Quest Crew is…

a dance crew with bad hair.

Contest Week is ending today, but not without one more contest… but first, a recap:

Listen to Derek Webb Podcast and win a Soul-Junk CD

thekeenone RemixThis! Contest for a bunch of free stuff

Another RemixThis! Contest: the85bears’s track “Meshac”

All three of these contests are up on Friday… so get to it… but here’s another:

Win a limited edition vinyl copy of Weatherbox by sticking it to the man!

This contest is up on Halloween, but don’t procrastinate… just print and stick, NOW!

And finally, here’s the last contest of Contest Week… Write the TPM Theme Song:

First rule: There are no rules!

That’s right, no rules. Just put together an MP3 track to be the theme song of my web site. The winner becomes the official artist of TPM. Albeit this is not nearly as cool as Frontalot being Penny Arcade’s official rapper, but hey… it’s still fun, right?

Hook me up with your submission bu November 15th. I promise to remind ya’ll.

Thanks for participating this week in Contest Week, keep on rockin’!

Without further ado, here’s my first ever podcast… thepaintedpodcast 1.0: What a Tangled Webb We Weave features 2 tracks by Derek Webb and a full length interview I did with him with phone for Decapolis. While I work my butt off transcribing the full interview for Decap, I figured I’d share it as a podcast with my loyal TPM readers.

This week is Contest Week, so I can’t just post something without including a small contest now, can I?

This is the first and simplest contest… follow these 3 easy steps and you may be the winner of a copy of one of my all-time favorite CD’s, a sealed copy of the out-of-print original pressing of Soul-Junk’s 1956. This CD if the very CD that introduced me to Pigeon John, who has become my favorite emcee over the years… here is what you gotta do.

1. Download the Podcast.
2. Tell me what was the most interesting thing Derek talked about to you by commenting on this post.
3. Email me at justincharlesharlan@gmail.com with a follow up question to Derek that I can pass along to him.

Enjoy the conversation with Derek, he’s quite the interesting artist and you won’t have to take my word for it. Contest will run through Friday, so you’ve got a week to listen to the coolness of Derek and the not-quite-as-coolness of me.

This, the final Tuesdays with Riley is again, not on Tuesday. thepaintedslacker apologizes, but I promise that reading this, on any day, will give you a smile, as well as more insight into the genius of nerdrocker, Shael Riley.

You busy?

Hi

Got a few minutes to rock and roll?

I should have said “rock and/or roll”. It would have been more clever.

Yeah

So, let’s jump right into it. The topic was media that has changed your life.

Let’s start with the obvious, music. What music has changed your life and why?

Chris Cornell, Alice in Chains, Weezer, Nobuo Uematsu, Ben Folds, Mindless Self Indulgence.

I guess they’ve all been pretty big influences.

I don’t know if you can hear a lot of it, though. I always think they’re influences.

I used to be in an Alice in Chains cover band when I was, like 14. lol

I think “Angry Chair” is one of the first songs I ever really learned to play well.

Probably the first song I could sing and play at the same time, on bass and then on guitar.

I really don’t listen to Alice in Chains at all anymore, but I did a lot when I was a young teenager.

Actually, I don’t know if they have much influence on my current stuff. Better scratch them from the list. lol

No doubt. We’ll put a line through them…

Right on.

Hmm

Ozma.

I love them too.

I listen to a good bit of chiptune stuff. Bit Shifter. Nullsleep, etc….

Been listening to a lot of I Fight Dragons lately.

I used to listen to the Final Fantasy VI soundtrack on loop for hours in my room.

Just over and over and over again.

That music is just amazing.

Wow. I thought I was a nerd.

You like football, Chief.

Nerds can like football, as long as they make sure to follow the game with a session of Nerdcore Rising… which I watched last week, BTW.

Loved it, what did you think?

I thought it was very well done.

Certainly enjoyed it. Made me nostalgic for 2006.

So, back to FF and video games, what games have changed your life?

That’s some pretty dramatic language. I don’t know if I’d couch it in those terms exactly, but I sure have sunk a lot of time into the Street Fighter series and I guess that was a part of my development as a kid, so maybe you could say that changed my life.

And then I was a music director for the remake of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, so that was great.

The Street Fighter series is my absolute favorite of all time.

How’d you end up doing that?

I’d directed an album of fan arrangements. Capcom found it and sought me out, asking if I could tweak some songs for use in their remake of Super Turbo. We wound up re-doing most songs completely.

Final Fantasy VI was a great game too, aside from having great music.

I’m pretty sure I’m one of, like, fifty people who actually liked the Resident Evil Outbreak series too.

Definitely a precursor to Left 4 Dead.

I love the developments we’ve made in social gaming in recent years.

Never got into most of those, but, WOW about the SF stuff. That’s super rad. SF and MK are my favorites of all time. My wife and I play fighting games every now and again, just to pass the time. More so before the rugrat was born.

That’s awesome.

I never got into WoW.

I don’t see too much of a gamist element there; it’s, like, ALL social. You know?

Yeah.

I played it a bit and I didn’t feel like I was making meaningful choices.

Got bored real fast.

I am not much of an RPG guy, other than Knights of the Old Republic and Kingdom of Loathing.

It’s a shame; I like the concept of the MMORPG genre but I’ve never played one that I liked in execution.

People tell me KoL is pretty cool. It’s a genre parody, right?

Yeah.

Funny, entertaining, I fall in and out of it. Haven’t been on in a year or so.

I did like Forum Warz, but that’s not really an MMO.

Never heard of it.

I used to play BBS door games a TON as a kid.

That was my real introduction to social gaming.

Text-based, ANSI RPGs on dial-up BBSes.

Usurper. Legend of the Red Dragon.

Ever heard of those?

I lived for Legend of the Red Dragon when I was in 6th grade.

Maybe 7th.

I did that kind of stuff a bit.

I used to run a BBS in middle school.

No way!

How’d you get an extra phone line?

I didn’t at first, I just clogged up my parents from when I got home from school until I went to bed.

lol

or until I got yelled at.

It was mostly my friends, so they all knew my hours of operation

Yeah. I did my fair share of phoneline clogging.

I did the whole AOL hacknig thing around that time too.

In fact, a friend I introduced into “hacking” and programming got arrested by the feds when we were 16.

He has an FBI probation agent until he was 21.

Yikes!

And the agent was a 6′9 black dude named Adolf

Better than a white one, with that name.

Yeah…

without a doubt.

Who names their kid Adolf?

That what I always said!

Anyway.

So, off topic… as if we were actually on one… how you been feeling?

About the same.

Well, for what it’s worth your in my prayers…

Thanks.

So… how about books, TV, movies? Anything revolutionary in your life?

I’ve never had an epiphany brought on by a piece of media.

I’ve had media that I’ve loved, but it’s never been a dramatically life-changing experience to watch, play, or listen to something.

What has created epiphanies in your life?

I don’t know, man.

Can’t say I’ve had too many.

How about when you met your wife? Haha.

I’ve had dramatic realizations, but they’ve all been from my learning something I didn’t know.

And I can’t think of any specific instances right now.

When I was a kid, though, I saw Vampire Hunter D and I was fucking floored.

I was stunned to learn that animation didn’t have to be just for little kids, that they could show blood and boobs in an animation.

Crazy enough, I’ve only ever seen the second VHD.

I was absolutely enchanted by it.

You gotta see the first.

I don’t know if it’ll have much of an impact on you at your age, but man, it was so amazing as a kid.

Actually, if I’ve ever had an epiphany from a film, it was then.

I will rock it on Netflix.

I got way into anime when I was in Junior High, back when it was mostly available in the US. via fan subs.

I used to watch Sailor Moon every morning in Junior High.

I’d get up ass early to see it.

And I had one friend who was into anime too – he had the fan sub connection.

As I don’t know much about anime, what would you recommend to me for where to begin?

I’m not a big anime fan by today’s standards. I grew out of it really quickly when it became a commercial market and we started getting a flood of severely censored, mediocre series and films.

But I do recommend Serial Experiments Lain for interested adults.

Also Boogie Pop Phantom.

Cool.

I’ll check them… and the first VHD.

For sure.

If you can get fan subs, check out the Japanese Sailor Moon.

The DIC dubs made in the 90s, while not bad in and of themselves, don’t do it justice.

Ok.

And there’s the whole issue of their never having even touched the final season, with its more adult themes.

How about non-anime movies? What do you dig?

Fight Club.

How cliché.

Yeah. I know.

It’s my favorite movie, though. Honest.

I could have said Star Wars. That would have been worse, right?

Fair enough. As for FC, I own it, so I can’t talk.

Ever read it?

I have.

I prefer the film.

I haven’t watched it in a long time. I wonder if it would still resonate with me the way it did when I was 18.

I’m actually worried I’d ruin it for myself.

I recently watched it for the first time since college and it doesn’t do much for me anymore at all.

So, don’t watch it.

Yeah. Maybe I should re-watch, though. Get it over with.

Nah. No reason to shy away from the truth.

I’m not sure what my favorite film would be, though, if I didn’t like Fight Club anymore.

I can’t think of even a distant second.

Kung Fu Panda?

Kung Fu Hussle?

Touche!

I’ve never had the attention span for films.

In college, my nerd friends always wanted to have movie marathons.

That’d drive me crazy.

Hmmm… TV? What shows do you follow?

I do like TV, mostly non-fiction.

Good Eats is just about my favorite show ever.

I’m a simple man. lol

I love the old Adult Swim shows.

I love Food Network, but I just got rid of cable. Adult Swim is great.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast? Brilliant.

Home Movies? Awesome.

Aqua Teen? Pretty great.

I’m a big ATHF, Space Ghost, and Metalocalypse fan.

I like a good sketch comedy show too.

SNL has been something I’ve watched on and off since I was a toddler.

The State just came out on DVD.

Nice. I’ll have to check that out.

I like No Reservations a lot, back on the non-fiction side of TV.

And The Daily Show.

Well, this is our last chat for the site for awhile, though I hope to keep up with you from time to time.

Right on.

I feel like we need to bring our chats out with a bang, any suggestions?

You ever get into tabletop gaming?

No, just Magic.

Huh.

So tell me about football.

What’s the appeal? lol

It’s a sport where people hit each other. For me, it’s another thing to geek out about.

Why not boxing?

Or MMA?

Those are all about hitting.

I know all the stats of my squad, follow every little thing.

So it’s a stats thing?

I can understand that.

Stats, news, rumors, everything.

What made you choose your team?

I live near Philly, hence, Philly.

As a kid, I lived near NYC, but I hated the Giants and was indifferent to the Jets.

That’s kind of arbitrary. You didn’t think maybe you’d get more into, say, Orlando’s team than Philly’s if only you’d get to know them?

Orlando doesn’t have a team… but I see your point.

You never had that thought?

To me it seems like school spirit.

I was a 49ers fan as a kid, I drifted here and began following the Birds. It is kinda like school spirit, though.

But my fandom is more accurately a geek thing.

I am more accurately a geek than any other kinda of nerd.

Once I like something I geek out on it totally.

When I was in high school, we had pep rallies that I’d just look as annoyed as possible at – we had to go and I’d only stay if I couldn’t sneak out.

Kids would come up to me and be like “Where’s your school spirit?” I’d tell them it was comepletely arbitrary that I happened to be going to this school; I didn’t chose to go here, so why should I take pride in it?

You sound like one of those scary goth kids in school… ha. Not really though, cuz I feel ya.

You’ve never been into any sports?

I totally had an off-putting, goth mentality. I just didn’t wear black or listen to Depeche Mode.

I’ve never been into any sports.

I’ve tried to like them, but I just don’t see the appeal.

Sports can totally be nerdy nowadays with fantasy teams and sports RPGs.

Maybe you can help me. How can I sit down this Sunday and enjoy a game of football? What kind of mindset should I have going in if I want to enjoy the game?

Pick a team, grab a six pack of GOOD beer and some of your favorite snacking food.

Then, sit down in front of a tricked out HDTV.

Ok. How do I pick my team?

I need to really like them better than their opposition and I’m afraid that’s going to be hard.

Hmmm? I’d say the home team, but since that’s the Giants, screw that

What’s wrong with the Giants?

I like their name.

I just hate the Giants, choose them if you wish, but I despise them.

Let’s think about your interests and who may line up with them? You like video games, video game music, anime, and..

I like sex.

And beer.

All booze, really.

I like sex.

Boobs and stuff.

Ooh!

Politics.

And philosophy.

Then choose a team with hot cheerleaders

But that’s not the team; that’s their cheerleaders.

I don’t see the connection.

Politics? Washington Redskins, though they suck.

I can’t get invested emotionally in a team if I only like something peripheral.

I like trolling.

I like to get on Second Life and fuck around with people.

Is there a football team I could back that would be, like, kind of trolling football or something?

Some kind of severe underdog I could like because everyone else hates them?

What would be the team of the provocateur?

How about the Jets, they actually are kicking ass, but they weren’t expected to be good and they talk shit on everybody else.

And they are local to you

See, that’s the most compelling reason to back a team I’ve heard so fart.

*far

hahaha

Alright. Cool. So now I back the Jets. It’s official.

When is the next Jets game on?

Sunday at 4 vs. New Orleans

on CBS

Ok.

Maybe I’ll check that out.

I’ll have to check in with you about how that goes.

So, I need to run… but I have a question?

Ok.

Would you perhaps offer up a track for a remix contest like the one I did this past month? I’d like to make it a monthly thing.

Yes!

I’d just need to post the original song for the listeners and an accapella track for remixing purposes.

Any track you’d like.

Yeah. Probably can do that at some point soonish.

Nice, email me, you gots my info yo!

You got it.

Holla at Beef for me!

Ok.

I’m out, expect his up tomorrow when I get home from work. Thanks for these past few convos, I’ve enjoyed them.

Sure thing. Thanks for having me.

We’ll keep in touch. If you ever come through Reading, PA you’ve got a guest room to stay in.

Thanks a lot.

We can watch a Jets game.

Take care dude, get better!

I’m looking at playing Philly this Winter with Double Ice Backfire.

Thanks.

See you around.

This particular session is almost completely as-is… Facebook lag and all!

Yo

So, get this, I got a notice today from my ISP that I got busted for downloading copyrighted material.

Damn

Sucky.

I didn’t know they still did that shit.

I had to promise I deleted the material or my Internet would be suspended.

hahaha

Honor system.

OK. Let’s do this.

Yeah.

So, politics… that what I promised…

Let’s start with that whole healthcare reform hoopla. What’s Mr. Riley’s take?

Ideally, we’d have single payer health care like every other fully developed nation in the world, but that’s off the table.

A distant but still vastly improving second would be the public option, though that seems to have been severely compromised at this point and likely won’t even go through at all.

But isn’t that socialism? (rolls eyes)

Just like the police and fire departments. Sure.

Ooops, I forgot to start with, “So, I heard you are a Libertarian.“

I was, but I stopped being one when I left my first wife.

Haha. Anyway… so I am basically on the same page with you there. Public option would have been a good step, let’s hope it still works out.

I give it 1 in 20 odds at this point.

Ok, so what else is hot in the political/social forum right now? Any opinions you want to share with me?

I’m not as informed as I should be, in all honesty. I take the issues as they come. I’ve paid more attention to health care than most because it would effect me directly. Generally speaking, I side with the far left liberals the vast majority of the time.

I tend not to fall on the American political spectrum a lot of the times, so I feel ya.

Yeah! Me too.

How about the Kanye West debacle?

I’m all about salary caps, the legalization of all drugs and culturally unacceptable stuff like that. I don’t even use any illegal drugs but it’s a massive waste of our resources to criminalize them. It’s wholly ineffective; it also puts a lot of people in prison unjustifiably.

Oh. Yeah. I hear Kanye said some shit at the VMAs. Homie, I could not care less. I don’t get celebrity obsession. It just doesn’t resonate with me.

It’s like that Mike Vick thing you asked me about.

Why is this important?

I think he’s funny sometimes and he taught me valuable lessons, like that George Bush doesn’t care about white people.

Why is this part of our public discourse? It’s absolutely trivial; it’s taking the place of something really important we could be talking about instead.

I do like that Kanye brought back shutter shades. They’ve always been cool.

True, true. Isn’t that always the case though?

Shutter shades?

Yes. They’ve always been cool.

I meant on the public discourse thing, but… yeah, that too.

Stupid Facebook lag.

So… I am running a remix contest. I was kinda hoping you’d take a whack at it.

I saw. Haven’t checked the track out yet, but I’m gonna have to decline. Busy with my own stuff. Thanks for thinking of me, though.

It’s ok. I don’t hate you or anything, but check out the song. CookBook is dope.

I like his name.

Indeed.

Oops.

Oops?

Sorry about that.

Still with me?

I might have missed your last question.

Navigated away from this page accidentally.

Hello?

Yes, I’m here.

Any more questions?

I think I am gonna be lame and make this session a bit short. I feel so old, I have a hard time staying up too late. We’ll have to have next week’s final chat be grandiose.

OK. lol

Any subject you want to focus on for next time?

Let’s conclude with something interesting, at least. How is Nerdcore Rising? I saw on your Twitter that you were watching it on your XBOX.

We ended up not watching it because Beefy had technical issues. We’re gonna reschedule.

Damn. Beefy! You should have yelled Beefy in the way that supervillians do when their plans are foiled by their nemeses.

I can’t stay mad at Beefy.

Well, anyway… next time let’s focus on pop culture that has changed your life in some way, like music, movies, tv, books, whatever.

If you’d ever met him in person, you’d understand. He’s like a giant cherub.

That’s a good subject!

Thanks.

I’m rad like that.

You omitted a key medium, though.

Which?

Video games!

That too.

Right on.

So, that said. In addition to my questions for you, I want you to pose at least two interesting questions to me as well.

Yeah? OK. I’ll do that.

I want to say something worthwhile on my site for once.

I gotta get you something for your mix tapes soon, huh?

We’re working on more stuff. Haven’t just forgotten about you or anything.

Ok, so… the wife and bed beckon. Take care of your wife and your fellow Libertarians… and yes, I want a track. Hell, an EXCLUSIVE one!

We’ll get you something.

Word. Tell Beefy I love him.

Night.

Night.

Another Facebook chat session with the one and only Shael of the Rileys.

How’s a little chat tonight for you?

Let’s do it.

Word.

So, how’ve ya been since we last talked. I read that you were sick on your Twitter.

Still having some health problems. I’ve been light headed and fainting, and have a chronic muscle spasm in my neck and shoulders. I’ve had a lot of MRIs and other tests, but still haven’t been diagnosed.

That sucks!

It’s OK, man.

I’m not mad or anything.

So, what are you working on musically?

Anything new?

I’ve been trying to write new songs for the full length Double Ice Backfire release, primarily. Working on a little bit of Grammar Club on the side.

Doing one-hour music writing contests every other week or so.

That’s been fun.

Cool. One-hour music writing?

Never heard of such a thing.

Yeah!

You’d never think of it, right?

It’s cool. What websites do contests like that?

It started, in so far as I know, with the video game music arranging crowd, but I’m sure its roots are older.

ThaSauce.net does the ones I participate in right now.

Everyone gets together in a chat room; we’re all given a theme and an hour to compose, then we all listen to each other’s work and vote on our favorites.

While I’m not much a musician, I’ll have to try sometime.

You should! Everyone’s welcome. #ThaSauce on the Enter The Game IRC network.

It’s a lot of fun. It’s super nerdy, though, because you’re hanging with all your friends in a chatroom while you’re sitting by yourself on a computer.

So, I reviewed Dual Core. They got my name from you. I absolutely loved their album. Have a favorite track of theirs?

“Here to Help” right now.

Rad. Have you ever done a track with them?

Not under the Dual Core name, though C64, the producer of Dual Core, is producing the new Grammar Club album right now.

Int 80 might make a guest appearance.

That’s awesome. As a big fan of you, them, and Beefy, I will have to rock that as soon as it’s ready… which will be…

I don’t know, man.

We’ve had three or four false starts with this album, and a lot of personnel changes. I think everything’s finally rolling now, but at this point I’m just not gonna give a date until it’s done and being processed by CD Baby.

You’re only as fast as the slowest band member when you’re working virtually, over the Internet.

Who exactly is in this incarnation of Grammar Club?

Oh man!

Check this out:

Me on sequencing and vocals;

Beefy on vocals;

Kabuto the Python replacing Glenn Case as our third vocalist;

And C64 doing final production and engineering. He’s also doing a lot of drum loop and synth arrangement stuff, and some awesome turntablism too.

Nice!

Facebook tells me you didn’t get half of that

Kabuto the Python on vocals

Ailsean on guitar

Mustin on bass for half of the album

Adam!, the producer of our first album, on bass for the other half of the album

DJ Snyder doing some table work and some drum loop stuff

So that’s 8 guys.

I think….

Awesome. I did miss like half of that.

Yeah.

8 different artists.

Double Ice Backfire, by contrast, is only three.

Ok, well, most of those cats are new to me. Who are they (minus you and the Beefster)?

Snyder did all the scratching on our first record, and did some production.

C64 is, as I mentioned, the producer of Dual Core. He creates all of the instrumentals that Eighty raps over.

Mustin is the front man of TheOneUps, a jazz fusion video game cover band with a good bit of a following. (www.oneupstudios.com)

I’ll have to check that out, for sure.

Ailsean is an old school overclocked remixer whose guitar work I’ve been a fan of for a very long time. It’s amazing to be on a project with him since I was a big fanboy of his video game music arrangement stuff. Still am, actually.

I’ve heard mad good stuff about Kabuto, but I’ve never heard anything myself.

Kabuto the Python is a really good rapper. I’m stoked about the addition of a second rapper. The new album takes a more hip-hop direction than our last.

You should check out his mix tape Parseltongue.

I will, where can I get it?

Lemme check….

http://www.scrubclubrecords.com/music/parsel.html

SCHWEEEEET!

I’ll be rockin’ that on my new iPod tomorrow.

Did I mention I got a free Touch?

No.

My sis bought a MacBook and already had an iPod Touch. It came free, so I got an early B-day gift.

Sounds good.

I am digging on it. So anyway… I am watching Greek (an ABC Family show that is basically a college sitcom/dramedy) with the wife.

You are married, right?

Where did you get that idea?

I don’t know. I thought it said so on your Facebook.

It’s never that on my Facebook.

Then, I’m crazy. Not sure why I thought so.

No wife, then I guess.

I like these interviews. lol

Haha. Me too.

Any lady friend? or man friend? or…

I’m straight and single.

To the point.

I always find it easier to write music, though, when I’m not in a relationship.

A girlfriend takes a lot of emotional energy. You know what I mean?

And making the relationship work takes a time investment, too.

Agreed. Am I at least right on the fact that you live in NYC?

Kind of. I’m a little ways North of the city right now, dealing with this health issue.

Ahhh. I’m originally from Northern NJ, so I am familiar with NY.

Yeah. So I’ve been really happy with the stuff I’ve been writing recently, since I’ve spent most of my adult life in relationships and haven’t had much of an opportunity to write music while single until now. I think the stuff I’ve just recently written is my best stuff yet.

Interesting.

So, I think I’m gonna bounce. Next week, we’ll have to hit up some controversy, like politics and uhh… stuff.

lol

Oh man.

That’s gonna be great.

You’re gonna be like

“I hear you’re a Libertarian.”

Hmmm…

lol

I’m not.

I’m very Liberal.

I’m just ribbing you, man.

We’ll be ok.

Besides, libertarianism is just anarchy for rich white guys with guns… or so I’m told.

This week’s session will be up tomorrow by like noon, most likely, so check it out.

Anyhoo, I’m out like trout, homie. Keep it real.

Peace out.

This conversation actually happened two Thursdays ago, the night my Birds signed the infamous Mike Vick. It took a bunch of editing and still sounds like stream of consciousness. Such is having a conversation on Facebook chat, I guess.

I’ve decided to make this a feature for the next few weeks. Every Tuesday, I’ll post a Facebook conversation I had with the illustrious Shael Riley…

… yeah, that guy. Well, enjoy the first installment… and away we go.

Yo, so let’s kick that interview for a few minutes before I start getting ready to go to sleep…

Cool.

I’m drinking a Modelo and I regret buying it.

No good at all out of the can.

Sorry to hear that, let’s start with the topic du jour on Twitter and FB… Mike Vick, your thoughts?

LOL.

I like your style.

I’m gonna embarrass myself by admitting I don’t know who that is.

Ha! We’ll just move on, then… who is Shael Riley?

Pfft. Some guy.

Some guy who’s Googling Mike Vick.

I don’t know, man.

That’s kind of pretty broad.

I’m a person like anyone else. That’s the only way I think I can encompass it linguistically.

I mean like musically…

Oh.

Yeah.

Context.

You wanna know about my background in music?

Yeah. Nerdcore, yada yada… training, yada yada…

I started playing bass when I was 14, in an Alice and Chains cover band.

Did you snuff the rooster?

I came to, but he ain’t gonna die.

You know.

I ended up doing vocals too, cause I had the highest voice in the group.

So I wound up sticking with that.

Nice. How’d you end up in the Nerdcore scene?

Well, my highschool band had broken up long, long before that. I’d had a good five years being really heavy into the video game music remixing scene.

OverClocked Remix is the one that’s best known, but there were other communities I was just as much involved with. Jake “Virt” Kaufman ran a great site that, at the time, had a rivalry with Overclocked called VGmix.

Mustin’s had his video game music jazz/funk fusion cover band for the better part of a decade now, and he’s been running a forum at OneUpStudios.com for just about as long.

From 2000 to 2004 I was primarily into video game music, listening to it and arranging it.

I dig video game music and the like. Ever hear of Philly band Chromelodeon? They broke up, but they were very rad.

Oh, man. I was at a house party of theirs once when they were moving out and trashing the place. Walked right into two guys fighting in the kitchen. Took a stray vacuum cleaner hose to the face.

Yeah. I do know Chromelodeon.

Wow… that’s nutty. I used to do shows with them in Philly and the burbs… so back to the story of Shael…

A big step for the game music scene was getting together in person for the first time at a convention called MAGfest in 2002. Chromelodeon’s played there a few times, alongside a lot of other great game music bands.

Well, September 2008, Schaffer the Darklord asked me to open for him.

I’d heard Schaffer’s stuff and wanted to do it, but I hadn’t played live in almost two years. I wasn’t happy with playing acoustic guitar and singing over my pre-recorded, bit-poppy mp3s, so I’d stopped.

I told Schaffer I’d figure something out, and I wound up getting some friends who played instruments together to form the backing band I’d play a good dozen shows with that year.

We didn’t have a drummer, so my brother Devon, who was our bassist, suggested the idea of getting Josh, his roommate, to do drums with his Gameboy.

He’s a chiptune artist. I’d always liked chiptunes but felt they were inaccessible to me as a writer–to hard to work within the limitations; too hard to learn the bizarre, archaic-seeming software.

Cool. Chromelodeon used a Gameboy in their stuff, too.

Yeah. Dino from Chromelodeon uses the same software as Josh.

Anyway, the Gameboy worked out really well for the kind of music I was doing, and I re-used it in a stripped down tour of the midwest and southeast I did in March, this time with Ricky Henry running the Gameboy, using a combination of Josh’s backing tracks and his own.

So… you’d been performing with these guys and that’s where this new venture came from?

Yeah. I did that Spring tour with just Ricky and we really had a great time. We got to bullshitting about what kind of projects we could do with the Gameboy and somehow we got the idea of doing an album of all girl songs–cover songs–and releasing it subversively through torrent tracker sites, without telling anyone.

The idea was to see how long it took to get back to us, and then deny it as some kind of conceptual joke only the two of us would be in on.

That really has nothing to do with the Gameboy, but we wanted to hear chiptune covers of a bunch of girl songs.

Anyway, we’d been talking about Mortal Kombat a lot on that road trip.

I don’t know why. Whenever me and Ricky get together it comes up.

Well, that cover on your tape is a fave of mine, so I approve, obviously.

Glad you like it. Thanks again for the review.

So, I’ll stop ruining your flow, finish up the story of how this project came to be.

We were bullshitting about what band we’d credit the covers to, and during some riffing on Mortal Kombat themes, I came up with Double Ice Backfire. I always thought it was awesome how it said “DOUBLE ICE BACKFIRE” on the screen when Sub-Zero tried to freeze an already frozen opponent, in the SNES version.

We laughed about it the whole trip.

All of my musical projects were actually stalled at the time and I was pretty down about it.

The tour was great and I love playing, but I was stressed by the fact that I hadn’t written almost any music in a year, and The Grammar Club’s producer Adam! was AWOL, leaving me, the organizer of the group, really distressed.

I think that hunger for a creative project kind of got the sparks flying during that tour. By the end of it, the plan had changed from doing an album of covers with me on guitar and vox and Ricky on Gameboy, to doing a full album of originals under the name Shael Riley and The Double Ice Backfire, with my on guitar, vox, and Famitracker, and Ricky on drums.

I had barely even touched Famitracker at the time, but I was so pumped by the end of the tour that I went straight home and learned to use it.

Ha. I like the name of the band a lot. Thanks for some great background for my reader… let’s talk a bit about your favorite music and influences.

Weezer’s the biggest influence of Songs From The Pit, actually.

That’s not surprising. Sounds about right.

Yeah. We’d been listening to a lot of 90’s dance music and a lot of Weezer.

A little older grungy stuff too, and some more crunchy near-indie.

A lot of stuff nebulous to Weezer: The Rentals; Ozma; Rivers’s solo work.

I feel like we internalized it and spat it back out with a bunch of other stuff that was going on in our heads…

I can hear that. How about Ben Folds… I mean you keep getting compared to him…

Yeah!

We did listen to some Ben on that tour.

Me and Ricky love Way to Normal.

Good album, I love Ben.

More broadly, over a longer time frame than we were looking at, Ben Folds has been a bigger influence on my stuff than Weezer.

I can’t help but hear a lot of Ben in your stuff. Ok, so, let’s go in a different direction… you are Jewish right?

My mom is. I’m not religious.

Annnyway. I mean, I tell Jew jokes.

Oh, can you tell one?

Shit. I can’t think of any.

I guess I just laugh at Jew jokes.

Hmmmm… I am tired and still reeling over the Michael Vick signing (I’m a huge Eagles fan)… what else to talk about…

What happened with Mick Vick anyway?

Haha.

He got signed by the Eagles… he was the player who got convicted of running a dog fighting ring 2 years ago.

Wow.

People are all upset with the team and others are happy, etc.

That’s some scary shit.

I’ve been arguing with people on Facebook all night.

Huh.

Well he was released from jail and the Eagles signed him and that’s causing the hub bub…

Do you have any pets?

No pets.

MSI is another influence. You know them?

You can hear it in “Publishing Rights”.

No, who is MSI?

Mindless Self Indulgence.

Oh, yeah, I know them. There was a song I liked, called “Golden I”.

Yeah. So, back to your question… I love dogs, despite not having any pets now.

I have 2 dogs, they are awesome…

I had beagle and a lab growing up.

I have a puggle and a lab, actually.

Aww. I miss my lab.

She was great.

The beagle was good too, though not the smartest.

They were both really sweet dogs.

Yeah, my puggle is a dumbass, but the lab is smart as hell. Love them both, of course.

Right?

Beagles are strange dogs.

So, I should probably wrap it up… have to be at work at 6:00… let’s do this in a few sessions. I’ll post this one as part one next week some time and we’ll do part two next week.

Our lab was a lot more personable than our beagle.

Oh. Yeah. That sounds good.

Word.

This email interview presented unaltered… no editing… so good luck!

Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with TPM. My readers will appreciate it. Let’s start off simple, who is YTCracker?

ytcracker is bryce case, jr. straight out of the 719 repping colorado springs until the Almighty Spam God decompiles me and puts me back in the source code.

Your website claims that you are “the undisputed king of nerdcore”. How can I verify that is is true? I mean, according to wikipedia, you seem to be have the longest active tenure of the Nerdcore cats, but being the elder doesn’t always make you the king.

even my most famous contemporaries allow me to use this tagline and refer to me as such. it must be true.

Hmmm… well, if you could be anything other than a nerd rapper, what would you be and why?

i’m way more than a nerd rapper. i eat cereal in the morning. i also run the entire internet – you better axe about me.

Good answer. So, I reviewed NES a month or two ago… basically stating that I dug it a lot. It was a great concept and the overall product was quite well executed. Whether it be NES or something else you put out, what, would you say, it Ytcracker’s crowning achievement? What is the best contribution to music that can be attributed to you?

i cooked a steak once while rapping about the steak and entertained people at the barbecue. these are the things that are important in life.

On his newest release, Lars covers one of my childhood heroes, Atom & His Package. Were you ever an Atom fan?

i was not. adam ant though holla game.

I’d personally call him an “OG”. He was kinda Nerdcore before there was such a thing. Plus, he was always freaking awesome live. Live music has always been a big thing for me. Who are the best live acts, both in your Nerdcore scene and elsewhere?

everyone in nerdcore, including myself, sucks at irl. the only groupcever worthy of holding any sort of cred live is pendulum.

How about influences, both Nerdcore and otherwise… what has influenced you musically?

i have really eclectic tastes and i play the turntables, guitar, piano, and kazoo. i like dance music a lot, so the fusion of technology and rap has always interested me.

Ok, so let’s do what I always do for a few questions in my interviews, let’s veer away from music and talk about other stuff. We’ll do some word associations. I’ll throw out a word or topic and you can tell me whatever comes to mind. We’ll start with current events. Michael Jackson.

the man. i miss you. i always stood up for you in elementary school when no one else did.

Michael Vick.

big ron mex wb you were afk.

Healthcare Reform.

libertarian or bust screw socializm.

Okay, away from just current topics, how about just some broader topics, like… Religion.

Praise Be to the Spam God and His Infinite Bitstream.

Video Games.

monkey island in HD whodi holla.

Twitter.

my life fits terribly in 140 chars or less.

And one more… The Metric System.

everything you need to know about getting high lies in the metric system.

Good. In my previous interview with Beefy, he said that there have been some heavy beefs (no pun intended) in Nerdcore. Have any involved you?

one with mc chris and i, but i think that is squashelerized.

Well, I guess I’ve wasted enough of your time, so let’s just hit a few more quick things. What should we be expecting from YTCracker in the near future in way of new music?

new album drops next month – it was called “the throne” now it might be called “the heisman” – they all have stories behind them. penis.

I know that you and, well, everyone else in the scene performed at Nerdapalooza in the past couple of weeks. How come that stuff never happens out here? When do us East Coast folks (Philly/Reading, specifically) get to see YTCracker live on stage?

tour goes live end of august – i’ll have dates up soon i promise!!!!

Ok, so… last question… what would you tell my readers is the most important thing when trying to pick up girls?

confidence and swagger. ain’t nary a none whodi say a whodi fo shodi ain’t done the damn thang with these females ya dig, goon sire.

Thanks again. Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease.

to the middle east. thanksgiving feast.