Seattle Geekly - http://www.seattle-geekly.com/?p=3014 Aug 26 2009Review: Sci-Fried Geek Speak Add comments IIt should be obvious by now that we here at Seattle Geekly are fans of what we like to call “geek music” so we were delighted to have the chance to listen to two albums by the band Sci-Fried. There are a lot of bands under the geek music umbrella that I think of as stealth geek. Good bands that you can slip in on your non-geek friends who, if they aren’t paying close attention, will never notice the subtle references and inside jokes that are making you smile. Sci-Fried is not one of those kinds of bands. Sci-Fried wear their geek flags like Captain America wears the stars and stripes and their music is by geeks, for geeks. They have put out two albums this year, Ramming Speed which is a collection of their science fiction themed parody songs and Geeks Unite which is all original material. The parodies on Ramming Speed are without question clever, well crafted and funny but I was much more drawn to the original songs on Geeks Unite. Overall Sci-Fried has a kind of latter day garage band sound that, having come of age in Seattle in the 90s, I have a particular weakness for. The songs are rife with heavy guitars and even heavier geek lore. The track that exemplifies this best is track 6 on Geeks Unite. On the surface it sounds like a typical heavy metal ballad but the lyrics are entirely in the Tamarian metaphor language from the fifth season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Darmok. There is no explanation offered as far as meaning and even the name of the song, 45047.2 (the star date on which the episode takes place) is no help to the uninitiated. If you don’t know your Trek you’ll be in the dark but if you do you’ll be delighted. This is not to say that there is nothing for you if you’re not a Star Trek fan. The call for geeks to unite in the album’s title (and the song of the same name) is more than just a slogan. Sci-Fried’s songs pay equal tribute to the spectrum of science fiction fandom, even refusing to take sides in the pirates vs. ninjas debate. There truly is something for everyone as long as they’re geeky at heart. Both albums are available and are well worth checking out.