In honor of the article about nerdcore hip-hop in this week’s Newsweek – Lord, I can scarcely believe I typed that phrase – here are three fun nerdcore tracks:

MC Frontalot - Charity Case
Optimus Rhyme - Just Forget It
mc chris - DQ Blizzard

One of the first things that drew me to the much-missed old-style mp3.com was Logan Whitehurst, a young man doing absurd, innocent pop music in the vein of early They Might Be Giants. Under the name “Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club”, he released gems like Calculator Love and Waffle of Death, which amused me to no end, as did the hilarious Farkle!!. Whitehurst later went on to join The Velvet Teen.

I just found out today that Whitehurst died of brain cancer last month. I can’t tell you how sad this makes me. Thankfully his archives are still available, and his family has kept his site up and running. They’ve also founded the Remember Logan Foundation, so if you enjoy his music, please check it out.

I cannot get enough of MC Frontalot’s This Old Man.

Greg Graffin is best known as the lead singer of brainy punk stalwarts Bad Religion, but took a rather different direction on his solo album Cold as the Clay. Graffin instead has taken a dozen folk songs (about half originals, half traditionals), and presented some in straightforward folk form, some with rock touches. Don’t Be Afraid to Run is one of the latter, and my favorite off of the album.

I thought Skeewiff’s O Skeewiff Where Art Thou? was already pretty cool – great driving riff, great backbeat – and then the vocals kicked in, and lo, did a cookie-eating grin spread across my face.