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!”
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!
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:
0:03-0:35 - Pong: two paddles moving up and down with the ball bouncing between them (no music)
0:39-1:30 - Tetris (Game Boy): descending blocks, set to “Korobeiniki”
1:32-1:55 - Mortal Kombat: an “MK” in a box, set to “Techno Syndrome”
1:55-2:21 - Mortal Kombat: the signature dragon logo (same music)
2:21-3:10 - Pokémon: two Poké Balls and a Pokémon battle, set to “Opening”
3:10-3:55 - The Legend of Zelda: the Triforce and Master Sword, set to “Overworld”
3:57-4:17 - Super Mario Bros.: two pipes and five blocks, set to “Overworld BGM”
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”
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”
5:10-5:36 - Super Mario Bros.: a largely random configuration possibly intended to resemble an underwater stage, set to “Swimming BGM”
5:36-5:38 - Super Mario Bros.: same formation, set to “Time Up Warning Sound”
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”
5:58-6:07 - Super Mario Bros.: flag descending, set to “Course Clear Fanfare”
Aside from the article (”The legend of Koji inspires”) flubbing a reference to “Axel F”, Mitchell does the band proud, underscoring how playing the classic, catchy melodies of Koji Kondo turns out to be anything but simplistic when adapted to a six-piece performance.A quick read from the Sun, but a good one, so give it a look. Be ready when the group takes MAGFest 6 by stormthis coming January in Alexandria, VA.
I’m pleased to announce that, as of this morning, we’ve surpassed the 5000 album milestone. While not every one of those albums is a perfect entry, with fully researched tracklist/artist information, I think we’ve made some great progress towards that goal, and we’re now offering a significant amount of information that was previously not available anywhere.
In addition, earlier this week we exceeded 100,000 total album page views. I’ve been particularly pleased to notice that many of our pages have top billing in the Google search results for their catalog number.
So anyway, I’d like to thank all of you for everything that we’ve been able to achieve here. It’s made me very happy to see a lot of new names on the active members list, many of whom have already made significant contribution; keep up the great work.
I’vepersonallyaddedanumberofalbumsontoVGMdb, and fellow VG Frequency writer ‘Ili “CHz” Butterfield is on staff there as well, so I’m definitely glad to see the concept take off and do a great job working with all of the VGM catalog sites out there to not only aggregate the information, but provide an even more comprehensive, interactive, more easily expandable destination to learn more about video game music. Any site with me in the database has to be good!
OC ReMix judge and all-around swell coffee-and-cream stallion Larry “Liontamer” Oji (Editor’s note: When you write about yourself, you can make the description colorful too) interviewed on this past Sunday’s broadcast of Nitro Game Injection, episode #103, now available for download. Let’s drop the 3rd-person pretense so I can overview my appearance. Myself and the NGI duo, KyleJCrb & AkumuHau discussed:
*KyleJCrb: Did the vikings even know of Africa? I don’t think so. [laughs]
*Akumu’s English (!)
*My background in the community
*What I look for in a good VGM arrangement
*The stupidity of artists who react poorly to criticisms
*Criticisms of the VGMix review system
*How Akumu got involved in the VGM fan arrangement scene
*The burden of provide content to readers or listeners
*The origin of Akumu’s NSF Archive
*The Cheetahmen
*Criticisms of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
*Akumu hanging with Chris Hülsbeck and Arnie Roth at PLAY!
*The VG Frequency blog
*The worldwide depth of the VGM fan arrangement scene
*Criticisms of Dwelling of Duels
*Artists who refuse to arrange from game soundtrack they’re not nostalgic for
*Our own video game nostalgia; and
*What I want to see from the fan arrangement community in the future including pimpage for The OneUps, Minibosses and zircon
My appearance also features 4 tracks personally chosen for airplay by me, selections from ktriton & Christian Pacaud, Israfel, Tim Follin and S.S.H. Random: At the 136-minute mark, the word we were looking for was “refugee”. Also, you’re put on notice not to listen to the show at work. It’s not work-safe in the slightest. Tune into the recently resurrected show Sunday nights, 6PM EST.
SnappleMan got the duke with a quick effort from Akumajo Dracula, “Thrashard in the Cave”. But don’t take MY word for it. Results! And don’t forget November’s new compo as Enix Month is underway: (more…)
On the Glorious Day of Halloween Day, Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, the new album by The Powerglove Woodwind Quartet, has manifested itself.
There’s a button to order it on the main MySpace page.
It will be on CDBaby, iTunes and other places soon as well.
We’re tired and are fresh out of absurd hyperbole at the moment, so far now I’d just like to thank you guys for waiting for this CD and not forgetting about it.
So copying the band in the interest of brevity, lemme give you quick and dirty of the tracklist before we wrap up. I can do that because I also added the album to VGMdb in the very early hours this morning:
01 - So Sexy Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)
02 - Mario Minor (Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World)
03 - Fight On (Killer Instinct)
04 - Vanquish the Horrible Night (Castlevania II, Castlevania III)
05 - Blasting the Hornet (Mega Man X3)
06 - The Duck Grinder (Duck Hunt)
07 - Power, Wisdom, Courage (The Legend of Zelda)
08 - Omnishred (We’re Going to Need a Bigger Sword) (Final Fantasy VII)
09 - Holy Orders (Be Quick and Just Shred) (Guilty Gear)
10 - Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man (Mortal Kombat, Mega Man II)
11 - Red Wings Over Baron (Final Fantasy IV)
Lastly, the band also announced today that the entirety of the album will be rotated through their MySpace page’s music player, providing those of you sitting on the edge of the pool the chance to get your feet wet before giving in and putting on the ‘Glove. Give in, boys and girls, give in. Wasn’t buying the Power Glove worth it back in the NES days?
The eighth band has given us the go-ahead to promote far and wide to the world. Everything’s been worked out so we can bring another band to MAGFest that hasn’t played the event before. The Advantage will be hailing all the way from California and joining us to jam and rock out. We’re really excited! Be sure to let them know what you’d like to hear and that you’ll be seeing them at the fest!
Along with other great bands (Select Start) and celebs (The Angry Video Game Nerd) confirmed, The Advantage is sure to make quite a few people happy by travelling across the country to spread the love. They’d still be popular even wearing those potato sacks.
Well, it’s more like 35 hours if you’re reading right at the moment we’ve posted, but Powerglove’s done it before and, by Dracula’s heart, they’re doing it again.
This time, the Arlington, MA band has tackled Castlevania II with “Vanquish the Horrible Night.” Better crack that whip and check this one out before it’s too late.
As some of you might know, we recently performed with Video Games Live, the traveling orchestral show complete with live action performance, synchronized lights and video, all to video game music. We were given a short slot in the middle of the show to appear as guest musicians.
Video Games Live is hosted and run by Tommy Tallarico who we had the chance to work with, and we don’t have enough nice things to say about the guy. He treated us like pros and was really a treat to work with. In fact the entire crew was very cool including conductor and composer for [the Myst series], Jack Wall. We also met the composer for Halo, Marty O’Donnell. We were pretty awestruck to share the stage with all these guys, including the Buffalo Philharmonic.
ANYWAYS what you’ve REALLY been looking for…. YOUTUBE videos of our performance.
OUR PERFORMANCE AT VIDEO GAMES LIVE
A fun video diary we made that DOESN’T include the performance
A few days before the MySpace blog went up, I messaged Armcannon guitarist Dan “Danimal Cannon” Behrens, who provided some additional comments:
Tommy, Conductor Jack Wall, and the composer from HaloMarty O’Donnell were all amazing to meet. They treated us like pros all the way, and were amazing to work with. We gave them all Armcannon T-shirts and Marty made us all autograph his and told us “don’t forget about me when we’re big and famous” hahahaha. A lot of people online hate Tommy, and while I can see that he’s kind of a weirdo and has that showman persona he has to put on, he was nothing but amazing to us the entire time. I only have nice things to say about the guy.
Congratulations to Dan and crew for such an exciting opportunity and truly a memorable experience. They’ll be sure to impress further when they perform once again at MAGFest this coming January, so close yet so far.
Kalning’s piece, entitled “Making music out of ‘Super Mario Bros.‘”, focused on the band’s struggles to find an audience since its formation, as well as the triumph of performing at this year’s PAX, painting an optimistic picture for the band’s future including upcoming gigs at Ikkicon & AniMix, as well as plans for a 2-disc follow-up album to The OneUps Volume 1. Audio samples from The OneUps Volume 1 were also included.
In terms of the angle of the piece, many of the same sentiments found in other mainstream media coverage of the VGM arrangement community were there including video game music being viewed as unknown, the hobby of VGM arrangement being viewed as strange, and the artists being characterized as struggling. Nothing out of the ordinary, but then again nothing untruthful in the major majority of cases.
However, the one direction the piece didn’t go in that I was grateful for was classifying older video game music as “bleeps and bloops.” Kristin Kalning, you have a new fan.
Announced merely a few hours ago via MySpace, the CEO of MAGFest, Brendan “Mr. MAGFest” Becker, confirmed that Gainesville, Florida-based Select Start will be making their way to the DC-Metro area to perform at the 6th annual MAGFest.
The exciting announcement comes one year after plans to bring the six-person ensemble to MAGFest 5 fell through. Much like the electronic, rapping and big beat stylings of PlanetSkill last year, Select Start’s classical repertoire will be quite a change of pace from the gaggle of (great) rock and metal bands that proliferate the MAGFest stage each year.
MAGFest will be emanating from Alexandria, VA’s luxurious (read: unbelievably tricked out) Hilton Mark Center, January 3-6, 2008. If you are any sort of follower of the video game music fan arrangement community and can feasibly make it down, you have to be there. It’s like attending an all-star game. That means microcelebrities as far as the eye can see! (WOW!) Seriously, it really means that there’s nowhere else that attracts so many VGM fan arrangement enthusiasts in one place. You should have reserved your spot yesterday.
Year 200X is getting close to wrapping up their latest album, We are Error. But none of them are artistically inclined in the visual sense. It means these bros needs help obtaining some suitable (read: incredible) artwork for the actual CD manufacturing. Guitarist Tim Lydon (pictured sporting This Place is Haunted gear for the cross-pimp) put out the call Wednesday afternoon via MySpace:
We’re in the CD artwork planning phase, and we’ve pretty much decided…none of us are very graphically enclined. Plus we’re lazy. SO, here’s the deal. We’re looking for someone/some people to either design the CD artwork, or give us some ideas for the artwork. Here’s the specifics:
The album is going to be called “We are Error.”
We need artwork for a 1-fold (4 panel) insert, printing under the CD, the CD itself, and back of the CD case.
We’re looking for something cool looking, maybe tongue-in-cheek (seemingly serious at first glance, but silly under the surface). Nothing too cartooney. There will probably be 1 band photo in there somewhere.
It will also include a thank you list inside the booklet, and a track list on the back (13 tracks).
Pretty much anything besides what’s listed above is up to you. We don’t have a lot of money to pay, as we’re pretty much spending everything on recording/pressing the album, but we can offer free merch, credits in the CD booklet, and whatever loot we can come up with.
For any more specific questions, or if you have any artwork ideas, just message us. We really appreciate everyone’s support…with your help, our debut album will be as rocking as possible!
Look at that. You’ve got more information than you need to get it going. You may not become a millionaire, but getting rewarded with Year 200X shirts, CDs and/or other ancillary swag should be right up your alley. Like Tim said, they need help. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue Year 200X?
And while you’re visiting the band, check out their latest FAQ released this past Friday and bone up on your Powerglove knowledge.
The “Mystic Cave Zone” portion of the arrangement is the definite winner all things considered. Check out “So Sexy Robotnik” free before you miss your opportunity!
The arrangement is sexy. Robotnik…ehhh, not so sexy.
Alright, so they’re trying to get some action from the feminines. Is video game music the way to do it? If you’re Minibosses…maybe. Even then, it’s probably a tough sell, as most women aren’t impressed with the Konami Code. But these guys are willing to cater to a really slim demographic. (Notice I said female video game music fans, not female gamers. For female VGM fans, try splitting a hair into four pieces.)
In all seriousness though, Final Fanboy performed on day 1 of the Penny Arcade Expo last month and managed to get the crowd going, setting the stage for only more asskicking the following day when the duo performed with the larger entity of The OneUps. They made some ladies swoon and they sold some CDs. But, no, they’re actually not foolish enough to limit their demographic that badly. So while you likely may not be a lady, Final Fanboy would still like the chance to make you swoon via their first CD, Prelude. If you are a lady, all the better. Taking a cue from Michael “Piano Squall” Gluck’s GAME, their 7-track EP features a mixture of game and anime music arrangements.
I freely admit, I fail on the anime side. (”Chobits?!?” - Exactly.) But when it comes to stuff I do know, Prelude features some solid cuts, including a very relaxed take on Katamari Damacy’s “Lonely Rolling Star” entitled “Not So Lonely Nova” with some simple but effective alteration of the source tune’s rhythms to help give it a nice chill flavor. That’s already available to listen to via Final Fanboy’s MySpace (along with the faithful-to-the-spirit-of-the-game Animal Crossing arrangement “Love Me All Night Long” from Dale & Mustin’s More Than Mario EP) in order to give you preview their style. If they sell enough albums, let’s just say watch out for these bros on the cover of the year-end issue of Tiger Beat. They’ve got their fingers crossed.
Also, we want you to leave a comment, shoot over a message, or just generally make some noise if you’d like to see the rest of this 35 minute show, “Front Row” on DVD featuring interviews and recordings of “Mega Man II: Airman,” “Sonic the Hedgehog: Green Hill Zone,” “Chrono Trigger: Secret of the Forest” and more.
We’re also looking to combine this with a live performance recording of a show from July featuring Moose on Bass and Elaine Li of Select Start on Violin. That would be an additional 40 minutes or so.
How many of you would like a DVD? Let us know and we might make some for ya!
Let Mustin and crew know, and if there’s enough support, DVDs’ll be in the works via OneUp Studios. We stress this because if DVDs are out by January, you can snag one and get autographed all purty-like by the musty one at MAGFest 6 in Alexandria, VA.
I’m pleased to announce that the BITLive 2007 DVD is now available to download and burn as a torrent […]. You’ll find the link to the torrent below - its over 7 gigabytes as it burns as a dual layer dvd. I hope you enjoy it.
As noted by Remix64 head honco Markus “LMan” Klein, the DVD label was made by Jason “Kenz” Mackenzie, using artwork done by Matrix and Theo of Press Play on Tape. Right now I’m pissed I can’t grab this now, as I don’t have the hard drive space. I know, it’s worthy of crying over. Profusely. But with luck, I’ll be able to get a new 200GB laptop and snag this sucker down the line.
Considering that past editions of BIT Live concerts have been (relatively) pricey for this side of the ocean, a full dual-layer-DVD-sized is nothing but good times. Note for y’all on the North American side of the Atlantic, it’s a PAL region DVD, but you can swing that. I know you can.
The London concert features performances from Reyn Ouwehand, Jeroen Tel, 8 Bit Weapon, MJ Hibbett, and several other choice bits. Make sure to get in touch with some fine folks at the Remix64 boards in order to make sure the torrent is sufficiently seeded, and get ready to live life backwards with BIT Live 2007!
Well, more like 1 1/2 minutes of introduction & messing around and 6 1/2 minutes of tutorial, but I definitely enjoyed the F-Zero“Mute City” noodling that was in the initial demonstration.
You’ve gotta be technically inclined enough to gather all the needed materials and assemble them to Marchiel’s specifications, but if you’re up for it, you’ll end up with a pretty badass instrument.
Chris also makes sure to walk you through the features he programmed into the unit, and it’s clear that the door’s wide open in terms of another enthusiast tailoring the same project to their own specs.
As he mentions within the video, Chris hasn’t spent much time working with his finished synth controller, so perhaps we can expect a follow-up video down the line from him and Powerglove showing off more of what he can do (and, perhaps more importantly, what can be done) with this excellent idea!
***Chris messaged me via MySpace after this went up: Thanks for blogging about us and thanks for the kind words! I’m going to refine the control and the programming as I learn it, and i’ll play a solo on it at our live shows, which i’m really looking forward to!
I coded a control scheme for the dual shock ps2 controller too, so i might play that as well, though it’s not as flashy. I’ve also thought of doing a double neck one, since you could more than an octave at a time in usable buttons and use an octave pedal to play higher notes.
For a band that neither Ben nor I had heard of before, The OneUps put on a rock-solid show that ignited the crowd on numerous occasions. They showcased music from a treasure trove of age old games using a full seven piece band and unvieled a two piece keyboard duet called “Final Fanboy.” Plowing through a strong hour-and-a-half long set, The OneUps won the favor of the Main Theater’s near-capacity crowd.
Ok, well in a perfect world, they’d have taken over Penny Arcade Expo. With prejudice. But as such, they’re just performing. Today. I’m jealous, but we wish these bros the best, for undoubtedly their biggest performance to date at Seattle’s Washington State Convention & Trade Center.
When they were announced for PAX back in March, what resulted was a humongous influx of traffic to OneUp Studios and new fans for The OneUps. They look to be going stronger than ever headed into the festival where they’ll be performing along with the NESkimos (also on today) and Minibosses (closing things out Saturday).
I haven’t formally introduced Dwelling of Duels around here yet (of course, I have during my radio shows, but the blog is new territory). It’s a usually monthly compo where artists are encouraged to predominantly perform the arrangement live, usually via live instruments rather than sequencing, gravitating toward rock. \m/
Every month at DoD features a different theme based around the world of gaming. Usually franchises, occasionally with broader concepts, always with cool customized game art (see below). Songs are released anonymously near the end of the month, accompanied by a listening party for community regulars. Voting takes place in the following days via a point spread of the voter’s choice, and on the 1st of the new month the results are unveiled along with the new theme for next month.
There are so many new faces that first come to light into the video game music arrangement community via The Shizz’s Minibosses message board and Dwelling of Duels, so it’s no surprise that a relative newcomer like Scared Sim was able to walk away with the gold, with an arrangement of Donkey Kong Country’s “Aquatic Ambience” called “Swimming Monkey”.
I’d include direct links, but then you wouldn’t visit the actual site. Results follow below, and keep an eye out for DoD’s current PC Month competition for the month of August :
Scaredsim - Donkey Kong Country - Swimming Monkey Paragon - Donkey Kong Country - Fibonacci Factory thesamareaye, aklmfreak - Donkey Kong Land - Templo de la Fantasía Fourth Place (tie): Bobby Winston, pingosimon - DK: King of Swing (GBA) - Jumping and Swingin’ Fourth Place (tie): Kodiak Attack - Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong 3 (NES) - Grizzlies Crush Rolling Barrels and Beehives Sixth Place: Corax, Zachariasmith, Ryan Bennet - Donkey Kong Country 2 - Stickbrush Brambles Seventh Place (tie): CB+ - Donkey Kong Country 3 - Unrefinery Seventh Place (tie): tibone - Donkey Kong (NES) - Monkey can´t tune!! Monkey need bananas!! Seventh Place (tie): Vegeroth, Battlerager - Donkey Kong Country 2 - Tides of Darkness Tenth Place: AFM SwordBreaker - Donkey Kong Country 2 - Instigating Whispers
M-H: Valkyrie Profile - Union Alpha
Scaredsim: Brainlord, Illusion of Gaia - Will is the Lord
norg: Just Breed (Famicom) - Abduction
OC ReMix judge
Following up from earlier this month
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