Non-Mainstream Music: Nerdcore, Covers, and Video Game

HELLO NETS! This is Jesse from Rock Sugar and

you're listening to the Geek Cats Radio Network.

Keep it right here. presents Geekcast Radio special

episode on non -mainstream music With your hosts,

Mike TFG1 Blanchard, JT from Saskatoon, and Mike

the Bird -Man -Dod. Hello and welcome to GeekCaster

Radio. I am one of your hosts, D .O. Joe and

Mike, and joining me is Mike the Birdman Dog

from This Week in Geek. Hello. Good morning or

afternoon or whatever the hell you're listening

to though. Yes. And JT from Saskatoon, who is

apparently an authentic geek. Well, yes I am,

and thank you for noticing. Right. Fake Canadians.

A bunch of fake Canadians, isn't it, you guys?

Mike, I will create the technology whereby I

reach through the internet and I stewish slap

you. Yeah, that'll never work. It will happen.

It'll never work. Today we are going to be covering

as much non -mainstream stuff in music as we

possibly can. Essentially I created this episode

for Mike and for JT because every time I would

say, hey Mike, do you want to be on this decade

of music discussion? He's like, well, I hate

the mainstream. I listen to stuff that nobody

really knows about. I'm like, okay, fine, whatever.

Now, let me be clear. I'm not saying that to

be a hipster, just so we're 100 % clear. I'm

not a Starbucks big glasses drinking motherfucker.

Yes, you are. Okay. Well, I'm not that big. I'm

not like, I'm in the stuff you've never heard

of, like Ryle O 'Kiley or shit like that. If

you get that reference. Oh, I've never heard

of that stuff, so yes, you are. No, trust me,

that band sucks anyway. or Tegan and Sarah, no

matter what anybody says, they suck. No, basically

the big reason I always say that is, you know,

I've worked in radio for a number of years and

back in college, you know, part of my job at

the station was to be on air and to present to

you the music that you, the people, the wonderful

people get to listen to and nine times out of

10, it's all shit. And if you're familiar with

stations like Virgin Radio, Which is a big conglomerate

across Canada and the US in the top 40 with Ryan

Seacrest. What the fuck ever happened to Casey

Kasem? He retired. Yeah, and sadly, you get this

cornucopia of crap. This top 40 stuff. And so

I decided, you know what, mainstream? We've had

a good run. We've had a few late nights together.

And hey, I've even been known to have some fun

with some Katy Perry. Hell, she... I danced at

a wedding to that song. So you know what? I decided,

you know what? Rebecca black route. See, I've

heard that song. It's tripe. I mean, it's terrible,

but it's it's just it's I don't know what happens

to the state of music these days. You know what?

I retreated into myself after PAX. 2009 actually

is when I began my is when I guess I would say

I became my nerd music elitism is when I said

man everything sucks fuck you guys I'm out and

it's been pretty good ever since yeah I'm sorry

Mike you go well for me it's not with mainstream

yes i will agree with you a lot of the mainstream

like the top 40 stuff i think a lot of top 40

stations especially here in the us don't know

what the hell top 40 is because they will majority

of the top 40 station here in Louisville Kentucky

will play rap and hip hop and dance music. I'm

sorry, those are three separate genres. There's

already a rap station in this city. The Top 40

station does not need to be playing rap music.

Yeah, but that's the idea of Top 40. It's what's

popular in different genres. That's music by

committee. Yeah, and I... I think at this point

in my life, and I've said this throughout this

epically long music spotlight we've done here

at GCR, is that right now I pay attention to

bands or artists that I've been listening to

since I was a kid. Whether that be Hall & Oates,

whether that be Billy Joel, whether it be Elton

John, whether it be Nickelback, whether it be

12 Stones, Theory of a Dead Man, whether it be

One Hit Wonder stuff, doesn't matter. More stream

towards a specific artist or band versus listening

to Whatever the hell's on the radio. I don't

I don't think I've listened to the radio since

2003 I would argue you are very attuned to a

specific sound And I'm not saying that to be

insulting I mean outside of your terrible taste

in nickel Okay, Mike, I got to interrupt you

there, because you were supposed to join us on

the Nickelback episode of The Spotlight, and

I was really looking forward to it, because I

wanted to hear how you really felt about the

Canadian Jesus that is Jack Groger. And I said

this to Mike in the podcast, and it doesn't just

reflect how I feel about Nickelback, it's really

how I feel about music in general. If I like

it, if it hooks me, you know... Not necessarily

in the head but the heart because for me music

is never about the lyrics. It's about the sound

for the most part and Like Mike said like I just

I haven't completely checked out of you know,

the top 40 radio Yeah, but I basically listen

I've at least for the last few years aside from

the stuff we'll talk about today I've kind of

just gone back to the stuff I listen to as a

kid like I've gone back to you know my I still

have my complete cassette collection from when

I was a kid so, you know, I still got my I got

my John Cougar Millen camp, I got my Def Leppard,

I've got, why in the hell do I have the Eurythmics?

That must have been my dad's. Hey, they're not

a bad thing. Hey, Annie Lennox, I'm just saying.

But it's just, you go back to that stuff that

you once loved, but at the same time, you're

also, you're always gonna want to listen to something

new. Right. Well, like I, you know, Mike and

I didn't get into a long discussion on Twitter,

but we made mention of our music libraries. And

the way that I do it is I'll take, I have, not

counting music videos, TV shows, and movies,

I have 2 ,957 items in my music library on iTunes.

Out of that number of stuff, 1330 songs makes

up what I call my library faves playlist now

that consists of stuff from seven dust see there

Robbie Williams and Brad Paisley from the cars

to soundtrack to survivor poison Papa Roach It's

you know, I can listen to a to a Nickelback song

one minute and the next minute the shuffler puts

on Meredith Brooks' bitch. So I listen to a lot

of varied stuff. I don't just listen to the specific

bands that I've talked about here in the spotlight,

but what I'm saying is as far as paying attention

to music, I only stick to the artists and bands

that I like. I don't, I'm not tuned into every

single piece of rock or pop or whatever. Yeah.

So I do have a varied selection of music. I haven't

found a rock group that has captured my attention

for quite some time. And I just recently found

out one of my favorite bands. They're Frontman.

and league and lead vocalist just left uh...

darren miller c of c c k y so yeah that really

disappoints me and i'm like wow that really sucks

although it's really cool he just accepted my

friend request on facebook uh... but you know

what it's i don't know there's just nothing out

there in i guess the contemporary very mainstream

acts or at least you know in that certain world,

I guess, you know, more acceptable than say,

you know, as JT and I will talk about the nerd

core rappers like MC Frontlot, Adam Warrock,

Mega Ran, et cetera. It's just, you know what?

It's like that world left us behind and it became

about something more. And it sucks to see a band

like CKY. Breakup or at least not break up change

because I always felt their music was a little

bit different than most I mean they left their

label Roadrunner a couple years ago, which was

a wonderful choice by them there they did a release

late last year for Alternates and b -sides, which

is fantastic. I had the lead song from Jackass

3 and I don't know I really felt they were they

were still there for me as Excuse me as a listener

and then things change and then even my favorite

one I've heard groups in the world rise against

even their last I mean it mean it was good. It

was okay. It just wasn't Suffer and the witness

stuff circa 2006. It just wasn't the same anymore

And I guess that's my I guess that's why I've

kind of retreated away from mainstream Just it

seems like a lot of bands have changed and not

necessarily for the better and a good example

of this is Lincoln Park their last two albums

are fucking terrible Yes, I mean, I mean, sorry,

Mike. It's just like it's like Chester Bennington

and I gets it as an artist. He's allowed to grow.

And I think I talked about this with Mike during

like his episode. And I get that as an artist,

as a group, as a band, your sound should evolve

constantly. If that's the direction you want

to take it. I mean, I think that's my big problem

with Nickelback, for example. The sound, in my

opinion, has not evolved enough over the course

of the last 10 years. And with Linkin Park, they're

one of the few rap rock hybrids that was legitimately

really good. That means say what you will about

Limp Bizkit for a while. They were fantastic.

And then they degenerated into Fred Durst's dick

on a very small screen when the sex tape came

out, and they've never been the same since. Well,

yeah, and to speak about Linkin Park for just

one second, like Mike Shinoda, who's basically

like, you know, him and Chester, the guys that,

yeah, he actually spun off into a side project

called Fort Minor a few years ago, which, honestly,

I like the stuff he did on that, which is basically

a rap, I wouldn't know if it... It's a hip -hop

collective almost that Mike came up with. It's

all the passion he had in Lincoln Park. It was

there and it was more refined because from the

sound of the work he did there, it's like he

actually, I think it sounded like he cared more

about the hip -hop side of things than he ever

did about the rock. Which is good. Yeah, yeah,

but I mean that's the thing. It's not that his

focus is split, but I mean honestly, Once they

put a song into a Michael Bay movie, and I'm

still of the opinion that that guy is a virus

in Hollywood I mean he is all you have to do

is watch a bat a trailer for the battleship movie

And yeah, I'm surprised you don't see his face

plastered all over that. It's just You know you

get like Mike said you have to grow you have

to evolve and but once Lincoln Park got involved

with the bay it What they haven't really basically

I don't think they've done anything good since

Meteora I think honestly the the song for Transformers

What I've done which is off their minutes to

midnight album. I think was probably their last

really good popular Single I mean outside there

was the other one. I can't remember New Divide

from Revenge of the Fallen that was okay That

was like, I like there. There's an instrumental

version of that where neither Benningfield or

or Shinoda are singing. I like that. I like the

instrumental of that song. But the song with

the lyrics, it just sucks. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

there's just. More they should be doing they're

not for whatever reason, right? I don't know

and like I said, that's kind of why I left the

mainstream It's like I said bands. They're changing

not for the better And then we get crap like

Lady Gaga and like I said all about her message

and whatever But the music is not there anymore

in my opinion. Is this opinion wrong? it could

very well be because I haven't heard a lot of

her new stuff and That's why, like I said, I

wanted to nerd core rap. So why don't we start

this, JT, by maybe going there? Yeah, we can

do that. Unless Mike has an objection. Well,

we'll do that. But we're going to take a break

so you can hear a little bit about what nerd

core rap is. I almost said nude core. Holy shit.

That would be a really cool crossover, porn and

nerd core. There you go. So we'll be back after

this. Well, the brown coats are here just in

the morning mad and cussed and bored myself some

Captain Kruntz and I'm gone and I'm off to the

next case all you fools is sorta lame I'm chillin'

in the club with Corey Haim it looks like I'm

essentially going to hand this over to Mike and

JT, so they can talk about Nerdcore and almost

essentially educate me on it, because I've heard

some of MC Frontalot. I've heard some of MegaRan.

I've heard some of the Proto Men. But I just

can't get into it. So this is essentially going

to be their discussion. So take it away, guys.

Well, the Proto Men, first off, is not Nerdcore

rap in any way, shape, or form. Let's just get

that out of the way. Yeah. I mean, they're Nerdcore

rock. the argument could be made. I would call

them more. They're in a class of their own. They're

in there. They're basically rock opera, but I'll

talk about them at length later. Nerdcore rap.

What this is now turns out. Nerdcore has actually

been around for quite some time. I mean, you

could even trace it back to, I think, as as late

as I think I went to a presentation at PAX East.

And I think you you you can trace this back to

the 90s. Maybe even before that. Well, there

was a song, and I can't remember what it was

or by who, but I remember the content. They had

a rap about boogers, which is hilarious in and

of itself. And, you know, just, you know, just

how the hip hop genre has evolved. But the big

granddaddy. Of it all is, of course, Damien Hess,

aka MC Frontalot. He's the guy who really kind

of made it come out. Then there was the documentary,

Nerdcore Rising, which kind of paints an interesting

scene of, well, the scene. There's so many different

people in it, such as Adam Warlock. Optimus Rhyme,

who I don't think is still together anymore.

M .C. Lars, B -Fee, Shaffer, T. Dark Lord, Mega

Ran, M .C. Chris, and all these people who basically,

I mean, Nerdcore started off, I mean, a lot of

people think it's like novelty rap, which, you

know, you could make the argument for, but it's

really, it's just basically hip hop and rap that

just has a nerdy bent. I mean, what's the difference

between rapping about Blunt's 40s and bitches

when I could be talking about Star Trek, D &D?

and building a PC, you know what I mean? I mean,

it's just, it's rap that has a different heart.

I mean, it doesn't have to be from the street

necessarily of the hard life of gangs and the

ghetto. It could be the hard life of the hallways

of your school getting beat up to going home

and watching Battlestar Galactica. And that's

what I really like about it. Well, yeah, no,

that's that's exactly why I like it is the fact

that they're, you know, like you said, it's not

Blunt's 40s and hoes, although who doesn't enjoy

those things? It's they rap about the stuff that

I care about the stuff that I'm passionate about

video games, comic books, movies, like nerd,

like I said, to speak of one of my favorite artists,

Adam Warrock, you know, he has one of my favorite

tracks of his is Marvel versus DC, where he raps

about, you know, Marvel versus DC. and as being

a lifelong comic fan that just kind of speaks

to me and i mean i actually like you know mainly

from listening to you mike on your many podcasts

through this week in geek you know that's where

i really it's like nerd core rap what is this

you look it up and i got into you know mega ran

mc front a lot you know got into mc chris because

of his roles on adult swim projects but that's

kind of besides the point it's just i love this

stuff like i said To mike on the nickelback podcast.

It's just it gets me in that You know that center

the right in the heart of a lot of things that

I care about I mean, yeah, it's for me. It's

really hard to like I can talk about stuff all

day long. Technically It's just when I talk about

stuff i'm passionate about it's just it I sound

so simple, but it's just I just can't really

get it all out there You know, it's just I love

this stuff so much It's really hard to speak

of. Yeah I mean i'm kind of in the same boat

I mean, I'm really passionate about the Nerdcore

scene. I've become friends with a few people

in the Nerdcore scene, most notably MegaRan.

I mean, I would consider this guy like a mentor

to me. And like, we've hung out at PAX East twice.

I worked with him and his producer, K Murdock,

at PAX East 2010. And this recent PAX, which

is really cool... Sorry, I Commissioned a track

and we had had said he's not gonna do any more

Mega Man tracks I commissioned Storm Eagle for

myself From Mega Man X. Yeah, and he also does

your theme song for your blip video series, doesn't

he? Yeah, rad. Yeah, he does. I don't know if

we've ever decided on a name for we just call

it the rad theme song. But yeah, I mean, it's

It's something I get into. I mean, just by talking

with him, learning about the history of how things

have evolved, and his sound specifically, I mean,

he does stuff that isn't all nerdcore, too. I

mean, a lot of his early albums were not nerdy

at all. And just recently, he had this fantastic

Kickstarter raising over $15 ,000 to produce

three albums, a comic book, and a video game

called Language Arts. And depending on when this

airs, it just came out. When did it come out?

It came out, it should be dropping this week.

I got my copy on Thursday. I think for early

backers it comes out. This will be out before,

this will probably be out around May 15th, 16th.

Oh, in that case, yeah, it dropped like today.

It's fantastic. collaborations with MC Frontalot,

Kyle Ibarra of Dragon Ball Z fame and it's just

it's a wonderfully produced album and it's his

story of him rising up as a teacher leaving the

system to live the dream as a professional musician

and something about that spoke to me. Now he

did this tour during the spring called I think

I forget what the tour was called off the top

of my head. But he produced a couple of tracks

during that time. One was about basketball superstar

Jeremy Lin, which actually got a number of plays

on ESPN. And it's a fantastic track just in and

of itself. Even if you're not in the basketball,

it actually kind of got me into it. And I'm not

a big fan of basketball. And he did this other

track, which was a Mega Man Zero sample. And

it was called Awakening. And I've never had a

rap song move me so much emotionally that I considered

getting the lyrics tattooed on me. There's one

verse where it's, I'm trying to remember what

the hell it is. I want to innovate and I want

to travel through time. I want to... Stimulate

mind or something along those lines. It's very

inspirational and the final words were there's

nothing worse than than walking this world without

a purpose and It's that kind of intensity and

emotional connection. I get from nerdcore rap

that I really dig I mean, I don't expect MC front

a lot to pick me up emotionally and shake me

to the core, but I still have a great time. My

first exposure really to Nerdcore, actually this

even predates my infatuation with MC Frontalot,

was a group called the 8 -Bit Boys, which is

a collective of Nerdcore rappers across the world.

There's The Ranger from Australia, Entity from

Philadelphia, YT Cracker, I'm not sure where,

I think he's in Japan right now. and all these

other guys, and they just came together to produce

this album called 8 -Bit Boys, and I Google that.

Look it up on YouTube. I mean, in my house, I

annoyed the crap out of my roommates when I kept

listening to Vampire Killer, which is based off

Castlevania. And they also collaborated with

guys like Kabuto the Python, which is another

guy who does Fantastic rap. And I don't know,

like I said, there's just something about this

genre of music I really dig, especially when

they sample video game stuff. That's why I like

Mega Man. He started off by doing Mega Man stuff

and now he's evolved. I mean, he had a fantastic

concept album came out last year. Then there

was a remix album that came out early this year.

Final Fantasy 7 Black Materia. which is fucking

fantastic. In fact, if any of your listeners

want a copy of this album, Mayeran has given

me codes to give out like a hundred of them.

So email me mike at thisweekengeek .net. I'll

send you an album. If you love Final Fantasy

7, you need to hear this. It's probably one of

the best produced things I've heard in nowhere

of a live last 10 years. Now, I've taken this

for a few minutes JT, so you should probably

say something. Well, yeah. I mean, maybe I'll

just speak to like two of the, like I made it

like five or six contributions of what we're

talking about today. I think the main thing I'd

talk about, at least with the nerdcore rappers,

is probably my favorite nerdcore rapper, is Adam

Warrock, aka Eugene On, who in doing my research,

and I think you guys can follow me along with

what I sent you, this guy's lifelong comic geek.

He's actually an He used to be a lawyer like

he the whole life. He's been into hip -hop and

comic books and about two years ago He decided

to chuck it all kind of like how MC front a lot

did where he gave up You know a career as a teacher

and he went on to become that was mega ran was

the mega ran also I thought that was from a lot,

but yeah, so like mega ran He gave up this promising

career as a lawyer and he went on to become a

nerd core rapper and MC. I mean just What I love

about this guy is he wears everything on his

sleeve. His name, Adam Warrock, is taken from

his love of the Infinity Gauntlet comic book

miniseries from Marvel Comics. And the fact that

he hosts a comic book podcast called War Rocket

Ajax. He wears, he's full out, I'm a nerd, love

me or leave me. All his music features, so many

different... references to stuff from pop culture

like movies, Doctor Who, Marvel comics mainly,

and DC. And he doesn't necessarily do the art,

but he knows a lot of artists like Mike McCone,

Salvador Larroca in the industry who actually

contribute original album covers and the flyers

for a lot of his shows are based off of classic

comic book covers. I originally got into him

rather by accident it's a basically what I do

is when I come from work I spend about two or

three hours going mainly through YouTube and

just watching videos and I came across this one

I was looking up you know Marvel Comics and came

up with this track called Marvel versus DC which

is the first track of his I ever ever heard and

I found a link in the video where you can go

to his website which is you know Adamwarrock

.com and this is the best thing about him he

he's like a legit rapper artist performer he

has albums out that you can buy through youtube

or band camp or something like that but he also

regularly for the hell of it creates raps off

of like the tv series justified or parks and

recreation and post them for free on his on his

website which is one of the things that like

I'm an internet pirate. I'm just gonna say it.

I like getting free stuff and his His I didn't

want to say his narrative but his flow like you

can hear in every rap He does that. He loves

everything that he talks about. He loves his

comic books. He loves his movies It's just Help

me out here. I'm looking for the right word.

This guy he just it's awesome. Yes He completely

embodies You know kind of what I would be like

I Not saying that I have mental issues. I just

have a lot of hard time You're being open about

what I'm passionate about Because I live in the

middle of the Kansas of Canada and there isn't

a whole lot of people like me out here So it's

almost like you like comic books. No. No who

told you that it's a filthy lie So it's just

really hard and indeed you lived somewhere closer

to civilization people wouldn't be like that.

What do you mean like, Kentucky? Hey, anywhere

is better than Saskatoon out in the middle of

nowhere, Canada. Okay, I'll give you that one.

But no, it's just listening to his music is a

huge release for me. I mean, to know that there

are other people out there like me that are wholly

passionate about comic books and such like that.

It's a huge, like I said, it's a huge release

and it's gratifying to know that I'm not a freak

amongst freaks. It helps me out a lot listening

to his music. It's kind of like how I talked

in the 90s music spotlight how you know in high

school I had I wouldn't push and all that like

I was going through some you know not necessarily

dark days but certainly had some not so bright

periods in my life and you know it's had that

music to listen to and kind of find my way out

of the darkness. It's not that I'm in a dark

place now, either. It's just comforting to know

that there are other people like me out there.

Yeah, that's the whole thing. I mean, it's not

just specifically for the nerdcore genre, but

that's with anything with music or TV or cartoons

or movies. If you're at a dark place in your

life or if you're at a place where you just don't

want to deal with reality, that's what entertainment

is for, is to be entertained. Yeah, but it seems

to me like Nerdcore tries to raise up the best

of us. And that's something that Adam Warrock

does, something that MC Frontalot does, and Megarand,

and every other rapper, we're not mentioning.

They speak to what we are. And I think that's

something that is unique amongst Nerdcore, is

the fact that it's these guys rapping about stuff.

like from comic books to video games to like,

one of my favorite songs by MC Frontalot is a

song called Charisma Potion. It's about fucking

D &D. And I'd like, you know, as basically as

a child as I am, one of my favorite lyrics is

like, look at my cool hat and fuck you. It's

just, I mean. Zero day is probably I think honestly

his best album and there's just so many feel

-good songs I mean, there's one they talk about

disaster movies and here here's the plot to every

Roland Emmerich movie ever There's a song that's

nothing but spoilers about movies for like three

and a half minutes Yeah, and sorry Mike just

like to speak about MC My favorite track Is one

that it almost has nothing to do with a nerdy

subject. It's just a straight -up great rap was

living at the corner of dude and catastrophe

Ah, yes the collaboration with Brad sucks, which

was actually in rock band from the packs prime

first pack back in 2008 I think I didn't know

that but yeah, I mean that and honestly that's

like hearing you talk about MC front a lot You

know, I went and I looked that up on look them

up on YouTube. That's the first thing I came

across is like a fan video of just like pictures

of MC front a lot from different performances

and that and I was like damn this dude is good,

you know, yeah takes is what you know and Yeah,

it's just like other nerd core rappers like another

guy I put in my list here just because I like

his stuff so much was this guy named Jace Hall.

Oh Yeah, you know him I have heard of him. Yeah

all he's basically from battle uh... mike you

know i'm just going to call you birdman miss

okay that works there's two different ways to

help get a little confused i'm not paying any

attention right now i am i'm listening i'm i'm

getting educated over here so just keep talking

and all i mean jace hall for people who don't

know who he is he's you know lifelong video game

said he's turn singer songwriter he's the c i

don't know if he still is But he, when I was

doing my research, he's the Senior Vice President

and General Manager of Warner Brothers Interactive,

which I thought was pretty cool. He still plays

video games every day. He's done, for the last

like four or five years, he's done like a video

game talk show web series called The Jace Hall

Show, where he interviews people like Stan Lee.

I think he's interviewed MC Front a lot. Felicia

Day has been on there in a lightsaber battle,

you know, stuff like that. And he's done just

basically fan like he's he's actually got some

legitimate rapping talent and he's done one of

my all -time favorite uh like at least in the

nerdcore genre rap song and i think uh birdman's

probably heard this was his street fighter track

yeah he took the opening uh the opening music

uh track from street fighter four by this band

exile and crafted a this epic rap about how he's

like the world's greatest street fighter Player,

you know and in the video he gets like and I

used to follow competitive gaming somewhat for

a couple of years anyhow because I had a dream

and then I realized that my skills were crap

and And I don't just mean crap. I mean The computer

would beat me on easy You got Pwned basically

a video game gangster rap almost about how he's

like the greatest and you suck it's just it's

more so listening to it it doesn't really come

across but if you watch the video on youtube

it comes across a lot more clearly he's another

guy that i really like i love his his videos

anyhow his show is great too i don't know is

there anybody else for nerdcore that you can

think of birdman I'm trying to think here. I

mean So I've talked about the eight the eight

bit boys. They're wonderful. I'm just looking

through my list on my iTunes as soon as it loads

Let me take a look here. If there's anybody we

missed I mean in front you got to listen to the

bit boys you got to listen to You know what?

There's a bandit ship for others. What the I

turn her where the fuck I was going with this

I think we pretty much hit everybody who are

the big mainstays. I mean, I don't know a lot

about MC Chris. I've only heard some of his stuff.

I'm not saying he's not good. I just haven't

heard a lot of it. But no, these guys, they've

hit it pretty much right on the button there.

I mean, you should definitely check out the 8

-Bit Boys to check out MC Frontalot. um at adam

warrock mega ran for sure and a lot of his music

is free which is really kick -ass um no that's

pretty oh there's another guy he does the beats

for MC Frontal, or not for Frontalot, for Mega

Rant, and his name is Kay Murdock, and he does

music under Neo Sonic Productions, and he just

released an independent album earlier this year,

and it's just remixing the music from Final Fantasy

VI, AKA III over here in the U .S. But that's

something you should probably check out. Oh,

YT Cracker is another guy you should check out.

YT Cracker. YT Cracker, yeah. He's another member

of the 8 Bit Boys. He does his own independent

stuff. He did an album called The Nerd Rap Entertainment

System, NES. It's just, it's fun. And that's

what I like about Y .T. Kraken. I mean, his lyrics

are fantastically fast and witty. One of the

cool things he did, he did a free Chrono Trigger

rap album. which is something I never thought

I'd ever say. So that's something you should

probably go out there and check out. Now, I guess

where are we going next? Because I could talk

about the Protoman for probably like two or three

minutes. We are going to take a break. We're

going to go to some covers and cover bands and

we'll come back to talk about that. We are back,

and as I said before, we're going to talk about

covers and cover bands. Now, there's two very

distinct differences there. There are bands that

do covers, and then there are complete cover

bands. For me personally with covers, again,

as much as people hate when we talk about these

bands here at GCR, but like, you know, disturbed...

Nickelback, Theory of a Dead Man are the main

three that I can think of. Godsmack has also

done some covers, but... Well, I wouldn't call

them cover band. I'd just say they've done some

covers. Well, no. What I'm saying is they've

done covers. I'm not calling them cover bands.

I'm just saying they are the bands that there's

a difference between doing a cover versus being

a cover band. And Disturb, Nickelback, Theory

of a Dead Man, Godsmack, they are all bands that

have done covers. Yeah. Whereas... The Spirit

Head Shout 2000, which was a cover of Cheers

for Fear's Shout. That was amazing. Godsmack

has had covers of... Oh God, what have they done?

I know Dustin Vancour is killing me right now

because I can't remember off top of my head.

He's stabbing you through the internet. Yes,

I'm sure he is. I love hearing bands that I like

do covers. Like Theory of a Dead Man has a cover

of... Alice in Chains got me wrong now some people

might say that sacrilege, but they don't change

that song They don't change the tempo. They don't

change anything with it. It sounds It doesn't

sound obviously because Tyler Connelly is not

Laine Staley. Yeah, it just sounds slightly different

it sounds like they're the dead man sound but

it's still that same song and i love hearing

those covers because to me it brings those songs

into a new light i mean the classic songs the

original songs are all great they're all awesome

just hearing it by someone else makes it sounds

so much cooler and more updated to me and the

speaker cover that's like a test to get a couple

a local cover bands. One of my favorite is Mr.

Brownstone, which is a GNR cover band, because

there's covers and there's cover bands. I mean,

obviously. Right. So it's stuff like that. You

know, if you love the original song. Yeah. And

then you hear somebody else do like their version

and it maybe the music's changed slightly. Something

like that. You know, it sounds different, but

if it sounds the same, you know, just They're

putting their own unique style because they're

fans of that to begin with. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Mike, where do you stand on bands that do covers

or just entire cover bands? I like when a band

offers a new interpretation of a classic. I mean,

one of my favorite cover artists is a guy called

Richard Cheese. And he takes hard songs or songs

that shouldn't be done into Vegas lounge swing

style. I mean, he does a fantastic lounge version

of Down with the Sickness by Disturbed. He does

a piano interpretation of Baby's Got Back. He

does Insane in the Membrane. He's like, un, dos,

tres, quatorres. And it's this very Latin inspired

rhythm of That and it's very he's a very hard

guy to talk about because he's so odd and he's

so it's Richard Cheese Bobby Ricotta and some

other guys and they just do these really weird

interpretations of famous songs, I mean he does

one song and He's talking about Britney Spears

when he goes in into this bridge and my favorite

part of that song. He's like she's talented.

She's beautiful. She He's, God, I wanna fuck

her. It's just so good. I love, he's just such

a funny guy. Like I said, go look his shit up

on YouTube. You've definitely heard his music

in 2004's Zack Schneider's Dawn of the Dead.

He's the music that's playing when they're shooting

the zombies from the roof. Yeah, I like it when

a band can offer something, like I said, cool

and new. Another one was a group called Nonpoint,

and they covered Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight.

Oh, right, for the Miami Vice soundtrack. Yeah,

and this was just this was a wicked interpretation

of that. I mean, they turn it into this rock

song where Phil Collins, it's very soulful. It's

very mournful in this. They just they up the

tempo. They change the beat a little bit and

it works out great. Like I said, and that's by

non points. I haven't heard a lot of other stuff

by them, which is really unfortunate. Was it

some 41? Has done some pretty cool covers. Um

Fuck there was one. I really like others and

I can't remember what the hell it is Which really

sucks cuz I I had a hard drive crash a few months

ago. I lost about 300 gigs of music and oh, yeah

Like music that is rare music. I've got master

tracks from artists that have given it to the

person. I mean, one of my friends, Stan Bush,

who's a friend of the show to Mike's and mine,

has given me master tracks like here. Here's

directly from the studio. Like here, if you want

to play with this audio, go ahead. And I'm thinking,

holy shit, that's fucking awesome. And, you know,

I love it when I get stuff like that because,

you know, that helps people create covers. I

mean, I myself have wanted to cover a few songs.

I have very marginal musical talent. You do mean

how you remind me, though. Hey, I think I do

OK when my voice isn't shot. I could sing pro

on rock band. Actually, you know, that's everything,

too. I think. cover bands will have seen a rise

because people find they can sing stuff because

of video games like rock band actually. I think

there's a direct correlation. I think the only

example I can give in my own time is like no

one has ever heard me sing in the car and I'm

thankful for that because I usually end up looking

like that white, what's his name, Michael Bolton

from Office Space because I usually end up looking

exactly like that. It's not, you know, NWA playing,

it's something, I would say. And just to speak

about cover bands quickly for a second, have

you guys ever seen the Mark Wahlberg film Rockstar?

Oh yeah. Okay, do you know the story of that

movie at all, Mike? Oh yeah, I've seen it. Yeah,

well, specifically Aquaman. No. Check it out,

it's actually not a bad flick. And it's based

on a true story, like you know Judas Priest,

right? Right. Yeah. Well, I mean back in the

day the original lead singer Rob Halford left

the band I forget exactly why and there is this

guy named Tim Ripper Owens who led a Judas Priest

tribute band Who after I think the band's manager

heard him play at a show He hired him to replace

Halford as the lead singer of you know, Judas

F and priests Wow. You know, and I love that

band because my dad listened to it all the time,

you know, God rest his soul. So I have an appreciation

for it. So yeah, I mean, this is like the tagline

of the movie poster was basically the story of

a wannabe who got to be and that's sort of the

thing that a lot of cover bands go for is that

they just want to prove they can rock out like

that. Yeah, you know the thing with covers and

cover bands like in the 90s when Dave Matthews

band came out there was at least I don't remember

what the name of the cover band was but here

in Louisville there was a There was just this

huge uprising of bands local bands here that

wanted to be the next Dave Matthews cover band

and it's like oh god give me a break Dave Matthews

band is good but they're not that good that your

musical aspirations should be to be a exact copy

of of that mainstream artist. Since we're talking

about covers we can't not talk about stuff like

American Idol and The Voice because The Voice

Season 2 just ended. Jermaine Paul won it. He

was a backup singer for Alicia Keys. He is now

a solo artist. He did an amazing version of Against

All Odds by Phil Collins and just knocked out,

dragged down, awesome version of it. And it just

amazes me how there are so many awesome covers

out there and there are so many bad ones as well.

Well, yeah, um there are some people that just

plain should shut the fuck up Without putting

too fine a point and no fuck that with putting

a dagger spear point on it There are people that

just plain fucking suck ass But it's interesting

to see how many people have discovered there

They do have talent from doing shows like that

and there's people who think they have talent

and are discovered by shows like this I don't

know. I mean, I'm glad there have been some cool

artists that have come out of stuff like this.

I'm hoping it, you know, eventually we'd see

something really kick ass and like America's

Got Talent and say, hey guys, here's the proto

men. Here's a band from Tennessee. Let's see

what they can do. Howard Stern is judging this

year so anything can happen. Yeah, they'd probably

get deemed too weird, but I guess that's the

thing about the Proto Men. It's something you

have to have explained to you first, and then

you check it out. Okay, so explain it to the

listeners. Who are the Proto Men? Explain it

briefly as far as it's... All right. The Proto

Men, what they are, they're a group of theater

and classically trained musicians from... Tennessee

from Nashville, and what they do, the best way

to describe it, it's a Mega Man rock opera, taking

the very basic elements that there's Mega Man,

there's robots, Dr. Light and Dr. Wiley. and

they fight. And, you know, it tells the story

of Proto Man, the story of Dr. Light's first

creation and how he was basically killed by Dr.

Wily's robots at Mega Man. Dr. Light's second

son goes to avenge him. And when he discovers

one after he's beat the crap out of Dr. Wily's

robots, the leader of them is proto man he's

lost his faith in humanity and says you've come

here to avenge the sun of light you've come here

to save them what what you don't know is you

can't do both and it's it's it's very emotional

tail and then the second act of the proto man

their second album called act to the father of

death almost has nothing to do with the first

album. In fact, you can almost consider it completely

separate. The only thing it gives backstory to

Dr. Light and Dr. Wiley and never calls them

Dr. Light or Wiley. They call them Albert Wiley

and Dr. Thomas Light. And it's just and it's

it's there is a throwback to different genres

of music. I mean, there's a country song in there.

There's a swing song. There's something that

sounds like it came out a journey with a song

called Light Up. the nights. It's just, it's

incredible. The thing is though, these guys come

out on stage in grease paint makeup. The one

guy, the guy known as Panther is the lead singer

of the group, pretty much the front man. He comes

out, sings a song in a motorcycle helmet as Mega

Man, as Proto Man. And he plugs the microphone

right into the back of his helmet. And he can

come, he also has this big chain gun arm, which

is pretty impressive to see. And it's the most

electric stage show. I've seen these guys now

four times. I'm going to see them again in like

a week in Toronto with another, I should probably

should mention these guys as a cover band, Power

Glove. I'll talk about them in 10 seconds. And

I really recommend you go check them out. I think

it's protomen .com, buy their albums. If you

like Mega Man at all, you will recognize some

of the music influences, but beyond that it is

probably some of the best music storytelling

in the last ever. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I have seen

like, you know, when you tweeted about them and

such, I have gone and seen like the YouTube links

and yeah, you're right. These guys, just the

overall, I mean the passion that comes out of

their music is amazing. There was a, I went to

PAX East, this past year, JT, and you could see

the passion in Panther's eyes as he was singing.

There's one song called Here Comes the Arm, and

it's at the end of act two, and he's talking

about how there's a lot of work to be done. He

has to avenge the death of his wife, Emily, and

He just you could see the just the passion in

this kid's eyes like you could see the tears

coming out of him the sweat I've seen mainstream

music acts perform and never in my life Have

I ever seen anything compare to the hour the

proto men took the stage at PAX East? like that

like there's There are videos on YouTube of PAX

East. Watch the Proto Men performance. Watch

the entire performance and try and tell me that

is not the hardest working act in music today.

Like anything you see will not match the Proto

Men at PAX East. Yeah and I mean not to you know

belittle their performance but one of my favorite

and you know Blanchard's favorite was the one

we're going to talk about was Rock Sugar. Rock

Sugar, this is hands down the best mashup band

I have ever heard in my entire life. You need

to hear some party band, man. This is the only

mashup band I've ever heard in my life. This

is easily the best. The main idea here is Jess

Harnell. Jess Harnell, voice of Wacko Warner.

voice of iron hide from the transformers movies

voice of a bunch of other stuff america's funniest

home videos i found out but yeah yet he did he

he does the announcing america's funniest home

videos he and his buddy chuck duran they created

this band called rock sugar he wrote the story

within an entire weekend of how they're stuck

on a desert island with like the journal of a

fourteen -year like the the musical library of

a fourteen -year -old girl and they are from

the eighties so they loved eighties metal so

what they'll do is they'll take the eighties

metal riffs from or you know whatever to uh...

take don't enter sandman and race don't stop

believing right though they'll take enter sandman's

sound and put journeys don't stop Don't Stop

Believin's lyrics to the Enter Sandman sound,

and it's just amazing. They combined ACDC and

Madonna. Whoever thought that an ACDC song and

a Madonna song could ever combine? It's called

Shook Me Like a Prayer. It combines Shook Me

All Night Long and Like a Prayer for Madonna.

It's just amazing. Yeah, I think probably one

of my, like, Don't Stop the Sandman was the first

one I ever heard from them. Fell in love with

their style right from that song my second favorite

is mashup of The former host of American Idol

Paul Abdul and the greatest band in the world

kiss You know and they came up with straight

to Rock City. Yeah See if we're gonna talk about

mashups here now these guys perform these songs

live, right? So these guys are a massive band

Right. Yeah, no, they do them live. I mean, there

was one was it May of 2010. They were opening

for three doors down. at the Beale Street Music

Festival in Memphis, and I forget what it had.

It was backed out. Well, they didn't back out.

I think there was like a trail. They missed their

flight. Something happened. Yeah, it was something

where they couldn't make the show, and the promoters

had asked them, hey, can you guys stay? And they

performed two sets all night long. Yeah, and

that's the cool thing is like I've heard an interview

with Jess Harnell on YouTube and a fan video

where he's talking about that incident. He basically

went, Yeah, promoters are saying three doors

down is not going to show up tonight, but you

know, we'll come out and perform again and everyone's

like, fuck yeah. You know, and I mean, that's

how good these guys are. I mean, obviously, it's

like they went out, they performed twice in the

evening, which is already makes them kind of

hardcore. And then the fact that everyone's like,

you know, I heard I could stand to hear that

song two or three more times. Well in and the

point of it is Like they have one song called

praying for a sweet weekend which combines living

on a prayer sweet child of mine and Working for

the weekend those three songs into one song the

point of it is is they combine all these songs

into each other and It's so you can hear stuff

that you remember and a lot of people that I've

heard talk about them have said Rock Sugar is

essentially the new eight, you know, the new

eighties and nineties. It's like the eighties

and nineties, but better when it comes to these

songs. We have the technology. We can make it

better fast. That's that's right. Another one.

This is probably the craziest mashup they did.

They took the blizzard. Ozzy Osbourne crazy train.

crazy girl yeah mixed it with rick springfield's

epic jesse's girl which to speak about covers

there's a band called freaking a who basically

made they covered the song they made a little

faster a little more up tempo and when they shot

the music video the lead singer of the band is

in a therapy session and it's they're taking

the idea of Jessie girl how this guy's obsessing

about his best friend's girlfriend he's talking

to his therapist about the therapist is Rick

fucking Springfield yeah yeah I mean that's just

how awesome it is Yeah. The last thing I'll say

about Rock Sugar is that they, Jess Harnell,

I mean, man, we know, I mean, Birdman, you know,

because you interviewed Maurice LaMarche. Maurice

LaMarche is the ultimate impressionist when it

comes to voice actors. Jess Harnell is the ultimate

impressionist when it comes to musicians. I mean,

this dude, if you watch Don't Stop the Sandman,

this dude can scream like Hetfield, yet Soothe

like Steve Perry. I mean, it's just fucking amazing

Yeah, that's especially watching the video cuz

you you can see when he performs the Metallica

pieces how he's Posing and he's acting as Hetfield

would on Mike Exactly, then he acts like how

Steve Perry would when performing You know the

journey things and things even if you're not

looking at the video you would swear You're listening

to both of them. Maybe he's that good. Yeah.

Yeah, it's that damn good So on that note, we're

gonna take one final break. We're gonna come

back with our two final Topics and then we'll

be back after this head into our final two topics.

Dodd wanted to talk about mashup bands. What

do you want to talk about? Actual mashup DJs.

I mean, if you've played the DJ Hero games, that's

what this is. There are two guys I really want

you to check out, maybe three guys. One of them

I don't think does it anymore. I'm not 100 %

sure. But he's a guy called Agro One. And you're

talking about two genres of music that do not

go together. There is one song by this guy called

Agro One. He's a wonderful mash -up artist. You

can find all his music. It's still posted online.

I suggest downloading it before the website comes

down. He does one mash -up of Eric Clapton and

Depeche Mode. Two artists I would never think

would go together. He also does a version of...

I think it's Kellis, who you may know from that

milkshake song. I know it's fucking terrible.

but also Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla. And it's

really fucking awesome. So go check him out.

Another guy you should check out. He actually

performs a lot on the West Coast. He's a guy

called Party Ben. And one song you should check

out is a song called Galvanize the Empire, which

is the Chemical Brothers' Galvanize. And the

Empire strikes back the Imperial March. into

one track. Go look it up on YouTube, it is fucking

fantastic. Another guy you should check out,

I think the guy's name is DJ Earworm and he always

takes the year's top pop songs and mashes them

into one. Just look up year of pop on YouTube

or year of pop mashup and you'll hear this guy.

Fucking fantastic, this guy does a lot of really

cool work. uh... so those are some people you

should check out so i i understand we're we're

uh... talking video games now oh yes video games

and we're not talking about the the awesomeness

of proto manor mega ran we're talking about the

actual music of video games the super mario brothers

theme legend of zelda's various themes uh...

the mega man music the original mega man music

uh... this is music that i can listen to all

the time I mean it just is. I mean the Mario

Super Mario Brothers theme is inevitably stuck

in everyone's head that was a child of the 80s.

Yeah, it's something that Koji Kondo definitely

hit right on the money when he did that track

back in 1984 -85. I mean, some of the music that

I listen to is a lot of video game inspired stuff,

and the one, there are a couple of bands here

I really want to highlight that are very video

game inspired. I guess you could almost call

them cover bands, but I guess not. Arm Cannon.

Now, I'm not saying that because I represent

one of the guys named Danimal Cannon, who's actually

a part of Metroid Metal as well. Did you say

Danimal Cannon? Danimal Cannon. Okay. For a second

there, I thought you were talking about the yogurt.

Yes! Yes! I'm really not fronting for that stuff.

They I I will make that suggested to him later.

Um, but yeah I mean, I I love listening to these

guys who take a rock edge to megaman music I

mean one of the coolest covers they do is a very

child of the 1980s. You may remember hulk hogan's

theme from wwf I'm a real american, right? They

do a cover of that. Oh my god. It is fucking

awesome to say the very least. Another band that

I wanted to talk about, they do metal covers

of video game songs and popular songs. Let me

say, you haven't lived till you've heard a metal

cover of the Batman song from Danny Elfman, the

Pokemon theme. It's awesome. I went to a show

with these guys, and this room probably had two,

three thousand people in it or something like

that, and these guys are playing. Do you know

what it's like to hear two or three thousand

people saying a metal version of the Pokemon

theme? No, it's electric. It's electric. That

came alive. These guys come out, these big Viking

things, they're fucking nerds. And we're singing

along to like the DuckTales theme done metal

and all this other ridiculous shit. It's. intense,

and that's Power Glove. Another guy you should

check out for video game inspired stuff is he's

a DJ, and I've only recently gotten into his

stuff, and he is named DJ Cutman. I saw this

guy perform at PAX 2011, I think it was. Yeah.

And it was... just really fucking cool to say

the various and he actually just released a cd

what's called which is called bagu and the river

man which is legend of zelda 2 music remixed

yeah it's really fucking cool actually and for

you sound nerds out there listen to this with

a really good pair of headphones preferably with

the highest uh fidelity you possibly can or basically

that have the best frequency response for those

of you audio nerds you know what the fuck i'm

talking about You'll know just how much that

makes a difference in your music and you can

hear him use the Doppler effect Which is how

sound travels from one side to the other? Basically,

I'll give you a demonstration of it now listen

closely That's the that's the Doppler effect

I'm a nerd, and thank you, Big Bang Theory, for

giving me that idea. But anyway, yeah, so it's

very cool to hear the sound mixing that can be

done with video game music, because it's because

if it's chip -based, you're limited by the tools

you have, but you're only limited by the creativity,

which if you listen to artists like Tommy Tallarico,

who scored a lot of games on the TurboGrafx,

or not TurboGrafx, on the Sega Genesis, for example,

The Terminator, video game soundtrack, you can

just hear the little nuances that are played

with it. There's one great song called Future

Shock, you should check out off that soundtrack.

But DJ Cutman just does some wonderful stuff,

he's completely someone you should be checking

out. Another guy who's very chiptune -ish and

video game inspired is a guy called Dr. Octo

Rock. and he released an album it was like five

dollars or pay what you want i think i can't

remember which and it was tv themes done eight

bit um yeah he did some at super uh he did a

doctor who uh super nintendo style theme which

is actually a ringtone on my iphone right now

because i remember coming across that when i

was looking up like uh stuff for Myself, like

I said, I come home at three in the morning.

I just want to listen to shit. But yeah, he did

a Super Nintendo style. Dr. Who like for the

tenant theme. Yeah, he did a mask song like the

like the theme song from mass done eight bit.

I mean, if this if there was a massive video

game, this would have been the fucking theme

song. It's fantastic. Other people you should

check out. They're not so much video game inspired,

but I just want to mention them really, really,

really quickly. Kirby Crackle, they're a legitimate

nerd rock band, also. Ring capacity, greatest

song of all time. Ring capacity, Vault 101, the

Great Lakes Avengers. Anyway, moving on. Project

X, I don't think they're still around, but if

you look their music up, they're fantastic. And

they only cover Mega Man 2 and 3, but with a

rock edge. And I use their music in a lot of

stuff. I really should credit them more. But

I don't think they're around anymore, which is

really unfortunate, because these guys are really

fucking talented and I don't know much more about

them other than their albums. Another band, you

can find these guys on Bandcamp, called Rush

Coil. Obviously you can tell where they got that

name from. They're pretty cool too. You can't

talk about video game music without talking about

Crush 40. Crush 40 does almost all the vocal

music you hear for all the Sonic games now. There

hasn't, in my opinion, there hasn't been a bad

Sonic soundtrack in a number of years. My favorite,

honestly, Sonic Free Riders, the song Free, I

mean, say what you will about the game, that

game... stab you in the eye, but the opening

theme song is fucking amazing. And there's a

Crush 40 cover of it. They also did the theme

for Sonic Adventure, et cetera, et cetera. Like

I said, you look them up, Crush 40, they're fantastic.

Another band that I should probably mention here,

or at least if you're talking about video game

stuff, I... I can talk about video game scores

all day. That's what I want to kind of transition

into is because what surprises me is that, okay,

outside of like the Super Mario All -Stars Wii

Super fan edition that was released for the 25th

anniversary a while ago. Which was complete crap.

The music was good. I mean, it was nice to have

some of the music and the sound effects from

that bonus audio CD. But to my knowledge, and

again, I'm probably talking out of my ass because

I don't pay attention to this stuff enough, I

would love to have actual video game soundtracks.

I mean, I know I've got some of the Need for

Speed games, but I don't think any of the Metal

Gear Solid games have an actual CD soundtrack.

There are over 20 of them. Really? The music...

from Metal Gear is there is a CD collection.

Just let me look it up because it's quite extensive.

OK, that is one thirty five CDs deep. Wow. And

is fantastic. There's also there's also dramas

in there. There's also music from the Gameboy

games. There's also stuff from the Konami crazy

racers, the dream mix. World Fighters game stuff

like that, but yeah, the music for Metal Gear

is Phenomenal I can't talk enough about Gregory

Hanson Williams scores for Metal Gear 1 2 & 3

although I think 2 was his best work But I think

the best theme song was snake eater with number

3 was Cynthia. I can't remember her last name

I want to say her now, but I'm not sure um Yeah,

trust me. That's amazing The Resident Evil games

also have an extensive collection of music. I

don't have music for Resident Evil Revelations

or anything beyond that, simply because I don't

think the music's been released, but there was

a six... disc box set that came out a couple

years ago in Japan called the Biohazard Sound

Chronicle, which was a fantastic collection of

music. But the thing is, I think a lot of that

music, you really have to play the games to get

where the music comes from to really understand

and give it context, which I think would affect

your listening pleasure of it. Another video

game. Well, right. I mean, exactly. That's why

I asked about Metal Gear is because I've played

MGS 1 and 2. and i absolutely love those games

hence why i want that music at some point so

i mean yeah obviously you know playing a resident

evil game or whatever game it is obviously you

would have to play the game first to appreciate

the music the only game i might say that maybe

there are there are two video game series that

i think are able to transcend this and only because

their scores are so remarkably well written And

that's Marty O'Donnell. And I can't remember

the name of the other guy. I'm really sorry.

It's the guy who did the Halo soundtracks. And

I'm just trying to pull his name right now. That's

Marty O'Donnell. And what's your other name?

Michael Salvatore. Fantastic. I was going to

say you're a Halo nut. You don't know that off

the top of your head. There's something wrong

with you. I didn't know the collaborating artist,

but I know it was Marty O'Donnell. I don't know

whether he's doing it. I don't know whether he

did. Halo 4 that hasn't come out yet, and I don't

know. But anyway, Reach being a fantastic example

of his work, though I think his best across the

series was Halo ODST. Say what you will about

the game, but there's some great, it's weird

to hear jazz and halo in the same sentence, but

this is very jazzy film noir -esque score to

it, and it's... It's a beautiful soundtrack.

Another one that should be mentioned, and this

one I did not expect to like as well as I did.

You guys know I'm a huge Mass Effect fan. Jack

Wall did the soundtracks for the first two games

and collaborated, I think, on some of the DLC.

Then it was another guy who did the third soundtrack

whose name completely escapes me at this moment.

But wonderful music there. I mean, go... I mean,

there's one track... The one track I would recommend

you listen to from Mass Effect is the ending

credits theme to Mass Effect 3. and the elusive

man from Mass Effect 2 by Jack Wall. Also, the

collector base and the suicide mission are also

wonderful tracks from that game. Basically, great

scores, great use of an orchestra to convey the

sense of emotion that you get in these games.

And some of this music, depending on how the

connection you have to the characters can really

change it. I mean, there was somebody on my Facebook

wall, and I can't remember who said it. This

was probably a couple of years ago when Mass

Effect 2 first came out. talking about how when

they first saw the Normandy rebuilt, the SR2

by Cerberus, that music made them cry because

they were so happy to see the Normandy rebuilt.

And that music swell with Seth Green saying,

look at her, that's my baby, she's back. And

that really hit them home. So that's another

artist who should be recognized for their wonderful

contributions to the video game where I think

Mass Effect's the best work they've ever done.

uh... and uh... another weird bit of video game

soundtrack stuff this was very weird me back

in nineteen ninety -four everybody was talking

about mortal combat there is a group in germany

called the mortals and they released eight ten

track cd based upon the first mortal combat game

now this is before the movie Yeah, this is Mortal

Kombat the album, wasn't it? Yes, and I'm surprised

you know that, because not a lot of people know

about this, or at least talk about it anyway.

And it was the most retarded thing ever, but

oddly catchy. And this is where everybody knows

the Mortal Kombat theme from. This is the group

that originated that. Another soundtrack to talk

about, and it's going to sound really retarded.

Honestly, the Pokemon CDs have some really good

music on them. It's weird. I mean, listen to

the score for Pokemon, the first movie or even

the themed CDs from the Pokemon series. There's

one called Pokemon to be a master, which is a

lot of. in universe songs like like I'm on the

road to Viridian City or like a five minute version

of the Pokemon theme or Double Trouble, which

is the Team Rocket theme song. It's ridiculous,

but it's so much fun and you don't see nearly

enough in universe video game stuff like this.

I mean, I don't know. I think it's cool. You

should check it out. I don't recommend you pay

a lot for it, but you should check it out anyway.

the only reason why I know about that Mortal

Kombat the album is because I don't know if it

was released at the time that the movie it was

released I think like two weeks before the original

movie came out because it was released about

a year it was tied into the video game more so

than the movie right but it but it but it but

it was only available through mail order it was

really hard to find it's funny because I got

caught in a mall When I was like, you know, when

did Mortal Kombat come out to theaters? Ninety

five. Yeah. Ninety five. Ninety six. Yeah. Nineteen

ninety five. Ninety six. I. Ninety five. As soon

as Mortal Kombat came out, the movie came out.

I got caught shoplifting that album out of a

Sam Goody. So it didn't just go to mail order.

It went to stores. Maybe maybe initially it was

only available because I remember that's how

we got it was via mail order. Yeah. Probably

initially it was, but it got a mass release because

There was that, and there was also the actual

soundtrack for the movie. And I loved that Mortal

Kombat album, because I loved the original movie.

Annihilation, not so much. Annihilation is more

of a guilty pleasure of, oh, hey, this is on.

There's nothing else on. Why not torture yourself

with this? Make a drinking game out of it, it's

all I got to say. You can do that. And I mean,

you had the movie soundtracks. You also had...

I guess you would call it almost a cons moral

combat concept albums. It came out with moral

combat more combat, which is really underappreciated

CDs. I might add. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was a great.

I actually own all three. So and I don't know.

We're going to cut it short a little here. If

I might speak on one last topic before we get

to it was a band called Hyper Crush. And this

is I actually found them through my space of

all places. And Well, my space has had a certain

niche in the musical world for since its inception

pretty much It's basically they're a I guess

you call them electronic Hip -hop group from

LA right Basically, they sample a lot of video

game like stuff from NES games Super Ness They

use music and audio clips from a lot of 80s movies

like karate kid back to the future and again

like I spoke earlier about Adam Warrock a lot

of their not their entire catalog a lot of it

is available for free to download or pay what

you want on their website and I gotta say I just

love these guys a because they take a lot of

references from fifth the pop culture of the

50s and 80s specifically how they dress I mean

every time you see him perform there you remember

how back in the day you had like the very bright

neon colors and everything yeah So they dress

like they're still living in the 80s, one thing.

And this is something a birdman might appreciate.

The lead guy of the band, Donny Fontaine, he's

the rapper. When he performs on stage, he has

a modified laser firing power glove. Nice. Not

as cool as, say, Keith Apicary's power glove

suit, but still, that is pretty cool. The first

time I was like you watch the video he uses in

the the video for their track the arcade and

I'm sitting there and I'm just like I Love the

power glove. It's so bad But no, I mean these

guys like Mike was saying about Birdman was saying

like video game how they sample Like these guys

permanently live in the 80s. I mean pretty much

every track they do it samples something from

an NES game Right, yeah. In fact, their fans,

and this is one of the coolest things before

we, you know, go to the close here, their fans

are called the Zapper Gun Gang. Specifically

named for the NES Light Gun, which I was like,

God, I wish I never got rid of that. Because

I miss me some duck hunt, man. I'm sure you can

find it fairly cheap somewhere. The cheapest

I have ever found it in Saskatoon is like 50

bucks. Really? For the gun. Geez wait a zappers

50 bucks. Yeah, like I certainly in the middle

of bumfuck nowhere, Canada Yeah, yeah, I actually

because I might be moving the sasket to Saskatchewan.

I actually did some looking on Kijiji and yeah,

there's not a lot out there So I have a feeling

the rad retro hunts will be significantly curbed

Which means I'll probably drive to North Dakota

or Montana to do them You got garage sales and

you got Well, technically two different video

game stores, although one of them has two different

locations in the city so Alright, so that's gonna

wrap it up. We're gonna go to some commercials

and some other Musical clips and we'll come back

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of the Dark Nigh - the first day. We are back

and that's gonna do it for the non -mainstream

stuff. Thank you to Birdman and to JT for joining

me. Essentially that finishes out the music spotlight.

We're gonna come back next week and do a total

wrap -up. So we hope you enjoyed this episode

of GeekCast Radio. Wish you'll join us next time.

When we're gonna close it out as I said for now

I am TFG1 Mike with Mike the Birdman Dodd and

JT from Saskatoon Thank you for listening until

next time keep rocking out You've just listened

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