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I can understand a band covering a song in a manner that expresses the song in their own unique way or rearranges the song into a different genre, but typically I don’t condone bands that produce releases strictly of covers. However, I’ve come across an exception to the rule that both impresses and creates a sense of nostalgia. I’ve heard countless bands cover classic NES games, but not quite in the way The Advantage as tackled the concept.
The Advantage takes classic soundtracks from games such as Mega Man, Contra, Double Dragon, etc. and reproduces them with live instruments, but maintains that blissful and wonderful audio quality of an 8-bit gaming console. I’m not exaggerating when I say The Advantage is nearly indistinguishable from the real. Perhaps most of the appeal is childhood memories, but I swear video compositions from early the 80’s has more depth than your typical run of the mill radio singles these days. Then again I am both partial to classic video games and critical of music in general.
As I’ve said, video game covers are nothing new. Quite possibly my favorite video game cover is Estradasphere’s Super Buck II, which is the theme from Super Mario Bros. 2 re-arranged into a big band jazz piece. I’d also put Rabbit Joint’s cover of The Legend of Zelda at a close second (thanks for the correction joey cucamonga). I never really got into them, but the band Powerglove seems to pretty well known among the NES cover scene and apparently puts on a great show. For you Final Fantasy fans, there’s a band that goes by The Black Mages that plays Final Fantasy covers with a metal flavor to it. These are all great, but they’re all re-arrangements. In my mind, The Advantage went the extra mile to reproduce 8-bit classics as close to their original form as they could make it. You really need to hear it to get it.
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