The Guestlist w/ Yeahdef

There's people that work hard. And then there's Joey Liechty. Best known as Yeahdef, he somehow manages to juggle a day job, college, and enough shows to make you wonder if he ever sleeps. You can find him week after week at Hailey's in Denton, chopping and mixing everyone's favorite tunes from the '80s and '90s to make the people dance. There's a reason Yeahdef was voted Best DJ by Dallas Observer readers and it's not just because he puts in the hours necessary to master his art. He's innovative and unafraid to intertwine his l33t skills with his setup. He's streamed Twitter feeds and text messages through projectors during shows, crafts his own playful flyers, and recently unveiled his project, Playlister, which allows everyone to vote online for the tracks they want to hear on '90s nights. Given his sense of all things musical, technical, and Gen-Y nostalgic, it only makes sense that his Guestlist brings all of those together.

Be sure to dance back in time with Yeahdef on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or catch his new dubstep monthly gig, Dentstep, at Hailey's. And if you have time in between, try to beat him at Words with Friends.


"The 5 Best Video Game Soundtracks" by Yeahdef


5. Katamari Damacy

This game came out at the perfect time for me. I had just begun a small experiment with mushrooms, and as a result this soundtrack immediately invokes some strange melting-walls reaction in my brain. It's these fond drug-addled memories that keep me coming back (to the music, not the drugs). The songs are instantly catchy in that OMGWTF-japan-is-so-goofball kind of way.


4. Toe jam and Earl

Super galactic funk grooves throughout. There is no other game soundtrack that embraces future funk as much as Toe Jam and Earl. Yes it's repetitive (there's only 6 songs), but that parts being repeated are worthy and I still find myself humming them all the time.


3. Donkey Kong Country

When I was 11 years old my grandmother took me to blockbuster every Saturday morning to compete in the video game championships. I won the regionals by collecting the most bananas in Donkey Kong Country's first few levels. I came to love the soundtrack. Maybe it's the repetition and frequency I played the game in order to learn all the hidden banana locations, or maybe that the soundtrack was a danceable bounty of jungle music. Whatever it is - I'm always in the mood for a little Island Swing.


2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

This is probably the most properly done soundtrack. The creepy zones are creepy / the somber zones are somber. It's epic and heartrending, and some of the tunes are completely jazz-funky which I love for this type of game - it fits perfectly. Coupled with the most unintentionally hilarious voice acting, SOTN easily sits high on most reviewers list of most pleasing games for the ears. If you've never played this game complete 100% you are failing at life.


1. Earthbound

Also my top game of all time, Earthbound has the most mood inducing music of any game to date. It also represents my first personal case of sample recognition. During the part of the game where you are traveling through the innards of Dungeon Man, the background music samples The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's lonely hearts club band. I remember when I realized that as a young kid - I flipped! Something really reverberates with me and this game - kind of like a familiarity... It's hard to put into words, but it's almost as if the game is playing me and not the other way around. Maybe I've just played it way too many times.


Notable: Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Of all the Sonic soundtracks, this one might not be the best - but it is surely the most epic. Since Michael Jackson's death, in-house musicians @ SEGA have come forward confirming people's suspicions that The King of Pop lent his help to the soundtrack (based on some eerily similar sequences in the game's soundtrack and Mike's own music). It has it's moments, but I just think it's neat that Michael went in and helped out with the soundtrack uncredited, just because he was a fan of Sonic. Go Michael!


-Nina C.