Chotto matte and wait a minute, what's this? Are there really lights on inside the ol' VGMJB bar tonight? Looks like Josh and Emily are marking the 10th anniversary of The VGM Jukebox by opening the doors again! Come snag your favorite chair and get transported places as they share tunes that capture the spirit of the old days, the newer days, and the wide range of everything in between. J&E will need your patience as they relearn the biorhythms of everything from publishing episodes to flipping coins properly, and a good handful of their tracks aren't even from video games. It's going to be an unusual evening, to say the least! But if you stay a while, let us know what you've been up to these past seven years, and what tunes and memories have stayed connected to your hearts.
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| This episode was made possible by: | ||
| Game | Track Title | Composer(s) |
| Devil's Course | Music No. 6 | Yumi Kinoshita, Shigekazu Kamaki, Yusaburo Shimojyo, Shunsuke Minomiya, Akira Tamada |
| -- | [REDACTED] | Unknown |
| Jim Power: The Arcade Game |
Mutant Forest | Chris Hülsbeck |
| -- | UNBALANCE-ZONE | Meiko Nakahara |
| Dorfromantik | Beerenweg | Pygoscelis |
| -- | Linda Cross | Pepeu Gomes |
| Tetris Effect | Connected (Yours Forever) | Hydelic |
...and listeners like YOU.
NANI!?!!
ReplyDeleteEmily, Josh, thank you both so much for returning to the platform of dancing snowflakes! The nostalgia is overwhelming (in a good way). As a forever patron, I'm so glad to hear you're both doing well! I'm particularly so happy to hear that Emily's spirit has been renewed in the way it has.
ReplyDeleteAmongst some other small activities, I've spent the past seven years making music with my friends in Ypsi, MI. Keep on ganbatting!
P.S. this is ZaCH
DeleteFirst off, hi all! What an awesome Christmas surprise! I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed J&K's collective conversations. Josh, your explanation of two-player lawnmowing–as–video game had me cracking up! By the way, Chris Hüelsbeck is German. And I had completely forgotten turning Josh onto Harumi Hosono's Sportsman, but I'm glad I did! It somehow seems a very Josh song, in spite of it having some not-Joshlike musical repetition.
ReplyDeleteKeyglyph, I think it's so amazing that you had stored Japanese anime phrases in your mind without being able to understand them, only to recall them later when your comprehension was ready! For me, if I don't understand a word or phrase when I hear it, it's gone. The record function was never activated. The closest I ever got to that was very early on in the only year of Japanese I took...we were forbidden from using English with our native Japanese instructors, and I had to use the restroom. All I knew to say was "Boku, ikimasu ka?"["can I go?], and each time I asked, the instructor kept responding with, "Doko ikimasu ka?"["go where?"]
Suddenly I remembered the anime Appleseed, where the bad guy gets up to leave. He's asked where he's going, and the subtitles to that phrase read "To the toilet".
So I parroted "Benzyō da", perfectly mimicking the voice actor's deep, very direct tone. The instructor's cheeks turned bright pink with embarrassment, and laughing nervously, she replied in English, "Daniels-san! Very informal! Go, go!" When I returned, she made a point of teaching the class the more formal words for bathroom.
Keyglyph, it's so good to hear you received a helpful diagnosis! I was diagnosed with the same thing about 2010, and it was life-changing. By contrast, I always thought there was something wrong with me…But because I was a pretty quiet kid, I was never diagnosed properly as a child.
My three tracks
-To take us back to the VGMJB era: so hard to choose just one! But I choose Round 2 Forest from the arcade version of Ninja Spirit. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UnRmXTqL4S8&list=PLObDxZXpRgSzQcUI9qvbIIs63gC3B_Uxq&index=6&t=8s&pp=iAQB8AUB
-To take us to the in-between:
Guardian Ape theme from Sekiro (possibly my favorite game, and one of the few I've Platinumed) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZuU1rBWkzA&list=PLPfHaI9XqTnFxKoXOs30LKSLF3prWagC4&index=26&pp=iAQB8AUB
Also a track from Streets of Rage 4, which my kids and I love https://olivierderiviere.bandcamp.com/track/call-the-cops
-To take us to the now/future: EARTHION. A new Genesis game by Yuzo Koshiro and Ancient. I'm playing it and it's the best shmup on the Genesis. SO GOOD.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hoK5M38DNAg&list=OLAK5uy_nXnhiQvrlcZmrgIVJAw-llN2bV84VHkwU&index=1&pp=8AUB
Apologies for the long post. It's kind of a recurring thing with me. So happy Keyglyph and Josh made a new episode! And so glad to be back here with all of y'all! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays all!
-UtopiaNemo aka Nathan Daniels
Oh my gosh! How excited I was when UtopiaNemo burst through the doors of the VGM Journey Discord with news of your latest episode!
ReplyDeleteIt's such a pleasant surprise to hear y'all on the podwaves again. I've kept up with key a bit over the years, but it's so great to hear things are going well for you both. Congrats on 10 years!
My track of yore would probably have to be Lonely Rolling Star from Katamari Damacy, since I first heard it on your show. My interim track is The Legend of Daryl from Super Daryl deluxe, as it's one of my favorite discoveries over the last 7 years. Finally, my track of the present would have to be something from the Octopath Traveler series, as it's my favorite current-running series for VGM. Any track will do.
Hopefully this isn't the last we hear from you, but if this is a one-shot treat, it was lovely. Thanks so much for reopening the doors. Take care!
Hey Bedroth! Great to see you here!
ReplyDeleteJust stopping by to mention that after the new episode, I got sucked into revisiting all the old episodes and their respective blog entries (something I haven't done since the show ended, despite me staying subscribed to VGMJB all these years). It's been so much joy and laughter and all the feels! And such a satisfying sense of relived nostalgia for a show that was, in large part, preoccupied with nostalgia.
That said, the real reason I'm posting this is to say I've had Josh's apology Karaoke to Maxwell stuck in my head for days now. And I'm still cracking up about it.
Oh my GOSH a new VGMJB for the new year! I was so happy when someone shared this in the R&P Discord. And when I put it on, hearing both of your voices brought me a great amount of joy. Firstly, you both have great voices for radio. Voices which I have nostalgia for. Second, you are not only sharing something you love, but you sharing parts of your life that elevate the mundane to something greater.
ReplyDeleteKey, I'm happy you are in a better space. I did notice you drop by our Discord to say hello and I didn't think much of it at the time. But you must have been rediscovering shows and communities and I'm happy that we are still here for you to discover.
This is not an advertisement, but our show is in its 10th year now and I have so much to reflect on. Our lives have changed and grown so much, but we continue to come together for our friendship, the love of the community, and our shared love of good music. We nearly burned out a couple of years ago and took a hiatus for the sake of our friendship and mental health. I'm glad we did. (I have massive respect for all the parents out there)
Connected/Yours Forever is such an amazing song. Hearing it brings me to tears in a way that's hard to explain. The sound and structure is perfectly engineered to make me emotional. And then the message "it's all connected, we're all together in this love" is something I think about all the time. A message I want to impart to my son.
So because of this, I'm recommending music that makes me emotional and I come back to when I need catharsis. (sorry I listen to a lot of drum and bass, and you opened the door to non-vgm music so there)
***
Weavers by Feint
https://youtu.be/uqUfNc4C1C0
"and to the dark we'll belong, shoulder to shoulder folded strong"
This high energy dancefloor song is filled with heart-felt lyrics that gives me goosebumps every time.
***
Sad Jungle by Fred V
https://youtu.be/L7vDuszy3K4
There are so many songs without lyrics that hit just right. Heavy jungle breaks and a bassline that takes me on a journey. I listened to this for the first time after leaving a therapy session and had to pull the car over.
***
Camo & Crooked & Christian Kolonovitis & Orchestra
https://youtu.be/AZ7MN4WpZRI
Yes, this whole concert. When the drumline marched out for "Witchdoctor" I stood up out of my chair in the office. The arrangement for "No Tomorrow" at the end is a triumph. It's music designed to make you feel, from the modern age mixed with the classical age.
I hope you enjoy the music, and I hope to see you around! Take care Josh and Key.
So glad you guys are back! Please stay back! hah I will listen to the episode now... just had to leave the comment as I've noticed the new ep!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you guys are back! Please stay back! hah I will listen to the episode now... just had to leave the comment as I've noticed the new ep!
ReplyDeleteIt won't let me login or publish with a name... so this is Shoryukenny :)
Hey hey heyyyy, can't believe I'm seeing another episode of this podcast. I'm so glad you guys are back! Please keep coming back! The music on this episode is really good too. I love the dorfromantik track and the Brazilian one! Lots of new music to start checking out.
ReplyDeletePlease come back. The world needs you! Hahaha. Maybe once a month?!
Shoryuuuuukennt
Hey hey heyyyyy, a new episode! I was behind on podcasts because of the holidays and to see that popup was a sight for sore eyes. Hope you guys are back! Please be back!! hahaha Maybe once a month?!
ReplyDeleteAnways some great music here, looooooved the Brazilian track and the Dorfromantik track. The Tetris Effect one had me tearing up a lil with your story keyglyph, I'm glad you are feeling on the other side of something.
Great to hear both of you in my ears again
-Shoryuuuuuuukenny
I can't tell if my comments are going through or not!
ReplyDeleteKenny, I'm so sorry your comments were left in moderation limbo for so long! They *were* coming through, they were just bottlenecked by a few broken processes backstage. I'm currently teasing those out. Thank you not only for these warm and kind words, and for being so persistent in wanting them to get through to us. <3
DeleteI've also been testing the commenting system, and it seems that certain adblockers can interfere with the ability to submit comments on Blogger posts. This was what was happening in my own case, at least; I just confirmed this by deactivating my own privacy add-ons for a moment, which magically removed the errors I was getting.
And if this goes through, it may also mean that you can only be logged into one Google account at a time to be able to post... we'll see.
Fingers crossed that this is the answer for you too the next time you try to leave us some thoughts!
So excited to listen along to another episode of VGM jukebox for the first time in so long. It took me back to a more innocent time. Thanks for letting us catch up a little with how you both are getting on Josh & Emily!
ReplyDeleteIt's been a big few years since the show ended for me - in that time I have bought a house (twice!), gotten married, got a lovely dog called Arlo, been laid off, started an exciting new career, had my first daughter Alice join the family, and have my second on the way. It feels like it's been an impossibly long time but also no time at all!
Hey guys! On a whim, I decided to look up the VGM Jukebox page this week, and was pleasantly surprised to see a new episode! My name is Marshe, I listened to every episode of the show back in the day.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear you're doing ok, and Emily, glad to hear your health is improving. Thanks for the new episode- there's so few podcasts still doing classic video game music!
You guys were a regular part of my life for the year you were doing the show- I appreciate all the effort and heart you put into it!
Great episode!
ReplyDelete