Sounds Stuck In My Brain: June 12, 2024

Roxanne but it’s just Rocks

(YouTube)

It’s time to let you in on one of my favorite type of YouTube finds. Occasionally, the algorithm is merciful and delivers gifts instead of trash. Some of the many gifts I’ve enjoyed have been in the form of remixes, mashups, and splitting. It’s truly a musical wonderland, a copyright-mocking platform-wide experiment that will likely get nuked at some point in the future, so enjoy these while they’re still up. Download them if you can. Confuse friends at parties. Hoodwink partners when you tell them these songs are in your lovemaking playlist. Listen to them on repeat to cheer up after your breakup.

ROOOOOOCKS!

Rocks!

Rocks!

Wolf – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

(YouTube Music)

One of the things Noble Knight Adventures has taught me is to listen to all kinds of music, even if it’s way outside my usual scope.

The other day, while listening to one of the NKA suggestions on YouTube Music, a new one shuffled in as soon as the current one ended. Instinctively, I hovered my finger over the button to skip.

I hesitated, then said, “Nah, I’ll let it play.”

I’m glad I did, because “Wolf” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs turned out to be a delight. As I mentioned before in another post, I don’t know many musical terms, so my take is far from academic or professional. But “Wolf” is a peaceful, ethereal type of cacophony, punctuated by orchestral explosions. Karen O’s vocals drop to whispery notes, then rise into nearly trembling pleas—tender and sensuous with every second she sings.

Don’t leave me now
Don’t break the spell
In heaven, lost my taste for hell
Taste for hell

I attempted to link to YouTube Music below, but for some reason, it produced a link instead of a video. (Well, a still image as a video.) So, to try something different, I’m linking to the official music video on YT in addition to the song on YTM.

If I were a more artistic person, I could give an accurate interpretation of the video itself, but I’m not that artsy. I’m also a bit leery of—I guess you’d call it—”experimental” music videos because it’s like viewing someone’s raw imagination without context. I figure the wife character is struggling with sexual identity but then commits sexual/physical assault against her husband… maybe it’s supposed to be empowering and a reversal of patriarchal stuff and stuff… damn, should have taken a women’s studies class in my undergrad years after all.

In any case, content warning… I guess?

Two on the Vine – Ep. 4: PAX East 2015

(YouTube)

But of course I’m going to include a TotV episode in a Sounds post. It’s tradition at this point, and it’s going to be a sad day when I’ve run out of episodes. Hold onto these precious moments, clutch them to your bosom like a possessive lover with no concept of personal space.

It’s the equivalent of a special road trip episode as Vinny and KY recount their PAX East 2015 adventure. Most podcasts would wait until they’ve cut their teeth on an interview or two before doing something as big as a travel episode. But this is Vinesauce, where nobody waits for opportunity—they make opportunity! Well, they blunder into coincidences, but it’s still opportunity.

Personal highlights, some without context because it’s more fun that way (your personal highlights may vary):

  • New theme music. Let us have a moment of silence for Brad Neely’s contribution.
  • The duo are drinking “bullshit water” and Arnold Palmer’s Strawberry Half & Half. Wait, they made a strawberry version?!
    • One of Vinny’s friends would mix vodka into an “Arnie Parmie”, which sounds incredibly headache-inducing.
    • KY is wary of flavored water. I sure hope he hasn’t gone down the water aisle in a grocery store recently.
    • There’s a product that turns sour food into sweet food. KY asks his girlfriend if they have “that sour shit, that sour-to-sweet nonsense.”
  • There’s gonna be lots of talk about PAX, and there’s a segment for us “viewers”.
    • Vinny: When I say viewers, I mean listeners, of course. Unless you’re… theater of the mind kind of stuff.
      • For whatever reason, that made me think of something: did anyone make animations or animatics of this podcast? Anyone wanna make some now as a sort of retrospective?
  • Vinny’s bus ride back home from PAX.
    • “Yeah, the sweet emanations of the banana kept me, uh, en-enticed and excited.”
    • KY’s emergency muffin experience.
    • “I wonder why my car is not working, I open up, I look at the engine, it’s just, like, stitched together bananas.” “It’s a cornucopia.”
      • Wouldn’t it be more fitting if it were a car-nucopia?
  • KY took a picture of snow next to a Dunkin’ Donuts—a mountain of snow that reached the roof. Boston snowfalls are scary, man.
  • On to PAX talk.
    • KY had a better time this year than the last time as he got to nearly every game on his list. The gamer’s con bucket list. Concket list? Buckon list?… I should have stopped at car-nucopia.
    • Vinny watched people playing Splatoon in the congested Nintendo booth. Seeing how he’s six-foot-even, he probably got a good view of the screens over the crowd’s heads. Tsch, tall people privileges.
    • Signing people’s things.
      • Vinny signed someone’s Tingle doll, which was “an honor.”
      • Both signed a hard drive.
      • Headphones? I bet that person treasured those, wearing them to bed, listening to Vinesauce VODs, getting jump scared awake…
      • A Super Mario Bros. Super Show DVD. KY says it would have been better if it had been a VHS.
      • “Nothing overly strange.” What, nobody ever thinks to bring a can of beans to have signed?
    • They got to enjoy “intimate time” with fans, by which Vinny means they all yelled to each other across a crowded bar. It must be the Vinesauce equivalent of speed dating.
    • The Hot Pocket Truck, which sounds like a step up from the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile. Look it up, kids.
      • What a shame the Hot Pocket Truck wasn’t shaped like a hot pocket. They could have had the AC blasting in the center.
    • Affordable Space Adventures, a game where you navigate planets a la Metroid and upgrade your ship. Sounds fun.
      • Sadly, the game is not available for platforms other than the Wii U.
      • Vinny: You know what this sounds like to me? […] This sounds like if I was on the Starship Enterprise […] and I had to handle every station myself.
        • It’s kinda cute how Vinny tries to slip in a Star Trek reference when he can. You think he slipped at least one into a Red Vox song? Quick, someone with too much time on their hands, open the Memory Alpha wiki in another tab and go on a listening binge!
    • Rain World
      • KY: This is almost Greenlight Guess tier.
      • You’re a slug cat—a stupid fucking slug cat?—crawling around the world while the crazily accurate AI uses all its senses to seek you out. Hearing KY describe it is almost terrifying.
    • Interloper
      • KY: It’s a sperm-based RTS.
    • Vinny: Behemoth was awesome, and we got a chance to hear Stamper say he had diarrhea. […] That is, um, one of my other favorite memories.
      • It isn’t one of mine, but it’s moved into my brain and found a home next to my most cherished memories, just so it can pop in at the most inopportune times.
      • Vinny did get a chance to chat with Tom Fulp who “apparently eats babies in order to retain his youth, because he does not look a day over 23.”
    • Random. (39:09)
    • Vinny and his Meat pillow on the bus. No, not his Meat. Look, I don’t mean his little worm. I mean—
      • Vinny: They were all staring at me. They were like, “Is that Vinny? Is that Vinny from Angry Video Game Nerd?”
      • No joke. The first people who went up to his booth confused Vinny for James Rolfe. I have a really hard time believing this. Sure, James Rolfe is a good-looking fellow, but Vinny’s distinctive Italian charm—I mean, just by comparing the mandibular processes and supraorbital ridges of both individuals, one can clearly determine they’re different. Geez, people.
      • *ahem* But, yes, I did mean it’s not the Meat character Vinny “adopted” from an MSN commercial in 2018. [Vinesauce Wiki – Meat]
    • The Soda Drinker booth had free soda with every purchase of the game. Some people said it tasted like peppermint; Vinny says it was spicy. “You don’t expect soda to be spicy.”
      • KY wanted to interview the Rain World people, but Vinny was jonesing for a soda so bad, they had to get that first.
      • I’ve heard 2024 Vinny doesn’t drink soda anymore. Shame, there are so many novelty sodas to disgust the senses.
    • They met Hootey and his girlfriend.
      • Hootey was another Vinesauce streamer and the oldest member of the group.
      • Here’s your streamer trivia for the day: Hootey quit streaming to concentrate on the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Variety is Hope, which Vinny would stream for. The charity ran from 2018-2021.
        • If you’re you’re part of the neoFacebook/Meta hellscape that is LinkedIn, you can look it up. Maybe, if he allows the option, you can even add Hootey to your “network” so you can fool headhunters into thinking you’re popular and hirable.
      • He’s still in touch with some Vinesauce folks. I heard recently in someone’s chat—I’m still leaving that as an exercise for you, Reader—he might return to streaming regularly sometime in the future.
    • Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes sounds like a great co-op game and friendship destroyer.
    • Vinny weighed down with merch crap and singing to Hootey about being a big shot YouTuber. A random girl asked him, “Then how come I’ve never heard of you?” When Vinny revealed he was from Vinesauce, her boyfriend “flipped out.”
      • Vinny’s ego was subsequently bruised when he sat in a booth with Two Best Friends, but he’s glad for the sobering experience. Shows maturity.
        • Good thing he was never in the same booth as PewDiePie at the height of the latter’s popularity.
    • PAX Pox. Maybe it’s because I’m kind of a homebody, but just hearing stories of people getting sick after cons makes me want to drink hand sanitizer.
  • KY’s Luigi impression has improved.
  • A new segment they stole “a little bit” from MechaGamezilla.
    • So no Greenlight Guess this time. If you need to riot in the streets, watch out for cars and non-rioting pedestrians.
    • Here’s the gist: take a popular game you’ve played and describe its entire plot to someone who’s never played it.
    • Vinny’s name for this segment: Mama Mia Plot Guess Papoopoopoopapatop *slide whistle*

Vinny: If anyone can actually spell what I just wrote, you’ll… you’ll win my respect.

KY: Can you say it again, do you remember?

Vinny: Nope.

  • I won’t be quoting any of these because hearing them is a much better experience than my paltry attempts to summarize.
    • KY asks Vinny for the plot of Final Fantasy XIII.
    • Vinny asks KY for the plot of Skies of Arcadia.
    • KY asks Vinny for the plot of Final Fantasy XIII-2.
      • Vinny: Oh, fuck off.
    • Vinny asks KY for the plot of Monster Hunter 4. It’s almost a lit crit masterpiece.
    • KY asks Vinny for the plot of Heavy Rain. It sounds like a multi-crossover fanfic written during a fever dream.
    • Vinny asks KY for the plot of Eternal Darkness, then asks him to describe the characters. Despite having seen Vinny stream this and knowing the plot of the game… well, you’re better off hearing KY’s attempt.
  • Contact the podcast!
    • Actually, don’t. Besides, the email probably doesn’t exist anymore.
    • Vinny: I recommend that way, um, through email, for, obviously for viewer mail and—or listener mail—and if you need to contact me… uh, don’t.
      • No, you can. Vinny always gives it out during streams. It’s… um… at some webzone…