Album Review "Welcome To The Breakdown" by I Fight Dragons

Welcome To The Breakdown

I Fight Dragons came on my radar when they came to town on tour with MC Lars. Yes I know this is the third CD I'm reviewing from that show. Yes I know this another EP, but I bought four that night! All of them were only five bucks.

How could I not walk out with something by all of the acts?

This group is interesting. This is the first Chip Rock I've ever heard, but for categorizing purposes, I'm just going to call them modern rock. A large part of their sound comes from the use of sound chips from Nintendo and Super Nintendo cartridges. What makes that even more fun is that they don't sample them with just a touch of a button, but they use controllers from both systems, including the powerpad and a guitar hero guitar controller while on stage to click the samples.

What they end up with is a poppy, nerdy, and fun type of music that I really enjoyed.

I Fight Dragons (Of the Before Time)

For the most part, the music is normal modern rock fare. There are two guitarists, a bass player, and a drummer.

The keyboard player has a giant octopus of a thing where he unleashes samples and chips. Then some of the other guys also break out nintendo controllers on some songs.

As I've gotten a bit older, I've come to enjoy more mellow types of music, and compared to the last review especially, this is quite mellow.

The songs on this EP, and the other one I purchased, range from uptempo, to sentimental, and just plain geeky, but that's a big part of what makes it fun. Until recently the vast majority of music made by geeks was rap.

Don't get me wrong, I like nerd rap (obviously), but it's also nice to hear rock music singing about video games and slaying dragons.

I can easily recommend this album and at least "Cool Is Just A Number" as well. I've not purchased their full length debut album, but it's on my radar.

I guess the best way I could describe them is like a band like Blink 182, but good and playing video games while in the studio! On record the chiptunes are quite audible and add a nice little twist to this group of geeks.

Genre: Modern Rock and Nerdcore
Year: 2010
Playlists: Rock, Modern Rock, Nerdcore

Tracklisting:

1) Welcome To The Breakdown
2) No Kontrol
3) The Power of Love
4) Poxima Centauri
5) Give It Up
6) Not I
7) Just Decide
8) I Fight Gannon (available as a free download from their website)