have a rough theory.

What we see from Wrock is, not to put too fine a point on it, an indie spirit. A punk rock spirit.

Maybe it simply has to do with what we do as much as who we are and how we do it. Rap is very often aggressive, confrontational. It thrives on beef and diss tracks. Rock, at least in regard to the truly independent kind, seems less absorbed with such trivialities. That's not to say there's not a fair measure of back-talk and animosity in independent rock circles, a fact to which Nursehella can surely attest, but maybe - just maybe - nerdcore simply inherited a megadose of the get-them-before-they-get-you spirit of hip-hop proper.

In the end, I think that each of these plays a part, but none truly answer the question at hand. Why nerdcore lacks the strength of community that's found in Wrock, or, for that matter, other rather nerdy styles like game rock, micromusic, or bastard pop, is a mystery, but it probably has roots in some combination of the personalities involved and maybe even the actual art created.

Or perhaps it's simpler still. Maybe Wrockers connect on the base level that is a love of the source material itself. Whereas nerdcore has DGs, CS gangstas, comic shop kings, hardcore gamers, and anime enthusiasts, Wrock simply has Wrockers: lovers of the preternatural world that JKR created.

Maybe what nerdcore lacks - or, more likely, simply tends to ignore – is true common ground.

So, while we are stars, we are not constellations. We are disparate yet related. We are similar yet disconnected. What we need, my friends, is lines.

And it wasn’t until I sat down to pin these words that I realized we had found them.

Back in October, news of artist T.Y.T.’s father’s illness began to make the rounds. T.Y.T. wasn’t looking for a handout; he was merely looking to use the skills and avenues he had at his disposal to raise some money to help his father get a liver. And the nerdcore community responded. Everyone from The Awful Show crew to a cavalcade of artists old and new stepped up. And when the topic of a benefit album was broached, no one was concerned about who was or was not nerdcore enough; folks just wanted to help.

On Christmas Eve, just days after receiving his transplant, T.Y.T.’s father passed. I don’t know much in the way of details, and even if I did I wouldn’t share them. A man’s grief is a very personal thing, and I’ll not pretend to understand what he is going through. But this event led to continued outpouring of emotion. Of support. A genuine sense of a community responding to the misfortune of one of its own.

T.Y.T.’s ordeal showed us unequivocally that we could be civil to one another, that we could be supportive and genuinely invested in our community both as artists and as individuals. The trick is remembering that lesson and applying it to our everyday interactions. That's not to say that we can't critique, that we can't, on occasion, clash; that's part of being a community too. It's just saying that maybe we should remember that we have an underlying commonality and use that as a basis for a little mutual respect.

2007 saw some amazing albums. It provided some fantastic gigs and birthed some phenomenal projects. But, in my mind, it will be remembered as the year we came together, if only for a minute and if only under the worst of circumstances.

So pick up a pen and draw some lines, people. They might not fix what’s wrong, but they may just see us through to another year.