Battle Bards Episode 178: The Division 2

Washington D.C. has fallen to the plague, curiously well-armed agents are everywhere, and intriguing music floats. The Division 2 features a tense and action-packed synth score that distinguishes itself among online games — and is worth an investigation by the Battle Bards. Suit up, because today we’re going to the musical dark zone!

Episode 178 show notes (show page, direct download)

• Intro (feat. “The Beginning is the End,” “Rocket Science,” and “Ballroom”)
• “Prologue 2”
• “Steps”
• “Saint”
• “Dock Wrecks”
• “Keates”
• “Hyena Hunt”
• “Rooftops”
• Which one did we like best?
• Listener notes from Zinn
• Jukebox picks: “Sanctuary 3” from Borderlands 3, “Ronda’s Diner” from Unforeseen Incidents, and “Bushroot” from Darkwing Duck NES
• Outro (feat. “Junior”)

• Talk to the Battle Bards on Twitter!
• Follow Battle Bards on iTunes, Stitcher, Player.FM, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Pocket Casts!
• This podcast is produced using copyrighted material according to Fair Use practices as stated under Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act.

Sunday Serenade: TMNT, Odd Chap, 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… 

“Main Theme” from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — Still think the 80s theme was a bit better, but this is pretty righteous.

“Downtown Swing” by Odd Chap — Electro swing? That’s a thing? I guess it is!

“Life is a Rock” by Reunion — I’m a sucker for any song where someone rattles off a huge list of rhymes and then follows it up with a cool chorus.

“Young Again” by Erlandsson — Short, snappy, and slappy. Makes you want to get up and move, this one does.

“Wild” by Raylee — There’s a great build up and dance release pattern here… and that beat is killer.

“Who We Are” by Rebrnd and Eeshii The Free — I kind of needed a relaxing tropical trip, and this filled the bill.

“EPCOT Test Track Queue” from Disney — This ride has some of my absolute favorite queue music from the Disney theme parks. I could listen to this for hours.

Sunday Serenade: JJD, Jessie Fyre, 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… 

“Kitty” by Mafin — Happy go lucky EDM. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Pumpin Blood” by Nonono — This remix hits the right sort of upbeat, bubby tone that makes it worth a few relistens to me.

“Share That Love” by Lukas Graham — It’s a really good sign when you’re singing along with the lyrics before you’ve finished hearing a song for the first time.

“Connect” by JJD –– A simple earworm of a song, but no less fun for that.

“Windows” by K-391 — Dork techno by the way of the 1970s? I dig it.

“How Deep is Your Love” by Lea Beiley — I was really on the fence about this mellow track, but I felt that the remix version tipped it over the edge into favorable territory.

“Fallen Leaves” by JJD — Going through this guy’s discography and I’m really impressed. This would be the kind of music I’d want to hear if I went to a club. If.

“No Sleep” by Jessie Fyre — Really impressed with this retro singer. She belts it out in a way that you’d think it was still 1987.

“Ace” by Mazzix — I imagine this would make a great track for a workout… especially biking.

Battle Bards Episode 177: Gone with the wind

As the weather howls and gusts around us, the Battle Bards stand in the middle of it all with their heads lifted up, listening to the music that rides on the breeze. In this episode, Syl, Steff, and Syp examine wind-themed tracks from MMORPGs. Will they find all of the wind’s colors? Probably not, but nobody ever mistook these three for artistic geniuses!

Episode 177 show notes (show page, direct download)

• Intro (feat. “Calm Breeze” from Elsword Online, “Silken Wind Through a Bamboo Forest” from Age of Conan, and “The Wind and the Reeds” from Fallout 76)
• “Sign of Wind” from Lineage
• “Echoes of a Zephyr” from Final Fantasy XI
• “Dust” from Last Oasis
• “Whispering Winds” from TERA
• “On Windy Meadows” from Final Fantasy XIV
• “Carbines in the Wind” from Star Wars: The Old Republic
• “Winds of the Frontier” from WildStar
• Which one did we like best?
• Listener notes: Zinn and Katriana
• “Swordmaiden’s Prayer,” a special WildStar tribute to Avidguru
• Jukebox picks: “Traps” from Turrican 2, “Title Theme” from Clockwiser, and “Title Theme” from Ary and the Secret of Seasons
• Outro (feat. “Highland Winds” from Skyforge)

• Talk to the Battle Bards on Twitter!
• Follow Battle Bards on iTunes, Stitcher, Player.FM, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Pocket Casts!
• This podcast is produced using copyrighted material according to Fair Use practices as stated under Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act.

Sunday Serenade: Janji, LOTRO, 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… 

“Shadows” by Janji — A fun uplifting track with a good deal of bounce to it.

“Ameno” by Gabry Ponte, Marnik, and Roberto Molinaro — Gregorian chant set to a techno beat? It’s a weird collaboration, but it also kind of rocks.

“A Feast at Merethrond” from LOTRO — One of the amazing wedding tracks and probably the greatest concentrated nostalgia this game has ever produced.

“My Kind of Love” by Fewz — Smooth vocals and a mellow beat make for a really good combination.

Sunday Serenade: Big Z, Kyla La Grange, 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… 

“Endless” by Cediv — A nice high-energy track for high-volume playback.

“Jessie” by Catstronaut84 — God bless synthwavers, keeping the ’80s alive with great hits like this one.

“Little Voices” by Big Z — An optimistic track about looking for the good rather than the bad in life.

“Cut Your Teeth” by Kyla La Grange — Someone called this song “magic,” and I have to agree. It’s quite entrancing.

“Nova Waves” from CSC — New space MMO on the scene with really lovely music. I hope we get a lot more of it.

“Ambulance” by Rainy Boy Sleep — A chipper tune with a great thumpa-thumpa makes for an enjoyable listen.

“Unite” by Ahrix — Some mindless techno, but there’s that little something to it that makes it stand out from the piles of music that I do go through.

Battle Bards Episode 176: Orchestral RuneScape

In 2018, RuneScape put out an official orchestral album to highlight some of the best of its remastered and re-recorded soundtrack. From delicate tunes to epic themes, the album shows just how far the game has come since its early MIDI days. The Battle Bards dive into this triumphant score and pull out some vindication for RuneScape at last!

Episode 176 show notes (show page, direct download)

• Intro (feat. “Sunrise,” “Newbie Melody,” and “Waterfall II”)
• “Harmony”
• “A Hero’s Return”
• “The Town”
• “Aurora” 
• “The Winding Meadow”
• “Village Dance” 
• “Gnomeball”
• Which one did we like best?
• Listener notes: Zinn and Katriana
• Jukebox picks: “Welcome to Hogwarts” from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, “The Way of the Samurai” from Ghost of Tsushima, and “Garbage Day” from Donut Country.
• Outro (feat. “RuneScape Theme”)

• Talk to the Battle Bards on Twitter!
• Follow Battle Bards on iTunes, Stitcher, Player.FM, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Pocket Casts!
• This podcast is produced using copyrighted material according to Fair Use practices as stated under Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act.

Sunday Serenade: Ghost’n’Ghost, Queen, 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… 

“The Plain and the Sky” from Suikoden Tierkreis — A very sweet map theme that made me want to bask in it for a long time.

“Looking at the Sunshine” by Raas Masters — WARNING: Do not look directly at the sunshine.

“Spanish Love” by DigitalTek and Danny Boyle — So much to love about this, but I keep zeroing in on the crooning as my favorite part. Perfect for top volume.

“Golden” by Antoine Cara — My 4YO son and I had fun dancing in a chair to this one.

“Crystal” by Pyro X — Happy trippy beats. Nothing revolutionary, but it’s still good stuff.

“Coconut Mystery” by Ghost’n’Ghost — It’s no mystery: This is a peppy little track full of joy.

“Then He Kissed Me” by Rachel Sweet — I can’t hear this and not think of the beginning of Adventures in Babysitting.

“Another One Bites the Dust (Live)” by Queen — Great audience participation on this classic!

“Interstellar” by Nora Van Elken — Man, I really like this one. Listened to it about six times in a row when I first heard it.

Battle Bards Episode 175: Prehistoric jams

Having perfected their musical time machine, the Battle Bards leap back to the past to enjoy the soundscapes of dinosaurs and other prehistoric denizens. What does the MMO soundtrack for savage wildlands and dinotopias sound like? Tune into today’s episode and find out!

Episode 175 show notes (show page, direct download)

• Intro (feat. “Zandalari Allied Race” from World of Warcraft, “The Valley of the Hidden Dinosaur” from Star Stable, and “Journey to the Prehistoric” from Club Penguin)
• “Savage” from Durango Wildlands
• “Traces of Ancient History” from WildStar 
• “Dinoville” from Dino Storm
• “Main Theme” from ARK Survival Evolved
• “Gift of an Axe” from Conan Exiles
• “Dino Biome” from Trove
• “Un’goro Crater” from World of Warcraft
• Which one did we like best?
• Listener notes: Zinn and Katriana
• Jukebox picks: “Unbroken” from The Last of Us Part II, “No Escape” from Hades, and “Red Planet” from Bucky O’Hare
• Outro (feat. “Path of Titans” from Path of Exile)

• Talk to the Battle Bards on Twitter!
• Follow Battle Bards on iTunes, Stitcher, Player.FM, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Pocket Casts!
• This podcast is produced using copyrighted material according to Fair Use practices as stated under Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act.

Sunday Serenade: Harry Potter, Ava Max, 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… 

“Star Glide” by Muzz — Take off and flyyyyy

“Now I’m Gone” by Moorland — I love that people are still making songs in the spirit of the ’80s. This is such a rad tune.

“Arrows” by Matthew Gordon Price — Someone said this has a summer vibe, and I agree.

“Capsize” by Frenship and Emily Warren — This was a really neat discovery this week. Probably listened to it a dozen times.

“Welcome to Hogwarts” from Harry Potter 5 (video game) — James Hannigan’s Harry Potter game OSTs are right up there — and maybe better than — the movie soundtracks. This one is a little bit of a slow burner but it’s so worth listening all the way through.

“Party in My Iggy” from Club Penguin — I dare you to love this song as much as you’ll hate it.

“Miraculous Ladybug Theme” by Disney — This is pretty much my life summed up perfectly.

“Who’s Laughing Now?” by Ava Max — The beat has a nice back-and-forth bounce to it, and it doesn’t hurt that the song is an earworm.

“Driving Hourse” by Axel Flóvent — I’m not normally one for these slow songs, but this one has a nice soulful vibe to it that I couldn’t help but add it to my collection.

“Sad Faces & Dark Places” by Babel — I swear, I’m not in a super-emo mood these days, but sometimes I like something a bit somber… with a low beat.