What do you get when a Pulitzer Prize WInner, a Nobel Laureate, a Rhodes Scholar, and a Robot all get together and form a band?
This is a question I Fight Dragons would love to know the answer to, along with other important questions like, “what is purple, really?” and “how much brains could a zombiechuck chuck if a zombiechuck could exist a posteriori?”
In the meanwhile, I Fight Dragons content themselves with playing melodic rock-and-roll type music, which they integrate seamlessly with chiptune. For those of you not in the proverbial ‘know,’ ‘chiptune’ is new music created on ‘obsolete’ video game ‘soundcards’ such as the Nintendo Gameboy. Now you’re in the ‘know.’ Welcome. It’s nice here and the bathrooms are in the back to the left if you need them.
In the biographical sense, all 5 members of I Fight Dragons hail from Chicago. In the spiritual sense, they also hail from Chicago. However, in the metaphorical sense, only 4 of them hail from Chicago, while Packy hails from Outer Space (by way of Chicago).
I Fight Dragons are boldly questing forward on a sonic adventure toward total world domination. If that sounds a little intimidating, then they can scale it back a bit and focus on continental domination, or even just tri-county domination if that’s still a bit much for you.
The new I Fight Dragons album “KABOOM!” has a lot of capital letters, not to mention an exclamation point, which makes it very exhausting to pronounce, but quite invigorating to listen to. It is a Photo Finish / Atlantic Records release (wha!?!?), and serves as the culmination of their earlier sonic endeavors undertaken with their first two EPs, 2009’s “Cool Is Just A Number” and 2010’s “Welcome To The Breakdown.”

Punk Rock has always been about looking through a situation and seeing what’s really going on and not the smokescreen that’s put up around everything. It’s easy to forget this, especially when the scene rigidly builds barriers around its so-called “Elite” and is tainted by corporate/mainstream conformity.

Warhellride is a Chicago based rock quartet fusing the influences of classic punk rock, alternative, hardcore, folk, and shimmers of indie rock to the fold. They combine earnestness with pop sensibilities, rounding it off with walls of rambunctious instrument volume, acoustic rhythms, angsty yet emotional vocals and crafty drumbeats while maintaining a sense of honesty, awareness and storytelling aspect in their lyrics. What comes out of their instruments sonically may not always exude the public’s stereotypical ear and definition of a punk rock band, but their spirit and attitude strongly suggest otherwise.