With the 2015 Pax Prime convention coming to a close, Vourtron reflects on several days of ‘Nerdcore’ music. Music that is immersed with various pop culture-related things, namely comic books, movies, TV shows and video games. Nerdcore can be any type of music that is “for nerds, by nerds,” though most people identify is as a sub-genre of hip-hop. Now, since it appears that everything geek-related is considered cool (and lucrative), ‘Nerdcore’ is no longer ‘niche’ it has not yet broken through to a wider, mainstream audience. Indeed, Vourbot wants this to change…
There’s a thing called nerdcore music. Or Geek music, or something like that. I live in Salt Lake City, so I have to travel across the country to see just what it is, in it’s fullness. On my trip to PAX PRIME this year 2015, I tried to work on my nerdcore investigations, and this is my report. I call it Nerdcore, and what it means is basically this:
1. It has to reference any video game, video game character, or super hero. I’m unsure about whether it would qualify if you referenced “V”, but if you said “Cylon ” that would qualify. And ANY video game reference would quality it, even Minefield.
2. It has to contain a nintendo or nintendo-esque sound. This could literally just be any bleep, as long as it’s in context with the above.
3. I think it’s also Nerdcore if there’s enough equipment to set up, there’s midi involved, or the circuits are bent in any way. On thinking further, I take that back– that just describes the inside of a Guitar Center, which is distinctly not Nercore. -I think that if you include all those things (the midi and the equipment and the setup), and then the performance has a distinct “This submarine is sinking!” kind of feel or attitude, then it is nerdcore.
Anyways, it’s an incredibly exciting genre. It’s got major levels of pop art, and laser-precise cultural relevance (if you count a 40 year-olds reminiscence) -pop art is from the 60’s and 70’s about soup cans from the 40’s.. so maybe this IS the new pop art, even though it references the 80’s and 90’s. Get me?! Nintendo is still a common object! So Pop-Art ok!
CATEGORIES:
The way I see it, Nerdcore Music breaks down into a few categories, and the cultural background is this: a few years ago (like, when I was a child. In the 80’s), there was no internet, there were five TV channels, and the social strata at the school was marked by strict identity codes of dress and behavior, just exactly like Footloose and Breakfast Club (but Breakfast Club was the Hollywood version. The real thing was much more intense! I repeat: they did not make friends!), and the “Nerds” were not on an enviable rung of the ladder. You know “Celebrate Diversity”? Well, then, it was “Ostracize The Nerds”. The more contemporary diversities hadn’t even been invented yet. So you end up years later, and you get some echoes of this in these nerdcore music categories.
1. “Out of the closet, and ‘it gets better’ Nerdcore”
“Out of the closet”, as in, “The nerd closet”. This kind, mostly in the hip hop format, has a heavy focus on growing up as a victim of liking nintendo, liking to read books, having an imagination, probably having an unusual body type (either unusually big or unusually little perhaps), or just being a little bit culturally insensitive and suffering for it till adulthood, then rapping about it- complete with between-song sermonesque calls to the nerds in the audience to keep on keeping on, and basically, to celebrate diversity within and know that everything is going to be OK. Take the most heartwarming Macklemore song, and times it by 10, and you’ve got this kind of Nerdcore set. This kind is is all about being positive, being happy, and at a show, the audience is included and everyone has a wonderful time together. I should mention that the sermonesque section (or sections) between songs is called “The Telling of the Telling” (like on Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), and it is a regular and important part of the show.
2. “Chiptunes”
Chiptunes is any music made mostly (or, rarely, entirely) by utilizing the sound synthesizing chip that comes built into the old consoles. Now, everybody knows that the Nintendo chip kicks ass, the Turbografx chip just builds on that nintendo tech (It is the BEST), the Genesis chip overreaches a bit, and the Super Nintendo sits firmly in the Uncanny Valley, but since there have been just a couple of easily accessible games, mods, and devices made for it, the greatest part of chiptunes is made by the chip of the GAMEBOY. And the gameboy chip isn’t the sweetest sounding, but oh well. Anything sounds jet-enginey enough when blasted through the subs at the club, which is it. This genre is typically (but not always, or course) rocked by young dudes, perhaps bronyie hairstyledd, on a gameboy or two at the dance club under the colored lights, colored drinks, and with the pounding bass, often dance-music-style. Since club music is most in tune with the ebb and flow of the dancing passion, of the “tension rhythm”, as they say, of music in general, I think that this genre holds a lot of the most artful arrangements, and gets closest to the process of the original chiptune writers as they tried to wring some emotion out of the delicate blips and bleeps. Ironically, that artistry is also lost a little as the format is aimed at the dancer’s hips, rather than the listener’s ears. So… where’s the ballads, people!
Also tons of chiptunes is cover arrangements of existing songs. And there’s a whole genre that I’m leaving out here, which is chiptunes presence in pop music. The reason my detective work is so focused is that my special power is that I’ve never heard music that wasn’t made by someone that I know personally. I know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. I’m just THAT isolated. Also, don’t forget the midi for the Commodore 64.
3. “Circuit Bent”
Circuit bending is where you take any old electronic instrument, perhaps a Casio keyboard or a toy, and manipulate it’s circuitry to make, instead of the regular “expected” sound coming out, a “crazy” sound comes out. You do it by either running it at a little lower voltage or opening it and touching stuff inside. Don’t you think that’s nerdy? I do. I think that counts.
4. “In The Closet Nerdcore”
This is just an artist who loves the sounds of these other elements, and uses them. And uses those themes. And loves that stuff. They are nerds who have just been in the closet so long that they don’t mind or know anymore. And what’s the real kicker, is that these people don’t even know that, by now, nerds are cool, so they’re off the hook anyways. It’s just like “Out of the closet” Nerdcore, except that it is not driven my the positive elements. It is driven only by the passion for whatever nerdy thing is being rapped about. There’s also probably no “telling of the telling” during this set.
5. “Video Game Music Band”
Any time someone plays the song from a video game or geeky movie. There’s a lot of Nintendo-y songs that utilize the heavy metal and rock conventions, and some heavy metal and rock bands go ahead and play those songs on their instruments. Also, some video game composers flesh out their songs and perform them live, although, both those camps have a foot in cooler-than-nerd musicality (Real Music), and It might actually be a step down to call that nerdcore. I honestly think that NERDS have a foot in UNDERDOG, and if it gets too fancy, it falls a little flat. If the orchestra plays zelda, for example, it’s not nerdcore.
Got it?
“Out of the closet”=Positive, “Telling of the Telling”, Rap.
“In the closet”= Mostly Rap, regular getting stuff off your chest content.
“Chiptune”= Dance-music-based gameboy creations.
“Circuit bent”= going straight for the bleep.
“Video game music Band”= “Real Music” version of “In the closet”.
‘Cause you’ll have to reference this list to get my PAX PRIME 2015 MUSIC RUNDOWN. Now, I’m going to chime in with my review of the music I was lucky enough to see firsthand. The reason I got to see this, is because me and some the other Big Shiny Robot journalists, Dagobot, Haleebot, Dolanbot, Christybot, and Shantybot all play as much Nerdcore Music as we can while we’re on our annual trek to seattle for PAX PRIME. Here’s what we saw:
The Shredder.
This wasn’t the name of the band, but the name of the club that we played at in Boise. I listed it special because it is an arcade bar. They had Golden Axe and Altered Beast both. That’s enough to get my blood going. Arcades have been the rarest thing, and we got to play in two of them on this trip. And since that was our first show of the trip, I’ll start by trying to classify the music WE play.
Mark Dago:
This is Dagobot, Shantybot, and Vourbot. This is primarily “In the closet” Nerdcore Rap, with only a tiny bit of the “out of the closet” “telling of the telling”, and only a tiny bit of overtly positive themes. It’s mostly what I’d call “Arcade Rap”. That’s where the DJ (Disk Jockey) and TJ (Theremin Jockey) and KJ (Keytar Jockey) are all trying to fit in as many video game sound effects in as they can, till it sounds kind of like you’re in the arcade. One song features a “Race car driving and skidding” sound throughout the entire song, for example. For a few songs, the keytar leads the “J’s” by building a looped beat with nintendo sounds, and then Shantybot, the DJ proper, uses “Gamechanger” technology, which utilizes video game controllers to control his computer’s virtual turntables and triggered sounds. So they’ve got a little of the “Wizard” style of Nerdcore going on. That’s the style where you build your own equipment, or push your tech to the limits.
Red Bennies:
This is Vourbot, Haleebot, Dolanbot, and Christybot. This is primarily Psychedelic, Stoner Rock rooted, loud trash rock, and it only has a couple of nerdcore facets at all. One is that there are some overt nerdcore elements to the lyrics, and the other one is that there is heavy usage of the theremin– like, sometimes “opening of the ark of the covenant” levels. It’s definitely “Wizard” style, as all the amps and most of the instruments are handmade, and the general style is certainly bent. If you “circuit bent” a whole band of “Real Music”, you might get this sound. At the best, the chords are all coming unplugged at once, and that amazing “The Submarine is Sinking” sound in actually achieved.
Another band we played with, Camp, got missed by me because I was in an intense reparatory meeting with the sound guy that lasted till the end of the night. Apparently, sound guys are land-lubbers for sure.
Another band we played with, Mercy Music, (who played rock), posted a picture saying they had a fun show and it showed the bass player’s naked bum, and they were staying in the hotel room right down the hall from us!!! We could have been over there doing bongo slaps!
Ground Kontrol
This is in Portland. It is a legit arcade, just like Flynn’s, with neon and lights everywhere, and just arcade games and a bar. There are up to 4 shmups in this arcade. We’ve been trying to play at this place every year (Mark Dago), and haven’t been able to get in. They only do shows on very special occasions. The famous Megaran got the show and invited us on. More on Megaran later. In the arcade, we had a chance to wear our Gradius Gaiden cosplay and try and take everyone to Tron-Land.
Lo-Fi Cafe
Every year, Death Star promotes and puts on an amazing show, with sponsors and everything, at the Lo-Fi Cafe. This year and last year, Mark Dago was invited to open up the show. Here’s what I saw there, after we played:
Shubzilla:
Shubzilla is firm “In the closet” nerdcore rap. There is no “Telling of the telling”, and there are a lot of unrepentant getting-this-off-my-chest deliveries of nerdy hopes and dreams. However, there are some extremes of positivity in Shubz’s set that rise above even the most “out-of-the-closet” Nerdcore rapper. She’s got another rapper, Lex Lingo who joins her on some songs, and their use of dramatic play acting, duet dancing, and general role-play are beyond anything that I have personally EVER seen at a concert. It’s insane. I could see her (or them) perform 5 times in a row and I’d never fail to achieve total suspension of disbelief. I really don’t think she’s particularly nerdcore outside of some hello kitty and real-life nerdness. She’s just great. I mean, she could play anywhere and Mario wouldn’t jump out of the turntable.
Death Star:
Death Star is the one who set up the show, and they are hardcore nerd. “In the closet”, loud and proud, they would bend over backwards to fit a “star destroyer” rhyme into the song. During the night, they hosted, conducted nerd trivia, and gave out toys. I had to miss most of their set (as well as the last guys’, Icarus Kid. And I also missed Richie Branson, damn, they’re not the same person are they?), but I can imagine what it was like. Louder and louder, bigger and bigger till the end.
Kadesh Flow:
Kanesh rapped like a demon all by himself on stage, with the only “out of the closet” elements being an amazing piece that began with an intense A Capella that transitioned into a jazz trombone solo, and then hit back again into the now non A Capella with a blasting beat. Intense!! (Open admission of participating in the school Jazz Band counts as a nerd come out). Another highlight was a song containing long verses over a beat-less synth drone in between choruses. Wow.
Kirby Krackle:
Kirby Krackle is rock music, which means you’ve just stepped away from your hip hop ghetto blaster, and right next to a real 12 speaker-ed rock band. Ouch! They play tight pop rock woven with geek lyrics, and not so much geek sounds unless you travel to the dimension where rock and roll is not the main medium. Clear and proud. Tight guitars and tight keys. Just when you’re thinking “I can’t handle an ugly rambunctious rock experience right now”, they start and their tightness smoothes it all over.
Blue Moon Tavern
Next night was at the Blue Moon Tavern. I got too nervous and grabbed a stand from the sound guy’s closet before he got there, which is a major offense, and had to apologize all night, but the club was badass. Peanut shells everywhere, barbarian style furniture everywhere. That night we played with Shubzilla again, and TBASA– TBASA was definitely “Wizard” style, with pitch shifted singing going off, and some high sophistication throughout the songs, lyrically and sonically both. He was able to push the audiences buttons more than once with his pointed rap attacks. I can’t go into more detail. It was too sophisticated to describe. But everyone was mad.
Then Megaran played. He is straight “out of the closet” nerdcore, with one of the most compelling “Telling of the telling’s” in the biz, for sure. And he had the crowd, PAX badges and all, just enraptured. He freestyled a mind-blowing audience interactive section including a rhyme with “(as a rapper) I’m going to be in your top two”, and he finished with, “Let’s see your favorite rapper do that!”, and the audience said something like “You are my favorite rapper”, which brought the sentiment full circle. He was touring with Bag Of Tricks Cat, whom he relinquished part of the set to, and BOTC was a great counterpart. Megaran’s rock solid, with national pull in the nerdcore scene. That’s how he got the Ground Kontrol show.
El Corazon
Oh man, we got in big trouble this night, as the club was 100% ready for the full crowd PAX explosion, and just how only Ogra can predict the Great Conjunction, us and Graz couldn’t pull of that prediction. But the artists were still great.
Kipjaw did a set of sophisticated gameboy chiptune dance music, which, played softly in the spacious bar, could be heard clear and proud.
J’owl did a set next, “Wizard” style, as he added to his chiptunes a midi sax, a real sax, and some looped real sax. YES!!!!
Our pal Graz went next, and he just blasted some highly polished and creative chiptune dance blast with gameboy buzz and samples a-fuzz. He said that he and his crew had set up gorilla-style outside of PAX the day before and rocked the bits out of everyone.
So, let’s review:
Mercy Music: Las Vegas Bongo slaps possibilities for days just down the hall, if we had only known!
Shubzilla: Seattle rapper who’s “the best”. Teamed up with Lex Lingo, unstoppable.
Death Star: Seattle rappers/promoters who dominate the Seattle nerdcore scene.
Kadesh Flow: Dead serious won’t hesitate on trombones and synth drones level 10.
Megaran: High score everytime.
Kirby Krackle: Just eat a bran muffin of nerd. Every ingredient is in there, and it takes that long to bake.
Graz: The chiptune medium taken to it’s dance floor peak.
J’owl: The chiptune medium taken to– just turn down the lights, add cigarette smoke.
Kipjaw: Reminding us that chiptunes rule.
Mark Dago: Step into a real video arcade.
Red Bennies: Circuit bend yourself, then go down with the sub. Don’t be in the engine section.
Bill Beats: He’s the DJ for all these Seattle Nerdcore bands. He’s the MVP. Shubzilla told me he’d been DJ’ing for 42 hours straight or something.