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Boston Bitdown boots up for three days of chiptune – The Boston Globe

Published

12 months ago

March 4, 2025

Boston Bitdown boots up for three days of chiptune – The Boston Globe

For this reason, Carballo and Battlemode multi-instrumentalist David “Biff” Jubinsky are feeling optimistic about the festival they’ve spent the last year organizing. This weekend’s Boston Bitdown includes over 50 musical and visual artists across five venues in Arlington and Somerville.

Most of the musical acts fit somewhere into the niche electronic genre of chiptune, which uses synthesized sounds created with the sound chips found in vintage gaming consoles. Some of the musicians work exclusively with console-based synthesizers and sequencer programs, while others mix the sounds with performance on live instruments or incorporate them into beats made with other audio software.

In the early days of the genre, “people would be like ‘oh, you can’t call yourself chiptune if you’re not actually using a Game Boy on stage,” said Mel Carubia, keytarist of Boston-based band Minusworld, which performs on Saturday. “But the umbrella has widened, and the Bitdown lineup itself is evidence of the expansiveness of the genre now.”

Carubia doesn’t describe Minusworld as chiptune, but their lyrics are often inspired by cultural icons of their youth in the ’80s and ’90s — “just a lot of things from the zeitgeist of when chiptune music was born” — and “the keytar replicates a lot of sounds you’d also find in an eight-bit emulator.” On top of that, Koji Kondo’s catchy looping themes for Mario and Zelda on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System were a major inspiration for them to learn piano as a child, they said.

“None of these songs are very long, but they grab into your consciousness, and you can’t shake them,” said Carubia, who holds a master‘s degree in music composition from Longy School of Music. “The thing I like about chiptune music is that it’s not just pure electronic music. It’s tied to an aesthetic that comes from a multi-sensory experience.”

Bronx-based chiptune artist Tyrese Hart performs as AmateurLSDJ. He was still a toddler when Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance SP, and his own device was a hand-me-down from his sister. However, after hearing Northern Irish artist Chipzel’s chiptune soundtrack to the game “Super Hexagon,” which was created with a Game Boy and the sequencer software Little Sound DJ, Hart, then a high school student, started exploring the musical possibilities of the handheld console.

Hart, who performs Saturday, is more accustomed to sharing his music on the internet than with live audiences. “I feel like I’m not as advanced in certain tech things,” he said. All the same, Jubinsky was floored when Battlemode shared a bill with AmateurLSDJ in Brooklyn.

”When he gets onstage, there’s no dancing or heavy movement … but his virtuosic chiptune is sonically insane! The music takes full control of audiences,” Jubinsky raved.

Chiptune composer AmateurLSDJ.Boston Bitdown

The organizers didn’t initially intend for the festival to be so big — “maybe half that,” Carballo said. Jubinsky’s work as the head of private events at Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom gave him inroads there, and the original plan was just for one day at that venue. But then, Carballo said, “it just kept going, and the response was so solid.”

Because of Carballo’s work with online radio station geekbeatradio as well as his stints booking music at Boston’s PAX East and Maryland’s MAGFest, the organizers were already in contact with chiptune artists around the world. Through Jubinsky’s Battlemode bandmate Kris Uzzell, who performs under the name Astro, they had a connection at Union Square’s The Jungle and nearby Warehouse XI. “All these opportunities were kind of there for us to take, and it seemed silly not to,” Carballo said.

Chiptune artists are “considered freaks in the electronic music scene, because we’re trying, almost deliberately in a way, to not do pop songs and stuff like that,” said Montreal-based musician Adélaïde Le Roux, who performs music with a SEGA Genesis console under the name Game Genie Sokolov. “People are kind of punk-ish.”

That hackerish DIY ethos allows for a “very good entry to music,” especially for those without formal musical training, said Le Roux, who performs Thursday. It also sets up a welcoming space for many flavors of queer and/or neurodivergent people, she continued. Le Roux, who came out as transgender in 2020, said she isn’t alone in having transitioned after entering the chiptune scene, and in the past two years, she has organized two charity compilations of chiptune music with proceeds going to organizations that support trans rights.

It’s a far cry from the years when it was “just a white boy scene,” said Carballo, who said chiptune played “one of the biggest parts” of his education on issues related to racial and gender diversity. “I had a lot to learn, growing up in Milton and Quincy. Chiptune really educated me on this, and took away any sort of confusion or doubts that I had about what all this meant. Now, these are just my friends.”

They “didn’t have to try very hard to book a diverse festival,” said Carballo. “That’s just the community reflecting who they are.”

Carballo “really cares for the artists, really tries to organize things for a genre of music that deserves some love and contains a lot of beautiful people,” said Le Roux. “It’s all thanks to Rob and the Boston chiptune community that we’ve managed to gather round, come together, celebrate one another.”

BOSTON BITDOWN

March 6-8. Various venues, Somerville and Arlington. www.bostonbitdown.com

A.Z. Madonna can be reached at az.madonna@globe.com. Follow her @knitandlisten.

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Boston, MA

Monster effort from Neemias Queta helps pave the way for Celtics in win over 76ers – The Boston Globe

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Monster effort from Neemias Queta helps pave the way for Celtics in win over 76ers – The Boston Globe

Queta has been a revelation for the Celtics this season and helped them improbably surge into second place in the Eastern Conference. But it is unlikely he or his team envisioned nights like Sunday, when he crafted the best game of his career to propel Boston to a 114-98 win over the 76ers at TD Garden, its 11th in 13 games.

The 26-year-old center finished with 27 points and 17 rebounds and received ‘MVP’ chants several times in the fourth quarter.

“I thought he’s had great ownership and responsibility to what it calls for to be a starting center for the Celtics, and he’s got to continue to get better,” Mazzulla said. “He works at it. He cares. So, it’s a credit to him.”

The Celtics, who entered the night averaging 17.1 second-chance points per game, poured in 30 Sunday, with Queta leading the charge. With 76ers center Andre Drummond often playing up and trying to congest the lanes for Boston’s talented ballhandlers, Queta forcefully and quickly found space around the rim.

“We just gave him the ball and trusted him to make the right decision every time, and he was able to get it going,” forward Jaylen Brown said. “He had some nice up-and-unders in the seam and stuff like that that helped propel us to a win.”

Brown added 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists for Boston.

Tyrese Maxey had 33 points to lead the 76ers, but they did not come easily. The All-Star guard played 43 minutes and made just 12 of 34 shots. Philadelphia was without star center Joel Embiid (oblique).

“He didn’t have a ton of layups, didn’t have a ton of free throws,” Mazzulla said of Maxey. “I thought he obviously missed some good shots, but when you have the ball as much as he did, I thought we did a really good job just being disciplined, defending without fouling, keeping him out of transition.”

The Celtics improved to 40-20, with just 22 games remaining in the regular season. After the game, there was a visible reminder of what could be on the way.

Star forward Jayson Tatum, who could be nearing a return from last May’s Achilles injury, sat at his locker and laughed and joked with team staffers. He also posted the latest clip from the NBC docuseries about his comeback on his social media accounts.

Jayson Tatum, who has yet to play this season, liked what he saw from the Celtics bench.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

For now, of course, the Celtics continue to plow forward without him. On Sunday, Boston quickly wiped away an early 10-point deficit behind Queta. He registered five offensive rebounds in the opening period, and flashed an unusual amount of offensive creativity during his dominant second quarter.

During one stretch, he danced through the lane for a basket, converted a putback, then dazzled the crowd by trailing a fast break, taking a pass from Brown, and converting an acrobatic scoop shot that gave Boston a 40-35 lead.

“We don’t want him to get too carried away with some of those,” Brown said, smiling. “But he was converting them tonight and it looked good.”

Queta reminded everyone that much of his value comes from his defensive work when he swatted a Kelly Oubre Jr. shot out of bounds, and he received a rare standing ovation when he checked out moments later.

Neemias Queta's performance put a smile on Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla. — Neemias Queta’s performance put a smile on Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

Finally, after a well-executed two-for-one opportunity, Brown found Baylor Scheierman, who played with a splint on his broken left thumb, in the right corner; he hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave Boston a 62-50 lead at the break. Scheierman gave a high thumbs-up with his bandaged digit.

The Celtics led by 16 early in the third quarter, but the 76ers continued to push back. Three-pointers in the final minute by Quentin Grimes and Maxey made it 89-83 at the start of the fourth.

The 76ers trailed by 6 with four minutes left in the fourth quarter but missed their next five shots, any one of which could have put real pressure on Boston.

With 2:56 left, Queta converted a layup as he was fouled, stretching the lead back to 105-97. He received ‘MVP’ chants for the second time in the quarter when he went to the foul line. Then, with 1:56 left, he put an exclamation point on his memorable night by grabbing yet another offensive rebound and throwing down a two-handed dunk that made it 109-98.

“I thought Neemi matched and exceeded the [76ers] physicality,” Mazzulla said.

Jaylen Brown has become the leader of the Celtics while Tatum has been away. Will Tatum returning cause locker-room drama?

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.

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Bruins Believe They ‘Didn’t Do Enough’ In Loss To Flyers | NESN

Published

14 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Bruins Believe They ‘Didn’t Do Enough’ In Loss To Flyers | NESN

The Boston Bruins suffered a 3-1 road loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

Boston entered the game in points in eight-straight games, as the Bruins are competing for a playoff spot. However, Boston’s offense struggled on Saturday, as the Bruins scored just once on Dan Vladar, and head coach Marco Sturm felt like the team didn’t do enough to create more scoring chances.

“(Vladar) played really good, he kind of made those saves he needed to,” Sturm said as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage on Saturday. “We just didn’t do enough of a good job being around him or being front of him.”

Although Sturm didn’t like Boston’s play, Vladar still made some key stops when the game was close.

Bruins forward Morgan Geekie had multiple chances and was frustrated that he couldn’t score on any of them.

“Just one of those nights,” Geekie said. “Their goalie played well. Couldn’t quite put it in the spot I wanted to a couple times and Dan made a couple great plays.”

Boston’s lone goal came from Charlie McAvoy, while Jeremy Swayman made 14 saves on 16 shots, as Philadelphia added an empty-netter to secure the win.

With the loss, the Bruins fell to 33-21-5 and are holding onto the final Wild Card spot. Boston will return to the ice at home on Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

More NHL: Charlie McAvoy’s Mother Reveals His Immediate Reaction To Team USA’s Gold Medal Win

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MLB notes: New Red Sox pitching directors looking to keep pipeline flowing

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

MLB notes: New Red Sox pitching directors looking to keep pipeline flowing

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Over the past few years the Red Sox pitching program has been completely transformed.

Since Craig Breslow took over as chief baseball officer, the Red Sox have gone from one of the worst organizations at developing young pitchers to one of the best, and now the club is overflowing with talented arms who are already making their mark in the majors.

That hasn’t gone unnoticed, and this past offseason one of the people most responsible for executing the club’s turnaround — former director of pitching Justin Willard — was hired away by the New York Mets to be their new major league pitching coach.

Now the Red Sox are handing the baton to two others, who they hope can keep the train rolling and ensure the club’s pitching pipeline keeps flowing.

This winter the Red Sox promoted Ben Buck to succeed Willard as the club’s director of pitching while also hiring away Quinn Cleary from the Seattle Mariners to serve as his No. 2. The two have already begun working to make their mark on the organization, though both emphasized that the Red Sox already have a solid foundation in place and that they plan to continue emphasizing Willard’s core tenet of “throwing nasty stuff in the zone.”

“That is the mantra,” Buck said. “Because it is simple to say, our guys remember it, and you can branch off from each one of those words and they become very complex.”

“It’s a perfect one sentence one-liner that really sums up the two big components of being a successful pitcher in the majors,” Cleary said.

Buck earned his promotion after just one year with the organization, joining the Red Sox as a pitching coordinator following the 2024 season after previously serving in a similar role with the New York Yankees. Upon coming to Boston, Buck worked closely with many of the Red Sox’s top pitching prospects, including Payton Tolle, one of the club’s biggest recent minor league success stories who rose from High-A to the majors in just his first year of professional baseball.

“The first time that I talked to him or heard him talk about pitching, I was a lot dumber then (than I am now),” Tolle said of Buck. “He’s one of the smartest guys that I’ve ever been around in the baseball world so to now have him as the head of development, it’s huge.”

Another Red Sox pitcher who Buck has worked with is Garrett Whitlock, serving as the future Red Sox right-hander’s pitching coach during his rookie ball days as a Yankees farmhand.

“I think he’s going to be great for the organization,” Whitlock said. “He’s a very good pitching mind. He’s going to bring a lot of wisdom to the table when it comes to the movement side of things, the preparation, how to build up arms, that kind of thing. He’s very, very good at that.”

Before making the jump to the professional coaching ranks, Buck spent 15 years as a college coach after playing collegiately at Lamar Community College in Colorado and at the University of Utah. He also played a year of independent baseball before spending two years away from the sport working in a poker room, first as a dealer and then as the boss.

That job prepared him for coaching in ways you wouldn’t expect.

“There are a lot of skills that I learned from poker and from running a poker room that I still use to this day,” Buck said. “We had a VIP list of something like 280 VIPs, so attributing people’s names to their faces and not forgetting. Dealing with conflict, like for them this is higher stakes, it’s win or lose money. In some regards (baseball is) win or lose money. They’re putting themselves on the line thinking in bets. What are you willing to risk? What is not worth the risk? And how aggressive are you? How unaggressive are you? All these are transferable skills to life and this job.”

Red Sox assistant director of pitching Quinn Cleary. (Mac Cerullo/Boston Herald)

Cleary’s journey to the Red Sox is equally fascinating.

Just 26 years old, Cleary is only a few years removed from his college playing days at Yale. He has quickly risen through the front office ranks since, first interning at Cressey Sports Performance before landing with the Philadelphia Phillies and then the Mariners, with whom he served as pitching coordinator.

This past offseason the Red Sox hired him as their new assistant director of pitching and head pitching strategist, specifically requesting permission from the Mariners to interview him.

“What a great hire,” Buck said. “Sharp mind, huge feel, I can’t imagine being as young as he is, as smart as he is, with as much feel as he has.”

How has he done it at such a young age?

“I think a combination of being in the right place at the right time,” Cleary said. “I’ve been able to learn from a lot of really good people at all the stops I’ve been at. I hope to continue to do that here.”

Cleary also has a fascinating family history. His grandfather, Bill Cleary, was a member of the gold medal-winning 1960 U.S. Olympic hockey team and was the longtime men’s hockey coach and athletic director at Harvard. His parents were both Harvard athletes too, and his three brothers all attended Harvard as well.

Naturally, Cleary going to rival Yale was a bit of a departure from the family tradition.

“I am like truly the black sheep of my family,” Cleary said. “We joke that I sit at a different table at Thanksgiving but other than that it’s not too bad.”

Cleary described his new role as a hybrid front office and coaching/player development role that helps with both the majors league and minor leagues. He will also be among those assisting injured big leaguers with their rehab process, and he said he hopes to add value wherever he can.

Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey said Buck and Cleary have both been great to work with so far.

“It’s been fantastic, the communication lines are really solid,” Bailey said. “A lot of bright ideas and thoughts and visions, and what’s really good is the open-mindedness and the ability to listen and take in information and what’s worked and what hasn’t worked.”

With three pitchers ranked inside Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list and a huge crop of young arms coming up from the past two years’ pitcher-heavy draft classes, Buck and Cleary find themselves in a much different situation than the one Breslow and Willard inherited after the 2023 season. They said a lot of smart people put in a lot of work to help get the club’s pitching program on the right track, and they hope to build on that progress in the months and years to come.

“Justin did such an amazing job when he was here of laying this unbelievable foundation, things are really going in a real good direction and our job is to search for the one percents and two percents to keep improving,” Buck said. “It’s less about change and more about continuing on the path where evolution can happen.”

Red Sox right-hander Brayan Bello will take the mound in his native Dominican Republic this Wednesday ahead of the World Baseball Classic. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Bello’s big homecoming

Years from now Brayan Bello probably won’t remember his first two starts of spring training, but you can be sure he’ll never forget his next one.

This Wednesday the Red Sox right-hander will take the mound for Team Dominican Republic in a pre-World Baseball Classic exhibition against the Detroit Tigers at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo. Bello has never pitched at the historic stadium before, and getting to pitch there will mark a special homecoming for the 26-year-old.

“It’s going to be my first time after I was a big leaguer that I’m getting to pitch in the Dominican Republic in front of my friends and family, in front of my home country,” Bello said Friday via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “For me it’s going to be very emotional, I’m very excited to be able to pitch there and I’m looking forward to it.”

A native of Samana, a town roughly two and a half hours away from the Dominican Republic’s capital city, Bello hopes to help pitch his country to its second World Baseball Classic title. The Dominican team previously won it all in 2013 and this year features All-Star standouts like Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr., among others.

Hometown kids coming up

Almost anyone who grows up playing baseball around New England dreams of one day playing for the Red Sox, and this spring several local standouts hope to take the next step in their journey towards making that dream a reality.

Shea Sprague and Jack Winnay, both recent draft picks by the Red Sox with Boston-area ties, are among the many minor leaguers populating the Fenway South complex this spring. Sprague, a BC High alum from Hanover who starred at the University of North Carolina, is entering his second full professional season after being selected as a 13th-round pick in 2024. Winnay, a Newton resident who starred at Belmont Hill and Wake Forest, is in his first spring training after going as a 13th-round pick himself last summer.

Brian Abraham, the Red Sox’s senior director of player development, said the organization is really excited about both, noting that the pair also played for the same travel ball club as his son, North East Baseball.

Sprague appeared in 22 games in his first pro season, earning a promotion from Low-A to High-A along the way and finishing with a 3.82 ERA in 96 2/3 innings, which was the eighth-highest innings total of any Red Sox minor leaguer.

“Really good pitchability,” Abraham said of the 23-year-old lefty. “Trying to increase his fastball velo, because he already has a good pitch mix and has a good way on the mound with his mix.”

Winnay debuted as a professional weeks after being drafted and made a strong first impression, batting .321 with a home run, three doubles and 11 RBI in only 15 games at Low-A Salem. The 22-year-old infielder will be a candidate to start this season at High-A, and Friday he was among a handful of minor leaguers who traveled up to North Port with the big league club.

“Jack has been playing mostly third but can play first, has really good power, moves well, really exciting I think,” Abraham said. “A lot of tools that we like and value.”

Burt signs with Tigers

North Andover’s Max Burt, a former St. John’s Prep and Northeastern University standout, signed with the Detroit Tigers as a minor league free agent this past week. The longtime New York Yankees minor leaguer spent his first eight professional seasons with the organization, playing the majority of that time at Double-A Somerset.

According to the Somerset Patriots, Burt departs as the team’s all-time franchise leader in hits (241), runs (179) and games played (361). The 29-year-old will now get a fresh start as he looks to make a push to the majors with a new organization.

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