ReMix:Paperboy 2 "Stunt Course on Easy Street" 2:43

minusworld's back, this time with Graham Hardaway on bass, as the siblings spiff up Paperboy 2's training theme! minusworld channeled fond childhood memories of playing Paperboy 2 into a session of brother blues with Graham:

""Stunt Course on Easy Street" was one of my earliest Dwelling of Duels (DoD) entries for Fresh Month in 2022. It's a blues cover of the "Training Course" theme; I used the SNES version as a reference.

Paperboy 2 is a silly and simple game about stopping breakaway baby carriages and gun-wielding robbers with flying newspapers at its core, but it's a game I remember fondly because my grandmother had it at her house when I was a kid. The simple I-IV structure of the "Training Course" theme fits into a blues form easily, so I did my best Stevie Ray Vaughan impression, turned the rhythm into a shuffle, and added a horn section (Hollywood Pop Brass VST) because why not? :)

Not much else to say about this one. Hope you enjoy it!"

Love me some Paperboy, which I played a ton on the NES; I'm wanting to hunt down the sequel, if only to shame myself at how rotten my hand-eye coordination is these days. I bet I could still break some non-customers' windows though! Shifting to happy customers though, judge Chimpazilla did indeed enjoy what she heard through and through:

"That source tune. That Seinfeld bass patch! Haha! That's a VERY silly source tune. I like the bass much better in the remix. There's a great shuffle to this writing. I like the fake brass! It's cheesy but it works. Really nice groovy jazzy bluesy guitar performances and soloing here. Drums sound good, elements are well balanced. Overall mix is well produced, mixed and mastered. Super fun listen."

That ain't no bass patch, that's a bass BROTHER. The track's also absolutely leaning into the cheesiness of the Hollywood brass when they come back at :40, so I'm glad Chimpa likes it. :-) Aside from the brass blatting out in a loud & proud way, the overall name of the game here is the laid back bluesy musicianship from the Super Hardaway Bros. on their guitars, also appreciated by panelist prophetik music:

"this is a fun romp through twelve-bar blues. i like how easy it felt for you to stay in the form while exploring the original's 7th-dominated theme. track is short but sweet. nice work."

Nice switch-up at 1:04 into the guitar comping over the top of the source tune on bass, which sounds super on-point and was my personal highlight. Judge Emunator also got the musicianship memo:

"It's clear what you were going for - some good old-fashioned guitar riffage over a classic blues progression. Everything else is ancillary to that, and you stuck the landing in spectacular form on the parts that you were trying to highlight. In an ensemble format, all the pieces work great together and let you showcase your excellent guitar chops.

Easy vote for easy street!"

The strength of the arrangement and performances more than capably carries this, and we can celebrate our first Paperboy series ReMix in almost two decades (which'll probably get OUR windows broken by the Paperboy if he hears about this drought). Seriously though, it's also a big treat to get some fun and much needed blues representation around these parts, thanks to minusworld & Graham. :-) Swanky swanky!