Pokemon Go Fest 2020-Day 2 Recap

Go Fest was definitely different this year, with the game being played locally instead of in a specific city. Here, I go over my experience during day two:

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 38-Jordan Moore/Pokemon Puzzle League

In the first segment (1:19-15:27), I interview YouTube musician Jordan Moore. We talk about his channel, his recent graduation from college, and his covers of Pokemon music. If you want to know what it takes to put together a video with many instruments all performed by the same person, this is one you shouldn’t miss.

Our second segment (16:33-1:05:51) is a discussion of the music of Pokemon Puzzle League for the N64. Anne from Pikapi Podcast assists me in analyzing the tunes-most of them from the anime dub-that appear in this game. As usual, we run into a few surprises along the way. If you want to know what we thought of the game itself, be sure to listen after the outro:

Links:

Segment 1:
Jordan Moore Playlist

Segment 2:
Pikapi Podcast
Brian Steckler Interview

Musician Interview: Jordan Moore

I recently had an opportunity to interview Jordan Moore, a musician who's produced a number of covers of both classical and video game music. We discussed his musical training, starting his YouTube channel, and his more recent and future work:

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 37-Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution Movie Discussion

As promised, this episode contains our discussion of the non-musical aspects of Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution. Anne from Pikapi Podcast joins once again to go over the art style, script, and other facets of the remake. We also talk about whether the movie got released the way we wanted, and what kind of CGI Pokemon movies we'd like to see in the future:

Links:
Pikapi Podcast

Why it Works: The B-52's and "The Chosen One"

The B-52's eclectic body of work made them a great choice to record a song for the Pokemon 2000 soundtrack. Find out why here:

Transcript:

You wouldn't hire just any band to do a song based on the legend from Pokémon 2000, as not many acts would have the talent to give it just the right balance of seriousness and humor. Thankfully, the B-52's were willing and able to provide their services for the soundtrack. Sure, "The Chosen One" might not be as off-the-wall as "Rock Lobster", but it does capture the sense of fun the band is known for, and with its surf rock influence, it fits in nicely with the movie's tropical island setting. If you want to draw parallels to the characters of the movie, well, Fred's voice does remind me of the island elder, and Kate and Cindy could represent Melody, but it's more likely you would simply attribute it to a musical group performing during the festival-I suppose that's an idea if this movie ever gets a remake. In any case, do you think they made the right decision tapping this group for this song? Be sure to let us know. Thanks.

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 36-The music of "Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution" (Part 2)

In this episode, we continue our discussion of the music of Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution. Anne from Pikapi Podcast helps me analyze the absence of "Brother My Brother", the score of the remake, and the opening sequence. After that, we review some social media comments and messages from the chat. If you want to know what we thought of the movie itself, we'll have that discussion in an upcoming episode.

Links:
Pikapi Podcast
Neil Jason Interview

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 35-The music of "Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution" (Part 1)

This episode features the first part of a discussion of the music of Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution. Anne from Pikapi Podcast helps me analyze both "Keep Evolving" and a new rendition of "Together With The Wind". After that, we begin talking about music that's not in this remake by going over "We’re A Miracle". If you want to hear even more about that song, be sure to listen after the outro:



Links:
Pikapi Podcast
PCN Event Info
First Movie Music Discussion