New two-part interview following today's Top 25

There will be a new two-part interview with Zack Bogucki following today's Top 25 Countdown. The countdown starts at 4pm Eastern/3pm Central.

New OC Remix interview before tonight's Remix PIRN

I've got an interview with "TheGuitahHeroe", creator of the recent "Temporal Despair" Pokemon Mystery Dungeon OC ReMix, that will premiere just before tonight's Remix PIRN at 11/10c. If you haven't already, you can download the mix here. The interview will join the regular PIRN playlist tomorrow.

New music for the week of 8/22/2011

Four new tracks this week. Three from the Pokemon anime:

-2002-2005 (AG)-M07
-2002-2005 (AG)-M08
-2002-2005 (AG)-M10

And one new one from Zack Bogucki:

-Dream Eater (Remix of Game Sync from Pokemon Black & White Versions)

You can check out Zack's new album, Amalgorithm, here:

iTunes Amazon

Two new Worlds 2011 interviews before tonight's Remix PIRN

There will be two new Pokemon World Championships 2011 interviews before tonight's remix PIRN Block. One is with a participant in the video game competition, and the other is with Ray Rizzo, this year's Masters VG champ.

New Music for the Week of 8/15/2011

Five new tracks this week. Three from the Pokemon anime as you might expect:

-1999-2001-M33
-2002-2005 (AG)-M05
-2002-2005 (AG)-M06

No, the track names aren't really any more helpful in the third generation than in the first two. We also have one more track from Germany:

-Misty's Song

Yes, the "In Der Dunkelheit Der Nacht" single does include an English version as well. There's also another new track from the far-off land of Rhode Island:

-Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time 'Temporal Despair' OC ReMix

You can check that one out anytime here.

First Pokemon Worlds 2011 Interview on the Station

I've added the first Worlds 2011 interview to the station playlist. It will also appear after Sunday's Top 25 countdown.

New music for the week of 8/8/2011

Four new tracks this week. Three from the Pokemon Anime:

-1999-2001-M29
-1999-2001-M31
-1999-2001-M32

And a special track direct from Germany:

-In Der Dunkelheit Der Nacht

For those of you not familiar, "In Der Dunkelheit Der Nacht" is basically the German version of Misty's Song.

PIRN Technical Journal 002: Importing Music from Overseas

One of the great things about this modern digital age is that it's easier than ever to import music from areas outside the US. Sometimes it's really easy because the music shows up on the iTunes store (a good example of this is The Master Saga), but often I'm not so lucky.

Japanese Music

Thank goodness they still make CDs in Japan. Actually, very little official Japanese Pokemon music is available on the Japanese iTunes store (though there is an expanded selection of English Pokemon music there-but that's a topic for another technical journal), so I have to import CDs to use here. I import most of my music from CDJapan (here's the latest Pokemon CD you can find there). The prices are good and EMS shipping generally gets the discs here within a few days (though annoyingly I have to pick them up at the post office since EMS requires a signature and I'm usually not home when they come).

Once the CD arrives, there's actually a bit more processing needed to get the music ready for the station. The metadata is generally in Japanese, so I have to translate that into English. Since I don't really know the language myself, I have to find outside resources to get the track names. In years past I would use an online Japanese-to-English translator to get the titles, but nowadays I generally use Bulbapedia or VGMdb to get the information. After that, I go through the standard ripping, leveling, and trimming process to put the music on the station.

Other Countries

For everywhere outside of Japan, most of my music comes from auctions on eBay. Thanks to the wonders of PayPal, I can buy music from virtually anywhere and have it shipped to my home. In contrast to CDJapan, however, shipping times vary considerably (there have been times I've waited weeks for music to be delivered), and of course there are no guarantees about selection.

New music for the week of 8/1/2011

Three new tracks this week, all from the Pokemon anime:

-1999-2001-M26
-1999-2001-M27
-1999-2001-M28