Game On with Nerd Punk Band 3d6

I first heard 3d6 on my friends’ podcast, the GUBAR Podcast, and then saw them at a backyard show and was blown away by their catchy melodies and great gaming lyrics. Damage is the first album from the Las Vegas locals, which I highly recommend. 3d6 recently played the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival and introduced a great new song about saving throws, “Save Does Not End”, which bodes well for their forthcoming follow-up album. For more news on it and upcoming shows, check out their website at 3d6band.com. 3d6 is David Thomas, Anthony Bassett, and Rudy Thomas.

CG: First, you have a new lead singer since recording Damage, but he’s not really new to you guys. Who do we have in place of Jimmy?
Anthony: We moved things around quite a bit. Dave is our singer now, in addition to being our guitar player. I’m our former drummer and now our bass player. Our new member is Rudy, David’s brother, who is now our drummer.

CG: So, your second song on Damage, if you had to pick one who would it be? Queen Amidala, Princess Leia, Seven of Nine, Lara Croft, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “the blue chick from Avatar“, Jessica Rabbit, Mystique, She-Hulk, Arwen, Legolas, Starbuck, Scully, Olivia from Fringe, Marge, Leela, Lois, or Cheetara?
David: For me, I think I’m gonna have to go with Mystique and Leela. But Jessica Rabbit and the Avatar chick are good ones too. Mystique just lets it all hang out but Leela is independent and will probably dominate you in the bedroom. Blue girls and one-eyed alien chicks.
Anthony: Though Princess Leia was my “first”, I’m going to have to say Seven of Nine. A close second would be the combined Jessica Rabbit and Arwen. I try not to fantasize only about individual women, if I can help it. What’s that the Vulcans say? “Infinite diversity in infinite combination?”
Rudy: She Hulk looks fun.
CG: Now which one “is the shit”?
Anthony: Caprica 6 from Battlestar Galactica, obviously.

A Band of Gamers

CG: How did you guys get into tabletop gaming?
David: Watching movies and playing fantasy games all my life made me want to try D&D when I got older, but I didn’t want to admit it to anybody. But everyone has played Monopoly and such, you just have to find the right people so that you can enjoy it together. I personally love cooperative tabletop games. Going head-to-head can get nuts. Like that B.S.G. game where everybody just lies to each other.
Anthony: I had been playing board games since childhood, but I started playing table-top RPGs in college when I fell in with…that crowd. My first was a Star Wars RPG, in which I played an Ewok Crime Lord named Jingy. When Dave and Jimmy and I were in a Weezer cover band together, we fired up our own D&D game, and we just kept going.
Rudy: Older nerds showed me the way. Nerdism is something that is passed down.
CG: What do you guys play now?
David: I really love to play some Arkham Horror. Heroclix was cool too but I honestly only played it once. I would still love to get some more D&D games going! 4th edition!
Anthony: It’s hard to get everyone together for ongoing campaigns, but we had a nice D&D game going for awhile. We’ve also spoken of firing up a game of Dragon Age table-top RPG. And no, NOT because the base roll is 3d6, but that is rather awesome. Due to scheduling restrictions, we generally find ourselves playing board games, like those D&D dungeon crawl games (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of I-Shart-Alot, etc.) and other co-op, multi-player games. My shelf looks like a Fantasy Flight catalog. I also have a pretty good collection of Heroclix.
Rudy: Arkham Horror, a cool pirate game called Sword and Skull, and D&D games.
CG: Does the band game as a group ever?
Anthony: Yes. But it’s hard to get everyone together that often. When we do manage to find a time to get all of us in the same place, we usually end up using that time for practice, writing, or recording. But it certainly does still happen!

CG: What’s the story with “Ranger”? Whose character was that?
Anthony: “Ranger” is about Grikthor Blackfoot, Dave’s character that only got to level 3 or something like that. Right around when he graduated from college, Dave ended up moving out to California with family for a few months, and it was hard on the party, so we thought it best to kill him off. Anthony was the Dungeon Master at the time and he weaved our sadness into that series of game events. Jimmy was so moved and inspired by it that he turned the epic story into lyrics, and had Anthony set it to music. It was a sad day, but an honorable way to die.

The Musical Side of 3d6

CG: Musically what are your influences?
Dave: I listen to a lot of different music, but one of my all time favorites is Mars Volta. I say it so much it bothers people. When it comes to 3d6, I feel like my interests in The Dead Milkmen, Green Jello, The Descendents, old Pennywise and Offspring start to come out. For some songs, I just think about what I was writing when I first started learning guitar. It was much more primal and power-chord based. But I also love technical stuff, hip hop and metal. Frank Zappa, Eyedea & Abilities, Black Dahlia Murder…I could go on for days.
Anthony: I grew up playing violin, and ended up going to school for music, so I listen to a lot of the more academic stuff like classical and jazz. I also really love metal and funk. But I think in 3d6, my love of bands like Weezer, Offspring, and Green Day comes out most clearly. You can tell I was a child of the 90s.
Rudy: I see things and think about what they sound like.

CG: Which is your favorite 3d6 song?
David: “I’m A Nerd” because the lyrics are so true. I can sing that song any night and mean it.
Anthony: I want to say “Robot Overlords”, but I’m also extremely proud of a couple of our new songs that have yet to be played in public. You’ll have to wait to see which ones I mean. I’ve said too much already…
Rudy: Our new song, “I Killed A Dragon (And You Don’t Even Care).”

CG: I’ve only seen you at your backyard show and at the library of all places, but do you guys play out with other punk rock bands at bars and regular shows?
Anthony: We’ve played with a variety of bands from all over. We enjoy playing at the Double Down Saloon, and the Cheyenne Saloon has always been there for us, too. We particularly like teaming up with Geezus Cryst & Free Beer, as well as Time Crashers. Those guys have a sense of humor. Please check them out immediately. We also play a lot with our friends, .Bipolar, but they are pretty damn metal.

CG: Who are you aware of out there that also has a real gaming focus. There’s the Double Clicks with whom you’ve played before, but anyone else?
Anthony: We loved playing with The Doubleclicks, and we also recently played with The Protomen – who have a brilliant Mega Man-themed rock opera thing going on. But other than that, we haven’t really seen many other bands who sing about gaming. Most of the time, there will be one or two members from one of the other punk bands who will come up and say that they play D&D or Skyrim but a lot of people are afraid to admit their nerdy interests. We did just play with Kirby Krackle, however, and those guys are legit nerds.

CG: Any plans for a follow-up to Damage? What are your plans for the future?
Anthony: We are almost finished recording our second album, “Space Fapping”. We definitely want to do some more music videos, but most of all, we would like to play at PAX, and/or Nerdapalooza, or things like that. It can be hard to get the nerd fan-base to leave their computer chairs and gaming tables, so we gotta work our way to where they already gather.