I thought I would just share what I know of since I can't sleep. Powerglove. A decent instrumental metal band that does video game related songs and covers. Definitely recommended. I Fight Dragons. A great rock band that has extensive use of 8-bit sounds and tones, mostly from their classic copy of LSDJ. It's pretty cool to see actually, if you watch this video. It details how they use controllers live to perform and everything, including Guitar Hero controllers and the Powerpad. Their setups honestly amaze me. Then of course there are 'Nintendocore' bands, which are unfortunately are a faction dominated by scene highschoolers. I say sadly because the genre actually has some potential, but it has yet to really be anything I could stand to listen to for more than a minute or two. It's basically 8bit melodies drowned out with awful double bass, sometimes guitar and bad vocals too. But the instrumental only stuff can be pretty good, sometimes. Probably ok if you skip this one. Then, once again dominated by the scene kids, all the random 8bit producers on Youtube and *shudder* Myspace. However, some of them can be pretty decent, like Saberpulse and Shirobon. So, yeah, that's all I got. I spent a fair amount of time researching this a few years back, so I tried to stay off the beaten path. Share stuff I didn't mention, I'm always in the mood for this kinda stuff.
I liked The Advantage. Their Batman and Double Dragon tracks were my favorite. Last activity I heard about them was from 2008.
Video game themed bands: The Megas - Mega Man themed pop rock PROTOMEN - Mega Man themed rock opera band (with some queen covers thrown in) Ultraball - this duo (dressed as ash and pikachu) play original 30 sec songs, each one based on a different pokemon. definitely have high energy live. i don't know if they still play shows though... Bands that play covers of videogame songs: Year 200X - Metal The Advantage - probably the best of this group The minibosses - probably second best The One Ups - Jazz covers of videogame music. Great stuff. Entertainment system rare candy Arm Cannon - general nerd band. They'll play stuff like the ghostbusters theme song in addition to videogame covers X Hunters - mostly plays mega man x songs, dabbles in castlevania Bit brigade - these guys play the soundtrack to mega man WHILE someone plays mega man on stage. pretty neat stuff. Horse the Band has that one song about cut man, and that other song with the riff from the Zelda dungeons.... Chiptunes: Really too many to mention. Check out http://www.8bitpeoples.com/ - their 8bp050 CD is a great compilation to see what chiptunes is all about The Heavy w8 bit champion is a wrestling themed chiptune artist. he develops some cool tools too: http://www.heavyw8bit.com/home.php Bubblyfish Covox Nullsleep etc... Some bands are starting to perform chiptunes mixed in with a live band which is pretty cool: Anamanaguchi Cheap Dinosaurs Starscream This guy was awesome: http://youtu.be/AUqvYKLA0Y0?t=1m4s duracell - space harrier Concerts: BitGenFest is an annual videogame themed concert in Baltimore, MD, US. They put together an awesome show with arcade machines on free play, tons of bands and some cool retail (mostly art/shirts/knick knacks, not really games for sale though). https://www.facebook.com/BitGenGamerFest check out Pulswave for shows in NYC/LA: http://pulsewave.org/category/pw/ Check out 8static for shows in Philadlephia, PA: http://8static.com/ About playing music with video game controllers: If you can connect that guitar hero controller to your computer and know a little bit about programming, it's really easy to set it up to play music with the music programming language puredata. I've set up the guitar, dj hero controller, rock band drums, arcade stick, etc to make real sounds. i'm more of a programmer than a musician, so it's really just for fun. I wish I could actually write/perform music, but that's what practice is for! Yeah, I'm kinda into this sort of thing...
There are 2 bands local to me I can share for this. One is the Isotopes who will play a Super Mario cover while one guy in the band plays a NES on a projector. http://www.theisotopes.com/ Another one plays all video game music and also with a projector... but I don't think someone is actually playing it live. http://armcannon.bandcamp.com/
I really like the Game metal style from Megadriver. They have shitton of songs. I think Its mostly a one man project but I know there was several musicians and live performance involved. All the music can be had for free on the site. Here are some tunes i like. http://www.megadriver.com.br/3.0/en/?page_id=4&act=listen&mp3=MegaDriver_-_Battlefield_%28Golden_Axe%29%28Ver2013%29.mp3 http://www.megadriver.com.br/3.0/en/?page_id=4&act=listen&mp3=MegaDriver - Longtime Metal.mp3 http://www.megadriver.com.br/3.0/en...gaDriver - Streets Of Desolation (Batman).mp3 There is also project called Vomitron and a very awesome video game metal cd was released. Zelda with blast beats, Enjoy:
not a band and far more impressive is this guy ( Smooth McGroove) preforms game music acapella. He does all the sound channels too. Amazing stuff. - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJvBEEqTaLaKclbCPgIjBSQ
Hahaha, hes amazing XD As a native french speaker though, the fact that he uses the sound "Pah pah " is a bit distracting as in french "papa", pronounced "pah pah" means daddy. So I cant help but hearing "daddy daddy" over and over throughout the song Still amazing.
