Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere, and Josh and Emily have been soaking in the season by jogging through wildflowers, driving with the windows down, and taking in some baseball (both the real and VGM varieties). Join them and hear Josh's wistful tales of junior varsity wrestling, Emily's complicated considerations about what kind of spirit she'd be after she dies, and, as always, another stellar selection of patron-recommended tunes. After you let this decidedly feel-good mix of music dig into your soul, top it all off with a karaoke rap by KeyGlyph and get ready to celebrate the rest of your weekend.
Click above to listen or subscribe. Click below for the usual direct download.
| This episode was made possible by: | ||
| Game | Track Title | Composer(s) |
| Road Rash | Grass Valley | Rob Hubbard, Matt Furniss (arr.) |
| Gokinjo Bouken Tai | Battle | Akihiko Mori |
| Blue's Journey | Jungle Zone | Yuka Watanabe |
| 3D OutRun | Camino a Mi Amor | Jane-Evelyn Nisperos |
| The Legend of the Mystical Ninja | Title ~ Theme of Goemon | Kazuhiko Uehara, Harumi Ueko |
| Power League 5 | BGM #03 | Unknown |
...and listeners like YOU.
Josh, I have my own Piccolo Zone experience.
ReplyDeleteI took a racquetball class as a freshman in college. There were two "leagues" in the class, the "minors" and the "majors". The instructor split us all up and I ended up in the "minors". If you won a match, you would move up one court, if you lost, you would move down. I quickly worked my way up to the top of the "minors".
Since I was always at the top of the "minors", I was moved into the "majors" when there was a vacancy. But I ended up staying at the bottom of the "majors". I'd move up one court occasionally, but couldn't work my way any farther. So I get what you're saying about your one and only Varsity experience.
However, being in the "majors" forced me to improve my game beyond what I would have been able to do had I stayed in the "minors".
I just remembered another Piccolo Zone experience. My school friends and I played A LOT of Goldeneye 007 for the N64 in high school. I was not the best. I was one of the worst, even after I bought the game for myself. But whenever I'd hang out and play with my church friends, I would dominate.
DeleteHey gang,
ReplyDeleteSo that Gokinjo Bouken Tai track was sweet, reminded me of the music from Castle of Cagliostro, 3D Outrun extra tracks were composed by Manabu Namiki and (for Camino a Mi Amor) Chibi-Tech, Legend of the Mystical Ninja OST is super awesome, play more of its tracks and HOLY MACKEREL EMINEMILY, THAT VGMK RAP IS FREAKING AMAZING!. Seriously, I really like your unorthodox style of rhyming words in unexpected places.
Developing a rap voice is just like developing a podcast voice; it’s a matter of comfortability and finding the voice that works best for you. The difficulty comes when trying to use posturing to brag. That’s an unfortunate ubiquity in rap, so I really like it when I hear content and delivery that intentionally eschews those clichés. That’s also why I might try to sound emphatic in my own delivery, but unless I’m being ironic and/or comical, I avoid outright boasting.
Back to your rap, I especially loved the wordplay in the chorus. It’s cleverly written and clever sounding. Josh, your middle name is Hajime? I was reading an article about a ‘white worm’ electronics virus called Hajime JUST THIS MORNING. The interesting thing about this virus is it infects your IoT devices, and fixes them by making them more secure. Consider: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/hajime-code-infects-iot-devices-and-secures-them/
Also, there’s a really good interview with the creators of 3D Outrun that bears reading: http://blogs.sega.com/2015/03/10/sega-3d-classics-3d-out-run-part-4/
Yes, I forgot to mention that Eminemily's VGM Karaoke rap was quite spectacular.
DeleteEmily,
DeleteSomething's been bothering me since I originally posted above. I went on a mini rant, disparaging posturing, and it kind of sounds insensitive. I was specifically talking about bragging/posturing in earnest. Your rap was definitely a braggadocious rap, but of course it's tongue-in-cheek and playing a character. I find that kind of thing hilarious, and I really enjoyed the song.
Oh, no way Nemo, I didn't interpret your comment that way at all! Don't you worry.
DeleteI get what you mean about the posturing, and I too roll my eyes at it in any genre of music when it's presented as "I'm awesome! Let me tell you all about that in totally unprovoked fashion and follow up with how much you stink!" On the other hand, I do like legitimate bragging sometimes when it's not simultaneously putting someone down or it's a defensive response to some kind of attack.
I was thinking about these things when I wrote the Wiz n' Liz rap. It started with my amusement over Wiz n' Liz being so highly marketed as a "non-violent" game when the bosses are pretty much as gross as you can get without bringing gore into it. Then in a related way I thought it was funny to imagine an unseen antagonist busting on Liz for being ugly, weird, and supposedly weak/slow/vulnerable in her old age when HELLO DUDE HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN SHE'S A WITCH AND CAN SET YOU ON FIRE WITH WORDS??
So yeah, it's partly a lampoon of the brag-rap concept, but the content itself is actually earnest. Rapping elderly spellcasters are hardcore and they don't have time for anybody's BS!
For some reason that Power League 5 track reminds me of the vocal melody for Working for the Weekend
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IycBXykoTnE
Emily, your rap was marvelous.
ReplyDeleteI was not at all surprised by your clever lyrics, as you are a lover of literature, but I was still massively impressed.
YoKai Watch is a pretty great cartoon, and much better than Pokémon in my opinion. The games aren't quite as good but they're still enjoyable and the music is pretty great. I'll have to recommend a track. One Yo Kai named Cheeksqueak makes people fart uncontrollably so now my son says he is "cheeksqueaking" whenever he passes gas. I'm perfectly ok with this.
ReplyDeleteThe Gokinjo Bouken Tai track was fantastic!
ReplyDeleteHearing Mystical Ninja makes me lament that I sold my copy years ago. What the hell was I thinking?
And Eminemily rocks da mic! Chip hop and ya don't stop!
COMPOSER FOUND:Jane-Evelyn Nisperos is the composer behind 3D Outrun's Camino A Mi Amor. EVIDENCE HERE: http://blogs.sega.com/2015/03/10/sega-3d-classics-3d-out-run-part-4/
ReplyDelete-Electricboogaloo
Electricboogaloo, where did you find her name? I used the same source to discover the composer, and noted it in my post above, but it listed the composer as Chibi-Tech. Where does it connect the alias with the name?
Deletein the article it reveals the identity of chibi-tech.
DeleteGeez....and I skimmed that article 4 or 5 times!
DeleteNathan, her name is also in the music section of the Out Run Wikipedia page which sources from that Sega blog post I linked.
DeleteAlso, I'm amused that her introduction to the Out Run series was a MTV Drunk Driving PSA!
-Electricboogaloo
To be fair, I didn't notice that you had linked the same blog post in the comments.
DeleteI do hope the blog post gets updated with the new info.
-Electricboogaloo
Done and done! Thanks for the sleuthing you two.
DeleteGlad we can help! Kinda makes me feel like an ACME detective on the hunt for Carmen Sandiego!
ReplyDeleteThanks Nathan for pointing this out all those months ago!
[P.S. If you guys see me talking about this in a testimonial somewhere, I wrote it before I noticed people could still comment here, so disregard that.)
-Electricboogaloo
I so love Josh’s Neo Geo Story! I want to hear more. Also, Legend of the Mystical Ninja needs more love. My own opinion is that Konami was the best developer for the SNES; their games were all so beautiful and fun to play.
ReplyDeleteLOTMN is a prime example of that. There is so much iterative innovation in the game. For example, the Japanese samples are slightly overdriven, which gives the OST a slightly intensified feel. There are also lots of visual tricks in the side scrolling levels that I hadn't seen before. In any case, this is one of my favorite games for the SNES.