Oh yes. You aren’t dreaming. Nerf Herder, those beloved California darlings of wonderful nerdcore and outrageously self-aware “crappy pop-punk” that sound like Weezer and the Ramones had a drunken night they can’t remember but decided to raise the resulting kid together, are back with their first album in 8 years, ‘Rockingham’, and as ever it is chock-full of charmingly simple punk songs and earnest, hilarious lyrics with such songs as ‘Stock Photo Girl’, ‘I’m the Droid (You’re Looking For)’ and ‘We Opened for Weezer’ and the band’s name on the front cover in the font from Empire Strikes Back.
If this your first time with Nerf Herder or you’re sitting there thinking “I’m sure I know that name from somewhere?” Your options are trifold: It’s originally a line from Empire Strikes Back, Leia calls Han a “Scruffy looking nerf herder”. Their singer is also responsible for Mid-00s YouTube hit “Baby Monkey Going Backwards On A Pig”. If that isn’t enough. They are responsible for the iconic opening theme for Iconic late 90’s TV Show – Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Whatever your level of Nerf Herder proficiency I’m sure those three factoids help shape an idea of the kind of band we’re dealing with here.
The album kicks off with ‘Portland’, a very catchy, guitar chugging-filled lament of the gentrification and ‘hipsterisation’ of the ex-crust-punk paradise of Portland, Oregon that any nostalgic ‘man the 90s were dope’-er can apply to their own world. The first four lines are literally, “Go back to Portland / Go back to school / Go back to the 90s / When shit was cool”. Let’s just say that it’s not much of a thinker, but a solid, lighthearted and nostalgic opening to a solid, lighthearted and nostalgic album!
Rolling on to the very literal nerd-fest: ‘At The Con’. No surprises here, just a wonderfully on-the-nose smorgasbord of nerdy references and pop punk with a Beach Boys-tinged chorus; it sets a new precedent as the first song ever to contain a lyric in the language of the Ewoks. It’s just great you guys. These first two tracks work as a good introduction to the general scale and magnitude of Nerf Herder’s repertoire: small, lighthearted and with tongues ever-presently pressed to cheeks.
After a couple of less impactful songs we have, coming in at track five, the absolute high point of the album. The epic, self-aware and highly amusing anthem to Nerf Herder’s peak of success, described in the title of the song: ‘We Opened For Weezer.’ The song tells the tale of the band’s tour supporting the aforementioned Weezer around the US. The song itself is a classic piece of late 90s nerd rock. Featuring familiar heavy grunge tone guitars playing happily major chords, the tried and tested “soft verse – loud chorus” structure and a massive Weezer-like octave solo. The true beauty of the song however, lies in the lyrics, a common trend with these guys, containing such gems as: “It was nerdcore heaven in ninety-seven with Weezer”; “Right about the time that Buffy started slayin’, we were on tour and we were playin’”; “They were singin’ the blues / Pinkerton was getting some bad reviews. / The guy from Rolling Stone didn’t like the songs. / The guy from Rolling Stone was totally wrong about Weezer” – a sentiment I think we can all agree with. The song culminates in a massive chorus coupled with, “And the kids sing ‘you might as well jump jump jump'”, the off beat ‘jumps’ lifting the final chorus and daring you not to start pogoing.
Following immediately comes another high point in ‘Jackie Got Married,’ Parry Gripp’s lamentation of the recent marriage of his favourite LA weather girl. With an intro that sounds like the band’s take on a The Story So Far song, it’s a 2:23, somewhat Ramones-style slice of pop-punk goodness.
It’s hard to think that an album that already appears to be made up entirely of call-backs could get any more referential, but they manage it with the next trio of songs: ‘I’m the Droid (You’re Looking For)’ a ‘forgotten man’ love song written almost entirely with quotes from A New Hope; ‘Ghostbusters III’, which cleverly uses the impossibility of another, original cast, Ghostbusters film as a metaphor for a relationship that could never work; and ‘Doctor Who’, a song about Doctor Who… and that’s it.
Of the two album enders, the very last of which is the “just fine” ‘Close Your Eyes and Dream’, the standout track is ‘Stock Photo Girl.’ The third in Parry Gripp’s trilogy of pretty bass-line anchored, ‘*Blank* Girl’ songs, preceded by ‘New Jersey Girl’ and the epic, band defining ‘Nosering Girl’ from the first album. In each song he falls in love with and is inevitably rejected by his latest dream girl; by this point his character has become so pathetic he’s fallen for a girl in a newspaper advertisement picture and is beautifully summed up in the lyric “I only want you to hold me! But you only… yeah you only, you only put me on hold”. It’s always great to get another entry into this dry humoured, increasingly depressing series of songs.
This isn’t Nerf Herder trying to relaunch their career, it’s a release for the fans. Quite literally in fact, as it was fan-funded through PledgeMusic. And to those who donated and the band themselves I say an enormous thank you – it was fantastic to have a sudden and unexpected Nerf Herder injection into my life. To some, Nerf Herder will always sound ‘too easy’ or ‘dumb,’ but to any who enjoyed this album I would highly recommend going back and checking out the rest of their catalogue, you’ll find yourself charmed by one of the unsung heroes of the genre.
HOMER KELLY-TARANT