Minibosses

Minibosses is an American progressive rock band originally from Northampton, Massachusetts, and now located in Phoenix, Arizona. They are known for their video game music covers, which are instrumental rock variations of the theme music from classic Nintendo video games such as Mega Man, Metroid, and Castlevania.^[2] The Phoenix New Times awarded Minibosses their best cover band award in 2006.^[3]

Minibosses
Minibosses performing at Penny Arcade Expo 2005
Background information
Origin	Northampton, Massachusetts
Genres	Progressive rock chiptune Nintendocore instrumental rock geek rock[1]
Years active	1999–present
Members	Aaron Burke Robin Vining Brendan Dueck Steve Dueck Jakob Dueck Owen Dueck
Past members	Ben Baraldi Fred Johnson John Lipfert Rich Smaldone Robert Kelly Turner Matt Wood
Website	minibosses.com

History

From 1997 to 1999, guitarist Aaron Burke and drummer Matt Wood played in Jenova Project, one of the earliest video game cover bands, along with other friends from the same dorm at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In January 2000, Burke and Wood recruited bassist Ben Baraldi to form Minibosses.^[4] Initially, the band played both video game covers as well as original songs, and self-released their first album, Minibosses, in September 2000. They were unsatisfied with the quality of this album and have since released new versions of their covers (as well as new covers) on the Minibosses/Penny Winblood split and Brass album. At the same time, they replaced their older songs, which had been freely available to download, with the newer versions found on Brass.^[4] From 2000 to present, the band has toured continuously while recording material for new albums.^[5]

Members

Current

• Aaron Burke – guitar (1999–present)
• Robin Vining – guitar (2019–present), bass (2007–2019)
• Brendan Dueck – keyboards (2014–present)
• Steve Dueck – drums (2014–present)
• Jakob Dueck – bass (2019–present)
• Owen Dueck – drums (2019–present)

Former

• Robert Kelly Turner – guitar (2010)
• Ben Baraldi – guitar (2007–2010), bass (1999–2007)
• John Lipfert – guitar (2004–2007)
• Fred Johnson – guitar (2002–2004)
• Richard Smaldone – guitar (2001–2002)
• Matt Wood – drums (1999–2014)

Discography

• Minibosses (Self-released on Kraid Records, 2000)
• Minibosses (EP) (Self-released, 2004)
• Live at the Middle East recorded at The Middle East nightclub (Self-released, 2004)
• Minibosses/Penny Winblood (Forge Records, 2005)
• Brass (Self-released, 2005)
• Brass 2: Mouth (Released December 2, 2011)

References

1. Topić, Martina (2014). "Taste, Kitsch, and Geek Rock: A Multiple Modernities View". In DiBlasi, Alex; Willis, Victoria (eds.). Geek Rock: An Exploration of Music and Subculture. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 25–44. ISBN 9781442229761.
2. Werde, Bill. "Nintendo Rocks!". WIRED. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
3. "Phoenix - Best of - BEST COVER BAND - the Minibosses (2006)". Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2006-09-30.
4. "Faq". Minibosses.com. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
5. "Shows". Minibosses.com. Retrieved 15 November 2020.

Further reading

• Borges, Mario Mesquita. "Minibosses". Allmusic. Retrieved May 9, 2005.

External links

General

• Minibosses official web site
• ReMixer profile at OverClocked ReMix
• Minibosses discography at MusicBrainz
• Minibosses EP Insert Credit review Sheffield, Brandon (Apr. 12, 2004)
• Minibosses official MySpace

Interviews

• "Nintendo Rocks!" Wired Magazine: Werde, Bill (Dec. 2002)
• "Nintendo rocks!" Salon.com: Becker, Verne (Apr. 21, 2004)
• "Rocking in the Key of Nintendo" NPR-All Things Considered: (Aug. 26, 2004)