Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Feb 9, 2012, 10:49 am
At last, dear friends, I am easing back into my bloggerly duties after a few days of post-surgical convalescence. Yes I am doing well, and yes my gums are now bionic! I am, at present, working on a couple of larger pieces – most specifically the next podcast and a really great interview with the ...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Feb 3, 2012, 9:16 am
Mine? Not so much.Hello, denizens of the internet! This is just a quick personal note to let you know that I will be AFK, as the kids say, for a while next week. How long? I have no idea. I have a dental procedure scheduled early Monday morning, and I use the phrase "dental procedure" because saying...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 31, 2012, 10:07 am
Spending the better part of two weeks at home with my wife and kids, all three of which are regular Top 40 radio listeners, influenced me (and this episode) in strange and wonderful ways. I didn't realize it at the time, of course, but those sugary radio hits were worming their way into my psyche. T...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 30, 2012, 1:50 pm
Folks, there are a number of wonderful ways to kick off a week, but this is not one of them. Last night Nerdapalooza mainstay, Nerdy Show co-host and all around FL scene staple "Triforce" Mike Pandel was involved in a traffic accident. His injuries are serious, and he isn't expected to survive. The...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 27, 2012, 4:42 pm
I have a love/hate relationship with Kickstarter. On the one hand, it's an amazing tool that helps independent artists and creators fund projects with the help of fans, and connecting real fans with innovative and independently-minded acts is something I am all about. On the other, everybody's got...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 24, 2012, 10:41 am
Stevie D is many things. He is the son of a preacher-man. He is an Illbot. He is a friend to the elderly and infirmed. He is a loving husband (to Brandy.) He is a devoted father (to Big Perm and Samson.) He is a Words With Friends hustler. He is my country-brother-from-another-mother. But most im...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 20, 2012, 11:31 am
Bad-ass flyer by @rusty_shacklesApparently February is the hot new month in which to tour. I mean, all the cool kids are doing it! I've already mentioned that next month my boys Adam WarRock and Kirby Krackle will be travelling the west coast, but it's recently been revealed that my other boys Jesse...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 18, 2012, 10:51 am
I'm not participating in today's internet blackout because I think anyone with half a brain already understands that what I do here – at a site that promotes acts who sample, remix and, in many cases, pay lyrical tribute to existing songs or properties without permission of the original copyright ...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 17, 2012, 1:24 pm
I imagine it's hard for most of us in the States, after the three-day MLK weekend, to get back into the swing of the work week on this sullen Tuesday morning. On a personal note, I'm more than willing to admit that it's a dreary winter day in the Deep South, and I am operating on what I conservative...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 13, 2012, 1:02 pm
In addition to covering those ever important new developments – I got that breaking nerd news, son! – these first couple of months of the New Year are very much about old business. Therefore my debut podcast of 2012 is centered on an interview I did with my good buddy Stevie D back in December o...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 10, 2012, 1:49 pm
Fate is a cold, cruel mistress. How else can you explain today's announcement that Kirby Krackle and Adam WarRock – two of my most favoritist acts of ever – are touring together next month... but only on the fucking opposite side of the country? So while I drown my sorrows with cheap table wine ...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 6, 2012, 2:59 pm
Last month I discovered that news travels fast in the brony community. Likewise I was reminded, that those folks are, above all else, gracious. So, y'know, thanks for all that traffic and the all kind words, bronies! And while I imagine everypony has already heard about this one, those of you that d...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Jan 4, 2012, 2:17 pm
It's officially been 2012 for a few days now, but I've had trouble pulling together a proper new blog post as I have been playing Skyrim very busy doing super important stuff and in no way goofing off. Since this is my first piece of the year, I kinda felt as though it should be both indicative of t...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Dec 30, 2011, 9:29 am
I am a creature of habit. I toss out phrases like "regular feature" and "annual tradition" a lot around here, and that's because these things, in their own weird little way, give me hope. The fact that this blog has been around long enough for me to have go-to pieces reminds me of how fortunate I am...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Dec 28, 2011, 11:51 am
Ah, the final podcast of 2011. You've been a longtime coming. (That's what she said!) I always try and pull double duty with my year-end show. I want it to showcase some great cuts from the previous 12 months that I neglected to play at the time of their release, but I also want it to give you a lit...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Dec 20, 2011, 12:18 pm
Some would argue that I've already had my say regarding holiday music for this season, but fuck those people! (Seriously, those people are dicks.) The rest of you – you fine, decent individuals – already know that I've once again given my yuletide musical recommendation to the classic holiday ch...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Dec 19, 2011, 10:23 am
By all rights I should be at home enjoying my Christmas vacation today – it's one of the perks of working in education – but instead I am at the office. Mostly because there's work to be done, and, truth be told, I'd rather save a few of these leave days for a time next year when the streets are...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Nov 1, 2011, 12:48 pm
My old pal Karl "Ultraklystron" Olson – Or is it nerdcore newcomer Karl "Ultraklystron" Olson? #bazinga – has a couple of interesting projects in the works. There's Rai's new full-length, which I've already discussed, and a new mixtape that I'll be talking up later this month. For the time bein...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 31, 2011, 11:42 am
Apparently my superpower is riffing on current events for show titles. Or not; I mean, I often seem to overestimate my own cleverness. Still, this one made me chuckle. This year I had a little trouble rekindling my (historically abundant) Halloween spirit, but with the day finally upon us I am all ...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 25, 2011, 11:02 am
Okay, admittedly Illbotz's "Me and You and a PBR" isn't exactly a Halloween song. It is, if anything, a love song. Or more to the point, a boning song. Still, it does include a Cyclops as Stevie D's love interest, and the new video is a reworking of a 1979 commercial featuring Patrick Swayze. He was...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 21, 2011, 10:32 am
image credit: @galendaraThis year's crop of Halloween-related musical releases has been a little light. But I reckon between occupying Wall Street and bitching about folks occupying Wall Street and everyone preparing for the Rapture we've all really had a lot on our collective plate. Still, there i...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 18, 2011, 10:08 am
Earlier this year MC Frontalot coordinated a Kickstarter effort to raise funds for a shiny new music video for the song "Critical Hit," the debut single from his recently released Solved LP. The nerdcore community pulled out every goddamn one o' them stops and not only met the goal but totally annih...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 17, 2011, 1:36 pm
If anything, Halloween is a holiday for the bad guys, which makes this announcement from Slytherin Wizard Rock staple Draco and the Malfoys all the more relevant: After 7 years on that WRock-grind, it appears as though brothers Brian Ross and Bradley Mehlenbacher are hanging up their scarves. Of a...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 13, 2011, 10:42 am
These Halloween Crap-tacular episodes will always hold a special place in my cold and lifeless heart. This annual two-part celebration of musical monstrosities was among the first RFHs to feature a theme. Moreover, the inaugural episode marked the first time I ever incorporated background music int...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 10, 2011, 2:02 pm
I was actually planning to save this one for the next podcast (which should drop later this week) due partly to the fact that it ably closes out the second set and also because I kinda went video crazy last week. Still, this is an excellent slice of musical film-making that I think you'll enjoy. Plu...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 7, 2011, 12:59 pm
Apparently it's a creepy music video kinda week, and I'm wrapping it up with something that MC Lars passed my way just yesterday. The track in question is the haunting "Amateur Rocketry" by rootsy indie rocker Dan Wholey, but its link to the House of Horris concerns the video itself. This fancy, fre...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 6, 2011, 3:07 pm
One of my favorite Halloween releases from 2010 was an Insane Ian's collab with Kiki Canon, Devo Spice and Schaffer the Darklord entitled "We're All Gonna Die." It's a comical send-up of the classic slasher movie motif – which likely won't surprise you as comedy music is sort of Ian's thang. Whi...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Oct 4, 2011, 3:22 pm
It's the Halloween season, my nerdy friends, and that means I will be dazzling you with holiday-appropriate songs and videos throughout the month of October. I hope. We shall kick shit off with the latest from Superpowerless. Okay, admittedly it's a Muse cover, which isn't exactly what one would li...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 30, 2011, 11:14 am
So apparently the concept of a bunch of guys getting spectacularly drunk and recording it on the internet is inherently flawed. Yeah, I know; I'm as surprised as you! When I started Drunken Podcasting Month some 4 years ago I knew it came with some risks, and the chief among those - aside from, y'k...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 27, 2011, 1:42 pm
Mixtapes – everybody's got one. Okay, not everybody, but I think we can all agree that this particular art form is undergoing a definite resurgence. Some would argue that this is a proper renaissance, with what was once a distinctly underground phenomenon finding its way to new ears thanks to the ...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 23, 2011, 11:01 am
It's Friday, which means that – and this is highly dependent upon whom you ask – I am either in love or presently kickin' in the front seat. For the record, both of these are true. So, y'know, either answer would be correct. No pressure. Personally, I'm rather hoping for a low-impact weekend. A ...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 21, 2011, 2:44 pm
I think we can all agree that there is an absolute dearth of Mega Man-inspired projects available in today's VGM marketplace. Okay, that level of sarcasm borders on dick-holery, so I'll restrain my inner snark beast. For my own sake as much as yours. Sure, you've got your Protomen and your Mega Rans...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 19, 2011, 2:49 pm
I hear a rumbling from the west, my friends. There is a storm brewing, a musical tempest with over-sized eyes, gravity-defying hair and flamboyant outfits. Surely this can only signify that the otaku army of the Ultraklystron camp is mobilizing! For Karl himself this means a leak from his forthcom...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 16, 2011, 11:28 am
Recently I came to the startling realization that if I respond to an email, the person on the other end will, nearly without fail, write back – further contributing to the catastrophe that is my inbox. What I'm saying is that this shit is a vicious cycle. The same goes for album reviews. I get a n...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 13, 2011, 10:40 am
In this very special episode I throw the age-old Radio Free Hipster formula right out the window! I've been slipping with regard to regular featured interview posts – the recent mc chris piece notwithstanding – so I made it a point to grab at least one audio interview at Nerdapalooza 2011. The ...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 12, 2011, 1:43 pm
... is a fucking travesty – I would like to share with you a live cut from Supercommuter's PAX main stage debut. It's a very special track, specifically Stenobot's remix of Optimus Rhyme classic "Obey the Moderator," with a very special guest, the one and only Stumblebee. Please Like It, favori...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 8, 2011, 2:30 pm
... of my exchanges with mc chris over the past four or so years is his willingness ... to the crazed pop of mc chris is dead and Goes to Hell. Musically, what can ... . Like they did the music for Red Dead Redemption, and you can hear a little ... s like he's living a double life. Half the time...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 7, 2011, 10:14 am
So I was on the Facebooks this morning – I'm not proud of it, but it's where my little bro Roach chose to post his Dragon*Con pics – and I noticed that this is the birthday of a certainly notable nerd MC. San Diego's Doctor Awkward, of The BossFights and, um, simply being fuckin' Doctor Awkward ...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Sep 2, 2011, 9:52 am
When I first heard Weezer's nigh-ridiculously named third self-titled release I was struck by the staggering revelation that, while I had grown up a lot since the 1990s, Rivers Cuomo had not. This isn't to say I didn't dig the album, or even that a writer necessarily needs to ripen emotionally in or...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 31, 2011, 9:47 am
Fun fact: I actually got the title of this episode from NPR. During a segment concerning the uprisings in Libya and Syria, the riots in London and the crush of recent natural disasters, the commentator referred to a bloody, ugly summer marked by violence and destruction. The phrase stuck in my mind....
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 24, 2011, 12:02 pm
It's been a big week for music videos, which is to say that it's been one of those weeks when half the messages that make their way into my inbox have YouTube links. And that's not a bad thing. This, of course, leaves me to collect all these disparate images and compile them lovingly into a single b...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 22, 2011, 11:18 am
We're scarcely half a day into the workweek, and I, for one, am already having trouble staying motivated. I imagine that this not an isolated incident, so I'll share with you the one thing keeping me going right now. Spoiler alert: it's music. My brothers Steve and Gord, of Ye Olde Bonebat Show, ha...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 19, 2011, 10:43 am
The Great White North is about to get a whole lot hotter thanks to the Backburner crew. Thomas from Hand'Solo was nice enough to hit me with a pre-release promo of their latest Heatwave earlier this week, and it's nothing short of epic! Featuring top-shelf Canadian hip-hoppers like Jesse Dangerously...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 17, 2011, 1:14 pm
Not actual photo of rapperThose of us who attended Nerdapalooza got a special treat during the Adam WarRock set. His partner in crime Tribe One – a cat who'll be joining Adam on the latter half of the Race Wars tour – busted out a phenomenal solo joint wherein he rapped over the soundtrack for t...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 15, 2011, 1:25 pm
It’s the first day of school down here in my burg. I'm not sure if that's relevant save to say that the summer season is fast coming to a close. Consider this another dose of warm-weather music for that ass. As I assume your ass still requires warm-weather music. Download Radio Free Hipster Ep. 1...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 10, 2011, 2:00 pm
As many of you already know, rapper Adam WarRock is my baby's mother. (Okay, not literally.) Ergo I am honor bound to tell you that this very month he is conducting a rare donation drive. Y'see, Adam doesn't ask for handouts. He doesn't do Kickstarter. He pays for all of his expenses, from travel t...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 9, 2011, 2:36 pm
A new Kirby Krackle album all but guarantees two things. The first is a glowing review from me. The second? Kick ass new videos! Check out the latest in visual delights from the guys. It's for "Nerd Money," the second single from their Super Powered Love full-length. It was lovingly animated in ultr...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 3, 2011, 9:01 am
I'm leaving you, my tiny baby birds. I'm afraid you will be forced to fend for yourselves for the rest of the week while I take the fam on our regular pilgrimage to the coast. Hush now. Don't cry. Your ol' Uncle Zack will be back before you know it. And if you really can't live without me you can f...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 2, 2011, 9:09 am
I hate reality shows. Oddly enough, however, I love documentaries. I suppose the difference, to me at least, is that the former focuses on hollow, superficial subjects while the latter illuminates the inner workings of the world around us and its most compelling denizens. For this reason alone I ha...
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Z. posted an article on Hipster, please! - Aug 1, 2011, 9:52 am
I have come to realize that the more nice shit you say, the less likely others are to actually believe it. Over-hyping something, even retroactively, is a cardinal sin. So I shall reign in my post-Nerdapalooza bliss. I mean, I wouldn't go so far as to say Nerdapalooza 2011 was a religious experience...
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