MADICON HYPE ANNOUNCEMENT!!

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Robot Sex Apocalypse

Yo wait what? What’s all this then?
I’LL TELL YOU WHAT IT IS, RANDOM INTERNET PERSON.
IT’S THE HYPEST SHIT THIS SIDE OF MAGFEST!!

So let’s bust this down: MADICON is an annual science fiction convention aka GEEKFEST that’s presented by James Madison University’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Guild. It’s been happening for over 20 years now in some form or fashion, which includes March 8th-10th 2013 (i.e. THIS WEEKEND!!). They’ve had some pretty major authors and artists come through in the past (Rob Balder of Erfworld, Jim Butcher of the Dresden Files, Kelly Turnbull of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, the list goes on).

But this year — oooooh man this year — this year, it’s a mini MAGFest.
Jon St. John will be in attendance; chipmusic & VGM is being well represented via DJ Cutman, datacats, DJ Super Sonic, Inverse Phase, and Cartoon Bomb; Inverse Phase is even up to his old tricks, hosting a plethora of chiptune panels throughout the weekend, so if you want to get your learn on, you’re covered there too!

There are, of course, many other things to do – there are several LARP groups, the 501st Storm Troopers, and a whole slew of authors to tickle your fancy. It’s also in Harrisonburg, which is quite a lovely little town if you’ve never been. And to top it off the con is only 20 bucks for the full weekend, and staying in town isn’t terribly expensive. Plus, there are some great bars downtown (and perhaps some parties happening nearby? WHOOOOO KNOOOOOOWS!?!?!?), so if you’ve broken your hype circuits, you can pop down to the bar and grab a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat to recharge and be back on your merry way.

I, Adam Seats, will be in attendance, of course, so if you want to say hi, feel free! I’ll probably be wearing my ChipWin shirt to be easier to find. And if you’re not on the Madicon Facebook event page, HOP ON. Hope to catch you there!

\m|♥|m/

ChipWin-tern Spotlight: The Laohu

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Robot Sex Apocalypse

Hey guys, sorry we’re running a little late this week – but I’ll make up for it with a little change of pace next week. For right now, though, we’re looking at the one, the only, Lars Shurilla, better known as The Laohu!

Lars hails from the frozen lands of Wisconsin, but currently lives among the Glaswegians in Scotland. Presumably, when not chasing down fried Snickers bars with whisky and hunting wild haggis*, Lars is making music, as he has been for the last twelve years. His rig is pretty standard, running LSDJ on a good ol’ DMG, though he runs that through a nice Yamaha mixer and adds in guitar (an Epiphone Les Paul Custom, no less) with distortion and low-fi pedals. Also vocals – he sings, and has quite an impressive range (I found myself several times envying his falsetto, or wondering if it truly was falsetto or just a ridiculously high normal range). Speaking of…

Off of his first album, we get this fantastic Ben Folds cover. This basically combines all of my favorite things about chiptunes: It covers a song that I really like; it sounds awesome; and it is executed flawlessly. The aforementioned ridiculous high range of Lars’ voice comes in to play here. But hey, this should be focusing more on his original work, right? Covers are great, but you probably want some original content, right? Well, as it happens, Lars has one other cool talent…

He’s fluent in Chinese! Specifically Mandarin. This track is actually on the album in English and Chinese, but I’ve always been a fan of listening to songs in languages I don’t understand, because then the voice just becomes another instrument. You aren’t thinking about and getting caught up on the meaning behind the words, you just hear the voice as another sound layering onto the track. If you go listen to it in English, though (or if you do happen to be cool enough to understand Mandarin Chinese), it’s actually a really touching love song.

Our final track here is the last track on the album released the day the world “ended” – December 21st, 2012. I’m a big fan of songs that involve multiple parts moving at different speeds – it always makes me think of the song as a machine, with different cogs rotating at different speeds to make it work.

In other news on The Laohu, he performed live in Glasgow with a number of other folks in February (not the least of which being someone you might recognize) – here’s a link to the recording. There’s an artist breakdown of who plays when. And in bigger, non-musical news, as of sometime this month, in addition to his accomplishments of “Having The Most Badass Real Life Name,” “Being A Dashing Chiptune Gentleman,” and “Is Better At Chinese Than Probably Most Other People In Glasgow,” we can add “Proud Father!” Congratulations, man!

Hyperlink to The Laohu stuff below. Stay frosty, kids.

\m|♥|m/

Bandcamp
Facebook

*Remember, these are just stereotypes about the Scottish. They’re usually hilariously wrong. If you’d like to know more about misrepresentations of the Scottish people, let me know! I’m actually writing a paper on that this semester as my senior thesis. Also, haggis is not an animal.

Raw Cuts With Kuma #3: Compy Core

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Kuma

Welcome back, Chipwinners! Judging from the good bit of positive feedback I got from you guys regarding last week’s Decktonic interview, I’m guessing that you’re enjoying these! I’d like to thank all of you in advance for the support, and hope that you keep coming back here for more raw, unfiltered goodness!

That being said, this week’s interview lightens the mood some as we talk to Dylan Brown aka CompyCore, a dynamo of a chiptune artist and graphic designer who’s taken the time to talk to us about the finer things in life, such as art, clothing, and Skittles.
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Kuma: So lets start with something simple. ”Compy”: where’d this nickname come from? I’m a curious Kuma.

CompyCore : Compy is actually just short for Companion. It was an online alias that I would use for Half life 2 multiplayer. Eventually everyone started calling me “Compy” on there, and it became a thing.

Kuma: Ah, very cool. So did you come into the whole chiptune thing as a gamer first, or did chiptunes make their way into your life in a completely different way altogether?

Compy: Yep, video games have always had a HUGE impact on my life. I was raised by a Sega Genesis as a kid, and I can’t imagine what my life would be like without games. It probs would be

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MADICON HYPE ANNOUNCEMENT!!

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ChipWin-tern Spotlight: The Laohu

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Raw Cuts With Kuma #3: Compy Core