The NESkimos

The NESkimos are an independent American video game music cover band from St. Augustine, Florida. They are known for their songs based on video game music, as well as covers of songs from popular television shows and movies. They fancy themselves a video game cover band that, rather than try and recreate songs note-for-note), opt to artistically explore and expand upon the songs they cover, via creating additional parts (such as their cover of Grape Garden from "Kirby's Adventure") or creating lyrics (such as their cover of Norfair from "Metroid"). The NESkimos have gained a very fierce, loyal following on their web forums (fans refer to themselves as NESkimites), and they allow fans to download all their music, for free, from [http://www.neskimos.com/ their website] . They perform in clubs throughout the Southeast United States, and have made appearances at MAGfest and PAX ("Penny Arcade" Expo). In 2004, they were featured on MTV's "Ultimate Video Game Countdown" (hosted by Seanbaby), where they discussed the impact that "The Legend Of Zelda" series has had on video gaming's evolution, as well as their music.

Unfortunately, the NESkimos are plagued by the fact that many of their songs are on peer-to-peer networks, incorrectly tagged as being recorded by the older and more popular VGM cover band, The Minibosses.

History/about the band

Excerpt from the [http://www.neskimos.com/faq/ Official NESkimos FAQ] follows:

Who are you guys?
Dr. Wily, Simon Belmont, and Mario. We got drunk one night in Florida and decided to start a band, leaving the world to be saved or taken over by someone else for a change.

The name 'The NESkimos' is a portmanteau combining the initials of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) with the word Eskimos. This is a nod both to the practice of third-wave ska bands in the early 1990s fabricating band names that somehow involve the word "ska" (i.e. Mephiskapheles, Bim Skala Bim, Skapone) and to the groundbreaking DOS-based Nintendo emulator NESticle, which the band's founder Dr. Wily credits as giving him the idea to cover NES music.

As of February 2006, bassist Simon Belmont has left the band. Keeping with the Castlevania/bassist theme, the NESkimos have decided on the name for their new bass player: Trevor Belmont. He is also referred to as the Dog from Duck Hunt.

As of 17th January 2007, drummer Mario and bass player Dog from Duck Hunt had left the band in unrelated circumstances. A new bass player, yet to be named has signed on, and Dr Wily has announced that it is likely that future drums will be programmed. The synthetic drums have been jokingly referred to as "Drums Man", a reference to the Megaman villain Dr. Wily's naming conventions for all of his creations. This leaves Dr Wily as the only original member of the band still performing with them.

At the Penny Arcade Expo of 2006, the NESkimos featured a set of programmed beats, played through an MP3 player which Dr. Wily had left taped to the microphone stand on-stage when he left. It was later recovered, and offered up on eBay as "the first time you can buy a band's drummer".

Band members

Current lineup

The band members prefer not to go by their real names, and instead have adopted internet personae based on videogame icons.
*Dr. Wily - lead guitar, vocals
*Johntendo as The Passion - guitar
*Dylan - bass guitar
*Drum Man - Drums (MP3 Player)

Previous members

*Mario - drums
*Simon Belmont - bass guitar
*The Dog from Duckhunt aka Trevor Belmont - bass guitar
* the Double Kick pedal

A few songs also feature guitar solos from The Shredder, and one song features Napalm Man on alto saxophone.

Discography

Due to legal reasons, the NESkimos have not released any form of CD, but instead release all their songs in MP3 format on the internet, and provide album artwork.
*"Battle - Perfect Selection" (2002)
*"Bloodshed" (2003)
*"Berserker" (2004)

The NESkimos are planning on releasing a new album, "Explod" (originally titled "Brutality"), in 2007, as well as a purchasable "best-of" CD, "The Strongening." They also plan to release an album in CD form, featuring the material they have recorded for their Penny-Arcade Expo 2007 show.

Track listings

Battle - Perfect Selection

#The Drawbridge / Simon's Theme (Castlevania 4)
#"Punch-Out: Beyond The World Circuit (a tragedy)"
#"Super Mario Brothers"
#"Metal Gear"
#"Mega Man 2 - Intro"
#"Mega Man 2 - Wood Man"
#"Mega Man 2 - Bubble Man"
#"Mega Man 2 - Crash Man"
#"Mega Man 2 - Air Man"
#"Double Dragon"
#" - Act 2 / Scene 2"
#"Contra - Prologue"
#"Contra - Code"
#"Contra - Jungle"
#"Contra - Base"
#"Contra - Waterfall"
#"Contra - Boss"
#"Vampire Killer" (Castlevania)
#"Mega Man 2 - Password"
#"Mega Man 2 - Wily 1"
#"Mega Man 2 - Wily 2 / Showdown"
#"Mega Man 2 - The End"
#"The Legend Of Zelda"

Bloodshed

#"TMNT" (Features Guitar Solo by The Shredder)
#"Bloody Bossanova" (Castlevania 2)
#"Bad Dudes - Level 2"
#"Hyrule Castle" (Zelda 3)
#"Bionic Commando - Movement 1"
#"Metal Gear: Infiltrate Outer Heaven"
#"Kirby's Adventure: Grape Garden" (Features Guitar Solo by The Shredder)
#"F-Zero: Big Blue" (Features The Shredder on Lead Guitar)

Berserker

#"Star Wars: Cantina of Fear"
#"Ninja Gaiden - Duel and Revenge"
#"Double Dragon 2 - Stigmata"
#"Double Dragon 2 - Boss"
#"Double Dragon 2 - Cutscene"
#"Mega Man 3 - (Sea)Snake Man"
#"Mega Man 3 - Spark Man"
#"Bionic Commando - Movement II"
#"Zelda Dungeon"
#"Metroid: Norfair Tenement Blues"
#"Mega Man X: Sigma Level 1" (Features Napalm Man on alto saxophone)
#"Mega Man 3 - Wily's Castle 1"

Balance

The band is known to be working on the following tracks for Balance:
*"Super Mario Bros. 3 Medley"
*"Monkey Island 2 Phatt Island"
*"Super C"
*"Castlevania Wicked Child"
*"Zelda Dungeon 9"
*"Bionic Commando Movement III"
*"Castlevania 3 Demon Seed"
*"Dr. Mario 'Chill"'
*"Super Castlevania:"
**Rotating Room
**Dungeon
**The Caves
*"F-Zero Port Town
*"Kirby Super Star "Grande Marche Gourmetique"
*" Medley"

ee also

*The Minibosses, one of the very first game-music cover bands, focusing mainly on NES tunes.
*The Black Mages, a metal band founded by Nobuo Uematsu to play Final Fantasy arrangements.
*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).
*MegaDriver, another band which plays covers of video game music, mostly of the Sega Genesis (or "Mega Drive" outside North America) but also plays Nintendo covers, with a heavy metal style.
*PRESS PLAY ON TAPE, another band which plays covers of video game music (Commodore 64 tunes as rock).
*Quarter Circle Jab, another video game music band covering games from different consoles, including Earthbound, Final Fantasy, and Wave Race 64.
*The Megas, a band which covers Mega Man songs, adding lyrics to expand on the game's story.

External links

* [http://www.neskimos.com/ Official NESkimos Website] , with [http://www.neskimos.com/forum/ forum] .
* [http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=91259 NESkimos Soundclick Page (Contains Music)]
* [http://www.forgreatjustice.org/ ForGreatJustice.org, official Fansite]
* [http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=18825 The NESkimos' appearance on MTV's Ultimate Video Game Countdown]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8576313814420682805 Some of the NESkimos' PAX 2006 performance]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7741628621660659213&hl=en Concert from May 18th, 2006 on Google Video (1 hr 37 min 35 sec)]
* [http://www.poisonthemind.com/article_view.php?AID=39 An interview with NESkimos lead guitarist/vocalist, Dr. Wily]
* [http://www.forgreatjustice.org/phpgallery/albums/userpics/10001/Scan001.PDF PDF Scan of Jax Folio Weekly Article]
* [http://www.thewsvg.com/news/59/ Article from the World Series of Videogames]