Episodes

Time to leave my desk and head out to another public venue in Anaheim, CA, called Anime Impulse. This venue travels along California and in Arizona, with a host of vendors both small and large. Some of these vendors, especially at the Artist Alley, may be local to the area where it appears. It also has several voice actors from a variety of entertainment media, mostly anime and video games. This week, I roam around Anime Impulse, trying to find people to interview about video game music. Half ...

Every year, we all get older, wiser, and more experienced. It then becomes a choice of celebrating or dreading that time we birthed into the world. This weekend, I’ll be turning another year older and have decided to celebrate with this week’s episode about balloons. Yes, those rubbery, stretchy bags of air that float above our heads, anchored down by a string. Surely, there’s been a time when you’ve thought about having enough of them to leave the ground below and meet the skies above; I know ...

August 24, 1997, North America… Nintendo released a licensed title called “Goldeneye 007” for the Nintendo 64 console. It was based on the movie of the same name, released two year earlier, following the exploits of James Bond (at the time played by Pierce Brosnan). The game was a first-person shooter, which was impressive at the time, but even more impressive was the ability to have a four players at once play against each other in death matches. Sure, aiming the gun was interesting, but its g...

Say cheese! *click* We’re celebrating World Photography Day, coming up on August 19th. Founded by Korske Ara, this is the day that commemorates the patent for the daguerreotype process of photography (created by Louis Daguerre) back in 1837. The process was initially sold to the French Academy of Science, who then patented the process in 1839. This week, we’ll be listening to tracks from video games that feature photography, as a game mechanic or as a part of the character story: an island of ...

Welcome to another wonderful episode of “On Stage Now”. Our special guest The Messenger, host of A VGM Journey, introduces us to our featured musician this month: Qumu. Qumu has been creating covers and remixes of video game music for ten years, as well as original music. Many of the covers and remixes include games from the Pokemon series, The Legend of Zelda series, Sonic, Banjo-Kazooie, and Crash Bandicoot. Qumu’s original music are a delight to listen, even if they sound like they should be...

In 2005, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company published a follow-up to Pokemon Colosseum called Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. The game was released on August 4th, a month later from its announcement, and developed by Genius Sonority for the GameCube. While it was criticized for similar or recycled assets from Colosseum, it sold more than 1 million units since its release. This week, we’ll be honoring the release date of this game with some tracks from its OST, along with their covers and remixes. M...

Tomorrow is July 29th, a day known as Rain Day. A pharmacist noticed that it always seemed to rain on this particular date and decided to start recording the rainfall on this day every year. His brother did the same. It was until a novelist decided to write stories about this interesting date, and it spread across the globe. This week, we’ll be listening to tracks from games that feature rain as a part of it: a Hero of Time at a windmill, a party of four surviving a zombie outbreak, and a priso...

Welcome back to “On Stage Now”, a monthly episode that highlights cover and remix musicians of video game music. This month, we’re featuring Ferdk. Hailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ferdk has been shredding his guitar for almost 15 years, playing covers of video game music and anime. He has released singles and several tribute albums, covering games such as Final Fantasy, Castlevania, and Persona. Ferdk has also collaborated with other musicians, such as Lacey Johnson and insaneintherainmus...

Hurry for France! Today marks the Bastille Day, when a group of French citizens stormed a medieval fortress called the Bastille in 1789. There were rising tensions with the monarchy at the time, and this day marked the beginning of the French Revolution. A year later, the day was formed “to honor the French Republic and commemorate both the Fête de la Fédération (Festival of the Federation) and the storming of the Bastille.” This week, we’re playing tracks from video games developed in France: ...

School’s out, and that means it’s time to wile away the hours with your favorite activity, or just lay in bed in sweet solace. Perhaps one of those activities is playing video games, on your computer, in your console, or on your mobile device. It’s a great time to catch up on those old saves or open a fresh new game you just bought or left in your backlog. This week, in celebration of National Video Game Day on July 8th, we’ll be listening to tracks from a few random video games pulled from my ...

June is not over yet, which the means one more episode for Masters of VGM. While the latest four episodes featured lesser-known composers, this week’s episode will focus on four composers that are up and coming in the last 10 years. They are: The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra, Ferdk, Jacob Shrum, and insaneintherainmusic. We’ll be playing original tracks from video games that these remix and cover musicians have composed and produced. Most of them are from their first video game soundtrack...

Here we are, Week 4 of Masters of VGM. This week’s composer is Chikayo Fukuda, known for the .hack series that is developed by CyberConnect2. In addition, she also composed for other video games series, such as Naruto, JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure, and Fuga: Melodies of Steel. She writes music with a certain level of elegance; some of the fights, despite being chaotic and random, are rendered calm and soothing. For this episode, we’ll be playing tracks from three games from .hack series: INFECTION...

Two composers done, and two left to go, for Masters of VGM. This week, we’re taking a dive into the Mother series (Earthbound outside of Japan) and featuring Keiichi Suzuki, the composer for the series who worked with Hirokazu Tanaka (aka “Chip Tanaka” or “Hip Tanaka”. Suzuki is purely a musician, having been in several bands and releasing albums with Moonriders and The Beatniks (with Yukihiro Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra), but he was helped by Tanaka-san’s programming ability, translati...

Welcome to the 2nd episode of Masters of VGM. This week’s spotlight is on Keita Haga. Keita Haga is known widely for his work on the Fate series. The series encompasses all media related to Fate: manga, anime, and video games. Haga-san has composed music for the popular mobile game Fate/Grand Order, along with several games on the console and arcade. However, it’s not just games with the word “Fate” in it. He’s also composed music for the Melty Blood series and the Tsukihime series. Have a lis...

It’s June, which means it’s time for The Masters of VGM, a community event among participating podcasts in which they get to talk about their chosen composers based on a theme. They may condense it into a one episode or spread it out across several episodes, all within the month of June. This year, the theme for MoVGM is underappreciated or up-and-coming composers. It can be composers that are rarely discussed at length or perhaps overshadowed by more famous ones. It can also be about composers...

It’s time for another man-on-the-street episode, this time at Bak-Anime. Bak-Anime is a two-day annual convention that happened last weekend, May 20 & May 21, at the Kern County Fairground in Bakersfield, CA. Created at the request of fans from the Bakersfield Comic Con, this convention is a smaller yet more personal venue from Anime Expo. It was located across two buildings and a courtyard, with vendors, independent creators, voice over actors and actresses, a gaming area, and a panel area. Th...

It’s a new special episode of On Stage Now this month, but I must preface that it is a somber one. Several weeks ago, it was announced on Twitter that a Remixer from the Overclocked Remix community had passed away. His name was Daniel Woodyer, aka PirateCrab, a heavy metal guitarist who performed covers and remixes of pop songs and video game music. He released several singles and collaborated on a few albums, and his YouTube channel displayed his impressive and playful guitar skills and singin...

It’s that time again for the SoCal Gaming Expo, an event that was held at the Ontario Convention Center, in Ontario, California. Its major draw is the vendors sending wares of retro video games, hardware, and accessories. A few independent developers were there to showcase their latest projects. There were also panels of guests, including voice-over actors and actresses, that shared their experience with video games. This week, we’re back with another man-on-the-street episode, talking with ran...

It’s time to celebrate Mexico and its day of infamy, with Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May. It was on this day that the Mexican army fought the French army at the Battle of Puebla. Despite being outnumbered, the Mexicans managed to push back and defeat the French. It was a great show of strength and resistance to invading forces. This week, we’ll be playing tracks from video games that take place in Mexico: A new challenger to the fighting tournament, two brothers trying to find out about their f...

Ah, trees. They are a wonderful thing. They replenish the earth by exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen, they gather in forests for plants and animals to thrive, and they provide nourishment and resources for all living things. Without them, there would be no shelter from the brutal rains or blistering sun, the ground could wash away in mudslides, and few could survive. Plant them, water them, and hug them, if you’d like. This week, we’re celebrating National Arbor Day and we’re playing tracks ...

I realize that I’m behind (okay, over a week behind), but I wanted to put something together, since I wasn’t able to attend VGM CON this year. Simply put, this episode celebrates the winners of this year’s Game Music Remix Awards, playing tracks from their respective categories. However, one particular track won in two categories and will be played to close out the playlist. I also want to give a shoutout to all nominations; the fact that you were selected is a great accomplishment. Enjoy thes...

It’s our monthly episode of “On Stage Now” for this week. Our featured band is The OneUps, a cover band that has been around for over 20 years, playing in the style of funk and jazz and appearing at several venues, including MAGfest and The Penny Arcade Expo. If you’ll recall, Mustin is one of their members and was featured in another special episode of “At the Listening Lounge” last week. We’re going to do something a little different and have a guest from another wonderful podcast introduce T...

With the changing of seasons, it’s time to get on our knees, bend over, and reach for that specific tool that will help plant some seeds (if your mind is thinking of something else, you may want to get out of the gutter). Today we’re celebrating National Gardening Day. Started recently in 2018 by a publishing company for do-it-yourself gardening and home improvement, its purpose was to bring attention to the hobby of gardening. All levels of experience are welcome to share their accomplishments...

Surprise! It’s a new special episode, in addition to “On Stage Now”. These particular episodes are basically listening parties of recent releases by any cover/remix artist or band. The artist or band themselves may give some talk about their album before letting the playlist start. This playlist may be tracks chosen by the artist or band or by me at random. For this first special episode, we have Mustin in the lounge. Some may know Mustin as one of the members of The OneUps, but Mustin also doe...