The Doubleclicks are a

nerd-folk Nerd music (or geek music) is the overall category of music collecting the musical genres that grew from nerd culture; different styles that share the same common ground. History Origins The earliest example was filk music, from the 1950s onwar ...

musical duo based in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

and

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, consisting of siblings Laser Webber (formerly Angela Webber and Laser Malena-Webber) and Aubrey Turner (formerly Aubrey Webber). They first became known for performing nerd-friendly comedy music, including songs about

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

, dinosaurs, and other geeky themes. While their later songs retain those elements, there has been a stronger focus on feminist and other social issues, and more personal themes.

History

Personal

Aubrey is the older sibling; Laser was born on November 16. The Webber siblings grew up in Westford and

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts listening to the

Smothers Brothers The Smothers Brothers were the American duo of brothers Tom Smothers, Tom and Dick Smothers, who performed folk singer, folk singing, music, and comedy. The brothers' trademark double act was performing folk songs (Tommy on Steel-string guitar, a ...

(particularly their version of " Streets of Laredo"),

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...

and

Tom Lehrer Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater. He recorded pithy and humorous, often Music and politics, political songs that ...

. They are part of a musical and artistic family; their father, Stephen Webber, is a music professor at

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

, and they claim to have been playing music since before they could read; their mother, Susan Webber, is a

fiber artist Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorp ...

and former Spanish teacher. Both attended Abbot Elementary, where they first learned to use stringed instruments, and

Westford Academy Westford Academy is the public high school for the town of Westford, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1792 and is one of the oldest public high schools in the United States. History Westford Academy (WA) was founded as a ...

, with Aubrey graduating in 2003 and Laser in 2006. They were part of a rock band in high school but had no plans to form a duo. Laser moved to

to study International Affairs at

Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1867 and is situated on the historic M. Lloyd Frank Estate in South Portland's Collins View neighborhood. It is composed of three distinct but adjac ...

(with a year at the

Anglo-American University Anglo-American University (AAU) is a private university in Prague, Czech Republic, providing courses in English. Founded in 1990, it was the first private university in the country to use English as the language of instruction. History Anglo- ...

in 2008) and Aubrey studied classical

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

at the Berklee College of Music before moving to Portland as well. Both siblings married within a year of each other in 2016-2017, resulting in the changes to their respective last names. In 2019, Laser came out as trans and nonbinary; Laser used they/them pronouns at the time, and later identified as a trans man and started using he/him. Laser's marriage has ended.

The Doubleclicks

The siblings performed as a duo on

open mic An open mic or open mike (shortened from "open microphone") is a live show at a venue such as a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, or pub, often taking place at night (an open mic night), in which audience members may perform on ...

nights before booking a real gig at

Mississippi Pizza Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. At first, the band was a part-time endeavour. Laser worked as a freelance writer and journalist, at the ''

Beaverton Valley Times The ''Beaverton Valley Times'', also known as the ''Valley Times'', is a weekly newspaper covering the city of Beaverton, Oregon, United States, and adjacent unincorporated areas in the northern part of the Tualatin Valley. Owned since 2000 by th ...

'' and ''

Portland Mercury ''Portland Mercury'' is an alternative bi-weekly newspaper and media company founded in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. It has a sibling publication in Seattle, Washington, called '' The Stranger''. History A prior version of ''The Mercury'' was ...

'', while Aubrey was a home-care provider for seniors. The band started their YouTube channel in 2011 with a 6-month song-a-week project and has since been releasing songs on YouTube and CD and touring throughout the US. They write many songs that are funny and emphasize geeky topics. Laser initially wrote most of the songs, but has described their more recent songs as a collaborative effort. They often perform at pop culture conventions, at entertainment events such as

w00tstock w00tstock was a touring variety show billed as "3 Hours of Geeks & Music". It was created in 2009 by Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage and Paul and Storm. The first shows took place in 2009 in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and continued until 2016, a ...

, and in nontraditional music venues such as comic shops and game stores. Their second album, '' Lasers and Feelings,'' debuted at #7 on Billboard's Comedy Albums chart. Their fourth album, ''

President Snakes ''President Snakes'' is the fourth album from the nerd-folk duo The Doubleclicks, released on August 11, 2015. The album was funded via Kickstarter with a goal of $30,000. The goal was achieved within the first few days of the campaign's launc ...

,'' debuted at #4 on the same chart and moved to #2 the following week. The following albums, ''Love Problems'' and ''The Book Was Better,'' each debuted at #1 on that chart. The Doubleclicks made a video for their song " Nothing to Prove" about acceptance of women in geek culture. The video featured appearances from celebrities including

Kelly Sue DeConnick Kelly Sue DeConnick (born July 15, 1970) is an American comic book writer and editor and English-language adapter of manga. Career Kelly Sue DeConnick was first introduced to the comics industry by writing copy for photos in adult magazines. Sh ...

Wil Wheaton Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film ''Stand by Me (film), Stand by Me'', ...

and

Adam Savage Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967) is an American special effects designer and manufacturer, fabricator, actor, educator, television personality, and producer, best known as the former co-host, with Jamie Hyneman, of the Discovery Channe ...

—and was covered in print and online media, gaining over 1 million views on YouTube. In 2014, The Doubleclicks ran a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign to raise funds for their third album, ''Dimetrodon,'' produced by Mike Phirman. The campaign raised over $80,000 and was the most successful Portland music Kickstarter to date. Laser quit his day job in December 2011, while the success of the Kickstarter campaign allowed Aubrey to quit her job as well, leaving both siblings able to work full-time on being the Doubleclicks.

Music

Commonly the lyrics to their songs are written by Laser while Aubrey creates the music. The Doubleclicks have described themselves as part of the

genre; which is similar to

geek rock Geek rock is a musical subgenre derived from pop rock and alternative rock within the nerd music group. It is characterized by the standard instruments of rock music often combined with electronic and unusual instruments, references to geek cultu ...

and

nerdcore Nerdcore is a genre of hip hop music characterized by subject matter considered of interest to nerds and geeks. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot has the earliest known recorded use of the term (to describe this genre) in the 2000 ...

but without either drums or rapping. Their participation in

geek music Nerd music (or geek music) is the overall category of music collecting the musical genres that grew from nerd culture; different styles that share the same common ground. History Origins The earliest example was filk music, from the 1950s onward ...

was not originally intended; it grew naturally from their music and allowed them to tap into the nerd community. Laser stated in 2012, "I don't know if we ever really intended to write 'geeky music'—and that's not exclusively what we do. I write songs about things I think about, which are love, depression, and games and movies" and later, in 2014, "Everybody has self-important, sad love songs. We were doing something that was still earnest, but instead of talking about trees or nature or clubbing, we were using World of Warcraft as a metaphor for sadness." Separately in 2014, he further explained "Our songs are essentially about feelings and about our own experiences. It just happens to be that the metaphors we are making are nerdy ones because those are the cultural touchstones we have." With the increase in the geek demographic, the duo believes that the "geek music" distinction may be becoming redundant. The group has toured and performed with other performers of geek-friendly music, including Molly Lewis,

Danielle Ate the Sandwich Danielle Anderson (born January 24, 1986), known by her stage name Danielle Ate the Sandwich, is a singer-songwriter from Fort Collins, Colorado. She has released eight independent albums, starting with her self-titled album, ''Danielle Ate th ...

, and Lucia Fasano. They have been featured performers at

Jonathan Coulton Jonathan William Coulton (born December 1, 1970), often called "JoCo" by fans, is an American folk/comedy singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are "Cod ...

's annual JoCo Cruise, and Coulton sang on one track of their 2017 album ''Love Problems''.

Discography

Demo album

* ''Beta Testing 1-2-3'' (CD & online, March 2011)

Studio albums

* '' Chainmail and Cello'' (CD & online, April 2012) * '' Lasers and Feelings'' (CD & online, July 2013) * ''

Dimetrodon ''Dimetrodon'' ( or ; ) is an extinct genus of sphenacodontid synapsid that lived during the Cisuralian (Early Permian) Epoch (geology), epoch of the Permian period, around 295–272 million years ago. With most species measuring long and ...

'' (CD & online, June 2014) * ''

'' (CD & online, August 2015) * ''Love Problems'' (CD & online, August 2017) * ''The Book Was Better'' (CD & online, May 2019)

Live / "greatest hits" album

* ''Dinosaurs and Feelings: Live and Great Hits'' (online only, April 2022)

EPs

* ''Blatant Pandering'' (online only, August 2011) * '' Worst Superpower Ever'' (CD & online, April 2012) * '' Christmas Ain't About Me'' (CD & online, December 2012)

Compilation albums

* ''Song-a-week'' (Demos) (online only, February–September 2011) * ''Song Fu 2012'' (online only, January–December 2012) * ''Weekly Song Wednesday'' (online only, September–December 2013) * ''Monthly Song Monday'' (online only, March 2014-?) * ''Weekly Song Wednesday: Season Two'' (online only, May 2014-July 2014)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Doubleclicks 2011 establishments in Oregon American comedy duos American comedy folk musical groups American comedy rock musical groups American musical duos Male–female musical duos Musical groups established in 2011 Musical groups from Portland, Oregon Nerd-folk musicians Sibling musical duos