Created in 2010 by Comedians Brent Weinbach and Rob “F Switch” Villalobos, The Legacy Music Hour podcast played the greatest in 8 and 16 bit video game music. Featuring music exclusively from the 8 and 16 bit console era, LMH proved to be one of the best and most unique podcasts dedicated to video game music. Featuring interviews with composers, VGM karaoke, live dance offs, VGM dance mixes, and in-depth research into composers, LMH will leave even the most hardcore game music aficionado satisfied with their selections. As of Wednesday October 30th, the podcast released its final episode after reaching 156 weekly episodes.

When I first heard of Legacy Music Hour, I was a DJ at my college radio station and also had my own video game music block. I was a big vgm nerd at the time, so I could be a hard sell on a vgm podcast. Were they going to play nothing but popular games like Mario and Zelda? Were they going to mix in boring orchestral soundtracks that cannot be distinguished from movie soundtracks? Were they going to play chiptune bands? The answers to all of these was a resounding “no”. Brent and Rob held true to their podcast rules and guidelines: no chiptune bands, nothing past the 16 bit era (except for two special episodes), no licensed or public domain music conversions, and no repeated tracks. Its absolutely astounding that a video game music podcast could go on for three years without any repeated songs, but they did it without any trouble at all.

Each of their 150+ episodes revolve around a theme, composer or company focus, or a free play. Rob and Brent have explored popular themes such as Mega Man music and RPG music, and some more esoteric topics such as romantic and elevator music. In each episode, Rob and Brent hand-pick a dozen or so tracks each episode and discuss the impact of each song. Brent is definitely a music nerd in his ability to recognize time signatures, music scales, and the various genres reflected in each chiptune. As a progressive rock fan, I have been shocked at the quality of composition his tracks have shown. F Switch, an avid wrestling fan, brings the power of the Sega Genesis and a great sense of humor. Listen to it enough and you’ll see Brent moving from the Nintendo side to the Genesis side, claiming the Genesis has the best music “pound for pound”. The handful of interviews Brent and Rob did were amazing (Kinuyo Yamashita, Matt Furniss, Jeff Van Dyk, Hip Tanaka). Who would have guessed many of the most notably chiptunes were written by women?

You’ll hear amazing tracks from games you can’t even pronounce and, of course, hear from all of your favorite video games. Who knew Majjong and horse racing games could have such great soundtracks? Insector X, TMNT: Tournament Fighters, Lightening Force, Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge, and Gunstar Heroes are among my favorite vgm soundtracks now all because of LMH. I’m going to really miss this show. This podcast got me through delivering food, recovering from surgery, and really long road trips. I found a new appreciation for video game music. It’s one of the only genres I listen to now.

Go listen to everything NOW! http://legacymusichour.blogspot.com/

My top ten favorite episodes:

10. Episode 13: Jazz Music

9. Episode 14: Sports

8. Episode 65: Water and Underwater

7. Episode 77: Sunsoft

6. Episode 122: Mahjong Games

5. Episode 138: Alberto Jose Gonzalez

4. Episode 143: Matt Furniss

3. Episode 142: Leading Women

2. Episode 148: Experimental Music 2

1. Episode 157: Final Episode Podcast in Review