[Below is a comment made by one of my peers about why chip musicians choose to work within the limitations of antiquated hardware. I obviously respect the commenter’s opinion and realize there is some truth to it, but I feel that by posting this and my response here, it might help clear up a common misconception that chip musicians are elitist scenesters who rebel against modern music trends in order to maintain an image for themselves]
“Yeah I know this is off on a tangent but when Nullsleep was comparing the chip scene to the punk scene of the 90s in [Reformat The Planet], it kinda bothered me, because I kept thinking to myself, “oh great, people are gonna get into this just because it’s ‘alt’ and ‘underground,’ not because they have much of an appreciation for the music.” Not that I disagree with his point, but yeah… there’s an “image” aspect underlying it all; an opportunity to be part of something underground, to get some street cred, to be able to point two middle fingers at all the douchebags playing guitars and drums and say “I’M COOLER THAN YOU BECAUSE I MADE ALL THIS ON 1 GAMEBOY.” Stuff like that.”
If anyone is getting two middle fingers pointed at them, it’s definitely not the millions of bands that use guitars & drums. Nor is it the electronic musician that performs and composes using thousands of $ worth of gear — It’s the retailers, advertisers, corporations and other profit-driven entities that have convinced us, over time, that the only way you can have a chance at being successful as a musician is to spend lots of money on equipment.
I think this feeling of pride in making subversive use of a piece of hardware goes much deeper than the alternative “image” produced as a result. It’s a necessary, healthy and inspiring reaction to years and years of being told that we need X, Y and Z in order to be on a level playing field — X, Y and Z all being money.
I think chip musicians ARE on a level playing field, and I think that needs to be celebrated as a vital part of the music itself. As much as it may seem at times like boast and rhetoric, I think it’s this quality in particular that really inspires most people to push their work to the absolute maximum. And the most common results of that effort, in my observations, are unique experiences & good music, which is precisely why (I would hope) we came to chip music in the first place.
(Source: chipmusic.org)
Photos by Emi Spicer & Marjorie Becker
Layers of rock-hard ice continued to freeze over the cold pavement of Wyckoff Avenue in Queens last Saturday night. But unbeknownst to many of the sleepy street’s residents, an environment entirely opposite had briefly come into being at Silent Barn, the borough’s premiere DIY music hideaway. The air was visibly thick as a rowdy all-ages crowd piled into the graffiti-filled concert/living space which also serves as the permanent home of NYC indie arcade Babycastles.
Glasses fogged up, a window shattered and a giant cyborg teddy bear crowd-surfed as local chiptune rockers Anamanaguchi, along with an unprecedented lineup that included Nullsleep, Starscream, George & Jonathan and the J. Arthur Keenes Band turned the Ridgewood venue into a sweat-slicked bedlam of unrestrained, microprocessor-powered hysteria.
Downstairs, the Babycastles arcade made its triumphant return to Silent Barn, emerging victorious from its momentary takeover of midtown Manhattan. The four games on display, all made in 48 hours during last weekend’s Global Game Jam, provided the perspiration-drenched crowd with a few moments of respite in the venue’s noticeably cooler basement area between sets.
Back upstairs, two members of the cast of MTV’s American remake of SKINS (which surprisingly wasn’t as horrible as I thought it’d be) appeared amongst the sweaty masses. Just then, a giant laptop-stuffed teddy bear loaded with Foddy’s QWOP was thrust upward alongside a half dozen crowdsurfers as Anamanaguchi exploded into one of their 8-bit anthems, covered in glitched-out live visuals from NES hackers NOCARRIER and noteNdo. From the looks of it, neither the laptop nor the bear survived.
Click through to Motherboard for more photos of the carnage.
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It’s a new decade and already I’m inundated with more opportunities to fill peoples’ ears with abrasive waveform synthesis.
Tonight I’ll be performing at I/O NYC in Manhattan’s Lower East Side with my Brooklyn buddy NOTE! and special guest ROCKMAN from Colombia. I’ve had the good fortune of hearing both live a number of times and I can’t recommend enough that you be there to check out these dudes. The always-amazing NO CARRIER will be manning visuals too.
I/O NYC @ Niagara
112 Avenue ANew York, NY
8 PM
21+, FREE
RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128478277214886
After that, NOTE!, NO CARRIER and I will be hopping on a bus to D.C. to attend one of our favorite events of the year, MAGFest (Music & Gaming Festival) in Alexandria, VA. It’s a 4-day videogame party in a swank hotel filled with rowdy concerts, Japanese shmup cabinets and booze galore.
This time we’ll be part of a massive chip music showcase happening all day on Saturday that includes performances from Noisewaves, George & Jonathan, Cheap Dinosaurs and many more. I’ll also be giving a presentation on the history of chip music just prior to the concert on Saturday at 10:30am.
Registration and hotel rooms are just about full-up, but if you’ve already made plans to be there, don’t miss us in the main concert hall on Saturday from 10am - 5pm.
RSVP: http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/3049/115-dc-magfest-cheap-dinosaursgeorgejonathannoisewaveswizwars/
