N.E.R.D.
w/Spymob, Michael Antonia
Wed June 12, Showbox, $15/$17.

N.E.R.D. is a side project for the Neptunes, the production crew of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo that has made a string of glittering songs for R&B, hiphop, and pop stars such as Ol' Dirty Bastard, *NSYNC, Mystikal, Britney Spears, and Usher. For N.E.R.D., the superstar duo added a vocalist named Shay, and hoped to express a more experimental, individual side of their pop chart factory.

The "unconventional" side of the Neptunes, however, is not that different from their pop production side. In fact, it's so similar that N.E.R.D had to re-record its debut CD, In Search Of (which used recognizable Neptunes samples and synthesizer sounds), with actual instruments in an attempt to give it more of a rocking edge. "We weren't happy with the synthesized version. We wanted something more expressive," explained N.E.R.D. vocalist Shay over the phone recently. Shay was speaking from his home in Virginia Beach, sitting in what seemed like a hot tub--I could hear water splashing as we spoke. "We labeled the album as an alternative album, but with the synthesized sound, people couldn't understand this. I mean, people would say, 'Yo, this sounds like a typical Neptune beat--the only twist is ya'll might be rapping or singing a little different.' We didn't want to give that impression, so we did it [again] over live instruments." The result of the switch from digital to original instruments is that N.E.R.D. just sounds like a live version of the Neptunes.

Neptunes songs have the ornamental glitter of hiphop minus the hiphop beat. This essentially removes the dangers of hiphop; by dangers I don't mean the violence often found in the rap, but the aesthetic dangers within the beat itself. The hiphop beat is never safe or stable, it's always in critical condition, on the verge of collapsing or breaking up. The Neptunes remove this uncertainty and replace it with a more predictable electro beat that frames the bright surface across which rappers or R&B/rock singers easily glide. N.E.R.D. doesn't add danger (or even an "alternative edge") to the Neptunes' aesthetic, just a frame of real instruments around the same pop surface, which is great news for those who like their dance music safe as a Britney Spears press junket.