The Koji Kondo Super Mario Brothers 2 Virus
[For full effect it is recommended that you play the youtube performance at the end of this post while reading this. - Ed.]
For the last week I've been hearing the Super Mario Brothers 2 emanating from the Ninendo Gameboy in the back of the car. wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w Well, the thing about Koji Kondo's brilliant score is it's pretty hypnotic and catchy to where after a while it tends to override all other music and actions. You know you are at work and suddenly wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w or you are listening to some new fucked up middle east news on NPR and wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w- that's where my brain has been this week.
Last Saturday, I went to ADR's Feel Good Hits of the Summer Festival over at the Proletariat. Thanks ADR - we need more shows where people impose their musical taste on the rest of us.* Unfortunately, I missed Dizzy Pilot and The Kimonos whom I'd wanted to see but the thing about festivals like this is that it's there to open your eyes to new bands so no worries. Given that I was utterly fatigued, I was only able to catch Western Civilization who played some very serviceable indie pop. Their keyboardist particularly did a great job of adding texture and color while the rest of the band played poppy tunes that embodied the pop theme of the festival. Don't get me wrong, they were very fun to watch but I found myself befuddled because when I left the Proletariat I couldn't remember a note of what they had played. That may be because of the pop nature of the music but I suspect it has more to do with the fact that when I turned the key to the ignition wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w immediately popped in my head. (I'll have to check out their CD to be sure).
Tuesday was a similar situation where I had planned on missing the Sharks and Sailors, My Education, Maserati show given band rehearsal but Scott Tellis was good enough to call and was kind enough to put me on the guest list. As I expected, I missed both Sharks and Sailors' set and My Education's set which, given how much I love these bands, was admittedly a bit frustrating. Nevertheless, the remainder of Maserati's set was worth the drive over to Walter's . I immediately recalled how unimpressed I was a while back with Red Swallows as Maserati seemed to cover the same ground but kick ass and take names. If you've been paying attention, you'd know by now what I'm going to hone-in on when discussing this band - 
the fucking drummer! Yup, guitarists to either side, the bassist behind, and the drummer right smack dab in the middle. Why? Because he was a fucking machine. Hell the last song closed with the guitarists leaving the stage to the drummer and bassist. The drummer played this mechanical beat for what seemed a good 10 or more minutes. I half expected one of his eyes to glow red and his flesh to rip off his body exposing a metallic robot structure underneath that we would glimpse seconds before we died in an android killing spree. If that doesn't deserve the Dio Metal sign I don't know what does. Rock on, Maserati! Now, if they can only play wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w we'd be in business!!!
So what better way to leave you this week but with Koji Kondo performing the Super Mario Brothers 2 Theme:
* No sarcasm in that statement! We really do!
Links:
Koji Kondo and Super Mario Brothers 2 on Wikipedia
Western Civilization
Sharks and Sailors
My Education
Maserati
Credits:
Maserati Photo by kind permission © Mike White of Deadlydesigns.com
Dio image unknown.
For the last week I've been hearing the Super Mario Brothers 2 emanating from the Ninendo Gameboy in the back of the car. wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w Well, the thing about Koji Kondo's brilliant score is it's pretty hypnotic and catchy to where after a while it tends to override all other music and actions. You know you are at work and suddenly wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w or you are listening to some new fucked up middle east news on NPR and wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w- that's where my brain has been this week.Last Saturday, I went to ADR's Feel Good Hits of the Summer Festival over at the Proletariat. Thanks ADR - we need more shows where people impose their musical taste on the rest of us.* Unfortunately, I missed Dizzy Pilot and The Kimonos whom I'd wanted to see but the thing about festivals like this is that it's there to open your eyes to new bands so no worries. Given that I was utterly fatigued, I was only able to catch Western Civilization who played some very serviceable indie pop. Their keyboardist particularly did a great job of adding texture and color while the rest of the band played poppy tunes that embodied the pop theme of the festival. Don't get me wrong, they were very fun to watch but I found myself befuddled because when I left the Proletariat I couldn't remember a note of what they had played. That may be because of the pop nature of the music but I suspect it has more to do with the fact that when I turned the key to the ignition wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w immediately popped in my head. (I'll have to check out their CD to be sure).
Tuesday was a similar situation where I had planned on missing the Sharks and Sailors, My Education, Maserati show given band rehearsal but Scott Tellis was good enough to call and was kind enough to put me on the guest list. As I expected, I missed both Sharks and Sailors' set and My Education's set which, given how much I love these bands, was admittedly a bit frustrating. Nevertheless, the remainder of Maserati's set was worth the drive over to Walter's . I immediately recalled how unimpressed I was a while back with Red Swallows as Maserati seemed to cover the same ground but kick ass and take names. If you've been paying attention, you'd know by now what I'm going to hone-in on when discussing this band - 
the fucking drummer! Yup, guitarists to either side, the bassist behind, and the drummer right smack dab in the middle. Why? Because he was a fucking machine. Hell the last song closed with the guitarists leaving the stage to the drummer and bassist. The drummer played this mechanical beat for what seemed a good 10 or more minutes. I half expected one of his eyes to glow red and his flesh to rip off his body exposing a metallic robot structure underneath that we would glimpse seconds before we died in an android killing spree. If that doesn't deserve the Dio Metal sign I don't know what does. Rock on, Maserati! Now, if they can only play wDoo Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo/ Doo Doo Doo Doo /w we'd be in business!!!So what better way to leave you this week but with Koji Kondo performing the Super Mario Brothers 2 Theme:
* No sarcasm in that statement! We really do!
Links:
Koji Kondo and Super Mario Brothers 2 on Wikipedia
Western Civilization
Sharks and Sailors
My Education
Maserati
Credits:
Maserati Photo by kind permission © Mike White of Deadlydesigns.com
Dio image unknown.
2 Comments:
there used to be a guy who picked video game theme songs on his guitar at Pik N Pak. super mario brothers was in his repertoire.
Video game music, for better or for worse, was maybe the most profound influence on my musical development as a youngster, and I'm most definitely not alone. There was a point a few years ago when the likes of Max Tundra, Dizzee Rascal, and (naturally) the Advantage came very close to convincing me to write some sort of scholarly dissertation on the impact of NES scores on the post-Gen X landscape, but... y'know... no attention span.
In a related note, the Advantage (they play nothing but covers of Nintendo Entertainment System songs with drums, bass, and two guitars) are legitimately one of my favorite bands, and I wasn't familiar with probably 2/3 of the songs they cover from my childhood. Sometimes I'll listen to them at work when I need to make up for a week's worth of slacking in an afternoon, and good lord do they make data entry-ing go fast... It's like total regression to age eight, beating the shit out of a insanely dull version of Tetris. I talked to their guitarist after they played Walter's last fall and told him this, and he said he's actually heard that a lot.
It's kind of like the Last Starfighter except not really, and really fucking boring.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home