#thundercats

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #110: Musician and Aerial Video Producer Brent Simon Comes on the Show Part 2 of 3

Episode #110: Brent Simon – Musician and Aerial Video Producer, Part 2 of 3

https://archive.org/download/Podcast110_201709/podcast%20110.mp3

Update: Click this link above if you are finding iTunes is playing episode 74 instead.  Trying to work out the glitch!

Last week, we had our first episode of Brent Simon’s interview, and this week, we discuss things like bittorrent, movie that were probably inappropriate to be shown to children (but were), how we went around humming John Williams scores as kids, and more.  Lots of 80s movies references in this one!

In case you missed the backstory, in the beginning of the summer, during the interview with Jeff Finley (episodes 101 and 102), we talked about Jeff’s making of a little documentary that rocketed to the forefront of Youtube back in 2006 featuring none other than current guest Brent Simon.  Last week, we talked about the making of that short film (called “The Brentumentary,”) as well as the media explosion that happened afterwards resulting in a CD of synthesizer tunes.  It’s, unfortunately, really hard to find now for some reason.  I did manage to track down a copy of another CD Brent talked about last week, the infamously named “Vomit Gold” by the band he was in prior to all this happening, Bellevue:

You can hear Brent’s synthesizer action in the background just like he mentioned last week.  I’ll figure out how to get it to Brent.  Of all people, he should own this disc.

Speaking of musical things, at one point, Brent references a childhood favorite track, which was a disco version of the Star Wars theme.  I’m not sure this is the same one, but here’s one I did find a medley version on youtube, which has the main theme, the cantina theme, and a bit of the Force theme.

 

We also discuss the notable lack of the Voltron theme in the new reboot, Tranzor Z (finally learned what that robot was called; see below), Transformers, Robotech, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Prince Valiant (watch the intro here; always thought this was a kickass intro – the full song was done who the synth duo Exchange), and more.  We touch on a few movies my brother I rewatched a number of months ago (discussed in episodes 74 and 75) as well as a full discussion of some classic movie scores by folks such as James Horner (The Rocketeer, Willow,  The Journey of Natty Gann, etc).

Image result for tranzor z

Click on the picture for the original Japanese intro, which, true to form given the time period, has men singing in the background.

Find more Brent by going to the original source on Jeff Finley’s youtube channel or on FB at https://www.facebook.com/Brent-Simon-355981196166/?ref=br_rs and, believe it or not, on myspace (https://myspace.com/brentsimon/music/songs) – the music still (sometimes) works there.

At the end of the show, there a clip of one of the songs from Brent’s “Seven of Nine” CD, a very catchy tune with clever lyrics called “Alien Abduction.”  If you want to see a “live” performance (11 years ago), there’s a clip Jeff put up on his channel of Brent busting out a 20 min set with friends with a number of songs from the CD (not to mention a short breakdancing bit on cardboard, no less):

 

And speaking of which, check out Jeff’s Soundcloud page for a number of new tracks he’s produced since coming on the show at the beginning of the summer.  His latest instrumental chillwave track:

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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube.   This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.

between 2 worlds EP cover 2

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!  Next week more on Brent Simon!

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