The Advantage is an American rock band from

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

that formed in 1998 and specialises in doing covers of music from old

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

games, also known as

Nintendocore Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune and video game music with hardcore punk and/or heavy metal. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metal ...

. The band is named after the

joystick controller of the same name.

History

Founding drummer

Spencer Seim Spencer may refer to: People *Spencer (surname) **Spencer family, British aristocratic family ** List of people with surname Spencer * Spencer (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia *Spencer, New ...

first began playing video game music after going to a

talent show A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather ...

Nevada City, California Nevada City (originally, ''Ustumah'', a Nisenan village; later, Nevada, Deer Creek Dry Diggins, and Caldwell's Upper Store) is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, northeast of Sacramento, southwest of Reno and northeas ...

, where he met a duo who played songs from game soundtracks.The Advantage biography

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

He then joined that group, but its two other members moved to

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

soon after, so he founded The Advantage with three high school bandmates (Nick Rogers, Carson McWhirter, and Ben Milner) to continue playing video game music. The group attracted the attention of

Kill Rock Stars Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally known ...

subsidiary label 5 Rue Christine, who signed them and released their self-titled debut album in 2004. The album featured 26 covers of songs from Nintendo games. Initially, McWhirter arranged the compositions for the ensemble, but over time, they began working out their own parts independently by listening to the game soundtracks. During the tour of their debut album the band released, ''Da Advantage EP'', in 2004 through their own label T.A.R. (The Advantage Records) and sold it at shows. Rather than relying on keyboards or sampling to evoke the band's source material, their recordings covered tunes from the games through standard rock instrumentation - guitar, bass, and drums.

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

praised the album, noting, "the simplicity and melodic strength of the source material focuses the players, and the players flesh out the source material beyond its original technological limitations." In 2006, Rogers left the group and guitarist Robby Moncrieff joined for their second full-length record, '' Elf Titled'', also released on 5RC Records. ''Allmusic'' noted that ''Elf Titled'' featured several covers of songs from less-well-known Nintendo games. This album featured vocals on one track, as well as introducing some synthesized instrumentation. The band released their second EP, ''Underwear: So Big! EP'', through their own Advantage Records label during their 2006 tour and sold it at shows. After the release of '' Elf Titled'', the band toured for a short while before entering a hiatus. By this time Seim and McWhirter had released several albums as part of the group

Hella ''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002. It is possibl ...

.''Elf Titled'' review

In 2010 a compilation album, ''B-Sides Anthology'', was released by Obstructive Vibrations in digital download format. It contains all of the material from ''Da Advantage EP'' and all of the material from the ''Underwear: So Big! EP'' (except for track 3,

Gradius II ''Gradius II'' (also known as ''Vulcan Venture'' in arcades outside Japan) is a side-scrolling shooter game. Originally released for the arcades in Japan in 1988, it is the sequel to original ''Gradius'' and was succeeded by '' Gradius III''. Po ...

- Boss) plus a few extra rare tracks. The band also played a brief tour in 2010 mostly in Japan. In recent years the band has been releasing material on their own label, The Advantage Records (T.A.R.) through their

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

page. They released a compilation album of edited tracks in 2013 from the Self Titled, Elf Titled, and B-Sides albums titled ''Edits''. In 2014 the band released the live album ''Live from: The Great American Music Hall.'' It contains tracks from the February 27, 2004 live performance at The

Great American Music Hall The Great American Music Hall is a concert hall in San Francisco, California. It is located on O'Farrell Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood on the same block as the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. It is known for its decorative balconies ...

in San Francisco where they opened with

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for

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and

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at the 2004 Noise Pop Music Festival. The band also released a live album in 2013 called ''Rock Bottom: Live from Bottom of the Hill'' which consists of songs from the June 24, 2006 live performance at

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San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, CA. It was re-released on June 24, 2016 for the 10 year anniversary of the show with better audio and minor corrections. On June 25, 2016, ''Bottom Line: Live from Bottom of the Hill'' was released. The Advantage have covered songs from these NES games: Air Fortress, Batman: The Video Game, Batman: Return of the Joker,

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, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse,

Contra Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland ...

, Double Dragon II, Double Dragon III,

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, Fester's Quest,

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, Goonies II,

, Gremlins 2: The New Batch,

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, Mega Man II, Mega Man III,

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, Solar Jetman,

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Members

*Robby Moncrieff (guitar) *Ben Milner (guitar) *Carson McWhirter (bass) *

(drums) *Nick Rogers (guitar & bass) *Forrest Harding (guitar) *Cassie Stewart (bass)

Discography

;Albums * ''

The Advantage The Advantage is an American rock band from Sacramento, California that formed in 1998 and specialises in doing covers of music from old NES games, also known as Nintendocore. The band is named after the NES joystick controller of the same nam ...

'' (April 6, 2004) 5 Rue Christine Records * ''Da Advantage EP - 2004 Tour CD'' (October, 2004) The Advantage Records * '' Elf Titled'' (January 24, 2006) 5 Rue Christine Records * ''Underwear: So Big! EP - 2006 Tour CD'' (August 2006) The Advantage Records * ''B-Sides Anthology'' (September 7, 2010) Obstructive Vibrations * ''Edits'' (Oct 31, 2013) The Advantage Records (T.A.R.) ;Live releases * ''Live from: The Great American Music Hall'' (February 27, 2014) The Advantage Records * ''Rock Bottom: Live from Bottom of the Hill'' (June 24, 2016) The Advantage Records * ''Bottom Line: Live from Bottom of the Hill'' (June 25, 2016) The Advantage Records

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Advantage, The Nintendocore musical groups Video game music cover bands Musical groups from Sacramento, California Musical groups established in 1998