While the electric guitar certainly changed pop music over half a century ago and the synthesizer, along with samplers, have changed music in more recent times, few could have seen the latest use of digital devices for musicians. In a scene that appears like something from the cult classic film Revenge of the Nerds, modern musicians are putting to use the Wii remotes from Nintendo to create some astonishingly unique tunes that could never have before been possible. The pairing of hi tech devices and music may not be a new one, but at the 3rd annual City Skies Electronic Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, there was a range of music being shown that brings together such stylings as avant garde space music, IDM and Berlin school techno beats. Out of the bands and musicians that will be show casing their talents, one group that has been raising eyebrows both on and offline call themselves The Wiitles, in homage to the rock group from the United Kingdom that changed the face of pop music back in the 1960′s: The Beatles.
The band bills itself as the first and only Wii using rock group on Earth and will be bringing what many are describing as ‘geek rock’ to the festival. Collaborating with an electric violinist will bring together a new sound that the band feels has not yet been offered to the world. The Wii remotes have been altered so that buttons can be pressed to call up samples, loops and other effects in order to give the band the power to bring a whole new, more physical, dimension to their electronic performance which might otherwise be more stationary.