Hex has finally posted more concrete details about this year’s Nerdapalooza. There’s good news and bad.

The good news is that Nerdapalooza is returning to a two-stage format, setting up in the newly-remodeled Orlando Airport Marriott, which is hoped to reduce the downtime between performances and the resulting, notorious schedule drift that was such a problem at last year’s event. Be sure to check out the event rates for rooms at the hotel in this post.

The bad news is that this required rescheduling the entire event, so that it is now on Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18. The reason that’s unfortunate is that it meant Dual Core was forced to withdraw from the bill due to scheduling conflict. Dual Core’s most recent album, Next Level, was one of our picks for 2009′s Essential Listening, so naturally I’m bummed about the news.

You can find the always up-to-date list of performers on Nerdapalooza.org. Personal favorites among them are MC Frontalot, Schaffer the Darklord, Captain Dan & The Scurvey Crew, and Random.

A few of the names I’m hoping to see appear on the list soon are The Protomen (their current tour dates only extend through May), Scrub Club (especially Kabuto the Python and Dr. Awkward), and Metroid Metal. To be honest, I’m on the fence about flying across the country for it this year (I was nearly local, last) without the addition of a few more of the performers I’m interested in seeing.

There’s an unfortunate lack of organized information on the official site, but you can find concise venue info on the Facebook event page, and info about the artists on this page of the official site. For anything else, you’ll have comb their blog, and failing that, contact the organizers directly.

Earlier this month Dr. Trevorkian described Dr. Awkward’s Next Gen EP as one of the most promising indicators that nerdcore hip-hop is growing up and destined to go places. A bold claim that I tend to fully agree with. However, if Dr. Awkward is an indicator Kabuto is an undeniable fact. Both seem to shine within nerdcore instead of being shackled by it and as a result have something MCs Lars, Chris and Frontalot never will; legitimate hip-hop crossover appeal. I’m sure some of you are already prepping scathing replies but let me clarify. I am not making these claims to be controversial nor am I doing it to generate comments. The fact is the bulk of nerdcore (that I’ve heard) suffers from one or some combination of the following: “niche” lyrics, poor production, or bad emcees. With that said there is a collection of nerdcore artists out there rising above these limitations and making some fucking good hip-hop that also happens to be “nerdcore”. Dr. Awkward & Kabuto fall into that category.

With that said, I wanna talk about Kabuto’s latest effort, The Parseltongue Mixtape.

After 2 disposable intro tracks the album finally begins with “Saigons of Thump” and by the time the bridge “hey yo Buffalo Buffalo fucking Bison ya punk” comes through the speakers you should have a good idea of what Kabuto is all about. As the next track, Open Season, begins, you’re wondering if he can maintain this level and by the time the Margret Thatcher sample starts any doubts about Kabuto’s skills will be dashed. Kabuto is the Ice Cube of this genre and no MC is safe from his pyroclastic flow.

As with any album that is 28 tracks long there are ebbs and flows to the album and there are some skits and some tracks that leave you wondering why they were included at all. With a little more self-editing, patience and restraint on the track selection & production Kabuto will have little problem rising to the top of the nerdcore mountain.

Kabuto The Python – Saigons of Thump
Kabuto The Python – Open Season

You can download The Parseltongue Mixtape for free from Scrub Club Records.

Dr. Awkward’s Next Gen EP is one of the most promising indicators that nerdcore hip-hop is growing up and destined to go places.  Awkward has his delivery down and he succeeds at giving us a great hip-hop release without sacrificing his geek identity, as documented in the introspective Geekquilibrium and displayed in the brutally nerdy track, Clan War.

He also killed it at Nerdapalooza ’09.  Showing up his labelmates during the Scrub Club set and coming close to straight out stealing the show.  Dr. Awkward is working on new material now, and as far as I’m concerned, the new release can’t get here fast enough.

Dr. Awkward – Geekquilibrium
Dr. Awkward – F.U.F.

Download the whole EP FOR FREE from Scrub Club Records!