Returns
Hey everyone
Done this a few times before. Not sure who's still reading. It's been a while.
Basically, I'm irritated at the angstiness that this blog developed, so we'll be working on that. :-) I'm far less angsty now that I am far less anxious. It's really rather impressive how much of a difference it is making to have some of that base-level, constant anxiety removed. I'm unused to feeling... happy about my life. Not in an abstract sense, but in a very concrete, visceral way.
Last night I went out with Ayn, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Jason. I knew it was an MC Lars concert; what I didn't know is that it was Nerdcore Night at the Abbey Pub (squee!). I saw
Former Fat Boys: a relative unknown, but pretty fun and funky. Their MC has attitude. And any song that includes a scientist/rapper dinosaur, with the lyrics "I'm a dinosaurus/Roar, roar!" is A-OK in my book.
Optimus Rhyme: I've been really eager to see this band. They're pretty famous on the nerdcore scene. Their rap is incredibly fast, and live, it's a bit difficult to understand, but I really like their style. The music has a quirky beat with unusual harmonies. And "Super Shiny Metal" is a great song.
MC Lars: Who we were there to see! All told, probably my favorite of the night, but I think this is the bias of familiarity. I sang all the words to his songs. He creates concept videos to go with each song, and many of them are pretty hilarious. I got to hear a lot of his older music as well, with which I was unfamiliar, and it's as good or better than The Graduate (his latest album). Also, this time around he performed Ahab, a personal favorite of mine (and apparently of much of the audience). He raps slower than the others, and is much clearer and easier to understand. He gets the audience involved in a much less contrived way than the other bands, and has a penchant for telling incredibly stupid (but of course nerdy and hilarious) jokes in between songs. (And over here we have [bandmate] on keys... Hey, I guess if I need to get into the van, I should just come to you, right, 'cuz you're on 'keys'? Hahahaha!) I had the pleasure of meeting Lars after his set. He's astoundingly sweet; gave me his email address, so that AO could send him our arrangement of Download This Song. In fact, I was really impressed by the friendliness of all the bands. They would wander around and have a drink with you, chat with you about anything, and really take the time to meet and appreciate their fans. It was a much more grassroots feeling, with little or no separation of the fans from the artists. Lars was genuinely kind, and seemed glad to talk to even the most awkward of his adherents.
MC Frontalot: The big name of the evening, and probably the biggest name in nerdcore. I wasn't expecting to like him, just from what I'd heard of his music (one song) but it was an unfair bias. He puts on an excellent live show - with the slight problem that his stage persona creates more of a separation from the audience, and the feeling is a bit less convivial than what I described above. He's still friendly and eager to meet his fans, but it feels somewhat more formal. Still, he's funny, engaging, and energetic on stage; his dance moves make pretty much anyone in the audience feel cool ;-). His music is interesting and varied; the beats are different in every song, each one has a different feel on a scale from "rock" to "electronica." The subjects are heavily nerdcore, which is unsurprising, as he defined the genre. He also raps incredibly quickly, but somewhat more clearly than Optimus Rhyme.
In summation, you should check out the music of these fine folks, and give them money, because they are awesome.
Recommended albums:
Optimus Rhyme: School the Indie Rockers
MC Frontalot: Nerdcore Rising
MC Lars: Radio Pet Fencing
For those of you that aren't familiar with nerdcore, it's an up-and-coming musical genre mostly self-produced by geeks with laptops. It resonates with the geek community in terms of subject matter, but also do-it-yourself nature. These guys are what we all wish we could be, and we're actually not that far away; we could make music with ProTools and iMovie too.
Done this a few times before. Not sure who's still reading. It's been a while.
Basically, I'm irritated at the angstiness that this blog developed, so we'll be working on that. :-) I'm far less angsty now that I am far less anxious. It's really rather impressive how much of a difference it is making to have some of that base-level, constant anxiety removed. I'm unused to feeling... happy about my life. Not in an abstract sense, but in a very concrete, visceral way.
Last night I went out with Ayn, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Jason. I knew it was an MC Lars concert; what I didn't know is that it was Nerdcore Night at the Abbey Pub (squee!). I saw
Former Fat Boys: a relative unknown, but pretty fun and funky. Their MC has attitude. And any song that includes a scientist/rapper dinosaur, with the lyrics "I'm a dinosaurus/Roar, roar!" is A-OK in my book.
Optimus Rhyme: I've been really eager to see this band. They're pretty famous on the nerdcore scene. Their rap is incredibly fast, and live, it's a bit difficult to understand, but I really like their style. The music has a quirky beat with unusual harmonies. And "Super Shiny Metal" is a great song.
MC Lars: Who we were there to see! All told, probably my favorite of the night, but I think this is the bias of familiarity. I sang all the words to his songs. He creates concept videos to go with each song, and many of them are pretty hilarious. I got to hear a lot of his older music as well, with which I was unfamiliar, and it's as good or better than The Graduate (his latest album). Also, this time around he performed Ahab, a personal favorite of mine (and apparently of much of the audience). He raps slower than the others, and is much clearer and easier to understand. He gets the audience involved in a much less contrived way than the other bands, and has a penchant for telling incredibly stupid (but of course nerdy and hilarious) jokes in between songs. (And over here we have [bandmate] on keys... Hey, I guess if I need to get into the van, I should just come to you, right, 'cuz you're on 'keys'? Hahahaha!) I had the pleasure of meeting Lars after his set. He's astoundingly sweet; gave me his email address, so that AO could send him our arrangement of Download This Song. In fact, I was really impressed by the friendliness of all the bands. They would wander around and have a drink with you, chat with you about anything, and really take the time to meet and appreciate their fans. It was a much more grassroots feeling, with little or no separation of the fans from the artists. Lars was genuinely kind, and seemed glad to talk to even the most awkward of his adherents.
MC Frontalot: The big name of the evening, and probably the biggest name in nerdcore. I wasn't expecting to like him, just from what I'd heard of his music (one song) but it was an unfair bias. He puts on an excellent live show - with the slight problem that his stage persona creates more of a separation from the audience, and the feeling is a bit less convivial than what I described above. He's still friendly and eager to meet his fans, but it feels somewhat more formal. Still, he's funny, engaging, and energetic on stage; his dance moves make pretty much anyone in the audience feel cool ;-). His music is interesting and varied; the beats are different in every song, each one has a different feel on a scale from "rock" to "electronica." The subjects are heavily nerdcore, which is unsurprising, as he defined the genre. He also raps incredibly quickly, but somewhat more clearly than Optimus Rhyme.
In summation, you should check out the music of these fine folks, and give them money, because they are awesome.
Recommended albums:
Optimus Rhyme: School the Indie Rockers
MC Frontalot: Nerdcore Rising
MC Lars: Radio Pet Fencing
For those of you that aren't familiar with nerdcore, it's an up-and-coming musical genre mostly self-produced by geeks with laptops. It resonates with the geek community in terms of subject matter, but also do-it-yourself nature. These guys are what we all wish we could be, and we're actually not that far away; we could make music with ProTools and iMovie too.