Share your pain

Okay, so it’s not quite as prestigious an offer as presented recently by YTCracker, but I’m currently looking to add a little extra pizzazz to the next edition of Radio Free Hipster.

RFH Ep. 11, which I’m currently working on under the title "Busted Glasses, Broken Heart," is all about love and relationships and about how they often times don’t turn out like you’d hoped and/or planned for both the nerdy and the non-nerdy alike. The song list is shaping up nicely but, in the interest of giving voice to the spurned, I’d like to solicit some little spoken-word clips from listeners who wouldn’t mind sending in anonymous (or not-so anonymous) messages to ex-lovers.

Did she break your heart and take your money? Did he tell you that you were just like your mother? Do you secretly still miss her? Would you just like to get all your stuff back?

All I’m looking for is some little snippets to smatter between tracks. I’m thinking something along the lines of "Hi, this is {your nickname or first name}, and this message is for {his/her nickname or first name}: I want all my CDs back!"

But really, it’s your call.

All I ask is that you keep it topical and brief. Depending on how many people are actually bored enough to submit these I may not be able to include them all, but I’ll do my best.

Any takers can contact me via the email link located in the sidebar. I ask that attached files be MP3s of no more than 20 seconds in length with bitrates of no less than 64 and no more than 192 kbps.

I’d like to point out, of course, that this won’t do anything at all in the way of helping to mend a broken relationship or get your favorite Cure t-shirt back, but sometimes sharing as good.

So, y’know, feel free to share.

It’s therapeutic.

Gary Busey’s mechanical tiger

Okay, so in all my Halloween merrymaking I managed to miss VH1’s supernatural-themed Celebrity Paranormal Project. Initially, I really didn’t feel this to be too big of a loss, as it’s essentially just a C-list celebrity version of MTV’s Fear.

This all changed when I caught a rerun last night. First off, it featured metal-nerd/marginal comedic actor Hal Sparks, whom I seem to find hilarious in spite of myself. But the big payoff was Gary Busey. Oh yeah: Gary-fucking-Busey!

He prattled on and on about the supernatural, his innate understanding of the nature of the paranormal, and “sounds that were like a mechanical tiger.” You just can’t make this shit up.

Don’t get me wrong, the show is horrible: blatantly staged and poorly paced. And yet, with upcoming guests like the great Gilbert Gottfried, I am hooked.

For some reason, there’s no YouTube of Gary’s rambling, but you can get the gist of the Busey experience here.

Sights for sore eyes

Director/producer Dan Lamoureux has just released the (near) final list of artists included in his upcoming Nerdcore for Life documentary. Though he’s taken some slack for it already, I think he’s got a really solid line-up. There are some old favorites, some newer additions, and even a few inclusions that, even if not patently nerdcore, are easily relatable to the movement as a whole. Most importantly, I think he’s done an excellent job zeroing in on a lot of the dominant personalities in the genre. The breakdown is as follows:

• MC Plus +
• The Lords of the Rhymes
• Ytcracker and the Spamtec Crew
• Ultraklystron
• The Futuristic Sex Robotz
• Nursehella
• Beefy
• Optimus Rhyme
• 1337 Geek Beat
• Shael Riley
• Rai
• Jesse Dangerously
• Fanatical
• The Former Fat Boys
• High-C
• The Sucklord
• Monzy
  

And, to quote the man:

If all goes as planned, Baddd Spellah (#18) and MC Hawking (#19) will also be appearing and we're working on getting permission to use footage of MC Frontalot. (#20)

As you wait patiently for footage of Nerdcore for Life to surface, how about you check out the following video for Beefy’s track “Internet Celebrity” by ChurchHatesTucker? It’s made up of footage of… well… internet celebrities, and it is guaranteed to rock your balls!*

*No actual guarantee of ball rockage implied. Offer void in Arkansas, Texas, Florida, and Zimbabwe. In the event that actual time of ball rockage exceeds two hours, please consult a physician. Your miles may vary.

Radio Free Hipster Ep. 10: Poor Parenting on My Part

This is an experiment. Not an experiment in sound, though, as that would be stepping on toes. Truthfully, this is an idea I’ve had since I tried to convince my boy to say something cute for the very first edition of Radio Free Hipster. It just seemed too easy; too valid a scheme to pass up.

Kids enjoy music, and I make it a point to let Little X. hear new and different tunes everyday. As a significant chunk of my free time is devoted to seeking out and examining music with a decidedly nerdy slant, it is only logical that a large portion of what he hears falls within such bounds. Still, there are a lot of things – valid musical entities – that he truly loves that I just couldn’t make fit into the format of RFH. For example, Slayer is (no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise) just not geeky enough to warrant inclusion.

Whereas the two previous episodes of the podcast were very focused, with a lot of attention paid to both the flow of the music and the pacing of the sets, this episode is a good bit more loose. Still, things came together much more seamlessly than I would have thought. The fact that the second song set focuses heavily on tracks about food and eating is a testament to that.

I’d like to thank X. for helping me out with this. I’m sure he’d have much rather been watching Little Einsteins or chasing the neighbors’ dog, but instead he took some time to help his old man. I really wanted him to help out with the spoken interludes as well, but he’s at that age where he only speaks when it suits him and I reckon it didn’t. Maybe I’ll do this again sometime. Or maybe I’ll let my wife or one of my other friends or family members have a crack at putting together an episode’s playlist.

It seems like a good idea to step back and let someone else drive once in a while in keeping with the community aspect of the blog and podcast. Plus I’m a lazy bastard, which adds an entirely different level of appeal to such proceedings.

Download Radio Free Hipster Ep. 10: Poor Parenting on My Part Size 33.7 MB Running Time 36:51

Show Notes

Intro: Bill Cosby – “My Father Confused Me” / Glenn Case – “Baby Learns to Crawl”
Glenn basically covered Paul Westerberg’s Stereo in its entirety. It is excellent. You should check it out.

Z’s 1^st Interlude: “Pre-language”
The books and caregivers and experts keep telling me that X. is pre-language. Truthfully, he can say 50-60 words and phrases, ranging from the functional (“I eat that”) to the insightful (“no money”).

Track 1: Tom Rhodes – “Weed Ghost” / Beefy – “Whitesican”
Little X. is officially whitesican. Beefy said so.

Track 2: Optimus Rhyme – “Obey the Moderator”
“Train in Vain” would’ve made more since, but I just played that one a few episodes ago.

Track 3: Miss Frenchie – “Dirty Jump”
Frenchie spins a lot in London and Leicester, but she’s actually from Bordeaux. It’s good to know that, while undeniably whitesican, X. stills reps his frog roots! ;)

Track 4: MC Frontalot – “Gonna be Your Man”
Though he is physically incapable of doing so, my son really does try to sing this song. Mostly he just says the “man” part and bobs his head. And oh how he smiles!

Z’s 2^nd Interlude: “The Chicken Dance”
Apologies if the background music is a bit overpowering this ep. I always have a problem getting MIDI volume properly adjusted.

Track 5: Moose and Zee – “Scary Monsters clip” / Jonathan Richman “Abominable Snowman in the Market”
I love how Jon reaches out to the Abominable Snowman and offers emotional support. It’s beautiful.

Track 6: Wesley Willis – “Rock ‘N’ Roll McDonald’s”
I was lucky enough to meet Wesley a few years before his death. I got a signed CD. It’s not as good as a headbutt, but at least it’s something.

Track 7: CoqRoq – “Bob Your Head”
Little X. gets into metal: speed, thrash, maybe a little black, and the occasional corporate chicken metal.

Track 8: Bill Cosby – “My Boyscout Troupe”
I miss when Bill Cosby was animated and swore a lot. Those were simpler days!

Track 9: Sir Loin – “For the Shorties”
“Ya got canned goods just collectin' dust / Got meat, got fruit, got vegetables /
Only prerequisite’s that it’s edible / Get ya freak on at my freaky food festival”

Z’s Final Interlude: “A totally incompetent parent”
It occurs to me that I sometimes let my child listen to music concerning themes that are decidedly adult. And that’s not even factoring in the incessant swearing. It’s not too big a deal now, but what will I do when he tells his third grade teacher that he’s “sick of breathing; it’s fuckin’ boring / All the time [he’s] got the asthma and the snoring”?

Track 10: Me – “Peanut Butter Banquet”
As you already know, my name ends with neither Spellah, Synder, nor 49. I’m no kind of DJ or producer. This track incorporates elements of Bloc Party, Buckwheat Boys, and Shel Silverstein, and you are under no obligation to sit through it.

And that’s it, folks. Thanks for listening, and let me (us) know what you think. Doing the podcasts is generally a solitary effort, so it felt good to have a little support “in the booth.” Even if said support kept poking me in the eye.

Looking at the above, it’s impossible not to realize that Little X. likes danceable songs that are oft-times about food. That’s just weird. But what can you expect? Weirdness is, perhaps, a staggeringly genetic predisposition.