Zen Albatross

Some sonic prophecy for your doomsday listening pleasure ~*

♬ ✈ Helping kick off the monobomb records ROUTE XIX tour this weekend in San Francisco with minusbaby, crashfaster, Trash80, + more. They’ll also be making stops in Cupertino, San Jose, Portland, and Seattle.

8bitSF and monobomb records are proud to present the Route XIX West Coast Tour, a collection of the finest artists in chip music. Our San Francisco stop is ground zero, with an absolutely massive lineup to keep you dancing and rocking all night long!

ALL AGES!

Tickets available NOW: http://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2012/08-26.html

Trash80 (los angeles) [http://trash80.com/]

Trash80 captivates and entrances with his blend of soaring dance anthems and flawlessly executed club beats.

minusbaby (new york) [http://minusbaby.com/]

minusbaby smashes his love for type, patterns and limited palettes into a unique visual and musical language that pushes the boundaries of the art of bass (and how it moves asses).

crashfaster (san francisco) [http://crashfaster.com/]

crashfaster combines the gritty chip sounds of the Gameboy and NES with hard-hitting rock and synthetic and human vocals to form a completely original hybrid synth-pop-rock experience.

Zen Albatross (new york) [http://zenalbatross.net/]

Brooklyn’s Zen Albatross has explored & exploited the waveform synthesis capabilities of antiquated computer systems. His fearful obsession with technology as an ideological weapon is equaled only by his love of American craft beer.

Slime Girls (san jose) [http://slimegirls.bandcamp.com/]

Slime Girls are a distorted pulsewave assault of gameboys, guitars and energetic drums. Sometimes fast, lush and loud punk rock, other times melancholy surf jams, sometimes ever danceable ska, yet always tied together with an electronic wash of melodic chip music.

Matthew Joseph Payne (oakland) [http://matthewjosephpayne.bandcamp.com/]

One half of the unstoppable chiptune act The Glowing Stars, Matthew Joseph Payne creates a sound all his own with his chamber-chip-doom-folk solo project.

DJ sets by

TRΛCER (san francisco) [http://tracervision.com/]
&
Mr. Smith (san jose) [http://www.facebook.com/thedjmrsmith]

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≈*≈Thx for the ROMemories≈*≈

(GIF by @Radstronomical)

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Next week I’ll be playing two shows during the 2012 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. These lineups are absolutely stacked with amazing performers, thanks in large part to friend and monobomb compatriot crashfaster, so if you’re in town for the conference, be sure to check them out:

8bitSF presents POW: Indie Music & Developers Collide
Tuesday, March 6th @ 8:00pm
Tickets: http://www.dnalounge.com/ calendar/2012/03-06.html
$8 advance/$12 door/$5 with GDC Badge
21+

RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/151961534920931/

In honor of the 2012 Game Developer’s Conference, 8bitSF [http://8bitsf.com/] is proud to present POW, a celebration of the indie spirit. POW is a colossal night of sound + vision, and features performances by some of the best acts in both gaming and chip music as well as demo tables and presentations by indie developers Polytron [http://polytroncorporation.com] (FEZ), Muteki Corporation [http://mutekicorp.com/] (Dragon Fantasy), Open Emotion Studios [http:// www.openemotionstudios.com/] (Revoltin’ Youth), Yobble
[http://yobble.me/] (Air Guitar) and more!

Live Performances by:

VIRT aka Jake Kaufman [http://virt.bandcamp.com/] (Retro City Rampage, Bloodrayne: Betrayal)

Freaky DNA aka Leonard J. Paul [http://videogameaudio.com/] (Retro City Rampage, NBA Jam 2010)

Disasterpeace [http://disasterpeace.com/] (FEZ)

minusbaby [http://minusbaby.com/] (BIT.TRIP FATE, Phone Story)

crashfaster [http:// crashfaster.bandcamp.com/] (Dragon Fantasy)

The Glowing Stars [http:// theglowingstars.bandcamp.co m/]

Zen Albatross [http://zenalbatross.net/]

A Rival [http:// blog.planetskill.com/]

8-BIT DOPE: GDC Edition
Friday, March 9th @ 9PM
MIST Ultra Club
316 11th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

$12 At the door $9 w/ GDC pass

RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/349686438394918/

The return of our big GDC underground party. Some the hottest 8-BIT acts from SF and around the world, mixed with thick, aggressive electro, enhanced by eye melting light & pop visuals. Hosted by DOPE, crashfaster and 8bitSF.

featuring performances by…

Trash80 (8bitpeoples, LA) - Dreamy melodies & driving dance anthems

minusbaby (monobomb, NYC) - Equatorial beats, ass-rattling bass and progressive grooves

crashfaster (monobomb, SF) - High-energy electro pop layered with moody robotic vocals

dj medic (DOPE, SF) - Nu-disco to electro to giant robots, a tight mix of pop, flow and education

Zen Albatross (monobomb, NYC) - Infectious beats and marching, apocalyptic sonic destruction

E.N. Cowell (monobomb, SF) - Dirty, teeth-rattling electro house filtered to crunchy perfection

Space Town Savior (SD) - Massive, trance-inspired, dance floor smashers

Starpause (hexawe, SF) - Manical IDM beats meet lo-fi electro sleaze in a robot porno

Lighting and Visuals by FUTURE WEAPONS and VJ duplesiX

For a taste of what these kids are bringing to your ears, check out our rundown:
http://dope415.com/8-bit-dope-the-revenge-of-chipscene

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[NYC] 2.3.12 // BinAural Visual @ Vaudeville Park - n0izmkr + Invaderbacca, paris + outpt, Zen Albatross + Chromacle

I’ll be doing an audiovisual drone/noise performance this Friday at Vaudeville Park in Brooklyn. This will be all-new, mostly improvised material in collaboration with SaraBee on cello and Chromacle on visuals. Details below:

##
I/O Chip Music
presents

BinAural Visual
@ Vaudeville Park
February 3 2011
730pm
$7

n0izmkr + invaderbacca
http://nicolecarrollmusic.com/
http://invaderbacca.tumblr.com/

n0izmkr performs structured improvisational noise sets, incorporating circuit bent instruments, handmade synthesizers, custom midi controllers, environmental samples, and a contact mic orchestra. invaderbacca sees the colors that nobody sees. his approach to visualizing the sounds surrounding him is almost sonic itself in nature, whether he’s creating frenetic glitchnes sets or his own spasmodic video blasts.

outpt + paris
http://outptandparis.com/

outpt+paris present drum & space: an audio/visual performance telling the story of a future space traveller as she looks to trade the safety of her home world for the furthest regions of the universe. the set is a high energy mix of analog beats, digitized vocals, and coordinated visuals.

zen albatross + chromacle
http://zenalbatross.net/

zen albatross creates colossal obelisks of sound using antiquated computer consoles. for this performance, tape loops and improvised electronics expand and disintegrate the usual rhythmic constructs into a surreal stream of carefully sustained drones and noise. the set will be accompanied by sarabee on cello and chromacle on visuals.

Vaudeville Park
26 Bushwick Ave
(corner of Bushwick and Devoe St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

L train to Graham Ave
Google Map: http://brk.to/o9a
RSVP
vaudevillepark.org
##

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http://zenalbatross.net/ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ #SOPA ███ #PIPA ████████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████████████

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#SOPABlackout

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Post-MAGFest Recap + Taking Game Boy Orders

We’re all still coming down from MAGFest last weekend and as expected, this year was the best it’s ever been. All the chip concerts exceeded expectations, and I was especially pleased to see the legendary Jake “Virt” Kaufman — pink hair, glowsticks and all — back on stage after a few years of MIA. Seeing Nobuo Uematsu and his band Earthbound Papas was also a life-altering experience. Original Sound Version did a nice recap of all this and more with photos, and Chip Music Chronicle caught pretty much everything on video.

Also great was the surprising amount of interest in modded Game Boys. Stock is nearly wiped clean for the moment, but due to the demand I’ve decided to begin accepting orders via email until I can get some sort of online shop set up. If you’re not the soldering type and are interested in backlit/prosounded DMG’s, don’t hesitate to contact me with requests.

See you at MAGFest X+1.

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» MAGFest Time Is Here

MAGFest is an event I’ve had the pleasure of attending annually for the better part of the past 5 years. For those unfamiliar, here’s the dark of it: 4 days of non-stop, round-the-clock concerts, games, panels and partying inside of a giant hotel / convention center in the D.C. area. Accent on the partying.

While I usually steer clear of videogame cover bands and “fan” events in general, there’s some key differences that continue to make MAGFest worthy of my time, and yours. Now in its 10th year, it is one of the few long-running events of its type that is built from the ground up with a shoestring budget and zero corporate sponsorship. As a result MAGFest is diverse and open-minded — more of a community-oriented DIY music meetup / game space / rowdy hotel party than a “convention” — and has built its reputation on being exactly what it was intended to be.

Recently, the formula has helped bring about a number of big changes: Namely, moving to a much larger space (by necessity, as last year’s attendance went beyond max capacity) and attracting big-time videogame industry composers and developers. In the past they’ve had folks like Secret of Mana composer Hiroki Kikuta and simulation games pioneer Sid Meier. This year, they’ve managed to bag Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu and his new band, Earthbound Papas.

My involvement this year includes a 2-day showcase of chip musicians and visual artists featuring Jake “Virt” Kaufman, Danimal Cannon, Knife City, Disasterpeace & more. I’ll also have a few of these guys for sale in vendor area:

Come by and say hello if you’re making your way down to D.C. this weekend, or follow Original Sound Version for live updates.

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I’ve been added as a last-minute special guest to this already insane Black Friday lineup in Rochester, NY w/ revengineers, Noisewaves & knife city. WNY/Rochester: Do not miss this.

///////////////////////////

RSVP

[11.25.11] ROCHESTER CHIP 1 YR ANNIVERSARY
@ The Bug Jar
219 Monroe Ave, Rochester NY
9 PM - 12 AM
18+

$7 (21+) / $9 (20-)

Rochester Chip’s ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW! 12 shows under our belt, and plenty more to come. Celebrate a year of bringing some of the best chip acts around to Rochester with us.

KNIFE CITY (NY)
Luke Silas, known by many as the drummer for ANAMANAGUCHI, is bringing us his unique brand of catchy Game Boy jams. Impossible to not dance to. For fans of dubstep/electro!

https://8bc.org/members/likeluke/

NOISEWAVES (MI)
This Michigan-based duo creates atmospheric and sprawling post-rock jams with the help of their trusty NES.

http://noisewaves.bandcamp.com/

REVENGINEERS (NY)
Hometown heroes. They’ve been described as mid-90’s with Game Boys. We’ll let you decide.

http://revengineers.tumblr.com/

MNT DST (NY)
Rochester’s most popular new electronic act, and brainchild of stand-up dude Christopher Heath. Features former members of Science vs. Witchcraft.

ZEN ALBATROSS (JUST ADDED!!!!)
Truly epic. Electronic audio destruction via dual Gameboys.

http://music.zenalbatross.net/

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