Moments ago I received a press release announcing the latest work of nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot, a cut on the soundtrack for the upcoming Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. To say this move is due to the demographic overlap between his music and the audience for the title would be like saying I'm having difficulty writing this because I'd much rather be watching the Street Fighter 4 teaser over and over again: exceedingly obvious.
I'm going to be burned alive as a traitor to the cause for saying this, but I just don't get the whole nerdcore movement. Perhaps it was my early exposure to the gangsta rap scene of Southern California or maybe it's my contrarian trend abhorrence, but I just don't understand the appeal in glorifying one's own social ineptitudes. Sure, I get the idea that all people want to belong to something, but couldn't the less socially apt just create primitive subterranean societies? It isn't like they get much sun anyway, and did you see how well it worked for the Morlocks? They even had slaves!
MC Frontalot to Record Original Song for Penny Arcade Adventures Vancouver, British Columbia - Oct. 17, 2007 - Hothead Games today announced that its highly anticipated game, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, will include an original song by nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot.
"Penny Arcade and MC Frontalot have a longstanding friendship," said Vlad Ceraldi, Hothead's president. "Frontalot's 'Penny Arcade Theme' has become a nerdcore classic, and we're sure his new song will be an awesome addition to 'On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.'"
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One is the first title in the downloadable Penny Arcade Adventures series for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and the Xbox 360(tm) video game and entertainment system. Hothead is working with the Penny Arcade creators and adventure game pioneer Ron Gilbert in an intense collaborative development process. Editor's Note: MC Frontalot's "It Is Pitch Dark" video, which premiered during the Hothead panel at Penny Arcade Expo 2007, is available for your use at the MMPR ftp site (http://www.mmpr.com/MMPRFTP/), inside the Penny Arcade folder.
About MC Frontalot
MC Frontalot is the stage name of Damian Hess, a musician and author currently based in Brooklyn. In late 1999, Damian pioneered the subgenre of rap music called nerdcore hip-hop, a movement that has metastasized into an internet phenomenon. Nerdcore's live-audience draw grows yearly, with acts such as Frontalot, MC Chris, MC Lars, and Optimus Rhyme filling increasingly larger venues on national tours. Damian's independently produced MC Frontalot tracks have earned a devoted audience and his two retail albums Nerdcore Rising (August 2005) and Secrets From The Future (April 2007) are in their fourth and third printings respectively. He is the official rapper of Penny Arcade (the web's most popular comic with 3.5 million daily readers) and headlines at their annual convention to an audience of over 5,000.
About Hothead Games
Headquartered in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Hothead Games is an indie developer staffed entirely by industry veterans. With a focus on innovative gameplay and episodic delivery, Hothead is building titles for both PC and console platforms. Read all about Hothead's games at www.hotheadgames.com.
About Penny Arcade
Equal parts online comic and commentary, Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com) covers videogames in a way that is genuine, insightful and respected by the gaming community. What started as a hobby for Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik has, over 8 years grown into an online phenomenon that serves 55 million page views a month to millions of readers worldwide. In addition to the comic strip and PAX, Penny Arcade also manages Child's Play (www.childsplaycharity.org), a gamer-driven charity for sick kids in Children's Hospitals across the world.
Contest:
12:40 PM on 10.17.2007
| 
But the game itself? I just can't get excited for it. It's just... too much of a gamer sub-subculture thing? We already have a Nintendo fanboy fapfest with Brawl. It's good that indie games like this can exist, but does anyone here even want to play this? And can you even call PA indie these days?
I'm really getting fed up of shitty "musicians" having the phrases "They poioneered, created their own, revolutionised" in their bios do you remember when people used word to describe things accurately, not just to make things sound cooler.
That said...where is this going to fit in the game? Hope it blends in well.
The song in Portal (which I can't....stop... singing!) was geeky as hell, but worked because it was set in the narrative of the game itself. Frontalot strikes me as more into talking nerd culture than in actually contributing to it.
P.S. I know, I know. Such an eloquent first post...
Oh &, I'm with you Nex. Plenty of nerds make amazing music without having to resort to some silly nostalgic image.
i think because MC Chris isn't actually "nerdcore." he isn't one dimensional like all the people who label themselves as nerdcore. he will just rap about anything. i saw this other guy at BB Kings open for The Aquabats, named MC Lars. he was cool. much like MC Chris, his songs were about anything. not just limited to video games and "nerd culture."
i cannot stand nerdcore. it's fucking terrible. there is no unique sound to it, it's all the same. i don't really understand the demand for it either. people who are commonly identified as "nerds" are usually outcasts, right? so... punk and hardcore wasn't a good enough fit? i don't mean the "punk" that is mainstream now, i mean the stuff that is still real.
@Nex
maybe you can't stand nerdcore because you actually have a taste for real music. i guarantee that any person who only listens to nerdcore has no taste for the actual music, they just identify with the content.
mc chris owns. i wanna go to an mc chris show. but he doesn't tour.. wait.. he does tour now. fucker ruined my rap.
I guess that makes sense. MC Chris has mentioned recently that he doesn't want to do any more interviews about nerdcore anymore. In other words, he doesn't want to constantly talk about nerdcore in relation to his music, he just wants to talk about his music period.
@bloodylip
I still memorize all of his rhymes though :]
I know the press release doesn't say it (which is weird), but here's the original release wallpaper, and I swear I've seen it listed that way lots before.
And so am I.
That is all.
Frontalot (or rather his DJ) has a knack for funky beats, and his lyrics don't really bother me.
My theory is that it stems from the popular use of "core" in the emo vocabulary. I think it started with people saying something/someone (Themselves most likely) were "Hard X Core" which later changed to "X Core" and then they just started using "core" as a suffix on everything.
Anyway, this might be cool. I'll wait until I can play the game.