A lot of us have iPods and MP3 players and computers and stuff. A lot of us love music.

I hereby challenge Paizocon attendees to create a 4-song playlist of your very favorite songs you'd love to share with other members of the community and bring it to the convention for a listening party hosted by yours truly.

Here are the rules:

1. No lame-ass fantasy movie scores and stuff like that. Honest to god kick-ass music of any genre without regard to whether or not it fits into the historical context of a fantasy game or whatever. Kick ass, awesome music you love so much you want to share it with other people.

2. The music doesn't necessarily need to be super-rare. If you think "Detroit Rock City" needs more converts, fly the flag high. This is really an event aimed at people who consider themselves somewhat snobbish in their musical tastes, though, so the deeper and awesomer the cut, the more likely that you will gain the respect of your peers.

3. Please burn the music to a CD so I can review each one at my leisure and play them on a CD player at the party. There will be prizes for awesomeness awarded to the mix I deem as the SWEETEST, as well as some goofy prizes handed out at the party.

4. Try to keep to shorter songs. Songs longer than 5 minutes are pushing it. Do not include them unless their sheer awesomeness is overpowering and commands that you disobey a rule in the spirit of rock and roll or heavy metal thunder or elfin folksy purity or whatever. Under no circumstances include a song longer than 7 minutes.

5. Name your mix something triumphant and awesome.

6. Be prepared to evangelize and defend shoddy choices.

I'll figure out the time and place for the listening party later, but it is highly likely that it will be after-hours.

Please note that CDs will be discarded after the event. The idea is to listen to awesome music, not distribute it.

I'm there!

Soooo...In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is out? :P

I'm there as well! :D

iPod, mp3, wuzzat?

I think I do have a few rare pieces that people NEED to be informed about. I'll just have to figure out how to tie them together.

Honestly though I'll have a hard time defending my pieces. Mostly 'cause I just could care less what others think of my music at much of it is a very odd musical mishmash. ^_^

That part is mostly a joke. I expect some good natured ribbing is all.

Four songs is gonna be tough.

Four favorite?

Four best shared?

Two of each?

More categories and one of each?

This might be be tough.

Damn Damn!

Will do my best.

Hopefully it will at least be cool. I am musically gifted for arrangements.

Count me as a winner even if I am a loser :)

Always looking for new tunes. It's going to take some time to figure out what four would be the best fit ... always have a tough time putting together a longer mix (too much music to go through), four songs will be pretty rough. ;)

Yeah, I usually do 20-song mixes, but there's not enough time to listen to 400 songs in a couple of hours. That's why this is a challenge.

This sounds freakin sweet. I spent my entire ride home thinking of the four.

4 songs... Makes sense... But I may include one tune longer than 5 minutes... It's Isis man, they're epic!! You'll probably hate them. :P

4. Try to keep to shorter songs. Songs longer than 5 minutes are pushing it. Do not include them unless their sheer awesomeness is overpowering and commands that you disobey a rule in the spirit of rock and roll or heavy metal thunder or elfin folksy purity or whatever. Under no circumstances include a song longer than 7 minutes.

Hmm, although it gives you the guts of Blue Lambency Downward, their third album. Plus, A Pitcher of Summer, from Choirs of the Eye, fits in, too. My whole issue is that I'm an album monkey, more than a mix guy....might be fun to try out, though.

This sounds like a lot of fun! Does it have to be four (can I do three?)

Yeah, I usually do 20-song mixes, but there's not enough time to listen to 400 songs in a couple of hours. That's why this is a challenge.

Sorry for the non-family friendliness of my post. I got caught up in the moment.

We need an AntiMix Selection. You know, those overdone songs that make your eyes roll for the 50th time. I would say these songs were cool, but were way overplayed!!! Can you name a few?

Damn. Makes me wish I was going now.

Can we mail you an unofficial entry?

And can I request a list of the tracks played?

Do they need to be in english?

We need an AntiMix Selection. You know, those overdone songs that make your eyes roll for the 50th time. I would say these songs were cool, but were way overplayed!!! Can you name a few?

So, aaah, it must be rock and roll eh?

So, aaah, it must be rock and roll eh?

Honest to god kick-ass music of any genre without regard to whether or not it fits into the historical context of a fantasy game or whatever.

Oh, this is gonna be sweet. I'll discuss possible options with Ben when he's off work. I've been listening to Tom Waits for two days straight (as I am wont to do) and Ben's got all those Clutch CDs. I bet we can find four to eight songs amongst them that people have gotta hear.

Honestly, both make regular appearances in my D&D games. Clutch makes great fightin' music, and Tom Waits plays very well into pretty much any urban or semi-urban campaign I ever run. The man pretty much made up my soundtrack for Diamond Lake and Sasserine, and is getting a good showing in Old Korvosa.

There will be music, sir. Music indeed. :D

Sounds cool. I'm in. Now I just have to narrow it down to the four songs I could listen to all day without getting sick of them...

Do they need to be in english?

So I say: HELL NO!

So, aaah, it must be rock and roll eh?

Just no lame fantasy movie soundtrack crap.

Zuxius wrote:

So, aaah, it must be rock and roll eh?

Absolutely not.

Just no lame fantasy movie soundtrack crap.

(scratches off Tangerine Dream/"Legend" selections)

Hmm, can there be unexpected easter eggs? Ala Soundbites? If the run time is not effected?

may as well ask, explicit lyrics?

Zuxius wrote:

So, aaah, it must be rock and roll eh?

Absolutely not.

Just no lame fantasy movie soundtrack crap.

I won't be able to attend so I can't participate but this is absolutely my most favorite kick ass song ever created (So far). Give it a try. :D Let me know what you think.

Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQsWpcwvmI0

Yeah, I can see the appeal of that when playing a video game, but....

NO, NO, NO, a thousand times NO.

No soundtrack stuff. I mean, really, do whatever you want, but all the stuff like this is going to run together and no one is going to be able to remember any of it.

I assume all of us have reams of music that's good for background noise when playing RPGs (and this is an excellent example thereof).

This event is not about RPGs at all, though, and is meant to share cool music with each other.

And by music I mean actual music, not just pleasing noise that goes well with the sound of clattering dice.

Ahh, 20 sec sound bits from your favorite film? For, atmoshere.

Perhaps an example is needed?

What I am picturing a good selection would be is something like this (though I just grabbed 4 CDs and picked songs at random):
Black Uhuru Genocide
Pat Methany Naked Moon
Santana Oye Como Va
Billy Bragg & Wilco One By One

What would be a bad selection would be something along the lines of:

Pirates Of The Carribean Fog Bound
Willow Escape From The Tavern
Lord Of The Rings The Nazgul
Pick Yer Favorite SciFi/Fantasy Flick Pick Yer Favorite Soundtrack Item

The goal being to bring tracks that one listens to simply because they kicks butt, not necessarily while gaming as background or scene setting.

Correct.

I might rib you a bit on the Santana choice since it's not exactly a deep cut, but some friendly hassling is bound to come up at the event.

Choose whatever you want to choose.

Just don't bring soundtrack stuff. We all have enough of that, I imagine.

Correct.

I might rib you a bit on the Santana choice since it's not exactly a deep cut, but some friendly hassling is bound to come up at the event.

Choose whatever you want to choose.

Just don't bring soundtrack stuff. We all have enough of that, I imagine.

<Checks Keyboard> Does this thing work? Maybe I am invisible to Paizo. Oh well, guess I will break the rules as I make them. :)

must narrow songs down........

Just saw this... I'll bring bringing mine... :)

Do the songs need to be "PG" rated.

What about two songs as one track? I have one in mind that was like that on the album, and together they still come in under 5 minutes. Does that count as One song, or Two, for the purposes of picking 4?

Doesn't need to be PG rated.

Two songs under 5 minutes count as two songs, even if they are one track.

Unless you don't want them to.

It's not a test.

But I am starting to think it will be very well attended, so the more songs you bring and the longer they are, the less a chance we will have to listen to everyone's music.

Have we got a time and place idea yet?

3. Please burn the music to a CD so I can review each one at my leisure and play them on a CD player at the party.

Ok, do we have anything firm on this yet? When, where, how to get Erik Mona the disc, etc. How will he have time to review them???

Time to bust out the Slim Whitman!

Well, that was all kinds of awesome.

I think everyone agreed that the best discovery was Wishmaster, a Finnish theatrical metal band with an operatic female singer presented by Paizo's star Finn.

The mix ended up 39 songs long, with some really cool stuff. I will post the final track list later this week.

Actually the band is called NIGHTWISH , Wishmaster is one of their songs. But yeah, they are totally awesome, as far as being called "Goth for Geeks" in some circles.

Yeah, sorry. I was verrah sleepy when I made that post.

Nightwish. The song that impressed us most was Wishmaster.

Man, sorry I missed this too. I really dropped the ball this year. I totally could have knocked some people's socks off with some of the stuff I've got, if you liked Nightwish :)

Well, that was all kinds of awesome.

I think everyone agreed that the best discovery was Wishmaster, a Finnish theatrical metal band with an operatic female singer presented by Paizo's star Finn.

The mix ended up 39 songs long, with some really cool stuff. I will post the final track list later this week.

(Next year I WILL have a CD. Promise.)