Within the last 12 hours I have received somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 spam messages in the old Hipster, please! Inbox. I’ve never really had a problem with unsolicited mail before, so I’m a little – how you say – confuselated.
If only I knew someone with a background in spam who could answer a few questions for me.
Yeah, if you wanna know about dinosaurs you talk to a paleontologist; if you wanna know about spam you talk to YTCracker.
But first, More Nerd News in Brief.
More nerd ink: Okay, this cat rivals Router for extremely geeky tattoos. Behold his 3/4 sleeve of Mario art. Looks like he’s planning to get a Zelda sleeve on the other arm. Thanks to Matt for pointing me toward this.
Speaking of Router:Ms. Ritchie’s Fort Worth Weekly cover story is now available online. The article itself is quite interesting; hell, even I was surprised to find that Router has submitted an audition tape for a VH1 show. In addition to a lot of back-and-forth with Router, the piece also has a few nice quotes from T-byte, YTCracker. and Dan Lamoureux. Take a gander
Lower case, no dots: mc chris has gotten his fair share of press of late, with two new articles popping up recently. Pinky found a nice Q&A session with mc in Format Magazine that I highly recommend to anyone who considers himself a fan. Likewise, MC Tanuki found a similar interview at Newsarama that’s also a pretty damn good read.
But wait, there’s more: mc chris was also recently listed as one of the top 10 bands on this year’s Warped Tour on the tour's official site! Does this mean that our private little nerd party is officially over? Probably.
Bloop, blip, bleep: Pixelh8’s 2nd album, The Boy with the Digital Heart, is set to shake up the chiptune world in a couple of ways. First, “the entire album, every note, every drum beat, every sound [has been] programmed [from] scratch.” The project will also be featured in its own documentary detailing the making of the album, the myriad of software used to create it, and the artist himself. Interesting stuff, to say the least.
Boys on film: While we’re on the subject of video, I’d be a fool not to direct you toward 32 brand-spanking-new clips of Glenn Case and The Half Racks performing at The Comet. These were recorded on the 3rd of this month, and you can check out the full set list at Glenn’s site. (Be sure to peep their cover of “Here Comes Your Man.”)
More Wrock: Church has had a busy week. In addition to the thankless task of finding me cool shit to post and, y’know, actually working at his real job, he’s also managed to damn-near convince me to try and construct my own Beer Brewing Bender. Oh, and he edited together this charming bit of performance footage of The Whomping Willows. He even scores extra credit for the running commentary throughout.
That was, in fact, the original title for this episode. But I felt it pertinent to change it. ‘Cause, y’know, I ripped Mike Judge off enough in this edition without stealing his tag line.
Work is rough and few of us enjoy it, but I reckon that’s what makes it work. We do it because we have to. Because we can’t make money doing what we love: watching TV and smoking weed.
Intro: Baddd Spellah – “Radio Free Hipster Theme (feat. Beefy)”
Spellah and Beef must’ve fallen on hard times. Shit, they even made a theme song for me!
Track 1: Dual Core – “Dull Boy”
Now that, my friends, is what you call a sing-along chorus.
Z’s 1st interlude: “A nice, secure government job.”
Don’t believe the hype; there’s no work going on at the government center.
Track 2: Jonathan Richman – “Government Center”
Jon has a song for all occasions. Case in point.
Track 4: Bill Hicks / Glenn Case “Stapler”
The office romance of this track is both refreshing and… confusing, but you gotta give it up to Glenn for running with the source material.
Track 5: The Goondocks – “Hit Snooze”
The Goons (specifically this track) actually inspired this episode's theme. If you hate it, blame JMIC!
Z’s 2nd interlude: “I hesitate to say ‘classic.’”
Are we all really working for the weekend? That’s just a reflection of our sluggish economy.
Track 7: Billy Bragg – “St. Monday”
This one is more “music nerd” than “nerd music,” but I think it fits well.
Track 8: Bill Hicks / Beefy – “Outside Paradise”
The Hicks bit before Beefy’s track was supposed to go before “Hit Snooze,” but it just wouldn’t fit. Now you know.
Track 9: Kool Keith – “Get Off My Elevator”
Does anyone ever really know what the fuck Keith is talking about? Ever?
Track 11: Busdriver – “Unemployed Black Astronaut”
Once again, thanks to Pink for hooking me up with this one.
Track 12: Hermes Conrad – “The Bureaucrat Song”
“I am Bender, baby, please insert liquor!”
Z’s final interlude: “Extraordinarily dorky”
This describes both Biz Markie and the show itself.
Track 13: Canibus – “Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee (feat. Biz Markie)”
Again, not really nerdy, but damned if it ain’t fitting!
So there you have it: musical ruminations on the working world. Did I miss some good ones? I’m sure I did. How about you holler at me and let me know what I should’ve included?
That’s simply the nature of our relationship. We’re cool like that.
“You take the good, you take the bad / You take them both, and there you have / The facts of life.”
So states the theme song from one of my favorite sitcoms, and, truthfully, the same can be said for this edition of Nerd News in Brief.
Why, this morning alone I’ve been informed that beloved television icon Merv Griffin has shuffled off this mortal coil (sad face), and that low-level boogeyman Karl Rove has announced that he’ll pack up his brimstone and magic hat full of poisonous spiders at month’s end (happy face).
Those sort of conflicting events really make a cat feel ambivalent, y’know?
Even werewolves get the blues: Over the weekend, my pals Matt and Church hit up a Vienna, VA Wrock show featuring Snidget, The Whomping Willows, and The Remus Lupins. Matt did a really nice post-gig write-up, and it appears as though everyone involved had a really great time. That is until some assholes smashed in the bands’ van window and made off with a pair of iPods and about 2 large in cash (all belonging to The Remus Lupins). If you’ve got a couple extra bucks lying around, you might wanna consider picking up their latest disk I Was a Teenage Werewolf to help the Lupins over this unfortunate hump. WizardRock.org will also be donating 50% of any profits made from their Cafe Press store to the band (with the other half going to the HP Alliance as previously promised.) Dig deep, folks.
Post-PWNED: After a lot of ponderous soul-searching, Hex Warrior has elected to postpone Nerdapalooza. While new dates and other solid details are still in the works, the crew is currently soliciting for “COMMITTED people to take on coordinator positions amongst our ranks.” You can hit up the official site for the full story, and to make a donation to the cause.
Til All Are One: Okay, so I sort of started off on a downer today. Fear not: here’s an Optimus Prime casemod that Matt found that will surely help take the sting away.
Game Head sound vaguely pornographic:Spike TV showed a little love to nerdcore hip-hop at Comic-Con by talking a bit with the featured artists at the pivotal concert. The results of the taping can currently be viewed right here. The piece features a freestyle from Karl and a little Q&A with YT in the post-4:00 area.
Because “too much of a good thing” is an urban myth: Last week, Glenn Case added another 50 songs to his All Songs directory, bringing the grand total to 370 tracks. That's plenty more covers, demos, and original material for you, and another year’s worth of podcast fodder for me.
What? No Router?: Church hipped me to this very odd collection of nerdy (read: scholastic) tattoos from ScienceBlogs. Big up to the cat with the Periodic Table; that's nerdcore!
Please explain: Since I started off a bit somber today, I’m gonna end on a… high note? Well, I’m gonna end with something that’ll definitely get you thinking. It’s a German PS3 commercial that funky49 found and shared with me. I… I really don’t know what to say about it. It raises several distinct questions, the most prominent being: what the fuck does this have to do with the PS3? Enjoy.
I'm not saying I'm not intrigued, I'm just saying that this is the stylistic equivalent of letting Prince front the Marshal Tucker Band for a night of Elvis covers.
Hell, the former makes the latter seem do-able!
Straight Outta Stockholm:MC Lars will be playing a show on August 20th at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. I don't doubt that he'll perform all the smart and sassy songs you know by heart. Hell, Al Jourgensen may even show up. Or not. Doors open at 7:30 PM.
All the clever Michael Vick references have already been used: My boys the Metamystiks are back with another joint guaranteed to melt your face/shake your ass. It's called "Waste Management," and, of course, it features myf and Super Dragon X on vox and the turntable stylings of a certain DJ Synder. Wack MCs take heed.
Wireless Router: Texans take note, MC Router and T-Byte get their own FW Weekly cover story in the issue dropping August 15th. Though 1GB gets the splash, Router assures us that Beefy, Dan, and YTCracker are mentioned, as well as MCs Frontalot and chris. Pick up a copy.
Not to be confused with the Marvel/DJ crossover: My favorite Transformer just dropped his new album. (No, not Soundwave.) You can pick up Maja's The Amalgam Projecthere, and help bring the underground out into the sunlight. Hell, the "Transformer" acappella alone is worth the price of admission!
I'm officially a dirty sub-reference!: A friend of mine is the mod for burgeoning adult social networking site Social Kink, and she recently asked for my permission to call her profile blog KinksterPlease. How could I not agree to that?
"I wouldn't use the word rapper":Schaffer the Dark Lord just released his new video for the single "The Rappist." It was shot in April of this year at Fontana's in NYC, was directed and edited by Bruce Ashley, and produced by Amy Selwocki. It also features "the six lovely ladies of the stellar burlesque troupe known as the Peach Tartes, Law & Order's sexy Leslie Hendrix, the beautiful Leigh Hurwitz and the gorgeous Dr. Sarah Schaffer." Behold its glory:
Though I'm pretty sure all my Australian readers are already aware of this - as they are, in fact, the two bastards performing - I'm gonna go ahead and suggest that any Aussies in the Newcastle area head out to check Grandmaster Pink and Diabolik at Bar on the Hill tomorrow evening.
The boys take the stage at 7:45 in the PM, so show up early and...
Wait.
Is it... is it Thursday in Australia already? Am I posting this too late?
Goddamn time zones!
Anywho, assuming that it's not already, y'know, next Monday in the land down under, be sure to make an appearance and support Pinky and D. Shit, buy 'em drink.
After a week that was even more hectic than most, I elected to take this Monday as a well deserved day off. That means I’m typing this from the comfort of my own home, as opposed to the… relative comfort of my office.
Other than that: business as usual for your good ol’ Nerd News in Brief.
Who me?: Last month Optimus Rhyme celebrated summer with an acoustic gig at 107.7 The End’s Beach House, and, lucky for us, my man Jarod (from alienbobz.com) was there to document the whole thing. You can download the show at the Live Music Archive, and Jarod promises that video is forthcoming as well.
Photographic evidence: Late last week, Dan finally decided to grace us with a shit-ton of still shots from the nerdcore performances at Capcom's COMIC-CON booth. Take a gander to relish the madness, and be sure to comment on your faves.
Paper of Record: Dan (and his project Nerdcore For Life) also got a little face-time in Sunday’s New York Times. The piece is primarily about mc chris, but it also touches on the film and nerdcore in general. Geeks in the style section? What will they think of next?
What Kind of Wizard?/Butter Beer 40s: This weekend, Church favored me with two new Potter-esque YouTube finds so nut-slappingly hilarious that I couldn’t decide which to include. So, after some deliberation, I’ve elected to feature both. The first is a clip of the Red State Update guys crashing a Deathly Hallows release event. The second is a music video for a Potter-themed rap track that is both genius and borderline intolerable. Pick your pony.
Case in point: yesterday my neighbor informed me that I had a mole living in my front yard and I was elated! My brother-in-law offered to set up some sort of barbaric trap to snare the poor creature, but I wouldn’t fuckin’ hear of it. Without Mole, how will Ratty and Mr. Badger ever keep Mr. Toad out of trouble?
Fronting far more than can be reasonably expected: MC Frontalot has a number of shows lined up for the month of August. Specifically: “Aug 23, Seattle w/ Optimus, Goondocks, Router, and Beefy; Aug 25, PAX in Seattle with the usual luminaries (Minibosses, we expect); Aug 29, [JUST ANNOUNCED:] Brooklyn with Jesse Dangerously; Sep 14, Richmond IN, Earlham College (Earlham ppl only, sorry); Sep 15, Tempe AZ, Kingdom of Loathing Con.”
Get your Gabe on:Nerdcore News’s Gabe has thrown out an open invitation to anyone in the Seattle area for this year’s Penny Arcade Expo to meet him, Syn, and a gaggle of other nerds at Gameworks on the evening of Thursday, August 23rd. Straight from the horse’s mouth: “From 9 p.m. 'til they close, you pay 10 dollars and you play all the games you want for the rest of the night. Plus there are some drink specials and the bar menu is half-off. So there's that. Food, games and cheap drinks! I'm also thinking - hopefully Thursday - of getting as many people as will come (please let me know here or via e-mail - dystopia.is.now at gmail) together for a bit of a 'round table' interview.” Gabe also promises that a new edition of Nerdcore News will be available soon.
From the vault: Super Dragon X has just added another hot track to his MySpace player, though I hesitate to use the term new. “Back in the Day” is another collaboration with Aussie MC Grandmaster Pink, but this one is just now seeing the light of day. Check it out; it’s well worth your time.
Not necessarily nerdy, but…: Whether you know it or not, you’ve doubtlessly seen the work of photographer Neal Preston. In his decades long career, Preston has photographed some of rock ‘n’ roll’s most important artists… and also Madonna. Spinner.com recently “gave [Neal] the space to collect his favorite photographs into an online gallery where he recounts personal anecdotes with each picture.” Music dorks will want to pay special attention to the iconic images of the late, great Frank Zappa and his childhood friend Captain Beefheart. Thanks to Jake for hipping me to this.
Third-hand Information: According to Beefy’s blog, syndicated morning drive-time DJs Bob & Tom have been talking about nerdcore of late. I don’t listen to Bob & Tom - or, y’know, radio in general - so can anyone confirm this seemingly outlandish claim?
Hyperwhite?: Earlier this week my pal Church hit me up with this NY Times article that explores, among other things, linguist Mary Bucholtz’s belief that self identified nerds are, in fact, “white to the point of excess.” In response, Journalista chimes in with the idea that “one shouldn’t discount the possibility that nerd culture is pro-something, rather than anti-black culture, or that it may in fact have nothing whatsoever to do with race.” Finally, Jason (from my new favorite blog Geek Studies) supplies a more even-handed assessment of the intermingling of racial identity and nerd culture.
Seriously; everywhere!: And lastly, here’s another jewel to Church directed my attention. It’s a YouTube clip of the handiwork of some cat who mods old Chuck E. Cheese animatronics. Unless you’re bereft of free time (like me), you probably caught this on Boing Boing.
Here’s the skinny: G4 is sponsoring the American Ninja Challenge. Through this contest, one lucky(?) contestant will win the chance to be on the always ridiculous Japanese gameshow.
Now, we won’t know if Steffo even made it into the semi-finals until Friday, but that’s no reason not to enjoy his ninja skillz (note the “z”) right now.
So behold my man in all his greatness. And, should you see his submission floating around the G4 Web site come Friday, be sure to vote for him.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that this may be the most eclectic edition of Radio Free Hipster to date.
“Eclectic,” of course, is simply college-boy speak for totally fucked up.
Between the hip-hop, the j-pop, the buttrock, and the filk – not to mention the extended instrumental sub-set – I can’t help but feel that this ep. may lose a couple of you, but that’s the price I pay for refusing to limit myself to the canon of G1.
I know some of you probably feel my affection for ‘toons like Beast Wars Neo and Headmasters is blasphemous at best, but, as I’m no stranger to blasphemy, your cries fall on deaf ears.
Still, I produce this podcast not merely for my own amusement, but for yours as well, and I hope you find this episode enjoyable, even if you are a purist.
Intro: Baddd Spellah – “Radio Free Hipster Theme (feat. Beefy)”
Spellah and Beefy are robots in disguise. No foolin’.
Track 1: MuteMath – “Transformers Theme”
I actually could’ve done an entire episode of just different versions of the Transformers theme. I chose to do otherwise.
Z’s 1st interlude: “Far too distracted by the rampant product placement to notice.”
The new Transformers movie was a two and a half hour commercial… and it wasn’t even a commercial for the Transformers!
Track 2: Stan Bush – “The Touch”
“When all Hell’s breaking loose / you’ll be riding the eye of the storm.”
Track 3: Stunt Junkies - “This is Cybertron”
The Stunt Junkies were nice enough to let me bum a copy of this track specifically for inclusion in this episode. The degree to which they rock for that simple gesture is nigh incalculable.
Track 6: Current of Air – “Space Dreamer”
You demanded more J-rock, and I listened. Sort of.
Z’s 2nd interlude: “I’m about as mature as your average 8 year old Japanese kid.”
Before you judge me, I would like to point out that, in the Beast Wars II and Neo series, Optimus is a Lion and Woolly Mammoth respectively. If you aren’t enticed by that prospect alone, check you fuckin’ pulse.
Track 7: Maja – “Transformer”
Maja is another cat who was nice enough to let me bum a song for this ep. Everything on his MySpace player is required listening. It’s geeky, but still totally accessible.
Track 10: Vince DeCola’s – “Unicron Theme”
I love the fanboy applause as this track commences. Great stuff!
Track 11: The great Luke Ski and The Nick Atoms – “The Ballad of Optimus Prime”
I’ve always wanted to play some filk on RFH, but I could never find a track that worked within a given show until this one. I know filk might not be your thing – shit, it ain’t mine either – but you gotta give it up for the nerdiest of all nerd music.
Z’s final interlude: “Dane Cook is generally about as funny as a prostate exam.”
I withdraw the above statement; I’ve had prostate exams far more entertaining than your average Dane Cook bit.
Track 12: Optimus Rhyme – “Precogni2”
By all rights, Optimus Rhyme should’ve been included on Michael Bay’s Transformers soundtrack. Don’t act surprised. You knew I was gonna say that.
Anywho, thanks for allowing me to indulge my inner Transfan with this episode. I have a couple more themed eps in mind, but then I think I might head back to the free-form shows for a while. Only time will tell, and I’m totally open to suggestions so gimme a yell.
We nerds are seemingly warlike by nature. We tend to pick our ponies early on and ride ‘em out as long and as far as possible. We tend to disagree and debate and, let’s face it, bitch incessantly, but we seldom let shit get out of hand.
Except for this guy; this guy flipped the fuck out. Which begs the question was he really a nerd after all? Maybe he was just a psycho.
I’m sure they have their own music and culture blog. Somewhere.
Do the right thing: The Spork of FL nerds Rocket Propelled Geeks is actively seeking other groups and artists to take part in a charity event for a recently disabled employee of Daytona’s Speed Park, a local arcade and go-kart track. The event is slated for Saturday, August 4th and RPG are looking for “any other bands who’d be willing to play as well. The music will start at 11:00 AM and go on all day. […] The gig will be free, but you'll get to put up a merch table if you so desire, and it's going to a good cause.” If you and yours’ll be down Florida-way next week, holler at Spork if you wanna lend a hand.
Take that, Fox Network!: Game rockers Armcannon are in the running to appear on Fox’s newest mutant reality/talent show hybrid The Next Great American Band. Armcannon was chosen one of the top bands in the Buffalo area, but they need your help to go all the way. Click on this handy dandy link to vote for your boys and help them make it to Vegas for the show.
On the subject of songs: After a fairly lengthy solo hiatus, Super Dragon X is back with a new track called “Apoc;” you can peep it at his MySpace. Consequently, if you’re feeling adventurous and looking for something that is new to the very Nth degree, try the first ever nerdcore track from Luzid; it is, not surprisingly, at his MySpace.
Getting Pooooo-litical: Today, I’m gonna close with a vid by my pal Church. It’s political, and y’all know my slant, so be forewarned. Take it away MC AG!
I’m getting slow. Age is taking its toll. That’s the only reason I can think of to explain why both Matt and Church essentially lapped me reading Deathly Hallows. They’re both finished, and I’m still hanging around the half-way mark.
Sure, I didn’t actually start reading until late Saturday night. And, yeah, I did tear through 450-some-odd pages in a day and a half, and that’s not too shabby. But those fragile excuses are cold comfort at best; saving face simply isn’t an option.
So all I have is the age thing…
Even though technically both those cats are older than me…
You build with the bricks you’re given, people!
Don’t Curse: The genius that brought us the Mega Ran project, Random himself, was just interviewed by the fine folks at Capcom. Ran talked about his music, his love of video games, and the plight of the American educator. Personally, I dig how he didn’t play down the lack of violence and profanity in his tracks… thus the Heavy D reference.
Because I don’t bother artists enough on my on: Speaking of interviews, my brothers from GM4A have asked me to help them write a series of profiles of the artists on the finalized Nerdapalooza roster. Of course, I couldn’t think of anything more fun/nerdy to do than to tag team with my boys Anthony and Hex Warrior, so I was, as the kids are saying, “all up ins” this offer. What? The kids aren’t saying that? Shit.
Ain’t too proud to beg: Okay, so here’s the deal: I’m currently looking for some kindhearted individual to do me a solid. John Allison, creator of my all-time favorite Web comic Scary Go Round, is gonna be at the Dumbrella booth at this year’s COMIC-CON, and I’m looking for someone to pick me up a t-shirt. I’ll totally give you the cash for the shirt and shipping – I ain’t tryin’ to screw you into lavishing me with free shit or nuthin’ – I’m just looking for someone to take a few minutes out of their con schedule to pick it up for me. Any takers?
What it’s all aboot: Let me wrap up today’s news with a couple of pieces of footage from last week’s nerdcore debut on MTV Canada. They feature some Q&A with Dan, YT, and ‘Hella, as I’m sure you were expecting, as well as a brief history of nerdy rhymes by the great Jesse Dangerously. In verse, no less.
I’ve gone to the movie theater on two separate occasions this month. That’s, like, a record for me.
I’m slightly intimidated by the whole cinema experience. At home, if a movie gets a little slow and I lose interest I can easily do something else (like play DS or drink a beer or, and stay with me here, play DS while drinking beer), but at the theater I am beholden to stay for the long haul. That shit ain’t cheap.
Still, despite this minor neurosis, I do dig movies, and, moreover, I dig movie music. This episode is all about that. So grab some overpriced popcorn and settle in. I’m’a turn the lights down low and break out the projector.
Intro: Baddd Spellah (feat. Beefy) – “Radio Free Hipster Theme”
If Radio Free Hipster was a feature film, this would be the opening credits.
Track 1: Richard O’Brien – “Science Fiction/Double Feature”
Say what you will about Riff Raff, that cat’s got some pipes.
Z’s 1st interlude: “A slightly belated edition of Radio Free Hipster.”
A certain compilation project put me a little behind schedule, but I am trying my best to catch up!
Track 3: Talons & Tea Leaves – “Halleluiah”
This is a Wrock duo formed by two cats from two different bands. Their style is really unique, and I find their sound fascinating.
Track 4: The Advantage - “Goonies II”
It felt wrong not to include this track, despite its noncanonical nature.
Track 5: DVDA – “Now You’re A Man”
“No; it’s probably the titties.”
Track 6: Dual Core – “War Games.”
Dual Core have a lot of tracks on their Zero One album that are movie related, but I settled on this one because it played so well against the rest of the songs in the set. It’s got such a thick and complex texture.
Z’s 2nd interlude: “If you’ve seen the film I’m sure you get the joke.”
If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and watch Orgazmo. It’s delightfully quotable.
Track 10: Emotron – “The Bethune Theory” Angus is my hero.
Z’s final interlude: “But don’t hold yer breath or nuthin’.”
I’m trying to crank out this month’s podcasts as quickly as possible so as to get back on schedule. I’ve already started putting together the sets for ep. 27, and they are looking pretty damn good if I do say so myself.
Track 11: The Greenskeepers – “Lotion”
In lieu of providing my normal paltry post show notes wrap-up, I’m just gonna include this fan-vid for “Lotion.” I know everyone’s probably seen this but me, I figured I’d throw it out there just in case.
Now wasn't that more enjoyable than me prattling on?
To say that I am chomping at the bit to read the new Potter book is an understatement. I am consumed. What will happen to Harry? To young Hermione? To poor Ron? To token dork Neville? We’ll all know in a couple of days.
Is the urge to ruin the ending for the rest of us – not to mention the urge to be sued within an inch of one's fuckin’ life – so overwhelming that this somehow presents itself as an option?
The world may never know.
Hail to the Queen: Somehow, despite the time-consuming and, no doubt, nerve-wracking task of appearing on MTV Canada, Nursehella has found the time to craft what may well be the most fantastic nerdcore track of 2007 thus far. Peep “Geekend Freakout” over at PureVolume.
Short notice: Nerd rocker Glenn Case and his band The Half Racks have stepped in (on very, very short notice) to play a show at The Comet in Spokane on Saturday, July 21st. If you’re in the greater Spokane area that evening and would like to have your socks rocked right off, I highly recommend attending.
I’m pretty sure he’s from earth:Alienbobz has a shit-ton of new vids up of everyone’s favorite foulmouthed malcontents, Futuristic Sex Robotz, from their June 30th opening gig for the venerable mc chris. Take a look and enjoy the rampant profanity!
Hopeless and Romantic:Church has a much publicized knack for finding weird shit. This, for example, is a veritable how-to guide for creating the perfect geek date using editing software and NES ROMs. I’m serious.
What the fuck is this?: Just… what… what the fuck? Jaylyn found this and posted a link in a thread over at Rhyme Torrents, but, truthfully, I thought she was joking. She’s not. It’s real. Undeniably real.
Welcome back!: Church, Matt, and I have been trying to figure out why the hell we didn’t come up with this final bit. I mean, c’mon, it pretty much writes itself. Plus we’re all old enough to appreciate both pieces of source material. Since I’m in full-on Hogwarts mode, I thought this’d be a fitting vid to wrap up with.
We live in a big ol’ country. As such, some things better serve the needs of American nerds when they employ a two-pronged approach, an east-west approach.
So, in that grand tradition - started by such geek mainstays as The Avengers and the Teen Titans - allow me to present to you the line-up for an event called Nerdapalooza Southeast.
This mini-festival, taking place on August 25th in Gainesville, FL (between the hours of 1:00 PM and 1:00 AM) at local watering hole Tim and Terry's, features the following acts repping our little corner of the US:
Okay, I realize this isn’t at all entertaining, enlightening, or pertinent, but I feel the need to bellyache a bit. Y’all’ll indulge me, right?
Anywho, in August of ’06 I was shocked to discover that my beloved Nintendo DS Lite – a system that I purchased on launch day despite the fact that I had a perfectly functional DS Fat – had a nice-sized crack in the left screen hinge. Now this defect is far from unheard of with this particular model and it certainly didn’t effect gameplay, but my OCD compelled me to have it repaired.
Apparently repair for such a minor cosmetic flaw proved to costly or labor intensive, so Nintendo simply replaced my system with another unit. No harm no foul, right?
Well, unfortunately I just noticed that my replacement system now has a hinge crack all its own. I called NOA and they agreed to ship me another pre-paid label so that I can swap this system out for another non-cracked version via one of their service centers. I’m just sort of wondering if I’m gonna have to swap this one out in a year as well.
It’s kinda hard to get pissy when I’m essentially receiving a new handheld for my trouble, but I must use the power of the Internet to ask the following question:
There are tons of DS Lite owners out there, and a good many of them have suffered the unkind fate of a hinge crack, but am I the only two-time loser? Anyone? Bueller?
I don’t get out much. That shouldn’t exactly come as a huge surprise, but I felt like reiterating. And even if I did hit the club scene regularly, there is a definite dearth of dorky entertainment here-abouts. Thankfully, I have my own private army of geeked-out operatives who act as my eyes and ears when nerd culture rears its homely head in their individual locales.
Church is my Baltimore area point-man, and he recently caught an mc chris show at a neighborhood bar. He was even nice enough to do a little post-gig write-up.
Behold his nerdly musings:
Thanks to Z's NNIB post, I got a late heads-up that MC Chris was coming to town, and better yet, was playing up the street from me. I don't hit the clubs much these days, but I had to check this out. Ideally, I could get some video.
There were three opening acts, and I was deliberately trying to miss them. Partly because I had never heard of them, but also because that meant fewer parties who could object to me wandering around with a camera. I did the math: three bands, figure 30 minute sets and ten minute changeovers... Chris should be on about 11:00. As it turned out, I got there ten minutes later than I planned.
The Ottobar is set up a bit odd. The main entrance can be either the front or the side door. When it's the front door, as it was today, the entrance is right next to the stage. This was good on one hand, because the place was packed, but it made it hard to converse with the doorman. I asked when Chris went on and the doorman said something and pointed to a note taped up behind him, "MC Chris 11:05." Cool, I had only missed five minutes!
I asked if there were any objections to shooting video, and he ruffled through his papers. That was a good sign, since it meant the club didn't have a blanket policy. To my surprise, though, Chris apparently allowed only still photography. What? I double-checked. The guy has a fan video section on his web site. How are people getting footage? Nope, still photography only. Maybe it's some kind of nerd arts challenge. Once you snatch the footage from the club you get your blastic belt. I decided I was content with Padawan status.
I walked up to the stage, which took about four steps. There's a wall by the entrance that blocks the back half of the stage, so I was at extreme stage right. The stage is spacious, in club terms. The area directly in front of the stage held the most enthusiastic attendees, naturally. The back connects to an elevated room that holds the main bar and a few tables. That was well filled also. On stage left there is an odd balcony that is taller than the main room, so you can look down onto the main floor and stage area, but you pretty much have to be sitting. That was full as well. I noticed a bit wryly that some people with newer digital cameras were spending a LONG time framing their shots. (Congratulations, grasshoppers!)
Chris was bantering with the audience. I don't know if he had messed up, or if he just really knows Charm City, but he went into a spiel about how he saved his "A" stuff for California, and we only rated his "B" material. It's an odd way to play an audience, but it works in Baltimore, which has a bit of an inferiority complex. He then moved on to a hypothetical situation involving himself and some lovingly described pot.
Naturally he resumed his set with “Wiid.” He continued on covering a lot of older material. “The Tussin” got huge cheers, as did “Fuckin Up My Christmas” and “Fett's Vette.” He was cueing the audience to do various gestures, and everyone followed enthusiastically. When he got to “Dare to Be Stupid” he "fucked up" halfway through, restarted, and did it again seconds into it. I didn't catch the mistake, so I'm not sure if it's part of the act (screwing up a song about being stupid?) Either way, it's an interesting way to engage the crowd, and they were fully with him.
And then it was over.
An EN-CORE chant went up, while I double-checked the time. Half an hour? He's the featured act and it's 35 minutes long? No wonder I misjudged how long the opening acts were. And he only did one song from his last album? Waitaminute... that start time must have been Bar Time. Fuck! I missed twenty minutes of his act!
Of course, he got up for an encore. This seemed even more loose than his main act. He'd ask for requests, and work off that. He'd tease a song, such as the opening of Transformers theme, or abandon one that he wasn't liking. He had everybody do the robot, and then did “Robot Dog.” It wasn't a direct lead-in, more like he reminded himself that he had that song. It was obvious that he was having fun, because if he wasn't he'd just stop and start doing something else. It was very punk rock in that sense.
One girl was fading as the night wore on, and she became the object of some light ridicule from Chris, which she was thrilled by. One of the groundlings had made it up to the balcony and was managing to rock out while hanging over the edge. About this time I realized that his encore was lasting at least as long as a normal set. Is this planned? Does he just go on until he's tired? I have no idea, but I loved it. It's like flipping through the radio would be if Clear Channel only played MC Chris. It's a hell of a lot of fun.
Chris promised us a return visit in the fall to support a new album. He ended with “DQ Blizzard,” and the crowd went wild. (Note to other performers: good reason to have some of your stuff available free. Everyone in the club knew the song.)
I'm probably showing my age, but I was struck by the fact that after the show he just jumped back on stage, stuck his mike in his pocket, put his laptop in a backpack, and headed over to the merch table. (Yet another adjustment to my set-length math.) I was going to hang around afterwards and talk with Chris, but I had to be at work in about eight hours. I just bought a CD (free sticker! I love free stickers!) gave him a thumbs-up and a "Good show," and headed home.
-- Church
Postscript: After I got home, I gave the GF the recount - she didn't come along because she assumed I'd be "working" (filming) — and expressed my surprise at how many people were there. I attributed it to a "pent-up demand for Nerdcore in Baltimore." She found that phrase hilarious, and insisted that I include it in my review, so there it is. I'll grant that that was likely an overstatement, but it's friendly territory at least.
July is the quintessential month of nerd merriment. No shit. And in addition to all of the other nerdy happenings, this month also boasts the 25th birthday of the computer virus.
Ah, you sneaky little bastard; I knew you when!
Poor Impulse Control: Geeky tattoos are a bit of a passion of mine. I love how they combine nerd iconography and the hipster ideal of body modification. It’s a marriage, says I: a lovely marriage of disparate forces. Oh, and this one is also a vague endorsement a certain nerdcore hip-hop documentary.
A funky Fire Sale:funky49 is known for many things; he raps, he produces, he sends delightful care packages and even the occasional drunken email. And right now funk is known for his unabashed poverty. Following his recent cross-country jaunt to open for mc chris, funk is a little light in the ol’ wallet. Of course he counters this the same way as any nerd: eBay. Why not check out his auctions?
It ain’t exactly Herbology: My pal Church knew that I was hitting up the new Potter movie this weekend – it was good but not great IMHO – and as such, he knew I’d come outta the theater with a thirst to get my craft on. Sensing my need to bust out the ol’ glue gun, he directed me toward this Hogwarts-themed Instructables challenge. The more adept among you may want to throw your (sorting) hat in the ring for the contest, and the rest of us will busily paint our paper wands.
Lingering Anti-Nerd Sentiment: Meanwhile, Matt passed on this piece about cops harassing defenseless (read: naked) nerds. I could try and explain the situation myself, but you’ve no doubt just went back and re-read the naked part, so lemme just throw in a link.
The Zed Word: And lastly, ZeaLouS1 has made an appearance – albeit in voice alone – in the most recent Monster By Mail video. Listen to some Z1 and watch a dude draw a zombified comic shop owner. Good times. Good times.
Okay, so maybe not our MTV - MTV Canada - but that still totally counts! Dan dropped the knowledge over at the Rhyme Torrents forums yesterday, and the response was... a tad underwhelming. Suffice it to say that this is, perhaps, the biggest thing to happen to nerdcore as a whole in the ( admittedly brief) history of the scene.
Peep the unbelievable:
In case you ain't heard the word, Nerdcore is finally set to hit MTV. MTV Canada that is. A few weeks ago a producer from the network's "flagship" show, MTV Live contacted me and asked if I was interested in calling in and doing a phone interview about Nerdcore and the doc. He also asked if any nerdcore rappers lived in Toronto (home of mtv live) or planned to be there sometime this summer. If so, they would be interested in devoting more time to nerdcore and Nerdcore For Life.
Long story short, two nerdcore megastars, Nursehella and Ytcracker stepped up and volunteered to head to Toronto to do a live appearance....on mtv. Is that some crazy shit or what?
The producer described MTV Live as a more cerebral version of TRL. One of their gimmicks is to do remote interviews via webcam. That's how I'll be doing my interview. They asked me to send a copy of the trailer so they'll air at least a bit of that too. This whole thing is so absurd that I've been apprehensive to mention it to anyone in case it fell through. But the plans seem to pretty solid at this point. It sounds like they're even going to let me send a camera guy to get some behind the scenes footage.
Now I'd really, really love to see this episode as soon as possible or at least get a recap. Does anybody here get MTV Canada? It'd be great if parts of the show were to make it on to youtube long enough for we Americans to see it. And it would be even better if someone in canadialand could tape it or dvd record it for me. The show could probably get me a copy but that could take weeks and in my experience, when people say they're going to send you a copy of their show or footage, they usually forget to do it.
But anyway, yeah, Nerdcore on MTV Canada; Tuesday, July 17th, sometime between 6 and 8 pm EST.
Sure, Li’l X. has taken to some late night hall wondering – always a dangerous hobby in the home of a rampant zombi-phobe – and E3 hasn’t yielded quite as much earth-shattering news as I’d’ve liked.
But still, not a bad week at all, especially for Nerdy News.
First-Person Gothloli: MC Handler scored a head-shot for nerdcore fans everywhere by not only getting some music in the newest iteration of open-source FPS OpenArena, but also helping to have a character named after our own Rai! Apparently, she has hover-boots. No good can come from Rai having an ability to fly; mark my words!
WizRockStock: There’s something in the water in Washington. How else do you explain the high concentration of nerdy artists therein? Why, that state is even home to WizRockStock, which is a lot like Woodstock… only not so offensive to the olfactory sense… maybe. Anywho, check out Harry and the Potters at the Central Branch of the Seattle Public Library on Friday the 13th and The Parselmouths at University Book Store Mill Creek on Saturday the 14th.
The Nerdcore Beach Party Massacre: The following Friday, July 20th, check out Optimus Rhyme at Alki Beach. OR will be performing at The End’s Beach House (2530 Alki Ave. SW in West Seattle), right across the street from the beach as part of the station’s summer festivities, and they’ll be doing it “BBQ style (think acoustic guitars and ocarina's).” The set’s only open to the first 40 folks who grab a spot, so come early and help the boys celebrate the release of their new album He Dies In Rocket School.
Fuck-to-the-yeah!: The Advantage on tour! Check some high-quality game rock at one of the following events: 08/14 Salt Lake City, UT (Kilby Court); 08/15 Denver, CO (Hi-Dive); 08/17 Omaha, NE (Sokol Underground); 08/18 Minneapolis, MN (Triple Rock); 08/19 Chicago, IL (Beat Kitchen); 08/20 Detroit, MI (Magic Stick); and 08/21 Cleveland, OH (Grog Shop). Check their MySpace for more dates and locations.
Nerdapalooza FTW: In other concert news, my brothers from the Nerdapalooza crew have just announced the final line-up for the nerd music festival to end all nerd music festivals. The (alphabetized) list boasts a most impressive array of artists: 8 Bit Bandit, 8-Bit w0nder, 8bit bEtty, The Alphabetics, Beefy, Big Beat Battalion, Category, Decepticon-19, Drown Radio Therapy, Dual Core, Dungeon Master, Electro Static Discharge,Freezepop, The Great Luke Ski, Hot Waffles, Josiah the Messiah, Love You Long Time, MC Gigahertz, MC Lars, The Megas, My Parents Favorite Music, The OneUps, Optimus Rhyme, Pixelh8, Powerglove, Random, Rappy Mcrapperson, Robotronica, Rocket Propelled Geeks, Shael Riley, The Stunt Junkies, Super Barrio Bros, Temp Sound Solutions, Uncle Monsterface, Wordburglar, Worm Quartet, YTcracker, & ZeaLouS1
The title of this compilation is totally misleading.
First off, not all of the submissions are hip-hop, and some of the artists themselves actually eschew the nerdcore label. Second, it’s not simply a collection of covers; it’s more a selection of reinterpretations ranging from covers to parodies to full-on rewrites.
Of course Nerdcore Undercover has a much more pleasing aesthetic than An Anthology of Song Reinterpretations by Artists That Are Nerdy But Not Necessarily Nerdcore. That shit just sounds silly.
I’ve been working on this compilation for the last few months, and I have to say that by “working on this compilation” I mean haphazardly emailing artists to ask for submissions. They did all the real work. This is their project. Clearly, I’m just here to hijack the credit.
Let me reiterate: a lot of hard work went into putting this release together, and very little of it was on my end. Guys like funky49 and Ultraklystron did more than their fair share by creating excitingly fresh covers and helping others do the same. Cats like Doctor Popular and My Parents Favorite Music scoured their back catalogues for old gems. Hell, artists like Shael Riley and Goondocks even went so far as to have brand-spanking new songs deftly recorded and competently mastered, almost as if this were a legitimate album and not just a downloadable freebie from some hick’s blog.
I truly can’t thank them enough.
The same can be said for folks like my pal Brüx (who tried to distill years of recording and sound engineering experience and instruction into a half-dozen emails for my benefit), my faithful comrade Church (who helped me wade through my text-heavy elucidations concerning the project), and my friends Dennis and Denika (who put together the cover art amid moving cross-country.) Truthfully, I owe tons of thanks to a bunch of people. So much so that I gush over them in the liner notes, so please read ‘em.
If you're still scratching your head concerning where, exactly, this album came from, that's totally understandable. I obviously didn’t do a lot in the way of pre-release promotion for this project, and that was due to a number of reasons.
The most straightforward is that I had to forgo an open submission process in order to limit the number of tracks I was dealing with. Even though mine was the easy part, there was no feasible way to get more than a single disk’s worth of music together and still meet my self-imposed deadline. I started down a list of nerdy musicians – beginning with those with which I already had a working relationship – and then stopped when I got close to 20 interested parties. As a result, a lot of really deserving artists got left out, and that’s the only thing about this comp that saddens me.
The most compelling reason, however, is that I’ve developed a recent allergy to hype. Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating, but with all the publicity nerdcore’s been getting of late I thought it might be fun to work in secret, to simply focus on putting together what I hoped would be a really fun CD and not worry about making too much preemptive noise along the way.
That’s what this is all about: fun.
I had fun putting it together, and you can tell the artists had fun with their individual submissions.
I hope you have fun listening.
Moreover, I hope you hear some material from some folks you know and love as well as some you might not be so familiar with.
Mostly, I hope that some part of this compilation strikes a chord with you and reminds how much fun it is to sing someone else’s song at the top of your lungs as you motor down the highway with the windows rolled down.
Okay, I realize this isn’t at all entertaining, enlightening, or pertinent, but I feel the need to bellyache a bit. Y’all’ll indulge me, right?
