I Fight Dragons is a Chiptune rock band from Chicago, formed in 2008. They are notable for combining chiptune music with their standard instruments, and for reprogramming old-school game controllers (like NES Game Pads, Power Pads, Game Boys, and Rock Band guitars, among others) and playing them as instruments during live shows. They were signed with Photo Finish/Atlantic Records from 2010 to 2012, but currently work independently.
They currently have released two EPs and two full-length albums, with many individual songs released through their mailing list.
- Cool Is Just A Number - EP (2009)
- Welcome To The Breakdown - EP (2010)
- KABOOM! (2011), their first full-length album. Distributed for free on the band's website since their split from the label.
- DEMOlition (2013) - A collection 12 demos written for KABOOM! that didn't make the cut.
- The Near Future (2014) - Their second album. Tells the story of a eighteen year old boy who saves a girl from another world.
- The Future Imperfect (2014) - A collection 10 demos written for The Near Future but didn't make the cut.
Their music has been featured on WWE note , The Goldbergs, and Nintendo Video on the Nintendo 3DS. The video for the latter, "Save World, Get Girl" was Nintendo Video's most viewed video.
Their website can be found here
and the website for the Advanced Guard, their street team and fanbase, is here.
Members
- Brian Mazzferri (lead vocals, guitar, SNES, Game Boy, primary songwriter)
- Hari Rao (bass)
- Chad Van Dahm (drums)
- Packy Lundholm (vocals, lead guitar)
- Bill Prokopow (vocals, keyboards, NES, SNES, NES Advantage, NES Power Pad, NES Zapper, Rockband Guitar)
Past members:
- Laura Green (vocals, controllers, Power Glove)
- Mike Mentzer (vocals, guitar, controllers)
- Dave Midell (drums)
This band provides examples of:
- Disney Death: In "The Near Future", the girl briefly dies after she, the boy, and her grandpa escape from the complex, but the boy brings her back to life.
- Everything Is an Instrument: The band is known for playing various hacked Nintendo controllers and Game Boys as instruments. Packy also has a guitar made from an NES.
- Gratuitous Latin: The final part of "Suburban Doxology" contains latin chanting that eventually overlaps with the chorus. The chanting is "Gloria in excelsis meo, et in suburbia", or "Glory to me in the highest, and in the suburbs".
- Lyrical Dissonance: Brian is a big fan of this in his songs. For example, "Heads Up, Hearts Down" is an upbeat anthem about an Orwellian regime and "Just Decide" has a fanfare-like melody with lyrics about committing suicide in the most non-committed way possible.
- Meaningful Name: The titular Burnadette solves all her problems by setting them on fire.
- Recurring Riff: The chorus of "Welcome To The Breakdown" appears three times on the album of the same name: in the song itself, in a short chiptune version "Proxima Centauri", and in the guitar solo and final chorus of "Just Decide". With the lyrics in mind, it borders on leitmotif.
- Re-release the Song: "I Will Wait For You If You Do For Me" has been recorded and released a total of three times. First time as an acoustic version on Brian's youtube channel, the second time as an exclusive download for fans that were on their mailing address and as a secret link found on the The War of Cyborg Liberation dog tags.
- The songs "Don't You" and "With You" from Cool Is Just A Number were re-recorded and re-released on Kaboom, the latter of which even has a different female singer, Kina Grannis
- Rock Opera: The first 10 tracks of the band's second album "The Near Future" tell the story of an eighteen year old boy who saves a girl from another world.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: This band has gone all over the scale. They've gone from uber-idealistic power anthems ("The Geeks Will Inherit The Earth", "Save World Get Girl", "Time to Fly", etc.) to expressions of distrust and disillusionment with the world ("Money", "Pretend", "My Way", "Eighteen", etc.), but a lot of their tracks also take a central approach, exploring how the world can suck, but it's still worth it to keep powering on.
- Title Track: "Welcome To The Breakdown" and "KABOOM!" share their names with a song on their albums. Averted for Cool Is Just A Number and The Near Future.
- Unplugged Version: Several songs such as "Fight For You", "Heads Up Hearts Down", and "I Will Wait For You If You Do For Me" have been released on the internet in acoustic form.
