Nerd City Issue 51
Don’t Bother Me, I’m Thinking
with Medulla Vesuvius

Southland Tales

Music in the Cracks: The Deconstructive Art of The Bad Plus

Today, dear readers, I want to discuss with you a most interesting band called The Bad Plus and their recent album called Prog.

First, a word about the band. They are a trio consisting of piano player Ethan Iverson, drummer David King and bassist Reid Anderson. They are young-ish, regular-looking guys. However, the music they make together is far from regular. For, while for some people the word “Prog” brings to mind all manner of goofy imagery like Rick Wakeman in a cape playing a stack of analog synthesizers or Peter Gabriel in a giant bloated Slipperman costume struggling to get his microphone close enough to his mouth to lead Genesis through epic musical statements, there is the fact that in the music world, prog was always short for “progressive”: interested in new ideas, eschewing convention. And in the 70s this curiosity and exploration largely found expression in a preponderance of showy musical technique: odd time signatures, unexpected harmonies, difficult and sometimes extended solo instrumental passages, etc. and this album delivers plenty of that kind of skill.

 Various and Sundry
with Clancy Lass

Rainbow Around the Sun

Mouthgarden

A downward spiral can be entertaining, unless you are on the receiving end of it. Zachary Blasto, a man consumed by music, alcohol and the visions in his head, is a broken record skipping into oblivion as he tries to come to terms with loss; of love, of family and of his mind.

This is Rainbow Around the Sun, a voyeuristic thrill-ride at once beautiful, intriguing, sad, invigorating, hopeful, remorseful and stunning. The life of the medium alone has experienced a metamorphosis from concept album, staged concert and now, the movie, coming home for the Oklahoma premiere at the Dead Center Film Festival in June.

Various and Sundry
with Amdnarg Toh

Godel, Escher, Bach

An Appreciation: Douglas Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is William Thomas Fairport III, and I write this letter holding the utmost contempt for a recent review of Douglas Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, and Bach published within the pages of your modern electro-zine. After the egregious review of this book by the most esteemed M. Vesuvuis, I found myself taking serious umbrage to the most villainous caricature of this classic work by Mr. Hofstadter. How could the journal of our Fair City be so horribly wrong?

 Tournament of Villainy
As witnessed by Rascal Stallion

Terminator vs Shredder

Terminator vs Shredder

Shredder towered over his kneeling students as he paced before them. His master class had progressed quite well and these, his brightest students, were ready for their final exam. The commuter traffic in the city square was sparse for a Monday morning but Shredder was confident a suitable challenge would present itself.

He thought he had an ideal target when an armored car pulled up to the bank two blocks down. However, just as he was about to send his students out something much better caught his eye and he stayed his hand. He couldn’t believe his luck when a real Cyberdyne Systems T-800 passed by across the street.