Since I didn’t post a song last week for special post reasons, I should make this one a good one. How about a double dose of fast music, from different ends of the fast spectrum?

Song of the Week (last week): Go the Distance by Nanobii (ft. Lindsey Marie)

You may recall when I featured Deja Vu, I talked about fast, happy music, and specifically called out Nanobii. For those familiar with the movie Wreck-It Ralph (and everyone should, especially if you like video games), Nanobii’s music reminds me very much of the soundtrack for Sugar Rush. It’s very light, up-beat, fast, and puts a smile on your face. It might not be the most challenging music, or very traditional. It might have too much percussion and bass for some, and that’s OK. But for me, it’s the kind of song I put on to lift my spirits.

And now, for something the same (remembering a previous post) and different (not upbeat) at the same time…

Song of the Week: BFG Division by Mick Gordon (Warning: loud, and the video is pretty gross at points)

This is a callback to The Instinct, another song by Mick Gordon. This song is similar to the sub-genre of metal called djent. The style of bass notes, along with the intense rhythm, give djent its unique style. However, this song goes above that, creating a driving feeling that almost forces you to lean forward in your chair and push yourself to keep going, even when sitting still.

BFG Division was written for DOOM 2016, a reboot of the classic video game from the early days of gaming. The game is designed to be fast-paced, frenetic, unforgiving, and tense. It’s gory, violent, and cathartic, in ways that video games really haven’t been. The music for the game needed to match that feeling, and this is a perfect example of how it achieves that feeling.

This’ll be a short one. I’m tired, but I want to get this up on time.

Song of the Week: I Wanna Be Like You by Jamie Berry

This is an example of electro swing, a combination of electronic music with big band jazz or swing. It’s usually upbeat and fun. I think you should just listen to it. I don’t have much to say about this one, because I just think it’s fun. And it’s 2 in the morning.

OK, I wrote this much earlier this week. Hopefully, it will be on time.

Song of the Week: The Rising Sun by CFO$

For those who didn’t know or didn’t read my Tuesday post, I’m a fan of professional wrestling. I like long-term storytelling, the ability to say what you want to say without saying anything, and the overall pageantry of it all. Some wrestlers are better than others. And Shinsuke Nakamura is one of the better ones.

Nakamura is odd. There’s no better way of putting it. Here’s a clip of him not really explaining his actions after punching the current champion in the nuts a few months ago. Since then, he has been amazing. His current character is that of a jerk who knows exactly which buttons to press, and smiles right in your face as he presses them. You want to hate him, and that’s what makes him so good.

I bring up Nakamura because the song this week is his theme music (he has a new version that has lyrics, but it’s not as good). Check out this clip from when he debuted on the main show, after proving himself in developmental. The energy from the crowd singing along is mesmerizing to me. I find myself whistling the melody while I’m at work. One day, I’d like to be in the crowd to experience what it’s like to hear thousands of people, maybe more, all speaking and singing as one.

This might go up a little late. New job is messing with my usual schedule. This’ll be a quick one.

Song of the Week: Legend (ft. Backchat) by Jaroslav Beck

This song is very upbeat. If you don’t like rap, you might not like this song, but even without the words, the backing music is great. But that’s not the reason why I like this song.

This song is from the soundtrack for the game Beat Saber, which can best be described as Virtual Reality Lightsaber Dance Dance Revolution. Take a look at some well-edited gameplay. This game looks incredibly fun, and a good workout. The trick is that you need virtual reality gear, which isn’t cheap. I don’t think I want a DDR machine that badly.

Sorry again for the short post. I’ll come up with something big for Tuesday.

Well, after last week’s feels festival, I figured I should bring it back to something less liable to make me and my readers cry. So of course, we’re going back to Two Steps From Hell, and song number 2 on my list of music video concepts.

Song of the Week: Victory by Two Steps From Hell

I first heard this song while I was deep in a Dungeons and Dragons-type game called Exalted. In it, characters have amazing, mythical powers, and one of the other players was playing as a blacksmith who could create mundane items at an incredible rate, and incredible items without much effort. This song is the story of one such incredible item.

For the first 30 seconds, we’re doing establishing shots. The smith is in their home, making sketches, planning it out. Eventually, they take the sketches from their home to the forge next door.

Then the percussion hits. The forge is opened, the bellows are pumping. The bar of iron and steel is placed into the forge, and the smith stares into the flames, practically willing them to burn hotter. Another thirty seconds are about to have passed as she pulls the glowing metal from the forge.

Now the melody has joined, and with it comes the smith’s hammer, beginning to flatten the bar of iron and steel. She turns it over and hammers the other side, flips it back, hammers some more. We skip quickly through heating it up again and pulling it back out. But then, at 1:36, the music changes again.

At the change in music, the hammer strikes, and a golden aura is briefly visible around the smith. It fades quickly, but on each strike now, the aura flares up for just a moment, then dissipates. The form of a sword is starting to come together. But the music isn’t done building.

At 2:08, the vocals come in. The aura has stopped fully dissipating on each hit, but it isn’t getting much bigger on the strikes. Another golden glow is visible, though: a floating spirit is now circling the smith, curiously examining the work being performed. But the smith doesn’t seem to notice. She just keeps going.

2:40, the vocals combine with the music change from a minute ago. The aura glow has started to increase, as has the flares on individual strikes. For the first time since the introduction, we see outside the forge. The flares are visible through the windows. As this section winds down, a small child playing their their friends notices the flares, and signals their group to follow them to the forge.

The next section, the children line up at one of the windows, looking with awe at the smith, who has stopped hammering. She picks up the sword with a gloved hand; the craftsmanship is incredible. There are now multiple golden spirits flitting about the forge, and more appear as the scene continues, flying from the fire, the rafters, the windows, etc. The smith puts the sword back on the anvil, then sets her hammer down. She breathes in calmly as this section finishes building into the next, then winds up for a massive slam, despite holding no hammer.

All at once, the next section starts and she brings her empty hand down, but instead of punching the anvil, a large golden hammer has swung past her head and connected with the sword. Cut to the children looking on in awe, cut back to a zoomed-out shot, where we can clearly see a towered golden spirit of a male smith standing over the human smith, mimicking her movements. Her aura is massive, easily visible through the windows, and on each hit, the entire forge glows like a roaring flame. The smaller spirits begin to rapidly swirl around the sword.

One last section. The smith has initiated the process of magical refinement, and the swirling spirits are the fuel. One by one, they pull away from the sword, and on each massive hit from the glowing smith, one of them darts into the sword, and when the hammer rises, a new golden rune is visible on the blade. Finally, at the end of this section, the sword is complete.

But the song isn’t over. The smith’s aura starts to fade as she picks up the sword again. She looks over at the children, who are stuck in a look of wonder. She smiles and looks up at the large smith spirit. He sets down his hammer and holds his large hand out. She presses her face against his large hand, and a single tear rolls down her cheek. He fades away as well. She hangs the sword on the wall, next to a few similar swords, and walks out of the forge. The camera pulls away, showing that while the children were the only ones to look in the window, a small crowd has gathered. Music fades out.

Dang it, I didn’t think I’d be sad here. I guess I’m a sucker for emotional heartstring tugs. Maybe the next one will have to be about Superman.

I can’t believe I’ve made it this far without using a Two Steps From Hell song. This group will come up again.

Song of the Week: Disappear by Two Steps From Hell

Two Steps From Hell is made up of Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix. They produce music designed for use in trailers, movies, TV shows, and video games. Their first public album release was in 2010, and since then, they’ve released almost 1,000 unique tracks.

This isn’t my favorite song from TSFH, but it is the most timely. Some of their music really resonates with me, and I can visualize what a music video for the song would look like. For others, it’s Superman and an eagle flying together, or a blacksmith creating a magic sword (and you’ll hear about those, plus more, in future weeks). For Disappear, the video is my grandpa’s life flashing before his eyes as he dies in his sleep.

It starts with him on his bed, but he’s in a void of soft light. He gets up, moving slowly because of age and joint pain. There are open doors scattered throughout. As the music kicks in around 0:25, he opens the first door.

It reveals a freeze-frame that I will take from a photograph of him in WWII. As he watches, it springs to life, showing him with his squad. He watches for a moment, but doesn’t have time to reminisce.

From 0:25 to approaching 1:45, similar scenes play out. Him and his wife Katherine. Spending time with his children. Working on cars. He sees them, remembers them, but doesn’t spend the time to really remember.

But at the 1:45 mark, the music hangs in the air. Grandpa clutches at his heart. He realizes what’s happening.

The music is intense now. The doors start to close. He’s moving faster than before, as if his knees never had surgery, and his face is looking younger, but he can never catch more than a glimpse before each door is slammed in his face.

But after every other door has closed, there’s one more left. This is around 2:15, the second time through this “chorus”. Katherine is there, wrinkles and all, sitting in her living room chair. He runs to her, throwing his now middle-aged head in her lap. For a moment, she doesn’t move, but then she moves a hand and lifts his head. She’s smiling the same soft smile that our entire family remembers, and her face is noticeably younger. With her other hand, she wipes the tears from his eyes as she stands up. He follows her as she turns towards the bright light that has grown from off-camera.

At 2:42, when the final hits come, they take each other by the hand. Their faces are young, like in their early pictures. Together, they walk into eternity.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to actually make this before he dies. He’s not doing well right now, and Grandma really did die before him, so I’m not sure if he can make it without her. But he’s a tough trooper, so anything’s possible.

Tune in next week, where hopefully I won’t be crying while I write the post.

As promised, a Muse song.

Song of the Week: Knights of Cydonia by Muse (warning: it’s the oddest spaghetti Western you’ve ever seen)

You may have heard of this song, either from Guitar Hero or because it’s one of Muse’s top songs. Muse has been putting together uncomplicated complex looks into intense lines of thought for over a decade. When I say “uncomplicated”, I don’t mean “easy to play”. There’s a reason this song is on the hard end of Guitar Hero songs. It’s uncomplicated because the music never gets in the way of the words, and vice versa. It’s easy to find the beat, easy to keep the beat, and easy to hear the words. And the words are important.

Muse probably call themselves visionaries. A lot of people probably call them weird. As an artist, I can appreciate both sentiments. This music video is not normal. Even at the start, when the cowboy is practicing martial arts, we know something is up. Then there’s a laser gun. Then there’s a car. Then there’s holographic singers. And if you thought you saw a robot in the opening minute, don’t worry, he comes back. But there’s a story there. The setting is odd, but the story itself is cohesive.

And the song is along Muse’s main theme: fighting for your rights. It’s not quite the same as My Chemical Romance or System of a Down, whose music sounds a bit more…forceful. Muse presents fighting for your rights as a normal part of life, not a difficult uphill task. Part of life is working to maintain your status. This is normal, but this is worth talking about.

Also, Knight of Cydonia has some rad guitar work. Bang your head!

I was going to do a Muse song this week, but as I was scrolling through the list, I found another include. Muse will have to be next week.

Song of the Week: Let It Out (cover by Miku-tan)

Yes, it’s another cover. But this one is a twist. Listen to the start of the original version (it’s mostly in Japanese, but the first few lines are in English). The vocalists have remarkably similar voices, and the song was not originally translated into English. The fact that such a faithful translation was done, and performed by an artist practically designed for it, is incredible.

Let It Out is the second song to be used for the ending credits of the anime Full Metal Alchemist. According to various internet ranking sites, FMA is either near the top or the actual top rated anime, and I certainly agree. The eccentricities of Japanese anime culture (overreactions as normal, a bit too much cleavage) and odd setting (magical superpowers that manifest as the pseudoscience of alchemy) are balanced well by a classic story (the main characters work tirelessly to find what they lost as children, as they come to terms with what they cannot change and what they must change) and the relative normalcy of it all (refugees, European-inspired military state, family drama). It’s on the short list of Anime I Would Get My Mom To Watch (which may have to be a Friday post).

Back to the song (but don’t forget the anime). If you just hear the song by itself, the tone is mixed. The words are a bit up and down, and the music is fairly cheerful. For the true context, you need some of the TV show (told you not to forget). Here’s the last clip, from the end of a recap-flashback episode to bring a new character up to speed. Other shows might have just strung a bunch of clips together with some connecting dialogue and taken an early lunch, but this episode reinforces the show’s central theme: hope in the face of overwhelming odds and futility. The main characters nearly lost their hope as children, and they take every opportunity to foster hope in the people they meet. Around them, their enemies destroy hope almost exclusively, sometimes more than they destroy lives. The enemies that live for their own hope eventually turn to the side of the righteous. Hope is everything, and in those three minutes, with that song behind it, everything becomes clear to this new character, and to us.

I’ll save more about the anime for the AIWGMMTW post, but I hope you’re ready for the Feels Canoe to cross the River of Emotions. Lieutenant Hughes will be your river guide.

It’s time for a little humor, and I don’t mean Steve Martin’s greatest hits (although King Tut is a classic).

Song of the Week: Smooth by Neil Cicierega

The savvy among you will recognize Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson and One Week by Barenaked Ladies, as well as smatterings of other songs. You may also notice that this combination of songs actually sounds…almost intentional, as if the two songs were made for each other. That’s what Neil Cicierega does.

Neil Cicerega started out as an internet silly person back before Youtube. You can hear all about his rise to “stardom” in his talk at the XOXO Festival, a gathering of independent creatives. Those with knowledge of the old memes will recognize his work from Potter Puppet Pals (circa 2007), The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (circa 2008), or, more recently, Mouth Silence and its sequels. Smooth is from the third Mouth ______ album.

But why are these songs so funny? It works for two reasons. First, because it sounds natural. Your mind can comprehend the songs that were used to put this song together, but it also recognizes a competent composition in its own right. This is where the second reason comes in: the laws of jokes and why things are funny.

No one has figured out why jokes are funny, at least not totally. If we did, we could write algorithms and come up with all the jokes ever. However, there is a basic rule that most jokes follow: combining together two or more things that don’t normally go together or make sense together. Take this classic example from Groucho Marx: “Last week, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How the elephant got in my pajamas, I’ll never know.” You start assuming that Groucho was in his pajamas. Then, when it is reveals that the elephant was in his pajamas, your mind has a revelation of the situation. The area of your brain related to those revelations is the same that processes humor, and so you laugh.

Back to the music. Using a similar concept, Neil has combined two songs that you don’t expect to hear together, and when your brain comprehends that, it triggers a humor response. You can then either be done with the song, having gotten the joke, or keep listening because you genuinely think the song is good. Your choice.

I do recommend listening to the entire 55-minute album. Some of the songs aren’t great, but that’s true of any album. If you want to dive directly into the deep end of music that is jokes, I recommend Siivagunner. However, this leads to a problem with humor: you need to know the references. Siivagunner uses video game music, so if you’re not versed in the topic, you won’t understand all the jokes. Some of them will still work, like this one (if you know Taylor Swift, you’ll get at least half the joke), but others, like this one, won’t because you don’t know that there’s a joke. It’s a joke told in Russian: without context, you don’t know it’s supposed to be funny.

A few weeks ago, the song was from League of Legends, and I mentioned that there would be more coming from their extensive collection. That day came early.

Song of the Week: Mortal Reminder by Pentakill

This extended “joke” started as a series of skins (alternate costumes) for five of the characters in the game. Each was given a role in a metal band: a singer, a drummer, a keyboard-ist (keyboard-er? “Pianist” sounds too fancy for metal), a bassist, and lead guitar. The fans gravitated to this fun addition to the game, and so behind the scenes, Riot Games started working on Pentakill’s big debut album.

In 2014, the first album from this fictitious band, Smite and Ignite was released. Of the eight tracks, seven are direct references to items in the game. But the song for this week isn’t from that album. It’s from their sophomore album.

As I write this, my iTunes has finished Mortal Reminder and moved on to Tear of the Goddess, which features the new female vocalist on some of the tracks, and helped to mark the release of a sixth skin. All of this work for a sixth skin, or a sixth skin for all this work? We may never know.

As for the music video, which is definitely up to League of Legend’s standards recently, there’s not much to say. The adorable little fuzzy people learn the true power of metal. It’s the kind of ridiculous that you want from your runaway in-jokes.