Game
Bored and Totally Radd!!, the greatest rock & roll outfit
of 2083, bring you this insane contest!
Third place wins
game bored stickers and pins, second place wins game bored
stickers and pins, and a copy of Totally Radd!!'s new album
"Shark Attack Day Camp", and first place
wins the same game bored junk, plus a copy of "Shark
Attack Day Camp," plus Link's Master Sword from the
Legen of Zelda (perfect to beat your friends over the head
with) and Neil, lead singer of Totally Radd!!'s mustache
hair. Use it to clone a master band, try snorting the whiskers
to gain the strength of a mightiest keytar player to time
travel back to 2004, sell it for millions, light it on fire,
the possibilities are endless!
How to enter - Grab
a marker, write G.B. (heart) T.R. on your tighty whities,
wear them outside your pants like a super hero, wear them
on your head naked, put them on your dog, whatever it takes
to get them modeled. Pull out the
camera, strike a pose, then send the photos in to contest.
All images submitted will be posted online for voting.
Top three most popular pictures win.*Update: Max of
three photos per person can be submitted .
Could you describe
how Totally Radd!! originally came about? Is this a "I
wanted a rock band, but had no friends to play with me so
I used a machine" story?
As
a kid, I had a serious bond with my NES and in particular,
as a young musician, the music that accompanied the games.
As I entered junior high I started making music with computers
and keyboards. Instrumental maybe vaguely game soundtrack
sort of stuff and had a few bands and solo performance projects
in highschool and self-released a few cds. When I entered
Calarts I began making pop music. During my first semester
I recorded the original short ep version of what later became
the full length “Shark Attack Day Camp” album.
I was playing shows at school on my own with a yamaha shs-10
mini keytar and a cd player. At the time it was sort of
a cross between performance art antics and wild drunken
fun. As time went on I built up the rest of the album and
continued playing and touring solo. Earlier this year my
friend and classmate Tommy joined the band playing electronic
drums.
I first met Neil curating an art show about my little brother,
Bobby. This was the beginning of my participation in the
creative direction of the band. I started off as sort of
the Flava Flav to his Chuck D, accompanying him on his first
tour under the name Totally Radd!! last winter. A few months
later, when he brought Tommy on as a drummer, we decided
we were ready to start writing songs together. By the time
Neil and Tommy played their first show together, I was in
the band, too. So, I guess it was really our first appearance
as Totally Radd!! the band. Things began to take off from
there.
Your tracks have
a very old school video game feel, do you use any classic
gaming sound boards to achieve that? What’s the run
down on the equipment?
Well…
First year, I took an electronics independent study with
my mentor at school. I modified an NES board with midi inputs
so I could control it's sound card with an external keyboard.
The cpu is a neuronet processor glimpsed with a drop of
ancient gryphon's blood and Ted Nugent's seed. Seriously.
People always seem to get crazy assumptions that it takes
all sorts of wacky vintage gear to pull off the 'nintendo
sound' which is funny because it's really so far from that.
It's just about using raw unfiltered waveforms and sequencing
in monophony, and looking inside your heart. Basically.
Are there any artists
that you can say directly influence you?
To me, Hip Tanaka is as large of an influence as, say, Gary
Numan or Sparks. Moroder is god. My first electronic record
was my parent's copy of Tomita's Firebird on vinyl. There
really are too many to list, pretty much everything between
Rhapsody and Arnold Schoenberg.
Sparks
the band and Sparks the drink. Our biggest philosophical
influence is Andrew WK. Polysics, too. Uhm... I like Patrick
Nagel. I'd say Neil draws heavily from Genghis Khan and
Leif Erickson. Tommy's not here, but I'm pretty sure he
was a goth kid in high school.
It seems like there’s
a growing number of video game related music acts gaining
in popularity today, is this “Nintendo punk”
genre something you’re starting to roll your eyes
to be associated with?
this is a little touchy, we have a ton of friends that are
associated with the genre, but, as musicians, nobody really
wants to be held back by a label or the boundaries of being
a 'nintendo band'.
Your live shows
incorporate a love of some pretty crazy visual performance,
has there been a night so far where anyone has told you
that you’ve taken it too far?
Ha,
I really don't know which one I'm going pick for this. Every
time we've played the Smell in Los Angeles (an all ages
club) I've stripped completely naked,
however, the one time I stripped down to only my underwear
at this club night in Simi Valley, the night got shut down
and I was blacklisted from the bar.
At
the Bobby show, Neil did the milk challenge with himself
during the set and barfed all over everyone. He cleared
out a room of hundreds in literally seconds. I saw a video
of him in Wisconsin dressed in a Ms. Santa nightie puking
up a poisoned double cheeseburger given to him by the Hamburglar.
He got in trouble at school last year for being a Viking
for a week. It was probably the long sword. I saw Neil o.d.
on about 36 Diet Cokes once, too. Me, I just try to make
out with as many of my friends' little sisters as possible.
I don't know. There's a lot of things that I can't talk
about. I think Tommy's got a lot of dark secrets, too. But,
generally, in the context of being fucked up drunken art
students playing shows at places where everything's taken
with a grain of salt or whatever, our gauges are off in
regards to whether or not we're going too far.
The several songs
that have been released from the upcoming album have all
had a fairly solid difference in style, are there any tracks
that you would pick from this record as being your favorite?
The
secret track means a lot to us. It alone is worth the $10
for the cd.
All
the songs are AWESOME
If your band fought
your frequent tour mates, the Miniboses, would I be completely
fucking stupid for putting my money on you? I’ve seen
their puny arms, they couldn’t be over 90 lbs.
Uhhhhhh.
We would fuck them up soooooooooo bad! They've got reach,
but we've got sass!
We
would fuck their shit like an avalanche. Do you even know
how many black belts there are between the three of us?
As we were answering
this, we looked outside the window and we saw Tommy and
Michael Jackson holding hands and skipping along a rainbow
bridge to the heavens. When asked this question, Tommy just
paused, giggled, and continued on his journeys.
AWESOME!!!!!
(high-five)
.
Many
know it’s name, few know the game. This was the little gem
that got bored house arrested moms to put aside thier sweatin'
to the oldies tapes to go burn flags, dig up founding fathers,
spit in their moldy skull faces, and bring happy-shiny world
peace with that oh-so-powerful ESRB. Yep, it’s Night
Trap! Too hardcore for your impressionable minds.
Just five minutes of looking at this filth could turn god
fearing Kevin Arnold types into full blown flame thrower
carrying gut hunters. Maybe it’s that I love cheesy 80s
horror films so much that it blurs my gamer vision, but
I honestly think Digital Pictures had gold on it’s hands
with this one. Before this "life-changing" game
came out, there was no real audio dialog in console games.
Sega made the leap from a cartoon Sonic running around freeing
bouncing bunnies, to Kimberly from Diff'rent Strokes yelling
“how the fuck did you let that happen?” as a girls slumber
party turns into a blood drive. And with it Digital Pictures
took the awfu idea of Full Motion Video games old laser
disc arcade cabinets like Dragon's Lair made unexplainably
popular, and actually proved creative enough to make it
work.
I was talking with Adam,
a kid involved in this Game Bored mess, about the Dogme
film collective, and he went on rambling “I find their
thoughts interesting, with the idea that the auteur concept
was bourgeois romanticism and thereby, false. Films have
been too cosmeticised with illusions via which emotions
can be communicated” blah blah blah, and then ended
it all by saying “but I’m a sucker for the Chuck E Cheese
show, so don’t listen to me”. I think that humbly sums
up my sentiments here.
Sneaking
through the air like a microscopic virus“Vib-Ribbon”
infested the Japanese with an itchy rash of greatness that
no one could ever hope to cure. That is, except for the
pill popping US. The United State’s secret police shunned
the germ at the airport gates like its name was SARs. The
Japanese went home and hid their heads and medical records
in shame. But, being privy to some little black book booty
calls, the get-lucky UK chaps woke up still drunk and covered
with cooties. The disease originated from Masaya Matsuura,
the same jerk who coughed Parrapa the Rapper all over the
food bar. In this state of dementia you control Vibri, a
simple black and white, vector drawing who walks along a
thin line obstructed with jagged angles and odd squiggles.
Get him through the obstacles with style and he will evolve
into a winged prince, keep making him trip onto his face
and he’ll devolve into a shitty worm.. thing. You can pop
the video game disc out of your Playstation and put in whatever
crap audio CD you try to pass off as music, then the game
will change accordingly to match the beat. But seriously,
you really should leave the game disc in. Without a doubt,
Yoko Fujita teamed with Laugh & Peace is one of THE best,
original video game sound track EVER! It’s on my ipod right
now. I rock down the streets singing “Walking by the ribbon,
up its spiny side, raindrops falling me, I have no umbrella”.
Is
it universal that a lunch lady is only part lady? Down the
street from my apartment is a pizza joint where a fat, mysteriously
ethnic, bushy mustached guy, who smells like he travels
through sewer pipes to get to work, takes orders with the
same complacent attitude I’ve seen in food service since
I questioned the sex of my bearded lunch… person. Maybe
I should make my own food.. Yeah, and maybe I should cure
cancer too! But baby, I just don’t have the time. Hey! What’s
this? Ore No Ryori? 138 hours later I’m
still perfecting the virtual boiling of ramen. Go up against
weird robot chefs, squish cockroaches in the kitchen, chase
after non paying costumers, do the dishes, but at the same
time keep an eye on the oven and make sure for not too much
head on those beers. Why aren’t more people in the food
industry? This shit is fun! I do have to admit, getting
into the further levels of this title gets tougher and tougher.
It really is no wonder seasoned veterans of food service
are so haggard. My hats off to you toothless, Chinese food
man with the Engrish spelling menus who invented a new kind
of day just to work 25 hours. One day we'll give you a parade.
Service
Games (SEGA), started out as a jukebox company in the 1950s,
the birth of Rock & Roll, and SEGA was Rock & Roll through
and through. They spit at bland pop stars, record ahead
of their time records, got kicked out of clubs, and left
their name spray painted on the wall. Coming in as the Dreamcast’s
swan song, Sega’s final finger to the industry was named
“Segagaga” (SGGG). In this “business simulation,”
by taking control of game development, you must help defend
Sega against the evil console competition. Recruit and manage
new, unique talent, deal with teamwork issues, creepy journalist,
ignorant executives, pissed off bosses, monster like fanboys,
and lots, and lots of drinking. “PLAYER: How do you speak
without moving your mouth? WOMAN: If a character moves their
eyes or mouth, the staff must make pictures for that, and
synchronize those pictures to the voice. I joined SEGA as
a game character, so I was trained to not move often. I
recommend for you to learn it too, that would make finishing
this game easier”.
Gitaroo-Man.
That’s all I’m saying, and I shouldn’t even have to say
that much. Every little Van Halen-san in Japan has been
jumping on the couch to this, dedicating songs out to their
welcoming town in their pretend arena living rooms. When
phrases like "original and innovative" and "eccentric,
pop-culture weirdness" are used to describe a game,
it's safe to guess that there's probably something special
pressed onto that disc. It's out in the stores right now
for the PS2, and it's cheap. Go steal GTA and buy this.
.
Paul
W.S. Anderson didn't grow up with the dream in his eye of
being a major motion picture director, no, he grew up with
the sinister life’s goal to punish geeks into tears
of intense anger. So, what drove me to see something
that Vegas could set a 99-1 chance in favor of major ass
suckage? Maybe there was some inkling in my heart that these
two great franchises teamed up into a over-sized battle
could at least provide a fun, mindless “popcorn movie”.
Twenty minutes into the film, I was choosing to stare at
my popcorn over the insult projected on the screen. Right
around the time a Predator was about to kiss his new human
girlfriend, I went to the bathroom. In there maybe I could
at least see an old man at a urinal with his pants down
to his ankles. That could be funny enough to validate leaving
the house, right? But of course the place was empty, because
nothing good could happen to me that day, god doesn't want
me to be happy. Eventually the reak of pee was going to
force me to have to leave my bathral safe haven and go back
to being visually torchered by my mortal enemy, Paul “wicked
sucks” Anderson (he may not admit it, but that’s
what the initials W.S. stand for).. Maybe if I was a little
kid I could watch it and cheer like I did to a dance scene
ending to a Ninja Turtles sequel, but there’s no way
to become younger to watch this uninspired crap from a new
perspective. Searching for some alternative, I wrapped myself
up in 4 rolls of toilet paper to see how a mummy would enjoy
the film.
This had to be the best
movie a mummy has ever seen! I could barely sit still with
excitement. My enjoyment was quickly ended though when I
was physically removed from the theater by a couple of fat
assholes. “What do you think you’re doing!”
“What is wrong with you?!” they yelled like
geeks getting out their vengeful anger after years of being
bullied. Settle down Columbine, quickly I showed them my
ticket stub and growled some extremely angered mummy groans
for disrupting my viewing experience. They continued to
yell and it became readily apparent that their mummy relation
services were far under par. Before I knew it I was shuffling
my mummy legs down the street with the hard lesson learned
that for people that work at a movie google-plex, the staff
at the Loews Copley Cinema in Boston, MA (yep, I name-names)
know surprisingly little about mummys. Mummys do not speak
English and mummies do NOT have IDs, tool bags! I almost
feel bad for cursing them and their entire families to a
flesh eating disease, but hey, don’t ruin a mummy’s
shit when he’s kicked back at the movies. Remember
that.
The
Greatest Battle On Earth - 
As
a kid, I had a serious bond with my NES and in particular,
as a young musician, the music that accompanied the games.
As I entered junior high I started making music with computers
and keyboards. Instrumental maybe vaguely game soundtrack
sort of stuff and had a few bands and solo performance projects
in highschool and self-released a few cds. When I entered
Calarts I began making pop music. During my first semester
I recorded the original short ep version of what later became
the full length “Shark Attack Day Camp” album.
I was playing shows at school on my own with a yamaha shs-10
mini keytar and a cd player. At the time it was sort of
a cross between performance art antics and wild drunken
fun. As time went on I built up the rest of the album and
continued playing and touring solo. Earlier this year my
friend and classmate 
I first met Neil curating an art show about my little brother,
Bobby. This was the beginning of my participation in the
creative direction of the band. I started off as sort of
the Flava Flav to his Chuck D, accompanying him on his first
tour under the name Totally Radd!! last winter. A few months
later, when he brought Tommy on as a drummer, we decided
we were ready to start writing songs together. By the time
Neil and Tommy played their first show together, I was in
the band, too. So, I guess it was really our first appearance
as Totally Radd!! the band. Things began to take off from
there.
Many
know it’s name, few know the game. This was the little gem
that got bored house arrested moms to put aside thier sweatin'
to the oldies tapes to go burn flags, dig up founding fathers,
spit in their moldy skull faces, and bring happy-shiny world
peace with that oh-so-powerful ESRB. Yep, it’s Night
Trap! Too hardcore for your impressionable minds.
Just five minutes of looking at this filth could turn god
fearing Kevin Arnold types into full blown flame thrower
carrying gut hunters. Maybe it’s that I love cheesy 80s
horror films so much that it blurs my gamer vision, but
I honestly think Digital Pictures had gold on it’s hands
with this one. Before this "life-changing" game
came out, there was no real audio dialog in console games.
Sega made the leap from a cartoon Sonic running around freeing
bouncing bunnies, to Kimberly from Diff'rent Strokes yelling
“how the fuck did you let that happen?” as a girls slumber
party turns into a blood drive. And with it Digital Pictures
took the awfu idea of Full Motion Video games old laser
disc arcade cabinets like Dragon's Lair made unexplainably
popular, and actually proved creative enough to make it
work.
Sneaking
through the air like a microscopic virus“Vib-Ribbon”
infested the Japanese with an itchy rash of greatness that
no one could ever hope to cure. That is, except for the
pill popping US. The United State’s secret police shunned
the germ at the airport gates like its name was SARs. The
Japanese went home and hid their heads and medical records
in shame. But, being privy to some little black book booty
calls, the get-lucky UK chaps woke up still drunk and covered
with cooties. The disease originated from Masaya Matsuura,
the same jerk who coughed Parrapa the Rapper all over the
food bar. In this state of dementia you control Vibri, a
simple black and white, vector drawing who walks along a
thin line obstructed with jagged angles and odd squiggles.
Get him through the obstacles with style and he will evolve
into a winged prince, keep making him trip onto his face
and he’ll devolve into a shitty worm.. thing. You can pop
the video game disc out of your Playstation and put in whatever
crap audio CD you try to pass off as music, then the game
will change accordingly to match the beat. But seriously,
you really should leave the game disc in. Without a doubt,
Yoko Fujita teamed with Laugh & Peace is one of THE best,
original video game sound track EVER! It’s on my ipod right
now. I rock down the streets singing “Walking by the ribbon,
up its spiny side, raindrops falling me, I have no umbrella”.
Is
it universal that a lunch lady is only part lady? Down the
street from my apartment is a pizza joint where a fat, mysteriously
ethnic, bushy mustached guy, who smells like he travels
through sewer pipes to get to work, takes orders with the
same complacent attitude I’ve seen in food service since
I questioned the sex of my bearded lunch… person. Maybe
I should make my own food.. Yeah, and maybe I should cure
cancer too! But baby, I just don’t have the time. Hey! What’s
this? Ore No Ryori? 138 hours later I’m
still perfecting the virtual boiling of ramen. Go up against
weird robot chefs, squish cockroaches in the kitchen, chase
after non paying costumers, do the dishes, but at the same
time keep an eye on the oven and make sure for not too much
head on those beers. Why aren’t more people in the food
industry? This shit is fun! I do have to admit, getting
into the further levels of this title gets tougher and tougher.
It really is no wonder seasoned veterans of food service
are so haggard. My hats off to you toothless, Chinese food
man with the Engrish spelling menus who invented a new kind
of day just to work 25 hours. One day we'll give you a parade.
Service
Games (SEGA), started out as a jukebox company in the 1950s,
the birth of Rock & Roll, and SEGA was Rock & Roll through
and through. They spit at bland pop stars, record ahead
of their time records, got kicked out of clubs, and left
their name spray painted on the wall. Coming in as the Dreamcast’s
swan song, Sega’s final finger to the industry was named
“Segagaga” (SGGG). In this “business simulation,”
by taking control of game development, you must help defend
Sega against the evil console competition. Recruit and manage
new, unique talent, deal with teamwork issues, creepy journalist,
ignorant executives, pissed off bosses, monster like fanboys,
and lots, and lots of drinking. “PLAYER: How do you speak
without moving your mouth? WOMAN: If a character moves their
eyes or mouth, the staff must make pictures for that, and
synchronize those pictures to the voice. I joined SEGA as
a game character, so I was trained to not move often. I
recommend for you to learn it too, that would make finishing
this game easier”.
Gitaroo-Man.
That’s all I’m saying, and I shouldn’t even have to say
that much. Every little Van Halen-san in Japan has been
jumping on the couch to this, dedicating songs out to their
welcoming town in their pretend arena living rooms. When
phrases like "original and innovative" and "eccentric,
pop-culture weirdness" are used to describe a game,
it's safe to guess that there's probably something special
pressed onto that disc. It's out in the stores right now
for the PS2, and it's cheap. Go steal GTA and buy this.
Paul
W.S. Anderson didn't grow up with the dream in his eye of
being a major motion picture director, no, he grew up with
the sinister life’s goal to punish geeks into tears
of intense anger. So, what drove me to see something
that Vegas could set a 99-1 chance in favor of major ass
suckage? Maybe there was some inkling in my heart that these
two great franchises teamed up into a over-sized battle
could at least provide a fun, mindless “popcorn movie”.
Twenty minutes into the film, I was choosing to stare at
my popcorn over the insult projected on the screen. Right
around the time a Predator was about to kiss his new human
girlfriend, I went to the bathroom. In there maybe I could
at least see an old man at a urinal with his pants down
to his ankles. That could be funny enough to validate leaving
the house, right? But of course the place was empty, because
nothing good could happen to me that day, god doesn't want
me to be happy. Eventually the reak of pee was going to
force me to have to leave my bathral safe haven and go back
to being visually torchered by my mortal enemy, Paul “wicked
sucks” Anderson (he may not admit it, but that’s
what the initials W.S. stand for).. Maybe if I was a little
kid I could watch it and cheer like I did to a dance scene
ending to a Ninja Turtles sequel, but there’s no way
to become younger to watch this uninspired crap from a new
perspective. Searching for some alternative, I wrapped myself
up in 4 rolls of toilet paper to see how a mummy would enjoy
the film.
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