Smog’s Bill Callahan is one of independent music’s most prolific singer-songwritiers without a doubt. With a voice that is both deep and smokey that rises and swells with the tides and fits in perfectly when crooning songs of love hate. Texas-based Callahan began recording lo-fi at his home in 1988, releasing tapes on his own label up until being signed to Chicago’s major-indie Drag City in 1991, for which he’s still releasing. Recently Smog has been touring the world to promote his 2005 album “A River Ain’t too Much to Love” and working on his new album at home in Austin, Texas.

Both videos after the jump..

Read more of ”Music video double-feature: Smog’s “Mother of the World” and “Rock Bottom Riser”“

Jay Moore, marketing director for Garage Games announced via his blog today that he’ll be leaving the Garage to pursue other opportunities, no doubt within the gaming industry (we can only hope). Jay was seen by many as the one of the driving forces behind the success of Garage Games, the Torque Games Engine and the success of Marble Blast on the Xbox 360. He’ll surely be missed and I wonder how he possibly could be replaced in a company which is still struggling to establish itself outside of the hobbyist indie games market.

Read more: Jay Moore leaving Garage Games | Torque Game Engine

The ever so lovable Ichiro and Mimi from Indie Superstar have graced us once again with a new episode of their quickly maturing video cast covering indie games, developers and fans. Seriously, I want to pinch the cheeks of these two everytime I see them on-screen. So yeah, I apologize for completely breezing over episode 2, but I wanted to get back on the ball and talk a bit about episode 3. The crew have made a few small changes, giving games a bit more screen-time and a little less banter during the in-game scenes. There’s also YouTube and Google Video hosted videos, which I’m sure is pleasing their growing fanbase and easing up a bit on their web hosting bills. But on with the show, first up, we hear and see a little bit about Dark Horizons Lore, the mech-shooter, which was one of last year’s hot contenders at the IGF. Looking good, even for a Torque-powered title. Next up we have a bit of wackiness, with a little Japanese sing-along which actually got me to thinking. What is the Japanese indie gaming scene like and why do I hear so little about it? If there IS a Japanese indie scene, what are their marketing and distribution systems like, how successful are Japanese indie games titles, and who are the ones making them? I envision a large and profitable market full of broadband-enabled customers, demanding high quality and innovative games they can easily buy, download and play, but, what do I know?

Watch Indie Superstar Episode 3 after the jump..!

Read more of ”Indie games television - Indie Superstar episode 3“

We’re big music people here in the Bunch of Nerds universe, so it only makes sense that we’d eventually start posting music and videos from some of the artists and labels that we love. So, our first video in what, I guess, will become another new posting series, is from our beloved UK indie darlings, Broadcast. Hailing from Birmingham, Broadcast’s first few releases were featured on the Duophonic Label, run by their good friends in Stereolab, before the band was picked up by legendary UK electronica label Warp Records. “Winter Now” is a track from 2003’s “Haha Sound” on Warp Records and if you are interested in their latest album, the band has recently completed recording “Future Crayon” to be released August 22nd, 2006 on Warp.

Video and links after the jump..

Read more of ”Broadcast - “Winter Now” performed live on CBC’s ZeD“

Indie superstars Introversion Software have confirmed their next title, Defcon, will finally see the light in September 2006. After missing their previously announced deadline for April, and having a problematic Alpha/Beta testing phase, it’s good to finally see the War Games inspired title coming out! I know a group of dudes waiting for some online multi-player thermonucleur destruction (of the virtual, digital kind of course).

[Defcon | Introversion confirms Defcom September release]

Being a fan of Silver Jews I can’t believe I missed this, but, oh well, -2 scene points for me. Silver Jews came out of a long hiatus at the end of 2005 to record and release a new album on Drag City named “Tanglewood Numbers”. Not their greatest work, but certainly worthy of a Silver Jews release, the album features a ‘love’ song named “Punks in the Beerlight”, for which SIlver Jews released a very interesting music video to accompany it. The video, directed by Todd Lincoln, cuts up scenes from Planet of the Apes and reforms the cult film into a music video love story with Silver Jews supplying the soundtrack.

Watch the video and maybe shed a tear after the jump…

Read more of ”Silver Jews mash up Planet of the Apes for music video“

Indie games studio Positech Games have performed a “soft release” of their new sim-title, Kudos, announcing the game’s release direct to fans before a public release scheduled to begin next week. Kudos is a turn-based life-simulator title for the PC (at the moment) created by ex-Lionhead Games AI programmer Cliff Harris, who also was behind the much acclaimed political-sim title Democracy. In the game, players create their sim (almost a mini-game in itself!), decide where they work, who their friends should be, what they do to relax in their spare (game)time and many other activities. Kudos explores gameplay that other mainstream games ignore, allowing the player the freedom to do everything from watch television, to raising pets, to being an alcoholic starting drunken brawls with sims they don’t quite care for. Kudos to Cliffski for again releasing a solid and entertaining title and proving yet again that indie games market is emerging as both a viable and high quality alternative to mainstream gaming.

Video preview and links after the jump…

Read more of ”Positech Games releases Kudos, Indie sim-life role-playing game“

Indie games outfit, Cogames, has created an exciting (and addicting) browser-based version of Asteroids, only removing the asteroids and replacing them with other players! Users enter an arena with, it appears, up to 4 other players and begins a hectic and exciting free for all match, including power ups such as health and weapons and a chat feature, all through your Flash-enabled browser window. I’ve been playing all morning and I find it even more addictive than the original, much more fast-paced and even plays well on my PowerBook!

[Multiplayer Asteroids]

Plasma Pong is a brilliant clone, created by Steve Taylor, a student at George Mason University who is apparently a fan of game design AND physics. Taylor’s take on Pong combines realtime fluid dynamics simulations with the traditional game structure of Pong, which we’re all familiar with. Gameplay is very similar to Pong, however, some new mechanics have been introduced to spice things up a bit. Players are able to inject plasma fluid into the environment, which creates a vacuum originating at your paddle, sending shockwaves into the playing area manipulating the ball. Plasma Pong is a a modernization of Pong, which brings cutting-edge physics simulations onto your desktop for free. Definitely worth a download, especially if online multiplayer ever gets implemented (offline multiplayer is in as of May 2006).

[Plasma Pong]

The debut of episode of Indie Superstar has been released by Dejobaan Games, showcasing indie game development and independent interactive entertainment titles. The episode is a bit short for my taste, coming in under 5 minutes, with a higher ratio of casual chatting between the hosts versus actual gameplay footage. The creators of the show however, had originally planned for 15 minute long episodes, which, perhaps with more in-game footage, would have actually came out quite well. But still, not a bad first episode and I’m certainly looking forward to the future of the video cast, it can only go up from here as the cast gets a little more comfortable in front of the camera and the in-game footage gets a little longer.

[Indie Superstar video cast]