I feel the need to say that I’ve been listening to a lot of Schäffer the Darklord lately. Billyuns and billyuns of years ago I saw him live at a nerdcore show, and blogged about it, and then more or less forgot about him till his CD Mark of the Beast found its way, by divine means, into my hard drive. And you know what? It’s pretty damn rich.
Schäffer the Darklord — STD to the fanz — comes across as a bit more of a homebrewing amateur than my nerdcore mainstays Frontalot (with whom STD has lately been touring) and mc chris, but he’s definitely their equal in terms of performing and songwriting chops, and the rough edges are part of his charm. A list of standout tracks from Mark of the Beast (STD’s real name is Mark; you get it) would have to include “The Rappist,” which I’m embedding below, though the determined should seek out this higher-res version here:
But now that I’ve plowed through the obvious fan favorites, which would also include “Cat People” and “Revenge of Attack of the Clonef___er” and “Nerd Lust” (“Let me see you shake it — shake your inhaler baby!”), I’m getting into the odder tracks, which turn out to be just as good: “Bitter Musician” and “Night of the Living Christ” and “Tin Man,” which is a rewriting of The Wizard of Oz via Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man”:
Here comes the Tin Man!
And he will hack you apart
His skin is made of metal and he has no heart!
Etc. Check it out, do.
This would be an appropriate time to plug Stop Standing Still, which was set up (by some stalwart Nerd World commenters) to glorify geek culture and in particular live shows relating to same. If nothing else you should read the Geek Culture Manifesto, which is a searing defense of all that is right and good in the world.