The long-awaited and somewhat troubled MMORPG set in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth appears to finally be close to completion. Announced back in 1998 by Sierra, the game has had a troubled development history before Turbine signed-on to continue development, and eventually buying the publishing rights from Vivendi (the will co-publish this title actually). As of June 2006, Turbine has been accepting applications for their alpha testing phase, which has recently begun. The game will be based in the Lord of the Rings universe, which takes references from Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King and The hobbit, but unfortunately nothing from The Silmarillion. Gameplay is primarily PvE, with few details on the PvP features being announced. Will this be the WoW killer everyone has been waiting for? I have my doubts, but as is usual with the industry, there’s a surprise around every corner.

Watch the gameplay footage after the jump…

Read more of ”Lord of the Rings online gameplay footage“

Child actor turned musician turned beard Will Oldham has been releasing music under various monikers since the early 90s, recording for the Drag City label as well as his own Palace Records label. Hailing from Louisville, KY, Will Oldham creates incredibly vast melodies for cowboys, with his signature creaky, weary voice singing about horses, farms, his family and the sun. Currently touring the world in support of his recent collaboration with Tortoise, “The Brave and the Bold” CD, Oldham has worked on his new CD/DVD, under his current moniker, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, titled “The Letting Go”, which will be released in Fall 2006.

Videos after the jump…

Read more of ”Music video: “No More Workhorse Blues” by Bonnie Prince Billy“

No television series is complete without a blooper reel, but one show I, for some reason, never imagined having bloopers is Star Trek. Their cast always seem so on the ball and serious I just never actually imagined any of the actors throughout the years laughing or making a mistake during filming. My mistake. While Star Trek was still a viable franchise (and on air), UPN broadcast a short clip of bloopers from Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, featuring many of our (you know, us Star Trek fans) favorite characters experiencing somewhat uncharacteristic outbursts and mistakes while shooting various scenes throughout the years. Oh Q, poor Q…

Watch the video and maybe snicker a little after the jump..

Read more of ”Star Trek bloopers and outtakes video“

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”“

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“

At the San Diego Comic Con this past week, the makers of the new Simpsons movie showed off two videos of rough animation story boards to the much-appreciative fans. Both scenes feature heavily on Homer, who has of course taken the crown for most popular Simpson away from Bart (finally). This is all very basic and early work, but it looks great and I can’t wait for this movie to come out, followed by a Futurama movie (in my dreams)! There are rumours rushing around actually that there will be new characters introduced in the movie, with Albert Brooks reportedly voicing an all-new character as well as reprising a few of his past characters. Feel free to leave a comment telling us what you think of the clips!

Sit back and enjoy the videos after the jump…

[Update 1: At the request of FOX these videos have been removed from YouTube and just about any other video sharing network. Copies are being put up and being taken down just about as quickly. I'll update the links as soon as new videos can be found.]

[Update 2: .....Aaaaaaaaaand we're back. These videos will be up for probably the next 10-15 minutes, so enjoy!]

Update 3: Ok we all knew YouTube would suck after Google legitimized it. Both videos were put up, then taken down and now has been put up again by the fan who originally captured the video. Right on!

Read more of ”Simpsons movie footage from San Diego Comic Con (Update 3)“

It’s a shame they shoved that horrible Nickelback song in there, but whoa I can’t wait for season 3 to start! I won’t say anything else cause I’m already hearing about spoiling blah blah, so yeah.

Watch the video after the jump…

Read more of ”Battlestar Galactica season 3 preview“

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“

Quite possibly the most amazing thing I’ve seen all week, the brilliant minds of Akjak have mashed up scenes of Darth Vader from the original Star Wars and the true voice of James Earl Jones, creating a frantic and incredibly funny 3 episode comedy/drama featuring Darth Vader in a plotline that certainly wouldn’t have made it passed George Lucas. A lonely and depraved Vader, torn by good & evil along with an incestuous love affair, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, all this while trying to hunt down and smash the rebellion. Pure genius.

Watch all 3 episodes combined into one video after the jump…

Read more of ”Darth Vader having a nervous breakdown – Voiced by James Earl Jones“

Academy award winning director and animator Norman McLaren was an early visionary of animation techniques and cinematography, as well as an influence to a young George Lucas, who naturally went on to create Star Wars among many other film properties. McLaren’s masterpiece was an 8-minute short-film named “Neighbours” which was filmed in 1952 and winner of the Academy Award for best documentary in 1953. By animating real-life objects, such as flowers, fence posts, and humans, McLaren was able to make it appear as if he was suspending the laws of gravity, using a technique he dubbed “pixellation”.

Watch the short (hosted at YouTube) after the jump…

Read more of ”Neighbours – Short-film by Norman McLaren“