nickmaynard
Offline
rochester, ny

there isn't really a chip scene where i live but there's a lot of open minded people, a small experimental electronic scene, and a healthy punk / hardcore scene. i feel like a lot of people could get into chip music, but maybe they're not really aware of it.

so, i was thinking about doing a chip music night, with music and more, kind of patterned after stuff like 8static and other things like that. maybe do a screening of reformat the planet + some live chip acts? maybe do a tutorial on LSDJ or making NSF's before hand?

as you can see, i don't have the idea very fleshed out yet. i know a lot of you have been to (and organized) things like this in your cities, so i wanted to post here to find out what's good and what's bad when it comes to doing these kinds of shows. impart thy wisdom, please.

BLEO
Offline
Geneva, NY

Since I'm local, I can give micro-specific inputs:

Rochester's a pretty forward thinking community, also big into the arts... also big into technology.  I think starting a chip night could definitely fly.  RIT crowd would jack off to this stuff... actually, they have some sort of electronic music AV club that you should probably tap into.  xwd actually told me about it and is a student there.  You should definitely get in touch w/ him.

For years, I've thought about how chipmusic needs to infiltrate the only station that matters, WBER, but I've never done anything about it.  It's a radio station that people still pay attention to to keep up with what's cool.  Like MC 900 Ft. Jesus.  HA!

On the location side of things, a venue that gets a crowd regardless of the show is really important if you want to build this thing.  ie, NOT the California Brew Haus.  The 3 random Kodak maintenance dudes sitting in the bar aren't gonna care or help build the Rochester chip scene.  You've played the Bug Jar a few times, I'm guessing that'd be a good spot.  Also the Museum of Play is opening that huge video game exhibit sometime in the near future, that's a huge resource to tap into.  shrimps/revengineers play the grand opening!?!?! You picking up what I'm putting down?  wink  I've been THINKING about building up the Rochester chip scene for about 5 years now, so it's nice to see someone else on that wavelength and actually taking ACTION.

Lazerbeat
Offline
Tokyo, Japan

Very Slightly different topic but there may be a lot of useful info in here

http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/2126/ … your-area/

I would also add being super professional and on the ball with regards to communication, get back to people asap. Try and raise some cash to pay partial travel costs for people who are like localISH you like the NY city crew and the Boston crowd or get adventurous and fly in AGM or UDA or IAYD or someone.

From the artists perspective if you can send them a proposal like

"Hey there, I will be able to pay $150 towards your travel costs and can put you up on a sofa for 2 nights. We have a crowd of 150 people and will be live streaming"

Or something like that people will go up to play I expect.

I would work really hard on promoting it like a mother fucker. Poster it, flyer it, hit the colleges, the local radio stations, cafes, libraries, galleries and where else people who might be interested hang out. Offer free entry to anyone who can sell 5 tickets. Basically get as many people in your venue as possible. I would pay a fair amount of heed to Bleo, he seems to know the scene there.

Lastly, try and rent/borrow/steal/blag a decent sound system and get someone who knows how to run it make it sound awesome for chip.

Best of Luck!!!

nickmaynard
Offline
rochester, ny
bleo wrote:

Since I'm local, I can give micro-specific inputs:

Rochester's a pretty forward thinking community, also big into the arts... also big into technology.  I think starting a chip night could definitely fly.  RIT crowd would jack off to this stuff... actually, they have some sort of electronic music AV club that you should probably tap into.  xwd actually told me about it and is a student there.  You should definitely get in touch w/ him.

i don't know if rochester could support a monthly thing, at least not yet, but i definitely agree with your assessment of the city and of the RIT crowd. i think there's a lot of people here that could really get into chip music, but they just haven't been exposed to it yet.

a band mate of mine is a recent RIT grad and is on staff there currently. i'll ask him about this electronic music AV club. it sounds pretty rad. also, i had no idea xwd is in rochester. that's awesome.

bleo wrote:

For years, I've thought about how chipmusic needs to infiltrate the only station that matters, WBER, but I've never done anything about it.  It's a radio station that people still pay attention to to keep up with what's cool.  Like MC 900 Ft. Jesus.  HA!

this is an excellent idea. my girlfriend used to host a show there, years ago. i just asked her about that and she says it's hard to get a specialty show like this approved over there, especially if some unknown was hosting it, like me.

but that's no reason not to try! i'll talk about it more with her tonight and email them.

bleo wrote:

On the location side of things, a venue that gets a crowd regardless of the show is really important if you want to build this thing.  ie, NOT the California Brew Haus.  The 3 random Kodak maintenance dudes sitting in the bar aren't gonna care or help build the Rochester chip scene.  You've played the Bug Jar a few times, I'm guessing that'd be a good spot.

the bug jar is a great venue for certain kinds of shows. people go there to dance to electronic stuff already so i would think people would flip over a dancey poppy gameboy set. if you wanted to do other stuff, in addition to the show, like an LSDJ lecture or film screening, then it's not the best place.

a place like boulder coffee would probably be into this but i've had weird dealings with them in the past.  i think the ideal venue for this kind of a show/night would be a place called the flying squirrel (weird name, cool place). they would be totally into screening documentaries on weird electronic music and doing shows where people play video game stuff.

i have friends that have booked there before as well, so that might be the best choice for this kind of a night. also, i'm buds with the dude who books the shows at the bug jar, and i would love to try to set up a chip show there. how about my band + your band + some bigger name that we could somehow talk into coming there?

bleo wrote:

Also the Museum of Play is opening that huge video game exhibit sometime in the near future, that's a huge resource to tap into.  shrimps/revengineers play the grand opening!?!?! You picking up what I'm putting down?  wink

another amazing idea. i'm really going to look into this. maybe a performance / talk about chipmusic?

bleo wrote:

I've been THINKING about building up the Rochester chip scene for about 5 years now, so it's nice to see someone else on that wavelength and actually taking ACTION.

yeah, thanks! rochester's obviously not the same kind of city as philly, boston, or new york, but i feel like we could get something going here, and i'd like to give it a shot.

nickmaynard
Offline
rochester, ny
bleo wrote:

Also the Museum of Play is opening that huge video game exhibit sometime in the near future, that's a huge resource to tap into.

in researching this idea, i just found this -

http://www.icheg.org/

apparently, rochester is home to the internation center for the history of electronic games? wow.

"At more than 22,500 items and growing, the ICHEG collection is the largest and most comprehensive public collection of electronic games and game-related historical materials in the United States and one of the largest in the world." browse their collection online here - http://www.museumofplay.org/collections … ex.php?m=4

i will definitely be emailing these people ASAP. if you read their blog, they definitely seem like the kind of people that would dig chiptune stuff and find a lot of cultural significance in it as well.

Last edited by nickmaynard (Sep 22, 2010 3:23 pm)

BLEO
Offline
Geneva, NY

Yeah, the chegheads.  Here's a money idea for a special event: once that exhibit opens, we organize a special chip music event at the museum, bring in David Viens of Plogue fame (I've already talked to him about this) and a chipmusic heavyweight.  This would strategically work best a little bit after there's already been a few local chip shows and a subsequent buzz around the city. 

As for WBER, I agree that a chip music show would be tough to pitch at this point in the game.  But if we could get our own shit or even like some Anamanaguchi or Bud Melvin getting sporadic play (test song?), that would be a huge victory.

As for the Bug Jar idea, I'm 100% IN.  OK, well, not 100%... my wife and I are expecting a baby to magically show up at our house any day now so the month of October is shot for me.  I'll def be ready to go in November.  If you get me some possible dates, I'll see what I can do about getting a bigger act to come to town....  wink

Maybe we should switch this over to PM???

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

You folks are only a 3 hour drive from here (plus traffic), if you get some good shows coming I'd love to come down and see them, keep me informed!

Last edited by jefftheworld (Sep 22, 2010 4:21 pm)

nickmaynard
Offline
rochester, ny
Lazerbeat wrote:

Very Slightly different topic but there may be a lot of useful info in here

http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/2126/ … your-area/

awesome thread. so much good advice, thanks for posting the link.

Lazerbeat wrote:

I would also add being super professional and on the ball with regards to communication, get back to people asap. Try and raise some cash to pay partial travel costs for people who are like localISH you like the NY city crew and the Boston crowd or get adventurous and fly in AGM or UDA or IAYD or someone.

From the artists perspective if you can send them a proposal like

"Hey there, I will be able to pay $150 towards your travel costs and can put you up on a sofa for 2 nights. We have a crowd of 150 people and will be live streaming"

Or something like that people will go up to play I expect.

i'm going to talk to a friend of mine who books shows about how much we could guarantee for these kinds of shows. if the show is good, bands can may a few hundred bucks here. i had never considered proposals like that either. very good idea.

Lazerbeat wrote:

I would work really hard on promoting it like a mother fucker. Poster it, flyer it, hit the colleges, the local radio stations, cafes, libraries, galleries and where else people who might be interested hang out. Offer free entry to anyone who can sell 5 tickets. Basically get as many people in your venue as possible. I would pay a fair amount of heed to Bleo, he seems to know the scene there.

Lastly, try and rent/borrow/steal/blag a decent sound system and get someone who knows how to run it make it sound awesome for chip.

Best of Luck!!!

i have a fairly good sized network of people that would help promote a show/event like this. and i have a decent relationship with some newspaper people too. and you're right, a good sound system / sound guy can make or break a show like this. i would definitely pick someone specifically for the event.

thank you for the input!

BLEO
Offline
Geneva, NY
jefftheworld wrote:

You folks are only a 3 hour drive from here (plus traffic), if you get some good shows coming I'd love to come down and see them, keep me informed!

And don't forget crossing the border.  Sometimes it's 10 mins, sometimes over an hour or more.  Longest for me has been an hour but i know Battle Lava got hit with a 4 hr. wait coming over via bus in July. Different route but still...

herr_prof
Offline
Unsubscribe

Work the megabusses and such on the invite tip!

BLEO
Offline
Geneva, NY

Great call.  Megabus goes from NYC to Rochester w/ only ONE stop in between (Syracuse).

Esopus-dragon
Offline
New York, New York

I already like this thread. Throw in a Canadian chip musician, and I will definitely book my Megabusses!

nickmaynard
Offline
rochester, ny
Esopus-dragon wrote:

I already like this thread. Throw in a Canadian chip musician, and I will definitely book my Megabusses!

awesome. any suggestions of who to ask?

hotmessization
Offline
Wheeling, WV

Three tips:

1. Book me
2. Guarantee me a large sum of money
3. Don't give this deal to anybody else.

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
nickmaynard wrote:
Esopus-dragon wrote:

I already like this thread. Throw in a Canadian chip musician, and I will definitely book my Megabusses!

awesome. any suggestions of who to ask?

deadbeatblast is awesome, he does great visuals, too and has lighting that he could bring along.  Plus he's a two for one, because he's friends with Starpilot and could bring him along without increasing his travel costs.

Esopus-dragon
Offline
New York, New York
jefftheworld wrote:
nickmaynard wrote:

awesome. any suggestions of who to ask?

deadbeatblast is awesome, he does great visuals, too and has lighting that he could bring along.  Plus he's a two for one, because he's friends with Starpilot and could bring him along without increasing his travel costs.

He's two Canadians for the price of one!