AWmusic

I should admit, I didn’t find the Sweet Hollywaiians. They found me. Anyone who uses twitter knows that sometimes you can say something like “my god I love raspberry jam” and about ten minutes later you’ll have a jam reviewer following you. It’s the way ads work there, I suppose. Anyways, I was talking about hula music in one of my “tweets” when all of a sudden these guys started following me. I went to their myspace page, learned about them and heard just the most…INCREDIBLE music. And thus began my love affair with the Osaka based Sweet Hollywaiians. What must have been a month or so later, I received a package with four of their albums including the latest, Ticklin’ The Strings (which I am listening to while writing this).

I love this group because they really seem to inherit the spirit of Hot String music and manage to sound authentic. They’re right on par with the original groups of the time such as Ray Noble and His Hawaiians or other revivalist groups like R. Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders and The House Rent Serenaders. Listening to them is like being transported to a 1920s kitchen jam or a small club. They’re just amazing.

What’s more amazing, it seems, is that the Hollywaiians are from Osaka, Japan. A place that sounds so unlikely for this music to thrive enough to form a band as talented as the Hollywaiians. But I suppose that it is further proof that the power of music knows no borders, regardless of genre. The Hollywaiians have played with members of the Cheap Suit Serenaders Robert Armstrong and Tony Marcus. They have received praise from Robert Crumb himself as well as legendary filmmaker Terry Zwigoff who has said that they “have probably the best feel for this 20’s music of any string band working today”.

Here’s a small e-mail interview I did with Nobumasa Takada (aka Mario) of The Sweet Hollywaiians.

The most common reaction from people regarding the Sweet Hollywaiians is surprise that you come from Japan. How did your interest in this kind of music spring up?
In our young days,we were collecting Yazoo Records.Because we were interested in album jackets which were illustrated by Robert Crumb and Robert Armstrong.The music were based on 1920’s,30’s blues,jazz and hawaiian.

What appeals to you most about this type of music?
We can feel nostalgic and sound is comfortable and soft to the ear.

How big is Hot String music in Japan? Is there a community based around it?
Very small.There is a community but very small.Majority of people don’t know about this type of music.

I understand that you all were pursuing solo careers and through an accident you formed the band. What was the accident?
All of our member were at the intersection crossroad.We were all crossing from different directions to each other and all of us crushed at the center of the intersection.It sounds like fake story but It’s true story.

You guys have a European tour coming up, right? Will this be your first time in Europe?
Yes but I have been there so many times in my imagination,Ha!

How did it feel to get high praise from the likes of Robert Crumb and Terry Zwigoff?
We are very glad and so proud of ourself.Because we respect them so much and it’s our pleasure to accept such comments from them.

After the tour, what’s next for the Sweet Hollywaiians?
We’ll come see you.Can we?

And there you have it. A great band with a great sound just doing what they love. That’s the musical dream, right? Remember these guys. You’ll be hearing a lot more from them soon.

Here’s two tracks from their latest album and a video of them playing My Girl From The South Sea Isles.

The Sweet Hollywaiians – Ellis March
The Sweet Hollywaiians – Ten Tiny Toes

www.myspace.com/sweethollywaiians

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter — there’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with “Got to Get You Off My Mind”, but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you’ve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can’t have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can’t have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you’ve done the whole thing in pairs and…oh, there are loads of rules.

-Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

——
After a bit of a hiatus that involved family deaths, broken hearts and unemployed grief, I’m back to writing for this thing because damn it, I have things to SAY. Expect some stuff in the future consisting of horror indie bands, Japanese Hot String and maybe something steampunky. But for now I want to talk about the concept of “mix tape”.

I know that this subject has been brought up before, but let’s try to look at things a bit differently. Frankly I’m surprised that I’m still hearing griping about this subject.

“The mix tape is dead.” is pretty much the main thing you hear at parties/concerts/any kind of social setting where the topic of music nowadays is brought up amongst anyone who enjoys music. The reasons for why it is dead are always brought up. I’ll spare the rant, but just say that the general view is that with cassettes you could put your HEART into it, man. You could make something completely personal, almost handcraft it, spending hours and hours picking the right songs and the right order and putting it on to the tape and then experiencing the sheer excitement of decorating the cover and tape yourself. Silver spray paint? Sure! Glitter? Damn right! And I would consider you inept if you didn’t draw a picture of a moose.

So the big view is that “you can’t do that nowadays” which let’s face it, is total bullshit. Some people have said that CDs lack that personal touch, but for every person that says that, there are at least two who listen to every single song before they put it anywhere near the tracklist, all the while keeping that person in mind. And for every person that just makes the same CD for their friends, there are two who make one and only one copy and delete the tracklist (while possibly keeping a playlist on their computer so they could think of the person they sent it to).

And anyway, who said that mix tapes have to be personal? One of the great things about music is that it brings people together and that can lead to some incredibly interesting projects with complete strangers found on the internet. Take The Post-Apocalyptic 8tracks Project I started up several months ago. Went on to a forum, created a thread stating a theme (in this case, anything post-apocalyptic), gave them the link to 8tracks along with the account name and password and let them loose. 19 post-apocalyptic mixes were created and we’ve accumulated up to 52 followers with countless people who don’t have accounts listening. A large number of random people putting together a mix based on one central theme can come up with some mind-blowing music that you’ve never heard before. You might want the song and can get it through the use of DownloadHelper (Which officially I should say you should never ever use because it is stealing). From there you can look the artist up and before you know it you might have a new favorite artist.

Anyways, the point I’m trying to make is that The Mix Tape is far from dead. The cassette isn’t around anymore, but CDs and the internet are powerful tools and can contain limitless possiblities. If you want to make something personal for that special someone, the fact that you have to use a CD will in no way take away the personal feeling and the touching knowledge that someone cared enough to create a special mix with specifically them in mind just for them. And if you want to discover new music, by all means start or take part in a project similar to the one I mentioned above. Do it on a forum, with your friends, or whatever you want. Use 8tracks or just upload them all on to a free file hosting site. Hell, when it starts up again take part in m3p3, an amazing livejournal audio penpal community. I don’t really how you do it, just go out there and discover some amazing fucking music.

Now here’s some music that I have received in mixes from some random audio mix projects I’ve been a part of.

Gogol Bordello – Never Want To Be Young Again

Odd Nosdam – We Bad Apples

Hello Saferide – The Quiz

Bodies Of Water – Dear Boy (Paul and Linda McCartney

I feel like god wiped his ass with my brain and I just got beaten up by a group of skinhead midgets from Nebraska. So unless you want to read about the stuff I’m coughing up and how it compares to whatever the hell Conor Oberst coughs up when he cries himself to sleep, there will be no review today.

However, I’ve been messing around with 8Tracks, muxtape’s better faster and stronger clone since it went all “we don’t do that anymore” and I have three mixes from my collection I can share with you.

Mix 1: Are Friends Electric?
All female vocalists. Good stuff.

Mix 2: I Don’t Sleep Well
A mix to listen to when going to sleep proves unfruitful.

Mix 3: Bad People
So very bad. Good songs though!

Right, I’m off to die.

Well, to most of us Summer is finally here and we’re starting to go outside with more skin showing and we should already be listening to some more upbeat music (unless you’re one of them goths but even then perhaps a song about how glorious blood is, yes?). I’ve been going back in to some things and rediscovering some old favorites and even finding some gems I can’t fucking believe I missed. One of these gems is Eric Bachmann’s solo album (eg Not Crooked Fingers, which is also a solo project of his) To The Races from 2006. That’s right, 2006. I never said I was “with it” damn it.

Crooked Fingers, Bachmann’s solo project after playing with Archers Of Loaf was always pleasant background music to me. one of those bands that I would hear in the Green Room or some other bar playing on the stereo that would intrigue me to the point of asking the waitress “who is that playing?” and would immediately forget what she told me. When I finally DID look them up, I was amazed at the sound that they produced (And if you don’t have it already, go right to whatever the hell internet store or record shop you go to and pick up the album Red Devil Dawn. Brilliant. Fucking. Album). But I never really looked in to it that much and that was that. Then a couple of months ago as I was skimming through my old music collection, I decided to look Eric Bachmann up and see what the hell he’s been doing since 2005. This album was one of them.

To The Races is a wonderful, relaxing album. The acoustic guitar and Bachmann’s voice are the only prominent elements in this album (with some other instruments and a choir occasionally showing up). The songs are honest, beautiful, and provides further evidence that Eric Bachmann is a lighthearted, less wanky and (to me, anyways) more tolerable version of Iron & Wine. Despite being from 2006 the sound is still fresh and takes me to a happy place when I listen to it while walking in the sun. The song Carrboro Woman and Man O’ War in particular just makes me feel like I could be on a carriage or in my room contemplating…anywhere really. It’s just beautiful.

Bachmann has a great voice, amazing writing skills and can play like a champ. I wish I found this album when it came out in 2006, but right now I’m just happy I found it. Get it. Listen to it. Enjoy it.

Now here’s some mp3s for you:

Carrboro Woman
Man O’ War
Lonesome Warrior

The Floodlight Collective is the debut solo album of Deerhunter’s Lockett Pundt (going by Lotus Plaza) and to many people, this has been a much anticipated album. Some tracks were released on the Deerhunter blog and they were met with giddiness (yes, GIDDINESS). And after hearing a track that writer Warren Ellis put on an 8tracks mix he put together, I became very enthusiastic about giving the whole album a listen. I contacted my editor from the bowels of…actually, I don’t know where the hell he lives. I always assume it’s a bachelor apartment with weird rantings scribbled on the wall in blood, pen or whatever he can find. Anyways, I contacted him about it and he got in touch with the good people at Kranky, who rushed a copy of the album to me.

I’m glad I listened to this album at around this time, where spring is starting to pop up. This is very much an album that goes well with sunlight and doing things like looking out a car window in the passenger seat. It’s contemplative, mildly nostalgic and sunny. I’m hearing all sorts of influences here. No artists in particular, but more of genres from different times. 60’s surfer music, 50’s crooners…it’s there if you listen close enough. The song Quicksand really makes that point stand out for me. I felt like I was on a fucking beach. The album also has it’s meditative moments too, such as the song I fell in love with, These Years. It twists and turns but the album never escapes those overexposed sunlight moments from your mind. Also an honourable mention should go to the song The Floodlight Collective for making me think of the science fiction movies I used to watch in the 80s.

Now that said, it wasn’t perfect for me. Three or four tracks in I was under the impression that I was listening to a male-fronted, down tempo version of Camera Obscura. There are some big differences between the two, but some of the sound was very similar and I found that the two brought up the same kind of visions in my head and while I love Camera Obscura, why should I listen to music that reminds me of them when I could actually be listening to them?. Another thing that kind of annoyed me about the album was that it just…didn’t seem to change that much. The vocals always gave that “singing in an empty auditorium with shitty acoustics” echo sound. No matter what the tempo of the actual song, I was still hearing the same inaudible ghostly moaning which for all I know could have been singing the contents of a grocery list. But what the hell, maybe that was the point.

In conclusion, The Floodlight Collective is a decent album, but is probably more appreciated by fans of Deerhunter than anyone else. It’s got a great sound and is clever, but I can’t help but feel that there should be more to it. put 2-3 songs in your spring playlist but any more than that and you might overdose on the sound.

Now here’s some music for you:
Quicksand
These Years
The Floodlight Collective

Dear Odin, I’m doing an actual review on something current. Next thing you know it pigs will be flying around shooting rainbows out of their asses and Jesus will be coming back as a London mobster named Charlie (Or Chaaaaalie as they pronounce it in those glorious films).

Fever Ray is the solo project for The Knife’s female half Karin Dreijer Andersson. Personally I became excited by this self-titled album after seeing the music video for If I Had A Heart which was an incredibly eerie journey that showed us how creepy it would be if a couple of kids, some pants-shittingly terrifying people wearing masks and a dog wandered around a land full of dead people in the middle of the night.

Now on to the album. Fever Ray is one of the best albums to listen to at three in the morning after you’ve tried to go to sleep for the tenth time. It just works with insomnia so well. Apparently most of the songs were created in the sleepless hours following the birth of Andersson’s second child, which makes this album even more suitable for late night playing. It’s unbalanced, dark, weird, twisted and just plain fucked up…which is how most of us feel when we can’t sleep.

I’m not sure if I’m going mad or not, but I can really hear a Peter Gabriel influence in this album. The 80s-style synth, and voice filters just scream Gabriel while her vocal tone reminds me of Kate Bush (though just a little bit). i don’t know…I just get a sense that in these songs there’s an ode to the darker side of 80’s pop and that fills me with a bit of giddy nostalgia and horrible dread. There’s no other song in the album that represents this better than the song Seven.

In short, Fever Ray is an album that needs the help of the environment around you so it can be fully appreciated. It doesn’t really hold out well in the day time, but when it’s playing at around 2 or 3am, it sounds magnificent and will help see you through your late night insanity.

Here are some mp3s from the album.

If I Had A Heart
Seven
When I Grow Up

Is this Spring? This crazy Toronto weather is horrible…well, nevermind.

It’s been discussed before. How is the world going to end? What will you do? Anyone who has spent at least an hour with a bunch of friends who don’t know what to do that day has talked about these possibilities. We’ve watched the films with all sorts of different scenarios (nuclear war, alien invasion, zombie infestation, virus), and more than a few of us have had the odd fantasy of living in that desert wasteland, leather-clad, “every person for themselves” lifestyle. Scrounging around for gas, ammunition, water and maybe some food. All left over from the world that was.

here’s some music.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (site)
Rockets Fall On Rocket Falls and Dead Flag Blues
When I think of these two songs, I imagine two different moments in the same Scenario. Rockets Fall On Rocket Falls is the moment that the nuclear bombs go off. Parts of buildings are falling to the streets, people of all sorts are running in a panic trying to find somewhere safe. And Dead Flag Blues makes me think of that first night after the bombs have done their damage and there are still some survivors hiding in bunkers or something, knowing that their lives, and the world, will never be the same.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Rockets Fall On Rocket Falls
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Dead Flag Blues

Kepler
The Changing Light At Sandover
Years have passed. North America (and what the hell, everywhere else) is a desert wasteland. People have started coming out of their caves and bunkers and started to rebuild. But the world is a twisted wasteland. To find some food you have to wander around the desert until you find an abandoned building or something large and horrible to kill. All you have is a spear and a revolver with two bullets in it.
Kepler – The Changing Light At Sandover

Clint Mansell (site)
Ghosts Of Things To Come
(From the soundtrack of Requiem For A Dream) This is a very bittersweet song for me. In a post-apocalyptic scenario, I would say that this was just after a huge fight with a mutant horde attempting to invade your settlement in the middle of the night. They took your best friend and killed your father. The people of your settlement fought hard and eventually the mutants went back to their caves. You’re tired, angry and upset…but you’ve won. And at the top of the hill you can see the sun coming up and it dawns on you that you are alive. Alive to fight another day.
Clint Mansell – Ghosts Of Things To Come

Jill Tracy (site)
Doomsday Serenade
You’re in love! you meet a girl or guy while scavenging for scrap metal for your settlement and instantly fall in love. You frolic amongst the dirt and rubble. La la la la…
Jill Tracy – Doomsday Serenade

Jesper Kyd & The Budapest Symphonic Orchestra(site)
Apocalypse
(From the soundtrack of the game Hitman: Blood Money) You were betrayed by your supposed loved on and have been captured by the mutants! As you are dragged in to their caves you marvel at the flamelit underground cities they have built for themselves. But it’s a savage place. Human skin is being tanned, fights are incredibly common, and you are very very certain that you are going to die.
Jesper Kyd & The Budapest Symphonic Orchestra – Apocalypse

ES Posthumus (site)
Pompeii
You were saved somehow and taken to a walled up city in the middle of the desert. In this city is a club filled with sex, booze, and unarmed combat to the death. You watch in amazement as you see your fellow survivors passing the time by allowing themselves to be entertained by this. It is then that you are informed that you will be fighting next. Fuck.
ES Posthumus – Pompeii

The Ink Spots (site)
Maybe
You won the fight, got the hell out of that city and found your way back home. You grab yourself a mug of water and look at the sunset, knowing full well that tomorrow is another long day of surviving. And for those who are snickering over the song, YES I PLAY FALLOUT 3. The song just seemed appropriate, damn it!
The Ink Spots – Maybe

So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed it. if you have any other post-apocalyptic songs you’d like to suggest, leave a comment.

For those that don’t read my blog (and why would you?) I was in Memphis last week filming the 2009 Folk Alliance Conference. A week-long folk music party at the Marriot Hotel. Music 24/7. It was an incredibly unforgettable experience. There were young and old folks jamming in the lobby, concerts held in hotel rooms and most importantly, beer was being passed around freely. Nothing would please me more than to present you with songs by artists that I felt were the highlight of the conference…but I’m afraid that in the ride back my disc drive broke down and whenever I put a disc in it now it laughs in this obnoxious french accent and spits my discs back out.

So I thought, hell, there’s PLENTY of music that I listened to on the road heading down to Memphis (And back where I had to make a stop in Cleveland). I’ll post about that instead until my drive gets fixed. So you folks get a mix from me and I continue to feel like you want to hear them. Win-win.

Detroit
DVDA – America, Fuck Yeah!
There was a problem crossing the border. It seems that my travel companion and I looked a bit TOO suspicious for simple Canadians going to see some folk music. We were told to stop and under the instruction of a massive power hungry piss-midget of a border patrol guard, got out of our car leaving all our possessions and watched a group of six people go through all our belongings. I’m happy to say though, that this was the ONLY sign of that good ‘ol American paranoia that I only hear about on Fox News. Still, you’d think these guys were in an action film. Thus the following song:

Cincinnati
Steve Carlisle – WKRP Theme
I never really went in to Cincinnati. We just drove past it and went across the bridge. but still…seeing those buildings and the signs I couldn’t help but sing the tune to one of my favorite sitcoms ever. “Baby…if you’ve ever wondered…wondered, whatever became of me…”. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

Louisville
Johnny Cash – One Piece At A Time
Good place. Had some damn fine chili there and met some really nice people when we were lost and looking for directions to Bowling Green. I’d have to say that Kentucky folk are the nicest folk I’ve come across. While driving through, A Johnny Cash tune got stuck in my head. It’s here where we can see that my tastes started turning towards some good ‘ol country music.

Bowling Green
Charlie Daniels – Uneasy Rider
Zoomed on past this place. tapped our feet and hands to this song while driving by.

Nashville
Lovin’ Spoonful – Nashville Cats
David Allan Coe – You Never Even Called Me By My Name
A nice city, but a bit on the tacky side. Oddly enough, not as big on country music as you’d think. Apparently the city officials hate all the country artists coming in to the city and have done their best to get rid of them (such examples include interfering in the building of the new Grand Ole Opry and the regulation of the “Country District” to about two streets). Still, these songs came on and I figured it very suitable, since both mock the country music business in their own special way.

Memphis (And Graceland)
Evils Presley – American Trilogy
King Curly – The Bumblebee Has No Home
As stated above, I had a LOT of fun in this city. The people were nice, the music was banging and they were never short of kitchy crap. And nowhere is this more evident than in the land of the King himself, Graceland. Pictures of Elvis were everywhere and some of his worst songs were wailing on thirty year-old speakers while overweight tourists from Texas gathered around all excited at a chance to experience a glimmer of the life that Elvis had. If they had marketed his name anymore there would be fried peanut butter and banana sandwich vendors and staff members selling pill vials containing elvis-brand mints. But I suppose that’s in poor taste. no… let’s stick with the leopard skin walls.

I managed to get a hold of one of my favorite songs from the week from one of the groups to come out of the conference. King Curly hails from Australia and has an interesting sound. They have all the fixings of an eccentric jug band (well, sans jug) but have the time to write some damn fine lyrics and create songs with inspirations ranging from zombies to Tiny Tim.

Cleveland
Presidents of the United States of America – Cleveland Rocks
My entire ass it rocks. I wasn’t in Cleveland for very long, only to get some sleep and check out the infamous Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and then back to Toronto. But from what I did see of the city, I wasn’t impressed. I will concede, however that it is not within the realm of fantasy that people would think this city “rocks” but in all honesty, I prefer Toronto. Points must be awarded, however, to the hotel we were in who gave us room 1313 that had a wailing breeze coming through the hallway in to our room. Apparently Marilyn Manson stayed there.

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame was…very underwhelming. The movies and information was at least 15 years out of date and was severely lacking in a lot of artists that would normally have been a given for them to have been there. Van Morrison, Peter Frampton, AC/DC, The Byrds, KISS…all missing. Still, some of the memorabilia was cool to see and I got a nice t-shirt out of it.

Que National Anthem
So there you have it. All in all it was a great trip, but I’m glad I’m back in the land of free health care, gay marriage, liberal views on marijuana, playoff beards, good beer, Tim Horton’s and any other common Canadian thing that is in a damn beer commercial.

“MWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!”

When I was little I would practice my evil laugh at LEAST once a day just in case one of my horrible plans had come in to fruition and the world would be in my tiny, evil hands. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to be a villain. No matter what comic I would read or what film I would watch I would always root for the villain. Just once I would have liked to have seen the villain interrupt the hero’s speech about justice and freedom by shooting him. It would have earned a standing ovation from me. Now I’m 24 and…I still love the concept of the super villain. Their reasoning for wanting control often times being more detailed than the hero’s reasoning for upholding virtue, the villain is often an outsider who has been shunned by normal society and decides to exact revenge upon that very society. I’m sure quite a few people could relate to that.

But anyways, here is a modest mix of songs about exactly what life is like being evil. Moo hoo ha ha.

Jill Tracy(site)
I came across Jill Tracy while listening to a mix online that had the song “Doomsday Serenade” on it (one of my favorite songs). Tracy’s style has a kind of dignified morbidness that almost makes it seem like the audio equivalent to an Edward Gorey book.
The Fine Art Of Poisoning
Evil Night Together

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (site)
If you haven’t watched Joss Whedon’s short online series starring Neil Patrick Harris as a lovesick supervillain, you really missed out. Certainly a very cute evil love story.
My Freeze Ray

Dr. Steel (site)
Definitely one of the more well thought out artists I’ve encountered. Dr. Steel is one of the most current big names in villainous music and his image of the mad scientist bent on word domination is nothing short of hilarious when combined with his music.
Lament For A Toy Factory
Build The Robots

Voltaire (site)
I know he was around last time, but it should be said that “When You’re Evil” is a damn fine song.
When You’re Evil
Ex Lover’s Lover

Jonathan Coulton (site)
Skullcrusher Mountain always puts a smile on my face because I find the story, a mad scientist in love, is just so perfect.
Skullcrusher Mountain

Disney (site)
Don’t act so surprised. There couldn’t be a post about evil villain music without songs from some of the characters that I loved watching as a child. Watching Disney villains like Frollo, Jafar, Ursala and Captain Hook had me at the edge of my seat and feeling a combination of excited and afraid. They belong on this list.
Little Mermaid – Poor Unfortunate Souls
The Hunchback Of Notre Dam – Hellfire

…and here’s a phone recording of The Monarch from The Venture Brothers phoning is henchmen from Prison. This was a promotional mp3 let out after season one.
The Monarch’s Call To His Henchmen

Ugh. I hate snow so much and we seem to be getting a lot of it here in Toronto. But it’s also a good excuse to stay in our warm homes and amuse ourselves some way. I have a few friends who, when they aren’t being entertained by youtube, lolcats or porn, get together in a warm living room and play some Dungeons and Dragons or have a Star Trek marathon. …or a Star Wars marathon, or Battlestar Galactica, or Lord Of The Rings…or sometimes they even have a LAN party. My friends take their nerd status SERIOUSLY and I love them for it.

And so the point of this entry, my little moppets, is to give you a small taste of the nerdiness in this world. Songs that reach down in to your soul and touch that part of you that had kept your secret love for Captain Picard or Princess Leia hidden for so long. Oh, yes. This music is for the nerd inside you.

(P.S. 10 points if you knew that the Klingon in the center was Christopher Lloyd and 90 points if you knew that his character was named Commander Kruge and that the picture was from Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.)

Voltaire (web site)
Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the goth music scene knows who Voltaire is. handsome, sarcastic and talented, he sings songs that make us both chuckle and lament. Despite being a gothic poster boy he is also a self-proclaimed trekkie.
Screw The Okampa
The USS Make-Shit-Up

Jonathan Coulton (web site)
When I finally got around to looking Jonathan Coulton up, I had realized that I had been listening to his music for a while. With infectious songs like Code Monkey and Re: Your Brains, Coulton has proven he knows just what the hell he’s doing.
Code Monkey
Re: Your Brains
Skullcrusher Mountain

Lord Of The Rhymes (web site)
My boyfriend introduced me to these guys. Nothing really much to say other than they really love Lord Of The Rings and hip hop. Ha.
Lord Of The Rhymes (First Single)
9-Fingered Frodo

MC Frontalot (web site)
This guy was a HUGE hit at the Penny Arcade Expo and his new album Final Boss is incredibly enjoyable to listen to.
Nerdcore Rising
A Skit About Vocations Featuring the ever wonderful Wil Wheaton