Review of "The Advantage" by The Advantage
Needless to say, Nintendo meant a lot to me as a kid. So when I heard about this, the debut album from California five-piece The Advantage, I just about shit a pixilated brick. The Advantage play heavy, dynamic covers of Nintendo classics-- something like the bastard lovechild of Don Caballero and Mario Mario.
....The theme song from Bubble Bobble, hands-down my all-time favorite "gamepak," is equal parts bouncy and chunky, anchored by two bass guitar tracks and Seim's insistent drumming. The breezy jazz underpinnings of "Super Mario Bros. 2 Overworld Theme" serve as another highlight, perfectly articulated by dual clean electric guitars. Two downbeat songs from Castlevania III provide a welcome change of pace, and finally prove my theory that Radiohead's The Bends is just a thinly disguised cover of the game's soundtrack. In fact, my only real gripes with the song selection here are that The Advantage inexplicably omitted their excellent version of the "Moon Theme" from Duck Tales, a criminally underrated NES fave with a wonderfully catchy score.
