Sunday Serenade: Sabrina, Game Gear, Jurassic Park, and more!

Time for another Sunday morning dose of random songs that I’ve been listening to this past week! Welcome to Sunday Serenade — now let’s crank the jams up with…

“Boys” by Sabrina — This is the kind of infectious doofiness that can only be found by heading back to the ’80s. I’m not really sure I get her thesis, but I’m sure it’s very full of symbolism.

“To You” by Ikson — Here’s some happy, feel-good fluff to pad out my MP3 player. Don’t judge me, but it works for me.

“Triceratops Trot” from Jurassic Park SNES — Such a light-hearted, trippy little tune from a game about man-eating dinos.

“Something Just Like This” from The Chainsmokers and Coldplay — Something about “regretful” songs that ping the heart even if you’re in a good spot in your life. Despite the presence of Coldplay, it’s a pretty good song.

“Novocaine” by The Unlikely Candidates — For the life of me, the lyrics of this song come across as an immature guy having a hissy fit about being in a relationship, but it’s got a toe-tapping chorus, so I’ll let it slide.

“Harbor Part I” from The G.G. Shinobi — Here’s a little Game Gear tune that was catchy enough to grab me and say, “Hey Syp. What’s up. Listen to me bleeps and bloops.”

“Don’t Play Nice” by Verbalicious — I wasn’t on board with this song until about midway through, but by the end I was bopping pretty hard to this 2005 tune. 2005? Really sounds like something from 1995.

“Life Will Never Be The Same” by Verona — A great retro wave tune that encapsulates a lot of what I loved about synth tracks from the 1980s.

Battle Bards Episode 152: Main Themes 3

Back for a third round, the Battle Bards examine a slew of main themes from MMORPGs! Considering how essential these themes are in making a strong first impression upon players, Steff, Syl, and Syp run these tracks through their paces to see which hook them on a first listen… and which put them to sleep.

Episode 152 show notes (show page, direct download)

• Intro (feat. “Knights of the Fallen Empire Main Theme” from SWTOR, “Main Theme” from Lost Ark, and “Refly Main Theme” from Aion)
• “Main Theme” from Atlas
• “Main Theme” from Astellia
• “The Dragon’s Spine” from Age of Conan
• “Main Theme” from Echo of Soul
• “Main Theme” from Eldevin
• “Main Theme” from ArcheAge
• “Main Theme” from The Chronicles of Spellborn
• Which one did we like best?
• Listener mail from Katriana, Zinn, Caroline, and Castagere
• Jukebox picks: “Arbiter’s Mark” from Fell Seal, “What the Forest Taught Me” from Secret of Mana, and “Main Theme” from Rogue Squadron
• Outro (feat. “Memories of Rohan” from Rohan)
• Stinger: Playful evil

• Talk to the Battle Bards on Twitter!
• Follow Battle Bards on iTunes, Stitcher, Player.FM, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Pocket Casts!

Sunday Serenade: Jane Wiedlin, Milli Vanilli, Nightmare on Elm St, and more!

Time for another Sunday morning dose of random songs that I’ve been listening to this past week! Welcome to Sunday Serenade — now let’s crank the jams up with…

“Blue Kiss” by Jane Wiedlin — I used to have a huge crush on Wiedlin after seeing her in Bill and Ted as a kid. Never heard this song before, and I’m kind of digging it’s sappy goofy loveness.

“The Moon and the Superhero” from Hancock — Never really thought I’d find excellent superhero music from this movie, to be honest, but this track has a fun intensity and charm about it that is sorely lacking in many other dour OSTs.

“Too Many Broken Hearts” by Jason Donovan — Bring on the ballads, 1989! My favorite year of the ’80s, by the way.

“Baby Don’t Forget My Number” by Milli Vanilli — I don’t think I can listen to this and NOT hear Weird Al’s plumber song.

“Two High” by Moon Taxi — Unusual mix of instruments and that refrain uses a much lower tone than you’d expect… and still manages to be dang catchy.

“The Attic” from A Nightmare on Elm Street (NES) — You’d think that a scary game on the NES would have a horrible, depressing soundtrack, but this one is rather underrated (and kind of perky in spots, as this track attests!).

“The Very First Time” by Robin Beck — They just don’t put shredding guitar solos into the middle of romantic ballads these days, do they? Amazing song, can’t believe I just now heard it.

Sunday Serenade: Sam & Max, Bloodstained, Ori and the Blind Forest

Time for another Sunday morning dose of random songs that I’ve been listening to this past week! Welcome to Sunday Serenade — now let’s crank the jams up with…

“Pancake Rocking” by Parry Gripp — Our household is a Parry Gripp household. There is no finer musician who deals with the subject of tasty  food.

“Useful to Boot” from Sam & Max — Such an odd song. So odd. So… listenable? It’s not very catchy but still… there’s something that made me listen through to the end and then hit up a replay right away.

“Interred Glory” from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — Super-heavy Castlevania: Symphony of the Night callbacks with this soundtrack, but I’m not complaining. I’m always up for another dose of rock/gothic to slay by.

“Riding the Wind” from Ori and the Blind Forest — This was one of those tracks I had to listen to a half-dozen times to figure out if I liked it or if I liked-liked it. If it kept me coming back, it was probably the latter, and so I wanted to mention this lovely melody here.

“Area 1” from Contra ReBirth — This is a jacked-up version of the famous Jungle theme, and what can you really say about that? It’s awesome, and giving it extra flourishes helps modernize it without taking away from the classic theme.

“Grown-Up World” from Cool Cool Toon — Not familiar with this game in the least, but I thought this track had a great retro-80s rock vibe.

Battle Bards Episode 151: Minions of Mirth

It’s an MMORPG you’ve never heard of. It’s an MMO soundtrack you’ve never heard, period. But as intrepid explorers of the musical unknown, the Battle Bards are here to unearth this tiny indie title and its score. Minions of Mirth may have died an ignoble death in 2017, but its soundtrack lives on — and now it’s immortalized in the 151st episode of this podcast!

Episode 151 show notes (show page, direct download)

• Intro (feat. “Main Theme,” “Peaceful,” and “View Over the Water”)
• “Inexhaustible Ardor”
• “Villagers of Mirth”
• “Battlefield’s Pride”
• “Landpromise”
• “Dwarves Krig”
• “Wandering Day”
• “The Sails of Salvage”
• Which one did we like best?
• Listener mail from Velimirius, Ghostlight, and Inon Zur
• Jukebox picks: “Options” from Comix Zone, “Main Theme” from StarFox 64, and “Pictures of the Past” from Rain World
• Outro (feat. “Black Air Magic”)
• Stinger: M-O-M

• Talk to the Battle Bards on Twitter!
• Follow Battle Bards on iTunes, Stitcher, Player.FM, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Pocket Casts!

Sunday Serenade: Zen, Dream Academy, Alone in the Dark 5, and Bad English

Time for another Sunday morning dose of random songs that I’ve been listening to this past week! Welcome to Sunday Serenade — now let’s crank the jams up with…

“Slixxon Oil Rig” from Zen: Intergalactic Ninja — A slick and groovy soundtrack from a late-in-the-cycle NES game that most people never heard of.

“Time Stood Still” by Bad English — I’ve been listening through a playlist of underrated ’80s songs, and this one had that great rock ballad vibe that caught my attention.

“Rush” by Big Audio Dynamite — Hard not to start dancing when this beat starts up!

“Brand New Lover” by Dead or Alive — The ’80s only needed two instruments: a synthesizer and electronic drums. Everything else was optional.

“Life in a Northern Town” by Dream Academy — Until now, the only song I knew from this group was the one that’s played in Ferris Bueller. I rather like this tune! Great chanting.

“Who Am I?” from Alone in the Dark 5 — Wasn’t really expecting a kick-butt chanting song from an Alone in the Dark game, but this one is truly stellar.

Sunday Serenade: Teen Wolf, Albion Online, Castlevania, Hearthstone

Time for another Sunday morning dose of random songs that I’ve been listening to this past week! Welcome to Sunday Serenade — now let’s crank the jams up with…

“Win in the End” by Mark Safan — These kind of blandly stated, wildly optimistic rock anthems is why I love 1980s movie songs like this one. What do you want to do? Ah. You want to win in the end. Good to know.

“Unison” by x1rox — Again, I love happy dance music, and that’s pretty much what this is from start to finish. My workout MP3 player is full of tracks like this.

“Main Theme” from Albion Online — This is a… perfectly adequate MMO main theme. Epic, action-packed, yadda yadda. But when you consider that this is the BEST track on the whole released album, then it gets kind of sad.

“Slash” from Castlevania DXC — This series is always delivering awesome gothic rock tunes, and this was the first time I ever heard this little gem. Now I can’t get it out of my head.

“Rastakhan’s Rumble Trailer” from Hearthstone — I was listening through the catchy and cheeky Hearthstone trailers, and this one above all the rest caught my heart. This team has a lot of fun making these.

“Intro” from Yo! Joe! — I have no idea what this Amiga game is, but its music seems to pop up a lot on people’s favorite tunes. I think this intro is a slow burner, but by the end I was grooving fully on it.

“Young Hearts” by Commuter — I always felt this was an underrated ’80s movie anthem. We just watched Karate Kid the other night and I was reminded how much I liked it.