Kirby Krackle

It occurs to me that of all the artists I have featured, there is one in particular which I have never written a full article on. I have mentioned them in passing I have never talked about them in depth, and this is one musical act that deserves to be highlighted.

Kirby Krackle sounds like something Walter White would brew with his chemistry set, but they are, in fact, a nerd rock band from Seattle, led by front-man Kyle Stevens. (It is also the name of an artistic convention in comic books, but that's not important right now.) They have risen to nerd stardom on the backs of their witty lyrics and catchy tunes that make references to everything from comic books to movies to video games to action figures. With musical stylings ranging from acoustic guitar to full electrical instrumentation with an interspersing of rap lyrics, the songs of KK always prove to be both enjoyable and incredibly imaginative. Some songs like Nerd Money, Booty Do Math, or Up, Up, Down, Down, are meant to be both fun and irrelevant, while other songs like: Needing a Miracle, When I Miss You, and Dusty Cartridges & Long Boxes can be surprisingly emotional. Most of their songs strike an impressive balance between being outwardly referential and nerdy while hiding a deeper layer of meaning. Even better you don't need to be a hardcore nerd or comic fan to get most of the jokes, (though it helps.)

The group has been a personal favorite of mine ever since I heard them first perform at the Supanova Pop Culture Convention in Melbourne, Australia, and was lucky enough to get to talk with Kyle and his partner, Jim, after an impressive performance, and even get to know them a bit better. At the time, and having lived in Melbourne for months, it was just nice to talk with some people who had the same funny accent as me, and it helped that they were both stand up guys. In the years since my return to the States and the craziness of my life I have managed to check in with Kirby Krackle, during their brief stopovers at New York Comic Con, and though their fame continues to grow, (having opened for Weird Al, and done some extensive touring around the US and Canada,) they remain the same down-to-Earth guys that I first met down under.

If you don't know who Kirby Krackle is, I recommend you check them out. If you don't know what Nerd Rock is, then I doubly recommend that you check them out. KK may not be some Heisenberg created narcotic, but for me they represented a gateway into the nerd rock scene. So visit their website and their site on Bandcamp or iTunes. While you're there buy some of their songs and albums, and support the awesomeness that is Kirby Krackle and Nerd Rock. I promise you won't be disappointed by what you hear.

Kirby Krackle Homepage
Bandcamp
iTunes
Or support them through their Patreon

Ring Capactiy

In Another Castle

How Does Japan Do Metal?

Ozzy Osbourne just rolled over in his grave... What? He's not
dead?... You sure?... Has anyone checked his pulse lately?

The answer is that they they do it like they do everything else, kinda weird with a splash of cuteness. I am talking about an odd new trend called baby metal. A friend of mine who is now living over seas suggested that I investigate this new music styling, and I thought it might be worth a blog post. I'm always up for a challenge. Before I begin let me clarify something, Babymetal is the name of the band that started this genre, sometimes called baby metal or kawaii metal (cute metal.)

The band, Babymetal consists of three girls, Moa Kikuchi, Suzuka Nakamoto, and Yui Mizuno. Suzuka is the frontman (front-person?) She is the oldest of the group (she will be seventeen in December,) and from what I can gather this whole craze stems from her. In Japan, she was an Idol, a contestant on Japanese Idol which is exactly what you think it is. However, Japanese Idol is not like American Idol (from what I can gather,) as the Japanese version seems to feature various groups competing together. Those groups can then break off into sub-groups, (because you know... Japan.) For instance, Suzuka was a founding member of the idol group, Sakura Gakuin, which is the larger group. The girls in that group then formed so-called clubs, smaller groups, that still associate with the larger unit. One of those smaller units formed by Suzuka (or more appropriately her record label, Amuse, Inc.) was a heavy metal group that was named Babymetal, in 2010. (Also she changed her name to Su-metal when the group was formed.)

Now fast forward to 2013. Suzuka graduated from junior high school, and by the laws of Japan (or her record label... It's not clear which), she was no longer allowed to be in the idol group, Sakura Garkuin, because it was a group for just preteen girls. Don't worry she was given an appropriate graduation concert to celebrate the milestone. That also should have meant that she aged out of being in Babymetal, because that group was just a sub-group of Sakura Garkuin, but instead she said, "F#ck it," (direct quote) and the group broke away from its parent group, and kept on rocking, despite Suzuka's advanced age of sixteen.

The group's sound is a mix of American metal and Japanese pop, and the comments on their YouTube videos range from praise to hatred to perversion, (because you know... the Internet.) Comments like, "This isn't metal. This is sh*t," or "This is a disgrace to the throat-screeching/roaring heritage my forefathers fought for," often seem to be in direct competition with comments such as "This is the most awesomest thing that ever awesomed," and "This is my guilty pleasure," (which also may fall under the perverted category, for anyone keeping score.)

One of their hit songs, Megitsune

Really people (and by people I mean Americans) just seemed fascinated by this trend and those like it that come out of Japan. Hell the Internet holds the entire country up as some kind of mystical fairyland where anything crazy is not only possible but mandated by law. This is a complex image that arose for several reasons, most of which has more to do with us than our friends across the Pacific. After all, when we look across the ocean we see a culture that resembles our own: free, capitalistic, and modernized, but with a divergent history and culture hidden below its surface. It is a funhouse reflection where things look the same but still different, and the "other" dressed in westernized clothing can sometimes scare people more than Hitler wearing a bow-tie. However, the stereotype of what Japan "is" also tends to amplify anything like baby metal to absurd proportions for us poor confused Americans. In actuality it is not anything different than what we have in the US.

Stylistically, they fuse two genres together, but really that's nothing new. We have fused everything from rock to rap to country to whatever Kayne West claims to be today. This is just another link in that chain. Some people have a problem because the girls are very young, but if that's your gripe take it up with Justin Beiber, prepubescent Michael Jackson, or anyone at the Disney Corporation. If I am offended by any aspect of the trend of baby metal, it is that the aforementioned group is really more of a construct of a record company than any one single artist. The girls don't write their own songs, they are performers, which if you are keeping score is a formula they got from us, (because you know... America.)

We often like to point at things like baby metal or vending machines that dispense used panties and stare in anime-like-wide-eyed wonder at the Japanese, when the truth is that in Japan those are considered the same kind of societal fringe behavior that they are here. Its judging a culture based on what they put on the Internet. It would be like Japan pointing at America and saying we are all porn addicts with an unhealthy love of kittens and Jennifer Lawrence. Baby metal is as much a fad in Japan as pogs were in America. If you don't believe me, listen to someone who has lived there. I am an admitted admirer of Japan. It is a country steeped in culture, history, freedom, and sushi. It defines and breaks our stereotypes all the time. Also, once you listen to the songs a few times (as I have during the researching of this article) Babymetal is kind of catchy.

Chocolate, this may be my new favorite song.

YouTube Music

Hello fellow Meta-Humans,

Let me start off by saying I have been swamped with work over the past week, so I will go ahead an apologize that this week's entry won't be a long diatribe of moral philosophy intermingled with pop culture nonsense ramblings. I do however want to take a moment to pause and recognize how awesome YouTube is. (I know all the cat videos...)

Did you know that YouTube was started in 2005. That doesn't seem that long ago and yet I can't picture a time anymore when I didn't have the video sharing service distracting me from my work and family. As a sidenote it was created because one of its founders, Jawed Karim couldn't find an Internet video clip of Janet Jackson's infamous Super Bowl nipple exposure. (So I guess, the Jackson family did one thing right.)

However from its humble origins of being a place for soft-core porn and cute animal videos, YouTube has also inspired a new generation of people to get creative and explore their visual, artistic, and musical talents. Now, because of the site we have a whole new slew of people known as "YouTube celebrities," (a crop of people I tend to find well more disserving of the title than most regular celebrities.) Yet, since YouTube has been announcing its upcoming YouTube Music Awards, I though I would share with you come of my favorite YouTube musicians.

So check out the links below and enjoy:

The Piano Guys

 

Lindsey Stirling


Pentatonix


Nick Pitera


Cosplay Piano (from Stan Lee's World of Heroes)

There are many wonderful musicians on YouTube, both big and small. So let's all be thankful that we live in a age with so much talent, but more importantly where we have an easily accessible outlet for all this talent to shine. YouTube has come a long way since its humble beginnings, (eve if it still kind of is about soft-core porn and cat videos.)

MaryDoodles

Kiwi Rocket

MaryDoodles is the moniker of the YouTube artist, Mary whose time-elapsed videos are not only totally awesome but awe inspiring. Maybe this has more to do with my own inability to draw anything other than crude and caveman like stick figures, but I find that I am fascinated with watching her videos. As a bonus her side job seems to be creating costumes and props for Epic Rap Battles of History, one of my favorite YouTube channels to date.

Mary's use of pencil, ink, and water color are simply amazing, and in fast motion it looks as if colors and images simply glide onto the page, as if they had been there all along and all she is really doing is revealing the true and hidden face of the page beneath her brush. On a whole her videos are short, usually no longer than three minutes on average, but even that small period become the breath of a moment as you watch the artist create a unique and fantastic image. Each stroke brings the promise of something new and exciting and ever so beautiful.

  I Love You, I Miss You	  See How it was Made
 Little Red Wolf Hunter	  How it was Made
	 

If you are interested in checking out MaryDoodles, check her out on:

-YouTube

-DeviantART

-Facebook

-Twitter



 

 

 

 

 

The Doubleclicks

As I eluded to in my last blog, I want to introduce you to a new nerd band I discovered while at Rock Comic Con this past month, The Doubleclicks. I would not classify their sound as nerd-rock, so much as I might call it, nerd-folk.  Yet despite the lack of mostly electrical instruments, (they do have a cat-keyboard,) these two sisters put on a show that is funny, thoughtful, and especially entertaining. I found myself laughing and smiling along with the crowd as we were treated to their quirky and catchy style of song writing.
 

Angela Webber, who plucks-out on the guitar, ukulele, (because what other instrument do you expect to hear a folksy/nerd/comedy duet play;) and sings the majority of the vocals, is accompanied by her sister Aubrey Webber (cello/back-up vocals). The two sisters hail from Portland, Oregon, (which is ashame because it seems like the nerd bands I like are all from the northwest coast and very rarely get around the New York City area.) They have an impressive list of credits to their name, having been on stage with some major people like Whil Wheton or Hank Green, (when I say major, I mean major to me.) For more information you can check out their bio.

I caught these two beautiful sisters while in the midst of their tour around the eastcoast and even chatted with them a little after the show. From our small conversation I also learned that Portland Oregon was not the treeless landscape of fields, where people named Tim die of dysentery, (or where one kills 450 pounds of buffalo meat only to discover that you can only carry 6 pounds back to your wagon,) as I had expected, but was in fact a city. It is a great place to read books, watch movies, or play with hamsters... Truly a metropolis of the future, but I kid. The Wbber sisters said very gracious things about their time in New Jersey (which was even more gracious considering they spent it in New Brunswick,) and what they described to me about Portland sounded like a pretty cool place to be.

All in all, The Doubleclicks are definitely a band worth checking out. Their songs tend to be on the shorter side, but that means they are more like potato chips. You can't just have one and suddenly you look up and realize you have indulged in more than you expected. Yet, unlike potato chips, you will have a truly satisfied feeling when you are done with their crunchy bag of songs and lyrical whimsy... also no grease on your hands.

If the two sisters ever find their way back to the east coast I will certainly make sure I am among the crowd. I should suggest you be too. The night will not disappoint.

You can check The Doubleclicks out on:

Their homepage: http://www.thedoubleclicks.com/;
Listen to their music: http://thedoubleclicks.bandcamp.com/;
Or on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/thedoubleclicks?feature=watch

Check out the music video for their song: This Fantasy World.

 

The Art of Science

I know I promised you my predictions for the future this week, but I have really been tied up with this major writing project I have been working on. I will let everyone in on it when I am done and have it published to the web, but for now (since I have been on such a science kick lately) I thought I would share with a great YouTube artist, MelodySheep aka John D. Boswell.

If you have never heard of MelodySheep I suggest checking him out. He does some different remixes, including some funny little remixes for some small pop culture clips, but where he really shines is in his series: Symphony of Science. Basically, he remixes the words and images of famous scientists including, Stephen Hawkins, Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Michu Kaku and many more. They range from subject areas of Evolution to Space Exploration to Molecules to Dinosaurs. Not only are the movies informative but they are beautiful and it reminds us all how amazing science is and how amazing it is to be a human being living in an age of scientific exploration and knowledge. Some of the better ones almost feel religious in nature and why not? After all, why does science and spiritual beliefs have to be separate? Why can't God exist in the nucleus of an atom or at the center of a black hole.

I have included some of my favorite. Enjoy them and check out more here.

A Glorious Dawn - Symphony of Science	Children of Africa -Symphony of Science
Poetry of Reality - Symphony of Science	The Quantum World - Symphony of Science

As always when I feature artists I ask that you support them and enjoy their work, and MelodySheep is no exception. His work is not only entertaining, but informative. Science is one of the greatest endeavours humanity has ever embarked on, it might as well have a good soundtrack.

All pictures used are meant only to promote the work of MelodySheep. I do not own or claim ownership of any images used in this blog entry.

Lawful Evil

So recently, I was hanging out  in Southern New Jersey (as I am sometimes known to do,) when my friend got a random invite from one of our old college friends to come see his band play in Philly. This was shocking news to us, (mostly because we did not realize that he had a band, but also) because he could only describe the music as Nerdcore Rap. As you can probably guess, at the mere mention of the word Nerd, this very quickly became a show I had to see. (Also Philly is a great place to satiate my unending craving for meat and cheese sandwiched together on a roll.)

That was how myself and my two friends found ourselves in a bar on South Street called The Legendary Dobbs with four dollar Miller Lites in hand and being crowded by a group of neo-punks who seemed to have a more than a small liking for Bad Religion. Soon enough though the show began and first to stage was the band we had come to see, Lawful Evil, featuring the vocal talents of 50 GP, DJ KB, KingCrit, and Click Clack Kaboom.

Now, we did not fully know what to expect. I had a feeling that being a nerd through and through, I was going to enjoy myself regardless of the quality of the music. However, I am glad to report that Lawful Evil in their debut performance did not fail to disappoint either my musical or nerdy sense of taste. Their sound was reminiscent of MC Chris (Have fun on the Robot Reservations suckers! Were not gonna honor those bogus treaties!), their beats were catchy, and most importantly their lyrics were clever. You can't hate a band that so enthusiastically raps about being super-villains, playing D&D, or loving everything that was ever good that came out of Japan. More to the point, you can't hate a band with the passion to combine a love of all things nerdy with hardcore rap. It is a combo that seems almost so contradictory that it has to work, (like vodka and Red Bull.)

Though Lawful Evil has only had one show and is still to release any albums, I predict that if they continue to keep up their hard work and the quality of sound and lyricism that I witnessed last week in a crowded Philly bar, they will find success, at least in the nerd world (which usually means playing at comic cons around the country, and having a couple thousand Facebook stalkers.) Overall, the show was a lot of fun and crackled with the energy of a band who was enjoying themselves as much as their audience was. Lawful Evil is definately worth checking out, and a band we should all keep a close Beholders-like watch over in the coming future.

*Warning lyrics can be explicit

You can check Lawful Evil out at:

ReverbNation: http://www.reverbnation.com/#!/lawfulevil

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Lawful-Evil/145075055563024?sk=info

Geek Style

So I have been busy the past few weeks moving into a new apartment. I have learned a few things during this process: One, I learned that when the cable guy says he'll be there between 2 and 4 pm, don't expect him till 6 pm; and Two, you should always measure your doorways before buying a couch. However, now that a lot of the heavy lifting has been taken care of I have turned my attention to decoration. I suppose I could always just throw some movie posters on the wall and call it a night, but where's the fun in that?

I have always preferred a more subtle approached to my geekdom, which is why I was so thrilled to find so many artistic options to display my love of video games, comics, and movies. Also, (being an artist at heart) I have decided to add a few of my own pieces to what will be my home gallery of geek art. Below I have listed some of my favorite options, as well as where you can view and purchase them. I hope you enjoy.


My favorite piece by an artist named
Danny Haas, he has more than just Superman.
Check out his work and buy some prints
at Society6 Art.

I love the old time look of posters like this.
This particular one comes in a pack with four
other BSG themed posters and can be found
at ThinkGeek.com.



This poster comes in a pack called the
Blue Sun Travel Series and it displays
locales found through the Firefly 'Verse.'
It can also be found at ThinkGeek.com.

Pretty self-explanatory, but I like how it
mimics the old British wartime posters.
I picked it up on Amazon.com.

 







For the minamalists out there I found this great
painting by artist Greg Guillemin. He also has
some great Iron Man and Batman prints at
his page at Society6 Art.

Here is a great one of classic Nintendo character, Bomberman
looking more bad a$$ than ever. You can find it along
with similar others at the Geek Art Store.

 



 



This next one is art to the evolutionist
and gamer alike. This print along with
others can be bought at the
Pop Chart Lab.

Here is a great classical representation of everyone's favorite
pointy-eared icon (not Spock), Link, from Legend of Zelda.
It is by Jude Buffem and can be purchased at Jude' site.

A great take on an old classic that harkens
back to the dark days of the 90's. This print is
Jorsh Pena and can be found on Society6 Art.

This last one is an Adam J. Brunner original. It was inspired
by art I looked at while I was shopping in IKEA. Instead
of showing some kind of boring city I decide to go with a
place we would all much rather visit.

For more great geek art ideas I recomend that you browse Society6 Art; ThinkGeek.com; or check out Geek-Art.net. Because why just put anything on your walls when you can be putting up pure awesomeness.

December Nerd Highlight

From the new Innistrad set, a double card desinged by
David Rapoza

Hey everybody. From time to time in my perusing of the Internet I come across such randomly awesome stuff that I just feel the need to share. So the other day when I was searching for my usual mieliu of junk and garbage to try and satiate my boredom I came across some artwork from this amazing artist named Dave Rapoza. Any of you who plays Magic: The Gathering may be familiar with the name as he is one of their contributing artists. My interest was piqued in Mr. Rapoza's work when I discovered his awesome prints of some classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters and Masters of the Universe, both of which were very important shows to me as a child.

 Donatello 	 Raphael 
 Foot Clan 	 Wingnut & Screwloose 
 Metalhead 	 (and my favorite pic) April O'Neil 

So in lieu of a whimsical and witty (yet tasteful) blog entry this week I leave you with some awesome artwork and a recommendation for you to check out Rapoza's work at his homepage: http://daverapoza.blogspot.com/

All pictures used are meant only to promote the work of Dave Rapoza. I do not own or claim ownership of any images used in this blog entry.