If the title of this post hasn’t fully informed you of its purpose; today marks my dear friend Cas’ 27th birthday. I’ve been attacking him with birthday wishes across all social networking channels. The ultimate goal; make it so he can’t visit a single site on the Internet without me wishing him the warmest of birthdays. You’re the best, buddy.

Not necessarily in response to Cas’ birthday, I’ve decided to update the Auscultator with a few tracks I’ve been digging lately. I ended up doubling up on almost every band featured. Most especially Coheed and Cambria. If you aren’t familiar with their stuff, I strongly urge you to devour their entire five disc catalog of musical treats. I’ve included four of my favorite songs off of their newest album; Year of the Black Rainbow. These songs really showcase the strength and power this album delivers.

In addition to all the Coheed tracks, I’ve included a couple j-pop tracks; one from the second season of K-ON! which is a music-centric anime anyway, so picking a song from it was a fairly simple task. And also a track from Angel Beats, which is very quickly becoming one of my favorite series of the season so far. The music featured in the series thus far has been incredible and I can’t wait for a full OST.

The next artist was featured on this site a few posts back and is my favorite founder of nerdcore hiphop, MC Frontalot. His newest album; Zero Day is probably his best showing to date, which says a lot considering how high quality the previous albums were.

Lastly, since no Kether music update is complete without some metal, I give you Periphery. I was introduced to these guys through one of my brother’s acquaintances. Their debut self-titled album was just release a few weeks ago. Immediately I was drawn to this band, if anything due to their musical genre being described as “metal / progressive / experimental”. Those are three music classifications that always draw my attention.

As always, you may need to clear your browser cache to see the new tracks on the Auscultator. I hope you find something on there to your liking.

Peace.

If this website serves as anything it’s a testament to my personality painting a very clear and precise picture: I’m a pretty big nerd. Virtually every aspect of what constitutes me supplements this undeniable assertion. I’ve had almost twenty-seven years now to come to terms with this frightening truth. Luckily, now as an adult, I am free to basically do whatever the fuck I want without too much backlash from my peers considering now I don’t really have any peers.

Being a self-proclaimed nerd, there’s a subgenre of music that I greatly appreciate and wanted to share with you. I am speaking of Nerdcore Hiphop. To anyone unfamiliar with this already, you may think I just made that up. I can assure you, I did not. Instead, a man, known to his devoted followers as MC Frontalot, did. To be fair, he didn’t technically create the genre, but he did inadvertently name it.

As the name implies, Nerdcore Hiphop is a genre featuring rappers and MCs alike speaking not on subjects of cars, honeys, and dolla bills, but instead science, math, video games, etc. The topics that really matter to nerds such as myself. I can’t relate to songs about growing up on the hard streets of LA, but I totally identify with songs about D&D and the Internet.

MC Frontalot

So without further adieu, I present to you some sweet tracks from the man himself, MC Frontalot. You can find these bad boys featured on the Auscultator at the bottom of the menus to the right of your screen, or CLICK HERE to open a small pop-up version. If you’re reading this post like two years from now, it’s possible that the tracks will no longer be available. That’s probably your fault, and not so much mine. As always you may need to clear your browser’s cache for the new tracks to appear.

Lastly, before I let you indulge in the phat rhymes on offer, if you want to consume more from MC Frontalot or other Nerdcore rappers, you should visit Front’s website as well as watch the documentary created on the subject of Nerdcore aptly titled Nerdcore Rising which is available for purchase or if you have Netflix for free through the Instant Queue.

Nerdcore Rising

** GENERAL ADVISORY **

Tracks may contain material that is inappropriate for anyone who is not a nerd or has allergic reactions to nerdliness. You have been warned.

It looks like it’s my turn to entertain you with some musical tracks from my personal collection. Luckily for me, so much time has passed since the last time I had to do an Auscultator update, it was a lot easier finding 10 tracks to fill up our predetermined queue. The songs I selected are a melange of tracks I’ve been enjoying recently. Well, I guess they aren’t all that different, but they’re eclectic enough for me. Anyway, I’ll go into a little detail about each.

*disclaimer: You may need to clear your cache to see the new tracks*

	The first band on the list is Alexisonfire (pronounced “Alexis On Fire”, not to be confused with Alex is on Fire). They are a five-piece post-hardcore band that formed in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. I really dig their style. I don’t listen to a lot of music in this vein, but there is something I really like about them. The dynamic between the two singers really brings something I am attracted to. The track I chose is from their album Crisis. It’s a bit different from most of their stuff, but it seemed like a good choice for the Auscultator.
	Taking the number two spot is ASHES dIVIDE (commonly typeset with the lowercase “d”). They are an American rock band formed by Billy Howerdel, who you may know from A Perfect Circle. This is his newest project who I’ve actually had the pleasure of seeing. They have a really unique sound especially for the kind of music that seems to be most popular at the moment. The track chosen is a remix of a song on the album by a friend of theirs named Danny Lohner. I highly recommend checking these guys out further.
	Next up is August Burns Red who is an American metalcore band from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They’re a newer band both to the music scene and more recently to my iTunes library. The song on the Auscultator is from their newest album which was just released this summer. These guys are definitely heavy, but also have a technical aspect that really draws me to them. I typically don’t go for bands that only do the guttural screams for vocals, but these guys are one of my exceptions.
	Next is Cage the Elephant, an American rock band from Bowling Green, Kentucky. If you have a radio at all, you’ve probably heard these guys as of recent with their first single which is also the track I picked for the Auscultator. They have what I think is a really unique sound, although that could be my ignorance as they aren’t typically in the style of music I tend to listen to, but I really dig the single and need to spend some more time enjoying their first full album.
	This brings us to one of my favorite bands; Killswitch Engage has been a part of my music collection for years now. I was addicted the moment I first heard them. They walk that delicate balance between hard, heavy metal and operatic, melodic rock. This track is from their newest album. This is one of the softer songs, but the entire album is solid. They also have a unique personality in the metal scene. Down-to-earth dudes who spend more of their time watching the Simpsons on the road than drinking and partying. I can’t help but love that.
	I’m pretty new to this next band as well. RED is a Grammy nominated American Christian alternative metal band from Nashville, Tennessee. This may seem surprising seeing the “Christian” part in there. I was just as surprised as you as I wasn’t aware of that fact until iTunes filled in the genre, but I think these guys are great, regardless of any religious feelings I may or may not have. The song I picked is the last song on their most recent album. It’s real soft and real ballad-y, but I think it’s great.
	Ah, what to say about this next band, Scars On Broadway. These guys are an American alternative rock band, featuring System of a Down members Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan. With that in mind, the music of Scars on Broadway definitely reflects Malakian’s stranger, almost surreal personality. Along with his haunting vocals and Dolmayan’s precise and exquisite drumming, Scars really is a great band that almost makes you feel like System of a Down is still around and kicking. The song I picked is probably their weirdest and strangest track (which there are a few) on the album. I love it.
	This next band might be better to let speak for themselves. The Agonist is a Canadian melodic death metal/metalcore band, headed by the incredibly talented and beautiful Alissa White-Gluz. You may not recognize (or even believe) it at first, but yes, their singer is a woman. That powerful, almost demonic, guttural sound coming from the track on the Auscultator is coming from this Canadian beauty. I’ve been into these guys ever since I was introduced to them and their sophomore album (featured left) is an amazing sequel. The song I chose is damn heavy, probably one of the heaviest on the album, but it makes me smile every time.
	Our ninth track goes to another new band, The Killer and The Star, a musical solo project started by Scooter Ward, frontman of the band Cold. As a slight departure from Cold, The Killer and The Star centers around a soft, more experimental sound featuring only piano, bass and drums. This song is from their current, and first release, self-titled album. I find it great music to listen to when trying to just chill out and unwind.
	Last, but not least, the ultimate slot on the Auscultator goes to Yui. This just wouldn’t be a Kether update without a little jpop in the mix. Ever since I got into jpop/jrock, I’ve been listening to Yui. She is a talented singer-songwriter/musician. Most recently, her song Again, featured on the Auscultator, was the opening theme song for the new Fullmetal Alchemist anime. This song may definitely make you think me strange (compared to the others), but it really is a great tune.

Well, that’s the update. I hope you enjoy the tracks. I really dig each and every one of these bands, so I hope there’s something in there for you, unless you’re into rap or country. I wasn’t too accommodating with those genres. Well, can’t please everyone. Enjoy.

Peace.