Optimus Rhyme
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Optimus Rhyme

Band Rock Hip Hop

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"MULTIPLE REVIEWS LINK"

you can download a pdf of our press kit by cutting and pasting this:
http://www.optimusrhyme.com/doc/optimus_rhyme_press_kit.pdf
or by going directly to optimusrhyme.com
hopefully they will be more available in the future - Billboard, Wired, Seattle Times and more


"Billboard Underground"

"Unsigned artists with the potential to break into the big time."
October 9, 2006 David Greenwald

Optimus Rhyme raps about fictional robots and performs at videogame conventions. No wonder the Seattle quartet was tagged a "nerdcore" group.
"There is a robotic mythology to it," says Andy Hartpence, aka Wheelie Cyberman. "We're all kids who grew up in the technology generation."
They've worked in cubicles, too: Hartpence's rhymes aren't all fun and games, touching on the daily grind as they reference '80s toys like the Transformers. Optimus Rhyme's second full-length album - self-released and available via CD Baby and iTunes - is titled "School the Indie Rockers," a nod to the rock groups the band often performs with. With increasing airplay on triple-A KEXP Seattle and an online fan base that sprung from the group's involvement with game convention the Penny Arcade Expo, the members of Optimus Rhyme are nerd on the rise - Billboard Magazine


"Zero STIR album review"

OPTIMUS RHYME
School the Indie Rockers
Narcofunk Records

Optimus Rhyme have a sick name (Transformers, anyone?), a sicker album name, and the sickest indie hip-hop sound you've likely heard in a long time. 'School the Indie Rockers' is right on the mark; Optimus Rhyme pair pointy math-rock riffs with solid live drum beats to compose the backbones of their songs. From bouncy riffs to chugging chords and back, guitar -- again live, not sampled -- is the engine that drives these songs. Optimus Rhyme do this better than any other rap group I've ever heard before (including the Roots), and I've never heard rap tap indie rock like this.
But it'd all be a gimmick if not for Wheelie Cyberman's proficient raps. His style is technical, fast, and clear, much like indie rap star Atmosphere. Cyberman's got a consistent sense of humor and refrains from boasting. That is, except for in "Ping Pong Song," where he describes his practice regime, intensity, and skill at the game. He's even got a ping-pong jersey. In "Sick Day," Cyberman talks about calling in sick after a crazy weekend. "Obey the Moderator" is about an online bulletin board. Optimus Rhyme are a deliberately different rap group with an amazingly tight sound.
-Nate Seltenrich - Zero Magazine, October 2006 (Nate Seltenrich)


"Seattle Sound August 2006 - lead review"

OPTIMUS RHYME
School the Indie Rockers


(Narcofunk)If you want to take down indie rock in Seattle, you'd better prepare for a few knocks. Just ask Optimus Rhyme. With its new album, the local foursome - Wheelie Cyberman (vocals), Grimrock (drums), Stumblebee (bass) and Powerthighs ("high end") - aims for no less than a definitive, indie-rock takedown. In this town? Where all it takes is a feral guitar tone, a wavering drum tempo, and a sneer to cull a heap of accolades and a pack of mopey malcontents at your shows? Are they serious?
Well, sort of. As the name suggests, Optimus Rhyme's quasi-hip-hop offers plenty by the way of loosely slung levity, liberally peppered with local reference. The party-rocking "My Piroshky," for example, happily name-checks Broadway Avenue and Chop Suey in its tribute to Saturday nights, the bouncing instrumental reeking every bit of the television theme-song sound one might expect from a band that wears its debt to Saturday morning cartoons so obviously on its sleeve.
Optimus Rhyme's best energy results from the interplay of groove and whiplash. When the band plays jerky ostinati, Cyberman's vocals take to smooth sailing ("Obey the Moderator"), but less bone-jarring attempts at a groove often yield the opposite on the mic. Thus, the emcee tops the breezy lick that drives "Autobeat Airbus" with a rifling flurry worthy of Eminem.
Ironically, given the album's stated adversaries, Cyberman's verses generally shine brightest at their most confessional. In "Just Forget It," he raps about the departure of an ex-wife and a former drummer with laudable equanimity, offering an "olive branch" to these and other sullied chapters in his past.
All these elements finally coalesce in "Super Shiny Metal," the finest slab of storytelling anywhere in "School..." Over ringing guitar chords, an unhurried bass riff, and the album's most comfortable back-beat, Cyberman's protagonist details a surgical procedure that leads to his falling for the attendant nurse, his ensuing addiction to going under the knife, and the resulting marriage and child ("little Wheelie, Jr.," who also - go figure - "really tears it up, takes it to that other level"). It's pure nonsense, pure fun, and easily the most memorable lesson in the whole of Optimus' textbook.
"Spyware's got your kiddies beggin' for bandwidth," Cyberman raps in "LEDs," but in Seattle, a local band's success requires neither width, depth, nor breadth. More often than not, one barely memorable song, a good word from KEXP's John Richards, and a few slavish write-ups in 'The Stranger' suffice.
Often, enlisting producer Jack Endino helps the cause, though it rarely helps the music anymore. Regardless of his storied recordings with myriad grunge gods, these days Endino makes a living slaughtering otherwise serviceable rock recordings at the mixing console. His "everything to the fore and get it out the door" aesthetic plagues "School the Indie Rockers" as completely as it does his full plate of bona fide indie-rock (Jerel's "The Rubicon" and Kultur Shock's "Kultura-Diktatura" make for especially unfortunate recent examples).
But imagining Optimus Rhyme in the hands of another producer makes for a frustrating exercise in futility. Despite Endino's best attempts to mask it, "School.." still suggests the work of a tightly wound and deeply focused band that merits its attention and - a rarity in Seattle - would do well to take itself more seriously. As a lesson plan, the album earmarks better things to come. Whether or not Seattle is, in fact, too cool for "School..," remains to be seen. - Seattle Sound (Jason Kirk)


Discography

2002 - Autobeat EP 3 tracks
2003 - Positronic Pathways 5 tracks
2004 - 1st full length, self-titled. Saw a lot of positive reviews and indie/college radio play, both local and national (mostly west coast)
2006 - 2nd full length,"School the Indie Rockers." Even more positive reviews and airplay plus ever-growing support and attention

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Bio

Optimus Rhyme’s School the Indie Rockers, their second full-length release on Narcofunk Records, has pushed the band beyond the Seattle scene to national and international recognition. Often associated with the up-and-coming “nerdcore” hip-hop scene, School the Indie Rockers shows why Optimus Rhyme both merits and transcends that categorization. Blending sci-fi themes with everyday life, this album perfectly expresses what it is to be a human being in a technological age. Optimus Rhyme came together in Seattle in 2001. Club shows were booked and EPs were recorded, leading the band to sign with local label Narcofunk Records. Optimus released their self-titled full-length debut in 2004, expanding their influence and receiving airplay at indie and college radio stations up and down the West Coast. Soon after they performed at the inaugural Penny Arcade Expo (http://www.penny-arcade.com), which was instrumental in igniting a grassroots international Internet following that is still growing today. In 2006, the band entered the studio with legendary Seattle producer Jack Endino to craft School the Indie Rockers. Endino’s trademark production mixed with Optimus Rhyme’s uncommon musical stylings resulted in a record that is bizarrely catchy and totally unique. You will not hear another record that sounds like this. Optimus Rhyme has twice been nominated by the Seattle Weekly as Seattle’s hip-hop group of the year. They’ve played live on Seattle stalwart KEXP, been mentioned in Wired magazine, toured the East Coast with nerdcore legend MC Frontalot, won the Redhook Brewing Company 2006 Emerging Artist grand prize, and had two songs included on the soundtrack to the PlayStation 2 game Greg Hasting’s Tournament Paintball Max’d (Activision). They’ve also played a lot of ping pong.