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.
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.
A few days back, jeriaska messaged me to introduce his new VGM news site: Nobuooo. Initially I was skeptical, as (silly name aside) VG Frequency seemed to be filling the same role. However, after closer inspection, I realized that this was a promising new site with some good Digg-like features. Most importantly, jeriaska and the other contributors have been regularly updating the site multiple times per day with some quality VGM info.
Of note to VG Frequency is the newly posted “Nobuooo Toootorial“. Anybody recognize the site at 0:13? I personally think it was respectful of jeriaska to give that nod to VGF, so I have no qualms about reciprocating. Check it out. — [K(G)
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.
Congratulations to Andy for the spotlight as we at OCR await our first press coverage in a major music production publication, via Tracy and the good folks at Electronic Musician!
Done in the always excellent style of Zero Punctuation’s Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, I was already laughing at the visuals a mere 30 seconds in. Once we got into the meat of things, Floyd then went into his observations on why well-done storytelling in games is so rare compared to the motion picture industry, hitting on some pretty salient points. It’s excellent fodder for debate.
While Dan has seen some great criticisms on what could be improved thanks to the OCR community, the video presentation is nonetheless very solid and entertaining.
The shoot, conducted this past weekend, includes several figure studies, alongside other portrait and artistic nude snapshots (no perverts, please). Deviants are encouraged to leave critical-level commentary at Rab’s HateBunny gallery.
Firmly entrenched in my journalistic duties, The Lady will be glad to know that I didn’t rubberneck at the images. (I like my head remaining on my shoulders.) So instead of providing any of the photos you thought you were going to see, let’s hook you up with a pic of Rab laying down, looking bohemian:
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?
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.
Since Bentley has been kind enough to spread the word via his MySpace, we’ll also show off the video. Though the video’s only visual is a picture of the album art, you can still check out the album-closing “Open Your Heart (Crush 40 vs. Bentley Jones Remix)” in full with the full endorsement of Mr. Jones. Hop to it:
Industry mover-and-shaker Tommy Tallarico follows up last month’s Electronic Musician spotlight on entering the video game audio production with his own appearance in the magazine describing the evolution and challenges of scoring games, as well as his own advice on the importance of networking in order to help the other important aspect of an artist, talent, shine through.
If you’re a composer interested in a very informative Reader’s Digest version of how to break into the business, as well as fun stuff about the premiere video game concert series Video Games Live, then check out the January edition of Electronic Musician this month!
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:
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.
I can’t hope to encapsulate Edgen Animations‘ good fortunes at doing some audio work at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch. So I’m simply going to recommend that you check out Justin R. Durban’s MySpace blog for all the details, including thoughts on recording with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, as well as several photos on and around the ranch. Congratulations to Justin in fulfilling a career goal with his working visit to the Skywalker Ranch, definitely a unique achievement in his field. I suppose the next goal is making it a steady gig! Make sure to click through to read all about it, and enjoy!
Announced recently via MySpace blog, if you’ve got RealPlayer integrated into your browser, check out Music4Games founder Greg O’Connor-Read contributing to BBC Radio 3’s The Choir. The most recent episode focused on choral music in games and film, with an impressively thorough list of examples. Read through what games are on tap for the show, and swing by to check it out:
On Sunday, 6th January 2008 The BBC Radio 3 show “The Choir” profiled choral music from film and video game soundtracks including “Assassin’s Creed,” “Clive Barker’s Jericho,” “Final Fantasy,” “Halo,” “Headhunter,” “Hitman,” “Primal” with commentary from Music4Games’ Editor Greg O’Connor-Read. The show is hosted by Aled Jones (”The Snowman.”)
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.
And in this corner, an under-appreciated gem of mine with “Demon Seed” from Castlevania III. This slightly longer performance features a lot more improvisation, so if you’re interested in seeing what Somnambula [sic] really can put together, this is the one of the two for you.
Jared Hudson and I just finished our Half Life 2 Portal video. This video demonstrates what is possible when the portal gun is thrown into the Half Life universe. There were a few other similar videos out there, but nothing quite like this one.
Consequentially I’ll be starting a website http://halflifemovie.org. More to come on that later.
Clearly the next Spielbergs here. If and when things develop with HalfLifeMovie.org, we’ll definitely let you know. Keep an eye out for more from this universe gone slightly wrong.
In the fledgling realm of American video game concert series, things aren’t too small for drama as Jeremy Soule and Tommy Tallarico exchanged words via MySpace. Soule, attached to PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, criticized Video Games Live for allegedly cutting corners on orchestra size and not providing a complete orchestral experience, branding VGL as preferring “smoke and lasers.”
Quoted are excerpts of comments earlier this month by Soule and the rebuttal from Tallarico obtained from Jeremy Soule’s MySpace blog. Included are comments from VGL conductor Jack Wall and Jeron Moore of DirectSong.com, Soule’s online music label. An interesting read, without a doubt: (more…)
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:
the new album is finally done and arrived.
as you can clearly see, i am not selling it like i said i would… it just didn’t make sense for me to do so and i’m sure you won’t blame me for the decision i’ve made. i’ve never taken this long on an album before… for the early stretches, it was driven by a slow roll of creativity… i was writing but not in the abundance that i’m usually accustomed to. stretches later on, i was simply curbed by my computer failure that lasted months amidst production. as a result, you’ll hear an, at times, unnerving mixture of contrasting musical ideas… some of this is all over the map and it’s really because within a year’s time, it isn’t a stretch how much of the “map” i, myself, have traveled … let alone my music haha. i eventually got back to it and then spent a few months in a seemingly unending state of obsessive revision. as a result, it’s a far more refined body of work than its predecessor, “Perspektiv”…
and at times, a ton more comprehensible - i tried to stay committed to making more sense this time around than with the last effort as stretches of Perspektiv didn’t seem to make sense to anyone which turned a lot of people off. of course, it neither moves me nor behooves me to worry much about my audience as i’m convinced that anybody who likes my music probably likes it because of the very attitude i have about it: it is what it is.
i’d be surprised if anyone listened to my work with the expectation that it was going to be orthodox
this may not have as many critical errors as most of my work because of how unrushed it was… but at times, i’ll have boring drums and out of tune guitars and bad vocal intonation, wonky strings and awkward transitions and lyrics that don’t make any sense…
and then after it’s all over, you’ll realize it was me and it’ll be ok.
If I had to confirm any “errors” alluded to in the info, I felt “Patience in Love” had a promising Santana-style vibe before everything started clashing something fierce, but that was about the only track I outright wasn’t feeling and would surmise you won’t be a fan of.
“Something about Laughter” was very laid back, a great listen if you’re just trying to chill. zyko tends to have a pretty loose style, but he’s managed to preserve that while really upping the level of polish on the overall presentation, as well as exploring quite a few interesting instrumentation ideas that I’ve either never heard him explore or never heard him use with this level of refinement. Check out the wind instrument action of the opening track “Something Wicked…” for an example of what I’m taking about.
The killer work of this album? In my opinion, it’s shared between two pieces. “Remember me?”, a remake of a 1998 track of his and easily one of weed’s best efforts in my many years following his material, and “Everythin you expect of a hero,” the most upbeat and straight-up catchy piece of the bunch thanks to some great percussion writing and the funky rhythm guitar work. Download Circumstantial Zen in full and take a listen to some of zyko’s strongest offerings yet.
Jayson Litrio, most known to OC ReMix denizens for his highly accessible Mega Man II arrangement “Dr. Wily’s Wedding” (which has legitimately been played by at least one fan at their own wedding), is set to go around the world next year as part of R&B singer Ashanti’s touring band.
Putting his skills on the keys to great use, Litrio gave details a few days ago on his first appearance alongside Ashanti at New York City’s Times Square, set for later tonight. Via MySpace bulletin:
For those who haven’t heard, I’ve officially joined Ashanti’s touring band as one of the keyboardists. I haven’t worked with her in almost two years as she went off to release her perfume, a book, and star in a bunch of films. Her latest album, ‘The Declaration’, finally drops in early February - which will be followed by a world tour. I’ll give more details later, but her new CD shows a lot of growth, and rehearsals with her and the rest of the crew have been a blast so far. Now I understand why they call her the Princess of hip hop and R&B.
This Thursday, we will be doing a special benefit concert at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Sean Kingston will also be performing with us that evening. It is fairly expensive for tickets as it is not part of the tour and is more of an intimate show, to help raise $$$ for bone marrow and cancer research… however, for those who can afford the cheaper $101 tickets, I’d love to have you there - and you’d be doing a good deed at the same time. But fear not, there will be many shows to come, and I’m not yet allowed to say who else we will be touring with, but it is going to be big.
As Litrio noted in the MySpace blog, working with Ashanti has been a positive experience and full of good energy, always great to hear. We’ll keep you informed with any developments with Litrio on Ashanti’s tour if and when we hear of them, and of course congrats to the globetrotting Jayson on a wonderful opportunity.
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!
YouTube member residentevilug had this to say on Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting:
This is proof that the new Xbox Live Arcade version is crap. I use to spend hours and hours at the arcade and won round after round. I was hysterical when I heard Street Fighter was coming to the XBOX LIVE ARCADE. Boy was I dissapointed…
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?
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.
A few days back, 
“Something about Laughter” was very laid back, a great listen if you’re just trying to chill. 
