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Nullsleep played an incredible set last month in LA on the Collapsed Desires Tour. If you were lucky enough to make it to any of the stops, now you can relive the riot.
July 23, 2010
Chiptunes / Nullsleep / events / Los Angeles
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Photos by Elliot Trinidad
I'm not sure if you are aware, but LA has had a kind of a bad rep for chip shows: rare shows with small, disinterested crowds in awkward venues. I think that perception was pretty much destroyed Saturday night. Synchronicity was packed wall-to-wall with dancing, jumping, screaming bodies. Nullsleep said it was the best turnout so far on the tour. Alright! The old has passed away; behold the new has come.
Thanks to everyone who came out to support (I finally got a chance to meet 8 Bit Weapon!). We're going to take this momentum and try to start up a regular event. If you have any tips/connections for a venue that you think would be a good fit, fill me in.
Huge thanks to all the performers. They all killed it, did a great job promoting, and are just generally excellent guys. Also, big thanks to our man behind the camera, Jeriaska. He's been working super hard to capture cool happenings in the chiptune and videogame music scenes, and he filmed the whole show. I'll be sure to post any videos he puts together once he has had time to edit and put them up on Vimeo.
June 07, 2010
Chiptunes / Mr. Spastic / trash80 / Nullsleep / events / George Michael Brower / Jeriaska / Los Angeles
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IPAD WALLPAPER FOR YOU // view & enjoy
Doors open at 8 tonight. Let's build this together.
June 05, 2010
Chiptunes / Nullsleep / events
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EPIC CHIP SHOW THIS SATURDAY // details below
Saturday June 5th
Nullsleep, Mr. Spastic, Trash80, George Michael Brower
Collapsed Desires Tour 2010 @ Synchronicity
4306 Melrose Ave. (at N Berendo St.) | view map
Los Angeles, CA
8:00PM doors
admission $5 | All Ages
RSVP on Facebook
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June is going to be the best month ever to be in Los Angeles. Every week Attract Mode will be organizing/throwing/attending some really cool event. And it all starts with the Collapsed Desires Tour 2010. This will be the first time Nullsleep has played in LA since the International Chiptune Resistance Tour in 2006! Joining him are three of my favorite chip musicians: Trash80, Mr. Spastic and George Michael Brower. This will be your last chance to catch George before he moves back to the east coast.
LET IT BEGIN
June 01, 2010
Chiptunes / Mr. Spastic / trash80 / Nullsleep / events / George Michael Brower
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Matt is going to be at MoCCA Art Fest in New York this weekend running the Attract Mode table. Here are the details:
We are still recovering from how much PAX East cleaned out our inventory, but Matt has been working hard to make sure we have lots to offer. In addition to what we have in the online store, he also was able to nab some goods from 8bitpeoples. The coolest addition is definitely the Nullsleep x Videogramo shirt (see above). I'm kind of hoping we don't sell out so I can grab one for myself!
Matt will also have some Meat Bun shirts and the Blip DVDs by 2 Player Productions. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to finish the 3rd issue of Fort90Zine in time for the show, but that just means you will have to make it to the release party at Babycastles later this month. It's a good time to play games and live in New York!
April 09, 2010
apparel / Chiptunes / 8bitpeoples / events / MoCCA
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I've made it obvious that I love the Scott Pilgrim comics and I can't wait to watch the movie. When I heard about the videogame, though, my gut told me that it was going to be disappointing. I mean, it's a movie tie-in from a big name publisher, and they're pretty much always terrible.
Well, there was no need to worry. Apparently Bryan Lee O'Malley made sure that Ubisoft treated his baby with respect. Today at PAX East, I found out that Anamanaguchi is writing the soundtrack. During their concert tonight, they played one of the tracks they wrote for the game, and the on-stage visuals included animation and artwork from pixel master Paul Robertson, creator of the Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 animation and proud Mecha Fetus member.
Wow. Could the combination be any better? Four years: that's how long it took from the release of Pirate Baby's for a videogame company to be smart enough to hire Paul Robertson to animate a beat'em up adventure with his trademark bouncy pixels. Everyone that watched Pirate Baby's wished that it was made into a real game. Combine it with incredible chip music and the Scott Pilgrim storyline, and you already have one of the most exciting videogame releases for 2010.
Touché, Ubisoft.
The images included are screengrabs from the visuals used in the Anamanaguchi performance tonight, from a song that they wrote for Scott Pilgrim the Video Game!
March 26, 2010
Anamanaguchi / Bryan Lee O'Malley / Chiptunes / Paul Robertson / pixel art / Scott Pilgrim
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I just added 3 new products to the shop.
Miniboss T-shirt by SEIBEI — $22
Unicorn Dream Attack - Love Bits — $12
Calvin & Hellen's Bogus Journey Instruction Booklet — $4
The Miniboss t-shirt was designed by David Murray for his t-shirt company, SEIBEI. David is a cool dude, and he's got a lot of talent, so expect more SEIBEI lovin's from Attract Mode in the future.
Love Bits is Unicorn Dream Attack's ode to your heart. It's really good. If you are into chip music, definitely check that one out.
And finally, Calvin & Hellen's Bogus Journey Instruction Booklet is Calvin Wong's ridiculously funny faux instruction booklet for the game he made with Hellen Jo and Derek Yu for Game Over/Continue. It's one of my favorite items in the shop, and it's only $4! Designed, printed, folded and stapled by the loving hands of Calvin himself.
November 27, 2009
apparel / Calvin and Hellen's Bogus Journey / Calvin Wong / Chiptunes / Unicorn Dream Attack / Derek Yu / Game Over/Continue? / Hellen Jo / indie games / music / products / SEIBEI / shop
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This Saturday, November 7th, in Little Tokyo! DATA BEEZ West Coast Micro Tour show 1 of 4.
This stop includes a chip music workshop at the Japanese American National Museum at 2PM and a live concert next door at the Chop Suey Lounge at 8PM. Both will feature minusbaby, starPause, crashfaster and Trash80 with visuals by Paris and Daniel Rehn.
If you've been waiting to check out Giant Robot's Biennale 2 at JANM, this is the absolute best time to go. Instead of paying the normal $9 museum admission fee, come with flier in hand to get access to the Biennale exhibition, the chip music workshop, AND the concert at Chop Suey all for $5. Learn about chiptunes, play some indie games, enjoy the art and then walk over to Chop Suey for epic chip beatz.
From databeez.com:
Chip music - an avenue of audio and visual exploration for artists choosing to adopt vintage video games as a deliberate, aesthetic choices - has enjoyed enormous success for over a decade on the East coast with world-class events the Blip Festival, Pulsewave and recent newcomer, 8static.
For the first time ever, Data Beez is spreading those same addictive, low-tech sounds across the West. It signals an evolving movement and sets a precedent for the future of chip music on the West Coast.
Directions to DATA BEEZ: LA View Larger Map
The show is this Saturday, so I need your help letting people know about it! Spread the word with the web flier and the print flier. (Don't forget to print out the flier to get $4 off admission!)
November 02, 2009
Chiptunes / crashfaster / minusbaby / Paris / starpause / trash80 / Daniel Rehn / Giant Robot
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Listening to Goto80 is an essential part of your daily nutritional requirements. Released by Bleepstreet (please tell me a vinyl is coming at some point!), Breakfast contains two edits and three remixes of the title track.
Video by the C-Men.
Via Goto80
October 16, 2009
Chiptunes / Bleepstreet / Goto80 / the C-Men
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minusbaby kills it with his latest 8bitpeoples release, Left.
There's also a remix album, and another album and video promised for release on October 9th. minusbaby.com has the details.
September 17, 2009
2 Player Productions / Chiptunes / 8bitpeoples / minusbaby / music
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Alex Bond aka Enso recently designed the cover art for Coova & Bud Melvin’s She’s the DJ, He’s the Rapper. Lucky for us he’s been hard at work creating more impressive pixel art. My favorites are these animated loops of 8bitpeoples veterans NO CARRIER (above), Bit Shifter and Mark DeNardo.
February 28, 2009
8 bit / animation / Chiptunes / Alex Bond aka Enso / Bit Shifter / Mark DeNardo / No Carrier / pixel art
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Chiptune collective 8bitpeoples released two EPs on Sunday, including an interesting collaboration between Coova and Bud Melvin titled She’s the DJ, He’s the Rapper. According to the description this has been in the works since the first Blip Festival in 2006. That must explain why it's the best album I've heard all year…
I saw Bud Melvin in Reformat the Planet, but never seriously listened to any of his “Hey, you got banjo in my Game Boy!” style of chiptunes before this collab. It stands out from the usual, danceable 8 bit songs (in a good way), and makes for a great combination with Coova's dreamy bleeps.
Listen to my favorite track “Sjutton” below, then head over to 8bitpeoples and grab the entire album.
February 15, 2009
8 bit / Chiptunes / 8bitpeoples / Bud Melvin / Coova
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If Danny Elfman, Elliott Smith and Bjork were to collaborate on the soundtrack to Castlevania or Zelda, it would sound like this.
— Leeni, describing her album Labyrinth
Wow, there are so many layers to this thing. It’s an 8 bit rendition of a play about a mole who has a nightmare that he travels to the overworld. With themes of delirium and death (and dancing!), the video is actually a fitting companion for the recent TIGS Commonplace Book Competition.
You can find more info on Labyrinth and Leeni’s self-released 8 Bit Heart at leeni.us, or you can do what the cool kids do and listen to unreleased tracks at 8bitcollective.
January 17, 2009
8 bit / animation / Chiptunes / Leeni / pixel art
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