Nerdcore and Geek Folk -- More free brain candy
So, lately I've been trying to rediscover my ipod. Not that I've ever failed to use it regularly, but my playlist editors had been getting lonely; other than on our road trip over Christmas, I think the last time I'd made a new playlist was when I hastily gathered some kids songs together to replace "Maya's Mix", which iTunes had accidentally eaten one day. Why the sudden interest in the ipod? I'm trying to convince myself that I need a new one, a Touch to be specific. Granted, proving that my current one works fine for playing music is not a very good rationalization strategy, but it's all I've got right now. Plus, I can only fit about a quarter of my music on it; if I get a new one, I'd be able to walk around with at least half of my music, maybe even more...ya, I'll keep working on it...
So, anyhow, what have I been putting on my ipod? A lot of stuff, but in particular, I've been enjoying a couple of artists who are relatively unique in that they both release their music for free, one under a Creative Commons license, the other with no specific license that I can find, but available for free download. The first of these is MC Plus+, an "Iranian-American nerdcore rapper" from Purdue who sings about encryption ("Alice and Bob"), disses Engineering and MIS ("Dear Engineer"), and so on. I was introduced to MC Plus+ by a friend who is a web designer here in Tucson, and I think probably only people who work with computers all day long are gonna get much out of this genre.
For some music which probably has a wider appeal, check out Jonathan Coulton*, a geeky Folk signer from Yale. I first came across his music without really realizing it ~ there's a code monkey at Adobe who thought it would be fun to create machinima music videos for some of his music using WoW, and who created what is probably the best-known version of Coulton's work, a video featuring "Code Monkey," an ape, a night elf, and a goblin. Seriously, though, the music does have all-around appeal; other tracks celebrate Ikea and Skymall (so-named, respectively), and "Creepy Doll" lives up to it's name fairly well. I'd forgotten all about Code Monkey until a completely random Facebook status update from a friend of mine who now works at Google brought it back to my mind, and I discovered that Coulton had recorded quite a bit of music. Much of his music can be downloaded for free from his website, though he charges for some of the tracks. If you're too cheap to buy it, it's perfectly legal to download via P2P (how often do I get to say that? Pretty much never, unless I'm talking about linux install CDs).
* His site has been up and down for me today; ymmv.
Updated: Having posted a link to Coulton's music on The Pirate Bay, I realized that the music posted there was not entirely free, legally speaking. A number of Coulton's songs are covers of songs like "Baby Got Back", "We Are The Champions", "We Will Rock You", and the like. These songs aren't CC licensed, so treat them the same as anything else you're likely to find on TPB. If you REALLY want to hear one of Coulton's songs and can't find it anywhere you're comfortable with, let me know.
So, anyhow, what have I been putting on my ipod? A lot of stuff, but in particular, I've been enjoying a couple of artists who are relatively unique in that they both release their music for free, one under a Creative Commons license, the other with no specific license that I can find, but available for free download. The first of these is MC Plus+, an "Iranian-American nerdcore rapper" from Purdue who sings about encryption ("Alice and Bob"), disses Engineering and MIS ("Dear Engineer"), and so on. I was introduced to MC Plus+ by a friend who is a web designer here in Tucson, and I think probably only people who work with computers all day long are gonna get much out of this genre.
For some music which probably has a wider appeal, check out Jonathan Coulton*, a geeky Folk signer from Yale. I first came across his music without really realizing it ~ there's a code monkey at Adobe who thought it would be fun to create machinima music videos for some of his music using WoW, and who created what is probably the best-known version of Coulton's work, a video featuring "Code Monkey," an ape, a night elf, and a goblin. Seriously, though, the music does have all-around appeal; other tracks celebrate Ikea and Skymall (so-named, respectively), and "Creepy Doll" lives up to it's name fairly well. I'd forgotten all about Code Monkey until a completely random Facebook status update from a friend of mine who now works at Google brought it back to my mind, and I discovered that Coulton had recorded quite a bit of music. Much of his music can be downloaded for free from his website, though he charges for some of the tracks. If you're too cheap to buy it, it's perfectly legal to download via P2P (how often do I get to say that? Pretty much never, unless I'm talking about linux install CDs).
* His site has been up and down for me today; ymmv.
Updated: Having posted a link to Coulton's music on The Pirate Bay, I realized that the music posted there was not entirely free, legally speaking. A number of Coulton's songs are covers of songs like "Baby Got Back", "We Are The Champions", "We Will Rock You", and the like. These songs aren't CC licensed, so treat them the same as anything else you're likely to find on TPB. If you REALLY want to hear one of Coulton's songs and can't find it anywhere you're comfortable with, let me know.
posted by Me at
12:36 PM
1 Comments:
Good ones, both. Since you like Monzy, you should check out Optimus Rhyme, mc chris, ytcracker and the Rhyme Torrents compilations (the first three are the best.)
For the Coulton bump, you should check out Glenn Case as well as the Grammar Club (a side project that he left a few days ago.)
Actually, just read Hipster, Please! and check out his Radio Free Hipster podcasts. He covers all of this stuff and more (I haven't even mentioned Chiptunes, Video Game Music, or Wizard Rock.)
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