Internet Celebrity

You know Keith Moore: He is, after all, the Washington based nerdcore rapper known as Beefy. But more importantly, whether you’ve downloaded his previous independent EPs or not, you know Beefy. He’s that big guy, friendly, good-natured. He used to work with you at the local supermarket. Or maybe he used to sit behind you in Bio. Remember when you stood in line for the Star Wars premiere? You had to run across the street to that deli to take a leak -- Beefy saved your place in line.

If mc chris is nerdcore’s most recognizable name, if MC Frontalot’s its driving force, if Futuristic Sex Robotz are the genre’s foul-mouthed geekstas, then Beefy is certainly nerdcore’s everyman. His songs are humorous, good-natured, slice of life affairs that make him stand out from his peers by simply trying not to. Comparisons to other artists are sure to follow, but, in both verse and personality, Beefy is simply Beefy.

He was nice enough to take some time away from working on his new full-length CD, doing his part to promote the Rhyme Torrents Nerdcore Compilation CD project, appearing in the Project: Nerdcore documentary, and the myriad of other ventures in which he is currently participating to answer a few questions for Hipster, please! What follows is an assemblage of our email missives that explores the motivations and personal philosophies of nerdcore’s most prominent Whitesican.

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How long have you been crafting nerdcore rhymes, and what originally got you into nerdcore?

I consider my beginning as a nerdcore rapper being when I recorded Whitesican. It's not the nerdiest song, I grant you, but it was in no way typical hip-hop or R&B. I'm not so hot with dates, but I wrote it as a freshman in 2000 and either recorded it that year or in 2001. Then I made “David's Sister” and that was all for a while. In 2004 I saw the episode of Sealab 2021 that played mc chris' "Fett's Vette" during the end credits and I found it to be very catchy. I was singing the chorus in my SQL class when a friend of mine came up and said, "Oh! You're an mc chris fan?" And I was like, "A who what now?" He told me about mc chris. After hearing his music I discovered that there were people like me that wanted to make rap songs but didn't wanna talk about cars or guns or hoes.

How is David's sister, by the way? Did she have anything to say about the song and video?

David's Sister loved the song. I wrote and recorded it in Vancouver, WA thinking I was far away now and that I'd never have to deal with seeing her again. Then I ended up moving back home a week later and had to deal with it. But it turns out that she loved it and she played it for her entire family. I asked David if he liked it, and he told me dryly, "Oh yeah Beefy, I just loved the song you made about wanting to bone my sister." I don't know, however, if she saw or enjoyed the animation because David and I had a bit of a falling out and Kathryn was none too pleased with me after that.

I couldn't help but notice the misspelling of the word "mijo" by the reporter who conducted your KomoTV interview. Truthfully now, does the Beefy clan account for the entire Latino population of the Pacific Northwest?

I took some heat for that from my family. I had to keep reminding them that I didn't type it, so it wasn't my fault. Those guys at Komo were great to interview me, but they're up in Seattle whereas I'm in the Southeast corner of the state where there is a huge Mexican population. And a huge chunk of my family comes from central Washington which has an even higher concentration of Mexican people.

What is the recording set-up for a typical Beefy session?

I make sure no one's home. I open up Audition 1.5 while I prepare my CD bindle "mic stand." I plug in my headphones, load the track, take a swig from my liter Coke bottle, and begin the process. I'm not rich man and I'm not a guy who knows what he's doing as far as audio production goes. I have a $60 mic behind a pop filter and that's as good as it's going to get for a little while. The only downside is that I usually record the same line over and over again to get it just right, and by the end of the session my voice is gone.

Fans of Beefy know that you're a Renaissance man of sorts: rapper, animator, comic artist. You've stated on your site that you refuse to focus your energy on any particular area. With that in mind: do you consider yourself more a musician or visual artist?

I guess it depends on what I'm really into at the time. With this compilation about to launch and making a new album, I'm really focusing on the music. And in a dream world this is what I would do forever because I think I'm pretty good at it. I've always wanted to be an artist though and it's been a lot of hard work getting to the point where I can draw my characters somewhat consistently. I'll probably never consider myself an artist since there are so many people I look up to who are amazing and so much better than me. I don't take the art to seriously; I just really like to doodle.

You've produced Flash-based videos for both "Whitesican" and "David's Sister" as well as countless web-comics. Which of these are you the most proud of?

I think they're all pretty cool even with their many flaws, but I guess I'm most proud of Whitesican. I've been playing with Flash since middle school and after I made the song it was only a matter of time before it got animated. I like it because it was the first time I ever tried doing anything that hard. For someone who isn't a natural artist, animation is death, even with as little actual movement my stuff has. I was just proud that I decided to start the thing and I actually finished it.

Your site runs banner ads for Suicide Girls. Do you, like your contemporary MC Frontalot, find yourself "at the mercy of any sister with wrist scars and black eye goo?"

The SG girls are almost too hot for words. Their beauty doesn't make sense. When I had first heard about the site I was turned off by it because I thought it would be a bunch of girls crying and cutting themselves for attention. But to my delight SG is all about girls getting attention the old fashion way: Taking their clothes off. And there's something new or taboo about seeing someone that good looking covered with tattoos and piercings. At this point naked girls on the Internet are old and boring. But SG makes you look at it like it's sexy art until you're like, "Woo! Naked girls on the internet are awesome again!"

How did you become involved in the Nerdcore CD compilation project?

I got an e-mail from High-C telling me about it and asked if I wanted to contribute a new song, so I told him I would thinking it would be a cool little thing with like three other small name artists. I had no idea that it was going to turn into such a big deal. And this is all because High-C has willed it so. High-C is shameless when it comes to pimping this collection and because of that there's going to be an article about us in Wired magazine and we're suppose to get reviewed by Slashdot. It's very awesome. And it's also brought the nerd community together more than ever before.

Hey, brining the nerd community together is what we’re about here! And what about the Project: Nerdcore documentary? How did you get involved with that?

Dan, the director behind the project, contacted me and asked if I wanted to be in a movie. Do you really need to ask somebody a question like that? I should have gotten an e-mail from him saying, "Hey Beefy, I'm going to give you free publicity and a new source of legitimacy. I'll be filming you soon. Love Dan." But he was very informative and he's got a whole gameplan prepared for this thing. It's a very ambitious indi project that isn't being helped by the fact that not long after it was announced, Frontalot's doc was also announced. But when this thing is made I will pimp it harder than I've ever pimped anything before.

But in the long run, I think, both documentaries will serve to strengthen the scene. The same can be said for the compilation project. Of course, all this attention could pose some unique problems. Right now it seems the nerdcore scene is expanding at an alarming rate. Where there was once only a handful of artists, there now seems to be dozens. Do you harbor any fears of commercialization or exploitation of the genre?

Only in so much as that I fear a handful of people will get a record deal of some kind and I'll be left out of the mix. I won't lie, when the new artists started popping out I was a bit of an elitist. I was also scrutinizing lyrics I thought were too mainstream and didn't have enough nerd content. But the new people are nice and while there are obviously a ton of people just jumping onto the bandwagon a lot of these kids are sincere about wanting to put out quality geek music.

There appear to be a disproportionate amount of nerdcore hip-hop artists from the Washington area. How do you account for this phenomenon? Is there something in the water?

I've joked that Washington water is jam packed with lithium! From what I understand it's just easier to be a nerd here. Bill Gates watches over us from his secret underground lair in Redmond.

Your track "Applesauce Baptism" makes some rather disparaging comments about anime. Ever worry about otaku retribution?

The only downside is that I probably can't do a show with Karl Olsen aka Ultraklystron. Even though I said he was a cool dude, I didn't say many nice things about his fans. I just think it was a point of view I hadn't heard expressed by someone my age in this genre. The hippest thing in America right now is anime and the whole "I wish I was Japanese" thing. I thought there was enough support for it and that it deserved a counter-point argument in the form of a rap song. In my defense though, Ultraklystron talks more shit about anime in his songs than I do. He even knows the producers behind the anime he hates.

Speaking of playing shows, how often do you gig out? Any tour plans?

This is lame, but I've actually never performed on stage. I know, I know. My fear is that Eastern Washington doesn't exactly have the biggest nerd population that say Seattle does. My music is too hip-hop for rock shows and too nerdy for rap shows. I do think it would be cool, but I don't know the first thing about performing on stage.

Fear not, Beefy: There’s always PAX. You've already got two EPs, several Song Fight! submissions, and bunch of other assorted tracks under your belt; Now you're working on your first full-length album. How's that going?

It's pretty tough. Mostly because I don't want to just steal random beats from the Internet. I still can't sell the record because the beats I'm getting from awesome people like Shael Riley and Drown Radio have samples in it, but at least when someone hears it they'll know that it's a beat from a Beefy song. And having a relationship with the beatsmiths allows them to tailor beats to my style which is a dream come true. If only I could make beats I'd rule the world! The album is coming together really well though and I hope to have some verses from Shael, Doctor Popular, MC Router, and a couple more if I'm lucky.

You've covered songs by some big-name nerdcore artists (specifically MC Frontalot and mc chris). How do other nerdcore hip-hoppers generally react to having their material covered?

Frontalot liked it well enough to link me on his front page a while back, so I can only assume he loves that kind of stuff. And how can you not? Someone liked one of your songs so much that they felt the need to record it in an effort to further the spread of your name. I've not heard from mc chris, but I don't think anyone has since he became this big celebrity guy. He has a MySpace though so I guess he keeps up with his Internet roots...

The fact that you’re unafraid to throw a cover song in now and again isn’t the only thing that differentiates you from your nerdcore peers: Unlike some other nerdcore acts, you tend to shy away from explicit lyrical content. Is this a conscious effort?

It is and not many people pick up on it which I think is really cool. I hate a ton of cursing in music. To me it just shows that the writer was lazy and couldn't think of enough words or syllables to make his line flow, so he just threw in some f-bombs. I cuss very regularly in my day to day conversations with friends, but I don't need it in my music. That way when I do curse in a song, it's so much more powerful than if I did it every other verse. That's how mainstream hip-hop got lazy in the first place. First they were too lazy to write real words, then they became too lazy to write actual songs. That's how we ended up with songs about "dropping it like it's hot."

And also ditties about how it’s so damn hot up in herre! *groans* Uh, anyway, on to the next question: MCs like Frontalot and Lars integrate their own political beliefs into their songs. Do you have any political or social issues that you'd like to address in your rhymes?

I do. I very much do. But to be honest my music is pretty much care free and it's just me goofing around. But while thinking up tracks for the album, I did make room for a song I'm going to call “Doomed” which will have a political theme. My only fear, though, is that people already tell me that my music reminds them somewhat of Frontalot (crazy people I don't believe) and I don't want to be seen as just copying the Front. However, "Special Delivery" is an amazing song and I think all rappers should do something like that if they can. "My Sister" is another political Front song I can really get behind.

There are many kinds of geeks: gamers, comic geeks, table-top RPGers, sci-fi fanboys, etc. What kind of geek is Beefy?

Beefy is an Internet/Comic Book/RPG geek. I wrote a love song to the Internet for a reason. I really can't get enough of it. I'm a huge comic nerd and that's all my buddies and I will talk about sometimes. When I was a junior in high school my friends introduced me to table top gaming and my social life with women was done for. GURPS has become my poison of choice, and even though my friends are scattered all over the US now, we're still starting up a GURPS game over the net.

There you have it: Beefy is a geek for all seasons. Lastly, what, in your opinion, is the nature of nerd?

To me a nerd is just someone so comfortable with who they are and what they like that they don't feel the need to impress anyone. Every other clique is so worried about making sure they fit in with what they wear and how they talk that they forget who the hell they are. Do you think a nerd worries if his friends will think his shoes are cool? Hell no! As a nerd I'm more worried about my "buddy" succeeding his stealth roll while trying to steal my ring that does +5 fire damage!

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The good thing about blogging on the subject of nerd music is that nerd musicians are, by and large, courteous and accommodating. Beefy displayed these two traits in spades. In the past few weeks, this guy has gotten a ton of press, and for that he seems genuinely grateful.

If all the recent exposure causes nerdcore hip-hop to explode into the mainstream, making superstars out of meager English majors and put-upon computer programmers, then Beefy will surely ride the crest of that wave to all the fame and/or fortune that this ironic, postmodern world can afford. And if it doesn’t? Well, then I can say, with some sense of surety, that Mr. Moore will be content to simply remain Beefy: Internet celebrity.

I urge everyone – you know, all half-dozen of my loyal readers – to check out the contributions of Beefy (and all the other talented musicians who participated) on the newly available Rhyme Torrents Nerdcore Compilation CDs. I’m willing to bet that the stuff you dig will vastly outweigh the stuff you don’t. It’s a great way to support the scene, and it’s free. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Opinions and Assholes

The last two volumes of the Rhyme Torrents Nerdcore Compilation project are available for download. I’ve only personally listened (and I mean really, really listened) to volumes one and two, but so far I’ve been overwhelmingly impressed. It’s not a project I’m involved in. (Although, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mentioned that I have volunteered to help High-C out with compiling the liner notes.) It is, however, a project I completely support.

I said from the very beginning that Hipster, please! was about nerd love, nerd pride, and, most importantly, the fostering of a nerd music community. I stand by that, and what kind of dick would I be if I didn’t give, as they say in the vernacular, mad props to those who busted ass to put these disks together? A pretty big one, I reckon.

Now that the proverbial rubber has hit the road, it seems as though some of the artists involved are voicing their disappointment about the project as a whole. After careful consideration, I’ve elected not to link to these missives as this could be construed as running counter to the “nerd love” portion of my mission statement. Suffice it to say that these folks are entitled to their own opinions, and have every right to express them to their fans. An artist’s work is a result of his experiences, and what he feels is what he produces.

More than anything, I suppose, I’m saddened by what I view as chinks in the armor, divisions within the community, bad blood between artists. I’m not going to bullshit anyone and say that I love all of the tracks presented through this project, but, as mentioned above, I’m genuinely impressed with the overall output. There have been some recurring complaints leveled mostly at the newcomers, particularly about the dubious quality of some of their tracks. While this is certainly true, I found that many of the tracks with substandard production quality made up for this lack of polish with lyrical content, flow, and good ol’ fashioned panache.

All in all I’d say that I was disappointed by just as many of the contributions from “established” nerdcore artists as I was from the n00bs. The problem inherent in this is that it’s a wholly subjective issue: It simply comes down to personal likes and dislikes. Are there things I would’ve changed about the project had I been at the helm? Shit yeah! Would I have pushed for less diss rhymes? Sure. Would I have been more selective, possibly more elitist, about track selection? Maybe so. Of course, had I been in charge, odds are the comp would’ve never been seen to fruition. This was High-C’s game, and he played it well. Played the fuck out of it, in fact. For me, the bottom line is that C stepped up and put this thing together when no one else would. The contributors stepped up too, and I give love to one and all, whether your track found its way into my heavy rotation or not.

Had it not been for Rhyme Torrents, many of the new acts whose works I find myself falling in love with would have probably never graced my hard drive. And truthfully, some of these cats may’ve never had the nerve to put their stuff out there in the public forum in the first place. This thing was opened up to everyone, and that goes a long way in community building. We can hem and haw about what is and what is not nerdcore. We can look down our collective nose at those we find beneath us. We can flay the flesh from this thing’s soft underbelly and stare at its naked innards. Hell, we can separate all the hackers and the code-monkeys into one little corner and the lit geeks into another, the tabletop RPGers into one and the otaku into yet another, but eventually, folks, we’re going to run out of corners. We can put the founding fathers on one side of the room and the Johnnies-come-lately on the other but, while we might have lots of space to dance in-between these two camps, this won’t craft a cohesive movement.

Of course, we can also embrace the scene warts-and-all, accept the fact that we’re all fuckin’ geeks and misfits and outcasts, pistol-whip our inner fanboys, and do what we can to elevate ourselves and the others whom we find sharing our little niche. We, both fans and musicians, can either turn this into something that divides us or we can go out of our way to make ventures like this a hallmark of nerd music. Nerdcore’s got soul and nerdcore’s got heart. New experiences feed that soul. And without new blood, what’s that heart going to pump?

Rather than asking whether this one or that one is good for the ubiquitous nerdcore scene, I’ve elected to turn the eye inward and see if I’m doing my part to elevate it. I’m just trying to build bridges, even though my constructs are prone to structural defect. In the end, the only thing this guy is against in the community is squabbles, because squabbling is fruitless and “squabble” is a goddamn silly word.

My pop was always quick to remind me that opinions are like assholes: Everyone’s got one and most of ‘em stink. So I guess you can just consider this one asshole’s opinion. No warranty implied and your miles may very. Take my words with a grain of salt, but take it still.

Nerd Up.

Round II

It’s a good day for nerdcore as the second disk of the Nerdcore Hip-Hop Compilation CD Project is now available for download. Get it while it’s hot.

Star Wars Gangsta Rap Special Edition

Okay, so I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan in the world, but even I was impressed with the revamped version of this geeksta classic. Experience it again for the first time.

(I do love a good oxymoron!)

The Nerdcore Hip-Hop Compilation CD Project Vol. 1

Volume 1 of the famed Nerdcore Hip-Hop Compilation CD Project is now available for download. The last three volumes should be up soon: High-C is only one man, and I’m sure he’s working as fast as he can. Why not go and pull the torrent for the first so as to whet your appetite? And be sure to read the liner notes too. That shit is fascinating!

Get thee quickly to Rhyme Torrents so as to enjoy the earthly delights afforded by such economical tunage. Nerd up!

The evilest geek of them all \m/\m/

If the media is to be believed (and fuck knows that’s a crapshoot), then today is the most malevolent day of the whole of this millennium. Of course I couldn’t let that slip by without at least some mention. While some will spend this day locked in their closets of prayer and others still wile away their hours in more diligent pursuits, I’ve decided to use this day to honor one among our number who is generally overlooked by the nerd community at large.

Since Black Sabbath first cranked out a song about a mutated time-traveler on a blood-thirsty rampage across the world he had originally set out to preserve, heavy metal has had an unseen, often unmentioned, nerd element. So today, on good ol’ 6~6~6, I would like to honor Anthrax's Scott Ian; metal’s premiere closet geek.

From the early days of Anthrax, where the band named-checked the likes of the then-independent (and quite entertaining) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and (pre-Stallone) Judge Dread comic books, Scotty and the boys seemed to have a fine eye for geekery. And anyone keeping score at home (read: anyone who’s watched any of the abundance of VH1 list shows aired in the past three years) knows that Ian never relinquished his nerdly ways. Whether he’s talking toys on television or geeking out about Battlestar Galactica on the Thraxcast, Scott Ian continues to let his geek flag fly.

For always sticking close to his roots and for letting the world know that there was nothing wrong with enjoying heavy metal, rap, and comic books, Hispter, please! bestows upon Scotty Ian Rosenfeld (He gets extra nerd points just for being a Jew!) the mantle of "Metal-Geek Defender of the Faith." May you always find succor and solace within the haven that is your local comic book retailer and may all your saving throws be successful.

-- nerdus antea, nerdus modo, nerdus eternus --

Nerd news in brief

With summer well underway I find myself bogged down with all of the idle fucking around that I’ve been putting off for months. Thankfully, our nerd news nuggets of the past few days are conveniently bite-sized!

• DS Lite leak – One of our old pals at CAG discovered yesterday that some local retailers had put DS Lites on the shelves well before the June 11th street date. Feel free to head out to your local (b&m) Wal-Mart or Target and try your luck.
• Win a Free DS Lite form Kotaku – Want a DS Lite but you’re too damn cheap to drop $130? Try decoding this week’s secret message at Kotaku and win one (and some other groovy shit). Here’s what you need to know for this week's drawing:
  "To enter the contest you must break this code: nrytt xrfwy ktwdt zuzsd ptyfp znyjx
  One hint: the Key to the code can be found in Eliza's first post on Kotaku. If you search for the story you'll come to the month that leads the first sentence. Perhaps the third month isn't the only one Caesar should beware.
  To enter, email the answer in the subject line to: kotakucontest@gmail.com by midnight Friday EST. One entry per a person please. If you enter more than once per a weekly contest Kotaku reserves the right to have fits and ban you from this and future contests."
  It's a damn clever set-up, and, while I won't give you the answer, I will wish you the best of luck.
• Penny Arcade and the ESRB – Gabe and Tycho are in cahoots with the ESRB! Yup, the Entertainment Software Rating Board has asked our heroes for help in spreading the good word of self-regulation. The Penny Arcade boys have created characters symbolic of the current ratings system in hopes of fostering understanding in the famously clueless modern parent.
  "That's not an easy task but we took the job for a couple reasons. Number one Tycho and I are both fathers now. The discussion about the ESRB and its place in the gaming industry is no longer just academic for us. Our kids will be playing games before we know it. Second, we much prefer the ESRB to government regulation and let's all be honest here, that's the alternative. "
  Way to take one for the team, guys!
• Nerdcore mix – I’ve been holding off mentioning this for weeks now, but, for those not already in the know, the cats at bedoper.com have crafted not one, not two, not three, but four delightful nerdcore compilation CDs for FREE MUTHA-GRABBIN’ DOWNLOAD! Links will go live on Rhyme Torrents in just a few days. The line-up includes damn-near every nerdcore artist available, some (read: many) going so far as to contribute new tracks. It’s a wonder to behold, and you can bet your greasy grandma that I’ll be milking the torrents for all they’re worth!

And, with that, you should be pretty well caught up. Long days and pleasant nights.

Geek movie news

Not content to have a mere 6 versions of his film-noir cyber-punk classic floating around, Ridley Scott has elected to grace us with yet another goddamn version of Blade Runner.

The DVD, featuring the 1992 "director's cut," will be deleted after four months, and replaced by a 25th anniversary "final cut," which Warner Home Video is billing as Scott's "definitive new version" of the film.

I’m guessing this is the version where we find out that Thelma and Louise are both Replicants.

RIP Desmond

I know this isn’t geek related in the slightest, but, considering of my rudeboy roots, I feel it has to be done.

Just a few hours ago, reggae pioneer Desmond Dekker died of a heart attack in his English home. Though not acknowledged as much around the states, Dekker will forever be remembered by those in the know as the man who birthed reggae’s first worldwide hit. You heard it here, kiddies: It was Dekker, not Marley, who put reggae on the map.

When asked to explain the lyrical complexity of this hit, Israelites, Dekker once replied, "I was really saying, don't give up, things will get better if you just hold out long enough."

Here’s hoping that, wherever he is, Des is enjoying whatever lies beyond. We miss you, brudda.

GoNintendo goes to the symphony

It appears as if RawMeatCowboy and his pals over at GoNintendo are heading out to the inaugural performance of Play!: A Video Game Symphony at Chicago’s Rosemont Theatre this weekend. The GoNintendo crew has even been invited to a special press conference, and, in the spirit of sharing some love with the Nintendo faithful, their own Nicky Hill is currently soliciting questions to propose to the composers/producers. Anyone who’d like to submit a question is encouraged to head on over to GoNintendo’s Forums and let his voice be heard.

Sister doing it for herself

In recent nerdgirl news, Kari Byron, of MythBusters fame, posed for the June 2006 issue of FHM magazine. I’m not generally a stickler for rules, but I don’t reckon she’s wearing proper lab attire.

Nerdcore Rising

This was my first interview. Well, that’s not exactly true: In 5th grade, I interviewed my gramps for a project about the Great Depression. I aced that fucker!

Seriously, I’m not exactly renowned for my interviewing acumen, and this meet-up rather rapidly devolved into a pair of old geeks casually gabbing about nerdly endeavors and participating in good-natured self-deprecation. I blame Frontalot. He wasn’t difficult or distracted or rushed – none of the things you mentally prepare yourself for before meeting an artist. He was relaxed. He was complimentary. And, for a professional nerd, he was actually pretty damn cool. Behold the fruits of my half-assed labor:

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I understand that this is your first national tour. Where did the idea for the corresponding documentary come from?

Well, my keyboardist Gminor7 knew Negin Farsad from New York and she heard about the band that he was in and thought it would be a good subject. And she’s a filmmaker so she really took it seriously and is actually doing it and I was surprised. When she first said it I thought oh nobody’s going to make a documentary about me, that’s crazy talk! But here it’s happening so that’s exciting.

Do you feel that having the cameras rolling has put even more pressure on you, this being your inaugural tour?

*laughs* Sort of. I mean, there’s definitely a bigger pressure to be amusing all the time than I usually experience. Usually I just save all that up for the stage. I think I might have been out of amusing this evening.

No, no. You were great! Definitely amusing. If this is your first tour, then that begs the question: what is your day job? I know you’ve mentioned previously that you primarily do freelance work. Is this still true?

Ummm… not currently, no. I actually just sort of wrapped things up with my last couple of clients so I can do this full-time.

Which then begs the question: do you find the “freelancer lifestyle” conducive to one who is pursuing his first ever nerdcore tour?

Yeah. Luckily I don’t have house payments. I didn’t have a job that it was really important to hold on to. I just had clients, and I can get more clients if I have to at some point, I guess.

So your education. You were an English major, is that right?

That is correct.

I’m just glad to see another English major who’s actually doing something somewhat related to language! Were you involved in any other types of bands or other performance projects before becoming MC Frontalot?

No, I was in some bands in college – nothing really serious, but we did perform and write songs and play and stuff. I’ve done a lot of Song Fight! stuff besides the MC Frontalot thing, and then Gabby my keyboardist, Gminor7, and I were both involved in a musical theatre company in San Francisco and Berkley called Emerald Rain Productions. Gabby was the music director of that troupe, and I was, like, a founding troupe member, and we did that for 10 or 12 years. And we did lots of original pop-rock musicals that we would write. So that was most of my stage experience.

Several of the people who are in the nerdcore/alternative rap scene (like MC Lars) started out in punk bands. There really seems to be an inherent punk/DYI ethic to nerdcore. Are you still recording everything yourself? Are you still laptop-ing it up?

So far, yeah, just home recording. I don’t know, I guess that is a big punk rock thing: doing it all in your basement. I love that it’s so much easier these days to make things that sound borderline professional just with a computer. It’s pretty great.

Here comes the shameless begging: Since you are self-producing, is there any hope that some MC Frontalot a capellas could escape onto the Internet so that aspiring djs and mash-up artists might be able to get their hands on them? (Hint-hint!)

*laughs* Actually I’ve got my crack team of high-powered developers working on my brand new Web site even as we speak, and it is going to be up, I hope, in about 7 weeks – 6 1/2, maybe. And it will have a whole section called the Open-Source Beats Program where I will post source kits for songs and let people post their remixes back to the site, and there will be, like, voting on which ones are the greatest and stuff like that.

The number of nerdcore acts really seems to have ballooned. (I’ve got here: mc chris, MC Lars, MC Hawking, and yourself of course, Ytcracker, MC Plus+, Monzy, Paulb, Jesse Dangerously, Optimus Rhyme, and the list goes on and on.) Do you feel that this constitutes a movement? Is that what Nerdcore Rising is about? Is there a scene developing, and, if so, what do you feel your place is within that scene?

It’s kind of funny to think of something that’s just a bunch of people looking at Web sites and sending email to each other as a scene. Like, traditionally scenes (especially music scenes) have been around a place. But it has some stuff in common, I guess, with a scene like a music scene. There are certainly a lot of people who have latched onto the idea that you don’t have to be cool to write down raps and even share them with people. So I’m glad that that’s happening. I see myself as uniquely positioned to, um, exploit the current ballooning popularity because people generally mention me when they talk about nerdcore because I stuck the phrase together a few years ago, I guess.

Of those acts, you’ve worked with both the Hawkman and Jesse Dangerously. Is there anyone else from the nerdcore movement whom you’ve worked with or would like to work with in the future?

Bedsides Hawking and Dangerously? Well, you know, I’d love to do something with mc chris. We talked about it once a long time ago, but he’s very busy being famous. *laughs*

Do you hope to find yourself in the same position where you start a tour and it just never ends? Because mc went out how long ago and he is still on the road? That’s crazy!

It’s true. Well, that is certainly what inspired me to get off my ass and actually go do this: his, you know, seemingly effortless success. I’m sure it was a real pain in the butt, but he did really well with it last year and I said well alright, there really is an audience for the stuff that we’re doing. He has a bigger audience a) because he’s better at rapping and b) he’s got national exposure from doing the Adult Swim stuff. So it’s probably not going to be anywhere near as easy for me to, um, draw that audience on this tour. But if it draws well enough then I can keep going. That’s sort of how I’m looking at it.

Tracks like "I Heart Fags" and "Special Delivery" have a definite political slant. How important is this political element to nerd music and nerd culture? Don’t folks generally think of nerds as being fairly apathetic?

I don’t know if I can speak for nerdcore music in general and its relation to politics. I know that when I was trying to make those songs I was really almost trying not to. It’s like, I knew that the kids who were already drawn to the music were probably interested in it being funny and not having; well, having complex and funny jokes to unravel out of the lyrics, but not necessarily having to think about the world and what a mess it is. It’s like, a lot of people turn to music, especially funny music, in order to escape from all that kind of stuff, but I’m from Berkeley, California and I just couldn’t help myself! That’s how the lyric to the "Special Delivery" song starts “I tried to go clean from protesting,” but I there’s just no… I couldn’t – I couldn’t not do that. Um, and same with the "I Heart Fags" song. I think I must’ve, like, probably lost at least a couple of fans off of that, but, you know, hopefully my fans have an open enough mind that, at least, if they don’t dig a song they don’t have to listen to it and they don’t have to reject everything about it. So, I don’t know, uh, if nerds in general tend to be political. Most of the intellectuals I know from home and from college, they’re all very political and they’re usually geeks too. But the sort of wider, gaming culture nerds, like, math nerds tend to be Libertarians. Definitely not a left-wing crowd naturally. But, I mean, that’s me. I gotta, like, actually express myself.

I guess that’s sort of an important thing about the archetypal nerd: you can be liberal, you can be conservative, there’s not really, you know, you don’t really have to wear a certain shirt to be a nerd. It’s just something that naturally occurs.

Very true, yeah.

What are the signs and symptoms of a swollen hip-hop gland?

*laughs* Well, it sort of engorges, and then you kind of squeeze it and it’s painful, and some rapping comes out. And you find that you have to express your hip-hop gland, through squeezing, repeatedly. Or you can just go to the vet – they’ll do it.

So the expression: that would be the proper course of treatment?

Yes. It’s like when a dog drags his ass on the carpet. He’s just trying to express the anal gland.

Aside from dropping geek rhymes, what’s your nerdiest hobby/obsession? Are you a comic geek? A gamer? An anime guy? What’s your thing?

Not deep into anime, although I love watching it. I do still, even at my advanced age, spend an inordinate amount of time on certain video games. Um, I mean I just lose a month to Civ IV, you know, and it’ll give me worse carpal tunnel than when I’m working. It’s awful. So, I definitely am deep into video games. Much less, like, the RPGs and tabletop stuff since maybe junior high/early high school; I haven’t done a lot of that. But, deep into video games. I still love comic books very dearly. Ever since college I’ve been much more interested in, um, like the Fantagraphics stuff, the Dark Horse stuff. Dan Clowes and Chris Weir are my favorites. Julie Doucet and Jim Woodring. Um, I love a lot of different comics, but I don’t meet a lot of people who love the same comics as I do. Mostly the comic nerds I know are into, like, Justice League and Marvel and whatnot.

Penny Arcade Expo: is it as amazing and geek-awe inspiriting as it seems? I know you’ve said before that that’s what you look forward to. Is it geek Mecca when you get to PAX and there’s the table-top gaming and the comic guys and the people with their noses in their DSes? Is it what it appears to be? Is it all that and more?

Um, it’s pretty wild. It’s definitely everything you would imagine it to be, and it’s very impressive. I wish I could enjoy it more when I go. The year before last I was able to go just for the night and then I had to disappear. And last year I also had to disappear right after. And then, even the whole time I was there, I had to staff my booth. So I didn’t get to play any videogames last years. This year I’ll bring a PSP so that I can.

That’s another question: PSP or DS? Where are you stationed in the handheld war? Am I to take it you’re firmly entrenched in the Sony camp?

It’s funny; I’ve only ever owned two dedicated gaming consoles in my whole life. I was always on computers. Like TRS-80, the Commodore 64, then PCs. The first time I ever bought a consoles I bought on Craigslist a used PS2 so that I could play San Andreas ‘cause I’m so obsessed with those Grand Theft Auto games. And, um, so I have a PS2 and then I bought a PSP so I could play this fucking Liberty Cities. It’s like the amount of money I’ve spent to play Grand Theft Auto games is totally outrageous!

Lastly, what would you say -- since we’ve sort of discussed the types and levels of nerd-dom -- is the essence of nerd? Can you pin it down, or is it just too nebulous?

Well, it’s easy to sort of define what it’s not, right? The nerds are the kids who aren’t cool. Um, but what a nerd is? I always thought, growing up and constantly being hollered at being told that I was a nerd and getting put down, I always thought that maybe those other kids have their shit together in a way that I don’t socially. But I have, you know, a rich inner life. I have an imagination. I’m smart enough to enjoy Dr. Who and Monty Python. I have a sense of humor. I have all of my pretty little comic books. And what do they have? They get to smoke pot with the other popular kids. How long is that gonna last? And, hey, I was right. That, like, lasted through junior college, and now where the hell are they?

------------------------------

And that was it. Front and I rapped for a few more minutes about nerdly self-indulgence, and then I bid him adieu.

When it was all said and done, he had taken a half-hour to sit down and answer a bunch of goofy-assed questions from some guy with a blog that all of a half-dozen people actually read. He had even closed down his merch table early, probably missing a load of t-shirt and CD sales that could’ve otherwise bought food, beer, gas, and comics on his first ever tour, to do so. What’s more, he had done so gladly and for no other reason than to talk with a fan. It didn’t really behoove him to do it. I mean, shit, there’s no amount of free publicity to be found here. I’m actually guessing most of you reading this linked in from his site. The truth is, I suppose, it was just a friendly gesture. It was nerd love. It was geek solidarity. And when Front comes to your town, you go out and show him some love too. He’s working hard to bring the nerdcore to the masses. Shouldn’t you be doing the same?

Nerd Up!

**The accompanying Frontalot-as-zombie images scanned from my personal collection and used without permission. Interested fans can easily catch these illustrations (and a damn fine story) in Image Comics’ The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore available at finer comic shops and online retailers everywhere. Please don’t sue me.**

Seen hobnobbing

As both of my regular readers should know, this past weekend marked the inaugural show of MC Frontalot’s Nerdcore Rising tour in my native Spartanburg. The crowd was an odd mix of the punker kids there to see the openers and the nerd element of the Frontalot camp. Despite the uneasy truce between these two factions, Front and his cohorts had no trouble rocking the house to a level as yet unheard-of in civilized society. Even the skeptical hardcore aficionados were awe-struck by the by drumming prowess of Sturgenius, Blak Lotus’s funktastic bass stylings, and the grandeur that is the Gm7. You could see them, slightly doubled at the waist so as to avoid unnecessary attention, drawing ever closer to the stage to see the fellows do their thing.

Front, of course, bought his “A game” and dropped the lyrics not so much as if they were hot, but in a similar manner that one might drop an object he hurriedly picked up only to discover there was doodoo on it.

The set list was a mixture of old favorites and new jams. Crime Spree was preformed with much fervor, Simpsons samples in tact, and Special Delivery was succinctly delivered with all the passion expected of a heated protest song set to driving bass. Several exclusive tracks off Front’s Nerdcore Rising album reared their knobby heads. New jams Charity Case (hear it for free!) and Goth Girls delighted the nerdiest of those in attendance, while Song Fight! winners Floating Bridge and Yellow Lasers reminded us all why we showed up in the first place.

Nerdcore let itself be truly known as Front tossed Magic: The Gathering cards into the crowd before beginning Hassle: The Dorkening; even more nerd-worthy was Front reliance on a twenty-sided die to determine part of the set list -- a role of 7 or greater would mean Braggadocio while anything less would mean Which MC Was That?. Of course, Front easily made the throw (even without the addition of his +2 to rock modifier).

Front was outrageously cordial to all who approached him, including yours truly. As the capo of Front’s Spartanburg street team, I was more than a little disappointed by the attendance, but Frontalot assured me that the crowd was fine and thanked me graciously for the time and money I’d invested in making and spreading flyers. To that end he treated me (and my cohort Jeremy) to a free tour shirt in addition to the certificate of awesomeness mentioned on his site.

As if that weren’t enough, Frontalot even closed down the merch table early so he could answer a few questions for Hipster, Please! The ensuing interview is currently being transcribed and should be posted later this week.

After the experience, I humbly recommend that you make every effort to attend the nearest Nerdcore Rising club date. The show is phenomenal, and Frontalot himself is a delight to talk to. He makes no secret of just how much he appreciates all the nerdgirls and boys who come out to show support, and he rewards them well with a fine set and modestly priced merchandise.

Hey, if you are planning to check out Front in your hometown, why not sign on for the street team? You’ll be doing a great service for the nerdcore community and you’ll get a snazzy certificate suitable for framing. The street team is an important means by which you the fan can, to take a leaf from Frontalot’s book (not to mention the title track from his new disk and the stand-out from his Friday night set list), do your part to help nerdcore rise up.

Shit, he’ll even do an interview for your lame-ass blog if you ask nice!

Concerning E3

Today marks the beginning of what is akin to a holy week in the nerd community. The week of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is like Ramadan for gamers: You can call is Ramadork or maybe Ramendan, but I digress.

E3 is, for those few of you who are, as yet, uninitiated, the most celebrated domestic video game conference in existence. The trade show is (on paper) strictly for game industry professionals and journalists, but each year it seems more and more about the fans and celebrities who find a way to skeeze entrance into the hallowed halls of the LA Convention Center.

There is a plethora of coverage of said event, which belies its industry focus. As usual, IGN promises a crush of E3 related links, feeds, and features, as does television network G4 with their E3 Insider site. Likewise, several smaller sites offer up their own unique brand of E3 news and views. CheapyD (over at CAG) assures us a post-E3 wrap-up CAGcast, and he’s even set up an E3 moblog/picture gallery for attending CAGs. RawmeatCowboy and his team from GoNintendo, all aflutter concerning their first invite to the event, pledge to keep fans of the big N abreast of all important developments concerning Iwata and company.

The big stories this year, as with every year in recent memory, concern Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, and their offerings for the foreseeable future. The big questions: Will the Playstation3 be playable? Will the Xbox 360 offer up any truly next-gen goodness? Is Nintendo serious about that fuckin’ “Wii” thing?

For me, though, it comes down to one question: When will North America see the release of the DS Lite in additional colors? Last week Nintendo let us know that the Lite will drop on June 11th at a price of 130 bones, but only in Crystal White. When can I expect to see that handsome Enamel Navy model here in the States?

Sure, it’s a bit sad that I’m wishing away all the earth-shattering game news afforded by the event for a simple matter of color, but what can I say? I’m a slave to aesthetics!

Lack of updates Update

There has been a recent dearth of updates to this blog for two principle reason:

Reason, the 1st: It is final exam season and English Lit I is currently having its way with my GPA.

Reason, the 2nd: I offered to do some work on MC Frontalot’s street team for the inaugural gig of his Nerdcore Rising tour in my native Spartanburg, SC, and thus I’ve been sending a lot of time gathering supplies and printing flyers.

More news from the Frontalot camp

I know all you good boys and girls have already signed up for Frontalot's mailing list, but what about the bad boys and girls? I say repent and sign the fuck up. In the meantime, here’s a modest proposal for fans in the NYC area (that doesn’t involve eating Irish babies).

Front writes:

I'm doing a fan meet & greet at Forbidden Planet comics in NYC (Broadway &13th). Everyone who shows up can put one word on a list and then on the busride home I will write a rap that has all the words in it. Then I will makea recording of it. So if someone has always wanted to have his or herfavorite word in a MC Frontalot song, he or she should come to the comicstore at the appointed time.

Also, the person who puts in the best word (judge of best word: me) gets asigned Penny Arcade Expo 2005 DVD. I'll have shirts and CDs too.

Monday, May 1st
8-9PM
MC Frontalot chats you up and signs things
Forbidden Planet
840 Broadway (at 13th)
New York, NY
(FREE of course)

Taking the Wii (another non-music related venture)

Okay, anyone who read this blog before the changeover knows that I am a die-hard Nintendo fanboy. That being said, the news (straight from the horse's mouth) that the forthcoming Nintendo Revolution console is to be released under the name Nintendo Wii strikes me as interminably odd. I understand the reasoning, at least from the PR slant, but you gotta admit: having a console that’s name sounds like a euphemism for taking a piss is a weird step.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Nintendo has thrown us a curve. The DS, when initially offered up, seemed like a ridiculous idea, but damned if they haven’t turned that two-screened monster into a gaming juggernaut. Even the Revolution… er, Wii controller(which looks like a television remote control, in case you’ve been living under a rock since before E3 05) seemed outlandish to many until developers began to praise the innovation inherent in it’s simple yet groundbreaking design.

The bottom line, for me at least, is that the name sounds silly, the controller looks bizarre, and the machine admittedly lacks the horsepower of the competition’s next-gen offerings, but I still see myself picking one up. Games make a system and Nintendo continually puts out the kinds of games I yearn to play. I’m excited about the prospect of the kind of motion sensitive interface that this new system sports and can’t wait to see what in-house and 3rd party offerings emerge.

If it comes down to it, I’ll take a Wii.

You heard me.

A noble diversion

Shit, two days of relevant posts have me itching for distraction. How 8-bit are you?

I am 8-bit. I got 16/16 on the 8-Bit Gamer test. Take the test!

Coming to your cit-tay

The weather’s warming up, the pollen count is through the roof, and the ladies are breaking out their fair-weather skivvies. That can only mean one thing: The summer concert season can’t be far behind. Some artists have elected to get their tour on a little early this year. Never content to rest on their laurels, both MC Frontalot and mc chris may be coming to a city near you! Ain’t that some shit?

MC FRONTALOT ~ The Nerdcore Rising Tour 2006

May 12th Spartanburg, SC Ground Zero ~ map with Emotron
May 13th Mt. Pleasant, SC The Village Tavern ~ map tickets online
May 14th Chapel Hill, NC Local 506 ~ map tickets online
May 16th Johnson City, TN The Hideaway ~ map
May 18th West Columbia, SC The New Brookland Tavern ~ map
May 19th Atlanta, GA the Drunken Unicorn ~ map tickets online
May 20th Tallahasee, FL The Beta Bar ~ map
May 22nd Baton Rouge, LA The Spanish Moon ~ map tickets online
May 23rd New Orleans, LA Republic ~ maptickets online
May 24th Houston, TX The Proletariat Club ~ map
May 25th Ft. Worth, TX The Aardvark ~ map
May 26th St. Louis, MO Creepy Crawl ~ map (advance sales via paypal on club's page, under "upcoming")
May 27th Lawrence, KS The Jackpot Saloon ~ map
May 28th Minneapolis, MN The Triple Rock Social Club ~ map
May 31st Kalamazoo, MI The Club Soda ~ map

mc chris ~ Revenge of the Nerd Tour 2006

Friday, May 12 Avalon (aka Limelight) NYC With MSI more info
Friday, May 19 The Underground Hartford, CT all ages more info
Thursday, May 25 The Temple Club Lansing, MI more info
Friday, May 26 Vamps Toledo, OH
Saturday, May 27 The House Cafe Dekalb, IL all ages more info
Monday, May 29 Hifi Cleveland, OH
Friday, June 02 The Nanci Ray Gun Richmond, VA 18+ more info
Saturday, June 10 Harpers Ferry Boston, MA 18+ more info
Sunday, June 18 Mr. Smalls Pittsburg, PA 18+ more info

A geek manifesto

I have spent a staggering chunk of my life composing via the tried and true 5-paragraph essay style. As such, I generally apply this same rubric to other areas of my life. Does my argument hold water? Are my ideas clear and concise? Is my thesis, the crux of my project, narrow enough to focus only on what’s important?

It’s that last question that gets me.

When I first started Hipster, please! my mission was broad: It was “one man’s view of fashion, tech, music, and all things geek chic.” In that lay the problem. I had spread myself too thin. Sure the focus was on music I found interesting, the items I was spending my free time and disposable income on, the tech news that caught my eye, but what did that amount to?

Thesis too nebulous – consider revision.

At the same time I was coming to grips with the ineffectiveness of my blog, I was also becoming aware of a disturbing trend. It wasn’t that the kind of music that spoke to me, that spoke for me, wasn’t getting the kind of respect it deserved. It was, in fact growing in popularity through the kinds of grassroots means that legitimize independent music. The problem was that fans of The Minibosses were unaware of MC Lars. Fans of mc chris had never heard of virt. 8-bit aficionados were unaware of NESkimos. It wasn’t that music for nerds by nerds wasn’t catching on, but that there was a rift between the sub-genres… or would that be sub-sub-genres?

Sure, there are folks who still think hip hop is all about guns and hos who have never heard nerdcore, and this site’s for them too. But mostly this site is for people who enjoy the nerdcore (or 8-bit or geek rock or game music) scene, but don’t quite know where to go from there. The truth is there is a wealth of talented, motivated artists out there making music about the kind of shit that got you beat up in high school, and doing it well. Whether you’re a gamer, a lit nerd, a comic book guy, an old school table-top RPGer, a computer science major, or a sci-fi/fantasy/horror buff, there are some great tunes out there that should be nestled snuggly in your iPod.

So, in one regard this site is about keeping those fanboy dreams alive, about celebrating your inner poindexter. Yet on the other hand, it’s also about smashing those same stereotypes. For every acne-faced cellar dweller yelling at his mom to make him a pb&j while he and the guys play through another death match, there is a well-adjusted, well kempt, happily married, and broadly attractive nerd boy (or nerd girl) living a very un-dorky life.

In my opinion, the nerd lifestyle revels in a powerful self-awareness. The very core of nerd-dom (or, geekery, if you will) is not dependant upon IQ, hobby, or hygiene, but an unyielding sense of self. It is that self that leads me to celebrate my geek brethren. That, in a nutshell, explains this blog’s new focus.

Hipster, please! is a specialty entertainment blog dedicated to nerd music and culture.

Notice I said nerd music and culture. The order of those words is of particular importance. The focus, at least on paper, will be on the music. As such, I’m currently pursuing several avenues for potential interviews and features with artists that sport a uniquely nerd-centric slant. But don’t forget about the culture. This leaves me enough wiggle room to drop in a little bit of tech news, game related info, comic trivia, or other such distraction when the music well runs a bit dry o when I really want to get some shit off my chest. I’ll make a valiant effort to keep the focus on music, and to clearly label all unrelated entries, but I make no promises. I am but a mortal man, chock full of foibles and eccentricities that may render me unable to distinguish between what is relevant to the reading public and what’s just cool to me.

And with that begins this new journey. If you were a regular reader of the old blog, I hope you hang around. If you’re a n00b, I hope you found what you were looking for. And if you found your way here because I used the word “shellfish” in my keyword meta-tag, I’d just like to say that I thoroughly enjoy clams, crab, and lobster.

Now, ready? Get set. Get your geek on!

Excuse the mess

The recent “other project” that I spoke of has just become this project. You will be noticing some changes here at HP, and I hope you find them to your liking. Expect an elaborate explanation of the blog’s new slant in the near future, and, in the meantime, enjoy the random cosmetic changes that I’m making daily!

Mid-Week MP3

This week’s Mid-Week MP3 is especially close to my heart. It is, after all, my first attempt at a mash-up. I understand that Beastie Boys mashes are sort of the lowest common denominator, but the band was kind enough to furnish fans with easy access to acapella versions of so much of their catalogue that it seemed silly for me not to take advantage of such bounty.

While not as polished as many of the recent mash-up tracks I’ve featured, I hope you’ll at least give it a try. I’m actually fairly proud of it. Oh, and two little tidbits of info:

1) While editing the artist tag on this track I sarcastically typed in “Kid Charlemagne,” which is, of course, a reference to Hal’s pirate radio persona on the FOX sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. I liked it so much that it stuck.

2) The odd spoken-word sample that drops in after the 3 minute mark was taken from Cheap Ass Gamer's CAGcast 23. It’s a little riff that co-host Wombat let’s fly concerning his disdain for the Kingdom Hearts video game series.

Kid Charlemagne – Lust for Now

Mid-Week MP3

I took a week off to work on another project (which I’ll speak of later), but now I’m back with another Mid-Week MP3. This week’s offering is snaked directly from Tim’s Radio Clash podcast from last week. It’s a mash-up from Team9 featuring Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and Prince’s “Sign o' the Times.” This one goes out to my boy Cromer, whose affinity for the purple one knows no bounds. I hope y’all dig it too.

Team9 – Crazy Times

Mid-Week MP3

How about we show some more geek love for Jake Kaufman?

This week we have virt doing what he does best: making music restricted only by the blips of the vintage Gameboy and his own boundless imagination. This one is a cover of Mark "Sisqó" Andrews’s "Thong Song." I’ll let this one speak for itself.

virt -- Thong Song (Gameboy Mix)

Shit I already knew...

Mid-Week MP3

Jake Kaufman is the kind of musician we could all learn a thing or two from: he is a multitalented artist who works in a large variety of styles and genres, and he sports an unwavering dedication to his craft. His chosen profession is video game music composer, and his résumé is particularly fascinating to those who, like me, have an affinity for handheld gaming.

Jake, better known as virt, also believes in the age-old concept of something for nothing. He has an amazing variety of tracks for free download from his site. While his self-crunched MIDI works are things of beauty, I found myself particularly drawn to his arrangements of classic gaming soundtracks. This week’s Mid-Week MP3 is a chamber music take on the iconic sounds of one of my favorite 8-bit titles: Castlevania II. Enjoy.

virt – What a Horrible Night

Mid-Week MP3

Okay, so I’m not entirely sure who Rx is, but it appears he (or she) remixes audio files of US politicians and couples the “lyrics” with dance beats. The results are awe-inspiring.

Tim over at Radio Clash played a bit from Rx’s “Dick is a Killer” on his show last week, and I have since become totally enamored by the track. It’s full of crude humor, profanity, and is, at the most basic level, an attack against the current administration. In other words: it may be the best goddamn song ever!

Rx – Dick is a Killer

Mid-Week MP3

Not content to let a good thing die, this week’s Mid-Week MP3 is another from that mad bastard Mark Vidler of GoHomeProductions. This one blends TLC’s angsty anthem Unpretty with The Specials' seminal classic A Message to You, Rudy.

The result is soul-shaking as it blends the drama of the former with the pop sensibility of the latter. It’ll make you dance!

GHP -- Pretty Rudy

Mid-Week MP3

This week’s Mid-Week MP3 is yet another mash-up. (Could be I’m going for a theme here.)

This one takes Echo and the Bunnymen’s Killing Moon and unceremoniously weds it with Abba. I’m not sure why anyone would want to do that, but GoHomeProductions’s Mark Vidler did. It’s the kind of track that will have you bobbing your head and feeling really bad about it the entire time.

Check out Mark’s site for more bootleg goodness. Also, look for his track Rapture Riders on Capitol’s “Blondie Greatest Hits Sound & Vision” due out next month here in the states.

GHP -- Abba and the Bunnymen

Mid-Week MP3

As much as I abhor repeats, this week I’m gonna do one. Upon further reflection on Party Ben’s catalogue I found a song that is equally as good, if not better, than last week’s offering.

This mash-up blends the raucous ragtime of The White Stripes with the smooth beats of Eric B. & Rakim. It’s good. Damn good.

Now download it and then go directly to Ben’s site to check out his other offerings. I ain’t got time to spoon-feed you all his shit! ;)

Party Ben -- Pump Up the Doorbell

What kind of Pocky are you?

what flavor pocky are you?

[c] sugardew

Truthfully, I'd rather be Pretz!

Mid-Week MP3

Perhaps a mash-up of Destiny’s Child and Fugazi seems a bit sacrilegious, a bit heretical. Well, that’s only because it is. Fortunately for us Party Ben, formally of the San Fran’s “The Sixx Mixx” fame, busts it out real good.

While I’m not going to put Ben dead at the top of my list of favorite djs this track really does showcase the power and passion of a mad genius at work. Who else would’ve heard “Independent Women Pt. 1” and thought it’d sound better over “Waiting Room?”

Party Ben – Independent Room

Farewell Black Table!

As of last Friday, seminal NY crap culture online mag The Black Table has closed its virtual doors. Having written several weekly reviews for their Black List and one legitimate piece for BT, I can honestly say I hate to see it go. In a veritable sea of mindless webjunk, it was one of only a handful of destinations that I could depend on to enlighten and amuse without fail. From Eric Gillin’s journalistic imploration to clean your bathroom to Laura Lang’s warts-and-all look at the life of the functional addict, The Black Table offered something that few other sites do – a damn-near rule free environment in which to be creative and cozy up to your inner journalist. To Will Leitch and company I just have to say good show, and thanks for all the fun. The Black Table will be missed.

Ain’t that some shit?!

After months of speculation and hearsay Nintendo has announced the redesign of the Nintendo DS. It’s slimmer, it’s sleeker, it’s… Ipod-ey?

Screw it, here’s a pic:

Mid-Week MP3

Now that I have fully recovered from my New Year’s hangover, grappled with a double-dose of winter illness, and danced the two-step with my own mortality, we shall jump right back in to your regularly scheduled Mid-Week MP3.

The first track of ’06 is a delightful little mash-up of Queen and 50 Cent. It was one of my faves from the year-end party circuit, and I’m sure you’ll dig it as well. This one is brought to you by The Silence Xperiment and, obviously, the letter Q.

And remember, kids, support you local DJ.

Q-Unit – Under Pressure All the Time

Mid-Week MP3

Often lost among the glut of garage rock bands to hit the scene in the early 2000s, Randy Fitzsimmons, The Hives hit in the US with breakthrough album Veni Vidi Vicious, from whence this track hails.

A beautiful mixture of style, sass, and sarcasm, The Hives follow-ups never achieved as much success in the states, but are certainly notable for the evolution of the band’s sound to a more mischievous, mechanical level. Most Hives singles, stateside releases, and imports are still available. Buy one, damnit!

The Hives Declare Guerre Nucleaire

KK Slider is like the Dead... except his music doesn't suck.

Does Animal Crossing Wild World promote music piracy? I’d like to think so… It's funny how big this story has gotten. Is this some clandestine move to free our young charges from the bounds of the mega-corporate music machine? A clever marketing ploy on the part of Nintendo? Much ado about nothing? Who knows!

Mid-Week MP3 (Yuletide Edition)

I know you told me not to, but I got you a present. Seriously, go ahead and open it! If it's not your size I totally kept the receipt.

Mid-Week MP3

This week's Mid-Week MP3 comes courtesy of a self-revelation.

It’s recently come to my attention that I am an old man. One of the odd ways in which this age manifests itself is through the shifting of both principles and ideas. (And before anyone asks; no, 1mod ain’t voting Republican!) For a number of years I have been aware that the old “never sell out” punk rock ethic is, for lack of a better word, shit. Therefore, when a band, or a book, or a painter, or a… I dunno… style that I hold dear becomes popular, lucrative, or en vogue I no longer take it as a personal attack against those of us who were with it back in the day. That’s just the way culture pops, I suppose, and I’m not gonna slight anyone for taking advantage of it.

This also applies to hearing some of my favorite bands’ music in television commercials. While Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life seems a bit out of place in a Carnival Cruise Line commercial, I’m sure Iggy could use the scratch. And while hearing the Buzzcocks wailing over images of the Toyota Rav 4 seems odd, that commercial was actually pretty sweet. And thus, when I heard the new Levis spot featuring those mad lads from London I couldn’t help but get a little misty. I mean, who would’ve ever thought that you’d hear Madness during primetime here in the States?

1modernboy humbly requests that you use these MP3s solely as a means of evaluation. If you like what you hear, please buy records, CDs, t-shirts, or other merchandise to support this band/artist and his/her/their label-mates. Seeing them live probably wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Should the features artist, or the related label or distributor take issue with my inclusion of the song file, please don’t hesitate to contact me, so that the offending file can be removed.

Madness-- It Must Be Love

Mid-Week MP3

This week's Mid-Week MP3 is from my pick for best album of 2005 (see below).

Bloc Party were signed thanks to forunate contact with Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos and DJ Steve Lamacq, and their 2005 release Silent Alarm, while not quite the smash here in the states as it was in the UK, has garnered praise from all circles. It just goes to show that an album can be both critically praised and have legitimate artistic merit.

The band itself blends art rock with indie rock for an intoxicating blend of fuzz, whine, and rump shakin'. That being said, let’s all put on tiny t-shirts and gyrate rhythmically to the crash and wale of Like Eating Glass.

1modernboy humbly requests that you use these MP3s solely as a means of evaluation. If you like what you hear, please buy records, CDs, t-shirts, or other merchandise to support this band/artist and his/her/their label-mates. Seeing them live probably wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Should the features artist, or the related label or distributor take issue with my inclusion of the song file, please don’t hesitate to contact me, so that the offending file can be removed.

Bloc Party – Like Eating Glass

1mod's Best of '05

Now that we’re safely within the chilly confines of December it is again time for that most fastidious flurry of finicky funkiness that is my picks of the year’s greatest. So, without further ado, I present The Best of ’05.

Album of the Year: Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
Generally, I don’t buy a lot of new records in your average year. I prefer to get my music the old fashioned way – by bumming CDs off my friends and ripping those bastards to my PC. This year, one album I went out of my way to purchase was Silent Alarm by Bloc Party. Why? Because this album is both lyrically sound and musically layered without sounding overly complex or artsy. And I like dance rock. And Kele Okereke looks like Buckwheat and sounds like Colin Hay with a lung full o’ helium.

Song/Single of the Year: Tegan and Sara – Speak Slow
Let me sum up: identical twin lesbian Canadians that rock like they ought to… And though their early solo-era Joan Jett haircuts and tendency toward folkyness initially put me off, Speak Slow was sufficient to kill Reverend Run’s Mind on the Road as my pick for Song of the Year. Ain’t that some shit?

Movie of the Year: The 40 Year-Old Virgin
There may have been films that I saw this year that I liked more than Steve Carell’s The 40 Year-Old Virgin while I was watching them, but none really followed me home from the theatre with as much charm and fervor. I still find myself mentioning bags of sand and the ubiquitous “Boner Jams ‘03” nigh daily!

TV Show of the Year: The Boondocks
As much as I love NBC’s take on The Office and the cockeyed behemoth that is Lost, as well as new fall season darling How I Met Your Mother (also known as that show with Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doogie Houser), I have to give the nod to The Boondocks. Not only has Aaron McGruder finally brought Huey and company to the tele, he’s also given Uncle Ruckus, the self-hating black man, a suitably comical voice.

Game of the Year: Resident Evil 4
If you didn’t choose RE 4 as your game of the year you obviously haven’t played RE 4. With lush, eerie environments, spot-on character models, and an enemy AI that just won’t quit Capcom again managed to scare the hell out of me while all the while spurning me toward a climactic, and none-too cheesy, resolution. Best. Resident. Evil. Ever.

Website of the Year: Scary-Go-Round
I love Web comics, but there are so damn many to visit that I sometimes have to cut the fat. Scary-Go-Round is lean. Clean and lean and, occasionally, obscene. Okay, not actually obscene, I just got a bit carried away… Sorry. Anyway, with all the charm of a Monty Python animated short (without the over-sized feet) and all the style of a Cornershop single, John Allison's Scary-Go-Round is the site that I make it a point to hit each Monday-Friday.

Man/Woman of the Year: Old Grandma Hardcore
With all the press she’s been getting from MTV, Game Informer, the Washington Post, and others, my mention of Old Grandma Hardcore won’t garner her blog any more measurable hits than she’s already pushing, but I gotsta give credit where credit is due. This 70 year-old dynamo has beaten more games than you’ve played, and she will completely kill your ass for an Xbox 360. And that, my friends, is hardcore.

Well, those are my picks. What about yours? Feel free to omit/add categories as you see fit.

Mid-Week MP3

Earlier this year French duo Daft Punk released their fifth studio album Human After All. While I still haven’t picked this record up if there’s any justice on the world it’ll make its way into my X-mas stocking. While most critics and fans seem to agree that this is not their best work, I’ll still get it (one way or another). Why? Because the band that may me reconsider electronic music in general and House specifically as valid an emotionally charged forms of musical expression deserves no less. But I’m not here to debate their merits so much as to share my love of their music.

With that said, let’s all hop aboard the Way-Back Machine to 2001 when Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter took us on a dizzying adventure through the musical madness that was Discovery. The music from this album served as a joint concept piece with the brilliant animation of the legendary Leiji Matsumoto as demonstrated through the movie Interstella 5555: The 5tory of a 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. The album/film weaves an elaborate tale of love, loss, disco, and space ships, and nowhere is this more prevalent than in the single “Digital Love.”

For the love of God, buy Discovery! Hell, buy Interstella too! While Daft Punk’s earlier works are equally good, none have the emotional appeal of the tale of a band, a man, a monster, and the music that binds them all together. So at that, please enjoy this week’s Mid-Week MP3… and keep on dancin’.

1modernboy humbly requests that you use these MP3s solely as a means of evaluation. If you like what you hear, please buy records, CDs, t-shirts, or other merchandise to support this band/artist and his/her/their label-mates. Seeing them live probably wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Should the features artist, or the related label or distributor take issue with my inclusion of the song file, please don’t hesitate to contact me, so that the offending file can be removed.

Daft Punk -- Digital Love