Bound Together

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Joe Cam chronology
Bound Together

Studio album by Joe Cam
Released	October 31, 2005
Recorded	September–October 2005
Genre	Video Game Music
Length	124:26
Label	JoeCam.net
Producer(s)	Joe "Joe Cam" Cammisa
Hits & Misses (2004)	Bound Together (2005)

Bound Together is an album of 32 arrangements using material from the Super Nintendo game EarthBound, material originally composed by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka. The intent of the album was to involve people from several different areas of the amateur video game music arrangement community, represented on the album by artists from OneUp Studios, VGMix, OverClocked ReMix and OverLooked ReMiX. As of December 15, 2005, the primary project archive and MP3 torrent were downloaded over 12,000 times.

1 Lineup changes and controversy
2 UnBound
3 ReBound
4 ReBound Track Listing
5 Personnel
6 External links and references
- 6.1 Community contributors

[edit] Lineup changes and controversy

[edit] Invitees who could not contribute

Artists were expressly gathered for the album through invitation by project director Joe Cammisa, with the stated objective being that artists selected their respective EarthBound tracks and completed their arrangements by mid-October 2005. Several of the artists originally committed to the project were unable to participate including Dan "Ashane" Liss, Marcos "BrainCells" Pascoli, Michael "Darangen" Boyd, Duane "DCT" Thorpe, Xavier "mv" Dang, Matt "Richter" Hackett, Devon Riley, and Steven "/slash" Velema.

[edit] Trenthian

Two notably unamicable departures from the project were that of John "Trenthian" St.John and David "djpretzel" Lloyd. While Mustin's contribution to the project was being spotlighted on internet radio show VG Frequency, Trenthian openly complained of the track being hastily thrown together and not representing a substantial arrangement of its source material. Fellow contributor Joshua Morse subsequently voiced to Cammisa that he would remove his material, including two already completed arrangements, from the project if St.John was allowed to remain a contributor. Minutes later, Mustin made clear on VG Frequency that his contribution was solely intended to be a tribute cover of "Flying Man" from the 1989 Mother arranged album, and not an attempt to plagiarize. Cammisa, faced with the choice of losing Morse's already completed works, as well as feeling that St.John's comments should have been kept private and were against the spirit of community he hoped to foster, removed St.John from the effort. St.John has since stated that there are no plans to release his completed material.

[edit] Star Salzman

Cammisa briefly came under fire for rejecting the possible inclusion of an in-progress collaboration by Luke "Less Ashamed Of Self" Williams & Karl "Bladiator" Harmdierks, for featuring the vocals of noted video game music arranger Star Salzman, citing a lack of respect for Salzman from previous encounters. As the collaboration was brought to Cammisa's attention by Williams, Salzman was never directly involved in the ensuing debate. Several bystanders to the incident cited hypocrisy on Cammisa's part as his stated goal of the project was to unite various parts of an otherwise splintered community. Nonetheless, Cammisa and others cited the fact that Bound Together was his personal project and he thus possessed the authority to accept or reject personnel. Ironically, Cammisa later admitted to mistakenly overlooking Harmdierks for invitation to the project, but stated he would have accepted an instrumental of the arrangement or an entirely different song from Williams & Harmdierks. Williams has since stated that he now understands why Salzman was not welcome on the project, and is currently working on an EarthBound arrangement for the project's planned follow-up, ReBound.

[edit] djpretzel

Five days before the release of the album, Jake "virt" Kaufman, previously expected not to be a part of the project, was able to complete his track, with the request that his presence be kept a secret until the album's release. The prospect of Kaufman secretly providing an arrangement for the project had been explored by Cammisa since the start of the project, who had hinted at a major figure's surprise inclusion on the album in an interview with VG Frequency during the project's conception phase. Kaufman's potential involvement was made aware to other artists on the project who had correctly guessed at the secret, with OC ReMix founder David "djpretzel" Lloyd otherwise remaining unaware of Cammisa's hopes to include Kaufman, who had been a passionate antagonist of Lloyd's in 2002 when he left OverClocked ReMix to form VGMix.

Lloyd withdrew his participation from the project upon hearing of Kaufman's secret contribution, believing Cammisa to have a duplicitous attitude and citing that he was kept unaware of who he would be working with and did not want to be contributing alongside someone (Kaufman) for whom he had no respect. Kaufman soon after stated at EarthBound fansite Starmen.net that the reason he kept his involvement private was to surprise fellow contributor Royal Sefton after he claimed he could not participate. Strengthening Kaufman's desire to work incognito, Kaufman believed that if his presence went unrevealed until close to the project's unveiling, Lloyd would not feel compelled to either stop working on his arrangement or pull his track from the project. The nature of Lloyd's departure drew mixed reaction from members of the community and project participants, some of whom felt Lloyd was harboring animosity at the expense of community unity, while many others acknowledged his privilege as a contributor to be fully informed from the beginning of who he could have been represented alongside.

Cammisa, stating that his comments were not spiteful, later went on to say that he felt Lloyd's arrangement was a disappointment, and that, when comparing Kaufman's track to Lloyd's, he "got the better of the two." Lloyd's intended contribution, "Twoson Hits the Road," was later exclusively posted to OverClocked ReMix.

[edit] UnBound

In a fit of pessimism and frustration shortly after the withdrawal of djpretzel from the album, Cammisa briefly changed the name of the album to UnBound to reflect the continued presence of tension and discord within the video game music arrangement community. Fellow contributor Jason "Prophecy" Miller was able to convince Cammisa to restore the project's original name after several other contributors complained about the new name, feeling that the project had still succeeded as a community undertaking.

[edit] ReBound

A supplement, or "add-on pack" of sorts, entitled ReBound is currently in production, with a Giygas battle theme arrangement completed, and Cammisa awaiting an arrangement of "Saturn Valley" before any further release information will be made public. Speculation exists as to what other names may be involved and what other songs may be covered, but Cammisa went on record as stating that he is accepting submissions for possible inclusion, though submitting an arrangement will not guarantee its place on the release. Among those said to be involved include Christian Pacaud, Dustin "k-wix" Kulwicki, and Luke "Less Ashamed of Self" Williams.

[edit] ReBound Track Listing

"Soup to Nuts" [Title Screen/Intro] (ktriton featuring Anthony Lofton) – 3:19
"ROM Schtick" [File Select] (Shael Riley) – 1:31
"The Ness Shot" [Name Your Friends] (Joshua Morse) – 4:55
"Where You Belong" [Your Sanctuary 2] (Kaijin) – 2:49
- incorrectly listed as "Welcome Home" in the downloads
"Keep It Short" [Name Your Friends] (Beatdrop) – 2:54
"Buzz's Buzz's Revenge" [Battle 2?] (k-wix) - 4:27
- only in Rebound Edition
"Medical Insurance" [Hospital/Onett] (Joshua Morse) – 3:46
"rake dat snake" [Battle 1] (po!) – 2:38
"The Drugstore Sells Sparks!" [Drugstore] (Ailsean) – 2:35
"See Sixty Funk" [Cave 2] (Mazedude) – 3:56
"Sweet Dream Lullaby" [Twoson] (Prophecy) – 4:10
"Joe Cam Stole My Bike" [Bicycle] (Ailsean) - 1:42
- only in Rebound Edition
"Please Enjoy Your Stay" [Hotel] (Royal Sefton) – 3:08
"Latest Fail" [Hotel 2?] (LAoS, Bladiator, & PriZm) - 4:31
- only in Rebound Edition
"Paula Wanna Cracked Bat?" [Paula] (Cromkayer) – 2:25
"The March on Paula" [Paula] (mellogear) - 3:42
- only in Rebound Edition
"Zombie Lounge" [Zombies Demo] (Mazedude) – 2:57
"Special Delivery" [Delivery] (Christian Pacaud) – 3:08
"Winters & Morse" [Winters] (Joshua Morse) – 4:42
"SnowBound" [Snow Wood 1] (bLiNd) – 4:50
"Tessie & The Bubblegum Monkey" [Tessie] (k-wix) – 6:13
- incorrectly listed as "Tessie" in the downloads
"Santa is Dead" [Snow Wood 1] (Shawn Phase of Temp Sound Solutions) - 1:44
- only in Rebound Edition
"Sky Runner" [Sky Runner] (Haroon Piracha) – 5:01
"Peaceful Bean" [Peaceful Rest] (Joshua Morse) – 3:05
"Valley Gremlins" [Saturn Valley] (Mazedude) - 2:34
- only in Rebound Edition
"Dialima tu Kafe" [Coffee Break] (Zeratul) – 5:55
"The Third String" [Threed] (Cromkayer) - 1:31
- only in Rebound Edition
"Side Four Turns Winter" [Fourside] (Diggi Dis) – 3:29
"Chaotic Theater" [Chaos Theater] (Cromkayer) - 1:46
- only in Rebound Edition
"moonside meditation" [Moonside] (po!) - 2:44
- only in Rebound Edition
"Summers" [Summers] (The OneUps) – 3:03
"Brisa Marina" [Sailing] (ktriton & Steve Lella) - 3:19
- only in Rebound Edition
"Sailing to Da Market" [Sailing/Scaraba Medley] (Cromkayer) - 4:12
- only in Rebound Edition
"Da Black Market" [Scaraba] (Crazy Crakaz featuring Mythril Nazgul) – 4:52
- also available in a clean/radio version
"Scars" [Scaraba] (Kaijin) - 4:28
- only in Rebound Edition
"Inspired" [Coffee Break?] (Less Ashamed of Self) - 4:01
- only in Rebound Edition
"Nirvana" [Dalaam] (Dhsu) – 4:15
"Darkest Deeps" [Deep Darkness] (Christian Pacaud) – 4:19
"Deep Darkness" [Deep Darkness] (Cromkayer) - 2:37
- only in Rebound Edition
"Monkeys Fling Poo" [Monkey Cave] (Nasenmann) - 3:20
- only in Rebound Edition
"Flying Ska Men" [Flying Man] (Cromkayer) - 1:52
- only in Rebound Edition
"Flying Man" [Flying Man] (Mustin) – 3:45
- tribute cover of "Flying Man", originally performed by Louis Philippe for the 1989 Mother arrange album
- also available in an instrumental/karaoke version
"ROBOTS vs. The Bullshit Samurai" [Robots] (mellogear) – 3:10
"Vector Point Engineering Water Buffalo" [Pokey] (Prophecy) – 4:49
"~FATSHIT! [Guitar Arrange Plus]" [Final Battle] (Christian Pacaud) - 5:06
- only in Rebound Edition
"Get on the Bus" [Ending/Fourside Medley] (virt) – 6:35
"Bound Together" [Soundstone/Smiles and Tears] (Dhsu) – 4:06
"Home Again" [Home] (Dale North) – 3:21
- lyrics taken from the first verse of "Pollyanna (I Believe in You)", originally performed by Catherine Warwick for the 1989 Mother arrange album

[edit] Personnel

Jordan Aguirre ("bLiNd") – arranger
Navid Azeez ("Mythril Nazgul") – lyrics for "Da Black Market", vocals, arranger
Matthew Bridges ("Moose") – bass guitar
Joe Cammisa ("Joe Cam") – lyrics for "Da Black Market", vocals, project director
Jon Delvaux ("mellogear") – arranger
Jared Dunn – drums
Chris Getman ("Mazedude") – arranger
Jill Goldin ("pixietricks") – backing vocals on "Da Black Market"
David Hsu ("Dhsu") – piano, arranger
Jake Kaufman ("virt") – electric bass guitar, electric guitar, arranger
Greg Kennedy – violin
Steven King ("D-Lux") – lyrics for "Da Black Market", vocals
Josh Kirkland ("Cromkayer") – trumpets, bass guitar, banjo, guitars, drums, vocals, arranger
Dustin Kulwicki ("k-wix") – arranger
Anthony Lofton ("Miller") – tenor sax
Kunal Majmudar ("ktriton") – arranger
Jason Miller ("Prophecy") – arranger
Joshua Morse – arranger
Mustin – voice cameo on "Da Black Market", bass guitar, melodica, vocals, arranger, mixing
Kim Nguyen ("Kismet") – logo design, website design
Dale North – vocals, arranger, mixing on "Summers" & "Home Again"
Dain Olsen ("Beatdrop") – arranger
Christian Pacaud – electric guitar, arranger
Haroon Piracha ("FFmusic Dj") – arranger
William Reyes – acoustic guitar
Shael Riley – arranger
Royal Sefton ("rs3") – arranger
Chris Serani ("Flik") – lyrics for "Da Black Market", recorder, vocals
Tim Sheehy ("Kaijin") – arranger
Sean Stone ("Ailsean") – a can of Sparks, electric guitar, arranger
Benedikt Terhechte ("Zeratul") – arranger
Frank van 't Ende ("Diggi Dis") – arranger
Posu Yan ("po!") – arranger