More Nerd News in Brief

It looks like another edition of Nerd News in Brief is in order. Which is a good thing, I suppose. After all, you can’t eat just one.

• The two most divisive words in nerdcore: mc chris has a “secret” show planned for February 13^th at NYC’s Mercury Lounge. mc’s missive concerning the gig reads as follows: “I CANNOT BEG YOU GUYS ENOUGH TO COME TO THIS SHOW ANYWAY YOU CAN. BE SAFE FIRST AND FOREMOST, BUT GET ME SIGNED SECOND!!! THERE WILL BE ZOMBIE MERCH FOR UR PERUSAL!!! I NEVER USE CAPS THIS IS FOR REAL!!!” While I’ve no idea what this particular gig will have to do with whether or not mc gets signed (label reps in attendance, perhaps?), I do know that tickets are currently available for interested parties. mc chris also goes on to point out that he is, in fact, “IN. IN TO WIN.” This leads me to believe that mc may just be the first female president of these United States. I’m just sayin’.
  
• Lovey-dovey: Ultraklystron will be performing at Seattle’s Columbia City Theatre on Valentine’s Day to celebrate the release of his long awaited album Romance Language. This will be an all-ages show, so bring the kids. Rumored opening acts include the one-two nerd-girl punch of Nursehella and Rai, though nothing is set in stone as of yet.
• More Karl: In other Ultraklystron news, Karl was recently interviewed for Evolution 107.9, the campus radio station of the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Mr. Olson was nice enough to host a scaled-down (and slightly edited) version of said interview at his site for your listening enjoyment.
• Can you hear me now?: Nerdy comedy hip hoppers Sudden Death have a new track available at The Funny Music Project called “Cellular Degeneration.” Having just purchased a new cell phone, I have to say that this song probably means more to me than most.
• They come in peace: One of the projects proposed at last September’s O'Reilly Foo CampSebastopol, California. As reported by Kotaku, a group of interested individuals took advantage of said flyover by posting some Space Invaders-style art in the proposed area. The old school arcade goodness should be visible upon zoom-in via Google Maps and Google Earth by mid-February.

Nerd News in Brief

After a full weekend of shirking, I find it refreshing to start the new week with a little Nerd News in Brief. What can I say? I’m a classicist.

• Frontalot celebrity chat: The man himself, Baddd Spellah, and other members of the Frontalot musical entourage will be featured in this Xfire celebrity chat Thursday’s (that being, of course, January 25^th). Said soiree will begin at 7:00 PM eastern, and additional info (as well as steps for registration/pre-registration) can be easily located.
• MC Lars tour: MC Lars has a bevy of tour dates lined up for February and March. This news is especially pertinent for those of us rooted firmly on the right side of the continental map. Is Lars coming to your greater metropolitan area? Take a gander and see.
• Optimus Rhyme saves the planet: This Friday, January 26, Optimus Rhyme will take part in the Benefit to Stop Global Warming. Said show will kick-off at 7:00 PM at Seattle’s Nectar Lounge. The cover price is ten bones, and you gotsta be 21 or up to play.
• WOW rap: The aforementioned Baddd Spellah recently hipped me to one Shaun Connery, a gentleman who raps about a little game called World of Warcraft. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. In addition, Mr. Connery would like to ask you about “The Penis Mightier.” Check it out.
• Watch Tyra get a knife to the spleen: According to last week’s Northwest Nerdcore Podcast 4, MC Router has been offered a chance to appear on The Tyra Banks Show. Was she being for real? Was it just some strange joke? Listen for yourself and tell me what you think.
• The show that was: Speaking of our friends in the Pacific Northwest, last weekend’s show at Fuel (brought to you, in part, by the aforesaid Northwest Nerdcore collective) has been exquisitely documented. Do yourself a favor and peruse the loveliness.
• Conspicuous consumption: For any nerds out there with a thirst for new stuff, I would humbly suggest checking out the following items. My loathing for the iPod as a device is only bested by my adoration for the subtle architecture of the Game Boy series. Ere go, I harbor an odd ambivalence toward this device. Of course, since the only way to procure one is to make it myself, I reckon I’ll gladly do without. The same can’t be said for Jim Mahfood’s “Ask For Janice” comic, a retelling of the making of Beastie Boys classic Paul’s Boutique. DJMC recently picked up a copy, and I’ve been motivated to do the same. Thankfully, Mahfood’s still got a few of the very limited run for sale from his site.
• I’ll end on a high note: Nerdcore newsman Gabriel has recently promised more regular editions of his vidblog Nerdcore News, and I think I speak for the entire community when I say fuck-to-the-yeah! Please join me in triumphant jubilation and peep his most recent submission.

Northwest Nerdcore at Fuel

I’m not one to tell people what to do. “Live and let live.” That’s what I always say.

Actually, what I always say is “he who smelt it dealt it,” but this is no time to split hairs.

I would urge every man, woman, and child amongst you – assuming, of course, that the children in question are at least 21 years of age – to make his or her way to Fuel, a delightful club located in scenic Seattle, this Friday for a nerdcore show of nigh-biblical proportion.

Featured artists include my boy Beefy. My other boy Ultraklystron. His girl Nursehella. My favorite mythological-talking-raccoon-dog-thingy MC Tanuki. His partner in crime TG 2005. And a guest who is, apparently, special.

It’s the kind of event that you can only expect in the great northwest, which, consequently, is brought to you in part by news site/podcast/regional artist collective Northwest Nerdcore.

Fuel has been instrumental in disseminating nerdcore to the local masses through their venue’s continued support of the scene and its artists, so be sure to do your part by showing up. It’s 8 bucks at the door, but booze, CDs, and various nerdcore trinkets ain’t free, so make a pit stop by your preferred ATM before heading out.

And be sure to cheer extra loud. Let the guys and gals onstage know that you love ‘em. Let ‘em know I love ‘em too!

In A World Gone Mad (It's Hard To Think Right)

The last week or so has been mad, and I mean mad in the most positive manner possible. Things have been, from my standpoint at least, undeniably odd and getting weirder every day. It seems that, once again, everything is coming up… nerdy.

When nerdcore invaded CES, I didn’t bat an eye. It was surreal, sure, but I had steeled myself against the inevitable onslaught of such an occurrence; I had mentally prepared. When said event generated press – buzz, if you will – I was pleased. It’s hard not to be proud when exposed to the spectacle of Doc Pop being interviewed in a luxury bathroom!

But that just didn’t seem to be enough.

The universe obviously wanted to geek things up another notch.

And thus came news that prolific producer Timbaland may have completely ganked the music for a track from Nelly Furtado’s new album Loose from the nerdiest of sources: a Finnish chiptune musician named Janne Suni.

Could it get any stranger than that?

How about rumors of a forthcoming mc chris interview at newsweek.com! Add to that additional mumblings that mc may finally be warming to the idea of the nerdcore scene!!

Surely things couldn’t get any more bizarre?

Things can. Things will. Things did.

Last night I spoke to a fellow named Jason Tanz. You may’ve heard the name before, as the gentleman in question is the writer of the soon-to-be released "Other People's Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America." The book, if memory serves, was recently mentioned by our own venerable MC Frontalot, but Front's link to a book about white guys rapping isn’t teh w31rdn3z of which I speak. Jason contacted me regarding a small article he was writing concerning nerdcore hip hop for Esquire magazine. Yes, the gentleman’s periodical that once played host to the works of Ernest Hemingway is considering publishing a piece on nerdcore.

I try not to get excited about things like this. The scene has, unfortunately, been burned before. To his credit, Jason was brutally honest concerning the article: 300 words, no guarantee that any specific quotes or names would be published, with the aforementioned Newsweek piece looming as a detriment to the actual publication of his. Still, he came off as a genuinely likable guy. He asked questions that were seemingly pertinent, and, as evidenced by the subject of his book, Jason seems to have an actual interest in hip hop.

So, questions of will it find its way to publication aside, I think we can agree that an actual writer working on an actual story for an actual magazine about nerd music is oddity personified… compounded, of course, by the fact that he actually contacted me on the subject.

After all, if nerdcore is a museum, then guys like Frontalot and Doctor Popular are the featured artists. Folks like High-C and Dan Lamoureux, the guys who put together the projects that make the world take notice of the creative energies exhibited by our little corner of the spectrum, are like the curators. Cats like Jason Tanz are the guides; they show the public the exhibits and answer all the questions they can. Me? I’m pretty much the janitor. I mostly just try to keep things presentable, keep the dust from settling.

And a world where you ask the janitor for his input is a world gone mad.

Nerd News In Brief

It’s a good time to be a nerd. There’s simply so much going on in nerdcore at present that it’s actually hard not to be excited. No matter where you’re located, there is surely some nerdy goodness coming your way in the near future.

The esteemed MC Frontalot has just announced that he will, once again, be touring this spring in conjunction with the release of his new album Songs From the Future. It gets better: said album will feature cover art by the equally esteemed Gabe. Better still: the tour will also feature, on its first leg, MC Lars, and headway is being made at including Optimus Rhyme in some of the west coast shows as well. Unfortunately, April is, alas, quite a ways away. (<-- I speak southern.)

For those of you looking for somewhere to go this week, may I humbly suggest moving that ass down to Pioneer Square in Seattle where this Friday Fuel will play host to Beefy, Ultraklystron, Nursehella, MC Tanuki, TG 2005, and an enigmatic “special guest.” Why should you be there? Shit, why should you not?!

Since this info, as grand as it is, doesn’t do much for those of us on the east coast, I shall offer a delightful conciliation prize in three parts.

Part, the 1^st: Ringtones have been cleaved from a small but eclectic array of second-gen nerdcore classics by the noble Singed Long Int., and are offered free of charge from SLI’s Web site. Can we expect more? Who’s to say? But I do plan to do my part by badgering the hell out of SLI over the Nintendo Wii messaging service, “suggesting” that he whip up some more.

Part, the 2^nd: There are a scarce few of a very, very limited run of original Nerdcore For Life t-shirts currently available to interested parties. This particular design has been scrapped for a number of reasons, which were recently detailed on the Rhyme Torrents board along with cost and contact information. While I’m not going to go so far as to tell you that these will become valuable collector’s items, I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys a good t-shirt and would like to own a little piece of nerdcore history.

Part, the 3^rd: Lastly, I present what is my personal favorite piece of video footage from last week’s Beauty Bar show. It’s those lovable scamps from the Emergency Pizza Party performing their recent Song Fight!-winning track “Glutton.” This clip is dear to me for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the EPP are, geographically speaking, the closest thing I have to a nerdcore home team; whenever I sense a warm and tingly feeling coming from my immediate southeast, I know that the Party are doing their thang. Secondly, “Glutton” is a favorite track, and what I consider their best work to date. And lastly, the energy of said footage not only exemplifies everything that is right about my Florida brothers and sisters, but also visibly resonates with the extended nerdcore family present. Don’t believe me? Check out Karl at the end of the clip.

Viva Las Vegas

While I’ve spent the last few days engrossed in other projects (which I’ll elucidate upon later this week), my blogging brothers have done an excellent job covering the two-day nerdcore extravaganza that was last week’s Beauty Bar and CES shows. Of course, I’m not going to let their exemplary musings on the subject preclude me from putting in my own two cents.

Why?

Because the better part of blogging is, generally, writing concerning items about which others have already written. May the circle be unbroken.

While Tuesday’s Beauty Bar show may have been merely the precursor to the much talked-about CES gig, it was, in its own right, nerdcore history. While we’ve had other instances of full frontal nerdity from the scene, the previous examples (such as the Post-PAX show at The Shark Club) have been mostly regional affairs. The Beauty Bar, on the other hand, played host to artists from all major pockets of nerdcore civilization save Texas and the far Northeast.

The general consensus concerning the gig seems to be that things started out well enough, but tended to lose some momentum as the night wore on. “The Beauty Bar show was great for the first half,” said Benjamin Bear (to whom, I am lead to believe, the night belonged), “ until the venue decided they needed to have a DJ spinning ‘real’ music between artists, which just made things longer until the venue then decided everyone needed to hurry up and get out.”
A mini-review of the show even made it’s way into Las Vegas Weekly, and, snarkiness concerning hairstyles aside, seemed generally positive. Pictures from the venue tell a story all their own; as much as the overall setup was, to quote Doctor Popular, “far from ideal,” you get a genuine sense of warmth and community.

Not surprisingly, the real story was at CES.

As Doc Popular also points out, “the sound at the DivX booth was ideal… for the audience.” Onstage? Not so much.

I asked Ben about this, as well:

“The CES show could have been done better...for some reason they had it as the convention was closing for the day, so everyone was leaving as we were setting up...not to mention the horrible feedback problems that kept us to the rear of the stage. However, some good performances still came out of the show, and I suppose the fact that it happened is more important than how well it happened.”

Despite sound problems and the overly corporate feel of the CES environment, many artists made themselves known in indubitable fashion. YTCracker brought his “A game” (both during his scheduled set and during his impromptu Bloghaus performance), while MCDJ and DJMC (who has blogged about the event both personally and professionally) proved, once and for all, that LA knows nerdcore just as well as its neighbors up the coast.

So what can truly be said about the exploits of dozens of displaced nerds (and one local: Hi, MceeP!) in Vegas?

On a lot of levels, it was more of the same: High-C was high and Ultraklystron and Nursehella were incredibly cute.

On others, however, the world was turned on its ear: as when, in a moment of earth-shattering synchronicity, Monzy and MC Plus+ declared a lyrical ceasefire.

When I asked Benjamin Bear if the shows, their press, and the overall experience would truly change the landscape of nerdcore, he had, in his typical, realistic fashion, this to say:

“I think it will just make its underground lair bigger for now. It will make people curious, but the general consensus is still that we're ‘those wacky nerd rappers.’ … [And] while not everything went smoothly, the important thing is that everything went.”

I can only think of one thing that sums things up better than Ben’s ruminations.

Weekend Maintenance

I just wanted to pass on to you, faithful reader, that I plan to do some much needed blog maintenance over the weekend. Blogger has long been owned by Google, and recently the many-headed beast has decided to beef up the service a bit. This new version has been out of beta for a bit and appears to be no more problematic or unstable than the current version that I employ. Moreover, there are a couple of these new features that specifically appeal to me. To hear “them” tell it, I should soon be able to use a legitimate CSS with my template, have greater flexibility with my meager RSS feed, and even be able to actually use my current domain name as my URL. This last part really appeals to me, as domain forwarding is so passé.

Now, before anyone mentions it, let me go on record as saying I know I should be using WordPress. Yes, I should be using WordPress and I should actually pay for some genuine storage and bandwidth and whatnot. I know this. I accept this. I also summarily dismiss this. (Shit, I’m still mooching off of poor Beefy for podcast hosting.) I guess what I’m saying is, I know that Blogger is not an ideal place for me to do business, but I’ve got a lot going on and I’ve come to understand and accept the service’s shortcomings. To quote the (poorly translated) king of El Dorado, “When you are pretty comfortable somewhere, you had better stay there.”

So, for the foreseeable future, I’m gonna stick to the service for it has gotten me this far. And if switching up versions makes things a bit more scalable, then gravy. Of course, it also opens up the door for a whole new set of catastrophic incidents. Such is the nature of technology, even with regard to incremental upgrades.

In the meantime, I wish you all a delightful weekend.

And feel free to wile away those hours by listening to my latest podcast and reading a very interesting interview with My Parents Favorite Music. That is, of course, if my meddling with the fabric of space and time doesn’t cause the blog to disappear into the internet ether from whence it came.

EDIT: Okay, so my man Matt from Headphone Sacrament just hipped me to a few more little issues with the new Google-Blogger interface. Taking these into consideration, I think maybe I won’t be updating over the weekend. So, you know, just disregard the above.

Take What You Get, Like What You Got

My Parents Favorite Music began as a joke, and now, some eight years later, founding members Steffen Messinger and Matt Steller are still laughing. With Steffo handling the bulk of the vocal duties and Matt seeing to production, the duo have taken their unique brand of dorky hip hop from their small Michigan suburb to a place where nerd music can truly flourish: the Internet.

Like most independent bands, MPFM found a new home at MySpace that supplemented their success in the local scene with a broader audience eager to hear their eclectic mix of hyper hip hop flow, classic rock hooks, videogame samples, and irreverent sarcasm. Along the way, Matt and Steffo discovered that they weren’t the only nerds making music, and this breakthrough afforded them a vital connection to the newly thriving nerdcore scene.

My Parent Favorite Music took some time away from working on their new album (and their fervent responses to friend requests) to talk about where they come from and where they’re going. Read on to pick the brains of Michigan’s nerdcore torchbearers, and read further for a delightful auditory surprise from a pair who are, in their own words, “relentless in their pursuit to give video game inspired punk rap to the masses, or even just the small town arcades.”

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I guess my first question is fairly obvious; where did the name My Parents Favorite Music come from?

A lot of people ask us this, and I think it was conceived by some epiphany I had while in my grandma's attic looking at old Lovin' Spoonful and Carly Simon records. But we were sitting around my [Steffo’s] dinner table one night eating spaghetti, and my mom asks us what we were going to call our band for the "High School Battle of the Bands" that we signed up for as a joke. (Yeah MPFM started as a casual joke. Still is, but it's okay.) Anyway, the first idea we had was "This Band Sucks". Then I got one of those 'looks' that a mom gives you when you're being retarded. So I said how about "My Parent's Favorite Music?," and she chuckled. So it stuck.

How would you describe the sound/style of MPFM?

You know when you hear a sound that is similar to your alarm clock and you have that sense of "OH FUDGE, WAKE UP, IDIOT!" even though you're awake and you freak out for a split second? It's definitely NOT like that. It's a mixture of nerds being driven to the edge of the ball crawl at Chuck E. Cheese’s, and whatever music sounds good to us at the time. Our style is sloppy and horrid.

I’d say your style was varied and imaginative, but fair enough. Did MPFM begin as a hip hop outfit, or did the rap sound develop over time?

We started out as a band that did Bloodhound Gang cover songs, then our band ditched us and we said screw it. The main reason we made these songs is because we wanted something to listen to in our car and drive around town and have somebody say "What the hell is that awful stuff?" and we say "That's us, we're MPFM! And we're crazy." and have a story to tell our adopted grandchildren. I honestly have almost no clue what the difference between rap and hip hop is. I just know that it's fun to make the words rhyme and have a good song to do it to.

Is Michigan a hotbed of nerd rap? Was there anything else similar to MPFM going on up there when you first started the project? How about now?

No. Oh, God no. LOL. No. Maybe in other areas. I can only hope there's more now. We were in the Flint area which is known for either the heaviest rap, heaviest metal, or most off-the-hinges emo-punk you've ever heard. And crime.

I think you forgot Michael Moore! ;)

And we were less than an hour away from Detroit, so we got a lot of retarded Eminem comparisons as well. We mostly had people calling us 'Nintendo Rap', 'unique', or 'different'.

What is the genesis of an MPFM track? Does a typical song start out as a beat or a collection of rhymes on a cocktail napkin?

Napkins? What is this the Regency Hotel??? We write on our shirts. LOL. We basically get ideas from the samples we get, then start working on which song idea is best or worst suited (sometimes the worst one works the best), and put a beat to it and work from there. By the end we say "this is BS!" or "this is wow-o!" and make up words to use for another day's song.

With Matt still firmly in Michigan and Steffo now in Tennessee, how has that creative process changed?

It's actually changed drastically, but we don't let it get us down. We talk on the emails and phone and send songs back and forth with email to compare vocals. Occasionally we'll take a trip to each other's place and record at that person's apartment. This is our biggest problem since we used to go to a studio back home, but neither of us have been able to make it back there since we both moved away from our hometown.

When did you first become aware of the nerdcore hip hop community?

The second we made a MySpace. We get on the Internet as much as any nerd and we're pissed off at ourselves that we somehow missed it. We are grateful that there's not just a little community, but a whole other world of people that we can be a part of when it comes to Nerdcore.

Was their any trepidation about associating yourselves with the fledgling scene, given the fact that MPFM already had such a lengthy musical history?

Not a drop. If anything, we have been doing this since '99 and didn't feel we were reaching all of the people that we could've because we weren't techno enough for the electronic music scene, and we weren't serious or heavy enough for the rap or heavy metal scene. Stuck between a rock and a McDonald's PlayPlace. We played at the metal, rap, and indie venues. Even a few coffee shops, which, ironically, didn't really dig the coffee song. They said it was "too much." To each his own. I don't care; we rocked that place. So when we found MySpace and realized that we were part of a group of people that were doing the same thing, we didn't feel at all like jumpers of a wagon with a band. We don't even have a band.

You've previously released two independent albums (2000's ©®@~Z Mystery and 2004's Wheel O' Ex-Girlfriends). Are either still available for download or purchase?

YES! And no... and kinda sorta. We used to burn the CDs back in the day when we didn't have money, then we made so many hard copies and they all sold out, then we tried getting decent jobs while still selling WOEG to save up for Testing the Waters. We’re in the midst of finding a good place to print the CDs. We assure you, though, by the time TTW is out in June, both of the CDs will be available to purchase along with other merchandise. And as for downloading, we will put songs on our MySpace periodically to keep the songlist fresh until the new CD comes out.

So Testing the Waters is due out in June of 2007? How is this album coming along?

Oh ASS-KICK-TASTIC would be the correct terminology for that one. We were about 48% done with the album, but now we wanna put a couple of the songs on the backburner to make way for new songs with all of our new Nerdcore family. So get a-hold of us now to make history! You can be Abe Lincoln! But don't get blood on our pillow...

Is there a specific story behind the title Testing the Waters? To what does it refer?

It was an idea I had to make all of the upcoming CDs part of some mystical, far-away videogame/cartoony/land-world fictional geographical location map... thingy. And the first CD would be just like starting any cool video game: usually a ship hits a dock or a shore from a far off coast, and you don't know too much about the land. So 'Testing the Waters' is just that. It is where you start your quest into nonsensical rhymes and we are here to give you the map. But just a piece at a time. You could consider it testing the waters of Nerdcore too since we're rookies in this new world as well!

Aside from a new album, what else can fans expect from MPFM in ’07?

We should have the website up by spring, and we'll have shirts and things as well. 2007 is gonna be the best year we've ever seen. We will be trying to book as many shows as we can afford to fly out to as well. After 2004, we hadn't picked up a pen to write in a while, but near the middle of 2006 we figured it was about time to get back into action. And since it's been a while I think the sound will be a little different, but not too much. A little evolved, but just in the parts where it matters. Like talent.

You already have songs about coffee and Kool-Aid. What are the chances of an entire MPFM EP devoted to tasty beverages?

Easter of 2099. It was a fluke that they came together on the same CD, but a lot of people that haven't heard us say "do a song about Crystal Light next" or "insert favorite alcoholic beveragatto here" but it's okay, more people will get a better understanding of what we're about with the new CD. And if not, we'll slash tires and retinas.

Musically, MPFM has a lot going on: the rhymes are fierce and sardonic, the flow fast and deliberate, and, while the beats themselves generally follow traditional precepts, the breaks that are often incorporated are endlessly eclectic. How broad are your influences?

We could go on all day about influences. I grew up with older brothers that listened to Run-DMC and heavy metal, while my parents listened to The Beatles religiously. We get inspiration from anything with passion - something that somebody wrote for a damn good reason, and that you can hear in their voice when they sing it. But the trick to that is to have fun WHILE having a vision or an idea. Rule number UNO: never take it seriously. If you do, then jump off of an old X-box controller. The climb alone will finish you. People know passion/fun when they hear/see it.

How did you Minibosses collaboration come about?

Technically it hasn't YET, but maybe one day. The Minibosses were the first Nerdcore I had ever heard, but I didn't know that. I just wanted to rap to [the theme from] Castlevania, and they had that song. I downloaded the song off of their website, cut that portion out of their medley and hipped a hop to it. I don't know if they've heard it or not. I've emailed them a few times, but no response. So if you guys are reading this, let us know if you like or hate it or want to sue us, okay please?

I notice that you use the term “nerdcore” (a word that is, for better or worse, used almost exclusively to refer specifically to nerdy rap) to describe The Minibosses. Do you see more rock-centered nerd acts as an entirely separate entity from those in the hip hop sphere like MPFM, Beefy, or Frontalot, or is that simply splitting hairs? To put it another way, are sub-genres like geeky hip hop, rock, and electronica intrinsically linked? Do you feel that we should compartmentalize these individual sub-genres, or is it more advantageous (to artists and fans) to enjoy all these flavors of nerd music together?

I think it's absolutely an advantage to have everybody come together on the terms of Nerdcore. I, for one, think it would be great to have everybody get together, whether you make electronic music, hip hop, rock, whatever the case may be. I mean if it's NerdCORE, then the CORE of the nerd shouldn't be singled out to any one sub-genre. It's for people that make nerdy music! What's there to segregate? There's not a lot of us; we need to stick together. I have noticed though, with sub-genres or not, nerds tend to be good to their own kind without regard to the type of music they make. As long as it's geeky people have something to be a part of. Same with us: we just wanted something to be a part of.

Are there any other artists with whom you'd like to collaborate?

Any nerdcore artists that would have a good time with us and that would make for a good mix-up. We've been talking to Shael Riley, Beefy, and we're in the middle of a project with Fanatical for the new CD. We'd like to do a song with MC Router, maybe something about beating the crap out of people for random reasons. We'd love to do a song with Karl Olson too, we dig anime and his music is just perfect for what it is. If Front is the King of Nerdcore and Router is the Queen, we want to be the gaurdnerds watching over the Gates of William, keeping all the riff-raff out.

If you had to distill your entire catalogue of music down to a single song – one solitary track that would most clearly demonstrate to listeners what MPFM is about – which song would it be and why?

A song called "Valuable Tension". It's a song that you guys haven't heard yet. I've got it for the new CD. It sums us up in deep levels, but still keeps the nonsense alive. This song feels like you do with your friends when you all squeeze into your car and play slugbug and enjoy the moment. Pointless with a point. LOL.

What kind of nerds are My Parents Favorite Music?

We're not THAT deep or intelligent. Hell, we're probably the stupidest nerds you will ever meet. We love video games, anime, comics, Magic, MMORPGs, and Pauly Shore movies. We don't really feel overwhelmed by the "everyday man", but sometimes by the pressure to be something. We're just lazy, crazy, and that's good enough for our horribly, HORRIBLY low standards.

And lastly, what, in your opinion, is the nature of nerd?

In our opinion, nerds are the ones that have the biggest set of d20s in the world. You have to think: this is the stuff that people cringe at. The stuff people want to have nothing to do with. But in their hearts, their souls, they know that this is their life. This is what they want. And fuck a mongoose, they actually DO IT. With nothing to stop them in terms of other people's thoughts or reactions. The nature of nerd is 'take what you get, like what you got' and then have fun and live life your way. And no I did not get that from Dr. Phil. He is not a nerd.

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My Parent Favorite Music represents an interesting phenomenon within the landscape of nerdcore; the duo is, at once, new to the scene itself, but already well-established in their own brand of nerdy hip hop. It’s an occurrence that is becoming more and more common thanks to the efforts of high profile projects like Nerdcore For Life, and, in part, to the very elastic nature of the Internet. Social networking sites like MySpace and video sharing sites like YouTube not only allow current scenesters to promote themselves and interested newcomers to see, hear, and interact with there precursors, but also help to build bridges between the established community and related artists still working in relative (cultural) obscurity, still unaware that countless other nerds are making similar music.

Furthermore, MPFM represent a welcome change from the purist ethic that sometimes blights contemporary nerdcore. While some in the scene would surely prefer that related genres and artists keep their chocolate out of nerdcore’s peanut butter, Matt and Steffo seem far more interested in fostering appreciation and crosspollination with other categories of modern nerd music.

But perhaps most importantly, MPFM stand out as a group who understands that music, nerdcore or otherwise, should be, at its core, fun. With all the recent press and exciting new projects in the works surrounding our little corner of the musical spectrum, it’s sometimes easy to forget that. Finding the proper mixture of silly excitement and serious passion is a tricky balancing act for anyone who creates, but, somehow, My Parents Favorite Music make it look easy.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the following track, a WWW exclusive from their currently out-of-print Wheel O' Ex-Girlfriends that I am - to understate the fuck out of it - proud to present. So set down your controller, pop a cold one, and crank up the volume; MPFM are here to shake your ass and satisfy your soul.

Download My Parent Favorite Music - Sticks and Stones

The (Nerd) Entertainment Capital of the World

Last night my nerdcore brothers and sisters from across the very breadth of the US (and Canada!) ripped shit up at The Beauty Bar in the City o’ Sin. Tonight they bring all their superfluous funk to the Consumer Electronics Show thanks to the fine folks from DivX, who are also behind this evening’s sneak preview of the Nerdcore For Life documentary

Yes, I’m well aware that everyone already knows this, but I just wanted to give a shout out to the crew and to tell them to break many-a leg. Furthermore, I wanted to wish Dan and his cohorts the best with regards to the screening.

I may not be there in body, but I am with you in spirit. Ben Kenobi-style.

Radio Free Hipster EP. 14: Greed (or E.F.F. the R.I.A.A.)

It’s easy to see the Electronic Frontiers Foundation and the Recording Industry Association of America as diametrically opposed forces in the war of fair use vs. intellectual property, but there’s more to both organizations. However, at the end of the day, I can’t help but see one side as the folks that helped Steve Jackson Games (a company whose tabletop offerings I have various fond memories of) find justice in the aftermath of an illegal raid and the other as a group that sues the pre-pubescent and the elderly. Is that a “fair and balanced” assertion? Probably not, but those are the kinds of things that stick out in my mind. I reckon I’m just funny that way.

I understand the need for a corporate structure at the heart of the music biz, but the current age has seen more heartless scheming and sanctimonious grandstanding from the RIAA than most of us care to recollect. Things like file sharing undermine record sales to a degree, but so do the relative quality and price of the albums in question. Furthermore, it’s hard for me to buy the “don’t hurt the artists you love” bit from a group who seeks to pay their songwriters less. For me it’s simply too tough a pill to swallow. And don’t get me started on the industry’s vilification of mash-ups and other “unauthorized remixes.”

Modern music has become so pre-packaged, so commercialized, that it’s no wonder that many of us look for our fix outside of MTV and Top 40 radio. Whether it’s a club DJ cutting a Destiny’s Child a cappella with an Iron Maiden break, an unknown MC spitting rhymes on his bedroom Mac, or the enduring image of a bunch of kids in the garage trying to find four good chords, there’s no shortage of fresh, new, talented musicians out there with real heart. And if the parties in questions are a little on the nerdy side? Well, shit; that’s what I’m here for.

Download Radio Free Hipster EP. 14: Greed (or E.F.F. the R.I.A.A.) Size: 40.9 MB Running Time: 44.45

Show Notes

Intro: Futuristic Sex Robotz – “Law & Order” / “Fuck the MPAA”
I’ve been listening to the track for months, but I still find the “Law & Order” bit really funny! Listen.

Z’s 1^st interlude: “Lars Ulrich is a dick.”
You heard it here first, kids.

Track 1: Weird Al Yankovic - “Don’t Download This Song”
I think you can still snag this track at Al’s MySpace.

Track 2: MC Frontalot - “Charity Case”
Frontalot played this track last year when I saw him in concert, and then proceeded to give me a free t-shirt. I am a contributor to the Front’s destitution. :(

Track 3: Go Home Productions - “Pretty Rudy”
I’m not blaming record industry red tape for all of TLC’s financial woes - Christ knows catching an ex-boyfriend’s house on fire is costly – but the girls should stand out as an example of how artists’ hard work make their handlers rich.

Track 4: funky49 vs. Beastie Boys – “Pass the Mic”
Read the whole sordid tale here.

Track 5: Beefy - “Buy This CD”
Rent ain’t free. That’s why Beefy lives at home. ;)

Track 6: Camp Chaos - “Sue All the World”
"I can't go on knwoing everyday / That my songs aren't generating any pay."

Z’s 2^nd interlude: “Anthropomorphic dog-men.”
K.K. Slider’s contributions to modern music are far more artistically valid than, say, either of the Simpson sisters. I’m just sayin’.

Track 7: Depeche Mode - “Everything Counts” / Antisocial - “Double Standard”
I really hated that most of the songs in this podcast had to be so heavily edited, but such are the travails of podcasting within time constraints.

Track 8: Jay-Z vs. The Verve – “Bittersweet Dirt Off Your Shoulders”
Can anyone find me the name of the cat who mashed this? I couldn’t seem to find a definitive answer.

Track 9: Willie Nelson & Kris Kristofferson - “Write Your Own Songs”
Lyrics like "You call us heathens with zero respect for the law / But we're only songwriters, just writing our songs, that's all" just become more and more relevant.

Track 10: MC Lars - “Download This Song”
Check out this excellent video (that uses the alternate version of the Lars classic) by ChurchHatesTucker.

Z’s final interlude: “Screechy McMallPunk”
The frontman for Bowling for Soup is actually named Jaret Reddick. Apparently Screechy McMallPunk sings for Good Charlotte. I apologize for the mistake.

Track 11: Beatallica – “Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band”
Metallica also supported Cheap Cologne’s Double Black Album. A change of heart from the boys or damage control from the post-Napster anti-Metallica sentiment? Who knows?!

So… um… yeah. I… uh… got kinda preachy there towards the end, didn’t I? I’m quite sorry.

I hope, aside from my brief sermonizing, that you enjoyed my little podcasting effort. Moreover, I hope you find your way back here to listen again sometime. I’ll try to reel in my righteous indignation if you do. :D Questions, comments, or suggestions? I’d love to hear ‘em. Complaints? Well, yeah, you can send those too.

You gotsta see dis…

The Church once said that on Monday morning “the cracks become quite clear,” and, while that may be true, Monday morning is also sometimes full of surprises. Pleasant surprises, like the ones I’m about to share with you.

First, let me pass on a little piece from my boy ChurchHatesTucker. In response to my post about the DivX nerdcore hip hop CES show, Church mentioned that said genre was referenced in a recent comic by the guys at Rooster Teeth. It’s not overly obvious, but peep panel two.

Likewise, I just received word that a new trailer for Vaguely Qualified Productions MC Frontalot tour documentary Nerdcore Rising is up on ye olde YouTube. This trailer features footage of Front and his crew (obviously), and also of high profile nerds Brian Posehn, Weird Al Yankovic, and, my personal favorite, Baddd Spellah. It also boasts some face time from Jello Biafra. Or, as I called him during my initial viewing, holy-fucking-shit-it’s-goddamn-Jello-Biafra.

DivX presents CES Nerdcore Extravaganza

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
A press release, that’s... not even remotely in iambic pentameter:

DivX Presents Stage6 Live at CES 2007: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance: Press Release Source: DivX, Inc.

DivX Presents Stage6 Live at CES 2007
Thursday January 4, 8:00 am ET
Video Bloggers, Nerd Core Rappers, and Other Geeks to Perform for Live Audience at DivX Booth at CES

LAS VEGAS & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ:DIVX - News) today announced DivX Stage6 Live at CES 2007, a series of live presentations from a select group of video content creators who are members of the DivX Stage6 community. DivX Stage6 Live will take place at the DivX booth (#35301) in South Hall 4 at CES, the annual consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas, from January 8 to January 11, 2007.

Demonstrating the quality and variety of material available on the DivX video community site, Stage6 Live will feature everything from video blog coverage of the hottest gadgets at CES to a live concert by the leading artists of the nascent Nerdcore rap movement. DivX Stage6 is a digital video community that allows content creators to easily upload video content and create custom channels to build and grow communities around their own unique brands. Anyone can distribute their DivX video content through the service, and all DivX content service is interoperable with over 50 million DivX Certified consumer electronics devices, such as DVD players and portable media players, that have been shipped worldwide.

Popular technology journalists from GeekEntertainmentTV, Labrats, Neo-Fight, and InDigital will film their special CES segments from the Stage6 Live stage covering all the announcements, personalities, and gadgets on display at the leading CE trade show in North America. Video bloggers as diverse as Geekdrome, TikibarTV, PurePwnage, and the JetSetShow will also capture the madness that such an event creates by bringing the electronics world together and letting it loose on Las Vegas. And, finally, the Stage6 Live stage will host the first ever summit of Nerdcore, with a concert featuring rappers whose music explores the vicissitudes of the Geeksta' lifestyle.

"We could not be prouder to show the world that despite the unsurpassed technology behind DivX Stage6, what really makes it a compelling viewer experience are the amazingly talented people who actually create the content," said Darrius Thompson, CXO, Community and Internet, at DivX, Inc. "Community building and audience interaction with content creators are at the heart of Stage6 and Stage6 Live at CES will demonstrate that in a uniquely entertaining way."

For a preview of Stage6 Live please visit the following DivX Stage6 channels:

• GeekEntertainmentTV (http://stage6.divx.com/Geek_Entertainment_TV)
• TikibarTV (http://stage6.divx.com/Tiki_Bar_TV)
• Labrats (http://stage6.divx.com/Lab_Rats_TV)
• PurePwnage (http://stage6.divx.com/Pure_Pwnage)
• Neo-fight (http://stage6.divx.com/Neo-Fight)
• JetSetShow (http://stage6.divx.com/Jet_Set_Show)
• Nerdcore (http://stage6.divx.com/Nerdcore_Hip-Hop)

A complete and up to date schedule of performances will be posted on DivX Stage6 prior to the start of CES on January 8.

About DivX, Inc.

DivX creates products and services designed to improve the experience of media. Our first product offering was a video compression-decompression software library, or codec, which has been actively sought out and downloaded over 200 million times in the last four years, including over 60 million times during the last twelve months. We have since built on the success of our codec with other consumer software, including the DivX Player application, which is distributed from our website, http://DivX.com. We also license our technologies to consumer hardware device manufacturers and certify their products to ensure the interoperable support of DivX-encoded content. In addition to technology licensing to consumer hardware device manufacturers, we currently generate revenue from software licensing, advertising and content distribution.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements." Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding DivX's visibility within the investment community. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause DivX's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the risk that customer use of DivX technology may not grow as anticipated, the risk that anticipated market opportunities may not materialize at expected levels, or at all, the risk that the Company's activities may not result in the growth of profitable revenue, risks and uncertainties related to the maintenance and strength of the DivX brand; DivX's ability to penetrate existing and new markets; the effects of competition; DivX's dependence on its licensees and partners; the effect of intellectual property rights claims; and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of DivX's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on November 13, 2006. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. DivX is providing this information as of the date of this release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact:

DivX, Inc.
Bruce Lidl, 858-882-0815
blidl@divxcorp.com

New Year, New Songs

We’re currently less than a week in, and already 2007 has seen some excellent new nerdcore tracks. Aside from the Router/funky49 track I mentioned previously, I’d also like to shine the light on a handful of others.

The long-awaited Ultraklystron/Nursehella collaboration has finally seen the light of day. Check out “Shoujo n’ Shonen,” the first single off Karl's forthcoming Romance Language. It’s important to note that this side trip to the nerdiest of dancehalls also comes compliments of the Baddd Spellah. Just when you think things can’t get any cooler!

You’ll also want to check out the new offering from Metamystiks, which features Bits of my favorite zombie combo Brainthirst. Not only does it remind you that Metamystiks Inc. is one of the strongest of the (far too few) links between nerdcore and alt-rap, but it also confronts a social issue head-on with the fierce blend of incomparable beats and elastic vocabulary that you've come to expect from the supergroup. Proceed to bob your head to “Jack Was Right,” an ode to Jack Thompson. That is not a typo.

Metamysiks fire-breather extraordinaire Super Dragon X also spits on recent Song Fight! winner “Shelton With Sunspots.” While the beat is provided by the enigmatically named TK (rather than DJ Snyder), the flow is classic SDX; albeit a side of the Dragon you may be unfamiliar with.

The above examples have me both elated and alarmed. If the output of such top-shelf tracks continues at this rate for the rest of the year, I’ll be reduced to a puddle of unsubstantiated goo by mid-March… a tuneful and satisfied puddle of unsubstantiated goo.

New Year’s Nerd News in Brief

I’m surely not the first one to say it, but doesn’t this year look suspiciously similar to last year? You know: same people, same problems, same, y’know, everything. I reckon the only thing you can truly do is change yourself. That’s where the New Year’s Resolution comes in.

Mine?

Oh, I resolve to continue disseminating the nerd love to the utmost of my abilities. Admittedly, it ain’t much, but I do what I can.

With that in mind, let me shine the light on a few recent geeky developments of which you should be aware.

• The best thing about blogging nerd music happenings is the community itself. It’s a solid group of guys and gals who are, more often than not, the most interesting, courteous, and all-around groovy bunch you’d care to meet. The artists themselves are notoriously approachable, and those of us on the periphery always seem to find ways to express our appreciation and admiration for these creative souls in a similar manner, but without stepping on each other’s toes. Another blogger that’s ably spreading the good word of musical nerdiness is Glenn over at Nerd-Music.com. Do yourself a favor and be sure to check it out!
• Another chronicler of the nerdy goodness (who also happens to be a talented musician to boot), the Doctor of Popularity himself, has recently launched his own podcast. And it is, in a word, fan-fuckin’-tastic. Check out the first episode of Doc’s Drown Pirate Radio podcast, and then immediately flood his inbox with threats of bodily harm should he cease to produce such masterful works.
• Benjamin Bear has recently brought it to the attention of the community that DivX has launched an exclusive channel for nerdcore video content. Bookmark that shit.
• In other nerdcore news, funky49 and MC Router have just dropped the Star Trek track I alluded to last month. funk is hyping "Trekkie Pride" as the first nerdcore track of the year. Consequently, I am hyping it as the most shit-hot Trek hit of ’07. Feel free to try and dethrone the reigning monarchs. I’m sure they welcome the challenge.
• Not sure if it is, in fact, your thang, but I’d like to suggest that all my fellow comic book nerds check out Maintenance, a Massey/Rodriguez book from Oni Press that follows the travails of two janitors that work at “the world’s biggest and best evil science think tank.” Hilarity ensues.
• Lastly, lets talk gigs. We got a double dose of nerdcore goodness at this month's CES in Vegas, and March sees a Portland gig compliments of The Mediocre Show that’ll feature some more of your favorites. Not quite floor-to-ceiling, nationwide coverage, but it’s a damn fine start for 2007.
  

Before I go...

The “top ten list” is the bread and butter of the blogosphere. This visible shorthand both heralds the passing of another year and proclaims that the writer in question has completely fucking run out of ideas. But here at Hipster, please! I like to do things a little different.

I make no secret of the things that I dig. Furthermore, I make no effort to hide the fact that these opinions are my own and your tastes may well differ. That’s a given. So, rather than recap my favorite songs or albums or what-have-you in this, my final post of 2006, I’d instead like to take a moment to thank everyone who’s helped me keep this blog afloat over the past year. Admittedly, I’m not moving mountains here, but the following friends and contributors make it difficult for even my staggering level of personal dedication to sloth and procrastination to reign unchecked.

Most gracious thanks go out to the nerd girl panel (Nikki, Paige, Amy, and Regann), Karl Olson, Rai Kamishiro, djpretzel of OCR, and Baddd Spellah for taking the time to talk to me for the sake of my meager monthly features. An extra special thank you goes out to the one and only MC Frontalot for giving me my first interview, and for being such a good sport about my giddy fanboyism.

Furthermore, I’d like to especially thank Beefy for not only agreeing to an interview but for supplying me with storage and bandwidth for RFH as well as the tons of support and kind words I’ve received from the JALP crew (the members of which have been previously mentioned save for the legendary Jones McFly).

Likewise, I can’t possibly thank High-C (of Rhyme Torrents) enough for the constant flow of traffic he has sent my way. He’s got the heart of an artist and the guile of a promoter, and that, friends, is a killer combination.

I’d like to thank ChurchHatesTucker, Doc Pop, Antisocial, and Ben Bear for both taking the time to post their comments and for going out of their way to share their new projects with me.

I gotta give it up to the likes of funky49, Super Dragon X, and DJ Snyder for always being willing to shoot the shit with me via email, and for answering my nigh constant stream of (annoying) questions about their work.

I’d like to thank MC Router, Oddioblender, and everyone else who’s given me voice snippets and background music for the podcast. Those are always the hardest parts of each episode to pin down, so thanks for your time.

Thanks to artists like Former Fat Boys, STOVOKOR, Wordburlgar, Game Over, Totally Radd!, and My Parent Favorite Music for reminding me that there are a ton of established acts out there with a nerdy swagger that I somehow managed to miss.

And let me not forget my boys Jon, Brüx, and Darth_Apu: lingering high school chums who continually lower themselves to reading my rambling on a regular basis.

But mostly, let me thank you. Whether you’re a regular reader or just some cat who stumbled here via a link from some generous stranger, I appreciate your time.

May good fortune, good times, and fair drink prices follow you into this New Year.

Nerdcore version 2.0

For better or worse, I came of age during the grunge era. It was a period of great cultural upheaval, a time when popular music in America was undergoing a transformation of sorts, and an era generally devoid of both fashion sense and self-awareness.

When I was 16, I watched Dave Markey’s seminal 1991: The Year Punk Broke at a house party. It was cool, getting to see all that tour footage of Sonic Youth and Nirvana, but the title bothered me. Even with the inclusion of old school punkers The Ramones, the film was hardly about punk rock, a movement that was birthed in earnest at approximately the same time as me.

It wasn’t until years later that something finally clicked, that the title finally made sense. The film wasn’t about punk rock as an art form or even as a movement, it was about punk rock as a paradigm. Moreover, it was about (and put on your buzzword panties here, kids) a shift in said paradigm. The punk rock model – that anti-establishment crotch punch built on the backs of The Stooges, The MC5, The New York Dolls, and their ilk – didn’t so much evaporate as evolve. And that evolution was firmly rooted within a flaw in the system.

Punk rock was hard to market in the 1970s. Sure, McLaren and Westwood made a fair penny off of it, but it lacked universal appeal because of its nigh instantaneous media vilification. There was plenty of fame to go around, mind you, and certainly even a bit of fortune, but (until the genre itself found a new name) it mostly afforded notoriety.

But in the 1990s? By the ‘90s you had an entire generational buffer – kids who had grown up with the concept of a Sex Pistols or, more importantly, a Clash. To them us it wasn’t scary, it wasn’t menacing, it wasn’t threatening; it was merely a grand part of Rock ‘n’ Roll history. We would buy these long-defunct bands’ t-shirts and scrounge for their records in thrift stores. We would play out of time and out of tune covers of their classics in our shitty garage bands. We would, in short, drink the Kool-Aid. We were the missing component of the punk rock marketing blitz come 20 years too late. And as angsty and unwashed as a Kurt Cobain or a *shudder* Eddie Vedder was, they spoke to us because they bought those albums too.

So, when Markey told us that punk “broke” in 1991, he probably meant that it broke through, that the old school model of “play what you know and know what you play” had finally become valid. But, on another level entirely, you could also say that it merely broke. It went under. The wheels of musical rebellion fell off and Universal Music Group was there to slap a new, timelier set of radials on that fucker and ride it out. All the way to the bank.

So when I say that 2006 was the year nerdcore broke, I want you to understand the context in which I speak, for it is resplendent with context.

It would be an understatement to say that 2006 has been a big year for nerdcore. It was an enormous year for nerdcore, for a lot of reasons and with thanks due to a lot of hard working men and women. Much of this work was concrete, palpable. Optimus Rhyme’s excellent Endino-produced sophomore album School the Indie Rockers is a prime example, as is MC Frontalot (the de facto founder of nerdcore) launching his first ever a national tour to promote his masterwork Nerdcore Rising. Still, other work was a bit more subtle.

While High-C’s Rhyme Torrent compilation albums were panned by some who questioned his inclusion criteria, it is important to note that it was this work that truly began to break down the barriers between nerdcore artists. No longer were they operating within a vacuum: tiny islands existing outside of the collective nerd music consciousness. Rhyme Torrents alerted these artists to the existence of other likeminded spirits and set the stage for exchange, collaboration, feuds, and even beef. But it is impossible to overestimate the importance that this assembly (and the man who orchestrated it) had on the nerdcore landscape.

More than anything, 2006 can be seen as the year when nerdcore as a genre (sub-genre?) finally began to coalesce. Despite the eventual barrage of diss tracks and in-fighting, there were far more artists who eagerly accepted the nerdcore moniker (YTCracker and the SpamTec Crew, My Parents Favorite Music, Former Fat Boys, and Futuristic Sex Robotz to name a few) than refused to be associated with the term (à la mc chris or Paul Barman). In the face of nerdcore “camps” and overall cliquishness, I think that this important (if mostly symbolic) victory is too often overlooked.

Despite misfires and false starts, nerdcore got press from the likes of G4, Wired magazine, EGM, Boing-Boing, Slashdot, and a myriad of foreign Web sites and publications. It is also of note that 2006 saw the birth of two separate nerdcore hip hop documentary projects: the MC Frontalot tour doc Nerdcore Rising and the Crapbots production Nerdcore For Life.

And, of course, nerdcore was still alive and well in all its old haunts: most specifically the Penny Arcade Expo. However, this year, in addition to the annual on-site Frontalot performance, PAX was followed up with a supplementary all-nerdcore gig at the nearby Shark Club. This served both as a showcase for nerdcore’s current talent pool and an opportunity for some brilliant live footage to be recorded for the Nerdcore For Life film.

In essence, 2006 was the year that didn’t so much change nerdcore as redefine how nerdcore music, artists, and fans operate. The music itself is still essentially the same, and, though there are those who disagree with what this sameness entails, nerdcore is musically, socially, and (dare I say) commercially stronger than it has ever been.

And while it would be foolhardy to say that 2006 was the year that nerdcore hip hop completely broke through, I think we can all agree that this was the year when nerdcore, at the very least, poked its hooked and goony beak out of its shell of isolation and made a great geeky squawk. And, while not everyone heard it, a great number of people did take note.

Of course, with that admission every haughty, self-righteous bone in my tiny body cries out for satisfaction. Every single cheesy, faux-journalistic fiber of my being demands that I overstep my bounds as a casual chronicler of nerd culture and crown some winner, some Nerd of the Year™ to commemorate this auspicious occasion.

And why not? There’s certainly no dearth of worthy candidates.

The aforementioned MC Frontalot, Optimus Rhyme, and YTCracker continued to strengthen and refine the musical style that they birthed, while successors like Beefy and Ultraklystron pushed their own flavors of nerdcore in new and exciting directions. Amazing producers and DJ’s like Baddd Spellah, funky49, and DJ Snyder plied their craft in unique, imaginative ways that helped to tie this renegade style to the proud roots of hip hop’s past. New artists like MCeeP and Grandmaster Pink burst into the scene with fresh ideas, electric personalities, and more than enough fire and skill to prove their mettle in the face of criticism. And, just as importantly, the diligent work and unbridled creativity of nerdcore’s nonmusical element (as exemplified by Dan Lamoureux and Gabe and Syn of Nerdcore News) helped to remind us all that nerdcore as a community is not limited solely to the realms of beats, bass, and rhymes.

It is the boundless dedication of these souls and, indeed, all that count themselves among nerdcore’s numbers that made 2006 a perfect storm of geek rap revolution. The recent success of nerdcore is undoubtedly due to all who poured their hearts and souls into writing, rapping, and repping from this tiny corner of the hip hop spectrum, and, as such, each of us should wear the crown.

If there’s a king (or queen) of the scene, a “winner” here that must be crowned: then why not all of us?

The ground gained by nerd music, specifically that ever-growing list of nerdcore’s achievements, is due in part to each and every one of us. We all made a difference, and thus we are all the ultimate winner.

When I look back on 2006, I don’t simply remember a specific artist or song or album that defined the year; rather, I recall the entirity of the year itself as a golden moment when hipsterism and nerd culture collided. When black was white and right was left. When nerdcore broke and we all helped to fix it.

You’re it, my friend; you are the Nerd of the Year™. You and me and everyone who played. We did this together, and we can do more.

So, as we look forward to 2007, we should celebrate our victories and learn from our blunders. Things got to this point via our blood, sweat, and tears, and where it goes from here depends solely upon the same. Well, there’s also luck, but luck is a thankless whore and we’d do better not to rely too heavily upon her.

Surely we stand at the cusp of something great, but let’s not spend so much time looking to the future that we ignore the present. This is the golden age, and whether we rise or fall, we have this moment. Today we are all stars.

And if these stars fizzle out?

Fuck it. We had our time, and, so long as we made the most of it, it was not wasted.

Whatever lies ahead, we have each other and we have today, and I am immeasurably thankful for both.

If, after the countdown to ‘07, all the nerds who were, in a very real sense, kings and queens for a day fade into the Internet ether from which we emerged – if our blogs no longer get the hits and our albums no longer get the press and our friend requests all but dry up – does that make us any less important? Does that make our contributions less worthy? Does that make us less than what we are?

No.

Being a nerd, more than anything else, is about being who you are despite the consequences and in spite of the hardships. Certainly, 2006 was a good time, but, whether things go up or down from here, we’ll continue doing geeky things because that’s what we do. Hopefully, some will continue to have their exemplary work praised by persons outside of our circle. But whether that happens or not, as long as we keep doling out the nerd love to our own we’ll get by.

Pariahs or Messiahs, as long as we are strong in what we are we will always have or culture, whether it’s at the local coffee shop or on the 10 o’clock news.

So in summation: feel free to call 2006 the year nerdcore broke. Furthermore, feel free to quantify that statement in any way you’d like. Just be sure that, at the end of the day, you realize that you are more a part than a passive observer, and wherever we go from here depends just as much on us as it does those outsiders who are only now beginning to understand what we’re all about.

And, while I adoringly celebrate the breaking down of the walls between nerd culture and the mainstream, I’m much more jubilant about the narrowing gulfs between us as nerds.

Welcome to nerdcore 2.0.

The Breakfast of Champions

I can’t imagine why anyone would be reading Hipster, please! this morning, but, to anyone who may have stumbled here accidentally, the entire Z. clan would like to wish you the best. For those who celebrate: the Merriest of Christmases to you. To those who don’t: enjoy your Monday off.

We still have presents to unwrap and various merriments to make, so I shall be off. Expect more from me (including my year-end wrap-up) later this week. Thanks so much for your time, and have a wonderful day.

And now, to breakfast.