All of you nerds already know of Freezepop, I’m sure. With songs appearing in a few popular video games and having played PAX a few times, Freezepop has been in nerd culture enough already. Of course, it is a specific branch of nerd culture and I’ll explain a bit for those of you in other areas. Freezepop are, technically, a synthpop band. Their sound is really damned close to an old gameboy though and a lot of their songs deal with nerd culture.

I discovered Freezepop when they played at PAX a few years ago. I was listening to some of the bands that would be playing and really ended up taking a shine to Freezepop. There are a few things about them that annoy me though. They remix the shit out of every song. The video below is the original version of a track that I think I have ten different copies of. Some of the remixes really really suck too.

What happens if you cross Rammstein and the Beastie Boys? I have no idea, but Die Fantastischen Vier (or Fanta 4 for short) are one of the first German Hip-Hop groups to actually rap in German. If you can enjoy music in a different language AND you like hip-hop then you might actually like Fanta 4, but I make no promises.

I stumbled across Fanta 4 while in a hip-hop phase, something that comes and goes for me, and while I was dating a chick who was learning German. She wanted to listen to more German language music to help her study and I wanted hip-hop. It worked out… except for when she didn’t like hip-hop. Still, I’ve always enjoyed foreign music. Any music that can transcend lingual barriers is cool with me, and Fanta 4 pulls it off.

I can’t remember what the first song I heard one, but the attached is one of my favorites. It has a bit more of a pop sound then most of their songs but its damned fun to listen to. Plus they say a few words of English so I can pretend I know what the hell they are talking about.

I’ve been holding off on writing this article for awhile now. I discovered William Elliott Whitmore around the same time as O’Death – They both did 7″ splits with Murder by Death. The reason I waited was because I wasn’t sure at first if I liked Whitmore or not.

After spending a week listening to a few albums I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m actually really enjoying Whitmore. Its a little more country then I’m used to, which is what caused a lot of the initial hesitation, but there is a Blues and Punk feel mixed in there too. All of it gives him a pretty unique sound. While most of his songs are fairly simple they carry a passion and soul that is anything but simple.

I’ve included the song Hell or High Water. So you can, as the song says, “Smoke um if you got um. Drink your glasses to the bottom.”

Again with the old CDs I found, another band the turned up was Type O Negative. Unlike most bands I listen to, I remember how I discovered Type O. It was 1997 and I was a wee lad of thirteen. I bought a video game, Blood and on the CD there was a music video. I have no freaking idea why this video was in with the game, as far as I know Type O had nothing to do with the game.

The years have passed and my enjoyment of Type O fluctuates. Sometimes, like recently, I’ve really enjoyed their music and other times I find it juvenile. Regardless, I think its good (in that depressing sort of good) music and I doubt they will ever leave my collection. I’ve decided to enclose the first song I ever heard, Love You To Death. I couldn’t get the music video because its locked but luckily YouTube has alternates. Here’s the Music Video if you want to experience Type O the way I did for the first time.