Wonderswan (band)

Wonderswan were an alternative indie rock band, based in Leeds, England.

Career

Preceded by a self released CDR, Wonderswan's first commercial release was on 4 May 2009 with the track "Hey Nature", which was included on the Dance To The Radio release 4x12" Volume 1, followed on 10 May by their first 7" vinyl release entitled "Furrrpile". In 2009 Wonderswan played the BBC Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds festivals. In 2010 Wonderswan released a cassette tape through Sea Owl Records which received favourable reviews from Collective Zine and Drowned In Sound, who featured a download of the track Maple Syrup. A video was made for the track Super Star Destroyer which was made entirely from clips taken from a bizarre Turkish remake of Star Wars.

Musical influences

The band is influenced by the work of rock and grunge bands from the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s, their sound has been frequently compared to Pavement although the band themselves cite influences including Sonic Youth, Guided By Voices and Dinosaur Jr. making use of Lo-Fi recordings, distorted band compositions and elements of guitar solos along with influences from Shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine with several instrumental "sound experiments" featured on the EP I Wish I Was Deep Instead Of Just Macho. Their somewhat messy style has been described as "sloppy yet brilliant" and "beautiful chaos".

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WonderSwan

The WonderSwan (ワンダースワン, WandāSuwan) is a handheld game console released in Japan by Bandai. It was developed by Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto Laboratory and Bandai. Released in 1999 in the fifth generation of video game consoles, the WonderSwan and its two later models, the WonderSwan Color and SwanCrystal were officially supported until being discontinued by Bandai in 2003. During its lifespan, no variation of the WonderSwan was released outside Japan.

Powered by a 16-bit central processing unit, the WonderSwan took advantage of a low price point and long battery life in comparison to its competition, Nintendo's Game Boy Color and SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Color. Later improvements took advantage of quality upgrades to the handheld's screen and added color. The WonderSwan is playable both vertically and horizontally, and features a unique library of games, including numerous first-party titles based on licensed anime properties, as well as significant third-party support from Square, Namco, and Taito. Overall, the WonderSwan in all its variations combined to sell an estimated 3.5 million units and managed to obtain as much as 8% of the Japanese handheld video game console market before being marginalized by Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. Retrospective feedback praises the potential of the WonderSwan despite its low sales and its brief time holding its own against Nintendo in the marketplace.

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/WonderSwan

+/- (band)

+/-, or Plus/Minus, is an American indietronic band formed in 2001. The band makes use of both electronic and traditional instruments, and has sought to use electronics to recreate traditional indie rock song forms and instrumental structures. The group has released two albums on each of the American indie labels Teenbeat Records and Absolutely Kosher, and their track "All I do" was prominently featured in the soundtrack for the major film Wicker Park. The group has developed a devoted following in Japan and Taiwan, and has toured there frequently. Although many artists append bonus tracks onto the end of Japanese album releases to discourage purchasers from buying cheaper US import versions, the overseas versions of +/- albums are usually quite different from the US versions - tracklists can be rearranged, artwork with noticeable changes is used, and tracks from the US version can be replaced as well as augmented by bonus tracks.