meandthestereo

As an avid fan of videogames, I have a soft spot in my heart for video game music.  I’m not talking about video game soundtracks, though.  Those I will write about at some later date.  I will also save covers of videogame tracks for a later date.  Today, I am talking about artists who create original music inspired by, and sometimes using, classic videogames.

Anyone who was born after Pong (1972) probably grew up playing videogames.  So their influence should be reflected in music, just like we see the influence of movies and books in music.  Some bands reflect that influence into the themes of their music.  Both Horse The Band and The Protomen liked the classic game Mega Man enough that they decided to write music about some of the characters.  Horse The Band wrote a great hardcore song called Cutsman.  As the name implies it tells the story of the Mega Man villain.

The Protomen went even further.  Taking their name from Protoman, the recurring character of the Mega Man series, The Protomen composed a rock-opera expanding on the simple story of Mega Man.  When they play live shows they do it in costume.  They even stay in character when they are interviewed.

While these bands show their roots through their lyrics, other bands do it through the music itself.  A lot of bands use the sounds of classic videogames in their music.  This style of music has come to be known as Chiptune.  Chiptune artists use the sound chips from classic systems like the Commodore 64 or the NES to add sounds to their music or compose new tracks altogether.  While most Chiptune artists are relative unknowns, some well known artists have released Chiptune remixes of their music.  Namely, Beck, everyone’s favorite Scientologist, released an EP of remixes of four of his songs from his album Guero.

Beck “Gameboy Homeboy” from wyldfile on Vimeo.

My favorite of the Chiptune bands is Anamanaguchi.  Incorporating Chiptune music into their songs,  Anamanaguchi creates a hard rock sound unlike anything you’ve heard.

Finally, Bitshifter composes original music from those little chips.  But don’t confuse this with regular electronic music.  These compositions would feel more natural playing during a level of Double Dragon than during a rave.

If you want to hear some more great Chiptune artists and/or you wanna hear Chiptune artists in a more comfortable setting, check out this album of Weezer covers from Chiptune artists HERE.

Rock band! That single phrase has such a different meaning nowadays, doesn’t it? When I was growing up, listening to Rock and Roll LPs on my cheap record player, and someone mentioned a rock show or a rock band, it immediately made me think of a live concert. A real, honest-to-goodness, balls-to-the-wall type of rock show. You know what I’m talking about here, right? I’m talking about a buzz, an unbearable anticipation in the air…until the lights finally go down. The arena goes dark and the lighters go straight up in the air. The band takes the stage and just rocks your socks off! The lights pulsating to the beat of the music, some killer pyrotechnics, plenty of fake fog rolling off the stage…and the music was loud. Really loud! And if you were lucky, you would see some lasers! Oh man, how I loved a good laser show! I’m pretty sure the amps went to 11 at the old Capital Center shows. I think my heart beat was altered forever at the AC/DC ‘Back In Black’ concert! And when you left the show, after at least two encores, you couldn’t hear a damn thing. It was like your ear canals were full of cotton. You were shouting to the person next to you just to tell them how great the show was!

This is a Rock band.

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In which meandthestereo rambles on about the musical loves of geeks and debates his own geeklyhood:

I can’t normally tell other people this (they laugh, undoubtedly), but I can tell you, internet (can’t I?), that I am indelibly in love with geeky music.

I can only speak for myself, but in doing so, I tend to label myself as being ‘geeky’, but that’s only a small fraction of who I am as a whole. Take a look:

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