[updates] New Website Design – Guest Verse for Stevie D

You may have noticed that my site is looking BALLER AS HELL now. That’s all thanks to the wondrous, amazing and awesome Katie Sekelsky! Katie’s an amazing illustrator and comic artist, and you should most definitely check out all her stuff here, most notably her debut book The Time Traveler’s Pocket Guide! If you see her at any of the comic cons she’ll be at this year, please high five her for me.

I also did a guest verse for the magnanimous Stevie D of the Illbotz, along with Beefy. Go check out “Best Damn Fuckin’ Rappers In the Universe” here.

And hey, if you’re on the West Coast, most notably one of the following cities:

• Seattle, WA
• Portland, OR
• Berkeley, CA
• Los Angeles, CA
• San Diego, CA
• Las Vegas, NV
• Tempe, AZ
• Ogden, UT

Me and Kirby Krackle will be rocking out in your town in mid to late February. Come out to a show! Check out the dates.

Jane – TrackLog 101 [free tunes]

Download the track (MP3) (lyrics)
“Jane” by Adam WarRock

Beat used: “Moves Like Jagger” Maroon 5
Single cover design: Kevin Church  

A while ago, I made a song called “June” to Justin Bieber’s “Baby” beat. The whole point of that exercise was to see if I could take an obnoxiously poppy song and make a good rap song out of it. Since, it’s basically turned one of the most beloved songs that I’ve ever created. Such is the power of Bieber.

Since then, I’ve tried my damnedest to find a new pop song to replace “June” with, b/c well, “Baby” is not really still topical, and I’m kinda tired of the song. I don’t know why “Moves Like Jagger” came across my radar. For the record, I don’t think it’s necessarily a HORRIBLE song, it’s just kind of inoffensively stupid, but maybe in an enjoyable way? Who knows. I heard a good beat, and I wanted to rap over it.

I’ve had an idea to make a Jane Austen-based song for a long time. I was sitting around, talking to my friend Dave about an idea for this beat. I originally wanted the song to be pretty different, focusing on smart women and coming up with some kind of hook for the track. We both started throwing out names of smart women in history, and Jane Austen came up. And then it just turned into a track about how much I hate going to a club. It’s sort of about Jane Austen, but then, it’s sort of not. Because the idea is that if you don’t go to the clubs with everyone else, the stereotypical image is of someone sitting at home, doing something like READING *gasp*….as if. Even though….that’s…kinda what I do a lot of times.

Dave’s wife, Raina, is actually the girl on the phone at the beginning of the track. The most ironic thing is that she is a librarian who would probably never actually go to a club.

Also, I didn’t make up that refrain. It’s an homage to this. Enjoy.

• I’m going on a West Coast Tour with Kirby Krackle in February! (dates)
• I have a new album coming out Feb 13. First single’s here! (link)
• New tshirts are in the merch store! (link)

[The Tracklog is a free ongoing mixtape of rough song ideas mixtape verses, and unmastered b-sides, updated weekly.]

Adam WarRock – Fuck SOPA [free tunes]

Adam WarRock “Fuck SOPA”
(released in solidarity with the January 18 Internet-wide protest against Internet blacklist legislation) 

Download (MP3)

Educate yourself on why SOPA/PIPA, and similar bills are important to stop: Blacklist.eff.org

Lyrics: 

verse 1:

You wanna stop the internet, well you can’t
We are anonymous, legion, the right is separate from the left hand
But together we stand, on the shoulders of giants
So Fuck SOPA, my freedom of speech’s what you’re denying

As far as I can see, the copyright regime
It bred the acts of piracy that Congress tries to provide the relief from…
You turn the ISPs to mind police
As if my right to speech was less than companies to get their right to greed
Trying to keep us

From building on the only frontier still not affected
By corporate checks, from how creativity stepped in
So now a judge can make the call if you’re a felon
What the record and movie companies tell him (whatever)

With your vague legal language, that’s unconstitutional
False pretense of purpose, that’s barely any solution for
As if fake viagra was the price of our freedom
Thank god we have Big Brother as our leaders

Chorus:
Information wants to be free, FUCK SOPA
To make felons out you and me, FUCK SOPA
To strip away our freedom of speech, FUCK SOPA
C’mon and just say it with me, FUCK SOPA

verse 2:

What we have here, is a failure to communicate
The same Politicians who made their name
with viral videos that fill our screens up to election day
Now want to shut the gates down, that’s bullshit

So you can squeeze every penny out of a dying nation
So the markets of these movies and music can keep decaying
But at least no one is playing, or blogging about
The new hot shit, that no one’s talking about

The Arab Spring, to wikileaks
To Facebook, and mp3s
The internet’s the R&D for what’s further down the highway
But that’s cool, you want to choke it off and let it die
We’ll find a way around it, while you’re still checking myspace

So all take heed, and just let your voice be heard
They’re coming for the web, and we can’t simply just “be nerds”
Be activists, and stand shoulder to shoulder
Cuz we won the battle, but the war is far from over

interlude:
And I will keep streaming content, keep making mixtapes
Keep posting videos, confident we’ll find a way
Cuz in my corner, I got hackers and geeks
And I will keep rapping over the beat: FUCK SOPA

ComicsAlliance Rap Up & Martin Starr w/ Common Rotation [updates]

[ComicsAlliance Rap Up]
I’ve begun a new regular feature over at ComicsAlliance. Every two weeks, I’ll be posting up a song that wraps up the two weeks’ worth of news and comics. The first one went live over the weekend, with a beat by Mikal kHill. You should go check it out. 

[Martin Starr w/ Common Rotation - LA Stop]
I know I’m very excited to announce that Martin Starr w/ Common Rotation will be opening for me and Kirby Krackle at the Los Angeles stop on our West Coast Tour on February 21. I’m a big fan of Martin Starr, better known as Bill Haverchuck from Freaks & Geeks or Roman DeBeers from Party Down, and Common Rotation’s an active part of the Los Angeles music scene, having opened for They Might Be Giants and a number of other famous acts.

Tickets are here: The Mint
Follow Common Rotation on twitter
Follow Martin Starr on twitter

Masocore – TrackLog 99 [free tunes]

Download the track (MP3) (lyrics)
“Masocore” by Adam WarRock

Beat by Danny Baranowsky
“Meat Boy (Flesh)” Super Meat Boy Soundtrack (buy that ish)

I’ve been playing a lot of Super Meat Boy, lately. Trying to 100% that game is like letting someone continuously punch you in the nuts. For those who don’t know the terminology, Super Meat Boy is a game from the genre known as “masocore,” which, as my favorite video game website Giantbomb.com defines it: 

Through trial and error gameplay, complex game mechanics and intense difficulty, masocore games are specifically designed to frustrate players over and over again.

Or in other words, infinite nut punches.

I had the pleasure of meeting a certain Mr. Danny Baranowsky at my Scottsdale, AZ show last October. It was hilarious, because he was being introduced to me, and when MegaRan informed me he was the guy who did the soundtrack to Super Meat Boy, I basically geeked the hell out at him. Probably scared him. I love that soundtrack, and you should buy it and listen to the hell out of it.

So I rapped on one of his dope ass tracks.

UPDATES: 

• I’m going on a West Coast Tour with Kirby Krackle in February! (dates)
• I have a new album coming out Feb 13. First single’s here! (link)
• New tshirts are in the merch store! (link)

[The Tracklog is a free ongoing mixtape of rough song ideas mixtape verses, and unmastered b-sides, updated weekly.]

ADAM WARROCK/KIRBY KRACKLE WEST COAST TOUR!

West coast tour! Me and Kirby Krackle, along with some special guests, are doing an 8-date west coast swing through these cities:

• 02.16 | Seattle | Nectar w/ Klopfenpop, DeathStar
• 02.17 | Portland | Mt. Tabor w/ The Doubleclicks
• 02.19 | Berkeley | Gilman St.
• 02.21 | Los Angeles | The Mint
• 02.22 | San Diego | Ruby Room w/ Doctor Awkward
• 02.23 | Las Vegas | Beauty Bar w/ Dead Neon
• 02.24 | Tempe | Stray Cat Lounge w/ MegaRan
• 02.26 | Ogden | Mojo’s Music w/ DJ RoboRob

In the past 3 years of touring comic book conventions all over the the country resulting in four albums and a tour in Australia in 2011, KIRBY KRACKLE has become one of the top nerd-rock bands in the genre creating a grass roots movement of music revolving around their unique brand of songs about the comic characters, video games, and the pop-culture we love. This past summer the band released their new album, Super Powered Love as well as the punkish The Watcher; a song written for and soon to be released by MARVEL COMICS.

Co-headling the tour is ADAM WARROCK, who in just 3 years has become a well-known, musically prolific, and respected name in the genre of nerd-core and indie rap off the success of The Browncoats Mixtape, and having just completed a 3 month tour with MC LARS and MC CHRIS. This trip marks his first headlining tour on the west coast.

New Tshirts & Year-End Accolades

New T-Shirts
I restocked my webstore with the new tshirt designs, as well as all sizes of the Blue Electric Lady tshirts. Sizes S – 3XL are available now. 

Adam WarRock “616″
My new single, “616,” is still available for free download. Off the upcoming album, You Dare Call That Thing Human?!?, to be released February 13, 2012. Go check it out.

Year-End Accolades
As the year-end lists pour in,  Adam WarRock Enterprises, and more specifically The Browncoats Mixtape have gotten some pretty great accolades:

1. How Stuff Works ranks Adam WarRock #7 of the 10 Standout Nerds of 2011 (link)
2. “Objects In Space” on WIRED.com’s Must-Hear songs of 2011 (link)
3. NerdyShow.com’s #5 of the Top 20 Nerdy Things of 2011 (link)
4. One of Fandomania’s Top 15 Geek Music Releases (link)
5. One of UnheardNerd’s Top 10 Nerd Rap’s Best (link)

Thanks to all the sites that singled me out. Let’s hope 2012 is just as great!