Music
All Aboard the Prog Express
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PROJECT: School Projects |
| WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Cool Loops, Claps, Lead Guitar through Leslie Cabinet, Kitchen Utensil & Appliances, Ridiculous Noisy Hard Drive | |
| GENRE: Progged Out Wankery | |
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NOTES: This is a song I made for my Audio Production Seminar class for the Fall 2012 semester. The assignment was basically an audio production “scavenger hunt,” where we had to create a song with tons of really weird shit like:
-Re-amping a part of a song through a crappy speaker (0:15) There are twenty “weird” things throughout the song. TRY AND FIND THEM ALL. You know what the weirdest part about making this song was? I had an easier time writing music. |
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Drossin In Chains
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Howard Drossin – SOURCE: Comix Zone (Intro, Episode 1 Page 1-2) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Layne Staley | |
| PROJECT: Punchfest 18 “1995 Games”: August 12th, 2012 | |
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NOTES: Punchfest is the demon child of Dwelling of Duels and Punchfest, created by SnappleMan and named by virt (for all the punch-inseveryone will be doing through these competitions. The rules are everyone gets in an IRC room, and with a given theme, we make a real song (as opposed to strict MIDI in Punchfest). You are given 6 hours to make the song (as opposed to 1 hour in Kwakfest).
There’s one song from Comix Zone that I’ve always really loved, and it sounds insanely like “Man in the Box” by Alice in Chains. So much so I decided to do a mash-up of the two. I used Layne Staley’s original (unfortunately censored from Guitar Hero) vocals. Also added the Comix Zone intro sound for a bonus. |
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Fight For Your Right to Fight
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Yasunori Shiono – SOURCE: Lufia 2 (Battle 3) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Lead Guitars, Rhythm Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Programming; Andreas “SnappleMan” Kotsamanidis – Lead Guitars, Keyboards | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards | |
| GENRE: Metal | |
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NOTES: This is actually a track from the upcoming OverClocked Remix Lufia 2 remix album, which I got permission from the project’s director to submit to DoD. When I laid down the skeleton of the song, it actually naturally turned into a very SnappleMan style. In fact, the song length ended up being 3:33 (the average length of many of SnappleMan’s tracks.) So I asked SnappleMan if he was interested in working with me on the track, and he then joined. He and I split up lead guitar and key duties. Basically, if there’s a single lead guitar, it’s me. If there are two lead guitars, the second is SnappleMan. I do the guitar solo, SnappleMan does the key solo and key + guitar duet.
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Now You’re A MAOUWN
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: DVDA (Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s band) – SOURCE: Now You’re A Man (Theme to Orgazmo) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson – PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Rhythm Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Programming, Extra & Gang Vocals; Andrew Johnsen – Vocals, Gang Vocals; Connor Engstrom – Lead Guitars; Travis Moberg – Gang Vocals | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Brass, Strings, Percussion | |
| GENRE: FUCKING METAL | |
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WARNING: If you’re not already a man, please enjoy your last moments of being sans-twig-n-berries, because there’s about to be a bit of testosterone up in here. NOTES: Before you listen to this song, listen to this one first. This is one of the manliest songs ever written, by none other than Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park. I felt compelled randomly to try and recreate the manliness, and here’s my modest effort. My good friend Andrew Johnsen did the vocals, and quite frankly, NAILED IT. Connor Engstrom does the guitar solo, and Andrew, Travis and myself do all the gang vocals. |
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SnappleMan’s Farts
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Crush 40 – SOURCE: Sonic Adventure (Open Your Heart) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitar, Bass, Drums, SINGING (!) | |
| PROJECT: Punchfest 17 “SnappleMan’s Birthday”: March 24th, 2012 | |
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NOTES: Punchfest is the demon child of Dwelling of Duels and Punchfest, created by SnappleMan and named by virt (for all the punch-inseveryone will be doing through these competitions. The rules are everyone gets in an IRC room, and with a given theme, we make a real song (as opposed to strict MIDI in Punchfest). You are given 6 hours to make the song (as opposed to 1 hour in Kwakfest).
“Open Your Heart” is one of my most favorite and nostalgic tunes from the early 3D Sonic era. I’ve always wanted to a cover of it, and I finally got the opportunity. BUT I ACTUALLY SANG. OH DEAR SWEET JESUS. Yes, it was SnappleMan’s birthday for this Punchfest, so I wrote lyrics about him. Here they are: You and SnappleMan That sound is unmistakable All that cheese he ate at a rapid rate, smells like nachos in a sewage plant Can’t hold my breath much longer – but I will never let go SnappleMan’s farts once suffocated a mime Pot roast stuffed with bacon Tina I don’t know how he doesn’t drive you crazy Can’t hold my breath much longer – but I will never let go SnappleMan’s Farts will melt your brain! Last time there was a gas as potent as the kind he makes It smells like a rotting skunk – tell me now how long this’ll last Oh no I gotta fart, dude! Can’t hold my breath much longer – but I will never let go SnappleMan’s farts, I think I’m gonna die |
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Skyrimjob
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THEME: Something about Skyrim. I don’t remember. |
| WRITTEN, PERFORMED AND SEQUENCED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Rhodes, Clavinet, Pad, Bass, Drums, Distortion Guitar | |
| PROJECT: Kwakfest | |
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NOTES: Kwakfest is a periodic competition where musicians (at variable degrees of intoxication) gather in an IRC room, and given a theme, need to create a MIDI song in 1 hour. It’s quite intense. This is my third Kwakfest. It’s actually been awhile since this Kwakfest actually occurred, so this is way overdue. Oh well!
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Kastle Rock
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Tim Follin – SOURCE: Solstice (Main Theme) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Strings, Brass, English Horn, Bassoon, Timpani, Harpsichord | |
| GENRE: Symphonic Metal | |
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NOTES: So remember that MAGfest auction thing I did a year ago? Yeah, well, due to a lot of really shitty circumstances, I was only able to work on the songs the winners gave to me recently. This is the second of two songs, and it’s the Main theme from Solstice. I also entered this for the DoD April 2012 competition. While I did this is in my common Symphonic Metal style, the arrangement is actually pretty conservative. The original song is nearly 3 minutes long, so I didn’t have to add much, and most of the melodies are exactly as they are in the original tune. The goal basically became “make Tim Follin’s song come to life.” Most of the additions are in the accompanying instruments. By the way, the naming scheme for these two MAGfest uction/April 2012 DoD songs originally wasn’t deliberate, but then when I saw the word “Kastlerock” in a game summary about Solstice, I had to do it.
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Ragnar Rock
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Kuichi Sugiyama – SOURCE: Dragon Warrior IV (Overworld) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums…Seriously that’s it. | |
| GENRE: RAWK | |
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NOTES: So remember that MAGfest auction thing I did a year ago? Yeah, well, due to a lot of really shitty circumstances, I was only able to work on the songs the winners gave to me recently. This is the first of two songs, and it’s the Overworld from Dragon Warrior IV. I didn’t have too many extravagent ideas for the arragement, so I decided to do it in a pretty straight-forward rock arrangement. This is probably my only remix with no keyboards. I entered this in the April 2012 DoD as an alternate as well as the other MAGfest Auction song.
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Metal Symphonized
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PROJECT: Earthbound Papas’ “Metal Hypnotized” Remix Contest |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Synth, Piano, Strings, Brass Section, Orchestral Percussion | |
| GENRE: Symphonized Metal | |
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NOTES:Ok so this is pretty freakin’ interesting. Nobuo Uematsu has a new band called “Earthbound Papas.” Earthbound Papas hosted a remix contest Oct. 26th – Jan. 31st. The contest was where they posted the separate tracks from one of their songs called “Metal Hypnotized,” and contestants would remix the song. The winner would get to perform on Earthbound Papas’ next album. Welp, I did it, and I WON! YES THAT IS RIGHT. I WILL BE PERFORMING ON NOBUO UEMATSU’S NEXT ALBUM. The song is more orchestral metal, as if I don’t already have enough of it. This also debuts my new guitar, the Ibanez SV5470.
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Dirty Kirby
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Jun Ishikawa – SOURCE: Kirby’s Dream Land 3 (Sand Canyon 2) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson & Sam “Shnabubula” Ascher-Weiss PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Lead Guitars, Rhythm Guitars, Bass, Keyboards; Sam “Shnabubula” Ascher-Weiss – Keyboards; Alex “housethegrate” Liss – Lead Guitars, Travis Moberg – Drums | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Synths, Rhodes, Piano, CP-80, Gospel Choir | |
| GENRE: Dirty Jazz | |
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NOTES: This is the winning track from MAGfest X’s DoD. I’ve wanted to do this song in this style for a while, and finally got to it for that competition. This style is basically a shoutout to the band Dirty Loops (hence the name), that takes really terrible pop songs and makes them amazing. I’ve always wanted to do a full band remix, where each musician exclusively plays their own instrument, and this song started out that way but didn’t end up that way. Shnabubula was going to play all keys, but his recording schedule was pretty thick and then his MIDI/Recording computer died. In the end, he did the keys in the intro up until the main melody, and the piano solo. Sam also helped me come up with chord progressions and other stuff in a few sections in the song. Originally I was going to have Chris Feener do all the guitars, but he wasn’t able to record them, so I got housethegrate to do the solos at 1:56, 3:00, and 5:19. Travis Moberg does all the drums throughout the song.
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