Let’s do it… One! More! Time!

In December 2009, you helped us rock out for Child’s Play at the first annual Ümloud! The show was a smashing success: With your help, we raised $7000 for children’s hospitals and had an amazing time doing it. Your bands took the stage and rocked the house.

Time to do it again. We’ve signed the contract and it’s official: Ümloud! 2010 will take place on Thursday, December 9, 2010. Once again, we’ll be working with the good people at DNA Lounge in downtown San Francisco to let you live out your rock star fantasies for a great cause.

We listened to your concerns. You wanted an event later in the week. Thursday is the new Friday, or so it’s been said.

In the coming months, we’ll be revealing new details about Ümloud! 2010. We’ve got some great plans that you’re going to want to be a part of. Just keep following this blog to get the latest updates, fresh from the delicious source.

You can also befriend Ümloud! on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

And if you want to help us make this year’s show the best it can be, then contact sponsors@umloud.org.

See you in December, and talk to you soon!

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Ümloud: The Video of the Event!

Hey wow! It’s a video that recaps all the highlights of Ümloud!

Didn’t make it to the show? Want to relive your favorite moments? Now you can, thanks to the tireless work of Tracy Peterson at One Two Many Productions.

Yes, it was this awesome. And Ümloud! 2010 will be bigger, better, and more bad-ass.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or on this blog’s RSS feed for news about this year’s event!

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Ümloud! 2009: The Glorious Aftermath!

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Thank you, thank you, thank you to each and every one of you who donated, sponsored, played, or otherwise just showed up to make Ümloud! 2009 an incredible success.

We hit the DNA Lounge hard and rocked it all night. Our on-site partners at DNA, Tekamaki, Heatwave, Tyler Winegarner Photography, One Two Many, Reverb and Harmonix all worked in concert to give our hundreds of attendees a professional-quality show that I think exceeded everyone’s expectations.

You know now that Ümloud! 2010 is going to be incredible.

Many videos of our generous, talented Ultimate Bands are currently available on YouTube. Some of our favorites: Ironheade, real-life Lego Rock Band, Daylight Savings Crime.

DNA Lounge is streaming the audio webcast of the show via MP3 for the next two weeks, so listen (and grab the MP3s if you want) while the getting is good!

Many photos are popping up on Flickr. The best so far are from volunteer Brian Haberer, who took the amazing shot above.

If you were in an Ultimate Band, we’ll be putting you in touch with photographer Tyler Winegarner about those glamour shots that he took of you before and during your big performance.

Now, the big question: How much did we raise for Child’s Play? We are happy to say that we will be giving over $6,000 to the charity. We’ll have a final figure once we do all the math, but for now we’re blown away by the numbers.

We’ll be back soon with more videos, music, and notes from Ümloud! Thank you once again for coming to support us. This is only the beginning!

 

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Hey, remember that awesome somewhat controversial tentacley sexy cover art that the Muramasa: The Demon Blade team made for Play magazine?

Remember how they put it on a T-shirt? Oh, you already guessed, you’re so smart: We have one of these tees, courtesy I Am 8-Bit, in the Ümloud! raffle.

It’s in men’s size S.

To make up for this, practically every other T-shirt at Ümloud will be in XL, aka Journalist Size.

 

PotD #4: Ion Drums, Mad Catz Guitars

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Ümloud! is all about rocking like a true superstar.

And that doesn’t have to stop when the event is over.

Thanks to some very generous donations from Numark and Mad Catz, some of the best Rock Band equipment on the market today will be in the Ümloud! Raffle.

The Ion Drum Rocker looks and feels like a real drum kit. We’ve got one of these to give away. This is the big one, the $299 premium set for Xbox 360.

Courtesy Mad Catz, we have two wooden replica Fender Stratocaster premium guitars for Xbox 360. These also retail for $299 each.

And if you don’t end up winning one of those, Mad Catz has also provided two of its wireless Fender Telecaster replicas, which retail for $109.99 each.

All in all, we’re staring at a mountain of awesome right here, all up for grabs at Ümloud! 2009 this Wednesday.

 

PotD #3: Old Games, New Games

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What would a videogame raffle be without videogames?

Yes, we have tons of swag and T-shirts and stuff in the Ümloud! raffle, silent auction and swag tables. But we’ve also got games. The real thing.

The folks at Valve have kicked in a couple of copies of everyone’s favorite zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2. From the office of sponsor Reverb Communications comes a whole mess of Rock Band track packs for all platforms.

And pulled from some private collections of classic games, mint complete copies of some collectible oldies, like Pinball of the Dead for Game Boy Advance and Chu Chu Rocket for Dreamcast.

Many of these will be on the Swag Table, yours in exchange for your donation of $10 or more at the door this Wednesday!

 

PotD #2: Astro Gaming’s Finest Gear

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Of course, you’ll be able to win some prizes from our generous sponsors at Astro Studios.

In the raffle will be two sets of the company’s fantastic A40 Audio System headphone and MixAmp package, with an optical cable (approximate retail value $250 each).

And then there’s the Scout Backpack (ARV $80), which you can use to haul your 360 or PS3 around in style.

All this can be yours at Ümloud on Wednesday!

 

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Remember back a couple days ago when we mentioned that something for Mega Man fans might be coming up in the Ümloud! silent auction?

That day has arrived.

Bring your checkbook, bring a pile of cash, bring shiny stones to barter because you do not want to go home without this bundle of blue joy. The Mega Man Prize Pack includes a one-of-a-kind Lego sprite sculpture of the man himself, created by a fan for last year’s Funde Razor. It got lost at the event and we weren’t able to raffle it off.

But this year, it’s beign paired with something even awesomer: The Mega Man 9 box, produced and donated by the wonderful I Am 8-Bit. This replica slash parody of a classic 8-bit game box contains an empty plastic game cartridge that unfolds to reveal an artwork CD and a download code for the game — not that you’d ever, ever want to break the shrinkwrap!

These will be yours if you are the highest bidder on the night of Ümloud!

 

The Ümloud! Silent Auction

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You thought you had seen all that Ümloud! had to offer.

You were mistaken.

Not only are we going to have a table full of choice limited-edition game swag for anyone who makes a donation and a raffle of even awesomer prizes, Ümloud! will also be home to a silent auction of prizes that are so unbelievably rare your wallet will start to cry in sheer anticipation of the violation it is about to receive.

Here’s what we’ve lined up for auction so far, and how you can get it.

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Ümloud! The Official Viral Video

These days, any good product needs a viral video.

And since we don’t have a dog that can ride a skateboard, we needed to go with our second choice: a ROCKUMENTARY.

Watch our band, Baby Dog Time, struggle to get back together. In the end, we managed to put aside all of our differences and reunite to play a very special charity gig. A charity gig that’s just over one week away!

(It’s Ümloud! That’s the charity gig I was referring to above!)

Very special thanks to the amazing Wired.com video production team for donating their time and energy to producing this video for Ümloud!

You can also watch it on Wired or Vimeo or Facebook or YouTube, GameTrailers or GHtv.

Watch more Wired videos here.