By Miles Raymer
Over the past decade geek culture has really become an independent scene unto itself, and it’s not just about slash fiction and role-playing games. Proudly nerdy otaku have birthed several musical movements. Nerdcore rappers rhyme about Internet memes and Asperger’s. Eight-bit aficionados use the archaic beeps and bloops of NES-era video games as raw material for surprisingly club-friendly dance music. On the more experimental end there are the circuit benders, who twist the electronic guts of toys and simple synthesizers to turn them into noise-spewing tools of anarchy.
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Lofgren started Velva about a decade back, but the band’s current lineup has been together about four years. Szwarek sent a message to Velva’s MySpace page listing his influences and gear (sci-fi and B movies; original instruments like the MIDI-synth “ztar”) and offering his services. “I called him immediately,” Lofgren said. “He said, ‘Hello?’ I said, ‘Where have you been all my life?’ We were like long lost brothers.”
“That’s why we bring our audience candy,” Dunn said. He wasn’t joking: during the song “Marshmellow Kisses,” the band tosses out little ribbon-tied bags of Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, chocolate, and the like.
So how much of the video has laser shooting?
Thu 8/7, 11 PM, live set on WZRD 88.3
Fri 8/8, 8 PM, Leadway Bar and Grill, 5233 N. Damen, 773-728-2663. F
