History

 

Fast forward to 2012, and you can see G-9 Collective has grown into quite the army of talented ninjas, with not just DJ’s, but producers on various national labels.

The Collective

The talent of G-9 collective are what Matt tends to call his “ninjas”  and are a wide variety of tastes. The collective in itself are some of the best talent Indy has to offer and the list not a short one either. Here is a glance at each one in the collective.

Brian Summers – Electro-House/Breaks/Hip Hop

If we could only use one word to describe Brian Summers when he is on the decks, that word would be “HYPE”. This HYPE you can believe in because he will keep you jumping from start to finish! He has become one the freshest up and coming Dj’s to hit Indianapolis. With his BANGIN funky electro house style, blended with a touch of hiphop flavor, he gains new fans with every show. Brian is a very energetic Turntablist who loves to scratch and interact with his crowd. He will grab your attention when the needle hits the record and hold it there until the show is over.

Ed Trauma – Dubstep/Glitch/Hip Hop
 
Ed Trauma, an Indianapolis based Future Music DJ and producer since 2000, affiliated with the G9 Collective, Heavy Gun and SCS, has recently released Purple Midwest on IQ Entertainment. Mixed a project with Freddie Bunz and Grey Granite, titled “Electric Kool-Aid Experiment,” that was released exclusively on Indymojo.com. Gaining much recognition for his style of shaking the dance floor across …the Midwest, Ed Trauma’s ADHD approach to quick mixes will keep any party moving, while leaving the audience craving more. Constantly editing and remixing tracks for his live shows, Ed Trauma continues to raise the bar for up and coming Dj’s.

Eurotrash (Glasgow, UK) – Progressive (House/Breaks/Trance)
A veteran of both the original UK and now US prog scene, Doug has witnessed 1st hand, the evolution of dance music over the years. After cutting his teeth in the US on the deep and talented Memphis house scene, Doug rides the spectrum of Progressive House/Breaks, and Tech Trance.

Gizzmo – Drum & Bass/Dubstep
After emerging from the comet that brought him to earth Gizzmo found a pair of turntables. Little did the people of Earth know that their world had changed. From that point on he proceeded to tackle any form of decent electronic music (i.e. NO TRANCE) and perfect the mixing of it. He can be found anywhere there are Subarus racing or Beats bumping. DO NOT get him wet and DO NOT feed him after midnight.

Hollow Point – Drum & Bass
  
Hollow Point is making moves and rising through the ranks of Indianapolis’s elite bass-heavy DJs. His style makes sure to keep the audience moving with thick basslines and he always has something for everyone. Now teamed up with Indymojo/G-9, the sky’s the limit for this dancefloor-friendly DJ. Catch him every week on his online radio show, Wednesday nights at 9pm ET hosted by www.boost.fm

James B. – Progressive Breaks/House/Trance

Having over 10 years of djing experience, James Brooks is one to make any crowd move on the dance floor. Beginning as a Trance only Dj he now entertains by playing many genres. He has shared the stage with many headlining acts including Cosmic Gate, Woody McBride, Icey, Fixx, Dara, and Shortee. You may have seen James at many places in the Midwest including Chicago, Kentucky, Ohio, and of course all over his home state of Indiana.
When James Brooks is seen displaying his skills and mixing sounds… It is not to be missed!!!

Jangatha – Jackin House
Aquasound/Pin Up/Molacacho/Guest House
 
After a decade behind the decks hitting up parties from coast to coast, Jangatha’s production has recently hit the underground house scene. He has released tunes on some of the best house labels, sharing the roster with countless veteran producers. Known for his crispy clean production, thick sound design, unique genre blending, and sharp funky shuffles, his tunes have also been getting rotation by some of the house greats, such as Dj Dan, Mark Farina, Johnny Fiasco, and Colette. With loads of remixes and original EP’s slated for digital & wax release this coming year, you will likely be hearing about him more and more for years to come.

Jeremy Daeger (aka That Guy) – Breaks/Hip Hop
 
For 10 years Jeremy has been tearing up the dance floors all over Indy. He found that mixing hip-hop with breakbeat really got people out of their seats and shaking their asses. Jeremy has played along side of DJ Icey, Baby Anne, and the Breakfastaz just to name a few. He is not one to leave the dance floor empty. Hard hitting, in your face, breaks with a smile.

jFet – Dubstep/Complextro/Moombahton
 
The jFET Project began in early 2011 by Producer / DJ “Jangatha.” After over 50 house music releases on some of the most respected labels in both digital and vinyl format, the need to seek fresh sounds was instilled and inspired by the edgy bass music arena. The focus is rather simple, to push fresh hype sounds in any BPM it fits with best. jFET’s sounds have been catching on quick. His debut EP… reached #15 on the Beatport Dubstep Release charts, and caught the attention of several respected blogs including The Untz. 2012 should be a big year for jFET, as many more EP’s and remixes are scheduled for release on some of the hottest and established dubstep labels. With support from national touring acts such as Figure, Urban Assault (Faust & Shortee), and Reid Speed, we will likely be hearing much more to come from this barely year old project. jFET: Intergalactic Hitman / Producer / Performer.

Kodama – Dubstep/Electro House
 
With nearly 10 years of DJ experience, Kodama’s musical preference has touched all spectrums of electronic music. Performing under a life-long nickname, Kodama embodies the exuberant and jovial tendencies of the mythical tree spirits he shares a title with. These characteristics, paired with a healthy dabbling in many sub-genres of electronic music, come together to produce an invigorating symphony of sound.

kyü-bik – Multi-genre EDM 
 
kyü-bik has been passionately DJing for 6 years now and has no intentions of slowing down his ambitions anytime soon. His journey into the world of EDM music dives deep as he strives to dig endlessly for the most passionate and rhythmical music the circuit has to offer.

L810C – Electro-House/Breaks
 
L810C (Ryan White) has been rockin the underground party circuit for years and he’s ready to step up and indoctrinate Indianapolis with a little taste of his hard hitting electro breaks style, which includes heavy bass lines and catchy rhythms that make people get up and dance. Influenced by acts such as Stanton Warriors, Jackyl and Hyde, Prodigy, and Glitch Mob, Ryan is sure to bring something extra special to the stage.

Mutiny – Dubstep/Drumstep/Drum & Bass

When DJs Kodama and Hollow Point decided that 2 turntables just weren’t enough, Mutiny was born. Calling the Mousetrap home on Altered Thurzdaze, these pirates crush the dancefloors with their bass cannons. Keep an eye on these bassy buccaneers as you’ll hear everything from dubstep to jungle and everything in between.

Neighbz – House
Neighbz discovered his love for electronic music in the late 90s early 2000 era thru the Saint Louis, MO rave & club scene while attending college there. Currently, Neighbz now resides in downtown Indianapolis, IN. He started making appearances in 2010 at local events such as Keepin’ it Deep, Juxtapose, and Indymojo/G9Collective parties playing a mixture of Deep House, Soulful House, and Lounge. No matter what the venue Neighbz smooth mixing & sexy beats always brings that underground House Music vibe!

Psynapse – Dubstep/Drum & Bass

Nicknamed “Dubstep Jesus”, this messiah is arguably the most prolific Dubstep DJ in Indianapolis. A Juxtapoze regular, Psynapse likes to lead his congregation through a web of dirty bass-lines and womp wobbles that can convert even the casual listener into a fan. Through natural humility and notable talent, Psynapse has certainly made a name for himself this year playing at Underground Sound, headlining festival stages at Mojostock and Oranje, not to mention the many one-offs, after parties, and monthly/weekly residencies with Indymojo/G-9 Collective, Juxtapoze (Indy), and Perpetual Entertainment (Fort Wayne). He’s not one to be taken lightly.

Renna (NYC) – Liquid DNB, Brasilero, Ragga
Originally a NY native, Renna brings the positive vibes through with a heavy focus on liquid, ragga, and soulful house vocals layered over drum and bass. He’s been part of the scene in both NYC and DC for over a decade. Expect a mix of lighter feel-good vocal tracks along with solid dancefloor smashers to keep things moving for you true heads out there.

Rudy Kizer – Pretty much everything

Coming of age in the Chicago area, Rudy was inspired by the legendary “Hot Mix 5″ radio mixers. His seasoned ear for good music and years of eclectic programming experience informs his floor-moving mix of electro-house, breaks, dubstep, and drum-and-bass. Rudy has opened for Paul Van Dyk, DJ Dan, Bad Boy Bill, DJ Icey, and many others. Rudy is the host and producer of “Hit The Decks,” an alternative dance program on WRZX (X103), Sundays from 10 p.m. till 12 midnight.

Shy Guy Says – Ghettotech/Glitch Hop/Dubstep
 
SHY GUY SAYS is an electronic music producer and performer straight from the Mushroom Kingdom, an 8bit villain ready to destroy any party at any time and somehow leave his victims wanting more. His eclectic, yet upbeat and danceable sound can best be described as a mixture of Hip Hop, Glitch Hop, Electro, Down-tempo House, Drum Step, and Ghettotech. It’s know for its heavy rhythmic swagger, …yet at the same time can be lush and loaded with dirty synth bass sounds, warm ambiance, and 8-bit glitches. His upcoming first full length album “The Technolocaust” is a self written, engineered, produced, and personally distributed project. His upcoming mixtape “Level 2″ will feature various outtakes from The Technolocaust sessions as well as new previously unreleased material. Stay tuned for announcements on tentative release dates in September of 2011. The man behind the mask, Jarrod Linne, currently collaborates and resides in Bloomington, Indiana.

Singularity (Memphis) – Progressive (House/Breaks/Trance) 
 
A 10 year veteran of the deep and talented Memphis DJ pool. He supplies the dance floor with a steady stream of harmonically mixed progressive house and breaks tracks. His ability and enthusiasm with the evolving tools of the digital mixing world elevate him beyond mere DJ status.

Wes Clay – House/Techno
 
With an intense attention to detail and an elaborate library of electronic music and personal productions, Wesley Clay incorporates both the technical and collective sides of DJ culture. His collegiate background in audio engineering, MIDI programming/digital synthesis, and live sound reinforcement all contribute to his choice and selection within the studio and DJ booth. Wes exhibits an impenetrable style of mixing and blending within his performances which compliment his confidence behind the decks. His consistency and commitment endures to a degree of always impressing his audience and individuals alike.

Along with New inductees this week:

Ganzarelli - Multi-Genre EDM

With over ten years of experience behind turntables Indianapolis based dj, Ganzarelli, is a lover of all types, of music but his love for hip hop and bass music is what drives him. Teaming up with local hip hop artist Brad Real in 2010, they have dropped knowledge all over indiana and parts of chicago. Ganzarelli’s solo sets are something not to miss though. Playing heavy bass lines and driving tempos, coupled with high energy given to any crowd, he definately puts on a show. Expect more to come from him.

INDIGO CHILD - Dubstep/Drum and Bass

A 23 year old dj and producer born and raised in Lancaster, PA, a few years ago moved to Indianapolis IN. Started out djing house and breaks and within the last 4 years begun spinning dubstep, and has recently started producing his own tracks.

F12 – Bass Music

 

Another overwhelming day at Gen Con. So much so that we were so drained, we didn’t go back for Day 4 on Sunday. *sigh*

But we were very excited to watch the Costume Contest! We were able to get pretty good seats in the fourth row with our press credentials and once again watched the Different Drummer Belly Dancers perform the pre-show. Two of the ladies are regulars from previous years and two were new at Gen Con.

Here’s a link to a video clip of the belly dancers.

My camera had issues focusing last year when I took pictures at the contest. Everyone kept moving so many were blurry. This year I decided to try taking video clips of each person and taking still snapshots out of the clips later. Still not very sharp pictures, but they were the best I could do with my 12 megapixel digital camera. Here’s a link to the full album. And here are a few favorites:

The BEST IN SHOW winner was this dude:

As in 15 previous years, Luke Ski performed the show to entertain the audience while the judges’ votes were tallied. He performs nerdy parody songs, much like Weird Al. This year, he opened with a Dark Crystal number, transitioning into the Marvel characters being owned by Disney song, then a really sweet romantic song comparing his love for a special lady to many of his favorite movie/tv characters/situations. Then he brought it back to straight comedy with a song about classic Monty Python sketches like the Ministry of Silly Walks and took Adam Sandler’s “The Hanukkah Song” and sang it about all the Jewish characters in the Star Wars movies. He had a follow up concert scheduled for 9pm, incidentally the same time as the Masquerade Ball at Union Station.

Here’s a link to the Dark Crystal song.

After sitting at the show for three hours, we were STARVED. We met up with a couple of friends, walked all over downtown Indianapolis trying to find where they parked their car to feed the meter, then tried to find a place to eat. On the way, we detoured through Monument Circle and found the epic gathering of all motorcycles EVER. Or it felt like that. It was loud, VERY loud.

After finding a bunch of restaurants having a super long wait (on a Saturday night? No kidding.), we ended up back at the mall food court. Again. If you are keeping track, that’s the third day in a row. After having chicken tenders and waffle fries two days in a row, I switched to a Cajun place and got a veggie side and two meats. My stomach didn’t agree with it later.

Our plan was to next go to the AMV contest in the Anime section at the Westin. AMVs are Anime Music Videos. They are created by fans and are really cool to check out and often the audience gets to vote on the winners in a contest. We showed up at 8pm to the room it was stated to be at in the program and…found a bunch of people waiting to go to a “Writing for Television” seminar. That was written on the schedule for two different rooms so they switched to the other room and we waited in our room for 15 minutes without anyone showing up. The schedule outside the door said it was switched to 9pm so we walked around to find something else to do and found……the LIVE ACTION Sailor Moon series!

I could have watched this all night, it was so much fun. It is hilarious and still heart-warming. I particularly loved how they just made the plush cat figure of Luna nod her head up and down to talk and pretended her paws were typing on the computer’s keyboard. It was a point in the series before Sailor V joined the squad and Serena still doesn’t know Tuxedo Mask’s true identity even though he probably knows her’s. At 9, we thought about going back over the the AMV contest or to the Masquerade Ball but didn’t feel like going anywhere. After we had watched enough, we went home for the night.

I asked a friend how her experience was at the Ball and she said the DJs played a lot of slow songs by request and less dance music than previous years. Said friend was dressed as a Tardis so she knows what she is talking about.

Thanks for following me along on these adventures and putting up with my not quite so perfect pictures of the costume contest. It’s been fun, but it’s also exhausting. I’m whipped here sitting on the couch Sunday night trying to sum it all up. If you were there, I hope you had fun too.

Here’s Katniss Everdeen signing off! (this picture was from giving my friends directions back to their car)

Today we started out at a matinee for “The Expendables 2″, I recorded a quick review in the car, and off to Gen Con we went!

Knowing today was the first day of a new event, the World Cup for Magic the Gathering, we headed right over to see if we could watch it happening live. There is greater exposure online than ever before with webcasting and yet it turned out there was nothing on location for those AT the con to follow! What’s the benefit of being here if you could watch it better online at home? We were told by one lady that on Sunday, you could gather around a modest sized flat screen television to watch some. But if it’s just hanging on the wall, why not use it before then? Pretty annoying. There was a crowd gathering around the camera crew’s view screen on the featured match.

(Webcasting)

The standings after four rounds had the United States in 17th place, but later on after 7 rounds, the top places internationally were 1st place – Slovak Republic, 2nd place – Spain, 3rd place – Canada (who is having a great year), and 4th place – United States. Each country has a champion that won a gold medal to be there and most of them were wearing them at the event. These champions serve as captain of their country’s team, but the whole team competes for points to get their country up in rankings. U.S. did a good job climbing the boards today!

After the Magic the Gathering hall, we took a turn around the video gaming room where we saw a few open controllers and jumped into a game. Didn’t realize it was nothing like the Street Fighter Turbo I remember playing growing up and I lost epicly. What the heck is up with these Tetris blocks?? And weird timer bombs???

The next event we went to was the Epic Battles in Anime panel run by a friend of our’s and her brother. It was a little like fantasy football. They took characters from three big popular fighting animes: Naruto Shippuden, Bleach, and One Piece. The panel was really packed with around 6o people, 10 of them standing in the back. The format was a lecture on each of two characters in a match up going over their abilities in lots of detail followed by an AMV of both of them fighting…not each other, just characters from their respective series, and then a debate amongst audience members and a vote by show of hands to figure out the “winner.” I only knew the Naruto Shippuden characters, well, the one that was mentioned. There was an epic argument over whether a character that moves several times the speed of sound would beat a character that was the speed of light. Someone got out the internet to settle things (yes, light still wins).

I took a walk around and caught some fun costumes and dragon balloon art!

Last was my favorite event the past two years at Gen Con — Mystery Anime Theater 3000 from Wasabi Anime! This year’s movie was “Sailor Moon Super S” where Chibi-Usa and other children of the world are kidnapped by evil fairies to have their dreams fed to a black dream hole started by a vampire witch space chick unless Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts can save the day. Lots of hilarious, inappropriate humor ensued which is not fit to print, but you should definitely check it out next year if you are able. Films of the past have been “Sailor Moon R” (flowers from space attack and weird alien bromance with Tuxedo Mask) and “Sailor Moon S” (snow queen from space attacks and Luna the cat falls into a scientist and turns human).

And that was pretty much our day! Stay tuned for Day 3 when the big costume contest takes place!…..or else.

Although there were some events on Wednesday night, today marked the official beginning of Gen Con. This is my sixth Gen Con. SIX. Wow. I have a special memory from each one.

Gen Con 2007: The year we met Hayden Panettiere and she signed our Heroes poster which is framed in our living room.

Gen Con 2008: The year we did Gen Con and Summerslam in ONE day. Epic wedding anniversary celebration.

Gen Con 2009: The year I was a finalist in the Dance Dance Revolution competition and the first time we met Vic Mignogna.

Gen Con 2010: The year I left Gen Con to go to roller derby practice and injured my knee…taking me out of contention for the Dance Dance Revolution competition.

Gen Con 2011: I cosplayed as Holo from the anime, “Spice and Wolf”.

Now here we are at Gen Con 2012. This is the year of cosplaying as Katniss Everdeen from “The Hunger Games.” I went all over town putting together my costume. I lucked out that I had just bought the perfect pair of pants a week before I started looking so I had those. I found a pair of dark brown leather knee high boots at Goodwill for $2. Score. I already had a black v-neck long sleeve thermal shirt, another win. I had a mockingjay pin from the movie that Dan bought me when we went to see it in theaters in March. I was striking out on the jacket. I went to Amazon, two Goodwills, Burlington Coat Factory, Target, Kohl’s, Charlotte Russe, Forever 21, and any other store in the mall that might have something. It being August was a pretty big problem. I broke down and bought the Hunger Games arena jacket from Amazon which cost a pretty penny for such light material, but all day as I was stopped and asked to pose for pictures, I was asked about the jacket and where I got it and if I made it.

I had some trouble with the bow and arrow combo. You can’t bring realistic weapons to Gen Con I learned so I bought the cheapest kid set I could find and it is pretty lame. Even Angel thinks so.

Upon getting to Gen Con, we picked up our press badges and began to explore. First we went hrough the new game testing area and into the Magic the Gathering hall. There are some amazing displays there including a Serra Angel and the trophy case for the World Cup.

Then onto the Vendor Hall. This year in particular, there were many custom costume items. Leather corsets, lots of steam punk, accessories, weapons, a big black long bow I could purchase for $70….

My favorite booth was the Doctor Who themed one with a full size light up Tardis.

At the Westin, all the viewing rooms were set up. There isn’t much of a selection of anime to view this year unfortunately. I was very disappointed with what they had. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I did spend about an hour watching a documentary called “J, Robot” about Japanese robotics and culture. They don’t strive for robots to look human, just childlike or cute. They also believe that working on these robots gives a bit of their soul into their creations. They have a lot of respect for robots and one girl interviewed chirped, “I want robot friends!” Fun and interesting.

Before leaving today, we made sure to find the video game area. Times certainly have changed! It used to be you could play any game you wanted any time if you were patient enough to wait your turn. There was tons of Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band. Now you have to buy event tickets to spend time in the video game room playing around and the selection has been cut WAY down. Check out the classic video game room:

There are two DDR machines and one DDR knock off game in this room. In the CLASSIC video game room. I feel old.

Compare that with the other video game room which is a little more modern and includes sport games, first person shooters, Madden, Rock Band, and one of those motion capture dancing games that I can’t bring myself to do because moving my arms and legs at the same time is hard work. It would appear that Smash Bros is still a popular game too which I was happy to see.

After that, we called it a day for today so we’ll have more energy for tomorrow. Still three full days of gaming to go!

Here’s the full album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151150225461280.495038.115650956279&type=1

Gen Con Indy 2012 is only two days away! I’m pretty psyched. Here’s a link to my review from last year:

Gen Con 2011

What is Gen Con?

Gen Con Indy is the original, longest running, best attended, gaming convention in the world. Gen Con is a consumer and trade experience dedicated to gaming culture and community. Gen Con Indy is the largest annual consumer fantasy, electronic, sci-fi, adventure and hobby game convention in North America. Each year gaming enthusiasts converge to share their love for all things gaming, from tournaments to guest appearances, exhibit hall booths to electronic games, workshops, seminars, anime, art shows, auctions and countless other activities. Gen Con takes place in downtown Indianapolis from Thursday, August 16th to Sunday, August 19th at the Convention Center and also spreads out into other buildings like the Anime section being in the Westin Hotel. You have to buy a badge to get in and can get either a 4-Day, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Trade Day, VIG or VIG Companion option all for different price levels. The best deal is the 4-Day, but if you are on a budget, I’d recommend attending on Saturday because that’s when you’ll see the best costumes and the costume contest takes place. Also if you volunteer your time working at Gen Con, you can earn a free badge.

How do I keep track of what’s going on?

I highly recommend downloading this app that helps you track events: http://www.gencon.com/2012/indy/it/mobile/default.aspx

Cosplay!

Here’s what I’m psyched about this year. First off, I’m going to dress up as Katniss from Hunger Games in her hunting apparel with the arena jacket. I have a mockingjay pin and a toy set of bow and arrows that I hope will be fake enough to get in, but not so lame that they are embarrassing to carry around.

I really look forward to seeing the costumes every year. You can tell by how many pictures I take! Here are a few favorites from last year’s album.

There are three big Guests of Honor this year. Wes Bentley, Wil Wheaton and Nichelle Nichols will all be there and will be signing autographs for fans on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. An American Beauty/Hunger Games cast member and two big Star Trek names, not to mention Wheaton’s fun stints on The Big Bang Theory.

Would have been fun to shoot an arrow at Seneca Crane’s autograph signing table! hehehe Unfortunately, I just have little lame suction cups at the end of my arrows anyway for the safety of convention goers.

This year, Gen Con will host two global Magic: the Gathering Championships so I know where my husband will be lurking. They are starting with a Friday Night Magic Championship which will start on THURSDAY (Yeah, I know) and will involve 100 players from around the world. Then Friday is the Magic World Cup which brings together the best players from 50 countries in an international competition.

Coverage of the World Cup begins Friday morning with a live video webcast and text coverage running all three days of the event.  Live chat sessions with players, R&D staff, and coverage reporters will take place at various times during the three days on CoverItLive, video content will post to YouTube on the wizardsmtg channel, and you can follow or join in the conversation with the official Twitter hashtag for the World Magic Cup#mtgwmc.

New Events!

New events this year at Gen Con include an Apples to Apples bash, a beer tapping event with Sun King brewing an Ale of Destiny (whoa), and once again you can playtest new games that haven’t hit the market yet like Dan and I did last year with that hiking card game. Gen Con is debuting a new area for playtesting called the First Exposure Playtest Hall which will be in Sagamore Ballrooms 6 and 7.

There will also be live music events! A variety of bands – from rock to nerdcore to video game music to mixed comedy performances – will perform in Grand Ballroom II and III on the second floor of the Westin, just across the skywalk from the Indiana Convention Center on Friday, August 17 and Saturday, August 18.

I’m not nerdy enough for Gen Con.

WHAT?? Just kidding. There are tons of SA or Spousal Activities for those not nerdy enough to partake in the nerdiness that ensues at Gen Con. There is crafting, dance classes, self defense, and workouts like yoga you can check out. Chances are you’ll find tons of fun stuff anyway.

With less than two days to go, all we have to do is wait now….then gamers will descend upon the city! You can follow Gen Con Indy’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/genconindy