YouTube user Smooth McGroove has been popping up on my facebook feed a lot lately, first with the epic rendition of Spark Mandrill from MegaMan X embedded below.
Smooth McGroove does an impressive job of performing the game music he selects, and his arrangements are as creative as they are entertaining. His cat usually shows up on one of the takes, which is a recipe for internet success. From a technical standpoint, his songs are cleanly produced, properly mixed, and an all around joy to listen to. He’s offered 22 tracks for $9 from Bandcamp, and with a deal like that it’s hard to pass up! Stream the whole album for free below and click the Buy link to purchase a download. If you can’t shell out a few bucks to support this guy, follow Smooth McGroove on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe on YouTube.
Straight from the mouth of MAGFest’s very own Nick the Newbie:
“What in the ever loving shit is “Jamspace”? Jamspace is music all day every day during pax. We’ve got chiptunes, live video game cover bands, DJs, and even open jam time with provided instruments. We’ve got guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard for playing, or you can even bring your own instruments! Follow @MAGFest on twitter for updates of what’s going on all weekend.”
Boston8Bit is once again bringing a KILLER chiptune lineup to the PAX East Jamspace. In case you can’t read the SUPER SEKSAY flyer just to the left there, here’s the full Friday & Saturday 11:30am – 2:30pm EST lineup!
And if that’s not enough MOST EXCELLENT chipmusic for you (it’s NEVAR enough!), or you’d like a chance to perform your own chipmusic at an open mic event…
A very first for PAX East, the CHIPstage is essentially a separate Jamspace for chipartists & Djs! Bring your chippy and/or electronic jams & showcase ’em LIVE AT PAX!!!
On top of that, there’ll also be a good chance of any or all of the following happening at CHIPstage:
Seriously y’all, if you don’t get enough VGM/chip jammage in & around PAX East this year (including the AWESOME PAX East main stage lineup HERE) IT’S NOBODY’S FAULT BUT YOUR OWN.
And if you can’t come, don’t be a sad panda about it! Just tune into geekbeatradio on UnregularRadio to catch the livestream of the FULL SCHEDULED JAMSPACE LINEUP (chip & VGM shows) & as much of the CHIPstage as they can grab! There’ll be *SOMETHING* PAX East broadcasting on the UR Fest channel throughout the whole party. GOOD TIMES.
I mean, srsly gaiz, THIS IS AN EPIC F*CKTON OF STUFF. We’re all probably going to survive PAXE 2013 this year, but JUST BARELY. 8) In other words…
EDIT: Just so this post has EVERYTHING (& just in case you don’t pay attention to the front page of the PAXE website… :3 ), here’s a schedule of the main stage acts as well!
Young beat-maker Shag released a sequel to his Zelda album Flyrule. This new album, “A Terrible Fate“, takes inspiration and samples from Majora’s Mask. Listen and download below.
Last weekend a bunch of amazing MAGFestians (myself included) brought a magical slice of MAGFest to Austin, Texas. It was called MAGFest Game Over AustinAND 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 heardhim. 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~ ;)
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 PUREEXCELLENCE 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 CRAPNOT 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:
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…
YouTube user Smooth McGroove has been popping up on my facebook feed a lot lately, first with the epic rendition of Spark Mandrill from MegaMan X embedded below.
Straight from the mouth of 
Boston8Bit 
A very first for PAX East, the CHIPstage is essentially a separate Jamspace for chipartists & Djs! Bring your chippy and/or electronic jams & showcase ’em LIVE AT PAX!!!
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