The time is nigh — in a few more years, we will officially become the final generation to have played the original Nintendo Entertainment System as children. This will give way to the Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo generation, and finally (shudder) the Nintendo 64 generation. Luckily, there are just enough nostalgic video game nerds around to call for a Nintendo cover band: Enter the Advantage.
Translating the uber-complex beeps and shuffles of the NES into bass, drums and guitars, the Advantage keep one foot in the realm of stony math-rock (drummer Spencer Seim is the guitarist for Hella) and the other in the video-game world of powerups, secret codes and extra guys. Separately, the band members are inarguably virtuosic, but they integrate unerringly at a jigsawed, breakneck pace, emulating the careening momentum of the arcade. Though they may have recorded some of the best NES themes on their 2004 self-titled debut (from, say, “Zelda,” “Blaster Master” and “Ninja Gaiden”), the band is even more accomplished on Elf-Titled, playing like machine men in true-to-speed renditions of classic themes from “Mega Man 2,” “Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest” and “Metroid.” Hearing the music from these titles played by real instruments is more than just a cheap thrill; the compositions themselves are, in hindsight, brilliant. Luckily, the hard work and genius of all those nameless Japanese men that created such memorable music in the late ’80s will not be forever lost in the bottom of the closets of ex-gamers everywhere. Thank the painstaking arrangements and instrumental dexterity of the Advantage.
