hashtagbluepunk@gmail.com
#000FF #electronica #punk #electronicapunk #ithacany #technology #society #irony #warhol #blue #zine
#000FF Performance Review by SkeleTV
I sometimes find it difficult to write about #0000FF (pronounced “hashtag blue”) because I often have trouble vocalizing how their music makes me feel. I use technology all the time for my work (I’m currently writing this using my macbook air), but I never really stopped to think about my technology use outside of work. I often sit at home on facebook or twitter in my spare time, and most of the interaction I have with my friends or family is through text using my phone SMS or some other social media site. I hardly use my phone to call anyone anymore. Listening to the #0000FF song, “Fake Friends” made me think about the people I “interact with” online. At the end of the song the band stepped away from their computers and started dancing with the crowd to a heavy dubstep version of the song “Blue” by Eiffel 65, and as the song was winding up to the big finish, Adam got back on the mic and started listing off social media sites saying, “F*** Facebook, F*** Twitter…” and so on, ending the song by yelling “we don’t need any fake ass friends”. This moment of interaction with the crowd made me think about my social media usage and how most of the time I just browse through the profiles that appear on my newsfeeds, and rarely take an interest in the people whose profiles I’m viewing. This criticism of the superficial online representations of people, considering how widely adapted these technologies are, is what I like so much about this band.
BAND INTERVIEW by david skorton Skorton: With me here today, I have the members of Ithaca’s very own digital punk group, #0000FF. Why don’t the three of you introduce yourselves? Adam: Hey, I’m Adam. I make computer music for the group, play the drums, and sing. I’m a longterm resident of the area. Sam: My name is Sam. I contribute vocals to the group. I’m also a visual artist, so I’m the chief editor for our own fanzine. I deal in multiple mediums. Miles: I’m Miles. I contribute vocals, do some songwriting, and I actually designed our album cover as well. It has an amateurish charm, I think. Skorton: Great. So, first, I’ve really got to ask about the name of the band. Adam: I came up with the name for our ensemble. It is supposed to be read “hashtag blue.” Miles: Yeah, you don’t have to read out “pound zero zero zero zero eff eff.” That would be inconvenient. Adam: #0000FF is the string for blue in hexadecimal web code. Sam: We chose the color blue because our lyrics tend to involve technology and society, often social media, and blue seems to be the color of choice for all these websites like facebook, twitter, tumblr, et cetera. Skorton: Alright. And you guys like to use technology to critique technology? Adam: Yeah, it’s really just supposed to be good, old-fashioned punk irony. Miles: I spent a long time learning to play guitar with respectable proficiency just to not do it at all in this band. Sam: Our zine is an “e-zine” also, if you weren’t aware. We really followed through with the message at every opportunity. Adam: Is there a better way to reach people who are addicted to the internet? It’s not just a statement for the sake of making a statement. It’s a good way for us to stay visible to our audience. Skorton: Your debut album has been met with positive reviews. The artwork is sort of interesting. What’s going on there? Miles: I drew Alan Turing sitting in front of a computer with the facebook logo on the screen. He’s wearing headphones and futuristic shades. Skorton: Why that, of all things? Miles: Alan Turing is very important to the history of computers, and I actually think he’s an interesting emblem for punk, too. He was persecuted for being a homosexual in the early twentieth century in England, and he ended up committing suicide. I feel like punk is closely associated with counterculture in all its manifestations, so choosing him as an icon seemed sensible. He has a little anarchy symbol on his suit. I wanted to reference the Sex Pistols and their hit “Anarchy in the UK” to tie the different elements of the picture together.
Sam: That’s one of the reasons why we formed the band. Punk artists like to take images from other cultures and re-appropriate or re-contextualize them to give the whole deal new meaning. We take images associated with punk and imagery related to computers, blend it together, and map our ideas onto the canvas that we get from this fusion. Skorton: With that in mind, what is your mission statement? What message are you pushing? Adam: My original intention when I suggested a concept for this album was to motivate other people, particularly younger people, to spend less time on their iPhones and Mac computers. We’re not preaching total abstinence from it or anything (I actually love making electronic music and spending time on social media), but it would be good to practice moderation. Skorton: Alright, thanks so much, guys. We hope to hear more material from you in the future!
Band Review by the Ghost of Lester Bangs This is Lester Bangs from beyond the grave here to talk about an emerging punk group in upstate New York. I’m not exactly sure what “hashtags” are or how they feature in punk (given that I’ve been so busy permatripping on a cocktail of Darvon, Valium, and cough medicine for the last thirty years), but I’ve got to admit that I find the band sort of interesting. I mean, they’re not Velvet Underground good or anything like that, but I respect the austerity of their work. I floated over to Ithaca hoping to find the David Foster Wallace of punk music. I’m not sure how well that mission went, but I did find some music that I found relevant to current issues. Just listening to their songs, scrapped together on computer software as if the band members were just trying to finish a project for an undergraduate course on the history of punk (who knows what the hell that would look like if it ever happened), and seeing the modest-quality pencil drawing of Alan Turing (?) on the front of the album, I knew that I was dealing with some really obscure stuff. You know when you find an undiscovered band and feel pretty certain from the get-go that it will either be total shit or change your world forever? I had that feeling when I was introduced to #0000FF. I was wrong, though.
They aren’t shit (from me, this is not a meaningless profession either), but they didn’t leave an impression on me the way an encounter with Dori Seda might have, or the way the Troggs or the Shaggs left an impression. At the end of the day, their music sounds pretty damn good to me on opiates, but they are just too political for me to think that they’re being faithful to the punk aesthetic. Of course, it is good to drag these little generation-Z shits away from their bells and whistles, but WHERE IS THE PARTY IN ALL OF THIS? Where’s the vocalist who spits at the audience? Where are the underaged street kids who make their way into the public restrooms to weave gauzy memories with faceless escorts? Where is the PARTY? If I were to make two suggestions for this band, this is what they’d be: 1) stop preaching all the time and 2) get rid of the cartoon stoner and replace him with someone else (though I’m not yet sure of his function in the group).
#000FF by #000FF, album cover
“Fake friends” (blue)
Fuck Facebook Twitter Instagram Google Yahoo I don’t need any fake ass friends
We Don’t read books.
Imagination is dead
My brain needs stimulation Instead of being trapped in Technology should imagine my own head, I’m trapped it for me inside the Internet.
Communicating face to face Connections with the human race. My contact list, it never ends, but can I call these numbers friends?
Hey Siri! tell me what to do The only friend I have is you. I type faster than I can think Relationships all tend to shrink
I’m trapped inside my iphone
I’m trapped inside my iphone
Tech turns us into human drones Living vicariously through our phones. Through all the bullshit, pain, and strife Can’t change the background of my life
Texting, typing, BRAIN POLLUTE! Inflection and sarcasm, CAN’T COMPUTE! My life is an elaborate ringtone Because I’m trapped inside my iphone!
I’m trapped inside my iphone
//end zine