The Latest with MM
The best MAGfest yet?
MAGfest 9, 2011 was astounding on a number of levels.The show went wonderfully. We played Metroid Fusion – Sector 1 live for the first time, and we also snuck in a special Transformers (1986) track for Norg, one of our favorite people. Nario made an appearance on stage and played Metroid ON A DANCEPAD. The lovely 9-year-old Chunklette (chunkstyle‘s daughter) got to make her stage debut and introduce the band, as Samus of course.
The MM show was full of crazy, but that was only a microcosm of the entire MAG9 experience. This was the first year that MAGfest 9 sold out, and somehow… some way… the crew was able to keep it all together. From a band perspective, we could not have been more take care of. Even with 6 bands on Friday, the show somehow ended ON TIME. There are always crazy hotel happenings that plant entries in the MAG lore. But compared to other years, even with so many people, things felt together. It was really special and tight.
Danimal had his fill of rockstar over the weekend. The limitless bastard ended up playing 3 shows in 24 hours. Arm Cannon rocked it the same night as MM, and the very next day, he hit the main stage again for a sensational chiptune set, playing guitar on top of his original compositions.
Saturday, Kirby and Temp Sound Solutions hit the jamspace to play a short set of some of their best tunes (Halloween was appreciated), and Stemage got up with Aaron from the Minibosses and a few other wonderful people to cover some their favorite FAILURE songs. I’ll see what I can do to get some media up of all the aforementioned pseudo-shows.
MAGfest is the reason Metroid Metal is a band, and a lot has happened since that first MAG experience. Thank you a million times over to Brendan and the MAG crew for building something with so much substance and positivity – and letting us be a part of it.
Stemage on new VikingGuitar record, danimal does chips like CHEX MIX, and Indie Uprising!
Babies everywhere!
1. VikingGuitar just released his new game-cover album and let me play a guitar solo on his Street Fighter track. I’ve always wanted to play that melody! He let me win too. Check out the track and get his 79-minute explosion:
http://vikingguitar.bandcamp.com/
2. Turns out danimal does chiptunes on Gameboy like a deity. Check out all his tracks on 8bc.org.
3. Also, UPRISING! Alpha Squad should be out next week, and the soundtrack will follow!
Indie Games Winter Uprising from Nakatomi HMC on Vimeo.
Indie Games Winter Uprising event featuring over a dozen games from the most talented independent developers across the world.
Visit www.indiegames-uprising.com for the revolution.
Design-an-Enemy Contest! – from Metroid-Database.com
Contests are always cool – especially if they encourage creativity. In the same vein as the previous Make-a-Metroid Content, the mdb is hosting another that includes some MM goodies and other ‘troid related items. Check out all the details at www.metroid-database.com
On a side note, the new MM track is coming along nicely. :) Like, IT WON’T BE LONG NOW nicely.
Full Band Roster and Guest List Announced for MAGfest 9
And it’s a bit CRAZY. GO GO GO for the details.
Full band roster:
The Protomen (http://www.protomen.com/)
The Minibosses (http://www.minibosses.com/)
The OneUps (http://www.theoneups.com/)
Metroid Metal (http://metroidmetal.com/)
Armcannon (http://armcannon.com/)
Bit Brigade (http://www.bitbrigade.com/)
The Megas (http://themegas.com/)
Year 200X (http://year200xband.com/)
X-Hunters (http://www.myspace.com/thexhunters)
Entertainment System (http://www.myspace.com/entertainmentsystem)
This Place Is Haunted (http://thisplaceishaunted.com/)
Rare Candy (http://www.rarecandyband.com/)
Check out MAGFEST.ORG for the rest of the goodies.
“Yes Mayhem” is out!
Featuring several members of Metroid Metal.
The brainchild of Dan Taylor (long time bass player for Metroid Metal), this collab features original music with several members of Metroid Metal and MANY others, and it’s all original stuff – heavy, quirky, and catchy as hell! It features vocals by James Moats, who will wow you with his layering. I believe Dan said the “record” was 16 vocal parts for a single track. It was a blast to play on, and it’s COVERED in musicianship. You won’t believe it.
Jump through some tracks and name your price for it at http://www.yesmayhem.com/
Going to PAX? CONTEST 4 U!
Here it is – the “Run Around PAX Finding Clues for Free Stuff… Contest”. We’re serious. Free to enter! Not everyone is a winner!
At PAX, we will place three markers with clues around the PAX facilities. The three clues will be fragments that create a full sentence when combined. The first person to gather the clues, form the sentence, come to the MM merch booth, and recite the sentence, wins the astronomically huge prize (OK not that big – should fit in a breadbox).
We’ll release the location to the clues as GPS coordinates >>>ON THIS PAGE<<<, and we’ll link them from this here, Twitter and Facebook. We will also provide nearby cross streets and a Google Map, for those with no GPS capabilities.
The clues will be encoded as QR codes, which are matrix barcodes. Most modern phones support applications that read QR codes, so search for your phone model and “QR codes” to find a compatible app. Some smartphones already have this functionality built in, so just ask Google. If you happen to have your PKE Meter™ with you, those work too.
Here is what a QR code looks like.
This one says “Metroid Metal”.
It’s basically geocaching for QR codes!
We’ll place the clues Friday morning. Hopefully, we can award the winner later that day/night. If necessary, the hunt will extend into Saturday. As soon as someone nabs the prize, we’ll post here, Twitter, and Facebook so you aren’t left hunting after the prize has been ACQUIRED.
If your phone doesn’t do GPS or read QR codes, then you must go home. Kidding. All you do is simply snap photos of the three markers, download them to a computer, laptop or web enabled phone and upload them to the ZXing online decoder: http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx
Listen to Brinstar (Super Metroid) from Expansion Pack
WITHIN…
Less than one week!
Kevin writing and recording drums for Expansion Pack
VIDEO >>
Metroid Metal presents Expansion Pack (the new EP)
UPDATE 9-2-10 - The album is out!!
We also have some new threads and stuff. Hope you all like it!
UPDATE 8-21-10 – Check out Kevin recording for Expansion Pack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8vzdB8yxI8
UPDATE 8-30-10 – Listen to Brinstar (Super Metroid) from Expansion Pack: http://metroidmetal.bandcamp.com/album/expansion-pack
It’s been 2.5 years since I first approached the now-members of MM to play this stuff live. The songs gained new life with the live project, so Varia Suite happened.
We’re kind of a band now, and bands play shows. Other MM songs have slipped into the setlists over the years, and those songs have earned a sound of their own as well. So with that, we are happy to introduce Expansion Pack – the new EP.
Consider it an add-on to the Varia Suite album. It’s a 27 minute collection of 6 songs – one track that we haven’t played live before (first time is PAX).
EP will be available for download the weekend of PAX (9/4/10), and you can pay what you want for it on Bandcamp. If you want a CD with super-fun artwork (by Robbie Player, the guy that did the VS art), it will be available for an unreasonably low price from Silent Uproar Records. It’s really just an expansion on songs that are already available, and an extention of the Varia Suite record. However, we’ve grown as a band, and we’ve grown in our production as well. It kicks pretty hard. We hope you like it. :) It’s a nice little upgrade.
Here is a better quality sampler of the album on Bandcamp if you don’t want the distractions of that video. ;)
We’ll be putting out more info about the record with some video from the drum recording session and a full song in the coming weeks, because HEY! You know! Choo choo!
- Granty Pants
Listen to the new “City Theme” (Stemage) from the Upcoming Alpha Squad for 360
NEW SONG!
The first full length track from the upcoming Alpha Squad is available on the Stemage bandcamp page. It’s the KMFDM inspired City Theme. Also FOOTAGE and MM HYPE.
Also, here’s the first gameplay footage and a contest/alpha demo for the PC:
http://www.indiepubgames.com/game/Alpha_Squad
(it’s definitely the SmashTV+Zelda mashup I’ve been hearing about. YAY!) If you can get the demo working, there’s a bunch more music in there too, but getting XNA games to run on PCs can be difficult. Feel free to try, but the game will be out on 360 soon enough! :) Here’s a few more updates from the official site.
On the MM front, there’s some big stuff coming. We’ll be talking it about it soon (PAX is also soon!). I mauled a power supply getting this stuff together. I’m pretty sure the mini-project caused my cat to stress out. Anyway, that part of it is over, and we can all celebrate soon.
Kisses!
-Stempants
