Nerdy Show

The Nerdy Show SEASON 3 FINALE!

With Metroid: Other M just having come out for the Wii, now seems like the best time for Nerdy Show to devote a whole episode to one of the greatest game series’ of all-time, Metroid, and it’s bounty hunting protagonist – Samus Aran!  But something’s gone awry for the strong, silent, space pirate-slayer… the same thing that plagues every woman as they near the big 3-0… she’s gone baby crazy…  METROID BABY CRAZY!  Our review of Other M elaborates, as do the Nerdy Show gents.  You know their strange little minds tend to wander.

Not only does this episode weigh the pros and cons of this new game-changing installment to the legendary series, but it explores Metroid’s past.  The gang share stories of their first time on the planet Zebes and delve into the series chronology and its real-world origins – the games’ influences and the men who created it.  The episode also features a playlist of stupendous Metroid-influenced music and an interview with Metroid Metal - the band that screw attacks nerd music like no other. All that plus some suped-up sci-tech that’ll hit ya – pow!  Right in the baby-maker!

Though this is the last episode of Season 3, we won’t be gone -  no, no, no, no.  Listen to this episode for some hints to what we have in store and some cool things we’re going to be bringing to you in the interim.  Nerdy Show.com will still be quite “bumpin”, as the kids say, so be sure to check back with us often to see what we’ve cooked up, and keep an eye out for announcements for what awesome may come!

The Tracks:

1. Brinstar :: Metroid Metal
2. Super Metroid – Armcannon
3. Metroid :: brentalfloss
4. MetroTransFunk :: Franz Keller
5. Hostile Abduction (First Battle Theme) :: Suzumebachi and Proticity
6. City Theme :: Stemage
7. Prime Theme (Metroid Prime) :: Metroid Metal *EXCLUSIVE*
8. come again (ft. Elijah Lucian) :: YTCracker
9. On Top of Jacob’s Ladder :: Prophecy
10. Tigra and Firebird Intermission :: Adam WarRock
11. MARIDIA :: The Amazing BrandO
12. Magnetic :: Freezepop
13. Crystal Flash :: Virt

Links:

• Check out the “Metroid & Me” video and have your mind blown
• Jam to the new Metroid Metal side-project – YES MAYHEM!
• Check out some footage of Alpha Squad and get the demo for PC
• Watch English-patched in-game footage of Gameboy game, “For the Frog the Bell Tolls”
• Watch “Minitroid”
• Watch the Little Nemo: The Dream Master commercial from 1990
• Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer)’s twitter
• Watch Bad Universe on Discovery Channel

Aaron and I talk about this week’s best new comics. You’ve got to check out Jason Aaron’s WOLVERINE #1 Wolverine goes to HELL. It’ll trifurcate your shame shank.  Atomic Robo comes out too – with all the Dr. Dinosaur! Aaron talks about the clever political analogies of Bedard’s DC cosmic books.  And yeah, PURPLE SHOEHORSE… I SAID IT! Listen to us talk and make jokes and stuff, then check out this week’s TOP COMICS.  Then buy your damn comic books!

Ask me something on my Formspring, dammit!

International viewers unable to use YouTube, try watching on Facebook.

I have been observing nerdcore hip-hop for some time now, and I’ve noticed a somewhat steady divide on the definition of what is “good nerdcore.” It basically boils down to the nerdcore vs. hip-hop argument: do you prefer something more nerdcore than hip-hop or vice-versa? Truth be told: I prefer the nerdcore over the hip-hop. I want to hear something unique and genuinely “geeky.” There are those out there that pretty much BAG on nerdy rappers that try to do their own thing if it means sounding less street, and that’s something I just can’t agree with. Don’t get me wrong: I am a staunch supporter of artists like Dual Core, MegaRan, or (of course) YTCracker, who definitely have a rich hip-hop feel to them, but they stand out for me because, though they seem to pull strongly from “conventional” hip-hop for their stylistic inspiration, they rap about nerdy topics not because they’re trying to seemingly “fit in” but because that’s WHO they are.

I preface my review of MC COOL WHIP’s recent release with this to let you know where I stand in the unwritten argument of nerdcore. If you turn to nerdcore because you are hoping for something that is more or less hip-hop with the occasional nerdy references, you may not enjoy this album as much as I did. However, if you are actually interested in someone’s experimenting in what nerdcore can be, then read on.

I guess I should ALSO forwarn that I am a bit of a supporter of the young WHIP. I’ve been listening to (and critiquing) demos since 2007, happily opened my home as a place to crash for two Nerdapaloozas, and artisted (Editor’s note: Hex likes to make verbs out of non-verbs and out of annoyance I left this one in. HA!) his two most recent album covers, so that may lead you to believe that I am more biased than the next reviewer. You would be correct. However, my bias won’t be expressed as lauding incorrect praises upon this young rapper, instead I give you a bit of a case study of how he has progressed over the years as an artist. I am not of the opinion that coddling will help someone improve. I see COOL WHIP as someone who is still developing as an artist and a performer, so until he has found his final niche, it’s actually my duty as someone in his corner to not pamper him so that he can grow.

If COOL WHIP’S time in the scene was his study into nerdcore, Cool Whip Recipes would be his thesis. His VERY rapping style has been both his most appealing trait and his darkest of cardinal sins according to the two camps of nerdcore. Obviously influenced by MC Frontalot‘s unorthodox style, COOL WHIP raps with a pronounced and seemingly stiff flow (as contradictory as that may sound) and it’s DIFFERENT! It was COOL WHIP’s rejection of standards of hip-hop in his style and subject matter alongside his enthusiasm that fist endeared him to me. I feel that the album has shown how much he’s grown since then, gaining confidence and showing certainty that his style is that: HIS.

The album showcased an array of collaborations, from the spellbinding Schaffer the Darklord in the Faustian Sick Skills to the unfortunately distracting Grizzly C on You’ve Been Bitten. What Do I Do?, the first horror/love song I’ve ever thoroughly enjoyed (or heard for that matter). COOL WHIP stayed pretty consistent throughout the album and the collaborations sometimes helped and sometimes hurt the track. I will also admit that I braced myself before listening to the album, expecting mediocrity, but was pretty impressed by All Around Awesome and was glad to see my favorite track from The Man Cave make it onto the album (Welcome to Ohio).

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CONCLUSION: 3.9/5.0
I think that MC COOL WHIP has truly outdone himself with this album and that he’s on a path to his own style. I don’t feel that he’s fully discovered his final sound, but he has grown confidence that what he’s doing is right, and that’s a good direction. This album is worth what he’s charging for it, as the bulk of it is truly enjoyable. As I’ve said, if you’re not into trying out an unorthodox sound to hip-hop you may not find this enjoyable, but if you’re looking for a unique rap experience that travels into space, the zombie apocalypse, and a high school essay on why you’re proud of your state, than this is definitely worth a listen.

For a LIMITED time offer, MC COOL WHIP has offered Cool Whip Recipes to you for half price! All you have to do is go to his Bandcamp Page and put in the promotional code of coolbeans, and you’ll get the album for only $5!

And we’re back! Time to try to do a weekly review! There’s a lot of awesome music being released, and seeing how these artists like to send music my way, I might as well do them the favor back by letting you know how awesome it is! Let’s jump into George Hrab’s Trebuchet!

A new discovery for me, I was introduced to Geo by my beloved fiance (and PHENOMENAL editor), Diana who is a bit of a skepticism and science fan girl. She actually first got me hooked on his podcast, and it was there that I started getting hooked on his music. She ordered an older album, Coelocanth, which I quickly became infatuated with! If time treats me well, I’ll get around to reviewing that as well, as it is an amazing listen. I started looking forward to Trebuchet’s release with the same rabid anticipation as Diana had been exhibiting for a month prior. When Geo announced on his podcast that I, as a podcaster, had an open invitation to play the entirety of the new album, I leaped at the opportunity! It was an honor not only to play the album and interview Mr. Hrab on Nerdy Show, but also to host him as a performer at Nerdapalooza 2010. Like so many in the nerd music family, Geo is as polite and gracious as he is talented, and with almost every instrument on this eclectic album played by him, he continues to set a standard for musicality unforeseen in today’s age of digital plug and play.

For the last week, I’ve left this album in the car to listen to while driving to and fro, trying to pinpoint how I wanted to express my feelings for it. It wasn’t until recently that I realized the difficulty spawned from how dynamic the songs are, jumping in genre, content, and tone. The only constant, besides Geo himself, seemed to be the quality of the music. I’m going to put on my critic hat for a sec and say that usually, when dealing with most nerd music, studio production value almost always takes the backseat in an artist’s mind, something I have to check out on in order to power through the album. With Hrab though, the bar is raised, and it’ll be difficult going back to the farm.

Another interesting element is how the album is a whole other experience from the live Geologic experience, which is an incredibly dapper gentlemen with a guitar and music stand. Meanwhile, the album’s music content runs the gamut from the usual four-piece rock equation, to having a focus on percussion, to a beautiful string backup, to a veritable funk authority backing him. The listening experience is TRULY enjoyable throughout, where you can feel the amount of love that went into each and every track from concept, to delivery, to production and post. Be it the most cheerful existential song you’ll ever find (Everything Alive Will Die Some Day), the nostalgia inducing When I Was Your Age, the truly funky Hai Yookita ‘Ya, or the intense musical experience that is the title track to the album, Trebuchet, Geo will keep you riveted, thinking, and laughing, waiting to see what he’ll do next on this breathtaking album.

It would totally behoove me if I were to wrap up this review without pointing out the incredible effort that also went into the album cover creation, which you can see on this time lapse video taken over the four days it took to turn a wall into a work of art. Every square inch of the intricate liner notes are photographed from the wall. Clever to the end, Geo left little jokes throughout the entire notes, including an image that alluded to the rest of his musical catalog. In the Nerdy Show interview, we had the chance to discuss this with him, finding out more on his music philosophy in this digital age. If people want the mp3s, they’ll find a way to get them whether or not they pay. So, Geo commits himself to making his albums something more, something enjoyable, such as Coelacanth, where the album is designed like a carefully packed parcel of a biological sample sent to a museum. It’s important to point out exactly how much energy Geo put into the presentation of the album, for I feel it STILL pales in comparison to the amount of effort you can feel in the album itself.

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CONCLUSION :: 4.8 / 5.0

This should be high on your list of albums to purchase, however if you’re STILL not convinced you should throw down the coin for a copy of Trebuchet before trying out the Geologic experience for yourself, let me remind you that Geo is letting you test ride it before you buy it! The album, in its entirety, for your streaming pleasure. Thanks for reading!

[hex]

My fellow Nerds, a crisis is upon us. As some of you may have heard, a recent high court ruling in the UK has greatly jeopardized the future of the Chiptunes movement. The hardware integral to creating music from current and retro gaming systems is now illegal. This aggression will not stand, man – and we won’t sit by idly while our bothers and sister across the pond cannot pick up their Gameboys and bleep bloop in public. …Did that come out wrong? NEVERMIND.

In response to this ruling, Nerdy Show has created Fight the Power, an organization and movement dedicated to fighting for the rights of nerd musicians and the right to make nerd music of all kinds. Read the Fight the Power Manifesto, join the Facebook Page and find out what you can do to join in the fight.

In this episode we elaborate on the plight in the UK and talk with British chiptune musician, Pixelh8 about his feelings on the ruling, what he’s doing to turn the tide, his upcoming projects, and how BBC America butchers British television. We’re also joined by chiptune beatsmith: DJ RoboRob, calling all the way from Iraq, and yo-yo master and chiptunes rapper: Doctor Popular. All that plus a surplus of cool video game news, Mike gets weirdly (and disturbingly) political, and crackpot Russian conspiracy theories – oh boy!

As though we needed to further emphasize their relevance Chiptunes just recently got its own showcase at PAX Prime!! We also want to give a shout-out to a handful of WPRK DJs who are taking up the Fight the Power cause and dedicating their radio shows to Chiptunes awareness: Flying High in the Mushroom Kingdom, Marc with a C‘s radio show, the Real Congregation and the Freaking Geek Show are doing a combo show for five hours of pixelated political partying! You can catch Flying High in the Mushroom Kingdom in the taint of this Friday night/Saturday morning at 1 AM – 3 AM, and the Freaking Geek and Real Congregation mashup next Monday night/Tuesday morning from 1 AM – 6 AM. These are, of course, Eastern time, so plan accordingly!

This won’t be the last you see of Fight the Power! We have big plans including not just for fighting hate on the chip community, but also fighting big corp wherever they stick their head in the nerd’s world.

Tracks:

1. Aurora (Meet Me In the Strars) :: Anamanaguchi
2. OutBrk :: Sabrepulse
3. Computability Love :: Pixelh8
4. Spiral :: Pixelh8 *NERDY SHOW EXCLUSIVE*
5. Before I Go.. :: .:ikanetik:.
6. The End :: Firebrand Boy
7. Harder, faster, Stronger, Better (DJRoboRob) :: Daft Punk
8. So Say We All :: DjRoboRob
9. SysOp :: ComputeHer
10. Artificial Ocean :: Plain Flavored
11. Crimson Dreams (ft. Doc Pop & Beefy) :: crashfaster Purchase Album
12. Hassle the Dorkening (Doc Pop Rare Demo) :: MC Frontalot *NERDY SHOW EXCLUSIVE*
13. Bedbugs (ft. YTCracker) :: Doc Pop

Contest:

Show Willrow Hood fanlove WIN Star Wars prizes!

Links:

• Read the Fight the Power Manifesto
• The Fight the Power! Facebook Page
• Pixelh8 on E24, BBC News
• Pixelh8 on BBC Look East, BBC Radio 1
• Pixelh8 BBC Look East, Obsolete? at The National Museum of Computing
• Pixelh8 BBC Look East, Obsolete? PART 2
• The BBC article on the court ruling
• Wired‘s Geekdad article on the court ruling, “Death Knell for Chiptunes”
• Check out Doc Pop’s Mighty Boosh App
• Watch the BioShock Infinite trailer
• VGChartz’s article on what the US Military thinks of playing as the Taliban in Metal of Honor
• Crazy Russian conspiracist
• A picture of the “Pixelh8 One 128k”‘s control board
• Real life Koopa skeleton
• Brian’s art for Captain America: The Fighting Avenger
• Homebrew game, Colors, now a legit App
• The Colors gallery
• Lisa Frank parody art

Aaron and Mike are coming to you from The Geek Easy. You can see some more of the progress, next week… we’ll show you the whole thing. In the meantime, check out this week’s TOP COMICS – Robert Kirkman is coming at you with THREE amazing books from the Invincible-verse Aaron and I talk about Superman: Earth One which we’ve read even though it doesn’t drop until NOVEMBER and also… mutant-vampire-Atlantians LOLWUT!?  If none of that gave you a majestic dolphin boner I have two words for you: Hispanic Batman.

Ask me something on my Formspring, dammit!

International viewers unable to use YouTube, try watching on Facebook.

As you folks may have realized, Hex is spearheading a “Fight the Power” movement of his very own.  Here’s hoping he’s nice and clear as to which power he happens to be fighting!

Words and Art by Tony “The Tiger” Baldini

As some of you may be aware, there was a recent UK high court ruling which very well may negatively impact the future of the Chiptunes movement. We at Nerdy Show are staunch supporters of all forms of nerd music, and Chiptunes is definitely no exception.

We will be devoting next week’s episode to talking about the state of affairs but also about a new project we’re working on called, Fight the Power! You can read more about it on that page. You can also get more updates over on our Fight the Power! Facebook Page, where we’ll be posting some educational links building up to the episode’s release next week.

Thanks for the support, and help us Fight the Power!

A short while ago… Somewhat nearby…

…Star Wars Celebration V came to the Orlando Convention Center!  How convenient! Cap and Hex bravely ventured into that wretched hive of scum and villainy to get the low-down on this intergalactic hoedown.  This year’s Celebration honored the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back – a momentous occasion, and it also marked the Last Tour to Endor, the closing of the classic Star Tours ride.

Four days of non-stop Star Wars, countless hours of waiting in line, and a fair amount of pent-up aggression have led to a Lucas-sized BLOCKBUSTER of an episode.  It’s too big to be a space station and will definitely rip your arms off , but hold your Tauntauns kids, this is STAR WARS – how were we ever gonna contain it in a normal-sized episode?  You could be waiting sixteen years before we do a follow-up to this one

In this episode we share the highs and lows of the Celebration and relive myriad panels including secrets of the NEW Star Tours, season 3 of Clone Wars, the EXCLUSIVE videos Warwick Davis showed, inappropriate jokes from Anthony Daniels and Carrie Fisher, TOR and The Force Unleashed 2, Seth Green and the Robot Chicken panel, and of course, The MAIN EVENT: George Lucas and John Stewart, which Hex stood in line overnight to see!  Since we’re such Fettophiles we also hit up BOTH Boba Fetts for interviews – the original Jeremy Bulloch and young Boba Fett, Daniel Logan!  Perhaps you remember back in Episode 10: Geek Mythology when we interviewed Jabba the Hutt’s right-hand man, Dave Barclay?  Well now we’ve got his left-hand man – Toby Philpott and the man behind his sultry figure and gorgeous eyes, John Coppinger.  They share with us what it’s like being so close with the baddest gangster in the Star Wars universe as well as their other illustrious exploits in the world of movie creatures.  We also had a chat with Julian Glover who portrayed one of the Empire’s greatest tacticians and leader of the AT-AT attack on Hoth, General Veers as well as the scheming Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade and Bond villain Aristotle Kristatos.  All that plus frequent rants about the prequels AND a kick ass contest to win EXCLUSIVE Star Wars Celebration goodies (see below)… something in this episode will get you excited about Star Wars, even if your heart has been frozen in carbonite.

Tracks

1. Space Game :: MC Lars
2. Galvanize the Empire (John Williams v. Chemical Brothers) :: PartyBen
3. Level 7 :: 8-Bit Bandit
4. Fett’s Vette (the good, the baddd, the ugly – Baddd Spellah Remix) :: mc chris
5. Blue Harvest (ft. Billy the Fridge) :: KABUTO THE PYTHON
6. George Lucas Raped Our Childhood :: Hot Waffles
7. Limit Break :: Dale Chase
8. Star Wars Theme/ Cantina Band :: Meco
9. Yellow Lasers (Live at Los Angeles 2008) :: MC Frontalot
10. Tattooine :: Sci-Fried
11. Fallout 3 – The Fallout of Eli :: Brynner Agassi & Mazedude
12. Finale/End Credits (Empire Strikes Back) :: John Williams

Contest:

Show Willrow Hood fanlove WIN Star Wars prizes!

Photos:

• Slide show of SWC5′s displays by Matt Rex Downham
• Slide show of costumes at SWC5 by Matt Rex Downham
• Slide show from various SWC5 panels by Matt Rex Downham
• Cap’s snapshot slide show:

Links:

• Watch the MAIN EVENT on YouTube
• Return of the Jedi deleted scene
• Willrow Hood’s Wookieepedia entry
• Red Letter Media‘s Plinkett Reviews of Episode I and Episode II
• Nerdy Show’s E3 coverage of Star Wars: The Old Republic
• Nerdy Show’s E3 Coverage of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
• Check out Jeremy Bulloch’s autobiography, Flying Solo
• Become a fan of Jabba the Hutt on facebook
• Star Wars Underoos commercial

Aaron and Mike are back in The Geek Easy to talk about this week’s best comics – hurray!  Brian’s INFINITY GAUNTLET miniseries starts this week – how’s that for awesome?!

Here’s the list of this week’s TOP COMICS. Not only does it show you what we think is the best shit coming out this week but we write funny and/or informational captions for them.  We even have special meetings to decide on them… really!

Ask me (Triforce Mike) something on my Formspring, dammit!

International viewers unable to use YouTube, try watching on Facebook.