***DISCLAIMER: THESE ARE NOT OFFICIAL MAGIC THE GATHERING CARDS, THEY ARE PROXIES INTENDED FOR CASUAL USE ONLY***
***BULK CARD ORDER HAS BEEN PLACED AND WILL BE SHIPPING SOON!***
After years of throwing MTG cards out to crowds, it only makes sense for
me to put my mug on something you can tap! People always look at my
posters and business cards and go "Are these ACTUAL CARDS?" so now SIX
cards from the Rhythm Bastard ouevre can be yours!
HOUR OF DEVASTATION SONG "IMMINENT DOOM" COMING THIS THURSDAY!
God-Bird-Art did the art for this one and it's looking BADASS!
This one is a song inspired by Arch Enemy, both the band and Nicol Bolas Archenemy.
JAM OF THE WEEK: "Square Hammer" by GHOST
For a band with a Satanic, Gothic priesthood gimmick their sound is a lot... lighter than I would expect. Not that that's a bad thing, because "Square Hammer" evokes some of the best of Dio's solo work, an era of heavy metal where it wasn't so much "heavy" as it was "grand", like organs and shit. It's that dissonance that makes the band more inviting.
This song and music video make me want to do an FMV game inspired by
Ghost's work. Hey, if Chuck Tingle can get one, then so can Ghost. Like
Phantasmagoria meets Bioshock. And of course "Square Hammer" would the song in the trailer, in the grand tradition of horror-themed FMV games having really well put together trailers out of their shitty FMVness
SOUNDCLOUD DYING? NOT REALLY? MAYBE?
Either way, I'm starting to shift a lot of my older songs off Soundcloud and onto stuff like Spotify and Youtube.
So, what that means is that I'm looking for people to do cover art for these releases. It could be just for a collection of older stuff, it could be per song, I'm not sure yet. If you're in the market for smaller commisons, shoot me an email.
Once that gets going, I'll do a regular feature where I highlight my older songs.
OK! So, I'm giving a little more background on this, and why I'm hype about it.
1. YOU CAN VOTE ON THE SONGS!
Some I already know what I'm going to do, some I'm not so sure about, so that's why I'm letting you choose some! I want this to be an album you can give to your friends as an introduction to my greater work, sobe sure to pick your favorites, and leave some suggestions in the comments.
2. AT LEAST 12 SONGS, SOME NEW, SOME OLD There's going to be AT LEAST 12 songs on the album, and it shakes up as follows:
3 Team Fortress 2 songs:
"Force Of Nature"
"From A Mile Away (Boom, Headshot)"
One other song, voted on by you. The previous 2 are the most obvious references, so I'm leaving this one up to you guys
3 Overwatch songs:
"Fire In The Hole"
2 other songs currently in the works, more details later. But for now, these will be the FIRST PLACE you can hear these new tracks.
3 Magic The Gathering songs:
"Hunting Bigger Game"- It encapsulates that FNM excitement so well, and it's the song I throw cards out to.
2 other songs, voted on by you!
3 other fandom songs:
"Freddy Fazbear's Pizza"- Again, I play this song live ALL THE TIME, and this is the first time I'm selling a recorded version.
"Axe Punk"- Another live set favorite about everyone's favorite cop with an Axe!
OPEN- Let me know in the comments! Check out my Soundcloud, and if there's any you think I missed that doesn't fit in one of the above cateregories, let me know.
My favorite non-Megalovania song. The game's Pacifist Run was a very emotional experience and this song provided the right mix of desparation and uplifting to fill me with... DETERMINATION.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK?
Fuckin' Omni Expo was this weekend! which is why I didn't post up any recap shit on Saturday. Let me run through the whipdash of that day.
OMNI EXPO!
Left home at around 10-ish and got to the convention center at around 1. The shitty thing is that ConJure, another convention was taking place not too far away, so I think Omni Expo mioght have been a little more full, but it had good attendance.
Most of the afternoon was spent bumming around, taking pictures and the like. I bought some Magic cards to throw into the audience since I left my Fat Pack at home, and in one of my packs, I pull out this guy:
For those of you rolling your eyes and thinking "Oh fuck, he's talking about Magic again, nobody cares", guess what? As of March 6th, 2016, it costs: $91.52
That's not a typo, I pulled almost $100 out of a pack of Origins.
After that, I went to play a quick game of Remain Calm, an Zombie-themed RPG that involves surviving in the Zombie Apocalypse. It's based on the D20 system used by Dungeons and Dragons, so if you're familiar with that, then you should be fine.
One interesting thing about it is that it also uses your smart phone to log into a website where you get your character sheets and can set up your equipment. The pros of this system is that you can modify the game almost immediately and gives plenty of opportunity for expansion. The con is that the site isn't the best optimized for mobile phones.
The scenario we played out was very straight forward: we're a group of survivors looking to get to the other side of a road. Fresh
off the RP-heavy FATE Campaign I was involved in with [insert quest
here], it was a nice break to see something with numbers.
Two mechanics that help set it apart and make a lot of sense in the setting are infection and noise. If there is any contact with a zombie, you need to roll probability for how likely it is that you are infected with the zombie virus, an event that can take it's toll in a campaign. Noise came in to play a lot more frequently: As we performed actions and as the GM took his turn, there was a possibility that zombies can moan and attract more zombies, screwing us over more. At one point we summoned 83 zombies in a single turn. Our team barely made it across, but it was a fun time.
However, it wasn't very streamlined, so a bunch of crazy combinations were able to take place, like a slingshot that threw lawn darts covered in spikes. There were a lot of options that weren't practical for a beta release, or wouldn't come into play during a con game. Also a lot of the pieces we were using we laminated stand ins. So a lot of stuff is still in beta.
With more time and money, the game can get a worthwhile package to sell to the masses. In the mean time, you can find out more from their website. After that, I went to my show and drew a pretty decent crowd. I played some new stuff, some old stuff, and added older songs back into the fold. I also did the Stone Cold beer smash before I did "Hell Yeah" which is what I always wanted to do!
Aside from the technical issue of not having a PA System, I think it went over well.
Still thinking I might need a liason or someone in the back to collect e-mails for the mailing list and sell merch. Just an idea I had. After that, while I didn't manage to have my post show booze, I did run into Frosted Gaming who hosted an impromptu panel in the middle of the hall. So in response, I threw a mini-concert playing a couple of my MtG songs, and they went over big! I should host more guerilla concerts in the future.... WHATCHA DOIN' NOW? Setting up for Hero Hype Con, maybe working on a couple cover songs, some to release, some for "back pocket" reasons, I dunno. Also some arts and crafts for the future stuff. Finally, getting everything ready for PAX East. That's going to be fun.
Everything's beem thrown off this week because my Dad was hit by a car a couple weeks ago and I've been running around taking him to doctor's offices and he just went into surgery today. Everything's fine, he made it out OK! They're keeping him overnight for observation and to have him rest.
Best of luck to her, I'll talk more extensively about this outside the Status Quo Sunday.
MUSIC NEWS!
About time asshat...
WHAT?
Nothing...
ALL RIGHT THEN.
"TAKE THE OATH" IS NOW OUT ON SOUNDCLOUD AND YOUTUBE!
I have a new song out, called "Take The Oath" inspired by the Oath of the Gatewatch set for Magic The Gathering.
This was a difficult, but also very rewarding song to work on. It's definitely one I had the longest streak of writer's block for, since everything was so pressured to have it out "on time" I just had trouble wrapping my head around it.
I like having the blocks work out to be these miniature concept albums where the Khans block went fast-slow-fast and was about loving dragons, this was about being a group of dorks who fight against Cthulu. At the very least it takes away some of the thematic guesswork out and I have somewhat of an idea where my next steps are going to be.
The next block is Shadows Over Innistrad which takes place in a realm inspired by gothic horror, so either alt-metal or Tom Waits style habberdashery. NEW DEAL ON BANDCAMP!
Giving away MtG Cards with every tangible order. I have a shitton of some left over promos, and a bunch of commons and uncommons I cracked open from Oath of the Gatewatch. I'm not promising anything spectacular, but some of you out there who are curious about this game I talk about pretty much every week, or you don't keep up with the game regularly, it's a neat little bonus.
CON NEWS! Omni Expo is still happening! I haven't been promoting it, because I'm too busy finishing up the song, but I'll get to practicing this week!
I do not have any concert set up, but I will have a table at Out Con. It was very reasonable, profits go to a good cause, it's only one day. My music is awesome, so I think I can manage. Even better if I have a concert!
