ReMix:Biker Mice from Mars "Rock and Ride" 3:26

There was a time when, if you were interested in marketing a cartoon & corresponding merchandise to kids, you needed a trifecta. I think it might have started with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who - let's face the facts on this one - were really just mutant ninja turtles. Nothing about them was particularly "teenage" - their respect for team structure and tutelage, their relative lack of angst, and their disinterest in all things sexual thoroughly excludes the demographic. So really, the age descriptor was superfluous, leaving the ever-desirable trinity in its wake. You can't sell kids "Pizza Cats"... what the hell is a pizza cat? No one wants that. Take that shit away from me and don't ever speak of it again. But samurai pizza cats? Money in the bank. Likewise, biker mice alone may have seemed otherwise impractical and even a bit stupid. But what if... stay with me... what if they were from Mars?? Shut the front door, NOW we've got got a winner. It doesn't always work, as the unfortunate & ill-concieved "Impotent Cocaine Lemurs" debacle proved, but it's usually a sure thing...

I mention all of this because it's COMPLETELY relevant (read: not at ALL relevant) to our latest ReMix from WillRock, which tackles the previously-untackled tunage of the Biker Mice from Mars SNES game with a completely badass hard-rock jam fit for ANY of the fight scenes in Roadhouse with Patrick Swayze. High praise, perhaps, but Will definitely had his guitar hat on for this one - he cut out the Will and went full Rock:

"Oh man, it's been a LONG time since I've done a remix for OCR. Time to start again. Sooooooooooo, I saw Stevo "Teh Beard" Bortz post a status on Facebook using the Obscure Video Game Music group (which I strongly recommend looking at). He had posted about Biker Mice from Mars for the SNES, and, after listening to Race Theme 4, I got inspired.

Unlike my other more 80s style remixes, this one takes more from the 70s channelling some mega Deep Purple vibes, which the source was undoubtedly influenced by as well. I had a lot of fun with the sound design trying to get the sound of Jon Lord's organ right :P (best keyboardist ever, BTW). Anyways, fans of UFO, Deep Purple, Whitesnake and Uriah Heep should give this one a listen.I hope you all enjoy it. :D"

So we've got STEVO to thank for this - thanks, Stevo! Congrats on the house, again! Hi, Val! Right... this is a different sound for Will but one I DEFINITELY hope he returns to for other sources; as much as I love me some WillRock synth-hero noodling, he's captured a certain guitar-centric rock sound that we don't hear a lot of, he's captured it quite well, and it's a style that I could easily see being applicable to many more source tunes out there. Please? Chimpazilla writes:

"Ok, so a WillRock song, hhhmmm let's listen. Again. Ok dude I already gave you my feedback on this like four times. *sigh* Yeah this track is amazing. Arrangement, performances, mixing, all just great. I still can't believe those drums are sequenced, you did a great job with them. You're a terrific guitarist! Fadeout ending? I AM OUTRAGED. Still, YES."

In the interest of expediency, I chimed in on the vote, too. Here's what I said:

"The funny thing here is that the original SOUNDS LIKE WILL WROTE IT ;) Some wicked soloing and a big fuzzy guitar tone definitely bring out the Deep Purple. Fadeout ending, well... not gonna lie, I'm not an AUTOMATIC hater of all fadeout endings EVER (like some people), but in this case it didn't sit entirely right - would have ended this one with a bang, not a whimper. Nitpicks aside, love to hear Will covering an unmixed game and putting some seventies in his walk & his talk."

This mix has grown on me since, and some of the beef I had with the drums doesn't seem to bug me as much now. It's not perfection incarnate, and the fadeout still rubs me the wrong way, but it's hot, it's happening, and I'd love to see Will dial things back a decade more often, plus it's nice to see some more obscure VGM get some quality lovin'. Grab it, and then grab on to something, because you're in for a wild ride!