Who is your favorite character from Sonic The Hedgehog.

How did you come up with the name Sweetdiculous and what does it mean?

I was working as a stripper at my local strip club and the girls would always fight over whether my moves were “sweet” or “ridiculous.” Alex, who was also working as a stripper at the club, calmed the girls by saying my moves were “Sweetdiculous.”

The next day, I was playing the game “Dokapon Kingdom” with my buddy Elliot, and a character in the game yelled “that’s Sweetdiculous!” I took hearing the word for a second time as a sign, ran the name by Alex, and we’ve gone with it from there.

How did the band get started?

I was looking to collaborate with someone involved in electronic music, but because I had been heavily involved in the Boston punk scene, I didn’t really have any connections. I posted an ad online as a shot-in-the-dark idea, and Alex got in touch with me. We met up, discussed what we wanted to do, and started writing songs a week later.

How did you guys get the idea of combining electronic music with thrash music?

A friend got me into the band Crystal Castles last fall, and I fell in love with how they blended 8-bit noises with harsh vocals. But upon hearing them and looking more into electronic music, it baffled me how I could find no one who had combined thrashy punk vocals with crazy electro beats. So Alex and I, much like Lewis and Clarke, decided to be pioneers for America and gave birth to the genre of “electro thrash” by starting this band.

When people listen to music or go to shows, they generally want to go crazy and have fun. We’re all about bringing that good time whether we’re playing live or streaming in someone’s bedroom. The screaming fires people up and elicits an incredible energy I don’t think anything but thrash vocals can bring out. The beats are both danceable and moshable. We love the combination.

What’s it like playing for those two different crowds?

The general post-show reaction of kids who haven’t seen or heard us before is usually something like, “That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard. I’m going to hand you a blank check – you write on it whatever number you want, and in return all I ask for is one song off your demo.” This reaction holds true to kids into both hardcore and electronic music.

Electronic fans are really into us because our shows always turn into epic dance parties. But because we encourage dancing, hardcore and punk fans are sometimes a little bit too tough to like us. After all, a man IS defined by how well he can copy the sound of Hatebreed and The Acacia Strain.

You guys also have a lot of 8 bit and video game influences. Are you guys big gamers?

We’re definitely bros when it comes to video games. I pwn at Soul Calibur IV (or as I call it BROul Calibur) for Xbox 360. I play as Yoda (Broda) and spam the same attacks over and over again, which apparently will send me to Soul Calibur hell. I also go through epic Modern Warfare 2 sessions with my roommates. I’m terrible at that game and I definitely spam the grenade launcher, but I still love it.

Alex is a COD guy as well, and he’s on a big Red Dead Redemption kick. He also digs Grand Theft Auto.

What’s it like playing for gamers and anime fans?

It’s absolutely amazing. We’ve played at two conventions, and the people who come out ALWAYS bring a great time. We’ve seen some awesome costumes, met some awesome people, and played music to dance moves we were unaware ever existed. Gamers and anime fans rule.

Where can we buy your music?

We just put out our EP “Chomping at the 8-Bit” on Itunes. It can be purchased at the following link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chomping-at-the-8-bit/id377835043.

What can we expect next from Sweetdiculous?

Alex and I will continue to work as strippers and come up with new pole moves that will make you want to slap colorblind orphan seals. We’re also working on new songs, all of which you can hear at Myspace.com/Sweetdiculousthrash.

Thanks a bunch for taking the time out to interview us. Check us out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SWEETDICULOUS/224954147390?ref=ts and Myspace at the aforementioned link.

Get flippin Sweetdiculous!

There aren’t a lot of artists who can say that a million people have seen their music video. This wonderful milestone is reason to celebrate and we’d like to extend gratitude to people / organizations who have helped us get here:

Adam Ferarro — For being the first person who believed in this project enough to show thousands of people with the world premiere at Anime Boston. Got us started with a bang.

4chan, Joystiq, Japanator and VGcats — For introducing us to huge new audiences through prominently featuring our video. Thanks for the traffic spikes.

Tommy Tallarico — For featuring the song in Video Games Live and showcasing it all around the world. Your endorsement helped recognize the song as artistic and professionally valuable.

NHK — For discovering us and putting us and our Boston fans on Japanese national television. (Does this also make us the first band to Rickroll Japan?)

Colby — For your help with the subtitles — the “icing on the cake,” so to speak. Rock on, my friend.

Nate — Remember all those late winter nights planning and animating? It feels like it’s been an eternity since then. What a ride it’s been. Congratulations!

Our fans — For being amazing, passionate and supportive. We had no idea that there were a million otaku out there who love music, anime, video games, romance and anime conventions as much as we do. We hope to perform and meet all of you soon.

More ‘million’ milestone-related bragging tear-jerking announcements to come…

Once the YouTube counter reaches 1,000,000 views, we are going to give away the original Quicktime file of the video to all our LeetStreet Team members! If you have not done so already, sign up! As soon as it hits a million, we will send the video out via email list.

Until then, it’s OVER 990 THOUSAAAAAND!

Over the course of it’s popularity it’s spawned 2 TV series, a feature film, a series of light novels and drama CD’s, and seven games (four of which have made it stateside.) I found this gem hiding in a GameStop for $8 used and thought I’d give it a try (after all, I am an Ed Elric cosplayer.)

Unlike the Square Enix produced games from the PS2, which play out like an action RPG (ala Kingdom Hearts) this DS game was produced by Destineer and FUNiMATION and published by Namco Bandai. As such, it plays out much differently. The controls in the game are very simple and retro. Walking is controlled by the D-Pad, and attacking and jumping is controlled by 2 buttons (A & B or X & Y.) The option to run is retro as well and activated by doubletapping the D-Pad in the direction you want to go.

The gameplay is fairly simple. It’s a side-scrolling beat ‘em up game. Ed walks into an area, bad guys appear. A counter in the upper left hand corner tells you how many are left, while the enemy you’re currently fighting’s HP is shown in the upper right. When enemies are defeated, they drop orbs which turn into the symbol on the back of Ed’s jacket. But wait, this game is based on FMA, so where’s the alchemy? All alchemy is done via the touch screen with an attack and defense alchemy provided by 2 buttons. Throughout the game you will gain other alchemist’s abilities and be able to use them like your own, but you can’t supercharge them like your own. By holding down the alchemy button you can supercharge them with the orbs you grab from your fallen foes.

After beating the game, you’re given the ability to play on hard mode (or as I call it, arcade mode, because if it were in an arcade, it’d be a quarter muncher!) as well as character mode, where you can play as Alphonse, Izumi, Mustang, Armstrong and Scar (each of which plays radically different from Ed) giving the game a ton of replay value for such a short game (you can beat it in 3-4 hours on the first playthrough if you don’t skip cutscenes.)

For being retro with a twist, I give the gameplay: 9 / 10.

The graphics are also fairly retro. We’re looking at hand drawn sprites here (flash animators, take note if you want to do an FMA parody.) Very high quality animation on them as well. The supercharged alchemy moves are awesome as you get a tiny little cinematic of your character every time you use them. The cutscenes in story mode are high quality graphics pulled straight from the original tv anime. The audio, as this game was co-produced by FUNiMATION, is also pulled straight from the dubbed version of the show as well.

Graphics: 9 / 10
Audio: 10 / 10

This is a great game that flew under the radar and whether you’re a fan of the beat ‘em up genre or FullMetal Alchemist it’s a must play. It’s got plenty of replay value and the challenge does warrant replays. If you can find a copy of it, new or used, I suggest getting it.

Overall I give it a 9 / 10.

FullMetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy was developed by Destineer and published by Namco Bandai for the Nintendo DS on December 12, 2006. The ESRB rated it T.