Stemage

Did a podcast with the guys at Padinga.com last week. We talked about politics. No we didn’t. We talked about ‘troid, music and games. You can download the show here.

2011 was a pretty big year. Here is the rundown of the musical goodies of 2011 in somewhat chronological order. Thank you guys for the support this past year! I have some big plans for 2012!!

	Alpha Squad Final Boss Redux – Static Chex Mix (song) The final boss music of Alpha Squad was very Static X inspired, so VikingGuitar decided to come in and add some vocal flare to “fix” it.. and throw in a solo. Way to spice it up kid. http://stemage.bandcamp.com/album/a-s-s-final-boss-static-chex-mix-feat-vikingguitar
	Alba (song) || from ”Songs for the Cure” 2011 I was honored to offer an original song to Josh Whelchel’s yearly project, “Songs for the Cure“. All proceeds from album sales went the American Cancer Society (and still does). It covered many styles of music from artists all over the world. “Alba” was my contribution. It was an indirect tribute to my aunt – a cancer survivor – and also Porcupine Tree / Oceansize in style. http://music.cancerdrive.org/track/alba
	FoxDragon Birthday Progfest – (song) Viking Guitar, Norg, Chunkstyle, Danimal Cannon, and I teamed up and make FoxDragon a prog souffle. It’s fun and crazy and fun and prog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuqiKGcIgIQ
	M2q (Metroid 2 Queen) (song) || from Metroid Metal This mess of barbed wire was included in the Shinesparkers.net 25th anniversary Metroid tribute album, Harmony of a Hunter. http://www.metroidmetal.com/songs/m2q-click-info/
	MISC – a collection of old Stemage tracks (album) There are a lot of miscellaneous songs that don’t live in one place, so I decided to make an album for them all . http://stemage.bandcamp.com/album/misc-old-stuff
	Zero Over Zero (album) After many years, I finally released my Dawn of the Dead themed album, Zero Over Zero. It’s a 20-song, instrumental concept album. http://stemage.bandcamp.com/album/zero-over-zero
	Frets of Valmar: Music of Grandia II (album) Commissioned by Jason Roop for charity, this is a 4-song EP of arrangements from the music of Grandia II, featuring Arm Cannon and Chunkstyle on a track. This is a huge milestone for me musically. For now, I consider it the best collection of VGM arrangements I’ve done. All donations to the album go directly to Japan Relief! http://stemage.bandcamp.com/album/frets-of-valmar-grandia-ii
	Prolapse (Castlevania Prologue cover) (song) || from Vampire Variations Vampire Variations is a collection of remixes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Castlevania. I did a song with Chris from Arm Cannon on keys. Check it out! It’s the first song on the album and you can stream it right from here: http://kngi.org/vampirevariations/TheMusic.html
	Solo for VikingGuitar album  (solo) || from Made of Metal VikingGuitar put out a SICK Cave Story (and others) cover album, and we did a solo battle in Fields of Awesome. I like fighting with that guy. http://vikingguitar.bandcamp.com/
	The Ice of Luisville is Muddy (song) || from ”Play it Forward Charity” Album I teamed up with John Weible and Chunkstyle to do this 90′s-inspired holiday song for the Play it Forward charity album – to raise money for Child’s Play. http://playitforwardalbum.bandcamp.com/

I do this every year, and 2011 was difficult.

01. Pete Peterson || Transitional Farms (and bsides)
02. Office of Future Plans || Office of Future Plans
03. Last Chance to Reason || Level 2
04. Jack Conte || VS4
05. Disasterpeace || Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar
06. City of Ships || Minor World
07. Devin Townsend Project || Deconstruction
08. Textures || Dualism
09. Cave In || White Silence
10. Tesseract || One

Albums that would be there, but came out in 2010:
Buke and Gass || Riposte
Contortionist || Exoplanet

Thoughts? Counters? Questions? Let’s hash it out on Facebook. SEE YOU THERE.

A few weeks ago, Danimal Cannon put out an amazing chiptune/crossover album called Roots. It RULES. I’ve been airdrumming “Polywrath” for months, so I decided to do a drum cover. Why not?

Play it Forward is a holiday charity album released today to raise money for Child’s Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. John Weible, Dan Taylor and I melded our brains to create, “The Ice of Louisville is Muddy”. It’s a fun, holiday-themed, post-rock track. If you get the joke in the title, we think you are very cool.

You can stream the song below and name your price for the entire album on Bandcamp. Remember, all proceeds go to Child’s Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Today, Vampire Variations was released. It’s a tribute album to Castlevania to celebrate it’s 25th anniversary. I scored a track on there with Chris from Arm Cannon. You can download the entire album at www.vampirevariations.com.

Also, I decided to do an acoustic version of “Illogical Hell” from my new album, Zero Over Zero. You can check that out below. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Back in March of ’11, MAGfest started a fundraiser to collect money for Japan relief. A list of VG remix artists got together to auction themselves off and remix any video game theme of the winner’s choice.

Jason Roop is a member of the PAX Community DVD team. Jason also won my auction! He made his request for music from Grandia II (Dreamcast – Noriyuki Iwadare). Jason sent over a few songs for consideration, and I decided to use them all and make an EP.

The EP is done and in Jason’s hands. Thanks jroop!

We’ve decided to put the album up for free on Bandcamp. But, any donations made with the download of the EP will be passed on directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society as well - to keep with the spirit of things.

Frets of Valmar: Grandia II is out now on Bandcamp and features:

• Mike, Danimal, and Chris from Arm Cannon
• Chunkstyle from Yes, Mayhem and Metroid Metal
• Artwork by the talented Spoony Bardess (she did the Chozo on the old grey Metroid Metal shirts)

Thank you Jason for helping me expand my musical horizons. This was a very different experience for both myself and the contributors. We all stretched ourselves a bit. Also, the music from Grandia II is amazing! So, thank you Noriyuki Iwadare for such a varied and challenging soundtrack. You can download the new EP here.

OST tracks for Grandia II by Noriyuki Iwadare:
1. A Deus
2. FIGHT!
3. Dangerous Zone
4. Purification of Darkness

Thanks for the support everyone. You can nab the album in one of its many forms from Bandcamp. BIG SHOUTOUT to the guys at Silent Uproar Records and Robbie Player for putting together the awesome teaser videos.

From Zero Over Zero. Out next week!

Most “guitar albums” are lead albums. This is a rhythm guitar album – I think. It’s a wild rotation of rock genres that have inspired me over the years, and it’s a love letter to Romero and Savini in the end – inspired by Dawn of the Dead from 1978.

You can pre-order the digital version or the LE CD which has some cool packaging and extra stuff.

I am a huge fan of Rob Crow’s work with Heavy Vegetable and Thingy, where albums are 25 songs long but not punk songs (also, Rob Crow is awesome). He gets an idea across without adhering to the verse/chorus/verse standard. That is a great idea, so I tried it. Zero Over Zero is a 20-track, instrumental narrative. Strati was a personal milestone with vocals. This is a guitar album.

Zero Over Zero will be out 8/16/11 on Silent Uproar Records. SU put out the Metroid Metal stuff and a list of bands you don’t know but should.

Some snippets will be posted all the way to the release. I don’t want people to wait, BUT I had to order CDs with all the goodies… those things.

Thanks for reading my rambles! It feels good to finally put this out.

PREORDER the Limited Ed CD or digital album from Bandcamp

Updates on Facebook, Twitter, and here obviously:
www.facebook.com/stemage
www.twitter.com/stemage
www.zerooverzero.net

TRACKLISTING:

01) Three Minutes
02) Scary Isn’t It?
03) In Your Wagon
04) D.E.A.Db
05) Morphine
06) Thrifty
07) I’ll Try Not To… Come Back
08) Illogical Hell
09) Sunrise
10) Shut Up and Listen
11) The Gates
12) Fat Man in the Pool
13) Gutmuncher
14) Earpeace
15) Zero Over Zero
16) Sinew
17) Flyboy
18) For God’s Sake
19) Walk the Earth – Part 1
20) Walk the Earth – Part 2