Top 10 Harry Potter Music List to Avada Kedavra to

The novel and movie series of Harry Potter are big business.  They helped make YA literature what it is today.  Many fans have fallen in love with the characters and the world which they show through many creative ways including music.

1. Wizard Rock.  The whole scene and bands.  I am just lumping them all together in one or this would just be me listing some of them.  I wanted to show off some other acts that are Potter fans too.

2. Insane Ian noted that River Cuomo of Weezer looks like a grown-up Potter, taking this idea we wrote a parody album of Harry Potter set to Weezer songs.  He calls it Weezard.

3. Adam Warrock and Mikal kHill of the Thought Criminals have worked together a few times on mixtapes.  One of them The Slytherin House Mixtape.  Sampling the orchestral scores from the movies, they created a mixtape focused on the franchise, from the point of view of the more cunning and ambitious students.

4. The great Luke Ski has Christmas in Hogwarts, a parody of Run DMC’s “Christmas In Hollis” about Harry Potter at Christmastime.

5. Team StarKid a musical theatre production troupe, originally from Ann Arbor, MI and currently based in Chicago, who created their A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel.  Darren Criss of Glee fame plays Harry and wrote the majority of the music.

6. The nerd rock band Nuclear Bubble Wrap has done a number of Harry Potter songs over the years: Act Pottery, Avada Kedavra, and Draining the Lizard on a Dead Gay Wizard.

7. Not Literally is a trio of girls who love to make videos.  They have done a whole slew of Potter music videos.

8. Scych has done an electric progressive rock song inspired by the Elder Wand in the HP series called the Eldruhn Wand.

9. Hello, The Future also has a Christmas song about Harry Potter; Merry Christmas, Harry Potter.  What is it about Harry Potter, Christmas, and comedy musicians?

10. If you were wanting more nerdcore, here is The Wrock Snob’s top ten list of nerdcore songs with Potter references.  Includes Kabuto the Python, Dr. Awkward, YTCracker, and more.

Honorable Mention goes to an 8bit version of the Harry Potter theme also know as Hedwig’s Theme from the movie series.

 

Top 10 Tolkien Music List to Have Second Breakfast To

J R R Tolkien’s work “The Hobbit” and the Lord of the Rings trilogy are basically the birth of modern fantasy work.  It has spawned much analysis, art, games, and movies.  So of course there is plenty of fan music inspired by this work.

1. Lord of the Rhymes the masters of Hobbit rap

2. Marc Gunn’s Well Dressed Hobbit and Don’t Go Drinking with Hobbits.

3. Middle Earth Needs Me by the Consortium of Genius does not just talk about Tolkien works, but is still very cool.

4. The Lonely Mountain Band a Tolkien inspired folk band made up of members of the Celtic rock band Fathom.

5. great Luke Ski’s Stealing Like a Hobbit

6. Brobdingnagian Bards take traditional Irish and Scottish folk songs, mix it up with Lord of the Rings music to create a unique brand of Celtic Filk.

7. A Middle Earth-themed lyrical throw down called Goblin Town with INT80 of Dual Core, Adam Warrock, YTCracker, and Dale Chase.

8. The Hobbit Song by Cossbysweater

9. Here is a list of Lord of the Rings filk, though you have to make the music yourself.

10. Flight of the Concords Bret McKenzie has appeared in the first and third films in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, so them doing  Frodo, Don’t Wear the Ring takes on another level.

Honorable Mention: Goes to these ten hard rock songs that each drawn from the works of Tolkien in their own way.  Which is only the tip of the iceberg on hard rock, heavy metal, and similar bands with Lord of the Rings influence.

No mention: Goes to Leonard Nimoy singing “The Ballard of Bilbo Baggins.”

Top 10 Zombie Music List To Shamble To

Zombies have become big in both nerd circles and the mundanes’.  Which of course means songs, albums, and bands inspired by them.  Here is some to get started listening to and Happy Halloween.

1. Zombie Blues by Tom Smith gives you the blues from a zombie perspective.

2. MC Lars, YTCracker, Shaffer the Darklord, and ZeaLouS1 do a tribute to zombies and Bruce Campbell with Do the Bruce Campbell.

3. The Gekkos take a different approach to the zombie apcolypse in Pokemon of the Living Dead with having the Pokemon be the zombies.

4. If I Were an Undead Crawler by the nerdy duo Debs & Errol, a song they wrote at a convention workshop to the tune of “If I Had a Million Dollars.”

5. Mikal kHill of the Thought Criminals produced his definitive zombie story as the album The Walking Dead.  Guests on the album include Jesse Dangerously, Tribe One, Sulfur, Adam Warrock, and several other friends of his.

6. A hard rock song by Yoda Guitar called Zombie Town.  Free song, which is good cause it is going to get stuck in  your head.

7. Undead Love Song by John Anealio is a great love song about a zombie and a woman.  Both sweet and gross at the same time.

8. Mega Ran and Richie Branson got together to do an album last year called Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (number two is out this year) on it is Walking Dead a song with an easy rolling beat.

9. Insane Ian gives us two great zombie tunes.  Some Zombie by George Romero tells of a man obsessed with zombie movies becoming one, features The Stacey.  The other one is There’s Something About A Zombie – The ZombAid Benefit Song, a benefit parody which features lots of the other FuMP guys on it.

10. For those of you who have always wanted a zombie themed surf rock band, I have you covered.  The Wakening dress as and make songs about zombies.  What it says on the tin.

Honorable Mention:  From Mystery Science Theater 300 alumni, RiffTrax sells MP3s, VOD, and does live shows making fun of movies of all kinds.  They also put an album of songs based on some of the movies they have riffed.  One of the tracks on it is Zombie Mambo, it lists some great reasons to go zombie.

Vocalist/Producer Challenge 2

Nercore Now has been one of the top places to go for Nerdcore Hip-Hop on the internet for years, as a place for both fans and artists to converse and collaborate.  They have now evolved into an online magazine community.

They are runninger their second Vocalist/Producer Challenge (VPC).  It is a series of challenges for a group of one vocalist and one music producer.  Each round requires a new song to be written and recorded.  Each voting phase of the competition will added to their mini site for the event.  You can listen and rate tracks there.  You need to sign up or have an account with Nerdcorenow to vote, then register on the VPC forums. You can rate each track once per round and you can not change your vote.  Voting for Round 1 ends 11:40 PM PST on Saturday Feburary 2nd.  The prize for the winning team is $500 donated by KOB412 Podcast.

The challenge for Round 1 is to write a sincere song.  A song that is important to the artist, about something they value and care about.  The song also needs to be mixed so it is vocal centric.  Something that highlights both the vocalist but also the lyrics of the song.  All songs will be exclusive to the VPC site.

The compliation album from the first conests is here.  Give it a listen as well.

The teams for the event are: 1-UP/KevyFresh, Adam WarRock/Vince Vandal, Aydin Feniix/GFRetro, Bazuuka Joe/Don Vito, Beefy/Beaker, Chadley/Tedley, Chemical42/Litra C, Chozo Ninpo/Thugmasta J, Cliff B/Dynamo Dash, Cynicle/EK, Element Keon/8dx, Etre/thepauper, Griffen/Sobe-it, Hairetsu/Benjamin Bear, Happi MC/Matt Cassel, Insane Ian/The MusicIAN, Jerome Chance/Equivalent Exchange, Jollimus Prime/Niik The LampedGod, JPHONIC/tanner4105, Kid Creation/D-Form, King Pheenix/DJ RoboRob, Kontrast/Pelicaine!, KSV/Dr. Vern, Kudos/The Kid, La Blue Girl/Hijinks, Lex Lingo/Bill Beats, M.I.S.F.I.T./DJ Ninja Schmoe, Maros/2 Mello, MC-3PO/Sarva, MC 117/Jonny Nero Action Hero, MC Ohm-I/Dicepticon, MC Wreckshin/Superpowerless, Nameless/Ill Gill, Navi/Fatback Supreme, PovertyMan/Pajama Sam, Prime/Abstract Beats, Raptorman/Warp45, Rift/Savilion, Rob$tar/MC JB, Sample the Martian/Nikola Lazar Whallon, Shubzilla/Yuki no Oto, SirxUP/Dammit Jim, Starf/S-Rock, Sulfur/cecilnick, Tribe One/Jesse Dangerously, VR/bean, Wattsworth/Young Stroke aka Young Muscle, Whoremoans/B-Type, XoC/Danger Aaron, YTCracker/ProjektZero, and Zilla Persona/Dain Saint.

A number of some of my favorite artists and some I am just finding out about.

More Nerdapalooza and the Day After

Got more on Nerdapalooza.

Announced as a headlining band, Math the Band, a duo from Providence, RI doing electro music with combination of old video game systems, analog synthesizers and other instruments.  A high energy show to catch.

Also is returning is local rock band Beebs and Her Money Makers.  They have a new album coming out and their own comic book.  Nerdcord rapper YTCracker,who Nerdapallooza refers to as “the undisputed nerd rap king.”  Now why I do like his work, I just do not see him as the king.  Go check him out and decide for yourself though.  Most interesting is a band by the name of No More Kings. They got some attention in 2007 with their song Sweep the Leg that was inspired by the Karate Kid movie and its video which featured a large number of the movie’s cast.

 

And if you are looking for something the day after Nerdapalooza, check out The Day After sponsored by Mammoth Sound.  It is a entire extra day of Nerdcore hip-hop.  The event will be at a bar called “The Haven” on Monday August 6th.  The Haven is a large venue with a full size stage for the show, a full suply of liquor, non-stop bear on tap, and a top of the line sound system.

The Headliners for the show are MC Lars, YTCracker, and Random aka. MegaRan.  So that will be awesome.

Joining them is mixed bag of other artists.  Soup or Villainz, King Pheenix, Former Fat Boys, Epic-1, ProjektZero,  Magitek, HD Ninja, Klopfenpop and NES-T, Emergency Pizza Party, Rappy McRapperson, JPHONIC, Shinobi MC, Shammers, StarF, Sample the Martian, and Bro-bot (Feat. 8bit Duane).  Personally other than the Former Fat Boys and Shammers, I do not know a lot or care about any of the others.  Would be a good chance to check them all out though.

The guys handling the after party dance, and doing some spinning some on turntables during the show, are DJ RoboRob, Ben Briggs (from OCRemix), and tanner4105 (aka. “T-Byte”).

Tickets are $15 pre-reg or $20 at the door.  You can also pick up tickets at Nerdapalooza.