by Matt Hawkins
There have been countless individuals who have long tried to evangelize the artistry of video game music, though few have been as high profile and successful as Tommy Tallarico.
A game musician himself, Tallarico is perhaps best known as the man behind Video Games Live, a concert series that travels the globe and highlights music from games, new and old, in a (mostly) orchestrated format.
There's been two live recordings thus far, and there might be a third, provided the just launched Kickstarter is a success.
Given the success of the concerts and albums thus far, why is Tallarico turning to crowd sourced funding. Because, as difficult is it is to finance a video game, it's just as tricky to produce a CD in this mp3 driven world:
There are numerous selling points in Tallarico's pitch, including how the third album will contain compositions that one usually doesn't find in similar endeavors,...
There have been countless individuals who have long tried to evangelize the artistry of video game music, though few have been as high profile and successful as Tommy Tallarico.
A game musician himself, Tallarico is perhaps best known as the man behind Video Games Live, a concert series that travels the globe and highlights music from games, new and old, in a (mostly) orchestrated format.
There's been two live recordings thus far, and there might be a third, provided the just launched Kickstarter is a success.
Given the success of the concerts and albums thus far, why is Tallarico turning to crowd sourced funding. Because, as difficult is it is to finance a video game, it's just as tricky to produce a CD in this mp3 driven world:
There are numerous selling points in Tallarico's pitch, including how the third album will contain compositions that one usually doesn't find in similar endeavors,...
- 8/16/2013
- by MTV Video Games
- MTV Multiplayer
I've always loved instrumental music but there's something particularly special about video game music. My personal theory is that it's different from other species of earworms, because it's soaking into your neurons while your cognitive faculties are flexing to solve some gameplay riddle or another.
With the Grammy powers-that-be reorganizing categories to recognize music appearing in video games, my first thought was "It's about damn time!" Once my indignation cooled, I wondered about game music that would've won Grammys if the new openness had been in place since the earliest days of the medium. Here's a quick list of killer tracks that I've loved over the years.
1. "Creation - The State of Art"
"A Gamer's Guide to Rez"
Ken Ishii
"Rez" creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi took his inspiration from the rave music scene so the whole soundtrack vibrates with glowstick energy. (An official CD release came out years ago and has...
With the Grammy powers-that-be reorganizing categories to recognize music appearing in video games, my first thought was "It's about damn time!" Once my indignation cooled, I wondered about game music that would've won Grammys if the new openness had been in place since the earliest days of the medium. Here's a quick list of killer tracks that I've loved over the years.
1. "Creation - The State of Art"
"A Gamer's Guide to Rez"
Ken Ishii
"Rez" creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi took his inspiration from the rave music scene so the whole soundtrack vibrates with glowstick energy. (An official CD release came out years ago and has...
- 4/30/2011
- by Evan Narcisse
- ifc.com
Welcome back to our weekly look at the new podcasts available at our “partners in podcast crime” the GeekCast Radio Network. Each week we bring you the highlights from Gcrn, with descriptions and links to each and every episode. But first a word from Gcrn co-creator Mike:
TFG1Mike checking in and before we get to this weeks update I want to take a moment here. Have you looked at The Geek Cast Radio Network’s Featured Guest Page? If not you are severely missing out. We have interviews with twelve voice actors/actresses, five television/animation writers, and two musicans. I will say that the musicans are The Stan Bush and Jess Harnell who is the lead singer of Rock Sugar as well as the voice of Wakko Warner. So stop reading this and click on the link!
Gcrn Featured Guests: http://www.geekcastradio.com/?page_id=2429
GeekCast Radio...
TFG1Mike checking in and before we get to this weeks update I want to take a moment here. Have you looked at The Geek Cast Radio Network’s Featured Guest Page? If not you are severely missing out. We have interviews with twelve voice actors/actresses, five television/animation writers, and two musicans. I will say that the musicans are The Stan Bush and Jess Harnell who is the lead singer of Rock Sugar as well as the voice of Wakko Warner. So stop reading this and click on the link!
Gcrn Featured Guests: http://www.geekcastradio.com/?page_id=2429
GeekCast Radio...
- 4/5/2011
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Organized by Tommy Tallarico, a video game lover and music composer in the industry, Video Games Live: Level 2 is a loving tribute concert to some of the greatest and most iconic music to come out of the business. Unfortunately, not all games are created equal when it comes to musical accompaniment. Now, depending on which video games you grew up on and spent countless hours completing in the privacy of a dark room with your eyes and ears fixed on the glowing screen in front of you, you’ll have different songs ingrained in your memory as being “classic”. Video Games Live: Level 2 makes a fun little jab at the idea pointing out that the earliest gamers have less a soundtrack than they do a signature set of beeps, boops, and bloops. You don’t begrudge early games their simplistic soundscapes, but similarly you can’t deny that...
- 12/4/2010
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
DVD Playhouse—November 2010
By Allen Gardner
Paths Of Glory (Criterion) Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 antiwar classic put him on the map as a major filmmaker. Kirk Douglas stars in a true story about a French officer in Ww I who locks horns with the military’s top brass after his men are court-martialed for failing to carry out an obvious suicide mission. A perfect film, across the board, with fine support from George Macready as one of the most despicable martinet’s ever captured on film, Ralph Meeker, and Adolphe Menjou, all oily charm as a conniving General. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins; Excerpt from 1966 audio interview with Kubrick; 1979 interview with Douglas; New interviews with Jan Harlan, Christiane Kubrick, and producer James B. Harris; French television documentary on real-life case which inspired the film; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 1.0 mono.
Winter’S Bone (Lionsgate) After her deadbeat father disappears,...
By Allen Gardner
Paths Of Glory (Criterion) Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 antiwar classic put him on the map as a major filmmaker. Kirk Douglas stars in a true story about a French officer in Ww I who locks horns with the military’s top brass after his men are court-martialed for failing to carry out an obvious suicide mission. A perfect film, across the board, with fine support from George Macready as one of the most despicable martinet’s ever captured on film, Ralph Meeker, and Adolphe Menjou, all oily charm as a conniving General. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins; Excerpt from 1966 audio interview with Kubrick; 1979 interview with Douglas; New interviews with Jan Harlan, Christiane Kubrick, and producer James B. Harris; French television documentary on real-life case which inspired the film; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 1.0 mono.
Winter’S Bone (Lionsgate) After her deadbeat father disappears,...
- 11/6/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
In the final part of my talk with game composer Tommy Tallarico, we chat about the Japanese and U.S. game music markets, and the beginnings of the Video Games Live tour. (See parts one and two.)
In Japan, there's a long tradition of soundtrack albums for video games that seem to sell well. Why do you think that hasn't happened here?
I would love nothing more than to say that, "Oh yeah, it's such a big business over there." But the reality is that it's actually somewhat of a myth. You can find soundtracks for every single anime that's probably ever come out, right? I mean, there's thousands of them over there. Here in America, there is about 70 to 100 video game soundtrack albums released every year, and some of them are selling in the hundreds of thousands of units. Some of them -- most of them -- the average video game soundtrack does better,...
In Japan, there's a long tradition of soundtrack albums for video games that seem to sell well. Why do you think that hasn't happened here?
I would love nothing more than to say that, "Oh yeah, it's such a big business over there." But the reality is that it's actually somewhat of a myth. You can find soundtracks for every single anime that's probably ever come out, right? I mean, there's thousands of them over there. Here in America, there is about 70 to 100 video game soundtrack albums released every year, and some of them are selling in the hundreds of thousands of units. Some of them -- most of them -- the average video game soundtrack does better,...
- 7/28/2010
- by Evan Narcisse
- ifc.com
The chat with the maestro of Video Games Live includes comparison between the games and films differ in their treatment of music. Tommy Tallarico also offers up thoughts on why video game music is specially situated to make lasting impression on players. (See part one.)
Have there been times when you've been playing a game and it has been like, "Okay, this music works. I want it?"
One of the segments we just added in is a game that no one really ever bought. It's a recent game that wasn't really popular. "Afrika," I don't if you played that one.
I didn't play it.
Some people didn't like it -- it's a photojournalist kind of thing, but I loved the game. And the music is just incredible; that's in our show now. In fact, in San Diego, we did the world premiere of "End of Nations," which is this big military Rts game,...
Have there been times when you've been playing a game and it has been like, "Okay, this music works. I want it?"
One of the segments we just added in is a game that no one really ever bought. It's a recent game that wasn't really popular. "Afrika," I don't if you played that one.
I didn't play it.
Some people didn't like it -- it's a photojournalist kind of thing, but I loved the game. And the music is just incredible; that's in our show now. In fact, in San Diego, we did the world premiere of "End of Nations," which is this big military Rts game,...
- 7/27/2010
- by Evan Narcisse
- ifc.com
Tommy Tallarico's riding high. Fresh off his third consecutive annual Comic-Con concert, the 42-year-old musician will be seeing a PBS special of his Video Games Live concert tour airing through the summer. The eight-year-old extravaganza delivers orchestral renditions of video game music, touching on everything from back-in-the-day favorites like "The Legend of Zelda" to new classics like "Halo."
Tallarico himself holds the world record for having worked on the most commercially-released video games, mostly as a composer. He's done soundtracks for, by his count, nearly 300 games. But his most high-profile gig of late has been as the driving force behind Video Games Live. As the PBS special starts airing across the nation, Tallarico took my phone call to discuss the soundtrack of the button-mashing generation. Expect more from our talk as the week goes on.
People identify so strongly with the soundtracks in certain video games, but don't often...
Tallarico himself holds the world record for having worked on the most commercially-released video games, mostly as a composer. He's done soundtracks for, by his count, nearly 300 games. But his most high-profile gig of late has been as the driving force behind Video Games Live. As the PBS special starts airing across the nation, Tallarico took my phone call to discuss the soundtrack of the button-mashing generation. Expect more from our talk as the week goes on.
People identify so strongly with the soundtracks in certain video games, but don't often...
- 7/26/2010
- by Evan Narcisse
- ifc.com
Familiar video game footage appeared on three large screens, while an orchestra sat below, at the ready. The video game: Pong. The footage began to play and so too did the orchestra. What began as a series of bleeps and bloops became a full-on orchestral arrangement. This was no longer Pong, the video game . rather, it was Pong, the experience. Such was the feeling throughout the San Diego Civic Center, as a crowd of thousands sat and experienced their favorite video game music. Tommy Tallarico, veteran video game composer and co-founder of Video Games Live, emceed the event, introducing special guests throughout the night and also joining in on the fun by rocking out on a slew of amazing...
- 7/26/2010
- by Hector Cortez
- Monsters and Critics
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