I'm talking about this guy right here:
His name is Jonathan Coulton and he writes great music, often with a technological or "geek culture" slant. His website [ link ] offers you the ability to listen to a wide variety of his music. He even has a musical primer, with different songs organized by categories like "geeky ones" or "funny/sad ones". [ link ] A few favorites of the band include: "Re: Your Brains," a song about zombies negotiating with a group of humans in a business meeting, of sorts; "Tom Cruise Crazy," a delightfully old-schoolish song explaining Tom Cruise's... eccentricities; and "Skullcrusher Mountain," which is a loving plea from a supervillain to his female captive.
Coulton has interestingly satisfying tonal and chordal instincts that make his music fun to listen to and his lyrics are often crafted wittily. While I sometimes prefer the acoustic version of his songs to his full rock band arrangements, he paints with a brush that is nicely influenced by the past thirty (plus) years of music, including touches of folk, electronic music and stadium-rock synth parts along with some heartily enjoyable rock.
One of my favorite Coulton tunes is "Still Alive," which was written for the end credits sequences of Portal [ link ], a video game released in 2007. The song is sung by the computer voice that is present throughout the game and makes a series of references to the game, so it's difficult to understand if the context isn't there. Still, it's a pretty song with a fun melody that I find myself humming randomly. The song isn't available on Jonathan's website because of licensing agreements with Valve Corporation, but it is available on YouTube. [ link ]
So, to recapitulate, The Empty Pockets like Jonathan Coulton and think you might like him to. Check him out.
Greasy is easy,
-Nate Bellon(bass)
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