James Eldred
Game Music Revue: The Konamic Game Freaks
Konamic Game Freaks (Compilation)
- Credited Composer: Konami Kukeiha Club
- Released: March 25, 1987
- Label: GMO/Alfa
- VGMdb Information Page
Scrunged: Toadies’ Possum Kingdom
Scrunge (second-rate rip-off grunge) is a largely forgotten genre, and every few weeks I’m going to examine a scrunge act or two and see if they deserve a second chance. Today’s band: The Toadies.
One thing about grunge that most scrunge acts seemed to miss the point on was that a lot of it was really dark and creepy in a menacing way. Nirvana frequently sang from the point of view of serial killers and rapists. Soundgarden’s metal influences frequently came to life with nefarious tracks like “Gun,” and of course there was the entire Alice In Chains discography, with its unhealthy focus on heroin and the joys that come with it. Shit, even Pearl Jam would often dive into the deep end of the disturbing with tracks about child abuse, incest, and murder.
You didn’t see Bush do shit like that. STP did on occasion with songs like “Sex Type Thing,” but they had too many love songs to really be all that down in the dumps. Sometimes Paw came close with their debut album, but while they nailed the mood of grunge, that was about all they got right.
No, the only scrunge act that really hit grunge’s darkside was The Toadies.
Makes sense, they are from Texas after all. Continue reading
Game Music Revue: Video Game Music (1984)
Since moving to Japan I have bought a lot of game music. Seriously, like probably too many. In my travels and adventures in buying these LPs and CDs, I’ve discovered that there isn’t a lot in the way of editorial information online in regards to these releases. Sure, there’s the VGMDB, but that’s just factual info on content, I mean reviews and more in-depth information.
While I don’t consider myself the end-all expert on game music (my lack of knowledge/interest in RPGs kind of makes that impossible) I’d like to think my obsessive collecting has given me some credence to talk about these releases. So I present to you the Game Music Revue, where I will take a look at all the crazy, bizarre and insane (as well as the boring, mundane and not very good) game music releases that I’ve bought and continue to buy in this wonderful country.
And I felt that it would be best to start at the beginning.
Vinyl Review – The Music Of Grand Theft Auto V
Grand Theft Auto V was one of the biggest and best games of 2013. Its re-release on the PS4 and Xbox One also made it one the marquee titles of 2014, and it’s upcoming PC release might make it a standout release of 2015 as well. It’s a rare feat for the same game to be a newsmaker three years in a row, but GTAV certainly deserves it. Despite its heavily problematic elements, which includes a wicked misogyny streak and more than a few disgusting digs at minorities, the game is an absolute blast to play. This is in large part due to its amazing immersive world, which in itself is largely due to the stellar in-game soundtrack. Continue reading
Vinyl Review: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Inside The Pleasuredome
Let’s make a list, if my nightmare of a Facebook feed is any indication, the Internet goes gaga for lists.
Top Ten Albums of the 80s. All genres, hit or no hit, anything that came out between 1980 and 1989. Here’s mine:
- Prince – Purple Rain
- Game Theory – Lolita Nation
- Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredome
- Michael Jackson – Bad
- Bruce Springsteen – Born In The U.S.A.
- The Stone Roses – s/t
- Sisters Of Mercy – Floodland
- Def Leppard – Hysteria
- David Bowie – Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
- The Pointer Sisters – Break Out
Yeah, that’s right, the Pointer Sisters, but that’s a discussion for another day.
That’s my list. Of course, ask me tomorrow and I might substitute Madonna’s Like A Prayer for Bad. Ask me again and I might remove Sisters of Mercy and slide in some Yellow Magic Orchestra. Get me on a grunge kick and I’ll probably replace a couple of the albums in there for Nirvana’s Bleach and at least one Pixies record. And Daydream Nation would probably go in there a least a few days of the week too.
It’s a nebulous list, but the top three will never change. Prince’s Purple Rain is the greatest album of the 80s, and I don’t think that’s an opinion that would garner me much flack. Lolita Nation is a strong number two, and while it’s not a popular choice, I know of some critics that have declared that record to be one of the greatest of all time, not just the 80s, so I know I’m not alone there either.
But Welcome To The Pleasuredome is probably an odd choice to most people, especially to any Americans who view Frankie as nothing more than a cheesy one-hit wonder ala Kajagoogoo or A Flock of Seagulls, but they’re wrong. The truth is that Welcome To The Pleasuredome isn’t just one of the greatest albums of the 80s, it is, without question, one of the most accurate documents about what living in the early 80s was all about.
Scrunged: Paw’s Dragline & Seven Mary Three’s American Standard
Scrunge (second-rate rip-off grunge) is a largely forgotten genre, and every few weeks I’m going to examine a scrunge act or two and see if they deserve a second chance. Today’s bands: Paw and Seven Mary Three.
Most grunge bands were from the greater Seattle area, with the occasional stray coming from Portland. But scrunge cast a far wider net. STP were from LA. The Toadies hailed from Austin Ft. Worth/the greater Austin area. Sponge repped Detroit. Very different cities to be sure, and they all had their own unique musical histories that they were known the world over for. And it showed up in these bands’ music.
Sure, The Toadies obviously crib their sound from The Pixies, but they also sound like a band who grew up on the sounds of The Buthole Surfers and the indie Austin scene. STP were never as earnest or thoughtful as Pearl Jam or Nirvana, but their aura of LA sleaze gave them an attitude few grunge bands had. Even Sponge, who are as derivative as they come, carry a bit of the Motor City – you can hear a hint of Iggy Pop’s wildness in them.
But some bands weren’t as lucky as to come from a city with a strong alternative (or any) musical legacy. Paw, for example, was formed in Lawrence, Kansas. You know what famous musical acts are from Kansas?
Kansas. I mean, the band, Kansas, they’re from Kansas. That’s about it.
That’s more notable than Seven Mary Three’s hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia though. They got nothing. Actually, maybe I should check Wikipedia just to be sure.
…
Okay, I’ll give them GWAR, but that’s it.
You Can’t Kill Foxy Shazam You Can Only Make Them Stronger
I’m late to the game on this one, but I would feel remiss if I didn’t write about this a little bit.
Foxy Shazam, the experimental/screamo/glam/metal/post-hardcore/neo-soul group out of Cincinnati, Ohio announced that they were breaking up last month. They added a “for now” caveat to the announcement, saying that the best was yet to come and that this breakup was only temporary, but I have my doubts. Many a band has said that before only to have nothing come of it. In my experience, announced hiatuses either last a few months of a few decades – and with Foxy my money is sadly on the latter.
And that’s too bad, because Foxy Shazam is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band on earth.
(I refuse to talk about them in the past tense)
Concert Review: Red Bull Music Academy Presents 1UP: Cart Diggers Live
If I had to choose a favorite music genre, “game music” would probably be in my top three. Something about the classic aesthetic combined with its frequent manic tempo triggers both the nostalgic and musical areas of my brain in just the perfect way that sends me to aural bliss.
So when I found out that Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) would be hosting a night of chiptune/game-inspired music here in Tokyo, I was rather excited. I was doubly excited when I discovered that Scottish DJ Rustie would be headlining the event, which was entitled 1UP: Cart Diggers Live (named after a documentary series about game music), playing a custom-made mix of music by legendary game composer Yuzo Koshiro. Not only that, but there would be a “performance” by the hologram vocaloid superstar Hatsune Miku, and Chip Tanaka, composer of Metroid, Ice Climbers and Dr. Mario, would be there! How could it possibly go wrong?
By the end of the night I was left asking myself; did anything go right? Continue reading
Vinyl Review: Friday The 13th Soundtrack – Waxworks Edition
Say what you will about Friday the 13th. Call it exploitative, sexist trash. Decry it for being amateurish with shoddy acting and lousy writing, direction and cinematography. Dismiss it as a lame Halloween knock-off, an unoriginal rip-off of a superior film with nothing but a mean streak and some fairly impressive special effects going for it. Say pretty much anything negative you want about it, it’s probably true.
But don’t knock the score.
Smashing Pumpkins and XTC: Tales in Flawed Deluxe Editions
Super Deluxe editions just seem to be getting bigger and bigger, and as the well begins to run dry on the “classic” albums of yesteryear that have yet to get a big-name re-release, labels are beginning to approve lesser-known, but equally deserving, re-issues of albums in their vaults.
Take for instance two recent deluxe editions to hit store shelves: a six-disc box set of the Smashing Pumpkins’ much-maligned but critically-lauded 1998 album Adore, and a special CD/Blu-ray re-release of XTC’s 1979 album Drums And Wires, an unjustly forgotten classic of British new wave.
Both are actually the latest releases in a pair of re-issue campaigns for both bands’ back catalogs, and while both should be lauded for their near-obsessive level inclusion of countless bonus cuts and additional tracks, both also make tragic mistakes that make recommending them a dodgy proposition, especially in the case of Adore.
But lets start by looking at the XTC release, as it’s so massive in scope that I almost wanted to make a pie chart or bar graph to help document everything included on it.