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

Via the MAGFest 7 Facebook group, “Mr. MAGFest” Brendan Becker sent an important mailout on what to expect so far for next year’s MAGFest, set for January 1-4, 2009 in Alexandria, VA.

I’m actually attendee #3 this year. Not bad, considering that MAGFest pulls in thousands of people each year. Don’t be stupid. If you like gaming or music, or, dare I say, gaming AND music, you’d be foolish to miss out. Pre-register now to get in on the action. Here’s the deal from Brendan himself:

Hey gamer dudes and ladies,

Just wanted to give a heads up that tons of guests have confirmed their attendance for MAGFest 7, and you should too! Things are shaping up nicely, and we’re even at the same hotel this time!

This new years you can chill with people like game bands like Select Start and Armcannon, game video personalities like the Angry Video Game Nerd, X-Strike Studios, or PBC Productions, game musicians, programmers, and sound guys, and more. If that wasn’t enough, you’ll get two nights of game concerts in our usual style with tons of bands, and of course 24/7 gaming.

If you can’t make it for the first, don’t worry! None of the concerts are scheduled for Thursday — it’s our warmup day — so you won’t miss anything if you’re too hung over, have to work, or just can’t make it down until Friday. We do have some special stuff in the works for New Year’s Eve, though, so if you plan to come down early, you’re in for a few treats.

You can preregister on our website: http://magfest.org/

If you’re coming in a group or you’d like to sell as a dealer, the prereg page has all the info.

Be sure to check out our new gaming radio station, too! We’re playing tons of game music on shuffle out of our personal collections and we’ve linked some of the albums to our pals at http://vgmdb.net/ who have superb information on game-related CDs and music.

Game on!

…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!

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.

Attending Game Developers Conference 2008, Destructoid’s Dale North had the scoop on No More Heroes composer Masafumi Takada’s presentation detailing his methods in composing for games. Featured in the presentation were several major titles in Takada’s portfolio, including Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, God Hand, Killer7, and the critical hit No More Heroes. Be sure to read up for some informative details on Takada’s creative processes, as well as Dale’s quick account on a couple of other surprises!

Ha, I’m in it, so clearly this is the best MAGFest 6-related video out there. If you haven’t heard of MAGFest, check out my highlights for some initial insight. Before you check out “MAGFest VI: The Montage”, let’s get the breakdown from PBC Productions (makers of The New Adventures of Captain S):

This week’s selection is a lovingly prepared memento of the greatness that was MAGFest VI. Chock full of peppy VG music, quick cuts, and hilarious footage captured by Devon Riley and Josh Kopstein, it’ll bring back all your greatest MAG moments in a torrent of radness that will have you counting the days until MAGFest VII.

Troy, NY - OverClocked ReMix will participate this weekend as one of several guests at Genericon, an anime/science fiction/gaming convention held by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Site staff David “djpretzel” Lloyd, Larry “Liontamer” Oji, and Andrew “zircon” Aversa will be representing OC ReMix, holding a panel, giving away prizes, and joining in the festivities. Other guests include Al Lowe of Leisure Suit Larry, King’s Quest, and Police Quest fame, musical group Echostream, and Rob Balder of the webcomic PartiallyClips.

The OverClocked ReMix panel will be held at 3:00pm on Saturday the 26th in DCC 308.

Genericon is being held January 25-27; more information is available at http://genericon.union.rpi.edu/.

Clearly all work and no play at the 2008 International CES, DToiders Graybush and Buckfitches decided to interview their own Dale North as he laid in bed, sauced out.

As soon as they creeped up on him, shining a bright light in his face, and you hear Dale go, “Goddammit, guys,” it’s so worth it. Hahaha! Let’s label this one under live performances:

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!

How forgetful I am sometimes. I talked about all the fun I had scoring the Dwelling of Duels competition on day 1 of MAGFest 6. I even talked about the craziness of Paragon’s traditional announcement of the placings at the top of day 4, right after the conclusion of the concerts. But I never posted the official results! I’m gonna quote myself from my MAGFest thoughts on the listening party before the results below. Be sure to be there at the top of next month to find our the results of the new competition theme, the Kirby series:

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.

musicalman: Metal Gear - Snake’s Revenge
norg: Ducktales - Harden the Duck Up
Danimal Cannon and Chris Dlugosz: Contra 4 - “Let’s Attack Aggressively!”
Fourth Place: ansgaros: Final Fantasy 6 - Kefka Gets Decisive
Fifth Place (tie): Kidd Cabbage: Super Metroid - Fuzzy Green Feeling
Fifth Place (tie): virt: Splatterhouse - TERRORMASK
Seventh Place: Ryan8Bit: Wizards & Warriors, Gauntlet - Kuros Shot the Food
Eighth Place: Snappleman: SET PHASERS TO ^___^ (In Loving Memory of Chavez)
Ninth Place: xoc: Conker’s Bad Fur Day (N64) - Straight Windy
Tenth Place: dasaten: Secret of Mana - Let Me Tell You a Secret
Eleventh Place: MusicallyInspired: Duke Nukem series - Grabbag Mega-Mix
Twelfth Place (tie): CarboHydroM: PopN Twinbee - Ground Split
Twelfth Place (tie): Hope Fails: Salamander 2 - mmmbop
Fourteenth Place (tie): strefig: Bucky O’Hare - Bring Them to the Righteous
Fourteenth Place (tie): SuprMelO: Chrono Trigger - Sambacross Time
Sixteenth Place: JigginJonT: Final Fantasy 6 - A Day in the Life of a Gambler
Seventeenth Place: Millenial Fairs: Chrono Trigger - Robo’s Theme
Eighteenth Place: Scaredsim: Castlevania 3 - Ding dong, au quatrième top il sera 20 heures
Nineteenth Place (tie): Daniel Alm: Gremlins 2 - Gizmo Caca!
Nineteenth Place (tie): Dennis: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - Crunch Time
Nineteenth Place (tie): rauze: Mega Man 4 - Man & Machine
Twenty-second Place: Hale-Bopp: Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - Two Tales
Twenty-third Place (tie): pingosimon: Final Fantasy 6 - Kids Run Through the City
Twenty-third Place (tie): XMark: Contra - Assault on Galuga (Contra: The Movie: The Soundtrack)
Twenty-fifth Place: chunkstyle: Monty on the Run (C64) - Avogadro’s Ostinato
Twenty-sixth Place (tie): thesamareaye: Final Fantasy 3 - Oceans Abound
Twenty-sixth Place (tie): Vegeroth: Breath of Fire - The Fire Came from Within
Twenty-eighth Place: Naz: Chrono Trigger - Dreams of a Black Wind
Twenty-ninth Place (tie): Corax and Zachariasmith: Jazz Jackrabbit - Templum Testudine
Twenty-ninth Place (tie): Hydrasphere: Tetris - Tetrismatik
Twenty-ninth Place (tie): Josiah Tobin: Uniracers - The Fastest Wheel in the Uni-Verse
Twenty-ninth Place (tie): Patrick_Like_Static: Ducktales - Bless Me Bagpipes: Green Cheese!
Thirty-third Place: Cetera: Nightmare on Elm Street - Elm Street
Thirty-fourth Place: zangderak: Street Fighter Alpha - Jaguar Tooth
Thirty-fifth Place (tie): DZX: Final Fantasy 7 - Reunion
Thirty-fifth Place (tie): Skulletmaster: Mega Man 7 - Blue Rock Bloodletting Tyme
Thirty-fifth Place (tie): tibone: Pyscho Pinball - I’ll Jackpot into your squirrel if that’s what it takes
Thirty-eighth Place (tie): Six-Stringed Flamberge: Everyday Shooter (PS3) - Surreal Heartbreak
Thirty-eighth Place (tie): Mr. N: The Sims - Cloud Construction
Thirty-eighth Place (tie): ShinerCCC: Final Fantasy Legend 1, 2, 3 - The Legend of the Glass Sword
Forty-first Place: Nario: Final Fantasy - Crystal Warriors
Forty-second Place (tie): Amaranthine Skies: Magician - Magical Funk
Forty-second Place (tie): bjkmenu: Popful Mail (Sega CD) - Muttonhead is a Nuts Cracker
Forty-fourth Place: Paragon: Dark Cloud 2, Suikoden 2 - Two Fountainheads
Forty-fifth Place: Bobby Winston?!, Baraka: Phenoix Wright: Ace Attorney - Wright #51
Forty-sixth Place: Pancho: Final Fantasy 9 - staggering saiyan. . .err. . .genome

The final day of MAGFest would seemingly be when things died down, but right after day 3’s concerts, the peoples were awake, and they were still busy. Immediately after the conclusion of the Smash Bros. set, Paragon conducted the annual tradition of announcing the results for this month’s Dwelling of Duels. SnappleMan did a great job in winning last year, but musicalman took it home this year with the gold trophy. Props to everyone who participated, good or bad. There were so many participants this go, it was impossible to keep track of them all, but I made sure to congratulate guys like Danimal Cannon, Hope Fails, and norg for being part of the reason the competition was both strong and interesting this year. Afterwards, Mustin did the honors of snapping the yearly photos of the Shizzies gathering for MAG this year.

Afterward, it was time to hang with some OC ReMix peeps as we watched the Hellgate: London trailer bustatunez scored before moving on to other flavors of the internet. You put a bunch of people in a room who’ve seen it all, and of course 2girls1cup and 2girls1finger are just two of the many new staples of grossout internet memes of the past year.

SnappleMan later joined the room and kept it real (as always) talking about the dramas of MAGFest, including police situations, helping run the audio for the concerts, dealing with the drummer of The Advantage, Spencer Seim, nearly walking out of their performance (twice), mig50 getting thrown out of the hotel for not paying, housethegrate also getting the boot, the audio crew watching hardcore porn on via laptop and mortifying Select Start’s Elaine Li when she discovered it, and his overall thoughts on all the performances. If you haven’t already befriended this man, you need to. Just talking with Andy for a hour, he makes MAG worth the entire trip.

D-Lux and I rolled over to the VGMix room to chat with tumult, Matt Pollard, Shawn Phase and Shnabubula about the chaos of the festival, as some of us were complaining about possibly losing the hotel for next year due to this year’s craziness. Just like SnappleMan, shooting the shit with Matt and tumult is great when you wanna talk with no bullshit. Shawn actually made a good point about how he didn’t get wasted at MAG so he could enjoy as much of the event as possible, but Matt had been drunk from the moment he got there!

As night turned into day, myself, D-Lux, Joe Cam, Wire and Maximo Lorenzo stopped by the MAGFest staff room (a sea of tired bodies) and made our way to the staff’s private jacuzzi. Isn’t Joe Cam getting married? Well, that didn’t stop him from climbing in the jacuzzi with Wire. They all had their clothes on. Let me never see Cam in white boxers ever again! Maximo drew pictures of Wire and myself for her as little mementos for the trip. It was definitely an honor being sketched by Max, who’s done some cool stuff with Tokyopop and constantly strives to up his game.

After I left the staff room, I walked around the hotel for a few minutes until I ran into virt, SnappleMan and OverCoat chilling in the lobby, with Shnabubula coming over later to shoot the shit. It was definitely great just getting to hang out with those guys further. With so many personalities around, and friends from across the world to hang with, it’s impossible to see everyone you want to, even in 4 days. You’ve really gotta be content with what time you do get.

Ironically enough, I tried staying awake all night in order to attend ThaSauce’s rescheduled panel. So of course, when I got there…I fell asleep. Across four chairs.

Attending Kroze’s machinima panel was quite the educational experience, including the debut of the trailer for Eden: The Zhang Chronicles, featuring bustatunez handling the score. Once that wrapped up, we amassed more signatures for the deadly OCR guitar in the lobby, where most of the people said their goodbyes and got their last time in socializing. Injury and Mustin snapped a photo in the lobby, always a great contrast with a short lady and a tall man!

Afterward, lots of the OCR crew headed over to Popeyes for the best friend chicken in the world. OA and AeroZ both got to sample Popeyes wares for the first time to some very satisfied results. (Love that chicken.) Most of the crew then said their goodbyes and headed off for parts unknown while those who remained headed back to the hotel for closing ceremonies. It was good being able to listen to Brendan (Mr. MAGFest) thanking everyone on staff who made the event such a huge success, as usual.

Shuttling back home from the hotel (I live close), I got to meet cacomistle for the first time. He’s done some nice chiptune material for Mega Twerp, and also participates in Dwelling of Duels, but I never had the pleasure of getting to chat with Brian until right at the end of MAG on the way home. What did I tell you about not having enough time to get to hang with everyone? Nonetheless, definitely a pleasant surprise.

Once I got back home to my sick lady, I bought her a big cheeseburger from Johnny Rockets and exhaled. You probably wouldn’t want MAGFest to be a week or your entire life (who could process it all?), but for any gamer and especially video game music fan, the 4 days of MAGFest are worth their weight in gold. It’s the right way to start off any year. Down the line, we’ll supplement the blog with pieces of MAGFest 6 nostalgia, but for now all I can say is you have to make it out to this yearly event no matter who you are. You’ll always be glad you went.

After missing Day 2, I was definitely ready to get back on the horse for MAGFest. OC ReMix had its panel that day, so of course I represented my homebase. Along with djpretzel and myself, fellow judges zircon, pixietricks, Big Giant Circles and CHz were on board the panel presentation that day for an impressive show of staff power.

Rather than going through our traditional presentation for the uninitiated, we were in front of a crowd where the major majority of people were already familiar with OverClocked ReMix. This year, we highlighted all the important developments at OCR for 2007, including Voices of the Lifestream, attending Video Games Live, the debut of the Content Policy, revising the Submission Standards and Instructions and developing translations of our most important information for several languages. OCR’s latest album project, Radical Dreamers: Thieves of Fate, released during MAGFest itself, was given a preview to the audience by director Brad “the prophet of mephisto” Burr, to an excellent reception.

Highlighting upcoming developments for 2008, we’ve got some great stuff on the way. Our first live full orchestra arrangement from Wild ARMs is on the way, we’ve got our first mother-son ReMix collaboration as well from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. djp showed off his plans for swanky new composer pages that’ll show off a lot more information about the men and women who inspire the contributors to OCR, using Tim Follin to give the people a look at how composers are laid out with more information than ever; look for that to go live in the next few days. We also pimped some AMVs including clips of some of the Voices of the Lifestream AMV contest (soon to be judged so that we can get those swanky prizes out there) as well as the Spittin’ Narcissism fanvid by Psycosis91. Plenty of good stuff to promote, not even taking into account our bread and butter of posting creative, free ReMixes.

After a huge dinner with the OCR meetup group, it was time for the second and final night of concerts. Let’s go short and sweet: The moshing this year was definitely toned down a great deal compared to last year. Not that anyone was cracking down on it, there just wasn’t nearly as much this year as last. Let’s not also forget props to NO CARRIER and noteNdo for the NES-created visuals that adorned both nights of performances. You’ve got to see it to believe it, they were a nostalgic acid trip.

Powerglove was excellent. They always have an unbelievable amount of energy to their performances, including some badass costumes. I personally hate the Power Rangers theme, but when they played it for some brief non-VGM material, they definitely got the crowd going. I would have loved to have seen Chris Marchiel’s Guitar Hero synth in play, but was perfectly glad “settling” for some awesome material from Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, including Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s “So Sexy Robotnik“!

I was legitimately worried that Select Start, in their first MAGFest performance, wouldn’t be as much of a draw with the crowd, who are used to rock and metal VG cover bands acts, but the masses turned out in a big way. We probably could have used some chairs during their set, since there was no reason to stand up for the whole thing. They put on a really classy performance. Frontman Austin Harley started off a little shaky with the opening solo on one track, but regrouped with a joke and was off to the races. The best part of the set had to be when the crowd exploded with whooping and applause to the end of the first track, which visibly took the entire sextet by surprise.

When I talked to violinist Elaine Li after the set along with Big Giant Circles, she confirmed that the group had never received that kind of reaction ever before in their history of live performances, and that it was great to be in an atmosphere where everyone already knows and respects game music, making it so much easier to get immersed in the performance. Indeed, hearing Metroid “Kraid’s Hideout”, Chrono Trigger “Theme of Frog’s” and Final Fantasy III “Eternal Wind” live was a big highlight. Along with Mustin and ktriton joining in for one song, the crew did a great job with their first MAGFest appearance, so hopefully they walked away already thinking about how to return next year.

This Place is Haunted played their final show with guitarist Michael Motorcycle, who’s leaving the band to begin medical school. Who would have pegged him for it? (We at VGF wish him the best of luck, to be sure.) The band’s set was a lot more of a balance between VGM and other retro material (The theme to Sanford and Son??? Let’s throw it on there!); I’ll admit I’m partial to VGM and would have appreciated more…exclusivity on that level. I mentioned to Shael Riley, who’s a big fan of the band, that This Place just has some impeccable chops. Both Michael Motorcycle and Epileptic Peat were playing some really involved runs and solos with just pro precision; it was quite a sight to behold being so close to the stage. Here’s hoping these bros regroup somehow so that they can keep putting out quality material, especially because they spotlight tons of otherwise obscure VGM to arrange.

Last but not least, the final band of the night was The Smash Bros. Running strong from their performance at the 2007 Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival, MAGFest’s house band took on a new flavor with ktriton replacing Shawn Phase on drums and doing an amazing job; there was definitely a great amout of synergy between him and the rest of the band. Before the set started, we were all instructed to listen to the noise playing over the speakers. A few of us thought it was rain SFX until a wonderful smell wafted across the concert hall. In between tracks, Pappy and Joe Cam were cooking bacon outside the hotel and feeding it to the crowd! Enhancing the experience was a microphone brought over to the pig meat so that the entire crowd could hear it sizzling. I was able to snag a full-sized strip of bacon in the first wave of free pork before the bros had to start cutting it up to offer it to everyone. Definitely a hilarious bonus, the crowd chanted “Bacon! Bacon!” with ferocity with every break. The eclectic VGM set of the Bros. (Ailsean, ktriton, Midee, norg, Prozax, Roy McClanahan & virt) included U.N. Squadron, Phoenix Wright, EarthBound and Contra 4 in easily the most diverse set of the festival. They need to record their shows via the mixing boards at MAG and sell, sell, sell.

Anyone who doubts whether or not they should attend MAGFest would become a believer if only to experience the greatness of even one night of the concerts, and that’s only one night out of four days. I’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up the rundown of my time at MAG.

Ok, so while Day 1 of MAGFest 6 was awesome, I completely missed Day 2.

LOOK, HEAR ME OUT!

Ha! But yeah, the short of it was that my lady, THE Lady, the esteemed Paige came down with a virus and felt like…let’s say “poop” and be generous. I took her over to the urgent care clinic to get checked out, but waited until late in the evening. I tend to play things by ear, so I didn’t bother checking when the concerts would be. “6PM,” you say? Well, shit. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have left for the clinic at 5:50PM, now would I? Regardless, she felt bad enough where I stayed home afterwards and took care of her, so I missed out on all of day 2! If you’ve ever been in a position where you’ve regretted everything while regretting nothing, you know how I felt. (That’s love! Try it sometime!)

If you have MAGFest thoughts to share so far, please comment or send them in; we’d love to hear from you on this always amazing yearly event. But to give you a taste of what took place on Friday, let’s hook you up with something I missed myself as Thursday turned into Friday after the opening ceremonies: Shnabubula performing in MAG’s Jamspace room.

A new addition to the event, Jamspace is the only place where artists can plug in and do their thing nearly any time of day. Whether it’s turntabling or performing live, if you’ve got the goods, you’re ready to play. Some instruments were already provided to Jamspace for use during the festival, and Sam quickly showed off the potential of the idea, brought to you by ThaSauce.

Maybe you’ve already seen some of his previous performance videos. But they’re nothing like the Final Fantasy VI arrangement “Terra’s Got Her Groove Back.” Enjoy!

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.

In the beginning, there were Cheetahmen. And life was large.

For no particularly good reason, Japan seems to have taken a fondness to the in-game music from Cheetahmen II, as you can see from quite a few videos on YouTube. While such solo efforts are commendable, they are not adequate tribute to the great Aries, Apollo, and Hercules. We need something more glorious.

What we need is an entire Cheetahmen II arrangement album.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you:

Cheetah in the Dark, a six track doujin arrangement album, set to be released on December 31 at Comic Market 73. The official page for the album (Japanese) has a crossfade demo of three tracks:

Can the finished album possibly live up to the hype and cover art? Only time will tell.

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.

I was pretty bummed when djpretzel & I realized that we had completely missed out on the T-MODE Anime & Gaming convention this past October in the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. Not only was the con really close for both of us, but djp had already been planning to go to Anime USA, also in Crystal City as soon as he had heard of it. What were the odds that there would be TWO conventions in Arlington in as many months? So yeah, we missed out on that (we missed Armcannon perform, dammit) Of course, if we had known, we would have definitely attended that as well and spread the OC ReMix gospel.

Having missed T-MODE, we had to be content with Anime USA as our one local con this year. After several months of djp attempting to establish contact with the Anime USA staff, we actually ran into some miscommunication with the staff days before the convention. With only a few days left before the con and still no reply to 3 emails, desperate times called for desperate measures. djp inquired about our panel time confirmation and how to get guest status down the line by mailing the entire staff list and someone on staff assumed he was demanding guest status for this year’s convention on very short notice. All that said, a learning experience with the risks of encountering unresponsive staff as well as signals getting crossed. Luckily, AUSA Chairman Mark Pope took some time to write back, handling himself like a genuine professional and easily clearing up the situation.

On the day of, our panel was filled to about 75% capacity, a good turnout considering the one major drawback of the convention: the Hyatt Regency Crystal City’s layout and jam-packed capacity made it very difficult for attendees to actually make it to the third floor, where many of the panels were taking place. Despite having at least six elevators, the atmosphere couldn’t have been any busier (a good thing, depending on your POV), making the elevators practically inaccessible. And as much as I don’t mind walking up a flight of stairs or taking the much longer route to the third floor, just try to convince large groups of people to do the same and you can see why we ran into a problem. Ease of access (well, the lackthereof) turned out to be pretty critical. Even after the panel, when I helped bring instruments out of the hotel, the wait for an elevator car that wasn’t packed (much less arrive) dragged on for over 15 minutes before we gave up and very slowly and gingerly walked the equipment downstairs.

The panel itself went very well, the AUSA staff was helpful making sure we were set up OK, and we had a solid turnout of very knowledgeable fans. The panelists were made up of us Virginia locals, djpretzel, Palpable and myself. Besides discussing the basics about OCR (how it started, the creativity factor, the selection process and judges, the albums, the meetups, etc.), we all talked about how we got into game music ourselves, and offered some ReMix Name That Tune action in order to giveaway OCR T-shirts and limited edition promo copies of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream. Brendan “Mr. MAGFest” Becker was also there to plug January’s upcoming MAGFest 6 convention & concert series in neighboring Alexandria, VA (be there).

One of the great things we rolled out, new for our panels and apropos for an anime convention, was a spotlight on fan-made AMVs using OC ReMixes. You can check some out at the OC ReMix YouTube group. Among others, we had some examples of Final Fantasy VII videos underscoring our pending Voices of the Lifestream AMV contest, as well a Chrono Trigger video with game footage synched up to Star Salzman’s “The Incredible Singing Robot,” and the very well-received AMV based on José the Bronx Rican’s “Spittin’ Narcissism.”

The highlight of the event was the live performance from the band Flickerfall, comprised of OCR Judge Vinnie “Palpable” Prabhu and Amy “diotrans” Hsieh, with their take on Nobuo Uematsu’s “Eyes on Me” from Final Fantasy VIII. James “Teknoboy” Winfield captured footage of the performance, now available on YouTube:

All in all, we had a lot of fun at Anime USA mingling with fans and pimping OCR as only we can do. A few within our group commented that AUSA’s Artists Alley was arguably stronger than Otakon’s, which was quite impressive to say the least. Whether it’s Anime USA, T-MODE, or Katsucon, conventions in the DC Metro area are always a great, accessible opportunity to support local events and spread the word on the greatness of video game music.

With Anime USA under our belt, we’re always looking to expand our con appearances. Keep an eye out in 2008, as we already have two exciting dates coming up. Obviously, VGF will be there to let you know the plans once we’re ready to announce the specific dates.

Earlier this week, Andrew “Merman” Fischer posted a review at Remix64 on the October 27 performance of legendary Commodore scene band Press Play on Tape. PPOT’s concert was part of the GameCity 2007 video games festival and took place in Nottingham, England at the MUSE nightclub across from GameCity’s venue of the Broadway Cinema & Media Centre.

Be sure to check out Merman’s in-depth comments and observations on the show. To entice those on the fence, here’s a look at PPOT’s setlist, provided below this nice shot of the band at the concert sporting their 8-bit ties:

• Commando
• Tiger Mission
• Phantom of the Asteroid
• Ghosts ‘N Goblins
• Arkanoid
• Comic Bakery
• Sacred Armour of Antiriad
• Pac-Man
• Out Run
• Hypaball/Mission AD
• Rambo
• “I’m a Pumpkin Man” (Cauldron II)
• The Human Race
• One Man and His Droid
• Das Gamer (Kraftwerk)
• Bubble Bobble
• PaRappa The Rapper 2: “Beard Burger Song”
• The Ultimate Showdown
• Monkey Island

Encore:

• Monty on the Run

This past Tuesday, MAGFest CEO Brendan Becker confirmed the first-ever appearance of Sacramento VGM cover band The Advantage at the festival, the 6th annual installment taking place this year in Alexandria, VA.

Mr. MAGFest, from the official announcement:

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.

Thanks to Mustin for forwarding the news.

The OneUps‘ recent performance at Penny Arcade Expo continues to pay big dividends as the band was profiled yesterday by Seattle’s Kristin Kalning, games editor of MSNBC.com.

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.

OC ReMix Announces Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream Music Video Competition

For Immediate Release
October 4, 2007
Contact: David W. Lloyd, dlloyd@ocremix.org

FAIRFAX, VA–OverClocked ReMix today announced a music video competition related to the recently released Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream project (http://ff7.ocremix.org). This is the first official competition held by OC ReMix. Partnering with Piano Squall (www.pianosquall.com), and eStarland (www.estarland.com), prizes include signed limited edition promotional copies of Voices of the Lifestream, signed copies of Piano Squall’s album GAME: Game & Anime Music Emotions, Final Fantasy VII merchandise, and OverClocked ReMix shirts & hoodies. Additional prizes may be announced during the course of the competition.

There are three different categories for music video submissions, and each category will have prizes for the winner and runner-up. Submissions will be evaluated by the OverClocked ReMix Judges Panel and djpretzel. Winners will be credited on the VotL website and have their submissions shown at Otakon and other anime and gaming conventions that OC ReMix attends. The deadline for all entries is December 14th, 2007; details and rules for each competition are below.

Prizes (as of 2007-10-03):

• Winners
  • Limited edition promotional copy of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
  • Signed copy of Piano Squall’s album GAME: Game & Anime Music Emotions
  • Choice of OverClocked ReMix shirt or hoodie
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children action figure
  • Credit on http://ff7.ocremix.org and presentation of video on OC ReMix convention panels
• Runners-up
  • Limited edition promotional copy of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
  • OverClocked ReMix shirt
  • Credit on http://ff7.ocremix.org and presentation of video on OC ReMix convention panels

Final Fantasy VII Category

This contest involves creating a music video for any track from Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream using footage from Advent Children (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385700/), Last Order (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489134/), and/or the Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII video games.

Anime Category

This contest involves creating a music video for any track from Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream using footage from any anime. However, to distinguish from the FF7 category, please do not utilize footage from Advent Children or Last Order.

Original Category

This contest involves creating a music video for any track from Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream using only footage that you yourself create. It can be live-action, 2D or 3D animation, rendered from Flash, etc., but it needs to be your own creation, and cannot incorporate substantial outside sources.

Rules

1. The deadline for all entries is December 14th, 2007.
2. All submissions are made under the terms of the OverClocked ReMix Content Policy, available at http://www.ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy. Please read it before submitting.
3. You may only enter one submission for each category.
4. In the case of submissions that involved collaboration, you must designate a single point of contact for the prizes and coordinate amongst yourselves who receives what.
5. Only one song from Voices of the Lifestream should be used per video, no other music should be present, and the video should not exceed the length of the song selected.
6. Content should generally be “PG-13″, avoiding nudity, profanity, or extreme violence.
7. Video should be in HQ AVI DivX, XvID, H264, or MPEG2 formats, at a resolution of 720×480, with a 23.97 or 24 fps (progressive) or 29.97 fps (interlaced) framerate, with uncompressed 44.1khz stereo audio. Please utilize the WAV versions of VotL tracks (available via bittorent at http://bt.ocremix.org), not the MP3s, when creating your music video(s).
8. For the FFVII and anime categories, please try to follow common Anime Music Video contest guidelines, available on the websites of most major anime conventions. We want submissions in these categories to be submitted to as many different AMV contests as possible.
9. Do not utilize low-quality footage or footage with subtitles burned-in.
10. Do not include credits, bumpers, trailers, or other material in your video, only the actual submission content.
11. You may choose to post your video(s) on YouTube, etc., before/after submission, so long as the OverClocked ReMix Content Policy is followed.

Submitting

Include the name you want the video(s) credited to, your contact information (website, email), the name of your video(s), all sources (anime, games, movies, etc.) utilized in your video(s), and any additional information you feel is relevant with your submission, whether via email or physical mail.

Email (preferred):

Send an email titled “FF7 Music Video Competition Entry” with a link to your video(s) to submissions@ocremix.org. Do NOT attempt to attach the video itself, or any form of preview. Make sure that the link still functions on Dec. 14th and for as many days after as possible if you submit before the deadline.

Physical Mail

Send a CD-R or DVD-R only (no tapes!) to:

OverClocked ReMix
PO Box 223104
Chantilly, VA 20153

Postmarked on or before the Dec. 14th deadline. All physical materials submitted to OverClocked ReMix become the property of OverClocked ReMix and will not be returned.

Updates

Updated information and answers to questions regarding this competition will be available on an announcement thread at OverClocked ReMix (http://www.ocremix.org) - please check it often as prizes may be added or rules clarified. Winners will be announced before the end of the year, with the specific date dependent on the number of submissions received.

Good luck!

OC ReMix Albums on Last.fm, FF7:VotL Updates

For Immediate Release
October 2, 2007
Contact: David W. Lloyd, dlloyd@ocremix.org

OverClocked ReMix recently made all nine of its albums available for live streaming on Last.fm (www.last.fm), a music and social networking website. The albums are listed at http://www.ocremix.org/albums/, with credits and links to their official homepages, BitTorrent downloads, and Last.fm pages.

The most recent album, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream, was recently reviewed by SquareSound, one of the largest websites devoted to Square Enix music on the internet, at http://www.squaresound.com/reviews/ronin/ff7vol.php. Since its debut on September 14th, Voices of the Lifestream has been downloaded an estimated 70,000 times via both a BitTorrent distribution and MP3s available at the official album website, http://ff7.ocremix.org. Limited physical copies of the album made for promotional usage will be given away at the upcoming Anime USA (http://www.animeusa.org/) and MAGFest (http://magfest.org/) conventions and through online competitions that will be announced shortly.

OverClocked ReMix Albums, Newest to Oldest:

• 2007-09-14 - Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/final-fantasy-vii-voices-of-the-lifestream/
• 2006-11-19 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Project Chaos
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/sonic-3-and-knuckles-project-chaos/
• 2006-05-29 - Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Blood on the Asphalt
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/super-street-fighter-ii-turbo-blood-on-the-asphalt/
• 2006-01-03 - Chrono Trigger: Chrono Symphonic
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/chrono-trigger-chrono-symphonic/
• 2005-08-08 - DooM: The Dark Side of Phobos
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/doom-the-dark-side-of-phobos/
• 2005-06-25 - Kirby’s Adventure: Rise of the Star
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/kirbys-adventure-rise-of-the-star/
• 2005-03-09 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Hedgehog Heaven
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/sonic-the-hedgehog-2-hedgehog-heaven/
• 2004-09-12 - Donkey Kong Country: Kong in Concert
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/donkey-kong-country-kong-in-concert/
• 2003-09-12 - Super Metroid: Relics of the Chozo
  http://www.ocremix.org/album/super-metroid-relics-of-the-chozo/

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.

Preregister.

GO!

I was just joking over at the OneUp Studios forums that I’ll kill Dale North and Mustin for not making the debut of the Final Fanboy website more prominent. I knew their MySpace was out, but beyond that I was in the dark. But as Mustin says, “It’s for the girls.”

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.

As mentioned last week on Remix64, legendary Commodore composer Chris Hülsbeck recently released a new original album, Number Nine, available through synSONIQ Records. The official world premire of the album was at the Fifth Symphonic Game Music Concert, part of Games Convention 2007 this past August out of Leipzig, Germany.

There’s some VGM to be found as well, as the bonus track concluding the disc is the “Turrican 3 Suite” as performed at the Fourth Symphonic Game Music Concert, part of Games Convention 2006. Would Hülsbeck steer you wrong? C’mon now.