Telerophon wrote:
That said, how hard is it to find out on google that Anamanaguchi uses an NES, not a Game Boy?
I know, right?
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Telerophon wrote:
This doesn't seem very well-researched…
EDIT:
There is so much wrong here.
Here's the author's twitter, @nescience. It's going to take a lot of restraint for me to not directly tell him how bad this article is.
His chosen twitter username suggests to me that he should not be taken as an authority on anything, as he is blatantly ignorant. Was that your point, because it seems a good one to me? I say give him hell.
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washington
rygD wrote:
Telerophon wrote:This doesn't seem very well-researched…
EDIT:
There is so much wrong here.
Here's the author's twitter, @nescience. It's going to take a lot of restraint for me to not directly tell him how bad this article is.
His chosen twitter username suggests to me that he should not be taken as an authority on anything, as he is blatantly ignorant. Was that your point, because it seems a good one to me? I say give him hell.
What's the worst thing that could happen, I get banned from twitter? I have three other accounts 
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Austin, Texas
Politely telling someone that they are wrong on twitter isn't trolling or grounds for a ban.
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Abandoned on Fire
[Blatant plug for this article 'cause I'm proud of the guys I work with]
Check this out to cleanse your palate and convince yourself that not all journalists are lazy, non-thinking, "lol look how retro and silly these guys are" types:
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uhajdafdfdfa
this is a totally different kind of article though, in fact it is just a list of the gear people use. it's cool but it's aimed at a completely different audience to the article in the OP (well that's my impression anyway)
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Abandoned on Fire
ant1 wrote:
this is a totally different kind of article though, in fact it is just a list of the gear people use. it's cool but it's aimed at a completely different audience to the article in the OP (well that's my impression anyway)
I was referring more to the introductory sections of each piece like this section from part 2:
"Today, the lowest common denominator of music production is more a matter of putting together premade pieces than actually composing something entirely new.
That’s where 8-bit musicians like the Datathrash crew differ. Each of these guys has a deep understanding of the circuitry their dealing with, what components are actually producing sound, and how they’re doing it. Presets don’t often come into play in this particular frontier of electronic music, and their methodology is a beacon of hope for those of us who value the human brain’s comprehension of the technology that augments our lives. And for those who don’t, the music still sounds pretty damn cool.
Let’s meet a few more of these cowboys."
Last edited by egr (Aug 27, 2012 5:27 am)
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East Kilbride, Scotland
Feryl wrote:
Telerophon wrote:That said, how hard is it to find out on google that Anamanaguchi uses an NES, not a Game Boy?
I know, right?
Ehh, they actually use BOTH (they use a GB in the song Mermaid).
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The Multiverse ::: [CA, Sac]
Feryl wrote:
Telerophon wrote:That said, how hard is it to find out on google that Anamanaguchi uses an NES, not a Game Boy?
I know, right?
lulululul
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Your average reader doesn't give a damn what hardware musicians use, that's only for This spam will soon be deleted magazines like Guitarist which is the right way it should be. How many times have you read the NME and they're talking about the merits of Ernie Ball strings? Never. At least the article doesn't focus completely on hardware for once, in some I've read it's almost like the musicians become secondary to some plastic box.
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Austin, Texas
Oh, cool, I didn't know that Anamanaguchi used Game Boy formally as well. I guess that makes sense for "Mermaid" since it's got so much atmospheric stereo pan and echo. That bubblegum paintjob matching set is pretty fresh.
I agree with 4mat. Letting the hardware upstage the musicianship is a problem, but the relationship the hardware has with the musicianship is interesting since the art is a product of the limitations and constraints in some regards.
Anyway, as it pertains to the article, I think it's good that the emphasis isn't on hardware, but I think if they are going to go past "old computer with sound synthesis chip running custom software to create music," then they should endeavor to get the details and facts they bring in accurate.
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Absurdistan
I found absolutely nothing wrong with the article for a general audience. The article isn't even about chipmusic per se and there are no blatant mistakes there.
People here care about their community, that's great, but getting worked up over something like this sure smells a lot like elitism. 
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Telerophon wrote:
I agree with 4mat. Letting the hardware upstage the musicianship is a problem, but the relationship the hardware has with the musicianship is interesting since the art is a product of the limitations and constraints in some regards.
Personally I think the whole "limitations and constraints" thing has been done to death, there's only so many times you can watch a card trick before it gets boring. If people are going to keep going on about "but I'm only using a gameboy, or 4 channels, or whatever" we might as well pack up and go home.
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Austin, Texas
Bravo. That's a good way to look at it, thanks for expanding my mind.
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Matthew Joseph Payne
Although I'm not about to step up and defend it, I feel that I should jump in here and say something about this article, maybe put it in context.
SF Weekly is a free (weekly obviously) rag that's printed and distributed in San Francisco. This article was not printed in the paper - it was only posted on one of their blogs, which are typically written by interns. It looks like this guy is a freelancer who also works at Zynga (according to his LinkedIn profile). We've been written about a few times before in San Francisco area papers, usually in print. I'll get to that in a minute.
This article isn't really "on Chip Music" as much as its about the J•POP festival, and The Glowing Stars since we were playing at it. He tried to explain the history of chip in order to give some context to the uninitiated reader. I think he achieved that goal, although obviously he didn't really get all his facts straight, and he drifted off on a pretty serious tangent.
It's pretty typical for us to be featured in articles like this even when we aren't "headlining" the show per se, mostly just because we have slick press photos that are freely and clearly available on our website. A semi-recent San Jose Metro article about the Rockage Festival in San Jose had a huge picture of us on the front, but we were only mentioned at the end.
For this particular article, we weren't contacted or asked for any information, the article just appeared in our Google alerts. Typically we get at least an email with a few basic questions about us and about chiptune, and either quotes or info that we provide are worked into the article. There's plenty of possible reasons for why this didn't happen this time around. A deadline is one very likely possibility since the show itself was less than a week after this post was published. Another serious possibility is that since this is a blog and not a print article, the time he's expected to spend is probably pretty low. I'm a little surprised that he even tried to write about the history of the genre, considering that we were the only chiptune artist at the festival; honestly the history lesson just seems like filler to me.
Usually, things aren't quite so messy. Here's some other examples, all a mix of "good" and "bad" reporting - they were all in print:
http://www.sfbg.com/2011/08/30/reprogra … e?page=0,0
http://www.sfgate.com/music/bandwidth/a … 311283.php
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/love- … id=3048089
Ultimately, the point is this: There is no such thing as bad press. Nobody other than chiptuners reading these articles is going to sweat the details. They may hear about chip for the first time, and if they care, they'll look into it themselves. Honestly the only likely end result of this article is that a few extra people came to the show on Saturday, maybe bought something from us or one of the artists or food trucks at the festival.
Also make sure you see this article, which is mostly about getting a drink at a bar, but also has a huge picture and video of us:
http://activate.metroactive.com/2012/07 … reme-expo/
Finally, in regards to Anamanguchi, last I talked to them they had quit using the gameboy entirely because they were having problems with it. They did play Mermaid at that show.