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Nerd So Low

by Bedford Level Experiment

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1.
Morning TV 02:34
Every weekday morning I would wake up Turn on the black & white tv in my room Watch Battle of the Planets at 7:30 Then Inspector Gadget at 8:00 Then Astro Boy at 8:30... But school started at 9:00 am So I'd watch Astro to the very last second Right before the ads & credits rolled And run as fast as I could to school No desire to get to school early Would rather watch cartoons Escape into those other worlds In the safety of my bedroom A couple times I got to school late Just a minute or two, but that was enough Teacher was phoning my parents And I was no longer allowed to watch Astro So I started to go to school early Then discovered I had a couple friends We could wander the schoolyard together Talk about Astro Boy and G-Force And that wasn't so bad...
2.
Switchbox 03:03
My Commodore 64 came with a switchbox A small metal box with a switch Rabbit ears attached at one end, and At the other the Commodore 64 plugged in The switchbox had two leads, They attached to the back of the TV To the VHF terminals, tighten the screws Then between the C64 and TV I could choose What bliss to have this in my room Computer and cartoons If I just had my own fridge full of food And my own bathroom, I could stay in forever
3.
Nap the Sap 02:50
We bought Ultima IV at Zellers One of the greatest games of all Paid half price each and made copies To play on our own Commodore 64s It took 3 months to beat it Though I played it every day Searching for that Candle of Love On every single tile But we wanted to play other games, And didn't have the money for more We'd look longingly at the games Arranged on the shelves at the Zeller's store Then we found out about a guy down the street A weird grown-up with a respectable job Who had amassed a collection of thousands of copied games, down in his basement So we bundled up, it was 35 below Stuck our floppy discs inside our jackets Walked through the howling wind chill And knocked on the door at the side of his house He let us in, and asked "What do you boys have for me?" And we produced Ultima IV. 4 disk sides, he copied them one by one With two disk sides and Fast Hack'em. When we asked him what we got in return, He said we could choose one game This seemed like a rip-off, but those were his rules So we chose Mobius, which in hindsight wasn't great.
4.
I got sent to computer camp Every day I'd walk to the college We'd go to program on the terminals learning BASIC or FORTRAN It was pretty fun, I learned a thing or two It lasted a week, during summer holidays Next time they offered computer camp They changed it to computer and *sport* camp So we'd program in the morning but then Play sports all afternoon Somebody thought computer nerds needed exercise Or sports jocks needed computer skills But it meant that some stupid jocks were there And for this computer nerd, it was no longer safe The bully threatened me, I don't know why All week he told me he'd beat me up On the last day I was supposed to meet him Out by the rink boards for a fight Instead I snuck out the building, through a different door I ran home, ran all the way home I just ran home
5.
Summer Rain 03:44
It was a sunny summer day In northern Ontario I was playing with my C64 At my desk in my room With the window open Feel the summer breeze My parents said it was time To go to the kite festival So I turned off the computer And grabbed my kite and off we went Down to the marina, the kites were flying My kite joined the colourful crowd We laughed and saw the sites And then a rain storm suddenly moved in Everyone scrambled and we started to drive home Then the sun came back out again I went up to my room and found my Commodore 64 sitting in a puddle of rain The wind must have blown it through the window There was a pool of water in the keyboard I had the sense to unplug it, and took a screwdriver And took it apart, and towelled it out and left it to dry Propped up like a pyramid A computer pyramid I left it for a full day, a full day without my computer Not even knowing if it would still work Trying to imagine how I could earn enough money to buy another I put it back together and turned it on... and the blue screen came on It still worked, it still worked, it still worked.
6.
Uncle 02:21
I wish I had known my uncle better I didn't learn bass until after he died Looking at old pictures of him playing that blue Rickenbacker 4003 Sometimes I'll play a gig and older guys Will hear our shared last name They'll find me after and say "You must be Phil's brother!" "You look so much like him, and you play a lot like him too." I tell them I'm his nephew, and we chat a while Like they're seeing a long-lost friend I wish he were around to show me some licks Tell stories about his trips to Nashville When they recorded that 45 But the addictions and disappointments All added up He didn't make it out of all that alive
7.
The Game Boy Color was the last of the 8-bits Just 32K of RAM and a Z80-like CPU Still being made in the early 2000s It seemed like it was my last chance to become a game developer I got a flash cart and made a playable demo Moving a sprite around with the d-pad Got flown down to Toronto for a GBC job interview Got offered the job but I really didn't want to move And then the Game Boy Advance came along and I hated it Hadn't even played it, I just knew it was a 32-bit ARM And figured I'd never be able to get a job doing that 32-bit was so far from what I'd always done But then I heard about Car Battler Joe It sounded like my dream game, the game I wanted to make And it was an exclusive for Game Boy Advance Had to drop my prejudice and get one And it turned out to be one of my favourite games ever And it turned out to be on one of my favourite platforms ever And by 2006 I had a job programming a GBA game It's funny how things can change
8.
Being named after a bird, after Batman's sidekick When I was a kid I often didn't like my name It was more ammunition than the other kids needed Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg... It didn't help that the local coffee chain Was called Robin's Donuts Nowadays, one of my best coffee partners is named Tim And our national coffee shop chain is Tim Horton's. Robin's, or Tim's? A common question around here. In certain circles. Then I realized that one of my favourite bands Has had two bassists... one named Robin. And the other one named Tim. I like Tim better.
9.
Surrender 03:09
One Friday he showed up at our house With an Atari 2600 and Pitfall! on cartridge Mom didn't know if he stole it, or borrowed it, or owed it for a bet He wouldn't answer her when she asked where he got it I played Pitfall! all weekend and got over 20,000 points We took a photo to send in for the badge But it didn't turn out And he came and took the system back Later he showed up with dozens of packs of Empire Strikes Back trading cards and gave them to me Mom didn't know if they were stolen or what There were so many cards I almost got the whole series
10.
Anxiety 04:13
At school I hated having to go in front of the class To give a speech or presentation I hated being the focus, having all eyes on me Nothing worse than being the center of attention I'd lay awake at night, fearful of the future Imagining high school graduation, walking across the stage To receive my diploma, or even further ahead, getting married, Walking the aisle, saying my vows... never wanted to reach that age I hated sports, especially team sports Like basketball or volleyball That required me to catch or bump the ball - I'd screw up And ruin the play, it was all my fault But then I got a bass guitar and started to play in my room Then the bluegrass lady asked me to play along at church I was really nervous, but it felt safe enough, On bass, even when I was up front, I could be in the back Then I started a band with some friends, We got a few gigs, starting small, then bigger crowds It still makes me nervous, but I can handle it now Just need to take it easy after, find space to cool down

about

A solo album by Robin, written in mid-November 2016, and recorded entirely during US Thanksgiving weekend. A less polished, but heartfelt offering that picks up from our debut "Place Without A Computer". Lo-fi basement nerdrock.

With themes of loneliness, bullying, and anxiety, along with some funny moments, these songs are written from the perspective of a young computer nerd growing up in the 1980s.

Written for National Solo Album Month: nasoalmo.org

If you like what we're doing, please sign up for our mailing list or check out our music videos: BedfordLevelExperiment.com

credits

released November 30, 2016

Entirely written in the last 2 weeks of November 2016, and recorded during US Thanksgiving weekend, by Robin. Nerd solo!

Album cover: Young Sad Robin portrayed by Ben.

Thanks to Ben and Peter for helping me clean their room enough to take the cover album photo. Also thanks to MJ Hibbett for his various inspirational solo albums through the years: A Million Ukuleles, All Around My House, Wonderful Wednesday, and maybe more.

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Bedford Level Experiment Thunder Bay, Ontario

Bedford Level Experiment makes sincere nerdrock, ranging from folk-rock to post-punk to shoegaze. We focus on creating concept albums around geek themes - procedurally generated Shakespeare lyrics, the sci-fi musings of John Wyndham, or growing up in the '80s as a computer nerd without a computer, for example. ... more

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