"How about a duel to the death, old Judas priest?!"Face it, nerds are "in." Gone are the days of playground wedgies and "four-eyes" jokes. Once horn-rimmed glasses and BlackBerrys became popular, it was clear that nerds had gained the upper hand. The cool kid at school is no longer the football jock, but the guy who spends his evenings composing song hooks on Cubase 4 while watching Family Guy re-runs on Adult Swim. With that in mind, I began to consider how much of my current musical tastes were shaped during my significantly nerdier high school years. Halo, anime, Frank Herbert -- I really let my freak-flag fly. However, without these influences my musical tastes would be far narrower. So, instead of you having to endanger your cool by watching an episode of Ghost In The Shell, I've gone ahead and done the grunt work for you. Here are the musical gems I've found while wading in the deepest of nerdy waters.

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