I mean, in my little, insignificant opinion, the only thing less entertaining than the normal musings of an eternally-angsty 40-something is an over-marketed, gimmicky concept album that refuses to admit that it’s an over-marketed, gimmicky concept album. I’m just sayin’.
Now, as I prepare to spend the rest of my day responding to a string of angry emails and posts concerning the above statements, y’all dig the Nerd News in Brief.
- If we can't be free at least we can be cheap: According to a hot tip from my home-skillet Church, today is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasants Day. (I was gonna buy you a card, but damned if my local Hallmark wasn’t sold out!) Apparently, a couple of weeks ago Howard V. Hendrix, current VP of the Science Fiction Writers of America, posted a rant stating that writers who put their work up for free on the Internet are, in fact, scabs that are devaluing the work of writers looking to get paid. The heated response from the community came to a head when it was declared that April 23rd would be the aforementioned pseudo-holiday International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, a time where writers (and other artists) are encouraged to put up professional-quality work up for free public consumption. As I’m all about the free shit, I can’t help but support such a movement.
- Solidarity: Perhaps the biggest nerd music story of the past week is the offer made by mc chris to the nerdcore community during his recent interview for Nerdcore For Life. In mc’s own words; “[I]t's an open call to anyone that wants to open for me [J]uly third in [O]regon before we go see [T]ransformers at midnight. [W]e have not confirmed venue or theater, but yes [I] want to do this. [A]nd everyone has an equal chance to get on the bill as we might try to make it a longer show that starts in the afternoon.” Interested parties (and fuck know there’ll be a lot of those) should proceed in an orderly fashion to the relevant thread over at Rhyme Torrents.
- Mmmmm. Jam... and... glue.: JamGlue is currently hosting an MC Lars remix contest through which lucky individuals can win some very cool-assed Lars swag! Interesting, eh? Well, it’s made more interesting by the fact that the entry page includes its own integrated mixer pre-loaded with the a cappella and musical hooks. Submissions will be accepted until May 14th, so get over there and do that thing that you do with the music and the... stuff. Yeah.
- Glory, glory Hallelujah: My brothers over at Game Music 4 All have just released the complete list of artists contributing to their upcoming release Music EXP, and the only words I can find to describe the glory and splendor are as followed: Hole, Lee, and Shit. Nerdcore aficionados will be interested to note the inclusion chiptune/hip-hoppers Super Barrio Brothers. Y’know, like you needed another reason to be excited about this comp!
- Like speed dating, but with bands: TG over at Northwest Nerdcore recently posted some really nice mini-interviews that he did at the Lars/Frontalot/Optimus show in Portland. The results are a compelling read, to say the least! Y'all check it out.
- Am I nerdcore?: And lastly, my boy Beefy and his long-time associate Ryan “St. Cameraman” Tidrick, have just released a video for Beefy’s track “1-800-NERDCORE.” Though it’s not a lighthearted summer buddy cop comedy involving Cameron Diaz as a wide-eyed recruit who breaks all the rules and William H. Macy as her by-the-book partner, I’m gonna go ahead and call this one a romp. Don’t believe me? See for yourself: 1-800-NERDCORE
19 comments:
Actually, the marketing and hyping end of Year Zero is the most interesting part. Trent's been putting out strategic leaks, and the RIAA has been going after people who follow up on them, inadvertently sabotaging his promo campaign.
Excellent news about Chris. I hope that morphs into a days-long music fest.
The bummer about the Lars remixing contest is that, as far as I can tell, you can't D/L the tracks and mix them on your system. So it looks like my "More Cowbell" remix is going onto the back burner.
Beefy's vid looks good, but the audio is almost non-existent on my system.
I got a fever! And the only prescription is (MC Lars with) more cowbell! XP
That whole "make ur own remix lol" that anyone can do in a flash player is about the dumbest thing to come out of the internet.
Also, I'm not sure about the new NIN album. I've been a semi-fan of Reznor's for a long while, but I haven't really heard any new songs that are worth listening to. Although all this discussion is really a moot point because I'm very much opposed to buying RIAA releases.
"Although all this discussion is really a moot point because I'm very much opposed to buying RIAA releases."
That's because you're a good man, Soc. :D
Just to again second the notion that you're not the only one who doesn't give a damn. I left teen angst behind when I left being a teenager behind, if not sooner. I have a life now, I don't need whiny angst, especially not when coupled with piss-poor saturation marketing and a trend-fellating angst idol who refuses to acknowledge he's far too old for this to wash. Reznor and his angst schtick are the only musical coupling less credible than Ice Cube still playing out his gangsta "thang."
Thanks again for the fantastic linkage my good fellow!
Hear, Hear, Tetsuo! Well said, my friend. How long do you reckon we have before Trent starts making heart-warming family films? ;)
And no problem, Ant. I am genuinely excited about the Music EXP comp, and I shall not rest until everyone else is just as excited (if not more so).
Wait, there was a NiN album after Pretty Hate Machine? Why? Next thing you'll tell me there was a Ministry album after A Mind's A Terrible Thing To Taste.
And with that, Matt wins teh Internetz!
Oh, and there was also a Skinny Puppy album after Too Dark Park. I’m sorry that I’m the one to have to tell you. :(
I thought about mentioning Skinny Puppy and then gave them a pass. Being able to do a song built around samples from a porn movie and having it come off not as a novelty, but a really cool track, gets you a pass in my book.
Funny story. I used to have a Pigface album on tape in the early 90s. There was a song on there with a guy talking in German using this really menancing voice with a menancing background track. Not speaking German, I had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded cool.
My freshman year in college I had befriended two female German exchange students. One day I played them the song so they could give me an idea of what this guy was saying. They listened to it for about a minute and then just started laughing and giggling. I never did find out what the guy was saying, but the song was a lot less menancing after that.
And now, thanks to this thread, I'm listening to My Favorite again. I think I went 4 whole days this time with out listening to them.
Hey, he's already done heart-...something-ing (if that's a word) 80's synthesiser pop, so having seen that (praise be to the YouTube gods), nothing would surprise me now.
Oh, and I feel honored to have had a visit by one such as yourself, Z. (hehe)
I was a big Skinny Puppy fan back in my miscreant youth, Matt. Ah, to be young again!
I had totally forgotten about Synth-Pop Reznor! Yours is a blog that I read all-too infrequently, Geof, but I really dig it. I’m always fascinated by cats living abroad and all the weird shit they see, hear, and experience.
Wait, Reznor did synth pop? Hmm...
I knew about the Ministry synth pop.
And yeah, I spent more then a few hours of my youth rocking out to early 90s industrial. I was more a Ministry kid though. I dug SP but it didn't tickle my 16 year old brain in the same way as screaming 'SO WHAT!' did.
Interestingly enough, I recently discovered that a friend of mine at that period of my life has since gone on to record an album for Digital Hardcore (Atari Teenage Riot's label) amougst other labels. Weird.
And now I can't help but wonder how many people reading this site are wondering what the crap we're talking about. Do kids today even remember Skinny Puppy or Atari Teenage Riot?
I'm starting to feel old.
Peep the YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYBx5NJULY&mode=related&search=
Yeah, Matt, I’m pretty sure SP and ATR are relics of the past. Ministry had the whole Psalm 69 album that broke them, so a few kids probably know “Jesus Built My Hotrod,” but I reckon their compatriots are lost to most. I might actually have to work some Atari Teenage Riot into an upcoming podcast. There’s a lot of really nerdy chiptune samples and glitch elements in there.
You can probably do an entire show around artists' embarassing songs.
Yeah, maybe not such a hot idea.
(BTW, you can drop everything in a youtube url after the first ampersand)
I second church's horrible idea. Make a podcast of clunker songs by good or great artists. :)
Holy crap, that's an awesome idea for a podcast. And not just a one-off, you could easily make that at least a short-run series. This bears further thought....
Dear Lord, what have I done?
Soc's first remark reminded me of this resource:
http://www.riaaradar.com/
It's a quick way to check if an artist is under thrall to the RIAA before you buy their stuff.
So what y’all are saying is that I should make an edition of RFH crappy by design, as opposed to being crappy due simply to the lack of production values and my own technical ineptitude?
I reckon I could do that.
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