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BEATLANTA BAND PROFILE – Nerd Parade

NERD PARADE

 Randy Garcia – Guitar/Vocals Rich Wilson – Bass Abby Wren – Vocals
Chris Sheldon – Drums/Vocals John Jacobus – Guitar/Electronics

Randy Garcia and Rich Wilson met in a Florida middle-school cafeteria in 1991. Soon after, the duo began to learn how to make music together. Typical practice sessions involved poor quality cassette recordings, liberal amounts of instrument swapping, guitar smashing and foul language befitting a pair of teenagers in the epoch of grunge. Forward 18 years and not much has changed — only now they can play a little better.

Garcia and Wilson, along with drummer Chris Sheldon and singer Abby Wren are the Nerd Parade, a titular phrase that is wholly descriptive of this group’s collective persona. Nerd Parade officially began in 2006 when a particularly disillusioned R. Garcia called upon his friends to take musical chances, zig where there could have easily been a zag, and never, ever take themselves too seriously.

Nerd Parade has created a distinct set of ethics for their musical output, eschewing the common teen angst and blatant negative themes of modern popular music in favor of a more positive (albeit bittersweet) approach. Their songs are clever and witty without being overtly intellectual, fun and challenging without being lofty. Evocative and personal, each Nerd Parade song tends to be a chapter in some larger narrative, drawing from real-life experience and designed to bring forth a sense of involvement from the listener, rather than rouse the most basic emotions.

Click here to stream Nerd Parade’s two full length albums.

 You can find more profiles like these in beatlanta’s “bands” section, some with more information, some with less.