The VS Tour w/ Mega Ran, Willie Evans Jr, Adam WarRock, & DJ DN³


Mega Ran and his cohorts are hitting the road… and your face! In his most recent musical stint, the Capcom-licensed rapper Mega Ran will be embarking on the VS Tour  throughout the United States, beginning in Arizona and concluding the tour with a final bang at SXSW Music, one of the biggest music festivals in the country with more than 2,000 performers. With big names like Adam Warrock, Willie Evans Jr., and DJ DN³ on deck for their first ‘interactive tour’, we guarantee that you’ll be shuffling to what could possibly be one of the best live performances of the year. Oh, and we forgot to mention that Mega Ran plans to hold small fighting game tournaments wherever possible. Who else do you know that does that?!

While the tour is scheduled for this coming Spring, Mega Ran has started a funding campaign with the same name to help raise money for support. With a goal of $2500 in mind and the campaign ending on Tuesday, March 13th, Mega Ran and his dudes have set up sweet packages as incentives for you to help out: $5 will get you audio of the project itself, $10 a physical copy of the VS Project, $15 an exclusive poster and EP, and so on.  The list of locations and dates for the VS Tour is also located below. If interested, please help support Mega Ran’s endeavors into the touring world… We promise that you won’t be disappointed.

[EXPAND Click here for the VS Tour Dates & Locations]

2.24 Tempe, AZ @ Stray Cat w/Adam Warrock and Kirby Krackle
2.25 Tucson, AZ @ Vaudeville
2.27 Columbia, MO @ Mojo’s
2.29 Madison, WI @ Inferno
3.2 Louisville, KY @ Louisville Arcade Expo w/Ricky Henry
3.3 Charlotte, NC @ Crown Station w/The ThoughtCriminals and Mr. Invisible
3.4 Columbia, SC @ Conundrum w/Adam Warrock and more
3.5 Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree w/Adam Warrock and more
3.6 Jacksonville, FL w/Adam Warrock, Andy D and more
3.7 Orlando, FL @ The Geek Easy w/Adam Warrock and more
3.10 Fayetteville, AR @ Smoke and Barrel w/Adam Warrock and The OneUps
3.11 Ft. Worth, TX @ Aardvark w/Adam Warrock and MC Lunchboxx
3.12 Houston, TX @ Check Other Outfitters w/Adam Warrock and H.I.S.D.
3.13-3.17 Austin, TX @ SXSW Music Festival[/EXPAND]

 

Original Sound Version’s OSVOSTOTY 2011 Awards Winners Announced

 

As we’ve mentioned before, the winners and runner-ups of Original Sound Version‘s 3rd Annual OSVOSTOTY 2011 have been announced today  and the results are quite intriguing. Editor-In-Chief Jayson Napolitano had many bright things to say of the artists that the OSV staff chose for this year, as he states:

The smoke has finally cleared, and we can finally announce our winners and runners-up for our 3rd annual Original Sound Version Original Soundtrack of the Year 2011 Awards. As always, there are a few surprises, and while I know some editors are still passionately clinging to their given favorite, I think that points to the amazing quality and variety of music that was released in 2011. This year in particular saw a number of new franchises and sequels that went in radically different directions, and I think the music accurately reflects this fresh and exploratory direction.

The list of winners and runner-ups are listed after the jump. ThaSauce would also like to congratulate all of the winners and nominees of this year’s 3rd Annual OSVOSTOTY 2011 Awards as well. Here’s to hoping that next year’s awards will be as exciting as ever!

[EXPAND Click here for an official list of the 2011 OSVOSTOTY winners & runner-ups!]

Best Handheld Soundtrack
Winner: Jake Kaufman’s MIGHTY SWITCH FORCE!
1st Runner-Up: Tsutomu Narita’s UnchainBlades ReXX
2nd Runner-Up: Hitoshi Sakimoto’s Valkyria Chronicles 2 -Unrecorded Chronicles-

Nominees: DJMAX Portable 2, Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

Best Fan Arrange Album (Western)
Winner: Metroid Arrange 25th Anniversary Album (Bad Dudes)
1st Runner-Up: Intergalatic Redux (The OneUps)
2nd Runner-Up: brass 2: mouth (the minibosses)

Nominees: Harmony of a Hunter (V.A.), Made of Metal (VikingGuitar), No NES For The Wicked (Vomitron)

Best Fan Arrange Album (Eastern)
Winner: UMEMOTO ~He Lives Here~ (WOODSOFT)
1st Runner-Up: FF VIOLIN -FINAL FANTASTIC VIOLIN 2- (TAMUSIC)
2nd Runner-Up: Kinoko Sanmai!! (Mackerel Sky)

Nominees: CHRONO TRIGGER ~Saihate no Kanade~ (earth Japan SOFT), North Wind (Magical Trick Society)

Best Official Arrange Album
Winner: NieR Tribute Album -echo-
1st Runner-Up: SQ Chips
2nd Runner-Up: Hideki Sakamoto Orchestral Works

Nominees: Oboromuramasa Ongakushuu Hensou no Maku, Symphonic Odysseys, The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Special Orchestra CD

Best Live Concert
Winner: Symphonic Odysseys (Team Merregnon)
1st Runner-Up: The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony (JMP Productions)
2nd Runner-Up: Back to the Future: Two Generations of Film and Video Game Composers (VGO)

Nominees: Gamers X-Mas (David Westerlund), JADE-II (Takeaki Kunimoto), LEGENDS (Team Merregnon)

Best “Other” Release
Winner: Tree of Knowledge (yogurtbox)
1st Runner-Up: IMERUAT (IMERUAT)
2nd Runner-Up: Songs for the Cure ’11: Remedy (V.A.)

Nominees: Now is the point at which I touch eternity (freesscape), Oto Gift (Basiscape), Play for Japan (V.A.)

Best Chip Music Release
Winner: Beautiful Lifestyle (George & Jonathan)
1st Runner-Up: Roots (Danimal Cannon)
2nd Runner-Up: Equilibrium (V.A.)

Nominees: Cheap Dinosaurs (Cheap Dinosaurs), SOUNDSHOCK: FM FUNK MADDNESS!! (V.A.), The Octagon (Jonathan Baken)

Best Indie Game Soundtrack
Winner: Bastion
1st Runner-Up: Jamestown
2nd Runner-Up: Sword & Sworcery

Nominees: Cthulhu Saves The World, Escape Goat, Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion

Best Sound Design
Winner: Portal 2
1st Runner-Up: Batman: Arkham City
2nd Runner-Up: Dead Space 2

Nominees: L.A. Noire, Limbo, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Best In-Game Soundtrack
Winner: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
1st Runner-Up: Dark Souls
2nd Runner-Up: Child of Eden

Nominees: Dead Space 2, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, Uncharted 2: Drake’s Deception

Soundtrack of the Year
Winner: Final Fantasy XIII-2
1st Runner-Up: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2nd Runner-Up: Rayman Origins

Nominees: Bloodrayne: Betrayal, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword[/EXPAND]

halc Continues to Defy the Chiptune Genre

 

Even though he is known to reign within OverClocked ReMix’s judges panel, halc is definitely on a roll. Following his January release of the wonderfully ambient album Zer0-G that could single-handedly define the chiptune genre even further, halc has bestowed upon us yet another EP chock-full of electro-house goodness:

No Song Left Behind is a collection of newly polished and remastered chiptune-house style tracks produced over the course of 2010-11. These were all written for various albums which never saw the light of day (a testament to my inability to write house music, and more importantly, to stick with it :P).

Rather than let them continue to stagnate on my hard drive, I’ve decided to release them together as a free 3 track EP. A token of thanks for the amazing support and response towards Zero-G. As always, all donations are lovingly appreciated! Enjoy!

Previewing some of No Song Left Behind briefly, we have to say that halc’s work takes the ‘chiptune-house’ style to another level, proving how much he has progressed as an independent artist over the course of the last few years. Although deviating from Zero-G’s chill vibes and Trending Topic EP‘s dubby in-your-face presence, halc’s unassuming yet fluent transitions in “Bicycle Rights” get will get your head bobbing involuntarily. As you preview some of the EP below, you can get No Song Left Behind for free on halc’s Bandcamp (be sure to check out his other albums while you’re at it!).

EARTHBOUND PAPAS “Metal Hypnotized” Contest Winners Published

You might remember the EARTHBOUND PAPAS contest we mentioned a few weeks back that invited EBP fans to remix or arrange their hit single “Metal Hypnotized”. According to contest rules, there were no limitations to how you can actually remix or arrange this song, as instrumentals and lyrics could be played or replaced with other members.  The EBP themselves also listened to each submitted track in order to choose the winners that were officially announced today.

As excited as we were to see the winning submissions of the contest, we were elated to find out that one of ThaSauce’s very own featured artists has been chosen to be a guest performer on the next EARTHBOUND PAPAS album. As shown above, Tony Dickinson, also known as Prince of Darkness, single-handedly transforms “Metal Hypnotized” into his own metal symphony with a nice touch of epic shredding that puts even the best metal bands to shame. Other notable entries (like this great 8-bit interpretation by Nikola Whallon or this piano composition by eba9production) were also rewarded with special autographed prizes from EARTHBOUND PAPAS.

ThaSauce would like to congratulate Tony Dickinson and the rest of the EBP contest participants who entered in the contest. Thanks for taking time out to create such incredible interpretations for one of our favorite EBP songs!

beek’s 7bit date: robot love Released Just In Time for Valentine’s Day

Fresh out of Ubiktune, classic tracker composer Chris J. Hampton has just released a new album just in time for Valentine’s Day. Also known by his alternate moniker beek, this 8-bit veteran has appeared in various Ubiktune releases such as Around Past and Wintertunes for a while now. beek’s 7bit date: robot love sacrilegiously pushes the chiptune genre over the edge, in a frenzied flurry of chip sounds that manages to make our ears happy. Marked by retro influences from the ’80s and ’90s, beek’s work is a total blast to the past, actively transporting the listener to a time when chiptunes were prioritized as primary sources of composition and arrangement.

Describing 7bit date: robot love as a  “a varied collection of chippy goodness”, beek relates his own experiences with the album with special attention to resisting traditional chip sounds:

7bit date: robot love is a collection of chips I began tracking in 2008, with one song reaching as far back as 1998. In 2008, having recently graduated from university, I reexamined my chiptune past and decided to get back in the game. Life carried on, and years later, I remembered my original goal of a new chipdisk release.. Here we are today, 2012!

For 7bit date, I didn’t limit myself to traditional chip sounds. I make use of Amiga ST-XX samples in a few tracks — a process which rekindled some of my imagination, as I remembered this or that MOD from back in the day with each Amiga sample I came across. Another characteristic of my chips is to use no external/post-processing effects, just some occasional Schism filters, so the original .IT files will reproduce pretty close to the MP3.

While 7 bit date: robot love is available on beek’s Bandcamp, we’ve also included a few tracks to preview for you below. Go and get some chiptune lovin’ today!

ReMixer Spotlight: djpretzel

David W. Lloyd, alias djpretzel… hmmm… what can I say about him? He’s the founder of OverClocked ReMix, which means he’s busy almost all the time. He oversees all submissions to the site. He helped compose the music for Kaleidoscope, on XBox Live Arcade. 71 of the remixes on the site are his. He… I’m sorry, this is hard for me. The fangirl in me is trying to run rampant. I mean, I interviewed djpretzel! Ahem…. shoving that down for a second here… Somehow djp managed to find time from his busy schedule to let me interview him. This is the result of that interview. (EEEEEEEE!)

[EXPAND Click here to view my exclusive interview with the man, myth, and legend of OverClocked ReMix, djpretzel!]

Mirby: What started your interest in video game music?

djpretzel: Well, I was already interested in both video games AND music, so it wasn’t an epiphany or revelation, just a natural extension of combining two different loves into a single interest. I remember playing “Smurfs” on Colecovision or “Spy Hunter” on C64 and getting those themes stuck in my head, humming them for the rest of the day. Part of it may simply have been how BAD I was at certain games, and how many times I thus had to hear the same music over and over. When I got a Sega Master System, that was the first game console that was MINE instead of the family’s (I have two older sisters), and that was really the system where themes like OutRun and Space Harrier and Shinobi got me hooked on VGM.

M: Classic tunes.

djp: Absolutely – they were all actually arcade themes, just conversions, except for Alex Kidd and Phantasy Star.

M: What started your interest in remixing?

djp: Now, as a far as remixing/arranging goes, I come from a musical family. Interestingly enough, neither of my parents are particularly musical or play instruments, but my sisters and I were all in high school band, marching band, etc., and we listened to a lot of different music on family trips.

M: I know another David like that…

djp: My sister Emily got a Yamaha PSR home keyboard – I forget the model, but it was actually really cool because it was one of the few that actually let you program your own sounds in a limited version of FM synthesis. She never used that feature, but later on I got into it. She wrote some original stuff, mostly cheesy synth pop since that was all the rage at the time, and I tried to as well. I got more and more into synthesis and electronic music because of this FM programming feature on this PSR – I was fascinated, crappy as it was, that I could actually design my own sounds. Back then eBay didn’t even exist, I think, but I started looking in the classifieds for people selling used music gear, synths in particular. I bought a Casio CZ-101 from some dude in Maryland – my parents had to drive me to pick it up – and that made sound design a lot more fun since there were more options.

M: Sweet!

djp: It didn’t have a sequencer, and I didn’t have a computer, so I needed a way to actually record compositions as MIDI (all my original stuff at this point in time). So I checked the classifieds again and found someone selling an Alesis MMT-8. This is a hardware sequencer – a type of device that doesn’t even really exist anymore, completely replaced by computers or onboard sequencers. It does nothing other than record MIDI, and play it back.

M: I figured as much.

djp: As I later learned, it also had the bad habit of erasing ALL of its storage if the power spiked.

M: That’s not good… hehe…

djp: Anyways, I mention this because the dude I bought the MMT-8 from, we sat down and talked a bit, and he mentioned he was moving and that’s why he was selling it. Then he asked me if I’d be interested in taking his collection of Keyboard magazine off his hands – for free.

M: I smell something a little shady about this…

djp: I played it off casually and said sure, why not, but I was actually really psyched, and for the next couple years I read through all those issues – he had stuff from 1986 through 1993, including old interviews w/ Jan Hammer and Keith Emerson and all sorts of gear reviews. Nah it was completely legit, the guy changed my life by giving me those old magazines, because it got me addicted to synths and music technology in general.

M: Well, I suppose it might be thanks to him we have OCR now, right? Or at least a little bit…

djp: I read those things front to cover, which really gave me an appreciation of where music tech started, and how far it had come. Of course, it’s come twice as far in the time since then, but having that history & appreciation means you don’t take things for granted.

M: Of course not.

djp: Software like Kontakt 4 or Cubase 5 would have been $4000 easily, if you could even come close to matching those features, way back then.

M: Which is a whole lot more these days…

djp: So yeah, I think this guy who gave me hundreds of issues of Keyboard magazine for free, he played some role in the eventual creation of OCR.

M: Somewhere in your subconscious he lurked…

djp: Anyhow, eventually I got a Roland U20, which let me do compositions that started sounding more like actual music, and also an Alesis Datadisk – this device, also now obsolete, was designed specifically to recording incoming MIDI to floppy disks, and then also playing it back. This is all before I had done a single game remix, but I was certainly playing games at the time… this was still the 16-bit era, so I would have been playing Revenge of Shinobi and Phantasy II & III, most likely.

M: Good era.

djp: Anyhow, when each of my sisters turned 16, they got cars. Not superfly fancy cars, but a set of wheels nonetheless, which to a teenager is supposedly the ultimate freedom. I’m not knocking cars by a longshot, but when my turn came around, I decided to delay getting a car so I could get a sampler/workstation instead. That’s when I got my Ensoniq ASR-10.

M: Sounds fancy.

djp: Thing had programmable effects, loaded the OS off floppy, and an LED readout that looked like a Speak & Spell, but man did I love it. And it was really a pretty decent bit of kit – I’d done my research well. I upgraded it to a *whopping* 16MB of memory and attached a 2X SCSI CD-ROM drive and I was on my way!

M: If you don’t mind me asking, did you do early remixes on that thing?

djp: Around the same time I was also getting really involved in the emulation scene – retrogames.com, mame.net, that whole community was a lot more cohesive back then. Nowadays there’s not as much of a scene, since the nostalgia factor has sorta given way to outright piracy masquerading as homebrew, and other issues. I’m getting there.

M: My bad.

djp: Anyways I was a news poster at retrogames.com and was doing my own little emulation-themed comic strip called “OverClocked”, which poked fun at the emulation scene. Believe it or not, there was a lot to poke fun at, although it was also just an excuse for me to get better at Photoshop and 3D Studio MAX (I can’t draw – comic strip was all 3D).

M: Don’t feel bad; I can’t really draw either.

djp: Around that time retrogames.com was covering news about the occassional Commodore 64 remix, and indeed there was at that time something of a scene for those doing primarily electronica arrangements of C64 music. I loved that idea, but I wanted it to be all games, from all systems, in all styles of music.

M: A noble plan.

djp: So I sat down and started doing VGM arrangements on my ASR-10, in my parents basement. I did Phantasy Star III and Shinobi, in two different styles, and decided to start a side project to my comic strip, and call it “OverClocked ReMix” where I would post my own game mixes as well as others’.

M: Including a really strange Bubble Bobble one.

djp: Indeed.

M: And from there, the site grew and expanded into what we know today, right?

djp: That’s the long version of that story, but essentially a series of events combined to get me interested in electronic music and emulation/retrogaming, and those two interests coalesced when I started this side project. Which, yeah, eventually grew much bigger and became my primary focus.

M: And it’s a great community, if I do say so myself.

djp: Thanks.

M: Hey, it’s the truth. After all, OCR gave birth to VGMix, and from there, Dwelling of Duels… Or something like that, right?

djp: Hmm, I have no idea how DoD came to be, but OCR certainly predates both of them.

M: Well I figured since DoD is hosted on VGMix… And I thought I read that VGMix was born out of some discontent members from OCR…

djp: It wasn’t always hosted there, AFAIK, but like I said, OCR was certainly first.

M: I know this. 2000, and it’s been a great 10 years since…

djp: There are a couple versions of that story, but that’s certainly one way to put it. It’s been a busy 10 years, that’s for sure, and we’ve been online & growing for all ten of them.

M: 2000+ remixes, 17 albums, hundreds of members… And an inspiration to many, myself included.

djp: Glad to hear it.

M: Are there any tracks you’ve done that you’re more proud of or like more than the others?

djp: Sure, I think Sonic ‘Love Hurts’ is a mix that’s stood the test of time, and Zelda 64 ‘Pachelbel’s Ganon’ as well… those were both made on my Yamaha Motif, which is what I replaced the ASR-10 with.

M: Are there any remixers that you’d like to collaborate with in the future?

djp: I definitely wanna do something w/ Sixto, and I’ve already got an arrangement in mind that would be perfect for katethegreat19 to sing on.

M: Well I’ll let him know, since I’m his unofficial secretary now…

djp: Heh, he already knows – shooting for a style similar to 80s rock band The Cars.

M: Sadly enough, I know who they are, and I can’t wait.

djp: Hey, great band. Actually Trent Reznor mentioned in a Keyboard interview a long time ago that they were an influence for him, the way they blended synths & guitars.

M: Hey, those free magazines just came in handy!

djp: Yup.

M: Anywho…. Any tracks you’d like to remix in the future?

djp: Yeah, I’ve got several WIPs at various stages.

M: I assume you have a backlog of other tracks too?

djp: First out of the gate is probably gonna be a ReMix from the PSP game Crush. Really awesome puzzler.

M: Sweet!

djp: Besides the stuff I already have WIPs for, I also have some project obligations for Dragon Warrior, Mega Man X, and FF9, so I’m keeping busy.

M: You’re always busy.

djp: Very true.

M: Do you have a favorite track from a game?

djp: Not really… I mean, I get asked that a lot, and music is really apples and oranges, I find it hard to rank overall soundtracks, much less individual songs.

M: In that case, are there any particular tracks that stand out in your mind moreso than others?

djp: “Small Two of Pieces” from Xenogears is what I sometimes say, just so I’m not copping out.

M: I don’t qualify that as copping out; I qualify that as not having a favorite because you may or may not like it all equally, or are smart enought to not play favorites. Do you have a favorite video-game composer?

djp: I don’t think in terms of games as much as I do individual songs… if trying to come up with my favorite game composer, I’d go by the number of songs I absolutely love and that I think work perfectly in the context as well. At the moment, using those criteria, I’d probably say Koji Kondo, but it could be [Nobuo] Uematsu, [Yasunori] Mitsuda, or [Yuzo] Koshiro depending on the mood I’m in.

M: That actually describes how I feel at times regarding this… Final question. What do you enjoy most about remixing?

djp: I’m very melody-centric, so I choose my source material and my overall approach with a focus on that. I think the best part of ReMixing is finding that one note, or passage, when if you change an interval or add a counter-harmony or modify the rhythm, it just makes sense and feels natural. Sometimes, when arranging music, you can end up fighting against a source or struggling with it to take it where you go, which is not the worst thing in the world, but it’s much more enjoyable when things click and fall into place and you can get the ideas in your head turned into music that mirrors them.

M: I have the ideas; I just can never transfer them properly…

djp: Yeah I think that happens to even the best arrangers/composers… Until we get neural brain hookups that can seamlessly translate thought into sound, we’re stuck with making music the hard way. But the hard way is often pretty fun, as it turns out.

M: I know; I’ve made one track myself. It sucks, but the fact I actually went through and made it… That is enough to keep me satisfied

djp: Groovy. Got what you needed? I gotta run.

M: Yeah. Thanks for your time!

djp: No problem.[/EXPAND]

You could find his page on OCR here: Artist: djpretzel (David W. Lloyd), or you could just go to OverClocked ReMix and check out the wonderful community he has founded. This was tough for me to do; tuning out the fangirl EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE is difficult, but I managed to do it for the most part. Stay tuned next time for a review of Rocked ‘n Loaded. I should get it sometime next week, so patience is key, people! Until then, game on!

I recently realized I stole that from Joe Santulli, former writer of Collector’s Closet in Tips & Tricks… if you see this, Joe, I hope you don’t mind!

Indie Game Music Bundle 2 Out Now

 

Has the economy got you down? Yeah, us too. But for this week only, my friends, you can stick it to the man and get some of the best VGM albums at a crazy affordable price. With some of ThaSauce regular featured artists like Laura Shigihara, A_Rival, Jake “virt” Kaufman, the newest Game Music Bundle 2 release has you covered in a extremely convenient “Pay What You Want” format.

Oh, and if you happen to contribute $10+, they’ll throw even more VGM swag at you. As in, fifteen albums for the price of one fancy meal. Or one large pizza. Or maybe… oh, nevermind. At this rate, we have to say: total steal.

You can also sign up for GMB’s newsletter to receive exclusive updates and upcoming bundles. So what are you waiting for? This offer is only available for seven more days. Get down with your dirty self and get yo’ swag on now.

Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy Tour Hits North America

Any Final Fantasy fans still out there? Touted as the ultimate “unique multimedia concert experience”, the official Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy world-tour has just launched in North America. Originating in Sweden in 2007, Distant Worlds features classic Final Fantasy selections with state of the art HD video presentations filled with exclusive images direct from Square Enix and  has performed regularly in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Under the direction of Grammy Award-winner and acclaimed conductor Arnie Roth, the concerts are performed by symphony orchestra, choir, and renowned vocal and instrumental soloists.

But wait, there’s more! If you happen to be a Video Game Orchestra fan, there’s a special treat for those who live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The VGO creator and director Shota Nakama will be performing with his guitar at the Distant Worlds concert on February 25, 2012 at 8PM. Song highlights include “Eyes On Me” featuring Susan Calloway, “Dear Friends” and “Vamo’ alla Flamenco” featuring guitarist Mr. Nakama, “Zanarkand”, “Maria and Draco”, “The Man With The Machine Gun”, “Blinded By Light” and “Aerith’s Theme”.

While the first concert performance will be in Pittsburgh, the tour will roam around North America with stops in Ontario, Boston, St. Louis, and Toronto from February to March. Be sure to check out the official Distant Worlds website to get your tickets for this special, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Humbled to Dust Tour 2012 Commences East Coast Takeover

Canadian “rap legend” Jesse Dangerously, ThoughtCriminals vocalist Mikal kHill, and all-around raptacular talent Shane Hall have taken over the East Coast with The Humbled to Dust Tour. Combining a witty amalgamation of their album titles, this ten day tour spree started yesterday in Columbia, South Carolina and features a variety of key players within the nerdcore community such as MC Wreckshin, Rainbowdragoneyes, ThoughtCriminals, Schaffer the Darklord, People With Teeth, and more. If this line-up intrigues you, we’ve included a list of dates and locations for The Humbled to Dust Tour below.

[EXPAND Click here for Humbled to Dust Tour dates & locations]

Feb 3 – Columbia, SC @ Conundrum 8pm door/ 9pm show / $6 over 21 / $8 under 21 (Mikal kHill, Tribe One, cecilnick, Shane Hall & MC Stealth)

Feb 4 – Orlando, FL @ Back Booth 7pm door / 8pm show /$7 ALL AGES (Jesse Dangerously, MC Wreckshin, Rainbowdragoneyes, Mikal kHill, Shane Hall)

Feb 6 – Charlotte NC @ The Milestone 8pm door / 9pm show /$? over 21 / $?-2 under 21 (ThoughtCriminals, Jesse D, Shane Hall & MC Stealth)

Feb 8 – Baltimore, MD @ Bohemian Coffeehouse 7pm / 8pm show / FREE $0.00!!! ALL AGES (Collectible Humans, Jesse D & Shane Hall)

Feb 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Little Bar (Voss, Sketch Lightly, Mikey Mo, Jesse D & Shane Hall)

Feb 10 – Brooklyn, NY @ moon-ii [319 Rutledge St, Brooklyn] (Schaffer the Darklord, People With Teeth, Jesse D, Mikal kHill, Shane Hall, remind) Hosted by Shane with DJ Halo on the tables ALL NIIIIGHT LOOONG

Feb 11 – Worcester, MA @ 97 D Webster St. / $5-$10 suggested donation / ALL AGES (Jesse D, Mikal kHill, Shane Hall, Jon Von Wonderful, The Grand Arkanum, HW) with an opening set by DJ Snaxx[/EXPAND]

The Humbled to Dust Tour will conclude with a last stop in Massachusetts on February 12th, 2o12. You can also get more information about the tour with their Facebook page for day-to-day updates.

A_Rival’s Newest EP TMNT 2012 Does Not Disappoint


Okay, so maybe we’re not as on top of it as we’d like to believe. How we could miss hip-hop/electonic producer A_Rival‘s newest EP is beyond us. Just like channeling his magical Bay area powers by garnering an entire room full of people at three in the morning (in an unannounced performance, by the way) at MAGFest X, A_Rival really knows how to get the crowd pumped up. And pumped up we were when we gave TMNT 2012 a listen. The  remixed “TMNT 2012” really highlights an eargasmic drum n’ bass take on the original theme, while A_Rival’s sassy rhymes in “I Wanna Be a Ninja Turtle” make us reminisce about the times we really just wanted to tout purple eye bands and brazen weaponry.

We should probably be apologizing to A_Rival, since we didn’t know how awesome TMNT 2012 would really be. But we’d like to think we’re making up for it by telling you that you can download his latest EP on Bandcamp by naming your price. We’ve also included “I Wanna Be a Ninja Turtle” from the TMNT 2012 EP below.