Ancient City con has been known to grow each and every year. Last year we were treated to the first year of concerts which was known as “CONtagius the Bard Virus” and featured two of my new favorite bands Sci-Fried and Consortium of Genius, both of which I shall talk about in a little bit, and the third band was Field of Glass. This year ACC stepped things up with “CONtagius the Bard Virus Two: Relapse” where instead of 3 bands we had 5. In some ways, I can be a bit of a snob when it comes to bands at a convention. What I mean by this is that if a convention is hosting your band and it gives you a table where you can sell your merchandise, it is a great perk and should be appreciated by the bands. However, if you don’t come by and sell your stuff then I start to think you don’t really care- about your work, your music, your band, and yourself as a musician. If you don’t care enough to try and get me to buy the music you worked hard on then I ask myself why should I waste my time and come to your concert? Last year I think this type of thinking worked out for me as I ended up seeing two awesome groups and ending up with 3 new CD’s for my collection. This year it may have backfired a bit as none of the performing groups showed at their tables on the first day; as a result, I did not go to any of the concerts. However, on the second day the band known as The Killer Robots did indeed show at their table and sold some CD’s and DVD’s. So this blog will be about my thoughts and reviews for The Killer Robots, Sci-Fried, and Consortium of Genius. The other bands this year were Goliath Flores, Shawn Lightfoot and the Brigade, My parents Favorite Music and finally Random Encounter.
As I said before, I tend to not invest my time and money into a band that does not try to sell me their things, so it is unfortunate that I missed the Killer Robots this year at ACC5 because from what I later saw they seemed to be an interesting group. On the second day of the Con, The Killer Robots had shown up to sell some of their CD’s and DVD’s. I bought one of their CD’s and have to admit that what I heard was enjoyable. They have a very techno/futuristic sound fusion that was an enjoyable escape from the everyday music I normally listen to. My only real regret about their CD is something that happens to a lot of local bands that set up ways to tape their music and that is that whoever mixed the CD mixed it for the music itself and not the vocals. While this was good for the music it made it where it was a bit hard to hear the lyrics. Fortunately, the booklet in the CD had the lyrics so I could follow along if I wanted. The CD had an interesting, if a bit of a random, story line that tied the songs together. What I wish I had seen however was the band playing because they play in full costume as Killer Robots. On the second day of ACC, shortly after I bought the CD, one of my friends came up to me and said “I just saw the funniest thing! In the game room there is a Robot singing karaoke to Queens song Bohemian Rhapsody on the Guitar Hero game!” So I went to see and ended up filming the following . If you want to see a bit more of the Killer Robots check out some of their YouTube videos here http://youtu.be/1hRTbP7BI1s
ACC4 2010
Last year at Ancient City Con 4, which was held in 2010, I was able to see two of the three concerts. The first concert was, if I am remembering the order correctly, an amazing group called The Consortium of Genius, or The C.O.G. for short. The COG has been around for 15 years now and has had almost as many incarnations and cast changes over the years. They are based out of the New Orleans area. We were very lucky to have them come all the way to Florida to play and if they come back to the state again I will be sure to find where they are playing and once more see them in concert. When they played at ACC, their band consisted of Lead Singer and Theremin player Doctor Milo T. Pinkerton the 3rd, Milo’s singing sister Doctor Formelda Hyde-Pinkerton, guitar playing Doctor Harry A Rachnid, bass player and future cult leader Doctor Zaemon Abdul Siddartha Mohammad Achmell Tutmos Abram Ali Hermes Odin Mahatma Dahali Martin Luther Hussein Kali Rocka Babu Haegiegi III (AKA Doctor Z for short due to obvious reasons), and last, but certainly not least, the drum playing robot Drumbot. The COG has several albums out and I own their 10th anniversary CD and their newest CD Music for Supervillains. Both CD’s are chock full of awesome music inspired by RP games, Sci-fi, fantasy, and of course evil science. The COG are as much fun to see in concert as they are to listen to; each member being an evil scientist bent on world domination through music, well all of them except for drumbot of course who is a robot that was built specifically to play the drums. COG is talented in many different types of music such from Rock to Metal and everything in-between. COG has since become one of my favorite groups to listen to and I have even made a fan vid for their song “Evil is Fun” which can be seen here
Another great song of theirs is Dr A. Rachnids “The Creep”
Consortium of Genius can be found at this website ->http://www.consortiumofgenius.com/
The other great band I had seen last year is Sci-Fried. Sci-Fried prides themselves on being the definition of geek rock and so far they seem to be holding tightly to that standard. With three fabulous CD’s out in their name I can guarantee that when the next one comes out I will be buying that as well as I foresee a long wonderful career for Sci-Fried. Sci-Fried has one album that is mostly spoofs such as the song “Too Many Zombies” based off of the Primus tune “Too Many Puppies”. Their other album is mostly original songs and their third and newest album Future Tense is a good mix of both original and spoof type music. Sci-Fried is a very talented group that has done metal, rock and even ska. Their website can be found here http://www.sci-friedband.com/.
This is a fan vid I did for their song Too Many Zombies
Here are two of my favorite vids of theirs
PX-75309
Chosen One
So if you are like myself and enjoy good music made by people who never forget who they are, what they stand for, and where they come from, then check out these and other amazing local and lesser known bands. Whether you are a geek music veteran like myself, or a newbie to the insanity like my girlfriend, bands such as these have something to offer everyone. So get out there, crank it up, rock out, and take over your own little corner of the world!
draxisweb 