VG Frequency

We think you need to. For the past two years, we’ve been attending this event called MAGFest (that is, the Music and Gaming Festival). Short of knocking on djpretzel’s, zircon’s or my (Liontamer’s) door, this will be one of the best chances to not only meet us, the crew behind OC ReMix, but also to meet a whole ton of OC ReMixers. Not only that, but you’ll get to spend New Year’s weekend with us and party it up. This will be the seventh time they’ve thrown this shindig!

If you’re at all into video games and music, this will be the place to be this upcoming year. There’s so many fun things to do, you’ll wonder where your weekend went! Video game composers like Howard Drossin (with several Sonic titles to his credit) and Jake “virt” Kaufman (Contra 4 and TMNT on the DS) will be around. And Friday and Saturday nights are filled with concerts from video game bands! The Advantage, Minibosses, and NESkimos have all performed there in the past. This year’s lineup of bands will be out soon, including some familiar names from OCR.

The best part is that even after all of that, you haven’t even experienced half of the event! You can hit the video room and watch game movies and cartoons, buy stuff from the people in the marketplace, go to video game panels and discussions (including our own OC ReMix bash), or just play games the whole time. There’s over 10,000 square feet of just console, PC, and even arcade games, and it doesn’t close AT ALL during the entire duration of the event. If you want to play Rock Band on a stage for hours on end with José the Bronx Rican, you can! Or if you wanna challenge James Rolfe, the Angry Video Game Nerd, go ahead and call him OUT!

Here’s what me and some other folks had to say about last year’s MAGFest:
* http://www.vgfrequency.com/magfest-6-from-alexandria-va-13-day-1-report/
* http://www.destructoid.com/magfest-vi-highlights-65679.phtml
* http://revver.com/video/625357/magfest-vi/
* http://www.megatonik.com/2007/12/18/we-rock-hard-we-play-hard-magfest-cometh/
* http://gamemusic4all.blogspot.com/2008/01/magfest-vi-wrapup.html

Now that you want to go, lemme mention the important stuff:
- It’s in Alexandria, VA, in a 5-star Hilton, which is a quick ride from DC (Reagan National Airport).
- It’s Thursday-Sunday, Jan 1-4, 2009. If you’re not free on New Year’s Day, you can come Friday and not miss too much.
- Like many good things, it costs money. But $40 isn’t too bad for all weekend!

And here are a few links for you:
* Their site: http://magfest.org/
* The info on the hotel and directions: http://magfest.org/info/
* The preregistration page: http://courtwright.org/magfest/preregistration

Preregister for MAGFest soon to make sure you’re there! Their hotel is already accepting room reservations, and they even got the rates down for us that aren’t so lucky in the money department. It’s only $99 a night to stay at the hotel MAGFest is in, and come on, it looks like the Citadel! Split it with a few friends and that price goes down VERY fast. If you’re already sold on it, call them up and reserve a room at 703-845-1010 any time of day (they’re a hotel, ya know).

Let them know MAGFest and OC ReMix sent you (and make sure to be at the OC ReMix panel), and we’ll see you there!

Larry “Liontamer” Oji
Head Submissions Evaluator, OverClocked ReMix
Creator, VG Frequency
http://www.ocremix.org
http://www.vgfrequency.com

…because The OneUps are also gonna be bringing The OneUps Volume 2!

Indeed, if all goes according to schedule, Mustin and OneUp Studios will have everything for the upcoming 2-disc album produced, packaged and ready to go.

So if you missed them last year, no worries. If you’re not sure whether you’re gonna plunk down for the double CD at PAX when you get to Seattle, just check out their performance and see if you’re convinced. No pun intended, they’re planning to hit you twice as hard for Penny Arcade Expo 2008!

Released today at the Minibosses forum of The Shizz, Shawn Phase of Temp Sound Solutions has quickly put out the recording of TSS’s concert last night from the Sidebar Tavern in Baltimore, Maryland. Now that I’ve moved back down to Atlanta, not even being close by to stuff like this rips me apart! :-D

Alongside Shawn last night were Dominic Cerquetti, housethegrate and Kirby Pufocia to round out the TSS lineup. The 10-track album features what Shawn claims to be the first-ever live performance of Mega Man III’s “Hardman Stage”, along with other eclectic cuts like Gauntlet, U.N. Squadron, Moon Crystal, Faxanadu and Journey to Silius. When you have time, go out of your way to grab this and all the other live music available from TSS!

Thanks to UMD’s Justin Johnston (the host of 8-Bit Radio), for the news.

The University of Maryland Gamer Symphony Orchestra will hold its Spring Concert on Tuesday May 13th at 7:30PM. It will be held at the Kay Theater in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on the UMD campus. Admittance is FREE for everyone!

The details are:
Who: The University of Maryland
What: Our Spring Concert Featuring Pieces from Zelda, Chrono Trigger, Portal, Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Metal Gear Solid, and more!
When: Tuesday, May 13th 7:30-9:30PM (doors open at 7PM)
Where: Kay Theater, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland College Park (map)
Cost: NONE! FREE FOR EVERYONE!
Website: www.umgso.com
Contact: umgso@gmail.com

That definitely sounds like a good time, and it’s free! I’m certainly gonna be there right before I move back down at Atlanta. To check out the GSO in action, visit their Recordings section, where they have MP3s of the previous Spring and Fall 2007 performances!

Mustin’s always working hard trying to gain recognition not just for himself and his work with The OneUps, but for VGM in general. He’s looking for your help to make an impact in the 13th annual Northwest Arkansas Music Awards. Voting ends April 11, so drop by and show your support:

I am nominated for a couple of Northwest Arkansas Music Awards (NAMAs). With The OneUps under “Best Electronic/Groove” and myself as a Producer under “Best Studio/Producer” (Mustin Productions).

You can vote here:

http://www.freeweekly.com/vote-nama-xiii/

Please vote for me if you enjoy the music I make.

Chuck Whitby, creator of the progressively expanding gaming convention TooManyGames in Reading, Pennsylvania needs some help. Don’t get me wrong, things are going great for TMG as it heads into its sixth event on May 4th, including the first ever Twin Galaxies Guitar Hero National Championships being held there.

And while OC ReMix will once again be there in full force with Mad-Gear LLC selling swag and providing the musical backdrop for the event, TMG is also in the hunt for some VGM bands to provide some additional flavor to the event with some donated CDs. Via MySpace:

So I was thinking today we have alot of video game bands on our friends list now. So what a better way to help promote them than to possibly play them at our show! Also I was thinking if any of you wanna mail us cd’s that we can give away as door prizes or contest prizes then that would help get word out about what you do. Just include a post-it if the cd is burned with your myspace email and website. I dunno if anyone is interested let me know!

Now, I’m not attempting to objectify the subject of this photo from last year’s TooManyGames 5. The Lady would kill me. I just saw it on the TMG Flickr account and was caught off guard by the sideways orientation. But hey, if you’re a band that wants to actually come down and play, perhaps you can also play Wii Sports: Bowling with the young lady. Then again, you’d probably strike…out.

Show your love for the glove by checking out the details on Powerglove’s upcoming tour across the United States. Promoting their latest album, Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, here’s the scoop from their MySpace blog:

(more…)

From one band to another, VGM rock band Year 200X are encouraging people to swing over to GotCast and vote for Push Start’s Leo Camacho in a contest determining who gets to join G4 as a Tech Correspondant. The contest ends on April 4, and Leo already holds the lead in voting so far. But things could change if you don’t get out there and show some support.

Head over to Leo’s GotCast page, sign up, and throw your vote in to potentially secure a video game music fan (and musician) a great television opportunity in joining G4.

Sure, there are a lot of VGM cover bands that encourage fans to rattle off songs to them as ideas for an upcoming album. But for an orchestral concert performance? Ok, I’ve seen Tommy Tallarico take dozens of suggestions for Video Games Live. But how about material from even further back?

Well, that’s what you’ve got in the C64 Orchestra working with nothing but Commodore 64 classics. With their initial concerts and debut album, Run 10, under their belt, they need your help deciding on what tracks to add to their concert series.

Officially attached to the concerts, Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel have their own nominations ready that you can pick from. Beyond that, however, you can also send by other suggestions for any C64 game music.

I’ve yet to mail in my picks, but you can be sure Tim Follin will be on my list. Be sure to read through the official MySpace message below for all the details you need to contribute your thoughts to a piece of video game music history. Auf Wiedersehen!

Dear C64 orchestra fan,

We hope you enjoyed the looks of RUN 10 as well as the tunes on the cd. As you will know this is only a small selection of the vast amount of tunes available!

For the coming live shows we want to broaden our repertoire with new tunes and we are looking for your help with picking the nicest. To make life a little easier for us we asked Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel to nominate a couple of games.

The C64 game tunes nominated by Jeroen Tel are:
1. Cybernoid 1
2. Poseidon: Planet Eleven (Title tune)
3. Rubicon (Title tune)

The C64 game tunes nominated by Rob Hubbard are:
1. Spellbound
2. Nemesis the warlock
3. Rasputin
4. Kentilla
5. Dragons Lair
6. Auf Wiedersehen Monty

So help us by mailing your most favourite selection and please limit your choice to 3! We also want to know which C64 game tune of other composers we definitely have to play in the future.Feel free to forward this question to your friends and anyone who will have an opinion on this quest for the best C64 game music.

Send an email to C64orchestra@ONinternet.nl

Regards

The C64 orchestra
www.myspace.com/c64orchestra

Following in the footsteps of 8 Bit Instrumental only a few days prior, The Megas have posted their thanks for everyone pre-ordering their new Mega Man 2 arrangement album, Get Equipped, featuring renditions of the classic soundtrack with the group’s original vocals. If you order the album now and throw in a few dollars more, you get the option of having the physical copy shipped to you once they’re pressed.

The guys have already submitted their Airman arrangement, “The Annihilation of Monsteropolis,” to OC ReMix, so even the cheapest of cheap on the fence will get a free preview down the line. Earlier today though, the band thanked everyone who’ve actually plunked down for Get Equipped so far:

The album has been out for a week now, and the response has been overwhelming. Thank you guys so much for supporting us - we had no idea how far the message from Dr. Light reached. We’ve taken orders from all over the US, as well as a few from outside the country! If your state isn’t painted blue yet, then step up!

We spent a lot of time (and money!) on this album, trying to make it as good and professional a tribute as it could possibly be. Getting back even a fraction of that investment from you guys is awesome… and makes continuing the fight much easier.

We’ve got some things in the works that we’ll be announcing as soon as we have concrete dates - some interviews, a couple gigs, and other fun stuff. It’s going to be a mega year…

Now keep the orders coming in! We promise you won’t regret it.

Brazilian foursome 8 Bit Instrumental have released their newest album arranging the Mega Man 2 soundtrack. Entitled Beat the 8 Super Robots with 8 Bit Instrumental, the new album is the most focused effort from the band yet, who follow up their previous albums The Song Remains the Game and Altered Bit with their take on a sin

In the tradition of Arm Cannon, vertexguy and Select Start, 8 Bit Instrumental has also performed at Video Games Live through the invitation of Tommy Tallarico. Check them out performing from Metroid and Street Fighter II when the concert stopped by Brasilia, Brazil this past September:

Of course, you can also check out their debut ReMix at OverClocked ReMix yesterday with their Top Gear arrangement from the Altered Bit album, “Rockabilly ~ Dark Gears ~ Surfing Gear” (lovingly titled by me from the names the band gave each section). They’ve got more material coming OCR’s way, so keep an eye out for these guys as they continue to represent Brazil, the bastion of video game music fandom in South America.

Patrick “Bucky O’Hare” Todd has made the rounds of the community promoting some rare material by the now-defunct Philly band Chromelodeon. (I saw them perform at MAGFest 5 last year and they were amazing. Props in particular to synth player Dino Lionetti.)

Under the group’s VGM tribute band alias, Sprite Slowdown, the group recorded several VGM arrangements, many of which only seeing a limited release while they were still active.

Luckily, Patrick’s got your back with the digital release of Sprite Slowdown v2. Besides the arrangement scene mainstay of Final Fantasy VI, the EP has got some very intriguing material, many selections of which I could safely say have never been arranged before in the fan community. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure on the Atari Lynx??? Yeah, I can safely say.

Bucky provides what you need to know:

I played drums on this short vgm tribute, and it was recorded a little over a year ago. With the band having broken up since, and this ep never having a ‘proper’ release, I decided to put it up for download. It was very much rushed for release at magfest 5 (and never performed prior to recording), but having just listened to it again more recently I appreciate it more than when I first heard it. A bit rough around the edges, but not as bad as I recalled!

Some of the track selection may be a bit on the esoteric side, hope you enjoy.

Track Listing -
1. Final Fantasy 6 (SNES)
2. Fire ‘n Ice (NES)
3. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (Atari Lynx)
4. Kenseiden (SMS)
5. Abadox (NES)

Fresh off their performance at MAGFest, Florida band Select Start has been recruited by Video Games Live co-creator to perform at the upcoming Orlando concert at Otronicon. The band provided the news via MySpace bulletin:

SELECT START has been confirmed to play at [VIDEO GAMES LIVE] in Orlando on JANUARY 24 as part of Otronicon. Video Games Live will be playing the incredible music from games such as Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Sonic the Hedgehog, Warcraft, and many many more.

Missing this amazing video game music experience leaves holes in your soul - so order your tickets now!!

More details to come as time draws closer. But for now, check out www.videogameslive.com.

Immediately afterward, the group will be performing at the Carolina Games Summit in Goldsboro, North Carolina on January 26. These guys are doing a great job keeping busy this month!

Gonna keep it (relatively) short and sweet with some personal comments on day 1 of MAGFest 6:

I managed to make it to the gorgeous Hilton Mark Center in Alexandria, VA with a few minutes to spare for the Opening Ceremonies, and was up on stage along with most of the other guests in order to pimp the many panel set for the convention, including OC ReMix involving myself. djpretzel wasn’t able to swing by due to still having to go into work the following day, but he should be at MAG through the rest of the weekend. When the opening ceremonies were over and everyone dispersed, I hung back and chatted with various community peeps; one highlight was having Nario of VGMix/DoD infamy believe I was djpretzel, which had me literally ROFLing with Mustin nearby.

Always glad to see tons of people who I’ve previously met, though nothing beats meeting new people as well, including CHz, ktriton, AeroZ, Shnabubula, Dhsu, Danimal Cannon, Species8472, jvincion, Suzumebachi, and several others who’ve made their impact in the scene. Danimal thanked me for the kind words I’ve said about Armcannon in the past, which encouraged him to take a chance and submit material to OC ReMix despite some members of The Shizz having a negative opinion of the site. Dan mentioned how some tensions between live musicians and desktop musicians have led to friction, and how it’s been good for both of us to see that lessening in favor of raising the profile of the entire scene.

Daniel “Kareshi” Brown was giving out promotional copies of Nintendo on Piano, including a bonus disc with additional material, including sheet music. Definitely a great score for any doujin fan. It was also good to see Dan add Battletoads to his repertoire this year! Look for a review of Nintendo on Piano down the line here, as I check out the goods.

I had a good time handing out our promotional DVD copies of Voices of the Lifestream to the many, many contributors who are attending MAGFest this year and had my personal copy of the album signed by Big Giant Circles, zircon, pixietricks, bustatunez, Geoffrey Taucer, Shnabubula, Mustin, Dhsu, SnappleMan, norg and Suzumebachi. I also had virt sign my copy of Nintendo Power #218, featuring the Contra 4 developers, WayForward Technologies, revealing Jake’s scoring of the soundtrack to the newly-released Nintendo DS hit.

Dwelling of Duels capped off my night, as I hung around with the most die-hard of die-hards for the over 6-hour listening party voting on entries of this month DoD Free Month. The 11+ minute Secret of Mana arrangement “Let Me Tell You a Secret” had everyone laughing hard after a long night of listening. Hopefully my personal favorite, Splatterhouse “TERRORMASK”, has an impressive showing; I gave it all the support I could with my only 6 point vote of the night, the most points that can be given to any track as part of a voter’s 50 point spread.

Day 2’s only gonna be bigger and better as more people arrive in Northern Virginia for the convention and we enter our first night of concerts. Along with the aforementioned Arm Cannon, there are gonna be some other great live performances over this weekend, including the supergroup of The Smash Bros. as well as Temp Sound Solutions, The Advantage, Select Start, PlanetSkill and This Place is Haunted. Really looking forward to providing more thoughts in the coming days.

Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY is a new concert tour celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Final Fantasy. The game was first released in Japan on December 18, 1987, and the concert premiered in Stockholm, Sweden on December 4, 2007. The inaugural event was attended by Nobuo Uematsu himself, who was interviewed before the concert started by Johan Köhn of Spelmusik.net.

How did you approach the challenge of composing an opera piece?

- It was very interesting, because I had never listened to opera music when I was asked. I didn’t have any knowledge on composing such a piece, so I did it in my own style. When Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama found out about the opera part in Final Fantasy VI he called and asked me why he hadn’t been told about this great idea earlier, so that we could have worked together on it (laughs)!

Ah, but who cares about that. Let’s get to the good stuff:

I know you’re always getting this question, but how is it going with the third Black Mages album?

- Yes, I get that question very often, but I would now like to promise to people that the album will be released in March 2008.

THE BLACK MAGES II The Skies Above, the last Final Fantasy series rock arrangement album by TBM, was released three years ago, so their third album has been a long time in the making. Hopefully it will be released on time.

Music prodigy Shnabubula has got an EP out with his new group, LSD. If you told me Sam was on drugs, I’d believe it, but the group name actually stands for it’s three members: Lenwood Turner, Samuel Ascher-Weiss & Dustin Kaufman.

A jazzy 6-track offering, Uptime features both arrangements and original pieces, the final piece (a Castlevania III arrangement, “The Beginning”) having just been submitted to OC ReMix, so y’all can look forward to that making its way to the front page. Anything Shna’s involved with is worth checking out, so this plug is over.

More than 1,000 videogamers and videogame music enthusiasts will converge at the Hilton Mark Center at 5000 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Va., on January 3-6, 2008 for the sixth annual Music and Gaming Festival, a nonstop weekend of tournaments, concerts and workshops.

Three large rooms packed with videogames will be available free for all registrants at the festival, also known as MAGFest. In addition, video game tribute bands will perform rock, electronic, power-metal, and orchestral versions of popular game themes on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Unlike larger, more commercialized conventions, MAGFest aims for a laid-back atmosphere of fun.

“Our goal is to fuel the community of gaming and connect people with each other, whether they are industry leaders or casual gamers,” said Brendan Becker, 28, who runs the festival.

For starters, MAGFest will offer 24-hour access to virtually every kind of gaming – console, arcade, PC/LAN, or handheld. From the ancient Atari 2600 and the original Nintendo Entertainment System to the latest Wii, Xbox and Playstation consoles, all video game platforms will be available. Competitive types will be able to participate in dozens of tournaments for games such as Gears of War, Halo, Rock Band, Smash Brothers, and Wii Sports. Even tabletop gamers will have their space.

On the music side, Friday and Saturday night concerts will feature at least eight bands — with names such as The Advantage, Armcannon, and Powerglove — that specialize in videogame cover songs.

“We’ve become a videogame music mecca, of sorts,” Becker said. “It’s nothing short of awesome to watch all of these guys play on stage at MAGFest and see hundreds of gamers chant, rock, headbang, or sing along.”

Visual effects at the concert will be provided by No Carrier and noteNdo, who use modified Nintendo game consoles along with custom software and a technique known as “circuit bending” to project mind-twisting images on the wall behind the performers.

Two of this year’s musical acts defy the electro-rock stereotype and present classical treatments of videogame tunes. Select Start, a six-piece chamber ensemble which has been featured on National Public Radio, draws from a repertoire of more than 50 videogame theme arrangements. Daniel Brown, a solo pianist, will perform his arrangements of the soundtrack to Battletoads while the game is played on a large screen.

In addition to games and music, MAGFest will offer workshops by videogame artists, musicians and programmers, discussions on videogame culture, trivia and costume contests, dealer tables, an auction of videogame equipment, and a 24-hour video room featuring videogame-related movies and cartoons.

Other special guests include:

* “Stuttering Craig” Skistimas and “Handsome Tom” Hanley of ScrewAttack, which provides videogame content for MTV’s GameTrailers.com website
* James Rolfe, also known as the Angry Video Game Nerd, another regular on GameTrailers.com
* Brian Colin, CEO of Game Refuge, which has developed several humorous titles for Bally/Midway, others, and themselves
* Videogame-themed webcomic artists Applegeeks and Paradox Lost
* Jake “Virt” Kaufman, videogame music composer
* OverClocked ReMix, a site dedicated to fan-made arrangements of game tunes
* X-Strike Studios and Dark Maze Studios, two film groups that produce full-length feature films based on videogames
* Fargate Productions and Main Moon Productions, two more film groups who produce videogame-inspired projects and shorts
* Flavor Grenade Studios, a videogame design outfit headed by DJ Potatoe
* Robert Aldrich, who writes anime- and videogame-inspired stories
* Virtual Fools, a cadre of self-designated “videogame scholars” who offer academic critiques of videogames and surrounding culture

Registration for MAGFest is $35 in advance, and $40 at the door. Visit http://magfest.org/ for full registration information or http://magfest.org/section.php?8 for a complete, up-to-date list of guests.

Long after the preview provided by the music video for “Bank Holiday”, The Grammar Club have finally released their newest album, Bremelanotide. Frontman Shael Riley wants your attention:

I have a new album, with a new band, available free for download, at a new site. This is my first release since Toybox, so go get it.

The band is called The Grammar Club and the album is entitled Bremelanotide. Please support us on viral networking sites like digg!

Digg it:
http://digg.com/music/It_s_a_good_EP_It_s_a_free_EP

Go get the new album at thegrammarclub.com!

-Shael

The album is pretty awesome. I thought the soundfield was a little cramped, particularly for “Bank Holiday” and the overall volume could have been pulled back a little bit. But in the way of criticisms, that about all there was to it. The sound quality was otherwise hot, and all 7 songs on the album were well-written. “Girl Trouble” and “My Gay Shirt” in particular were my favorite cuts. Shael Riley, that boy can harmonize. The pimped-out bassline for the verses of “Girl Trouble” was genius along with the smooth and speedy vocal delivery, while the lyrics didn’t get any sharper or more hilarious with “My Gay Shirt.” Don’t be selfish, spread this gold around.

Fellow OCR judge JigginJonT was really feeling the album, definitely meaningful since Jon doesn’t go out of his way to give praise to anything. With that said, don’t delay in picking this up for your fill of nerdcore. If you’re an audiophile looking to support a good cause, you can buy the FLAC version of the album for $5, with all the money going to support the Penny Arcade charity Child’s Play. Lulz for the chilluns.

After a lengthy nomination phase, the Gamingforce Forums kicked off its first ever “Best Doujin Contest” yesterday as 256 fan-made (a.k.a. “doujin,” a Japanese term) video game music arrangements are pitted against one another in community voting until only one track is left standing.

The contest is initially broken up into eight brackets, each bracket containing eight matchups with four arrangements in each matchup. To help weed out many of the outliers, the top two from each matchup will advance and the 128 remaining tracks will be randomly reseeded.

Doujin video game music from all over the world is represented in the contest with music from OverClocked ReMix, Remix.Kwed.Org, Dwelling of Duels, and dozens of other websites and album releases from North America, Europe and Japan. For a great chance at getting exposed to a ton of fan-made material you may not be familiar with, stopping by Gamingforce for this competition is an absolute must.

Following up on news of the C64 Orchestra’s first album, Run 10, CNN.com recently spotlighted the Commodore 64 as part of the computer’s 25th anniversary. Andreas Wallström of C64.com (and featured in Makke’s Artura arrangement “Dublin Delight“), was interviewed on the legacy of the computer along with Harry McCracken of PC Gamer and Rob Kramer of productiehuis Oost-Nederland.

In the story’s information on the C64 Orchestra, CNN also noted the planned US release of Run 10 as January 15, underscoring the C64 popularity not just in gaming and emulation but music as well. The story also features brief video of the C64 Orchestra performing live, as well as over 20 user-contributed photos, a part of CNN’s I-Report.

Man, call me out of the loop. The album itself, Ritual of Battle, was leaked in September and the video itself was posted on YouTube in late October. Parental advisory and all that good stuff. Hell, one of ‘em is wearing it for a shirt. Don’t hate:

East coast underground hip hop supergroup Army of the Pharaohs remixed the Castlevania series‘ classic “Bloody Tears” theme in their track of the same name. Check out the video above, as well as the below “making of” YouTube clip that previewed Ritual of Battle, featuring footage from the music video’s production:

Orchestral Commodore 64 arrangements aren’t new. Any fan of the yearly Symphonic Game Music Concerts would know that. But by no means are they old hat. In the same company as the Final Fantasy series or major Nintendo franchises, arrangements of soundtracks from the classic computer are comparatively hard to come by.

Last month, the European-based Commodore arrangement scene took its first steps toward physical media of an orchestral act exclusive to the SID chip with the C64 Orchestra’s release of their first album, Run 10 (which I’ve already added to VGMdb).

Legendary composer Rob Hubbard orchestrated the album, which features arrangements of both his work and fellow A-list C64 composer Jeroen Tel performed by the Ricciotti Ensemble, whose mission is to have fun bringing their music to crowds both large and small, no matter how atypical the audience may be. The concept of the C64 Orchestra was first launched in September 2006.

Published by productiehuis Oost-Nederland, the two-disc album rings up pretty pricey for any Stateside early adopters at €35, especially for arrangements of only ten games. But the set also includes copies of the original tunes as well as interviews with Hubbard and Tel among other features (including the tools needed to remix the Orchestra’s take on Monty on the Run). Keep in mind the album’s swanky box design as well.

The album’s European release supplements the group’s plans to continue touring with their concert series, while the official rollout of the album in the US is still ahead this coming January.

The beginning of a new month means another shot of Dwelling of Duels results, this time focusing on Enix (the precursor of even bigger heavyweight Square Enix). With Dragon Warrior, Terranigma, Soul Blazer and more, the company was well represented with its crop of entries.

Master Hatchet took home top honors in the live performance compo with “Union Alpha” an excellent arrangement from the all-too-rarely tackled Valkyrie Profile, while Scaredsim followed in second place with the Brain Lord/Illusion of Gaia combo mix “Will is the Lord,” featuring some good 8-bit style leads before segueing into more serene leads for the Gaia section. norg was, in my opinion, the story of the month with his 18+ minute evolving super-medley of Japanese-exclusive Famicom release Just Breed entitled “Abduction.” Ryan8bit and Hat helped round out the top finishers in a solid turnout.

Wanted to throw special props out to Hope Fails for the Terranigma arrangement “Afternoon Tea with SnappleMan’s Mom,” which finished tied for 8th place, not just for a funny title, but a great composition as well, which I didn’t feel got enough support. It could have sounded a bit more polished, but the execution was fairly strong and had some good orchestration ideas rarely heard in DoD.

You look like you could use a breakdown. Don’t forget to check out how DoD rings in 2008 when this month’s Free Month competition creation phase wraps up late on New Year’s Day:

M-H: Valkyrie Profile - Union Alpha
Scaredsim: Brainlord, Illusion of Gaia - Will is the Lord
norg: Just Breed (Famicom) - Abduction
Fourth Place: Ryan8bit: Dragon Warriors 2, 4 - Wayfaerer
Fifth Place (tie): Hat: Soul Blazer - Get to Town
Fifth Place (tie): Riders, Ranger-X, ShinerCCC: Brainlord - The Audio Dragon
Fifth Place (tie): thesamareaye, The S.P.O.B.: Star Ocean 3 - Red Leaves of Autumn
Eighth Place (tie): Hope Fails: Terranigma - Afternoon Tea with SnappleMan’s Mom
Eighth Place (tie): Hydrasphere: Terranigma - Just for a While
Eighth Place (tie): Josiah Tobin, XMark: Brainlord - Master Of The Platinum Site Of The Tower Of The Abell Civilization Ruins
Eleventh Place: Theo Confidor: Paladin’s Quest - Wielding a Holy Sword
Twelfth Place (tie): bjkmenu: Bust a Move - hiroshortykittyn
Twelfth Place (tie): Bucedric Nosnik Rionediamn: The 7Th Saga - The Runes Ruse

Fans of the arranger band Project X have long enjoyed their albums covering the Mega Man II and Mega Man III soundtracks, as well as the first radio show that gained traction with the US-based fan arrangement community, Super Radio X. And though Rawk and Rok haven’t pursued video game music arrangements in quite a while, they’ve kept the Project X spirit alive for years with their original band, Clawjob.

The Allston, Massachusetts-based duo of Mike Gintz and Nick Burgess are reaching out to their fanbase via MySpace bulletin to let them know about their new club, the Society of Clawjob Aficionados. More than just a mailing list, if you sign up for free, the guys promise to mail members something before the holiday season is upon us. The band gives you the info:

Lovers of Clawjob have one great reason to give thanks this year as the beloved conceptual rock band unleashes a brilliant new idea upon the world! The twin geniuses describe their invention as a “club” for “fans,” or as they call it, an “international society of Clawjob aficionados, united by promotional freebies delivered via the postal service!”

Click here to join the Society of Clawjob Aficionados and get free delights in the mail!

From newsletters, exclusive artwork, and lyrics to stickers, music, and piles of cash*, you’ll get a little of everything! Join now, as the band has made a blood oath that they will send out the first mailing before the winter holidays.

*Piles of cash currently out of stock.

Who knows what you’ll get if you sign up? If you’re not convinced, swing by their homepage or MySpace, get a taste of their “Mid-90s indie rock + the vast emptiness of outer space + dying and staring into the blinding eyes of Zeus” flavor, including the debut album Space Crackers. I know what’s good. I’m already signed up. Don’t miss out!

On November 3, the University of California, Berkeley California Golden Bears and the Washington State University Cougars. played a college football game at Cal’s Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, CA. During the halftime show, the Cal band performed tracks from several different video games, and lined up in formations involving those games as well.

Note that all the formations are upside down because the band performed facing the opposite side of the field.

The formations and songs are, as best as I can identify:

1. 0:03-0:35 - Pong: two paddles moving up and down with the ball bouncing between them (no music)
2. 0:39-1:30 - Tetris (Game Boy): descending blocks, set to “Korobeiniki”
3. 1:32-1:55 - Mortal Kombat: an “MK” in a box, set to “Techno Syndrome”
4. 1:55-2:21 - Mortal Kombat: the signature dragon logo (same music)
5. 2:21-3:10 - Pokémon: two Poké Balls and a Pokémon battle, set to “Opening”
6. 3:10-3:55 - The Legend of Zelda: the Triforce and Master Sword, set to “Overworld”
7. 3:57-4:17 - Super Mario Bros.: two pipes and five blocks, set to “Overworld BGM”
8. 4:17-4:44 - Super Mario Bros.: Mario entering from the top pipe, jumping and hitting the third and fifth blocks, and exiting through the bottom pipe, set to “Underworld BGM”
9. 4:44-5:10 - Super Mario World: Mario exiting a pipe and running in front of some configuration I can’t identify, set to “Athletic BGM”
10. 5:10-5:36 - Super Mario Bros.: a largely random configuration possibly intended to resemble an underwater stage, set to “Swimming BGM”
11. 5:36-5:38 - Super Mario Bros.: same formation, set to “Time Up Warning Sound”
12. 5:38-5:55 - Super Mario Bros.: castle and flag at the end of a level and Mario jumping at the flag, set to a sped up version of “Overworld BGM”
13. 5:58-6:07 - Super Mario Bros.: flag descending, set to “Course Clear Fanfare”

Incidentally, Cal won 20-17.