the hum / By Bob Doran

Is Nerdcore Dead?

mc chris in Arcata, plus the debut of Magnum and Flogging Molly’s Celtic punk

(Oct. 16, 2008)  Don’t be surprised if you see zombies walking the streets of Arcata Thursday. It’s not that Halloween has come early, and no, they’re not extras in a Jon Olsen video — they’re probably on their way to see mc chris at Humboldt Brews, as he brings the mc chris is dead tour to town. The überironic rapper is asking his fans to dress as zombies in part because the YouTubage for the title track on his new album pays homage to Michael Jackson’s classic “Thriller” vid.

Pop culture references abound in the work of the lowercased rapper aka Chris Ward IV: Star Wars characters, stuff from TV, the gamers’ world and so on. Ward comes out of the world of überironic television, specifically the hip Cartoon Network show Adult Swim, where he contributed in various capacities to Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show andSpace Ghost: Coast to Coast.

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He doesn’t like it, but mc chris is also the uncrowned King of Nerdcore, a genre and a “movement” he claims as his own — and dismisses. Follow the link on the rapper’s website and you’ll find a New York Times piece from last year about nerdcore featuring mc chris and, incidentally, mentioning the fabled Nerdapalooza festival (also name-checked in the Washington Post) that was supposed to bring 40 nerdcore bands to Eureka last September. (The fest did not come off as planned, mostly due to a lack of critical mass.)

The rapper has complained bitterly about being associated with nerdcore. “it’s this fuckin press,” he wrote on his blog. “the stories are never about me. i’m a figurehead that signals a cultural revolution, that’s their angle and they will stick to it ad nauseum. i wish the press didnt turn out to be a bunch of lemmings that doesn’t mind insulting their subjects, because they think in generalizations, in categories. no one wants to know about me. they want to know about my movement. my genre.”

He would later declare that nerdcore is “a genre I do not endorse,” although he apparently changed his tune when 60 Minutes decided to investigate nerds for an upcoming segment. He noted, “sixty minutes hollered at me … that’s right. MCCHRIS IS GONNA BE ON 60 MINUTES!!! in a piece on nerd culture and nerdcore. not something i usually want to be associated with, but im not gonna be stupid and say no to the biggest news show on tv.”

Opening the AS Presents mc chris show is Totally Michael, a one-man pop-punk band: just Michael singing and playing cute, bouncy Blink-182-esque rock on guitar backed by a beat-producing laptop.

In Eureka that night (Thursday, Oct. 16) at Aunty Mo’s, it’s the debut of Magnum, a new band that may or may not be ironic in its intent (I’d say the name can only be taken as irony). The quartet rose from the ashes of the Judas Priest tribute Sad Wings of Destiny and includes Deric, Terrence and Steve from that band along with Steve 2 from Weepel, a Weezer cover band. Terrence promises: “high-octane bar band barrage with heavy doses of cat-killing screeches and guitar shrieks — for the ladies.” Interesting Magnum factoids: Magnum, P.I. was an ’80s TV series starring Tom Selleck as Hawaiian private investigator Thomas Magnum. MAGNUM is an acronym for the headache sufferers association Migraine Awareness Group: A National Understanding for Migraineurs. Terrence points out that Magnum is also, “a malt liquor, world’s largest handgun and a brand of condoms.” Magnum is the second local band whose name makes reference to the film Zoolander. Can you name the other?

Magnum’s Humboldt Free Radio debut Thursday finds them sharing a bill with Mammatus, “a mind-meltingly progressive psych rock band from the magical forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains,” and Wildildlife, a trio from Seattle that “summons up a wicked whirlpool of dense distorto crunch and freaky singing, raging metallic percussive pummel, tribal rhythms and crushing effects-soaked guitars, subdued floatational drones and ecstatically gorgeous melodies.” Ready to rock? Mo’s is the place.

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