Thrift-store electronics collide with dancefloor sensibilities as Blip Festival makes its long-awaited return to New York City. Produced by 8bitpeoples in association with The Tank and Live Nation, the Blip Festival 2012 finds Manhattan once again at the center of the chipmusic universe. From May 25-27, musicians and visualists from all corners of the globe assemble at the Gramercy Theatre to perform astonishing music & motion graphics, produced on & inspired by early-generation home computers and gaming consoles.

With six years and ten international editions under its belt, Blip Festival brings together shining examples of the global chipmusic underground -- performers conscripting devices like the Commodore 64, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Game Boy, and the Sega Genesis into the service of music spanning every conceivable style, with results that are shockingly futuristic. Rounding out the event's three nights of explosive live performances will be supplementary daytime programming including workshops, how-tos, presentations and screenings -- offering a glimpse into exactly how it's all achieved, and perhaps even inspiring some 2013 Blip Festival performers-to-be.

For those of you not heading out of town Memorial Day Weekend, the 2012 Blip Festival happens May 25 - 27 at the Gramercy Theatre. Tickets (individual or three-day passes) are on sale now. Full schedule is below.

In related news, Blip Fest regulars Starscream are changing (some might say transforming) their name to Infinity Shred. Starscream play their final show under the old name on Saturday (5/12) at Shea Stadium. Says the band:

Due to unfortunate legal circumstances this will be the last show we ever play as STARSCREAM! We'd rather turn this bad news in to a fun time though so let's have a great party! Our new name is INFINITY SHRED and this will also be the release party for our first EP under that name.

The show also features Idiot Glee, and the Strongbros Crew. They will then make their debut as Infinity Shred at the Blip Fest on Sunday, May 27.

Speaking of Idiot Glee, the Kentucky artist who is playing with Starscream Saturday is in town for more than just one show. As previously mentioned, he also plays Public Assembly tonight (5/11) with Nick Diamond of Islands/Unicorns.

Full Blip Festival schedule is below.

Continue reading "2012 Blip Festival schedule posted; Idiot Glee is here; Starscream playing Shea Stadium, changing name to Infinity Shred"

photos by Leia Jospe

Photographer Leia Jospe accompanied Anamanaguchi on a trip to Japan where they played Tokyo's own version of the Blip Festival along with Nullsleep and others. Her pictures from that October event are in this post (the above-pictured kitty included). Her pics from the most recent NYC version of the fest are HERE.

Anamanaguchi are currently on the road with BATHS, though they are not on the bill of the NYC show which happens at Bowery Ballroom tonight (12/2) with BATHS, Dinosaur Feathers, and Ki:Theory. Tickets are still on sale. Updated tour dates with more Blip Tokyo pictures, below....

Continue reading "Anamanaguchi played Blip Fest in Tokyo (pics), playing shows w/ BATHS (who plays NYC tonight)"

photos by Leia Jospe

Nullsleep

This year's Blip Festival was thrown at Eyebeam on New York City's West Side by a collective of chip musicians called 8bitpeoples, with help from NYC nonprofit The Tank.

Many of those who play chiptunes--music made through the sound chips of old video game hardware--have long resented the tight correlation between their music scene and video gamers. If that seems implausible at first, think of it this way: They're using the hardware as an instrument to create original electronic music that they hope everyone can enjoy, but the video gamey sound often leads to the misinterpretation that they're making "video game music", or that gamers are the only ones who can participate.

It seemed as if the surliness has relaxed. It's similar to the same kind of diversification that's been taking place in the gaming scene--the softening of divisions between types of players as the audience broadens--and this year's event welcomed gamers, musicians, hardware junkies interested in making new art with circuits, and music fans from the chip-savvy to the casual culturists. [Kotaku]

This year's Blip Festival took place from May 19-21 at Manhattan's Eyebeam. Pictures from all three days continue below...

Continue reading "Blip Fest 2011 in pics"

Anamanaguchi @ SXSW (more by Tim Griffin)

Matthew Hawkins: Chip music seems to have really gone far in the past few years, especially the ones with you and the rest of the gang being active... What do you think of the current state of chiptunes? Are there any challenges and milestones ahead?

Anamanaguchi's Peter Berkman: I think this year of Blip is going to be incredible. Basically the community is acknowledging at large that it is OK to party. Everyone is continuing to carve out their own unique niches of the chiptune community, what I think is important is bringing those elements out into their own respective worlds outside of chiptune. That's why we play shows with bands that have the same feel as us but don't have any 8-bit stuff going on whatsoever.

Hawkins: Who are you looking forward to the most at this year's Blip?

Berkman: Henry Homesweet, 4mat, Talk To Animals, cTrix, Knife City, Noisewaves, 10k, It's pretty much just gonna be insane.

Anamanaguchi headline the first of three nights of Blip Fest TONIGHT (5/19). Single-day tickets are still available.

Peelander-Z at The Studio in January (more by Leia Jospe)

Welcome home Peelander-Z! The NYC band is finally home after an extended tour with Anamanaguchi that kicked off at SXSW and ended on April 30th. And though the tour is over, the band is ALREADY back out on the road, playing Newark, Delaware tonight and a hometown show back at The Studio at Webster Hall Saturday (5/7) with Hard Nips and Friends. Tickets for that one are still available (and, update: we're giving away a pair on Facebook).

Anamanaguchi has a new NYC show on their calendar too, which they say "is gonna be AWESOME. we're gonna have: JAMS // VISUALS // STROBES // UNICORNBROS DOING SECURITY // FURBIES // RAINBOWS // W33D420 // OK." Bowery Presents may have to give some of their staff a night off to make way for those UNICORNBROS, because Anamanaguchi are talking about a show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on 7/22. Tickets are on sale.

You don't need to wait that link to see Anamanaguchi though. The band will play day one of this year's Blip Festival, the annual three day festival in celebration of "low-bit video games and home computers". This year's fest takes place at Manhattan's Eyebeam (540 West 21st Street) from May 19-21. Tickets are on sale with 3-day and 1-day options available. The full lineup is listed below. It includes Tristan Perich, Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, Starscream and many more.

Anamanaguchi, Starscream and Peelander-Z played a show together at the Studio at Webster Hall back in January. Check out the pics.

Hard Nips, who play with Peelander on Saturday, are also scheduled to support Quintron & Miss Pussycat with Super Nice Bros and X-ray Eyeballs on May 28th at 285 Kent. Friends, who also play with Peelander Saturday, play 285 Kent soon too, with Dan Deacon.

All tour dates, the Blip lineup and some videos below.

Continue reading "Blip Festival coming, Anamanguchi announce shows, Peelander-Z play one this weekend (dates)"

snow by schatz

tonight in NYC
* Ronnie Spector @ BB King's
* Mos Def @ Highline Ballroom
* Currituck County @ The Stone
* Blip Festival alumni show @ Pianos
* Soft Black, Wide Eyed Beauty @ Death By Audio
* Uninhabitable Mansions, Pocket Knife @ The Cameo
* Matisyahu, Kevin Devine @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Lucy Wainwright Roche w/ Family & Friends @ City Winery
* The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (DJ) @ Insound Design Store
* The Willowz, Fan-Tan, Kill Kill Kill, Plumsucker @ Mercury Lounge
* Anamanaguchi, Starpause, IAYD, Magic Hammer, 8BK @ Public Assembly
* Theo Angell, Jozef Van Wissem, Grasshopper, Ghost Moth @ Silent Barn
* Bryan & The Haggards, Bobby Radcliff Trio, Elliot Sharpe 3, Jahn Xavier @CakeShop
* This Frontier Needs Heroes, Justice of the Unicorn, Class Actress, Cat Martino @ Union Pool

Didn't get enough blip? Public Assembly (flyer below) and Pianos both offer more today.

"DUE TO WEATHER THE MOS DEF SHOW HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO JANUARY 17. ALL TICKETS WILL BE HONORED OR REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE AT POINT OF PURCHASE*"

Flyer for the Cookie Contest @ Union Pool below...

The Rural Alberta Advantage's video for "Drain The Blood" below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday?"

tonight in NYC
* Hanukkah
* Blip Festival
* The Weight @ Union Pool
* Antibalas @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
* Larkin Grimm, David Garland @ The Stone
* Small Black (DJ) @ Insound Design Store
* ACME plays John Cage & Phil Kline @ The Tank
* Matisyahu, Kid Koala @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Contact! w/ New York Philharmonic @ Symphony Space
* D. Charles Speer, Pidgeons, Forest City @ Bruar Falls
* The For Carnation, Mountains @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
* Mischief Brew, Guignol, These Days, Worrier @ Shea Stadium
* Neon Indian, Tigercity, Awesome New Republic @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Byrds of Paradise, Big Troubles, Cool World, More Bikini Babes @ Cake Shop
* Future Islands, Pictureplane, Javelin, Jones, Moss of Aura @ Death By Audio
* Harper Blynn, Pretty Good Dance Moves, Madison Square Gardiners @ Bowery
* Pterodactyl, Dinosaur Feathers, Grandchildren, Julianna Barwick, Dangeroo @Cameo
* Lake Trout, Cruel Black Dove, Steve Shiffman & The Land of No, Hey Battlefield @ Mercury Lounge
* Bamboo Shoots, The Auctioneers, Reckless Sons, Where's Ilva, The Black Hollies, Sans Ben @ Pianos
* Blip Festival w/ Silent Requiem, failotron, Leeni, Minusbaby, Chromix, JDDJ3J, Albino Ghost Monkey @ The Bell House

Still trying to make sure these are up really early in the day. Slipped a bit today with this one. Also, don't forget about the "What's Going on Today?" button in the sidebar to always find this post.

Real Estate's favorite new local band Big Troubles plays Cake Shop tonight.

It's prehistoric night at Cameo. Dinosaur Feathers share a bill with Pterodactyl.

The Blip Festival kicks off at The Bell House. Video preview below.

Neon Indian ends their three night NYC run tonight at Brooklyn Bowl with Tigercity and Awesome New Republic.

Arctic Monkeys' 20 minute "Web Transmission 2009" video below...

No Age doing "You're a Target" for Pitchfork.TV at Kutscher's during ATP NY (but not during their Bob Mould set) is below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

by Andrew Frisicano

ACME...outdoors in warmer times

Tonight (12/17) at the Tank, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) perform music from Phil Kline and John Cage (two earlier works, String Quartet in Four Parts and Credo In Us). Kline's annual Unsilent Night event just happened in NYC on December 12th (and is still to come in other cities). His piece Exquisite Corpses, on the program for ACME, also prominently features boomboxes. He's also put together a new acoustic arrangement of his string quartet The Blue Room and Other Stories (originally written for Ethel whose version is below), which ACME will be debuting. Tickets are on sale.

Kicking off tonight and running through this weekend, the Tank heads to Brooklyn to present the Blip Festival at the Bell House. If you can't be there, you can listen on WFMU.

Across town and also tonight (12/17), the New York Philharmonic will be launching its Contact! new music series at Symphony Space (95th and Broadway). Four composers - Arlene Sierra, Lei Liang, Marc-André Dalbavie & Arthur Kampela - will be debuting very different compositions with the group. Video and audio previews of those are below. Tickets are on sale. An encore performance (to borrow a phrase) takes place Saturday, December 19th at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The second Contact! program - with new music from Sean Shepherd, Nico Muhly and Matthias Pintscher - comes April 16th at Symphony Space and April 17th at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Videos and more info are below...

Continue reading "NY Philharmonic launches Contact! series tonight & ACME performs @ The Tank ++ other dates & videos"

REFORMAT THE PLANET is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chip tunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results.

Using New York as a microcosm for a larger global movement, "Reformat the Planet" maps out the genesis of the first annual Blip Festival, a four day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit video game consoles. With floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melodies, trailblazers of the chip tune idiom descend upon Manhattan to pen a new chapter in the history of electronic music.

That's the description of a documentary about the Blip Festival which is taking place again this year at The Bell House in Brooklyn. There are nightly concerts Thursday, December 17 - Saturday December 19th, as well as workshops, art installations, and film screenings. Advanced tickets are on sale. One of the film screenings is in fact "Reformat the Planet". That movie's trailer and the full Blip Fest schedule, below...

Continue reading "2009 Blip Fest lineup & schedule -- music, films & workshops "

DOWNLOAD: Nullsleep - Fearless Flight (MP3)

Archaic game and home computer hardware is recast into the unlikely role of musical instrument and motion graphics workstation in the BLIP FESTIVAL 2008, a four-day event showcasing nearly 40 musicians and visual artists occupying the international low-res cutting edge. The Blip Festival takes place DECEMBER 4--7, 2008 at The Bell House, and is presented by Manhattan art organization THE TANK and NYC artist collective 8BITPEOPLES.

Highlighting the chipmusic phenomenon and its related disciplines, the festival aims to showcase emerging creative niches involving the use of legacy video game & home computer hardware as modern artistic instrumentation. Devices such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Nintendo Game Boy and others are repurposed into the service of original, low-res, high-impact electronic music and visuals -- sidestepping game culture and instead exploring the technology's untapped potential and distinctive intrinsic character.

The Blip Festival assembles nearly 40 practitioners selected from the chipmusic movement's expansive global underground, taking care to represent as many as possible of the genre's surprisingly diverse styles, geographical and technical scenes, communities, and traditions. The festival's concert program will be supplemented by daytime events to be announced, including workshops, presentations, and screenings. The Blip Festival's intended result is to provide a cross-section of a movement currently in explosive flux, teeming with artistic exploration, and poised at the cusp of global awareness.

Performers include the notorious Bit Shifter and Nullsleep who also appears on my 2007 Christmas mix and who just released a new free EP. The full schedule and lineup, along with ticket info., is listed at Blip's site. A promo video and list of all artists (who do you recommend?) is below...

Continue reading "Blip Festival 2008 - Dec 4-7 @ the Bell House in Brooklyn "