VGBA 18 - The Cover Up

WELL! The original plan was to have this a few days after the release, but then I completely dropped the ball. Here it is regardless though!

The Cover Up

The Protomen are covering up something... classic rock!

The best I could find for album art at the moment.

Buy the album here!

Band - The Protomen
Sites - Home. Facebook.
Type of Album - Rock cover album.
Genres - Rock. Metal. Things along that line.
Favorite Song - The Trooper

Review - Time for something a little different! For those who don't know, The Protomen are a video game band of sorts, but rather than cover material from games, like most bands I review, they went out and crafted an original video game rock opera of sorts based on the Mega Man series. (Thus the name Protomen taken from the name Protoman.)

Now, generally the material The Protomen produce is original and goes kind of all over the place with genre. (Generally sticks to something of an 80s rock sounds though.) In more recent years though, they have been playing music covers and even released a couple cover albums. The first one was A Night of Queen. It was a live show of Queen covers. Great stuff! Definitely go give it a shot. And while we slowly wait for them to complete the epic tale of The Protomen in Act III... We are currently given a small taste of tasty Protomen beats with The Cover Up.

This cover album is filled to the brim with quite a few great and even some lesser known (to me) classic hits. For ease, I'll list what tracks are on here plus their original artist.

1. Pick Up*
2. Because The Night - Patti Smith Group
3. Princes of the Universe - Queen
4. Mr. Roboto - Styx
5. No Easy Way Out - Robert Tepper
6. Last Stop*
7. In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
8. I Drove All Night - Cyndi Lauper
9. Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
10. Hunted*
11. The Trooper - Iron Maiden
12. I Still Believe (Great Design) - The Call
13. Results*
14. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
15. Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) - Mike + The Mechanics

* - These are skits.

It's a really diverse selection of songs. I only knew half of the tracks original artists and had to look up the rest. It's nice to see a group try to look around and pick a variety when they do something like this. It's the same awesomeness that came out of the Queen cover album. True, they did pick some well known and liked Queen, but they also went out of their way and picked a few lesser known (but still awesome) tracks.

Honestly? I don't have much more to say about this album. The only true negative I have to say... It's not Act 3! But if you are a Protomen fan, you know they are getting close to finishing it. They've been working on it for a while now... only 6 years. Like many fans, I've just been eager to get my ears on that new tasty album....

ANYWAYS! Beyond that, this is still a great album. Definitely worth a listen for those who enjoy some classic rock mixed in with a few extras. It's also got some bits for the true Protomen fans as well. On top of it all, you can get yourself a tape cassette (you read that right) copy of it alongside your digital copy for only $10! Do yourself a favor and get this great album while you wait in anticipation for Act 3.

Pros - Another great release from the legendary Protomen. Really well done covers of some classic rock songs. Still manage to throw in some story bits even among all the great covers.
Cons - It's not Act 3.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Random Post!

I've got another RPG Review in the works, and I'm still deciding what album to review next. (There's just too many to review!) Thus... Going to share a small post of a project I'm working on.

I call it... Project Dreamfall!
(Name was randomly decided and doesn't really reflect what's going down.)

I recently acquired an extra Super Nintendo. It worked, but it was dirty looking. I was happy to have the extra Super Nintendo... but the case bothered me. For those who don't know, Super Nintendos were made with a kind of plastic that yellows quite horribly with age. (Lots of things were made with that kind of plastic and have the same issue.) After some thought, I decided to try and fix the problem. I went on eBay and bought a broken Super Nintendo with a good case. See below for the comparison.

Quite a damn difference...

A screwdriver and some time later... and the cases were swapped! However, I noticed something about the broken Super Nintendo. The only problem seemed to be the power port on the back. I looked it up, and buying a new one was pretty easy (eBay again). Installing just requires some time, a few screws, and a basic soldering skill. I purchased lots of soldering stuff and got to work!

Before!

After!

With the spot repaired, I felt pretty awesome. I mean... Sure, it was a simple job and pretty easy, but it was the first time I'd ever soldered something. This got me into a real big kick, and now I'm trying to fix up game consoles. Super Nintendo consoles are pretty easy to fix really. There's a good assortment of easy-to-fix problems, and I'm going to try and fix what I can.

On top of that, I looked up some different mods and things I can do to the Super Nintendos. Of the things available, I found that...

1. Changing the Power LED Color
2. Painting the console
3. Modding to play Super Famicom (Japanese) titles

I realize that isn't much, but they are some pretty cool improvements. My personal SNES (going to abbreviate it from here on) is just the original color, but it can play Super Famicom titles and has a lovely blue LED for the power. Maybe nothing to go crazy about, but it's pretty cool looking.

Now, I'm still waiting on my batch of LEDs to come in. (Ordered on Amazon... apparently from China. Looking at a week or more.) However, I have finished painting the extra SNES in my possession. So here they are! The fruits of the last two days of labor!

Salamander SNES (Supposed to look like the Warhammer 40k Salamanders)

Iron Man SNES (Kinda sorta but not really)

Yes, I realize that they aren't too much to go crazy about, but I'm pretty proud of myself. I learned while doing the Salamander and made improvements while painting Iron Man. The paint jobs aren't perfect, but I tried my best to make them look nice. I will say that I will probably not paint controllers again. They're easy to mess up, and if you aren't careful about the layers, you mess up the buttons. Seriously... Be careful if you attempt to paint controllers and the buttons thereof. You end up with buttons that stick and... I really don't have to say more here.

Now, that's really all I had. I'm figuring to do a bit more retro console work from here on out, so expect a post like this once in a while. Yes, I am kind of trying to get away with filler material here, but I'm also indecisive of what I should review next as far as games and video game albums go.

And that's all I've got for now. Look forward to more stuff.. COMING SOON!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

VGBA 17 - Player Select

Warning, this post is going to probably be a bit swear-y compared to my norm. Just know that it's all in fair relation to the album at hand. Otherwise... ENJOY!

Player Select

Starbomb Returns With a Blast of Profanity and Swearing Fun!

Buy it on multiple sites! *Links below*

Band - Starbomb
Sites - Home page.  Facebook.
Purchase Sites

• CD Baby
• Amazon
• iTunes

Type of Album - Video Game Comedy Parody.
Genres - Rock. Rap. Comedy. Parody. And quite a bit more really.
Favorite Song/Songs - Smash! and Minecraft Is for Everyone

Review - Now, I'm going to take on something a little wilder/profanity filled than usual. I already warned you at the top of the post, but I'll restate it here. Things are going to get a bit swear-y, but it's all in favor of and with the album to be reviewed.

Now, for those who don't know, Starbomb is a musical group composed of three people. There's Egoraptor (his Youtube channel and Game Grumps) and the comedy musical duo of Ninja Sex Party. (Haven't really listened to any of their stuff, so don't have an opinion ATM.) And now things are going to get weird for you...

The trio combine their awesome abilities and vast talents to create some hardcore kickass shit! We get the fuckin' hilarious video game nonsense next to your killer raps and dope music jams. Unlike those other unmanly bands, we get a face-splosion of tasty tunes to satisfy our thirst (and lust) for awesome-ality. Let's be honest. Your face might not be able to handle all these songs, so you should probably leave the blog now before you lose the ability to not have a melted face.


Where was I... OH YEAH! THIS ALBUM IS PRETTY AWESOME! You've got a great selection of jams from many games. (Out of character for a moment, the songs aren't quite as based on the video games they represent as most video game bands I review. Still great music though.) Player Select is the second album  We got all the basic shit you need for a video game album. Here's a list of all the damn fine tracks on this hot ass album.

1. Intro
2. Smash! (Smash Bros)
3. Robots in Need of Disguise (Transformers)
4. The Hero of Rhyme (Legend of Zelda)
5. Toad Joins the Band (Mario skit)
6. The New Pokerap (Pokemon)
7. Glass Joe's Title Fight (Punch Out!)
8. Mortal Kombat High (Think this is self-explanatory)
9. Inky's Lament (Pac-Man)
10. God of No More (God of War)
11. Atari Mystery Hour (Skit)
12. Minecraft is for Everyone (Again, self-explanatory)
13. The Simple Plot of Metal Gear Solid (Self. Explanatory.)
14. Outro

Check out that fuckin' awesome list of all dem tunes. You're thinking... How come I haven't heard of this amazing shit yet? Because you are still here! You should get out there and start listening! We'll start off with one of the first songs revealed for the album... Smash! (Video incoming...)

(Really hope that video posts right... Also going to cut out the swearing bit and get to the point.) If that got you going, you might check out the rest of the album's songs. Most of them are floating around Youtube at this point. 

Overall, Player Select is pretty funny and surprisingly well done for what it's aiming to be. That song Smash! is a pretty good example of what takes place throughout the album. The album is going for a mixture of electronica-80s-ish rock-rap that is well written, great sound, and fun to listen to. I will say that regardless of how well a light I put this in, this album will either immediately entertain you or just make you shake your head. 

The material they go over ranges from fairly tame to kinda raunchy at times. It's never going to make you go "DID THEY JUST SAY THAT!?!", but something to keep in mind while giving the album a listen. Lots of great tunes with some good comedy covering all of your basic video game universe. 

Outside of the profanity contained within, the only problem I can have with this album... It's really not as great as the first one. There's a few reasons I have for this. It is mostly personal opinion above all else, but I think there is one thing worth mentioning. There's a few small elements that require a listening of the first album, self-titled Starbomb, to fully get. It's mostly small jokes, but there are a few songs that build off songs from the previous album. Beyond that? I just like the first album more. Can't really make any kind of argument here...

Hell, if you like what you've heard so far, get both of them! They're both pretty entertaining and great listens. However, I would say get Starbomb first and then come back around to Player Select. Regardless, I see a bright future for Starbomb and eagerly await more from them!


Pros - Overall, very funny album with catchy well-written lyrics. Plenty of comedy. Interesting mixture of electronica, 80s rock, and rap. Bitchin' tunes. Just overall lots of fun to listen to.
Cons - If profanity bothers you, just stop now. Not quite the punch of the first album. Many of the songs require knowledge from the first album to get.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~