Anamanaguchi | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Origin | New York City, New York, United States |
Genres | |
Instruments |
|
Years active | 2004–present |
Labels |
|
Members |
|
Past members | |
Website | Official website |
Anamanaguchi is an American chiptune-based pop and rock band from New York City. [4] The band has four members: lead songwriters and guitarists Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar, bassist James DeVito, and drummer Luke Silas. [5]
Anamanaguchi combines digital electronic sounds such as those seen in chiptune and bitpop with traditional band instrumentation. As with other chiptune artists, they have created music using video game hardware from the mid- to late 1980s: namely a NES and a Game Boy.
Knowing each other through being classmates, Peter Berkman and James DeVito formed the band in Chappaqua, NY after Berkman and his friends would learn how to create chiptune after discovering a Wired article discussing the chiptune scenes in Sweden and New York. [6] [7] The origin of the band's name is unclear. In one interview, Berkman said the name "Anamanaguchi" came about from a member in one of his former bands pronouncing gibberish in the style of Jabba the Hutt. [8] On several other occasions, the band has explained that their name came about after the members worked as interns at Armani (Berkman and DeVito), Prada (Warnaar), and Gucci (Silas) while studying fashion at Parsons School of Design (though three of the four majored in Music Technology at New York University). People began calling them the "Armani-Prada-Gucci boys," which eventually was elided into "Anamanaguchi." [9] The band first performed on January 29, 2006 at Cake Shop [10] and through events such as Pulsewave NYC they formed a relationship with the netlabel 8bitpeoples and subsequently released their debut the EP Power Supply in August 2006. The track "Helix Nebula" was featured as the theme song of the former GamesRadar podcast TalkRadar. [11]
Peter Berkman met Ary Warnaar at New York University where they were studying Music Technology. In 2009, Ary Warnaar and Luke Silas joined the band for the release of their following EP, Dawn Metropolis. The album was released with an accompanying website that included animated videos for each of the songs, done in collaboration with artists David Mauro and Paris Treantafeles.
A song from Dawn Metropolis titled "Jetpack Blues, Sunset Hues" is the theme to Chris Hardwick's The Nerdist Podcast . [12] On November 26, 2013, Anamanaguchi appeared as guests on the podcast itself. [13]
In 2010, Anamanaguchi were approached by Ubisoft to compose music for the video game adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game . [14] The soundtrack for the game was released on Amazon and iTunes by ABKCO Records on August 24, 2010. [15] The soundtrack debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart (aka Soundscan's New Artist Chart). [16] In the summer of 2010, Anamanaguchi began releasing a series of singles for free download on their website. These singles were released with animated gif cover art (featuring collaborations with artists such as Paul Robertson and Ryder Ripps) and were printed as limited 7" vinyl with lenticular artwork to mimic the animated images.
On May 3, 2013, Anamanaguchi launched a Kickstarter project for their album Endless Fantasy . In just 11 hours, their funding goal of $50,000 was reached. At the end of its run, the project was backed by 7,253 people who contributed to raising a grand total of $277,399, [17] making it the second most-successful music project to be funded on Kickstarter at the time, behind that of singer Amanda Palmer. [18]
Anamanaguchi featured on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 17, 2013, where they played their song "Endless Fantasy" from the album of the same name. [19] [20] On June 19, 2014, they released a single titled "Pop It" featuring a then-unknown singer whose face was hidden from view. [21] The song was a stylistic departure for the group in that it did not feature any chiptune elements nor traditional band instrumentation, with a lead vocal. Entertainment Weekly described the song as having "glitchy electronic flourishes and relentlessly bubble gummy vibe", also drawing comparisons to Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. [21] In September, the song was featured in a Target TV advertisement, and in mid-2015 was also featured in a Taco Bell commercial for iced beverages. [22] On November 24, 2014, the singer's name, "Meesh彡☆", and her face were revealed to the public. [23]
On November 21, 2014, Anamanaguchi revealed they had been working on a new album titled [USA], which was set to release sometime in 2016. [24] The band also stated that the album would not be a chiptune album. [25] This album was later delayed for an undisclosed amount of time. [26]
On March 28, 2016, the band released a role-playing first-person shooter video game called Capsule Silence XXIV which was designed by Ben Esposito along with Anamanaguchi, [27] [28] alongside an original score containing over 30 songs. The band "leaked" the game for free online after staging a hoax Twitter dispute with the game's fictional developer, NHX. The game also contains an unreleased video for "Japan Air", among other hidden Easter eggs. [29] In May 2016, the band was the opening act at the North American Miku Expo tour, finishing at a two-show event at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. The band returned to the stage each night and performed their single "Miku" live with Hatsune Miku for her encore. The official soundtrack of Capsule Silence XXIV was released in two parts as Capsule Silence XXIV (Original Soundtrack Vol I) on December 21, 2016, and Capsule Silence XXIV (Original Soundtrack Vol II) on October 13, 2017.[ citation needed ]
On October 19, 2017, the band announced that they would be debuting music from their third studio album, [USA], at a live show on November 10 in Brooklyn, NY. [30] The performance was live streamed on the band's official Twitch page.[ citation needed ]
On October 18, 2018, Anamanaguchi headlined "Coalchella", a virtual music festival conducted entirely in a Minecraft server with sets broadcast live on an online radio. [31] On January 12 the following year, Anamanaguchi headlined Fire Festival, another Minecraft music festival by Open Pit Presents, the organizers of Coalchella. [32] Anamanaguchi also headlined Open Pit's third festival, MineGala, on September 14, 2019. [33]
In a YouTube video released on August 20, 2019, Anamanaguchi stated that the release date of [USA] would be October 25. It released on the label Polyvinyl Records. [34] Later they announced that the "[USA] tour originally planned for 2020 will be rescheduled to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic".[ citation needed ]
On November 12, 2021, the band announced the Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game Soundtrack: The Tour, taking place in January the following year. [35] Four days later, they released the song "Water Resistant" featuring 8485 on the label Monstercat in celebration of the then-upcoming mobile game, Rocket League: Sideswipe . On the 30th, later the same month, the band released another song titled "Dreams" with Flux Pavilion for Rocket League: Sideswipe, with the game's official soundtrack releasing shortly after, including both "Dreams" and "Water Resistant". [36] During their Scott Pilgrim vs the World tour, they played a cover of the song "Hopes and Dreams" from the 2015 video game Undertale. [37] They uploaded the cover to their YouTube channel on January 21, 2022. [38] In March 2023, it was announced that Anamanaguchi would be writing original songs and co-composing the score for the Scott Pilgrim Takes Off animated series. [39] A free update to the video game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge in September 2024 added remixed tracks by several artists, including Anamanaguchi. [40]
Stylistically, Anamanaguchi is characterized as electronic, [41] pop, [41] [42] rock, [41] [43] [44] bitpop, [45] [46] [47] chiptune, [41] [43] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] punk rock, [50] indie rock, [43] electronic rock [53] and electropop. [54]
Berkman has stated that their music is not solely influenced by video game music and that much of it is inspired by "[s]imple pop stuff, like Weezer and the Beach Boys," [50] as well as Janet Jackson, [55] Yasutaka Nakata, [56] Koji Kondo, Elliott Smith and DragonForce. [2]
Berkman stated that his top three influences in order would be "Tim & Eric and that absurd comedy, Japanese music and video games." [57] "Ultimately, Berkman's interest in Japanese pop culture is at the root of his interest in video games." [57]
Anamanaguchi has collaborated with several musical artists including Meesh and Pochi. [58]
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US Album Sales [59] | US Dance [60] | US Heat. [61] | US Ind. [62] | ||||||||||
Dawn Metropolis |
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||
Endless Fantasy |
| 102 | 2 | 1 | 21 | ||||||||
[USA] |
| 63 | — | 3 | 7 | ||||||||
"—" denotes items which failed to chart. |
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [63] | US Dance [60] | US Heat. [61] | |||||||||||
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (Original Videogame Soundtrack) | 180 | 7 | 3 | ||||||||||
Capsule Silence XXIV (Original Soundtrack Vol I) |
| — | — | — | |||||||||
Capsule Silence XXIV (Original Soundtrack Vol II) |
| — | — | — | |||||||||
"—" denotes items which failed to chart. |
Title | Details |
---|---|
Power Supply |
|
Dawn Metropolis Preview |
|
Year | Title | Album |
---|---|---|
2010 | "Airbrushed" | Summer Singles |
"My Skateboard Will Go On" | ||
"Aurora (Meet Me in the Stars)" | ||
"Airbrushed" (RAC remix) | ||
"Mess" | ||
2011 | "My Skateboard Will Go On" | Split w/ Starscream |
2013 | "Meow" | Endless Fantasy |
"Endless Fantasy" | ||
2014 | "Prom Night" [67] | |
"Pop It" (featuring Meesh) | Non-album single | |
2016 | "Miku" (featuring Hatsune Miku) | Hatsune Miku Expo 2016 E.P. |
2019 | "Lorem Ipsum (Arctic Anthem)" | [USA] |
"Air On Line" | ||
"On My Own" (featuring Hana) | ||
2020 | "Styla" | Summer Singles 2020 [68] |
"Kei" (featuring Pochi) | ||
"Get Your Wish" (Anamanaguchi Remix) | ||
"Vancouver" | ||
"Everyday, Everynight" (featuring Planet 1999) | ||
"Pixel Candle" | ||
"Jaime" (featuring Jaime Brooks) | ||
"Stay Home" (American Football cover) [69] | ||
2021 | "Water Resistant" (featuring 8485) | Rocket League: Sideswipe (Original Soundtrack), Vol. 1 |
"Dreams" (with Flux Pavilion) [70] | ||
2022 | "Hopes and Dreams" | Hopes and Dreams |
Year | Track | Original Artist | Album |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | "Rainbow in the Dark" | Das Racist | My Skateboard Will Go On |
2011 | "Too Dramatic" | Ra Ra riot | — |
2012 | "Sisterly" | Fang Island | Sisterly |
2013 | "Coming Home (featuring Neverstore)" | Futurecop! | Coming Home (Remixes) |
"Overexposed" | Matt and Kim | Lighting Remixes | |
2014 | "Kill Your Radio" | HEARTSREVOLUTION | — |
"Sad Machine" | Porter Robinson | Worlds (Limited Edition Box Set) | |
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" [71] | Cyndi Lauper | She's So Unusual: REMiXED | |
"Pretty Green" | Spinee | Pretty Green | |
2015 | "Feel The Lightning" | Dan Deacon | — |
2017 | "ひゅるり" | Osaka✮Shunkashuto | — |
"Not Mine" | Lil Miquela | — | |
2018 | "Always," | Meishi Smile / LLLL / U-Pistol | — |
2020 | "Get Your Wish" [46] | Porter Robinson | Nurture |
2021 | "My Agenda (featuring Village People and Pussy Riot)" [72] | Dorian Electra | My Agenda |
Title | Year | Director(s) |
---|---|---|
"Meow" | 2013 | Daniel Gray Longino and Eric Notarnicola with Anamanaguchi [73] |
"Endless Fantasy" | Anamanaguchi [74] | |
"Pop It (feat. meesh彡☆)" | 2014 | Unknown, possibly none |
"Miku" (Japanese version) | 2017 | |
"Air On Line" | 2019 | Anamanaguchi |
"Up To You" | 2020 | Unknown, possibly none |
"Kei ft. POCHI" | ||
"Vancouver" | ||
"Jaime (feat. Jaime Brooks)" | SCOTTY2HOTTY69 [75] | |
"Everyday, Everynight (ft. Planet 1999)" | 2021 | Unknown, possibly none |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | The Chris Gethard Show | Musical Guest | Episode 79: Race to the Top – performed "Meow" and "Space Wax America" |
2013 | Late Night with Jimmy Fallon | Musical Guest | Episode 854: Do Not Game List, "Xbox One" Demo – performed "Endless Fantasy" |
2023 | Scott Pilgrim Takes Off | Composer [39] | Wrote the opening song, sampling from "Bloom" by Necry Talkie [76] |
Chiptune, also called 8-bit music, is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce, as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles. It has been described as "an interpretation of many genres" since any existing song can be arranged in a chiptune style defined more by choice of instrument and timbre than specific style elements.
Jason Charles Miller is an American musician, singer and songwriter known for his solo career as well as being the lead vocalist and guitarist of the industrial rock band Godhead. He is a voice actor, appearing in various animation and video games. He is also part of the duo The Deadly Grind, and the duo RezoDrone, which has rose to fame for being featured in the acclaimed videogame Cyberpunk 2077. He has released solo albums in the country music, southern rock and Americana genres.
Mortal Kombat: The Album is a soundtrack album by The Immortals, released in 1994 to accompany the home versions of the video game Mortal Kombat. Television commercials for the home versions included a brief plug for the album at the end. The single Mortal Kombat (Techno-Syndrome) was released in 1993.
I Fight Dragons is an American chiptune-based rock band from Chicago. Their music is a combination of rock with chiptune, featuring electronic sounds made using Nintendo Game Boys and Nintendo Entertainment Systems, a genre also known as Nintendocore. To date they have released four full-length albums: 2011's KABOOM!, which came out on Photo Finish / Atlantic Records, 2014's The Near Future, which they self-released after raising over $100,000 on Kickstarter through their "Project Atma" project, 2019's Canon Eyes, and 2021's Side Quests: B-Sides and Rarities. They have also released two EPs, 2009's Cool Is Just a Number and 2010's Welcome to the Breakdown. Their music has been featured on Nintendo Video as well as on the WWE, and they wrote and performed the theme song for ABC's The Goldbergs. They have toured the US with MC Chris and Whole Wheat Bread in 2009, 3OH!3, Cobra Starship, and Travie McCoy in 2010, The Protomen in 2011, and they were on the entire 2012 and 2014 Vans Warped Tours. They went on their first national headlining tour, "The War of Cyborg Liberation Tour", with openers MC Lars and Skyfox in 2012. From 2010 until 2012 they were signed to Photo Finish / Atlantic Records, but in fall 2012 they won their release from the label. Since 2014, they have toured sporadically as well as playing annual headlining shows at Chicago's Lincoln Hall. Frontman Brian Mazzaferri attended Glenbrook South High School with Fall Out Boy lead vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump.
Math the Band is an American chiptune-based synthpunk band from Providence, Rhode Island formed in 2002 by Kevin Steinhauser. Originally being a solo project by Steinhauser, the band's style has been sometimes called Nintendocore. The band has performed over 1000 shows throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom, touring with bands, artists and rappers such as Andrew W.K., Japanther, Wheatus, MC Frontalot, Horse the Band MC Chris, Peelander-Z, Anamanaguchi and MC Lars. Math the Band has been featured in several magazines such as Venus Zine and Keyboard Magazine, and were also featured on NPR Music. Still, with band members spread across the United States, Math the Band is based in Providence, Rhode Island and are a part of Providence's AS220 and have performed there multiple times.
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune with various hardcore punk and/or heavy metal subgenres, most often metalcore and post-hardcore. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metalcore and chiptune. The genre originated in the early 2000s and peaked around the late 2000s with bands like Horse the Band, Karate High School and Sky Eats Airplane pioneering the genre.
Bitpop is a type of electronic music and subgenre of chiptune music, where at least part of the music is made using the sound chips of old 8-bit computers and video game consoles.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Chengdu and published by Ubisoft, based on the Scott Pilgrim series of Oni Press graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley and tying in with the release of the film of the same name. The game was originally released digitally for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network in August 2010 before being delisted in December 2014. An updated re-release for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One and Google Stadia titled Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition, was released on January 14, 2021.
Levi "Doctor Octoroc" Buffum is an American chiptune musician and pixel artist based in Philadelphia.
Brendan Becker, known by his stage name Inverse Phase, is an American video game composer and chiptune musician, using Atari, Commodore, and Nintendo hardware. He also speaks and hosts workshops on video game music, chiptunes, and composing.
Endless Fantasy is the second studio album by American chiptune-based pop and rock band Anamanaguchi released on May 14, 2013, in the US through the band's own dream.hax record label and on September 30, 2013, in the UK by Alcopop! Records.
Daniel Rosenfeld, known professionally as C418, is a German musician, producer and sound engineer. He is best known as the former composer and sound designer for the sandbox video game Minecraft. He is a co-founder of independent video game developer Ivy Road with Davey Wreden and Karla Zimonja, which is developing Wanderstop.
Grant Henry, better known by his stage name Stemage, is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for his video game and television soundtracks, including Cartoon Network's animated series Steven Universe. He is also known for his involvement in several video game cover projects, including Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar.
Keiji Yamagishi is a Japanese video game music composer. He is known for his work on Tecmo's late 1980s and early 1990s NES titles, such as Ninja Gaiden. Yamagishi has been considered a pioneer of chiptune music, producing the soundtracks of numerous titles in the 8 bit era.
[USA] is the third studio album from American chiptune-based pop and rock band Anamanaguchi. It was released on October 25, 2019 through Polyvinyl.
Undertale Soundtrack is a soundtrack album by Toby Fox, released in 2015 for the video game Undertale.
Chris Davidson, better known by his stage name DJ Cutman, is an American chiptune DJ. He is known for his remixes of video game soundtracks through his label GameChops, such as Zelda & Chill, as well as his live performances at video game events and his web series This Week in Chiptune. His stage name and costume during live performances are derived from the Mega Man character Cut Man.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series) is the soundtrack to the 2023 Netflix television series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, released through Lakeshore Records on November 17, 2023, the same day as the series' premiere. The soundtrack album featured songs written for the film and original score composed by Anamanaguchi and Joseph Trapanese.
The game developed a cult following for its throwback gameplay, 2D pixel work from artist Paul Robertson, and the soundtrack by indie chiptune rock band Anamanaguchi.
The Lazerdisk homies are back with another uplifting 8bit remix in honor of their fanboy penchant for Anamanaguchi, the chiptune nintendocore band from NYC.
The group's style is noted for mixing in elements of chiptune, which takes samples from early videogame music, and blending it with live instrumentation.
Music outlets reached for terms like "chiptune," "nintendocore" and "bitpop," subgenres coined using half-truths and assumptions of the artist's provincially vintage interests.
It's been six years since the release of Anamanaguchi's last album, Endless Fantasy, but, in that time, the electronic-rock outfit hasn't been quiet.