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Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo practically sweat platinum. As the production duo behind the Neptunes, they have crafted monster hits for everyone from Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears to Jay-Z and Ol' Dirty Bastard. In their spare time they make the music they really like under the banner N.E.R.D. Equally inspired by Duran Duran's silk-spun new wave classics and the Beatles' strapping psychedelic epics, Fly or Die, the follow-up to 2002's In Search Of, is a bustling, bumping disc highlighted by rowdy tracks like "She Wants to Move" and "Jump," a collaboration with members of Good Charlotte. The nu-metal crunch of the last album gives way to a more suitable '70s vibe, making the band sound like an unholy cross between Sly & The Family Stone and E.L.O.--as filtered through A Tribe Called Quest. That's a good thing. --Aidin Vaziri

Most people know a nerd when they see one but can't define just what a nerd is. American Nerd: The Story of My People gives us the history of the concept of nerdiness and of the subcultures we consider nerdy. What makes Dr. Frankenstein the archetypal nerd? Where did the modern jock come from? When and how did being a self-described nerd become trendy? As the nerd emerged, vaguely formed, in the nineteenth century, and popped up again and again in college humor journals and sketch comedy, our culture obsessed over the designation.

Mixing research and reportage with autobiography, critically acclaimed writer Benjamin Nugent embarks on a fact-finding mission of the most entertaining variety. He seeks the best definition of nerd and illuminates the common ground between nerd subcultures that might seem unrelated: high-school debate team kids and ham radio enthusiasts, medieval reenactors and pro-circuit Halo players. Why do the same people who like to work with computers also enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons? How are those activities similar? This clever, enlightening book will appeal to the nerd (and antinerd) that lives inside all of us.

Taken from the 2002 album, In Search Of.... Includes two non-LP versions of 'Rockstar' (Radio Edit & Nevins Classic Club Blaster-Edit), 'Run To The Sun' (instrumental) & the video for the title track.

In this hilarious satire on college life, a group of misfits led by Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards decides to start their own fraternity after being rejected by every house on campus. Chaos results, with a brains vs. brawn battle, as the football t

Nerds without computers may seem a contradiction in terms, but life was simpler back in 1984 and the geeks seemed to get along fine with just a slide rule and a plastic pocket protector. A variation on the fraternity-farce plot of Animal House, the picture celebrates the triumphs of a gang of geeks, led by Robert Carradine and a pre-E.R. Anthony Edwards, as they get back at a rival frat house full of jocks and preppies. Although the brains-over-brawn theme ought to be sure-fire, the movie gets by mostly on charm; there are very few explosively funny sequences. The supporting cast includes some surprising familiar faces, notably James Cromwell (Babe, L.A. Confidential) as Carradine's look-alike dad, pants hoisted proudly to his armpits. The director, Jeff Kanew (Gotcha!), went on to the 1991 private-eye belly flop V.I. Warshawski and has not been heard from since. --David Chute

Pocket protectors, slide rules and bow ties.. Oh my! Add character to your nerd costume with a pair of nerd eye glasses on Halloween.

N.E.R.D. "Seeing Sounds"

You already know the story of the Neptunes, Grammy Award winning producers and songwriters Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, but the N.E.R.D. trio consists of Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and longtime friend and creative wunderkind, Shae Haley. The album is a blistering mash-up of booming hip-hop beats and rollercoastering rock riffs, rumbling crunk rhythms and scintillating soul music. Whereas their first album, "In Search Of...," was an imaginative, exploration of identities, and their second album, "Fly or Die," sought out the range of genres and sounds that have influenced the group, "Seeing Sounds" grinds everything together, evoking a sound that is un-tethered by preconceptions and convention. It is also an album that amplifies the style and attitudes that have made Pharrell, Chad and Shae transcendent cultural icons.

"The Neptunes is what we do, but N.E.R.D. is who we are. It's our life" says Pharrell. The three of them together combine for uninhibited explorations of sounds, emotions and truth, adhering to no agenda, subscribing to no rules. N.E.R.D. is the way they live their life, they way they see the world.

The title of N.E.R.D's third album, Seeing Sounds, was inspired by a TV show the ban watched about synaesthesia--the neurological disorder that causes people to experience sounds as colours or objects in their minds. The concept inspired the trio (Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, a.k.a. The Neptunes, and their rapping pal Shay Haley) to create a record as if it were a live show, as if the listener were really able to see the band playing. As ideas go, it's a dubious one, but it does give the band the opportunity to dive back into their musical ocean and splash noisily around, leaving listeners soaked and astounded. With the usual disregard for genre, Seeing Sounds opens with bass-heavy low-rider "Time For Some Action", before heading off on an intense roller-coaster ride that takes in the choppy, digi-drum & bass of "Spaz" and the infectious booty-bass of single "Everyone Nose" (a look at Hollywood's cocaine obsession) via a veritable kaleidoscope of colourful sound. "Sooner or Later" is all smooth Motown soul, "Kill Joy" is riff-heavy rock and "Anti Matter" has an Atari crunk feel. This breathless diversity is, of course, what N.E.R.D. are best at, and the good news is that Seeing Sounds can be considered a return to form after the nadir of Fly Or Die; though Whether it stands up to their debut or whether their new experiments ever get beyond the superficial, is another matter entirely. -- Paul Sullivan

A lively, thought-provoking book that zeros in on the timely issue of how anti-intellectualism is bad for our children and even worse for America.

Why are our children so terrified to be called "nerds"? And what is the cost of this rising tide of anti-intellectualism to both our children and our nation? In Nerds, family psychotherapist and psychology professor David Anderegg examines why science and engineering have become socially poisonous disciplines, why adults wink at the derision of "nerdy" kids, and what we can do to prepare our children to succeed in an increasingly high-tech world.

Nerds takes a measured look at how we think about and why we should rethink "nerds," examining such topics as: - our anxiety about intense interest in things mechanical or technological;
- the pathologizing of "nerdy" behavior with diagnoses such as Asperger syndrome;
- the cycle of anti-nerd prejudice that took place after the Columbine incident;
- why nerds are almost exclusively an American phenomenon;
- the archetypal struggles of nerds and jocks in American popular culture and history;
- the conformity of adolescents and why adolescent stereotypes linger into adulthood long after we should know better; and nerd cultural markers, particularly science fiction.

Using education research, psychological theory, and interviews with nerdy and non-nerdy kids alike, Anderegg argues that we stand in dire need of turning around the big dumb ship of American society to prepare rising generations to compete in the global marketplace.