Artist: Mikey Mason
Album: Impotent Nerd Rage
Release Date: August 18, 2011
If I’d known about Mikey Mason’s Impotent Nerd Rage a few months ago, I’m sure it would have made my top 15 for 2011. It’s a really great and funny nerd rock album. I had heard “She Don’t Like Firefly” and “My Next Girlfriend,” two funny songs about geek girls, but never realized that there was an entire album until recently. In an interesting twist that seems to happen a lot, just after I found the album, Mikey Mason contacted me to offer me a download code for the album. I took it, but I ended up buying the album anyway in order to support his music. It’s that good, and I’d love to hear more!
The album opens with an appropriately metal song called “Kobolds Ate My Baby.” It’s a strong start musically, but my one quibble is the voices of the kobolds. They’re a bit too goofy which kind of throws me out of the song. It’s still a fun song, regardless. And there are plenty more to come. “Me and Alan Moore’s Beard” has got to be one of my favorites. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to have epic adventures with Alan Moore’s beard? That would be awesome! Until Alan Moore showed up, of course…
The title track is one I think all nerds can identify with: keeping a tally of all the problems in the world then shaking our fists while unable to do anything about them. And there’s even an ode to Jek Tono Porkins, aka Red Six (and if I need to tell you which movie that’s from, then you should have your geek card revoked!). It seems he was “Too Fat to Troop” so he joined the rebellion instead. Love it!
Mason has managed to avoid a common problem with comedy music: the repeat listening factor. I often find that funny music doesn’t hold up well to repeated listens. You hear it once or maybe twice, get the joke, and then there’s nothing else there. There are plenty of artists who avoid this, of course, but far too many that don’t. That’s one of the reasons I stopped listening to Dr. Demento, actually. Admittedly, this is probably my own personal pet peeve, but Impotent Nerd Rage is one of those albums where the music is good enough to keep you listening again and again.
If you love ’70s and ’80s rock, and you’re a geek, you owe it to yourself to go buy this album now!
