Bit Brigade

Last updated
Bit Brigade
Bit Brigade.jpg
The group performing at MAGFest VI, 2008
Background information
Origin Athens, Georgia
Genres
Years active2004–present
MembersMike Albanese
Luke Fields
Noah McCarthy
Taylor Washington
Past membersJace Bartet
Andy Pruett
Website www.bitbrigade.net

Bit Brigade is a rock band that performs covers of video game soundtracks. They are known for their unusual format during live performances, which involves band member Noah McCarthy performing a NES video game speedrun on stage. [1] The rest of the band performs the soundtrack of that game live as an accompaniment, matching McCarthy's gameplay. Bandcamp described the group as "The biggest speedrunners in rock", [2] while The Pitch described them as "One of the biggest names in video game soundtrack cover bands". [3]

Contents

History

The group was founded in 2004 by Bryant Williamson and Andy Pruett, then of the math rock band Cinemechanica, with speedrunner Noah McCarthy. During a late night NES marathon, Williamson and Pruett were playing Contra , and someone suggested performing a rock adaptation of the music. Williamson had previously met McCarthy at a Cinemechanica show and was aware of his talent for classic games, so he called him despite it being around 2 or 3 AM to pitch the idea. McCarthy agreed. Initially the group performed as CONTRABAND when playing Contra, and as MEGABAND when performing Mega Man 2 . While initially a side project for the Cinemechanica musicians, the project evolved into a regularly touring group. [4] After the group expanded with the addition of Mike Albanese and Luke Fields, the name was changed to Bit Brigade. The game repertoire was also expanded to include Metroid , The Legend of Zelda and Castlevania . [5] [6] [6]

The band's early performances involved a "DIY setup", with a TV connected to a projector. Stage management became an issue however as the TV could very easily be knocked over during the performance, or the game- which was running on original, aging hardware- could crash. In later years the group moved to use a "pre-loaded digital console" to reduce the likelihood of hardware issues. [2] The ROMs which are used during performances have been hacked to remove the original music, but retain the games' sound effects. [3] Fields stated in 2023 that the prospect of technology issues was "always in the back of your mind" during performances even with the modernised approach. The speedrun itself can sometimes go awry also; the group only performed Castlevania III twice due to the difficulty of the run. In interview Fields described an occasion where McCarthy picked up the wrong item during a performance. [2]

The group has released some performances of their shows online, with a 2012 MAGFest performance of Mega Man 2 reaching 600,000 views by 2018. However, the group is more focused on live performances than on recordings or maintaining an online presence. [5]

Style and influences

Melodically, the group perform the original soundtracks as closely as possible. Fields has stated that the group is attempting to perform the music "exactly as it exists in the game, which is typically what we’re trying to do unless we absolutely can’t." Sometimes deviations are necessary as NES music was not typically designed to be performed by traditional instruments, and used a high degree of rhythmic and melodic complexity within the limited track format. The group perform using a lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass and drumkit. [2] Fields has compared the group to a jazz ensemble, acknowledging that "Everyone's kind of playing off each other, but at one point in every song someone's kind of in the lead." This includes McCarthy's NES playing as well as the musicians, as he is at times working with musical cues. [5] [6]

Discography

Studio albums

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speedrunning</span> Act of playing a video game as quickly as possible

Speedrunning is the act of playing a video game, or section of a video game, with the goal of completing it as fast as possible. Speedrunning often involves following planned routes, which may incorporate sequence breaking and exploit glitches that allow sections to be skipped or completed more quickly than intended. Tool-assisted speedrunning (TAS) is a subcategory of speedrunning that uses emulation software or additional tools to create a precisely controlled sequence of inputs.

<i>Castlevania II: Simons Quest</i> 1987 video game

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is a 1987 action role-playing game developed and published by Konami. It was originally released in Japan in 1987 for the Famicom Disk System, and in North America in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the second Castlevania game released for the NES, following the original Castlevania (1986). Set seven years after the events of the first installment, the player once again assumes the role of vampire hunter Simon Belmont, who is on a journey to undo a curse placed on him by Dracula at the end of their previous encounter. Dracula's body was split into five parts, which Simon must find and bring to the ruins of Castle Dracula in order to defeat him. The game deviates from the traditional platforming of its predecessor, incorporating role-playing and open world elements.

<i>Captain N: The Game Master</i> American-Canadian joint-venture animated television series

Captain N: The Game Master is an animated television series that aired on television from 1989 to 1991 as part of the Saturday morning cartoon lineup on NBC. The show was produced by DIC Animation City and incorporated elements from many of the most popular video games of the time from the Japanese company Nintendo. There was also a comic book version by Valiant Comics, despite only featuring characters from games produced by Nintendo. The show is also part of an hour-long block in Season 2 with The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and with Super Mario World in Season 3 in a half-hour block.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memory management controller (Nintendo)</span> Video game console technology

Multi-memory controllers or memory management controllers (MMC) are different kinds of special chips designed by various video game developers for use in Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) cartridges. These chips extend the capabilities of the original console and make it possible to create NES games with features the original console cannot offer alone. The basic NES hardware supports only 40KB of ROM total, up to 32KB PRG and 8KB CHR, thus only a single tile and sprite table are possible. This limit was rapidly reached within the Famicom's first two years on the market and game developers began requesting a way to expand the console's capabilities.

Nintendo Fusion Tour was a touring rock music and video game festival sponsored by Nintendo, which began in 2003.

The Nintendo Player's Guides are a series of video game strategy guides from Nintendo based on Nintendo Power magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">8 Bit Weapon</span> Chiptune music band

8 Bit Weapon is an American chiptune music band formed in Ventura County, California, by Seth and Michelle Sternberger. It was originally created by Seth Sternberger around 1998. Its instruments consists primarily of old 8-bit and 16-bit computers such as the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga 500, and the Apple II, as well as game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Atari 2600, and an Intellivision synthesizer.

The Advantage is an American rock band from Sacramento, California that formed in 1998 and specialises in doing covers of music from old NES games, also known as Nintendocore. The band is named after the NES joystick controller of the same name.

<i>The Advantage</i> (album) 2004 studio album by The Advantage

The Advantage is the debut release by American rock band The Advantage. It is their first full-length studio album.

The Megas, sometimes performing as The Belmonts, are a Los Angeles based independent video game cover band. They are primarily known for their work based on the Capcom franchise, Mega Man, but from 2016 onwards have also covered Castlevania tracks. They differentiate themselves from other artists in the scene by adding lyrics and blending original material with the games' melodies. The band gained initial popularity through Newgrounds and MySpace in the late 2000s, as well as their live performances at MAGfest, Nerdapalooza, and the Video Games Live tour. Capcom has occasionally promoted the group, and used their material to market Mega Man Universe in 2010.

Kinuyo Yamashita is a Japanese composer and musician known for her contributions in video games. Her best known soundtrack is Konami's Castlevania, which was also her debut work. She was co-credited with Satoe Terashima under the pseudonym James Banana for her work on the Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game. This pseudonym was a pun of the name James Bernard, the composer of the 1958 film Dracula.

Random Encounter is an independent American video game music cover/inspired band from Orlando, Florida that features an accordion as the lead instrument. Dedicated to the creation and performance of high energy music, they are known for playing songs based on video games and for their covers of songs from popular television shows and movies.

<i>Unavenged</i> 2011 studio album by Random Encounter

Unavenged is a 2011 album by Random Encounter consisting of 17 songs, contemporary rock arrangements of the music from various video game soundtracks. This represents a fan-made mix between video game covers and original songs inspired by video games. The art and theme of the album is reflective of Random Encounter’s fictional heritage as a Russian-American band of monster hunters and explains their band's hatred for their nemesis, Koschei the Deathless.

Narcissa Wright is an American speedrunner and co-founder of the website SpeedRunsLive, which allows speedrunners to race with one another in real time. She previously held the records for the fastest completion of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the GameCube, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the iQue Player, Paper Mario on the Wii using Virtual Console, and Castlevania 64 on the Nintendo 64.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metroidvania</span> Video game genre

Metroidvania is a sub-genre of action-adventure games and/or platformers focused on guided non-linearity and utility-gated exploration and progression. The term is a portmanteau of the names of the video game series Metroid and Castlevania, based on the template from Metroid (1986), Castlevania II (1987), Super Metroid (1994), and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sammus</span> American rapper

Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, known as Sammus, is an American underground rapper, former teacher, and record producer.

Piotr Delgado Kusielczuk, better known as The Mexican Runner or TMR, is a speedrunner who specialises in Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games. After three years, on February 26, 2017, TMR was the first player to play through the entire NTSC and PAL NES catalogue, completing 714 officially-licensed titles in a project he called NESMania, which earned him a Guinness World Record. TMR is also known for his speedrunning accomplishments in Contra, Battletoads, and Cuphead.

"Nintendo hard" is an informal term used to describe extreme difficulty in video games. It often refers to games with trial-and-error gameplay and limited or nonexistent saving of progress. The enduring term originated with Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games from the mid-1980s to early 1990s, such as Ghosts 'n Goblins (1986), Contra (1988), Ninja Gaiden (1988), and Battletoads (1991).

Grant Henry, better known by his stage name Stemage, is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for his video game and television soundtracks, including Cartoon Network's animated series Steven Universe. He is also known for his involvement in several video game cover projects, including Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar.

References

  1. ↑ Puckett, Jeffrey Lee. "Bit Brigade music synchronized with top-level gamer". The Courier-Journal.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "How Bit Brigade Became the Biggest Speedrunners in Rock". Bandcamp Daily. 25 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 Wilbur, Brock (27 August 2023). "Bit Brigade speedrun DuckTales & Zelda in speed-metal form at recordBar". The Pitch.
  4. ↑ Kerce, Nathan (30 November 2016). "Bit Brigade Takes Video-Game Music to Another Level". Flagpole.
  5. 1 2 3 "Bit Brigade, the rock band that plays classic NES games on-stage". Engadget. 8 November 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 Gallagher, Danny. "Bit Brigade Turns Video Game Speedruns and Soundtracks into Sizzling Rock Spectacles". Dallas Observer.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.