If you aren’t familiar, The Mad Gear is an outfit from Murfreesboro that is steeped in videogame culture. Their YouTube channel captures them performing notable 8-bit classics with big 80’s guitar sounds and plenty of horns. They’ve produced their own short film about a Street Fighter II Battle Royale, created an original Beat-Em-Up game with accompanying sountrack and still managed to release full albums in between all that. If that weren’t impressive enough of a resume in itself, it’s also noteworthy that they managed to do all that since 2014, on their own.
Now the band is embarking on their most ambitious project; Turbo City Gaiden will be a 10-part animated series coupled with five playable mini-games and an original soundtrack. The recently launched Kickstarter lays out their specific plans for the project, shares insights into the production process and even lets you watch the pilot episode. They’ve clearly done their homework and are looking for monetary assistance to take it the rest of the way.
The band is seeking $24,000 to complete the project; which looks like an awful lot of money on the face of it but considering the amount of work that goes into making one episode of any animated series, it’s an absolute steal for the amount of content they plan to create. Even if you feel no nostalgia for 8-bit gaming, The Warriors or any of the aesthetics that the band embraces; you have to admit that it’s a downright wonderful thing that a band from the Nashville area is putting forth this effort. For a city known for Country Music (and a plague upon the women in that industry), Bachelorette Parties and Songwriters in the Round, we should all feel compelled to support this creative endeavor.
Watch the pilot embedded below and then consider backing the Kickstarter here.