Episode 16 << Click to Listen

[Download]

Jonathan Coulton, geek singer/songwriter, joins us to talk about music, video games, and becoming an internet rock star.

Panel Topic: Music for Geeks

Please give us 5 stars on iTunes.

Introduction

0:00 Introduction by Tor.com

0:38 Dave and John introduce the show

Interview: Jonathan Coulton

01:34 Interview begins

01:50 Jonathan’s geeky interests growing up

03:15 On computer programming, and the indisputable fact that the client is always wrong

04:10 Fake it ’til you make it: Pretending to be a full-time musician and how it paid off

05:26 Eventful.com: how you can get JoCo to play a show in your town

06:54 Mad Scientists vs. Zombies

07:39 Regarding Dr. Horrible and making art without a net

08:29 Jonathan’s zombie contingency plan: a speedy death

09:28 Working with Valve on Portal

10:35 Jonathan’s songs are available in Rock Band! Also Jonathan proves his corporate geek past by using the term “core competency” in relation to rock music

13:02 Jonathan’s move from core to casual gaming (there are kids and family involved, who’d have guessed?) and a few recommendations

14:55 Other musicians in the geeky field: MC Frontalot; They Might Be Giants; Weird Al Yankovic

16:00 On being in the zone

16:59 Re: being mentioned by people he admires on the internet

19:03 Blogs Jonathan enjoys these days: Daring Fireball; Waxy.org; microblogging site Twitter.com

20:52 Performing at the Penny Arcade Expo

21:47 Playing at cons vs. music venues

23:20 What’s coming up from Jonathan: the Rock Band Network and the BEST. CONCERT. EVER. DVD

24:41 End of interview

Dave and John talk about metal, nerdcore, and speculative fiction with musical themes

24:47 How Dave was traumatized by Aerosmith, and also is possibly an alien here to study our culture

29:13 John establishes metal’s geek cred and defends the continued existence of MySpace

33:25 The difficulty in being a fan on the fringe

34:27 John expands on fantasy themes in metal

37:03 Dave explores the idea of changing themes in popular music, and John recommends Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny

42:56 Stephen King’s “The Raft,” writers in bands, and the science fiction/rock-and-roll cross-over

44:54 More fiction with rock-and-roll themes: The Armageddon Ragby George R.R. Martin; Lucius Shepard’s “Stars Seen Through Stone”; Michael Moorcock’s “A Dead Singer”

48:24 How the fictional band is incredibly useful for writers, and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist

50:15 The advantages that music has over prose fiction

54:05 Young authors, and how defining youth differs in fiction from pretty much anything else

56:25 Dave and John explore the different ways we respond to fiction and music

58:39 About Pandora and LastFM (Software engineers: please create the Pandora engine for short fiction!)

01:01:34 Other geek icons in the geek music scene, MC Chris and MC Frontalot; for your viewing pleasure, documentaries Nerdcore Rising and Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey; combining metal with animation (very geeky!) is Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse

01:03:21 Show wrap-up

Next week: Bestseller Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series!

Thanks for listening!

Show notes compiled by podtern Christie Yant. Friend us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.