The NESkimos is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led t ...

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. ...

from St. Augustine, Florida. It is known for songs based on video game music, and covers of songs from

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

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and

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. The name is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsNintendo Entertainment System (NES) with the word Eskimos. This is a nod both to the practice of third-wave

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

bands in the early 1990s fabricating band names that somehow involve the word "ska" and to the DOS-based Nintendo emulator

NESticle NESticle is a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator, which was written by Icer Addis of Bloodlust Software. Released on April 3, 1997, the widely popular program originally ran under MS-DOS and Windows 95. It was the first freeware NES emulator, ...

, which the band's founder Dr. Wily credits as giving him the idea to cover NES music. It is 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 ''Kirby's Adventure'' is a 1993 platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the second game in the '' Kirby'' series after '' Kirby's Dream Land'' (1992) on the Gam ...

'') or creating lyrics (such as their cover of Norfair from '' Metroid''). The NESkimos have gained a following on their web forums (fans refer to themselves as NESkimites), and they allow fans to download all their music, for free, from their website. They perform in clubs throughout the Southeast United States, and have made appearances at

MAGfest MAGFest (Music and Gaming Festival, originally the Mid-Atlantic Gaming Festival) is an annual festival held in the Washington metropolitan area that celebrates video games and video game music, as well as their surrounding culture. MAGFest's pri ...

and PAX ('' Penny Arcade'' Expo).

History

The NESkimos were formed in St. Augustine, Florida in 2002 by founding members Dr. Wily (guitar), Mario (drums), and Simon Belmont (bass). The NESkimos dissolved in 2007 after their last performance at PAX '07. Their lineup at the time was Dr. Wily, Johntendo (guitar), and Dylan (bass). Their drums had been programmed after the departure of Mario from the band in 2006. A reunion took place from 2012 to 2016, which saw the NESkimos return to live performances at video game conventions in the southeast United States. No further albums were released during their reunion, however the band released two new song demos to fans in 2013 through their forums. Their final performance was at MAGLabs in 2016.https://www.facebook.com/NESkimos/videos/1200686856639307/

Lineup

The band members prefer not to go by their real names, and instead have adopted internet personae based on videogame icons. *Dr. Wily - guitar, vocals *Bruce Wayne - guitar, vocals *Dylan, the Third Double Dragon - bass *Mario - drums

Previous members

*Johntendo - guitar *Simon Belmont - bass *The Dog from Duck Hunt aka Trevor Belmont - bass 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 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

format on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, and provide album artwork. *''Battle - Perfect Selection'' (2002) *''Bloodshed'' (2003) *''Berserker'' (2004) *''Balance'' (unfinished)

References

External links