Sure, we just passed our milestone 100th episode (with Rocktober 2015 on the way, no less!), but chances are you’re in the market for even more game music podcasts. If that’s the case, hop over to one of these shows for alternate takes on some of the best tunes out there!
After a brief hiatus, LMH is back and posting about twice a month. We had host Brent Weinbach on the show back in 2013, and by sheer chance it was for one of his favorite games – Secret of Mana!
I’ve mentioned this show a few times on the air and RT’d some of the episode links, though so far we haven’t had either of its hosts on VGMpire! That should definitely change, as these guys cover some ground I have yet to tread (namely great Amiga and arcade stuff, plus iOS tunes) in addition to all the usual sources (consoles, handhelds etc).
Distinct from Pixelated Audio is PixelTunes Radio, a show you can catch on iTunes OR on YouTube. Their most recent episode (as of this writing) is a sports show that tackles (HA!) a lot of different songs than our own Cavalcade of Sports.
I actually appeared on an episode of this, where we talked almost exclusively about Mario Kart 64’s Victory Lap. This is not indicative of the rest of the shows, however – they cover a lot of ground!
Naturally these are not the only VGM shows out there – if you have others to share, post ’em below!
Oh awesome Brett, thanks.
I have often had great intentions of “They just mentioned another VG music podcast I should listen to on the show, I will DEFINITELY come back to this podcast later when I am at my pc, scroll to the exact timestamp where this was discussed, note the name, google it, and download that show. Definitely. I absolutely will not forget to do exactly that.”
Surprisingly that never panned out…
You are not the only VG music podcast I listen to, but you are the only one that I would feel comfortable recommending (and have done many a time).
I haven’t heard of any of the ones you’ve recommended here so I’ll definitely give them all a listen.
Aren’t there more though? I seem to recall you saying…. erm… Retronauts was one? I dunno.
Congrats on the 100. So glad you got to fulfill your dream of nerding out about VGM. Gotta say though, I miss the GMotD – any chance of farming that out to some contributors? Hell, pull random people in the industry: that’ll be a great perspective.
One podcast is the Minnesota Top Score – a legit radio show featuring Emily Reese and a healthy variety of composers (she just talked to the guy behind Gunpoint?! That’s badass). It’s important because of the reach it has; hopefully Minnesotans are becoming more worldly and knowledgeable about game music.
Also, Brett, dafuq is up with the site non-redesign? Is there strife within the Laser Time Network? Is there a mutiny brewing? Is Chris going to wake up with a horse head in his bed?
Personally I’m a big fan of the Super Marcato Bros podcast. It’s been going for years and the two hosts are extremely knowledgable about both console hardware and music theory.
There’s also the VGM Jukebox run as a sort of fan side podcast to the Legacy Music Hour:
http://thevgmjukebox.blogspot.co.uk/
It’s shorter and aims to be fully stacked by user requests for songs, but it’s a lot of fun and the skits they do at the beginning of each episode are cute and fun
Another one is the Super Marcato Bros. They’re both composers, so they’ve got the technical side of game music down pat. They’re also very enthusiastic about the they play on the show. Plus they’re the only ones I know of who got Dave Wise to give them a recorded interview.
One negative, particularly about their early episodes, is they have a tendency to speculate a lot…..Usually it’s about reasons why a composer made a particular choice, or other things that they’d have no way of knowing. That speculation is often wrong, which can be frustrating to listen to. But more recently they’ve become a lot more knowledgeable about their subjects, and they speculate a lot less.
The Amiga stuff they covered on Pixelated Audio has been increble. Its just eminently talented people going nuts for 8 minutes and it just sounds awesome. Thanks for the link!
Another game music podcast that hasn’t been mentioned in the BGM Video Game Music Podcast.
The host is fairly (very) irritating but, fortunately, it’s a very music heavy show and it tends to focus on more modern music which is certainly welcome as there’s a tendency in VGM podcasts to lean towards retro music.
On the topic of how much music these shows play, I feel like VGMpire is the only one that gets away with a lot of talk around the tracks. Certain podcasts (I’m looking at you PixelTunes) somehow manage to only fit about 10 tracks into a 90 minute show – the rest of the time is heavily padded out by inane chatter….
I like Super Rainwave Podcast too.
So happy to see such a diverse group of VGM casts. I stumbled on a new one that is pretty entertaining. It’s called Cast Revive. Two guys discuss their Top 5 vgm picks from various genres and titles given to them by the listeners. They seem to be very involved with the community which is pretty cool as well.