Album review: Nerf Herder 'Rockingham'

I've been waiting for a new Nerf Herder album for what feels like forever.

But it's only actually been eight years. ONLY.

If you're not familiar with the work of the 90s nerd-core pop-punk band, or perhaps only know them from their theme song for Buffy the Vampire, then first of all slap yourself, and then go and listen to all of their albums in order - immediately.

Nerf Herder are one of my favourite bands of all time, and one of the first live bands I ever saw. I was lucky enough to chat with some of them after they supported No Use For A Name (another of my all-time favourite bands) in Portsmouth way back in 1999/2000 and I still have a ticket for that show with various band members squiggles on.

Anyway, yesterday saw the release of their fifth full length album, Rockingham.

This album was crowdfunded, and seems to have been a long time in the making. Alas, I was not one of the people to donate towards the album because I'm way too skint to do such things, and am a struggling artist myself, however, they'll get enough online plays and plugs from me to cover the cost of any donation I'd have given if I was able to.

So was it worth the wait?

Well... yes. I have to say straight off the bat that it's not their best album, but having only listened to it twice before writing this review, and blasting it as I write, I have to say it's a grower and one thing that is a good sign is that when I woke up this morning I had at least two hooks from the album running through my head. Having said that, it's not their worst album either, because... well... in my opinion they don't have a bad album, which is a big achievement in my book as most bands end up squirging out some shit at some point in their careers. Luckily, or perhaps cleverly in this case, Nerf Herder haven't done that yet. I'd say this album is as good as 2002s 'American Cheese' which admittedly took me a while to get used to as it seemed quite different to the the albums prior to this release, but was actually a nice development of their pop-punk sound, adding synths and keyboards, which then really came into their own on the Nerf Herder IV album.

I really like all of their previous work, and my favourite, and in my opinion their strongest album is the aforementioned Nerf Herder IV released in 2008. The songs on Rockingham are laced with Nerf Herder's typical catchy chorus lines and funny lyrics, but I feel that the subject matter of the new album falls slightly short of the mark in terms of the silliness and down right bizarreness of their previous stuff.

It almost shows a more grown up Nerf Herder, with slightly more rocky, slower numbers, like a middle-age man reminiscing about the old days. The band are all in their mid 40s now after all.

That being said, they still know how to make some great songs, with 'We Opened for Weezer' being one of my favourites from the album 
and this was one of the songs stuck in my brain this morning! There's plenty of geeky goodness which fans have come to expect from Nerf Herder on the Rockingham album, covering all the usual Sci-Fi bases, with Star Wars and Doctor Who references, and a song about blaming Bill Murray for a proper Ghostbusters 3 film never happening. Speaking of Ghostbusters, I'll write a seperate post about the new film and my views on it soon.

Anyway, Rockingham is over way too quickly, and maybe it's just because it's been so long a wait for new songs from Nerf Herder that I'm left wanting more and at the same time not feeling completely full up by what Rockingham has to offer (in a good way because I want more, MORE DAMMIT!) and I can only hope that this is the start of a pick up in momentum for the band and that this release is proactive and means that there is more to come and not something that was only done because the fans made them do it (if that makes sense?!).

A year or two ago I honestly thought I'd never get to see Nerf Herder at a show ever again, and I hope this fear can now be removed from my worried mind and that they'll finally come back to the UK before either I die, or one of them does. 2016 is being unrelenting in it's taking away of awesome people, so I hope both they and myself can dodge it's evil claws long enough to be able to be in the same venue as each other one more time!

Anyway, to sum up, Nerf Herder have so far done no wrong with their output, and although the new album is not an immediate classic, I know it's going to reveal more to my ears as I give it more listens, and if I can't shake the choruses from my brain for the next few days then I know it's earned it's place in my 'What My Ears Liked in 2016' playlist.

I'm giving Rockingham 5 out of 7. I don't care what anybody else thinks.

Listen to Rockingham by Nerf Herder on Spotify here:

Return of the wack!

Greetings!

I've wanted to set up a personal blog for a while, and recently I found an old one I had. Having been through all the posts and removing the most cringeworthy - or ones that may possibly get me in to trouble - I've left the ones that are still ok for public consumption.

To be honest, unless you know me, they probably won't be of much interest anyway, and even then they still probably won't be!

Anyway, I just thought I'd start writing some stuff again.

This blog is just what's going on inside my head, and will feature things about illustration, music, food, beer, and anything else that I decide I want to waffle on about.

Please bear with the awful blog template, I'm still re-learning the Blogger platform and will be tweaking it as I go!

TESTING TESTING... 1, 2, 3!?

Here, have a test cat.

A testicat.

It makes me sad that...

...We will never hear another album like these 3 classics:


Keith Murray - 'The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World' 1994
Nine - 'Nine Livez' 1995
Busta Rhymes - 'The Coming' 1996

MARA PROJECT - THE END IS NOW

When I started writing songs for what would become Mara Project, I never really had any intention of them being used, played, or becomming anything other than a bunch of songs for me to listen to myself.

Mara Project was the most organic songwriting experience I've ever had. All songs started off (usually when I happened to be sitting around bored, intoxicated or not really thinking about much) as innocent little riffs or vocal melodies that eventually evolved in to bigger bolder demos, and that's essentially what I wanted them to be.

No, not demos. I don't really like the word 'Demo', it feels kind of self-restricting and makes it sound like the product isn't as valuable somehow as it's not the final version. But in this case, these 'sketches' let's call them, became the final tracks - and that's exactly what songwriting is about for me.

Unlike with my other musical projects, these songs just happened with no logical process whatsoever. Most song writers have a 'way' or 'ways' of writing and creating songs, even I do, but these ones happened without any effort whatsoever.

I didn't ask them to, I didn't have to think about them for them to materialise - they just did.

But alas, as with all good things, it must come to an end and so that is why I've now made the decision to draw a premature line under the album, which cuts it short at 8 tracks plus 1 bonus remix, and leaves the songs in their current state in terms of vocal takes, and instrument mistakes, although all tracks have been mixed and mastered to a respectable standard of course - some tracks I even consider to be unfinished, but this is how they will remain, and in that respect kind of ties up nicely with the title of the album, there'll always be a long way to go.

The decision to finish the album so abruptly came after a long period (must be atleast 6-8 months) where I've been unable to write anything, and have lacked motivation, (and possibly inspiration) and so haven't wanted to work on the tracks, or work on new material. No matter how hard I tried to work on things, I just couldn't force it out.

Amongst a whole heap of other things, I was feeling a little bit of pressure from the record label that was intending to release the album, who understandibly wanted to keep checking how progress was going etc. as they were keen to release the album as soon as possible, and although I am greatful to the label for wanting to put out my music, I never really intended the album to be something I'd be working on for anyone other than myself, and so this started playing on my mind and created a bit of a weight on it, and so eventually everything snowballed and killed my desire to write.

Part of me is also saying that this chapter of my life is over and it's time to move on, and for once, I've been the one making that decision and acting on it, instead of it dieing the same way Out of Luck and Second Time Lucky did. It's actually kind of empowering.

I'm not sure at this stage whether I want to draw a line under the entire project or not, I think there's potential for a live Mara Project band, and I have more than enough material for a second album, and plenty of amazing musicians wanting to collaborate on tracks (which was another amazingly fulfilling aspect about this project, working with other writers)

We will have to see.

I think if I were to do Mara Project as live band at some point in the future, but it would have to involve the right musicians, and the right intent. I'd rather musicians I know wanted to be part of it, rather than me assembling a bunch of people together if that makes sense? I dunno. If there was enough call for it, I'd definitely think seriously about doing it live.

I'm also quite nervous about the reaction the album will get, I have absolutely no idea if people will like it or not, it's a strange feeling!

Listening back to the album after giving it a bit of a final 'master' the other night I was pleasantly surprised. There is so much in these songs (to me at least!) that makes me wonder where the hell it all came from from. Lyrically, I'm expressing political views, Buddhist sentiment and morals, giving a respectful nod to Rastafari culture, and many of my musical peers, whilst dressing it all up nicely in some kind of weird hybrid of Reggae, Hip-Hop and Pop. Naturally with that kind of rough around the edges, slightly raw vibe that I love, and certainly feel is definitely what D.I.Y recording projects have over commercial releases. It's all part of the truth, and sincerity of the songs.

Although I am somewhat regretful, no not regretful... I think sad is a better word - that I have come to the decision to finish the album this way (and this short) I am still immensely proud of what it is, and what I have gotten out of the whole experience, it's been unlike anything I've experienced in my 9-10 years as a musician, and I think it's because every track was either a result of blood, sweat or tears and although many people may not know what I'm talking about, many people may read in to the songs and interpret them in their own way (which is what I would hope to happen), but I know that each and every one of those songs - whether I intended them to or not, came from my heart.

I hope you enjoy the tracks for what they are, and even what they aren't.

You can get the album here for £1 (or more if you feel it's worth it!)

Mara Project - Long Way To Go - full album


I originally intended the proceeds from the album to be used as fundraising money so that I can go and build another house for charity, however all proceeds from the release of the album until the end of April 2011 will go to the Japanese Red Cross to help with aid for the victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami.

Invisible magical powers...

Today me and Dan were standing in the kitchen, I was ironing my shirt and Dan was making tea, we're in full conversation.

A few miuntes later Dan walks off with his cup of tea.

"Where's mine?" I ask, "Oh I didn't know you were there, sorry!".

F-issues

Me and Dan sitting in the living room, a long long silence.... about 20 minutes of silence, and then:

Drew: "I need a job."

Dan: "I don't know how to carry fish."

...silence.