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Pixies Recorded A Game Cover Before It Was Cool

by Jeff Cork on Apr 24, 2011 at 11:08 AM

In honor of Easter, I'm going to see the Pixies play tonight. If you aren't old enough to know the band, all you need to know is that they're the best. Also, they covered video-game music before most of the dudes with ironic keytars and skinny little arms were even born.

In 1991, they released a single for the song Dig for Fire, off their final album, Trompe le Monde. One of the tracks on that single was simply called Theme from NARC, and that's exactly what it was: A cover of the first song from Williams' violent antidrug arcade game. "Theme From NARC doesn't really have a chorus," singer Black Francis said in an interview with fanzine Rock A My Soul. "I thought it was pretty cool, because the chord progression in it is completely u c k ***----- up. It isn't standard rock n roll progression."

Here's their version:

 

And here's a clip from the NES version of the game, so you get a general sense of how the song originally sounded:

 

I'll be the first to admit that this barely has anything to do with anything, but you know what? I'm working the Easter shift without any adult supervision and these kinds of things are bound to happen. Also, I'll take any excuse to talk about the Pixies. So there.