Tag Archives: vgmusic

MAGFest Game Over Austin ROUNDUP!!!

Last weekend a bunch of amazing MAGFestians (myself included) brought a magical slice of MAGFest to Austin, Texas. It was called MAGFest Game Over Austin AND IT WAS GOOD.
(actually, it was REALLY ZOMBOFURKIN AWESOME, but you get the point ;).
This is my firsthand account of the glorious madness that was this first mobile MAGshow. ENJOY. \m|♥|m/

The shindig started early for me, as I arrived at Red7 with the rest of Lords of Thunder to load in. We got that done, enjoyed some pizza & soda, I logged some time on the freeplay Turtles in Time arcade cab with fellow Thunder Lord Daniel Tidwell, got made-up for the show (hair, make-up, & kilt!!!), made sure merch was setup (i.e. watched the Ladies of Thunder [aka ChipMom & Jenja] make that happen), got destroyed in Mario Kart 64 by Tien from Gameover Videogames (altho I redeemed myself later in the night battling C~Money), and then got ready to catch THIS dude perform:

Dr. Awkward kicked the night off WITH A COLOSSAL BANG with his furiously delicious, cleverly constructed nerdcore rhymes. Honestly, I’d heard of the dude before this show, but hadn’t heard him. IT WAS A GORRAM TREAT. “Impostor” & “Geekquilibrium” were my personal favs, both for the hilarious lyrics & DAT 8BIT GOODNESS. If you haven’t checked him out yet, 
FIX THAT NOW
.

And then it was TIME FOR THE THUNDER…

I guess it’s kinda unfair to write this one up since, yanno, I’m playing bass in the band. :3
AH WUTEHFURKEVAR HERE GOES NOTHING~
 We came to Austin, we played our 2nd live show ever (1st was 2nd stage MAGFest 11), and we melted faces. In other words, SHIT WAS EPIC. 8) Debuted a new track from Bushido Blade 2 (the closer for our set), which ties as my personal fav with the Guilty Gear 2 jam. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, I finally got to wear my kilt on stage. AND IT FELT GOOD. ;3 Also, BEWARE RANDOM ATTACK OWLS~ ;)

Following our face-meltery was the debut of the all new Descendants of Erdrick line-up:

CONFESSION: I was probably both the most anxious & excited for this set out of ANYTHING happening that night (even our set!). Short backstory: DoE are a big part of what pulled me even deeper into the VGM scene, to the point that I’m now playing in a VGM band with some of the former members of DoE sharing the stage with current DoE. MINDSPLOSION. O.O
Much has happened since then, including this lineup change, and thus a bit of conflicted feels.

THIS SHOW COMPLETELY BLEW ANY & ALL OF THOSE FEELS AWAY & REPLACED THEM WITH GI-FURKIN-NORMOUS FEELS OF AWESOME!!!

The Lepre lead lineup & stylistic change were indeed different; as Lerabbit stated, more of an “RPG Adventure tribute band”, and with a slant more towards prog rock. Works INCREDIBLY WELL, as you should be able to tell from the video (and the crowd’s reaction in it). Seriously y’all, keep following this band. They’re just going to get better and better.

Speaking of following awesome people & bands, be sure to catch the previous DoE members & the THREE OTHER VGM ACTS that they’re now involved in: LoT, Gimmick!, & The Returners. Where there was one VGM band there are now four. GOTTA LOVE IT. ♥

And then… there was Megaran:

As always, Random aka Megaran brought it SOMETHING FIERCE. Honestly, I’ve seen him perform several times over the years, & at various different types & sizes of venues, but each show has always been consistent in the PURE EXCELLENCE factor. And I say this as, truthfully, not the biggest nerdcore fan! It’s quality nerdcore artists like Megaran, Doc Awk, Shaffer the Darklord, etc. that make me question that, however, as they get my head bobbin’, feet movin’, and face grinnin’!

Last but HOLY CRAP NOT LEAST are the furious force known as Urizen:

Urizen is another act that appeared at Game Over Austin that I’d heard of (& always awesome things!), but hadn’t witnessed in person yet. To sum up my first time experiencing them live: 

HOLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU~

Their mix of metal, chip/8bit/synthy goodness, and INSANE stage show (ZOMBOFURKIN ROBOT MONSTER STAGE BATTLE FINALE ZOMG~!!!) definitely made for an EXCELLENT headlining act. To top it off, their energy & stage presence were MONSTROUS, & crowd interactivity was AMAZEBALLS (can you say THE BEST group Colossus roar outside of MAGFest TO DATE???). Needless to say, I left the show A HUGE FAN. And upon coming home discovered that their frontman, Thomas Drinnen, had also made a Chipmusic version of their latest album titled 8-Bit Universe. THIS PLEASES ME GREATLY.

And now to round-up this round-up with this MAG Austin round-up video by Melissa Flores!

Aw man, watching this video fills me with SO many damn feels! WHAT A ZOMBOFURKIN’ GOOD TIME WE ALL HAD~!!! ^_^ And most importantly, MORE TO COME!!! \m/\m/

Again, SO VERY MUCH LOVE to everyone who was a part of this show. It was DAMN amazing and I’m incredibly proud to have been a part of it. Until the inevitable next time, my friends, upon which I will undoubtedly tell you to…

GET DAT ASS TO MAGFEST!!!!!

~Hoodie
\m||m/

All full set videos provided by Robert Swackhamer of 8bitx.com.

MAGFEST

MAGFest hits the road, baby!!! 8)

The only legitimate gripes that I’ve ever heard about MAGFest are that it’s only once a year & stuck in one location. And those qripes have been quite founded, as they’ve been true up to this point.

…UNTIL NOW.

Just in case your mind is currently TOO ASPLODY to comprehend what’s happening here, LEMME BREAK IT DOWN FOR YA!! ;D

Starting February 3rd – this coming Sunday night!!! – MAGFest will OFFICIALLY be presenting its first in a series of concerts at the Red7 in Austin, Texas!! For a mere $10 in advance/$12 on the day of, you can snag a ticket to catch this inaugural MAG-tour kickoff, which includes some badass video games, awesome bands, and all in all MAGFESTY GOOD TIMES!! 
Lineup includes the debut of the all(most) new Descendants of ErdrickLords of ThunderUrizenMegaran, & Dr. Awkward!! If you’re ANYWHERE near this indefinable collection of AMAZEBALLS (and hell, even if you’re not!!), I think you know what you need to do…

GET DAT ASS TO MAGFEST!!!!!

Much \m||m/ as always,
Hoodie

P.S. Want a little additional motivation to go to this MAG-show and/or any others that may come near you? MAGFest will be judging the response of these shows to scout out potential locations for a full fledged additional MAGFest at some point in the relatively near future.
So yeah. There’s that too. ;)

Redundant linkymajiggers:
Game Over Austin Facebook event
Red7
Tickets
Descendants of Erdrick
Lords of Thunder
Urizen
Megaran
Dr. Awkward

Friday Freakout: Prepare thyselves for… LORDS OF THUNDER!!! \m||m/

The wonderfulness of chipWINter has been happily released to the intertoobs, & thus all is good & swell in ChipWINmas Land once again. SHINY.  ^_^ 

 

And now with that outta my way…

 

LORDS OF THUNDER TIME, BABY!!! 8) \m||m/

 

 

THAT’S RIGHT.  A brand spankin’ new SUPER METUL, SUPER BADASS  VGM band is coming to 2nd stage at MAGFest 11 to MELT *ALL* OF THE GORRAM FACES!!!

We’ll be covering the VERY METUL  tracks from the Sega CD version of Lords of Thunder, along with some other fresh  (AND DID I MENTION METUL?!?)  video game music!!

 

BEHOLD!!! THE LORDLY LINEUP:

~Mike “Paladin” Villalobos of Descendants of Erdrick – METULASS GUITAR

~Daniel “The Beast” Tidwell – METULASS GUITAR

~Mateo “Lord Smithy” Marshall of Those Who Fight – METULASS KEYS

~John “Falconer” Pike of Descendants of Erdrick – METULASS DRUMS

~Brandon “Sir Hoodie” Hood of Chiptunes = WIN – METULASS BASS

 

~~~FELLOW METULWARRIORS~~~

PREPARE THYSELF FOR THE MUSICAL GLORY TO COME, AS THERE SHALL BE MUCH OF IT  & MUCH REJOICING!!!

AND MUCH, MUCH MEAD.

\M||M/

 

Rendundant Lords of Thunder linkage:
LoT Fb page
LoT Twitter
LoT Youtube

Friday Freakout DOUBLE FEATURE: Those Who Fight & Knight of the Round albums UNLEASHED!!!

-takes last swig of beer, downs a shot of Maker’s Mark- Yeaaaah, it’s gonna be one of those kinda reviews, people!! Just back the F*CK out now  if you’re not ready for the excessively fierce, yet completely warranted  hype-a-palooza that’s coming ‘atcha this time around!! And this freakout, not just ONE  completely awesome album write-up, but TWO COMPLETELY AWESOME ALBUM WRITE-UPS!!!
…or rather one write-up about two albums. WUTTEHFUKEVAR!!! HERE GOES NOTHING~

The Fall of Bahamut by Those Who Fight
&
Gaia’s Bane by Knight of the Round

 

 

Yeah, this is absolutely a Friday Final Fantasy  Freakout if ever there was one!! On one hand you’ve got the release of the long-awaited 4 track EP from the Final Fantasy inspired rock opera powergroup Those Who Fight, with members from mainstay VGM bands Armcannon, Descendants of Erdrick, & Year 200x. And then on the other is Knight of the Round, a wickedly brutal 4 piece FF metal band from bumf*ck Indiana blasting out of the gate with a full length debut album of epic proportions!!!

“Wutevar, Barndo! Ive herd finul fantasee bans befer. Dis has been dun.”

STFU & GTFO, DOLAN, BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT!!!

In all seriousness, both  of these bands display an insane  level of musicianship and extraordinary creativity with their arrangements that clearly sets them apart, even within the overly talented VGM scene! It is NOTHING LIKE  any Final Fantasy OST re-imagining you’ve been exposed to before, and yet they both stand out in completely different ways! Those Who Fight have crafted an entirely new narrative to wrap their multi-vocalist lead  re-imagining of FF tracks around, whereas Knights of the Round have bathed theirs so deeply in so much violently heavy molten metal that Nobuo Uematsu himself would have to listen twice to recognize!! In fact, aside from said FF inspirations there’s only one way in particular that these two bands are truly reminiscent of each other:

THEY BOTH KICK MEGAF*CKSHITTONS OF ASS!!!  (okay, so the seriousness didn’t last… I CAN’T HELP IT!! I’M LISTENING TO THEIR MUSIC AS I WRITE!!!!!!111123456789KABOOMITY~).

And oh yeah, wanna chance to catch some of this Square action live?? THEN COME TO MAGFEST 11 IN JANUARY!!!!  KotR will be DESTROYING  2nd stage,  provided their  folky, acoustic cohorts, The World Is Square, haven’t already WEIRDED IT UP BEYOND REPAIR (yup, they’re playing MAG too!!). No announcement about TWF yet (but there are  more bands to announce after all…), but wow, if they show up there too??
IT’LL BE THE SQUAREST MAGFEST *EVAR*!!! BANGOVERS FOR ONE & ALL!!!

AHHH enough stupid wordy words already!! Quit reading this bullshit AND GO LISTEN, BUY, AND SHARE THE HELL OUTTA THESE ALBUMS ALREADY!!! Otherwise Bahamut is totally gonna fall ON YOUR ASS & Gaia will unleash it’s bane ON YOUR MOTHER!!! 8)

\m||m/