BRKfest 2016

BRKfest the midwest’s longest running chip music festival is back for the end of summer for its fifth year.  It will be Friday September 2nd to Sunday September 4th at the Chameleon in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Friday night starts 9pm with cooshinator, Umin, Monotony, Hypnogram, Snesei, nonfinite, and boaconstructor all doing forty minute sets till late at night.  Saturday is Bit Wish, Infodrive, KITE SPLASH, AndaruGo, Triangles, Kris Keyser, Bubblegum Octopus, and Bit Shifter starting at 8pm.  Sunday starts at 9pm and features Dsv101, Solabear, Inverse Phase, CCDM, Dollfin, and hedonismbit.  Closing Ceremonies will be at 1am with DJ Boa.

Admission is $5 for each day or $10 for the weekend.  All tickets will only be sold at the door.  The show is 21 and older only.  Food and drink will be sold on site.  There will be vendors selling Game Boy

Fans, and those wanting to be fans, of chip music will want to at least catch one day of the event to hear great music and party with fellow fans.

 

New Inverse Phase Shows and News

There are a few chances to catch chip music creator extraordinaire Inverse Phase coming up this August.  You can hear his music and learn about chip music creation.

In Washington DC at the Rhizome Space in Takoma on Sunday August 7th at noon a gathering of Muff Wiggler forum users will feature various synthesizer demonstrations, most of them analog.  Inverse Phase will have his custom chiptune synth that he is building (read further down) on display.

Then on the weekend of Friday August 26th through the 28th on Sunday he will be at Omegacon in Charlottesville, Virginia at the Holiday Inn.  He will be doing a performance and a discussion panel over the weekend, plus exhibiting in the vendor hall.

He will also be at this year’s BRKFest in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 2-4.  I will post more about this one later.

Inverse has also been building his own chiptune synthesizer from scratch, having previously been using emulators to create his music.  He has been building it quietly for a while now just hinting to fans about it.  It currently only produces basic music but Inverse will continue to work on it.  He promises “amazing things are going to happen” with it.  You can read more about the creation on his Patreon account.

Fans of chip music should try to catch one of these shows if you can.  If you are not familiar with chip music, its culture, creation, and genres then check out one of these shows and let Inverse Phase tell you about it.  He is one of the best at explaining it to novices.

Follow Inverse Phase on social media or sign up for his newsletter to keep up with future shows what other adventures he is on.

ReplayFX

ReplayFX is an arcade and gaming festival at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Thursday July 20th to Sunday August 2nd .  There will be 700 arcade and pinball machines on free play, over 2,000 retro console games, tabletop games, showcase by game developers, seminars, magicians, live music, balloon artists, face-painters, and competitions for over $110,000  in prize money.

They have plans for eight musical performances.  On Thursday there will be performances by Triforce Quartet a traditional string quartet that plays video game music and Universal Beat Union an electronic-rock fusion band that makes music for galactic space-time travelers.  Friday Scott Blasey the lead singer of The Clarks will be playing an acoustic set, Flashback an 80’s cover band, and The OneUps a musical collective who play their own intricate and eclectic approach to video game music. Saturday will see a performances by Super Smash Opera a live musical comedy based on the Super Smash Bros series, Inverse Phase a video game composer and chiptune musician, and Dancing Queen a dance band.

Inverse Phase is also doing a seminar on Friday called Chiptune/8-bit music: What is it? How is it Written.  You will learn how to write your own chiptune music.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will be performing an evening of Final Fantasy music at the nearby Heinz Hall on Saturday night.

Regular event passes for the weekend are $94.99.  Single days and kids under 12 are cheaper.  VIP passes start at $150.  A bit much, but they have all kinds of crazy things to do the there besides all the games and music.

Big Awesome Music Festival During SDCC

The Big Awesome Music Festival (BAMF) is on off-site event during San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) featuring nerdy artists, geeky comedians and podcasters at Ruocco Park behind the convention center on Friday July 10th through Sunday July 12th.  They will have performances from nerdy music artists, geeky comedians, live podcasts, dance party, fandom burlesque, and more.  It will be open from 10am to 10:30pm on Friday and Saturday and 10am to 5pm from Sunday.  Music starts Friday and Saturday at 5pm.

The line up for Friday consists of rock band Ki, nerd rockers Kirby Krackle, geek musician Eben Brooks, comedy duo Paul and Storm, nerdy love song writer Allie Goertz, geek mixer DJ Galactic Ray, nerd parody group The Library Bards, and geek rockers Random Gibberish.

Saturday’s line up is nerdcore rapper Mega Ran, sister duo the Doubleclicks, singer-songwriter Molly Lewis, geek punk Nerf Herder, 8-bit mixer DJ DN3, and more by Kirby Krackle and DJ Galactic Ray.

For Sunday they have stand-up comedian Jen Seaman, geek flavored comedian Joseph Scrimshaw, writer Ed Galvez, podcasters Baker Street Babes who will record a live episode, Tim Mattonen, and Josh Chambers.

There will be a bounce house, beers from local breweries, food trucks, and gaming on site each day from 10m to 5pm.  They will have their own artist alley, quidditch matches hosted by U.S. Quidditch on Sunday, a burlesque by the Pixie Stixx Burlesque, and a cosplay contest.

They are using Indiegogo as their ticket system.  Get passes, t-shirt, autographed merch, and more there.

A great place for some music and comedy outside of SDCC in between events.

Top 10 Harry Potter Music List to Avada Kedavra to

The novel and movie series of Harry Potter are big business.  They helped make YA literature what it is today.  Many fans have fallen in love with the characters and the world which they show through many creative ways including music.

1. Wizard Rock.  The whole scene and bands.  I am just lumping them all together in one or this would just be me listing some of them.  I wanted to show off some other acts that are Potter fans too.

2. Insane Ian noted that River Cuomo of Weezer looks like a grown-up Potter, taking this idea we wrote a parody album of Harry Potter set to Weezer songs.  He calls it Weezard.

3. Adam Warrock and Mikal kHill of the Thought Criminals have worked together a few times on mixtapes.  One of them The Slytherin House Mixtape.  Sampling the orchestral scores from the movies, they created a mixtape focused on the franchise, from the point of view of the more cunning and ambitious students.

4. The great Luke Ski has Christmas in Hogwarts, a parody of Run DMC’s “Christmas In Hollis” about Harry Potter at Christmastime.

5. Team StarKid a musical theatre production troupe, originally from Ann Arbor, MI and currently based in Chicago, who created their A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel.  Darren Criss of Glee fame plays Harry and wrote the majority of the music.

6. The nerd rock band Nuclear Bubble Wrap has done a number of Harry Potter songs over the years: Act Pottery, Avada Kedavra, and Draining the Lizard on a Dead Gay Wizard.

7. Not Literally is a trio of girls who love to make videos.  They have done a whole slew of Potter music videos.

8. Scych has done an electric progressive rock song inspired by the Elder Wand in the HP series called the Eldruhn Wand.

9. Hello, The Future also has a Christmas song about Harry Potter; Merry Christmas, Harry Potter.  What is it about Harry Potter, Christmas, and comedy musicians?

10. If you were wanting more nerdcore, here is The Wrock Snob’s top ten list of nerdcore songs with Potter references.  Includes Kabuto the Python, Dr. Awkward, YTCracker, and more.

Honorable Mention goes to an 8bit version of the Harry Potter theme also know as Hedwig’s Theme from the movie series.

 

Top 10 Lovecraft Music List To Lose Your Sanity To

The best known author of cosmic horror stories and the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, Howard Phillips Lovecraft is perhaps the greatest of all horror fiction writers. His work has influenced many other writers, film makers, and game creators for decades, so is it any surprise that musicians also have come to be influcened by his work.

1. The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets is a Vancouver “punky surf” band whose lyrics don’t just make passing mention to Lovecraft—their entire existence seems to revolve around him.

2. Consortium of Genius gives us some old timey gospel music with What a Friend We Have in Cthulhu.  Several fellow FuMPers appear on the track as well.

3. Jonah Knight takes the traditional “Swanee River” by Stephen Foster with alternate lyrics by H.P. Lovecraft.  Calls it Old Folk Roam.

4. The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing has a little ditty about Cthulhu rising on a beach during a family’s summer holiday to the beach, Margate Fhtagn.

5. Aklo is an ambient music project rooted in the works of H. P. Lovecraft

6. Even Gameboy musicians bow before the might of the Elder Ones, andaruGO spent six months creating a chiptune album inspired by Lovecraft, necronomitron α.

7. The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society gives us Cthulhu Christmas Carols.

8. Tom Smith and the great Luke Ski combine Cthulhu and Lion King.  I have nothing else to say except Cthulhu Fthagn.

9. Randy Clark has scored a number of Lovecraft films and a song called Cthulhu Blues.

10. There are some things man was not meant to adapt to musical theatre, A Shoggoth on the Roof was not one of them.
Honorable Mention: goes to this list of H.P. Lovecraft In Metal Music, cause while Tolkien might be epic for metal, Lovecraft has the darkness and insanity you want. .

 

 

Ongaku Overdrive II, Music Festival For Gamers & Anime Fans, Announces Lineup & Day After Show

Ongaku Overdrive is a music festival in Winter Park, Florida (somewhere around Orlando it seems) for fans of anime, video games,  sci-fi, and the like.  Saturday May 10th will be their second event at The Haven Lounge.  Doors open up at 2pm and will go till 1am.  The event includes a mix of rock, chiptunes, J-pop, nerdcore, and electronic music that draws inspiration from video games, fantasy, comic books, and other realms of nerddom.

New acts this year include Armcannon who preform rock renditions of classic video game music; otaku rapper Cashamil Anime Boy; chiptunes/electronic artists Professor Shyguy; videogame/vocaloid synth-rock band Final Weapon; chiptunes and guitarists Danimal Cannon; and finally one of the blog’s favorite rappers Mega Ran.

Returning acts are J-Pop artist Rai Kamishiro; famed otaku rapper Richie Branson; nerd rock band Sci-Fried; video game remixer and DJ, Benjamin Briggs; the blog’s other favorite rapper Adam Warrock; and 16-bit wizards MagiTek.

Tickets for the event are $15 online and $20 at the door.  Attendees must be 18 and bring ID.

An after-party called “The Day After Show” will be held on Sunday May 11th at The Geek Easy starting at 4pm and goes till 1am.  It will feature performances by DJ Roborob, Benjamin Briggs, DJ Cylon, Doug Funnie, Shammers and Shinobi the MC, MC Wreckshin, Eye Q, and more.  A donation of $5 for the artists performing is asked of those attending.  There will also be a grab bag raffle.

This event has one of the best line-ups I have seen in a while and with a cheap price.  I would like to see this expand to at least two days though to give the performers more time.  Someone go and send me a review of it, ok.

 

Some Mega Ran News

Some news from one of the top nerdcore acts Mega Ran.

The third, for now last, installment of Mega Ran and producer K-Murdock‘s bonus DLC from their collaborative album as an homage to Nintendo Forever Famicom is out now.  You can get downloads and a physical CD exclusively through bandcamp.

This album uses samples from Batman, Final Fantasy 3, Street Fighter 3, Ninja Gaiden and more.  Special appearances by Mister Wilson and Tribe One.

Weekend Southwest Tour….. With The Band.

January 30th through February 1st Mega Ran will be touring with a live band, the  Lo’ Classics.  The tour stops are in Phoenix, LA, and Las Vegas. At the LA show Radioactive Chicken Heads, The Megas, Wizwars, and 1000 Needles will all be performing as well.  3d6 and Time Crashes will also be performing at the Las Vegas show.

Total Destruction Tour, another tour, will be from February 29th through March 9th in the midwest and south with brentalfloss and Danimal Cannon.  Some dates are already up.

There also plans for another trip to Japan this spring.

He is also looking for sponsorship of any level from Small Business Owners.  You can get advertisement of your services and/or products worldwide.  Contact him via e-mail for questions.  I would if I had some money to give him.

Patreon Campaign by Inverse Phase

Patreon is a new kind of crowd source site.  Instead of just giving money for one project, you pledge to give an amount (your choice)  for each release of a creator.  When they make a release, like a new song, music video, EP, or album; you make the same pledge.  Your pledge is the same for any release.

Chip Music creator and panelist Inverse Phase is the first performer I know to use this and he has listed some cool rewards for higher pledges.  When he releases some that costs money you will get a code for a free download.  Free releases like video and some songs will just go straight to funding quality material.

Inverse expects no more than one release per month, so you know how much you will be spending over the year.  Patreon does let you set a monthly budget and you can change or cancel your pledges at any time.

Pledges start at $1 per release.  At the $4 level you get to be part of Skype chat per release, $8 gets you a one-on-one chat, higher levels gets you a sticker pack, handwritten thank you letter, Twitter mentions, one weird non-alcoholic beverage per release shipped to you, get your own music on Inverse’s releases, get credited as a patron on bandcamp, get on stage during a performance or a shout out during a show.

Goals for this project are to create a visual contraption to improve live show quality and even build his own instruments.  He has already made his album/EP The Midnight Chiptunes available for free.

One of the projects he is working is a soundtrack to the game Treachery in Beatdown City for PS Vita.  Also he is working on free music for Christmas.  Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ pages for an update on Christmas day.

Nerdapalooza 2013

I am sorry I let this one almost slip by me.  Nerdapalooza, the biggest nerd music event, is back with another great line up this year.  At the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL from Friday October 18th through Sunday the 20th.

Headliners for this year are They Might Be Giants.  The alternative rock band known for the crazy lyrics and wild style.  Their appearance on Tiny Toons lead a whole new generation, including myself, to discover them.  They have written music for the Daily Show, Dexter’s Lab, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Oblongs, and more.  They were the first major labor recording artist to release an album entirely in MP3 format.

Friday night gets things started with performances by nerdcore  superstars Mega Ran, Jesse Danerously, Shinobi Ninja, and Adam Warrock; Gemeni, house band of OverClocked Remix the OverClocked University, chip rockers Urizen, and the electronic/chip music of Benjamin Briggs, Professor Shyguy,  and DJ Cutman.

Saturday starts in the morning with rappers 9K1 and goes from there.  Other acts through out the day are chip rockers The Runaway Five, nerdcore artists Beefy, Schaffer the Darklord, B-Type, My Parents’ Favorite Music, and MC Frontalot; comedy acts brentalfloss and with the OneUps and Marc with a C; video game rock of Random Encounter, Careless Juja, the Protomen, Lords of Thunder and Moon Hooch; chip music with Nullsleep,.  The night ends with They Might be Giants followed by Epic Win Burlesque.

Sunday still has plenty of great acts.  It starts off though with an open mic session.  Acts playing that day are nerdcore rappers Death*Star, Sammus, and MC Lars; nerd/geek rockers Sci-Fred, the Gekkos, The OneUps, Nerf Herder (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s theme music), the Returners, and Urizen again; electronic with DJ RoboRob; comedy rock acts of Peelander-Z and Green Jelly; whatever  Solillaquists of Sound is, and heavy metal with  Powerglove and Dethlehem.

The festival will also have nerd themed artists, several indie game designers, plus vendors and exhibitors.  Friday is free, Saturday passes are $50, and Sunday’s $40.  A full weekend pass is $70.

Once again I so want to go, but can not.  So much different music to check out, everyone can find something to love.

Plus do not forget about The Day After party on Monday the 22nd.  With over twenty performers like YTCracker, Mega Ran and K-Murdock, and Richie Branson.