According to urban legend (read: Wikipedia), the nerdcore powerhouse group Commodore 64 formed in the 1980s from a chance meeting of math club whizzes and break-dancers at a concert in the magical land of New Jersey. (Shut it. Jersey is so a magical place and you know it.) After recording their seminal offering "K-Minus Initiative" (you might remember it for such classic hits as "Straight Outta CompUSA"), nerdcore got big – like single-page blurb in Wired magazine huge. As fame took hold, the ballers of C64 got lost in the world of club shootings, beefs with 50 Cent, solo careers and baby mama drama. And alas, the macks lost their stacks and stopped pressing wax. The world mourned. Another promising young group was lost to a crappy rock-star cliché.
OK, none of this happened. Well, maybe some of it. What did happen, though was that founding member Jason Tanz (aka Teddy Ruxpin – cut-and-pasted, left) managed to put his promising rap career on hold to be an editor here at Wired (hey, it beats pressing bumpers). And around here, he’s totally a star (even editor in chief Chris Anderson – no stranger to musical closet skeletons – proclaimed, "You’re my hero!" the first time he heard C64.)
Today Tanz came to me (me! his biggest fan!**) wondering if I’d like to post some songs from the C64 vault in honor of the other Commodore 64’s 25th anniversary. What was this? Rare, never-released songs? Of course I want the tracks, as Brit Brit says "gimme gimme more"! So, without further adieu, your nerdcore du jour – soon to be released as a long-awaited follow-up EP, Puberty:
Night on Mount Mountainsmash – Commodore 64
Three MCs Who Like Schoolly D – Commodore 64
**Jason is not paying me to write these things, or to mention his fabulous book (I haven’t read it but I hear it’s a stroke of genius) "Other People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America." Just so you know.
UPDATE: Super fresh Puberty artwork now after the jump!
