The Minibosses

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"Minibosses EP" album cover.
"Minibosses EP" album cover.

Minibosses is an independent progressive rock/progressive metal band originally from Northampton, Massachusetts and currently located in Phoenix, Arizona. They are known for their video game music covers, which are instrumental rock variations of the theme music from classic Nintendo video games such as Mega Man, Metroid, and Castlevania. Such covers earned Minibosses the best cover band award in the Phoenix New Times Best of Phoenix 2006. And their Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse music video, directed by cult filmmaker ZZalgern0n, was released in late 2006.

Minibosses have managed to form a following amongst video game music fans, and they allow fans to download many free songs on their website. Much of their following has come from their constant playing of concerts at local clubs around Arizona and other cities in the southwest. Because of this, they are arguably the most well-known of The Shizz bands. Fans refer to themselves as "Minibossies" and are known to travel great distances to see the band. The band has also formed quite a following on their web forums, which is host to tour announcements, new video game covers from other remixers, and the Dwelling of Duels competition.

There are a various video game song remixes floating around the Internet that are falsely attributed to Minibosses, perhaps by mistaken fans or newcomers to the genre. These include a remix of the theme from the first level of Doom and the Tetris theme (which is actually the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki") by Ozma. The Minibosses only play NES game music, although they did release original songs and non-Nintendo covers on their first album, Minibosses.

Contents

[edit] History

In 1997, prior to the formation of Minibosses, Aaron Burke and Matt Wood teamed up with several other friends from the same dorm at the University of Massachusetts to form one of the earliest video game cover bands, Jenova Project. When Jenova Project went on indefinite hiatus in 1999, Minibosses formed.

The band released their first album in September 2000, which contained both original and cover songs. They later admitted they were not satisfied with the quality of the recordings and have since recorded new versions of the old songs. From 2000 to present, they have toured continuously, while recording material for new albums. During this time, the video game cover scene has matured, with the rise in popularity of sites such as VGMix and OverClocked ReMix. Minibosses often tour through Arizona and California, and occasionally come back to their roots in the northeast to play shows.

The band has gone through several changes, mostly on second guitar. Previously held by Rich Smaldone briefly and later Fred Johnson, it is now played by former After Any Accident guitarist John Lipfert.

[edit] Members

[edit] Current

[edit] Previous

  • Fred Johnson — guitar (2002-2004)
  • Rich Smaldone — guitar (2001-2002)

[edit] Discography

[edit] Covered game themes

[edit] See also

  • The Advantage, another band which plays covers of Nintendo theme music.
  • The OneUps, another band which plays covers of video game music (although with a more jazz-inspired sound).
  • The NESkimos, another band which plays covers of Nintendo music, but adds a very heavy style to it.
  • MegaDriver, another band which plays covers of video game music, mostly of the Genesis but also plays Nintendo covers, with a Heavy Metal style.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] General

[edit] Interviews

[edit] Videos

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