VG Frequency

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

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

Tokyograph had a good summary of the recent verbal gaffe involving J-pop star (and real Emotion/1000 Words Japanese language vocalist) Koda Kumi, and her January 31 appearance on All Night Nippon:

The comment came on Tuesday night while Koda was hosting “All Night Nippon.” The topic of her manager’s marriage came up, and Koda was asked about when her manager was planning to have children. She made a seemingly light-hearted reply that “when women turn 35, their amniotic fluid goes rotten, so I’d like them to have a child by 35.”

Hahaha! While I’m not personally offended, she clearly put a major foot in her mouth, resulting in:

*Record company Avex Group halting all marketing of her latest album, Kingdom, released on January 30 and already #1 on both the Oricon Weekly chart and Unified World Chart
*Cosmetic company Kosé pulling her image from all marketing of it Visée brand
*Kumi going on a self-imposed hiatus until at least the end of February

And what flub would be incomplete without a televised apology? That was in full effect, broadcast by FNN, the Fuji News Network. Before some overly negative editorializing on Kumi’s character, Random J of gaming and anime blog Dark Diamond had at least one good comment on the televised apology itself:

Even if you can’t understand Japanese, the language of ’shame’ and ‘paying for it’ is pretty universal.

We’ll see how Kumi eventually emerges from the controversy. If she can continue to sell things in spite of the flippant comment, she’ll be all good. Doesn’t sound like it should be a dealbreaker to me. Besides, she’ll eventually turn 35 herself, so she’s got plenty of time to ponder over the potential rotting of her own womb.

Appearance Marks National Television Debut of Video Games Live

Hollywood, CA - In yet another ground-breaking effort to show how artistic and cultural video games and their music have become, the world’s leading video game concert series Video Games Live will be making their national television debut at Spike TV’s 2007 “Video Game Awards” on Sunday, December 9 at 9:00 PM ET. Video Games Live will perform a select number of hits from their world touring event as well as brand new never before seen material.

Spike TV’s 2007 “Video Game Awards” pays tribute to the outstanding achievements of games, designers, animation, breakthrough technology, music and performances of the past year in the industry. The awards also provide a glimpse at the future of gaming – including exclusive sneak peeks and world premiere footage of some of the most anticipated games of 2007 and beyond. Taping in Las Vegas on Friday, December 7, the 5th anniversary celebration will gather some of the world’s hottest creators and designers as they honor the year’s greatest achievements gaming.

“It was quite an honor for us to be contacted about performing in the show,” said prolific video game composer and Video Games Live co-creator/host Tommy Tallarico. “Spike TV’s goal of celebrating video games and bringing them to the masses is exactly the reason we created Video Games Live in the first place.” Video game composer and co-creator/conductor Jack Wall added, “We’re really excited about this opportunity which gives us a platform to reach millions of people. We have a few new surprises in store for the audience that we’re really looking forward to performing live.”

The night will feature award presentations and appearances by magician Criss Angel, “TNA” wrestling stars Kurt and Karen Angle, actress Tia Carrere, “Chuck” stars Joshua Gomez and Zachary Levi, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, former NFL star Rocket Ismail, UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and “Ultimate Fighter 1” champ Forrest Griffin, legendary boxing promoter Don King, MTV reality couple Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, NFL quarterback and Heisman trophy winner Matt Leinart, rock star Dave Navarro, “Jackass” Steve-O, comedian Patton Oswalt, comedian and Comedy Central star Brian Posehn, MTV’s Tila Tequila, actor Anton Yelchin and many more will be announced shortly.

Spike TV’s 2007 “Video Game Awards” tapes Friday, December 7 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and will premiere Sunday, December 9 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT). The official sponsors of Spike TV’s 2007 “Video Game Awards” are Burger King®, GameStop™, Mountain Dew, Stride™ Gum, Tag™, U.S. Air Force, and Verizon Wireless.

Spike TV is available in 96.1 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International Inc.

Just some brief congratulations for Mustin of OneUp Studios, who’s involved with this week’s MTV Gamer’s Week on the music side, but not in the way that most of us would expect, i.e. The OneUps. Mustin, via MySpace bulletin:

All this week is MTV Gamer’s Week. If you happen to watch and catch the Gamer’s Week commercials, I wrote the jingles for them. Also, I played Chopin for a Wii commercial and did some 80’s rock inspired singing rock stabs for a PS3 commercial.

I got to see my music on television for the first time today.* Pretty sweet!

-m

*I’ve written stuff for TV before, but I’ve never gotten the channel it’s played on so this is my first time to see it live

Chopin, eh? Wonder how he feels about the Eternal Sonata soundtrack.

Video footage of the various Gamer’s Week spots has yet to surface, but we’ll be sure to follow up once it does.

Hell, I didn’t know American Idol was doing a spinoff show for bands, called The Next Great American Band. I don’t care for American Idol. I’m sure not to care for American Band.

But I love Armcannon. Saw them play at MAGFest 5 this past January and djpretzel in particular was really impressed.

Right now they’re trying to shoot up 4 other bands in WUTV FOX-29’s local contest to send a band from West New York to Las Vegas for the auditions of American Idol’s upcoming band-themed show.

Check out the contest. You’ve only got until Sunday, July 29th, with the winner announced on Monday. Center of the page towards the bottom. It takes literally 3 seconds to vote.

A vote for Armcannon is a vote for video game music. Help a brother out.