Nerdapalooza 2011 Recordings Released on Bandcamp

 

Can’t wait to get your Nerdapalooza fix? Team Nerdapalooza has just released the live CD recordings from last year’s event featuring over 30 performers, including such artists and bands like The OneUps, Metroid Metal, brentalfloss, HDninja, Armcannon, I Fight Dragons, The Bossfights, Jeux On, Random Encounter, and much more! With over thirty-seven tracks and hours of living up some Nerdapalooza nostalgia, the Nerdapalooza 2011 Recordings will hit your sweet nerd spot and keep you sated until August.

While the first eight tracks from the Friday Pre-Party are all free, we would suggest giving the remaining songs from the main event a listen and buying the digital album for just $7, or if you’re a hardcore fan, physical copies shipped to your doorstep for only $15. Check out Nerdapalooza 2011 Recordings on Bandcamp today.

Nerdapalooza Live Recordings Now Available for Digital Download


Previously only obtainable through physical copies, all past Nerdapalooza live recordings have been made available for download on Bandcamp. As Orlando’s premier ‘nerd culture’ festival, Nerdapalooza is touted as “the first of its kind to invite all genres of the nerd music movement under one roof, including nerd rock, nerdcore hip hop, chiptunes, and video game music”. Past performers have included MC Frontalot, Shael Riley & the Double Ice Backfire, The Megas, The Protomen, Metroid Metal, and I Fight Dragons to name a few. Just to give you a taste of the awesomeness that truly encompasses the vivacious intensity of Nerdapalooza’s past  performances, we’ve taken the liberty to include some of our favorite songs, accessible below.

 

Double Interview: New EPs by Amphibious and ProjektZero

I recently got the chance to interview Amphibious and ProjektZero about their respective EP releases: Oceans and Getting to Know You. Both artists have associations with the arrangement community, so I asked them each about the stories behind the making of their tracks, their influences and how creative competitions have affected their work.

Amphibious – Oceans EP

Amphibious has gained a reputation for creating ambient, chilled music with fluid movement. To that end, his release Oceans is a concept EP, specifically referencing a journey through the sea as a topic. Amphibious explained his motivations for exploring a musical narrative. “I’ve always been told my songs remind people of water for some reason, and the ideas I came up with definitely had that vibe, so I decided to add a theme to my EP. It also sort of fits with the name Amphibious, which is cool too.”

Work on the album began in early June and continued over the summer. He stated that, “I’d been experimenting with music a lot over the last year or so. I got Komplete in May for my birthday, and I spent a few weeks learning the various things in the package. But for the most part, the songs I started never did get finished. One of my roommates and I were talking about how I didn’t really see many through to the end, so I decided I’d take this summer as an opportunity to change that. I sat down and got some ideas ready. That is when I started to work on my new songs for the EP.”

Meteo Xavier contributed the EP’s artwork. Amphibious initially created a cover image himself, and related an anecdote to that effect: “I knew my artwork was bad when I originally made it, but I figured something quick and shoddy would be better than nothing. I got a few comments on OC ReMix about how bad it was; Meteo in particular wanted to redo it himself and I guess he decided to whip something up quick. I’m really happy with it, he did it pretty quickly but it’s infinitely better than what I had before.  Many thanks to him.”

When asked about the contributing factors to his musical style, Amphibious noted that “This particular album had a lot of influence from David Arkenstone. He did a lot of world and Celtic music such as the tavern music in World of Warcraft, but he released a chillout album that I absolutely love. ‘Plunge’ in particular draws influence from that.  I would also say the Metroid Prime soundtrack has had some influence on me as well.”

The track “Pelagic Fortress” on the EP started off as an entry for a composition competition.  Amphibious shared his thoughts on time-constrained musical gatherings: “When I first heard about compo, it seemed like a cool idea, but two hours sounded so short.  However once I tried it, I was pretty amazed at what I could come up with in such a short time frame. ‘Pelagic Fortress’ in particular fit the theme of my album very well. Overall the compos definitely have helped me with efficiency. And having a theme given to you is sometimes a helpful way to come up with new ideas.”

Oceans EP is currently available at Bandcamp for free, or pay-what-you-want pricing. Amphibious is pleased with the response to the release, noting that “I’d still consider myself a bit of an amateur, and there have been some fair criticisms, but some people have really enjoyed my stuff and I’m very pleased with that.”

ProjektZero – Getting to Know You

Matt “ProjektZero” Rittinghouse identifies with the nerdcore scene, though his music has recently gravitated away from his rap roots and toward groove-based, melodic pop songwriting. His EP carries a unifying concept, as he expressed that “the theme with Getting to Know You is that I wanted each song to provide some glimpse at me as a person, or the things I feel. ‘Loop On’ deals with relationships; ‘331’ and ‘Mannequins’ deal with friendships and isolation; ‘The Stand’ deals with my geekier tendencies; and ‘Fake It’ deals with this sort of transition out from my teenage years.”

Untested Methods and zircon are credited with mixing on specific tracks. Matt explained how these collaborations came about: “I met Eric (Methods) at Nerdapalooza 2010. I’m a huge fan of a lot of his remixes, but I’m probably a bigger fan of the chiptune-infused synthpop style he has developed in his independent work. He and I are both music production geeks that use FL Studio, so we’ve been chatting fairly regularly since Nerdapalooza, and we’ve tried several efforts at collaboration along the way. This was just the first one that made it to a finalized, published product.”

Matt considers zircon and the OC ReMix community to be a great motivation and influence on his production. He elaborated on zircon’s contribution to the EP: “I’ve had zircon on my contacts list since he did a series of FL Studio production tutorials a few years back. I had been struggling very, very hard to mix ‘The Stand’. I’d worked on it for eight hours a day, for three days straight, and had finally just fallen into despair over mixing the song. So I shot zircon a message, and he graciously offered to help me out. He pretty much saved that track from falling apart.”

Getting to Know You includes a cover version of a song by Brad Turcotte called “Fake It”. Matt expressed his desire was to cover this song, and include it on the EP. “Through my old school nerdcore ways, I’m hip to a place called SongFight, where Brad is a regular competitor. I feel like I’m a broken record for saying it, but I’m a huge fan of his work, and his entire album Out of It is absolutely classic to me. I specifically chose ‘Fake It’ because I felt like it sort of encapsulated the changes that I went through in college. I think that song feels like every twenty-something’s anthem.”

JG Hollowell, also known as Mithurn, provided the second rhythm guitar heard on “Loop On”. Matt talked about how they both became acquainted: “JG is an old, old friend of mine. Probably since before I started making music, or at least somewhere around that time frame. I met him through an MMO, but it just so happened that he lived in Charleston close to me. I went off to college, but met back up with him shortly after I graduated.” Matt also remarked on their collaborative process by saying that, “He presents a whole different dynamic to songwriting when I work with him. I can’t just fall back into sequencing; I have to work live. I’m playing guitar and singing, trying to come up with melodies or chords on the spot. He has a lot more of a free jam session background, and I strongly respect that. ‘Loop On’ evolved from a jam between us.”

The track “Mannequins” on the EP originated as a track ProjektZero made for a compo. Matt expressed his thoughts on the composition competition experience, stating  “I absolutely feel that the compos benefited me. I’ve put out six albums since I’ve started doing them. Of course, most of those directly came from the compos. This new EP is more refined, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the compo experience. The advice and the high pressure trial-and-error was just invaluable to shaping my songwriting.” He agreed that the mannequin concept from One Hour Compo was somewhat unusual, but felt that “that’s what was liberating about it. I couldn’t get lost in the theme, specifically because it was obscure. So to really thrive with mannequins as a concept, you had to make it your own. And I think that’s what made that week’s theme probably my favorite one of the entire series so far.”

Getting to Know You is available now at Bandcamp with free or name-your-price options. The cover art was created by Brett Houston.

Mammoth Sound Presents: “The Day After…” @ The Geek Easy

Attention Nerdapalooza fans! If you’re still in Orlando after one of the biggest festival events of the year, come get your nerd on at The Geek Easy on July 18th for a special night of exciting new acts and spectacular encores. With lively performances from nerdcore legends including YTCracker, Mega Ran, and Shael Riley, this insane line-up will definitely blow your mind and leave you wanting more. A special after-show performance is also scheduled to follow from none other than the SKILL FOCUS: BURLESQUE, Orlando’s exclusive nerdy burlesque troupe!

For more information on Mammoth Sound Presents: “The Day After…”, click here. You can also pre-order your tickets online or just show up for a $10 cover. If you’re broke like me, bring a copy of the flyer or a NAP2011 ticket to get a $5 discount. Doors open at 6 pm.

Remember to bring your friends, frenemies, lovers, and cute dogs. Well, maybe not cute dogs. Unless you have a Corgi…

Nerdapalooza 2011: Hotel Rates and Hosts!

Nerdapalooza has just announced the host of this years event, as well as the discount rates available for attendees staying at the venue, the Orlando Airport Marriott.

Nerdapalooza is an annual nerd music concert. This year the festival will be returning to the Orlando Airport Marriott beautiful Orlando, Florida on July 16th and 17th. This places the show conveniently during the summer in Florida (as if you needed another excuse to go to Florida this summer!), in the city that is also home to Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Studios Orlando Florida, Universal Studios’ Island of Adventure featuring the NEW Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Sea World Orlando, 1000 malls, and MUCH more. This year they will also be returning to the Orlando Airport Marriott that is located right outside of the Orlando International Airport (MCO). (For a list of airlines that fly into MCO, check here!) Anyone planning to attend the event will have absolutely no trouble finding a shuttle to bring you the less-than-5-minute trip from the airport to the venue!

This year the Marriott if offering a discount rate of just $89/night. Not only that, but the first 100 to reserve with the Nerdapalooza discount at the Orlando Airport Marriott will receive a 10% discount to the hotel’s restaurant for one meal at their stay! So if you’re thinking about going to Nerdapalooza, there’s no better time to reserve a room than right now.

In order to take advantage of this, you’ll have two paths you can take:

  • Either call 407-851-9000 or their toll-free number of 1-800-380-6751 and ask for 5th Annual Nerdapalooza Group Block.
  • Reserve online at this link, which will automatically take you to the Orlando Airport Marriott website with the discount code of nernera entered as the discount code.

Additionally, this year’s Nerdapalooza will be hosted by none of other than Epic Win Burlesque. Anyone who attended last years event surely won’t forget the Epic Win Burlesque performance after-hours on Saturday evening. For those who didn’t attend Epic Win Burlesque is a phenomenal burlesque troupe with a taste quite nerdy, as seen in shows themed in Ghostbusters, cartoons, and even hosting a debate between Star Trek and Star Wars. Hosted by Schäffer the Darklord and Nelson Lugo, accomplished magician and vaudevillian, Epic Win has been redefining the craft in New York.

Each year Nerdapalooza grows bigger and better, and this year is no exception! People from all over the video game remix community are already lining up to get to Nerdapalooza, including everyone’s favorite OverClocked After Dark hosts, Level99 and Brushfire. Don’t miss out on this huge event! Book your room today.