Two Mega Man Tribute Albums Coming

OverClocked ReMix and Sumthing Else Music Works have each put together  an album tribute to Mega Man for Capcom to celebrate 25 years of the Blue Bomber.

The first album is “For Everlasting Peace: 25 Years of Mega Man” by OverClocked ReMix.  It will contain remixes, in multiple music genres, from Mega Man, Mega Man X, Mega Man Legends, Mega Man Battle Network, Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man Star Force.

“We’re honored to again be collaborating with Capcom on another iconic franchise, paying tribute to over 25 years of Mega Man,” said OC ReMix founder and president David Lloyd, who will also contribute to the album alongside more than 20 musicians. “The music of Mega Man is as diverse as the many adventures the games take us on, providing the perfect soundtrack to a quarter century of robotic heroism and upgradeable projectile weapons. The OverClocked ReMix community is always excited to explore new interpretations and expressions of such amazing compositions, and we believe that For Everlasting Peace – our first commercial album – will offer fans something new while staying true to our goals of honoring great video game music and composers!”

The second one is “MM25: Mega Man Rocks” by Sumthing Else Music Works.  This one focuses on the classic Mega Man and the X series.  It has contributions from six big Mega Man acts.  The headliner of the album is The Protomen with a new song “Built to Last.”  Arm Cannon and X-Hunters both provide new songs too.  The Mega and Bit Brigrade re-record some of their previous hits.  Plus Mega Ran and The Protomen hand-pick some their personal faves of their work.

The covers for the two albums was decided from an open contest for fans to send in their own work.

Both albums will launch later this fall on various digital distribution sites.

Top 10 Mega Man Music List to Rush Jet To

Another video game list.  This time the blue bomber, Mega Man also known as Rockman in Japan.  He is not as well known in mainstream as some other video game characters, but that is what I feel makes he more nerdy.  Besides many many game squeals and spin-offs, he has had comics, cartoons, animes, novels, and plenty of merchandize.  Plus there are several musicians who have been inspired by the game and the soundtracks of the games.  So here is my music list of Mega Man music.

1. Mega Ran the nerdcore phenom, who’s name and three albums were inspired by the game.

2. Armcannon video game band named after Mega Man’s main weapon.

3. Protomen with their Mega Man rock opera, so far two parts have been released.

4. Snake Man Vs. The World by Benjamin Briggs is chiptune remixes of Snake Man’s theme for DarkeSword’s Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet.

5. The Megas with pop-rock lyrical Mega Man covers.

6. More nerdcore,  Light Prototype from Dual Core is Mega Man based.

7. X-Hunters is metal band that plans songs from the Mega Man X series.

8. From What if This CD… Had Lyrics? by brentalfloss, we have Bubble Man, Mega Man 3, and Gotta Run/Be The One with the Megas.

9. Year 200X more video game music from a Mega Man inspired band.

10. Off the FuMP sideshow is Giftedgear with a little acoustic parody of Glycerine by Bush about struggling while playing Mega Man.

Honorable Mention goes to, what else, the theme from the Mega Man cartoon.

MAGFest Partners With Baltimore’s Summer Video Game Music Festival

MAGFest has teamed up with Baltimore’s BitGen Gamer Fest to put on BitGen’s 8th annual summer show.  The two have combined, so BitGen is officially a MAGFest event now.

BitGen Gamer Fest 8 is August 10th, 2013 at Rams Head Live, Baltimore’s biggest rock venue. With 11 bands, dozens of arcades and consoles to play all on free play, and even artists selling nerd themed creations, BitGen Gamer Fest is packed to the gills with geeky goodness. Internet comedian and lyricists brentalfloss will MC the evening’s events.

The headlining acts for the night are VGM metal band Powerglove, nerdcore rapper Mega Ran, and Mega Man cover rock band The Megas.  Three of the best video game music acts out there.

In addition to the headliners are synth rock band Rare Candy, Mega Man X metal band X-Hunters, acoustic guitar duet Super Guitar Bros, Final Fantasy themed rock opera Those Who Fight, chiptune rockers Cheap Dinosaurs, thrash metal Knight of the Round,  Overclocked Remix’s official band OverClocked University, and VGM rock band Random Battles.  If you like video game music, you will be able to find something here to your tastes.

Get your tickets for BitGen Gamer Fest in advance and save money off the at-the-door price, $20 pre-reg and $25 at door.  And if you can not make it out to the event,  you will be able to watch the entire concert streamed live on MAGFest’s twitch.tv channel.  Doors open at 3pm eastern, and the show starts at 4pm.

Another great video game music event for fans.  With it becoming part of MAGFest, I feel this will either open up the event even more and help it grow in new ways or the whole thing will just become MAGFest lite with them just doing the same kind of things they always do.  We will just have to see what will happen in the future.  As a suggestion maybe some chip music to the line up.

MAGFest’s Line-Up

MAGFest (Music And Gaming Festival) is the event for fans of video games and video game music.  Starting in 2002 this year will their 11th and they are bigger than ever before.  It is a 24 hour party and festival.  With no corporate sponsors, no crowded show floors, and no behind-closed-doors showings.  It is an open atmosphere that focuses on community and fan creations.

This year’s MAGFest will be at the Gaylord Nation Hotel and Covention Center in National Harbor, Maryland from January 3-6.

Music is very important to MAGFest, with video game cover bands, chiptune artists, and DJs of all different types over the four days.

The Guest of Honor for this year is Yuzo Koshiro a video game composer of over 30 years; debuting in Falcom and working in games such as Ys, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Shenmue, Actraiser, and more. He runs the development studio ANCIENT with his family. He will be Djing on Saturday night bringing his dancey FM tunes to the con.

Things start off on Thursday night with the Mega Man rock band the Megas, nerdcore super star Random, Metroid tribute band Metroid Metal and the OneUps all on the Main Stage.

Friday will have video game metal by Armcannon, Bit Brigade who combines musical performances with live speed runs of classic video games, the Video Game Orchestra and BrentalFloss and the Cartridge Family which is a combining of comedic lyrics of brentalfloss and Descendants of Erdrick.

Saturday sees power rockers Powerglove and Protomen take the stage along with Pokemon synth band Rare Candy and Final Fantasy theatrical rockers Those Who Fight

For Djs they have video game remixers bLiNd and Benjamin Briggs on Friday. Chiptune/video game music pioneer DJ Cutman on Saturday with.

Chiptune acts for the con will be the four piece group Crashfaster, Danimal Cannon, chiptune and rock duo D&D Sluggers, heavy metal chiptuner Inverse Phase on Friday. For Saturday there is Bright Primate, chiptune supergroup Cheap Dinosaurs, composer Jake “virt” Kaufman, and Kris Keyser. Visuals for the shows will be provided by Batsly Adams, No Carrier, Pixelseed, and Invaderbacca.

Second Stage Performers include a variety of different styles and genres. On Friday there is Descendants of Erdrick, Dwelling of Duels Live which is mad up of all-stars of the monthly VG arrangement competition Dwelling of Duels, Lords of Thunder doing metal VGM covers, My Parents Favorite Music, OCRemix house band Over Clocked University, folksy VGM covers by The World is Square, and jazz band Fighting in the Streets. Arc Impulse, thrash metal VGM cover band Knight of the Round, television and video game composers On Being Human, electro rocker Professor Shyguy, acoustic guitar duo Super Guitar Bros, four piece  string quartet Triforce Quartet, and Mega Man X tribute band X-Hunters on Saturday.

In addition to all the schedule music, MAGFest has a Jamspace area every year for anyone to play.  The stage has drums, guitar, bass, and keyboard for anyone to use or bring your own instrument.  Jam with other musicians or sit back and enjoy.

Besides all the great music there will be a demoparty, charity auction for Child’s Play, Games on Film festival, LARP, Super Art Fight, panels, video game improv, table top gaming, and a marketplace to buy at.  Oh and games.  So much gaming.  There is an indie game showcase, all kinds of tournaments, consoles going all the way back to the 70’s, a LAN room, arcade machines and more.  Guest for the con include video game composer Kinuyo Yamashita, creators of a Mega Man fan film, artists, game creators, other composers, internet video creators, writers, voice of Duke Nukem Jon St. John, and so much other craziness

Pre-registration is $45 for all four days until December 23, so do not miss out.

I really wish I was going to this.  Some one go and tell me about it.   Please.

Bit Gen Gamer Fest 7

Let this one slip by me till now, so it is kind of late to really help out.  Anyways today on June 30th is the seventh Bit Gen Gamer Fest in Baltimore, Maryland. Bit Gen is one of the biggest video game music festivals out there.

Bit Gen Gamer Fest was started in 2005 by members of the band Entertainment System, with five bands and 150 attendees.  It started as 8-Bit Gen, then 16-Bit Gen the next year, then 32-Bit Gen the year after that, and then 64-Bit Gen for year four.  Deciding 128-Bit Gen was not a good idea they settled on Bit Gen Gamer Fest.  They bring in some best acts in video game music and fresh new acts as well.  Some bands who have played include: Powerglove, Anamanaguchi, and the Protomen.  They like to refer to the event as “nerd-vanna” or “bit-halla.”

The event will have a large selection of both classic and current video games with old-school arcade machines on free play.  The concert hall itself will be lined with video games to play, so you can rock to the bands and play your favorite games at the same time.  Gaming provided by MAGFest.  The show has open exhibition space for video game inspired artists as well.

This year the have gathered over 10 acts to perform on two continuously rotating stages, meaning when one band is done on one stage another will be starting on the other stage not that the stages themselves spin.  From rock bands like Metroid Metal, The Megas, Rare Candy, Armcannon, and X-Hunters to chip tune acts Danimal Cannon and Cheap Dinosaur, rapper Mega Ran, funny man brentalfloss,  DJ Cutman, Final Fantasy rock opera by Those Who Fight, plus Bit Brigade and their speed run Bit Brigade.

Tickets are available at the door for $20.  The show takes place at the Sonar one of the largest concert club venues in Baltimore with room up to over 2,000 people.