Who owned (or still owns) an 8-bit NES (Nintendo Entertainment System)? What accessories did you have? The Zapper? Advantage Joystick? Power Pad (the only one I never had…)? Power Glove? Good times, right? Now did you ever think of using any of those as musical instruments?
Turns out that a lot of people did, as there are a ton of chiptune bands out there. I’ve been into this stuff for a while, as it combines a lot of stuff that I love and can be incredibly creative. I Fight Dragons is a band from Chicago that I’ve been nerding out on for the past week or so. I had first heard of them when they did a cover of Weezer’s “Why Bother” for an 8-bit Weezer tribute album that I had picked up a while ago. Their cover was one of the better tracks (along with Anamanaguchi’s “Holiday”, Bit Shifter’s “The World Has Turned And Left Me Here”, and :(’s “You Gave Your Love To Me Softly”), but after that, for some reason, I didn’t look any further into their music. Flash to a week ago, and a friend mentions a band that she thinks I’d like (she has a good idea as to what things will float my nerd boat), and boom, I am now hooked. Such a great mix of traditional instruments, Nintendo soundchips (check out their arsenal in this video), and really catchy lyrics. I decided to save these guys for the video post as opposed to an audio post because I wanted people to be able to see their rig during a live show (a show which I hope to attend one day), it’s pretty cool… and I’m a big nerd. I’m just gonna stop typing now, sorry for all the rambling. Oh yea, you can stream their two e.p.’s here.
-Adam
Enjoy this song - Money (with a little bit of Kool Moe Dee’s “I Go To Work”)
*One last nerdy bit, don’t know if anyone noticed the underlying Mega Man theme in the previous two posts? How about we continue that with one last video courtesy of I Fight Dragons?
