In this day and age, video game music covers aren’t anything uncommon. Hell, go on Youtube and search for various video game songs and you’re almost certain to find a random person strumming on a guitar to any run of the mill video game song. While you also have the random Youtubers fiddling away at banjos, guitars, pianos, and any other random instrument you also have the full blown bands dedicated to performing nothing but video game music. I, for one, enjoy rock music, and I enjoy video game music, however it appears that a good 95% of the video game bands out there do nothing but rock versions of video game songs. That’s fine and dandy, but how many times can one listen to a rock arrangement of Air Man’s Theme from Mega Man 2?

There is one band though that has a refreshing take on the video game music genre, and that band is simply known as The Oneups. These guys take video game songs and put them into jazz and sometimes even funk arrangements, giving a unique spin on timeless classics. That’s not to say they only do songs of the retro variety. They’ve done tracks as recent as The Mii Menu on the Nintendo Wii.

The Oneups was an idea conceived back in 2000 as a group of musicians from Fayetteville, Arkansas who had various musical talents and wanted to play video game music. Each member of this band is extremely talented in what they play, whether it be a saxophone, drums, guitar, bass, fiddle, flute, keyboards, etc. Every instrument involved with the group is played with the technique and precision of any professional in the music industry, and in some cases even better.

The Oneups - Volume 1

The Oneups released 2 albums, simply titled Volume 1 and Volume 2 and are currently in the process of creating an album based on the soundtrack of Super Mario Kart for the SNES, which is expected to be released later this month. I, for one, cannot wait for it as it’s sure to be another great installment in The Oneups‘ library. You can keep track of the progress on the new, up and coming album by subscribing to their Youtube channel here.

The Oneups - Volume 2

All in all, if you’re into video game music, and want to try different takes on video game cover bands instead of listening to the same generic rock renditions, I highly recommend you check out The Oneups. You can purchase their music off of Itunes or Amazon. You can also check out their music over at http://theoneups.bandcamp.com/.
If you have the time to kick back and jam then by all means give these guys a listen, you will not be disappointed.

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D