Though he has many songs and albums on his website, Jonathan Coulton (known affectionately as JoCo) is never more amusing nor catchier than on his five-dollar EP, Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow. The six songs in this collection of playfully geeky folk-pop, share oddball themes of evil overlords and potential cyborg wars. Sound strange? Tell that to his fans - growing in number by the day. Not since They Might Be Giants has an artist erupted on the nerd-rock - some might say "geek-rock"- scene with the fanfare of Coulton.How does he do it? Coulton loves a good hook, clever lyrics, and a well thought-out melody. Take "The Future Soon" - a song from the prospective of an adolescent who can't wait until "the things that make me weak and strange/get engineered away." Coulton drops a 1980s reference to "couples skating" then faux-rhymes of "I'll probably be some kind of scientist/building inventions in my space lab/in space" to show that yes, this really is written by a 12 year old trapped inside the body of a 37 yr old ex-computer programmer.
It's this childlike innocence that is at the core of Coulton's appeal. Harnessing the pure passion of a twelve year old with the complexity and drive of thirty-something. In other words, he is an artist, an entertainer, and someone who just might awaken the twelve-year-old in you.
