The GOOD Music

David Ford - Go to Hell

2008-04-24T01:35:00.004-05:00

I was thinking it was high time I put something on my blog so I was struggling for an idea. I have listened to a lot of good music lately, but this little video on the featured area in YouTube caught my eye. It is David Ford, who is a new guy on the scene and he makes his music entirely by live looping samples. I am a huge fan of live loops and he really makes it work.

And an old time favorite of mine by Dosh!

Namie Amuro - Please Smile Again / Come

2008-03-21T11:51:00.010-05:00

I'm a smoker and I'm trying to quit. I have been cutting back a fair bit over the last few months due to an increasingly bad sore throat situation. Now I have taken that final plunge and am hoping it will stick. I quit smoking once before for about six months. I think if I am to avoid smoking altogether, I will also have to stay away from alcohol. Both times I started smoking were due to the drink and to pretty girls. Good reasons to smoke I'll admit. When I was first in Japan, my initial encounter with foreigners (later to become my family away from home) was at an Okonomiyaki restaurant. One of the girls asked me if I smoked and I truthfully answered, a little bit. That little bit would grow to become a pretty regular habit for the next seven plus years. Today's post is about my days as a smoker sitting at that Okonomiyaki place enjoying convesation with my new sexy friends and listening to my first dose of that infection that is J-pop.

It was a late Japanese autumn in 1999, I would consider the last days of true J-pop. It was a time when Japanese popular music wasn't merely a reflection of the West's music scene. Popular Japanese music was just a little stranger to the ears back in that day - more alien. In that drunken smokey haze of mine I noticed how Japanese pop songs that sounded more like commercial jingles than songs as I knew them. Almost as if the songs were designed by some ad agency to be absorbed by the masses with their insipid yet totally memorable little hooks and choruses. They were pretty awful, and yet I couldn't get them out of my head. Some people get piercings and tattoos and consider it a good pain. Others go to the gym or run a marathon and call that a good pain. And when I first heard Namie Amuro's "Please Smile Again" at that restaurant with my new friends, I realized that Japan is also riddled with all kinds of good pain too. I still remember thinking, "what the fuck is this shit!?" when I first heard this song playing of the radio. The chorus is full of blissfully broken English, "Please smile again! Oh, no no no! Please close to me!". It makes me chuckle every time I hear it and I can't but turn a little red and sing along.

While I didn't know that name of that pop song at the time but I knew if I went to our local video/CD rental place I would be able to track it down. It was a popular single and it was only a matter of time until I found it at one of their listening stations. And so began my quest to find the GOOD Japanese music. It would lead me to find much better stock like UA, Chara and the Fishmans and it still leads me to this day. It's a little embarrassing to admit but my current obsession with music and this blog can be traced directly to that awful little song. I hate it, and I love it. I share it with you and extend my condolences. Cigarettes, beer and Namie Amuro define my first good memories of Japan.

As a bonus let's fast forward six years to Amuro's song, "Come", which despite her latter efforts to become a Missy Elliott, manages to retain the unique innocence of 90's J-Pop.

King Khan & His Shrines - Animal Troupe (?)

2008-03-03T18:21:00.013-06:00

Do you know how much it would take to fill my iPod legitimately? I've seen estimates and they all hover around the $40,000 mark. Forty fucking thousand down-payment on a mansion dollars... you know what I'm not going to do - fill my iPod legitimately. Back in the day when CDs were king, I showed my music collection to my uncle. He asked me (justifiably in retrospect) how much I had spent in music. I thought about it a bit and answered, "$10,000". He looked at me with a hint of disbelief in his eyes and said, "Man, you could of bought a car". He's right. As a guy who owns a $30 Ford Escort, I have put a significant amount of cash into the record industry. What's worse, I don't even listen to any of my $10,000 investment anymore. I've moved on, my tastes have changed, but this baby always needs a new pair of ('83 Nike Air Force 1) shoes.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I received a cease and desist letter from my internet provider telling me to stop downloading "illegal" torrents. Seeing as I share my internet connection with the rest of the household, I couldn't possibly put our connection in jeopardy over my music addiction, so I switched to iTunes. I have since bought around $250 worth of music in the past few months through this service. I have some complaints with iTunes, such as their very incomplete collections and constant pimping of Canadian content (thanks, CRTC). But the real problem for me is still the expectation that I PAY for the music I consume. That may sound petty, but allow me to explain why this is my chief complaint. iTunes "generously" provides you with 30 second samples of the artists' music and while it's alright to get a general idea of an album, it doesn't eliminate the risk of purchasing an album. When, I used to go to a listening station (Tower/Into the Music) I was allowed to sample each song as in depth as I wanted to. The sample was as big as I chose, because songs don't necessarily shine in the 30 second sound bite formula. Intros, outros, songs that span ten minutes are all lost in the 30 second sample. Purchasing content without proper context is a risky proposition indeed. Even if I think I am happy with the iTunes endorsed portion of the tracks I hear, the songs may lose their shine after one or two plays. These risks make me a very cautious customer. In fact, these risks have made me a non-customer. The cost of making me pay for music is ultimately that I don't pay for music. I will go without rather than to have regrets. A gambling man, I am not.

So I begin my journey to find liberated music that doesn't explicitly violate any current laws and blessed be, the marketplace provides. I was recently turned on to music blogs, much like my own but with links to albums on file storage sites like MediaFire, MegaUpload and zSHARE. It's not perfect, many of the sites have hourly d/l limits (Not MediaFire, it rocks!) but with some patience and the right blogs to search from music will be yours once again. My music downloading has hit new highs, as I downloaded no fewer than 12 albums last night from artists I never heard of before. If I find I don't like something, it's no skin off my back, it was free! As a result I have made more great discoveries in one day than I had in my three months with iTunes. No bureaucracy, just music for the masses.

Here's a clip from, King Khan & His Shrines which has been on heavy iPod rotation all weekend. The song is called, Animal Troupe or maybe Had it with you... I honestly don't know what he says when he intros the song, but let it be known whatever it is called, it kicks ass. I didn't even know these guys existed before I visited OngakuBaka, a site dedicated to the most avant music you've never heard but must certainly should. I genuinely want to pay to see King Khan live and I'll pressure all my friends to do the same. Check this video out, the guy is one half garage band legend, one half James Brown. Honestly, I'm a sucker for any band that has a live brass section. King Khan & His Shrines is the reason why it is sometimes more important for music to be heard even if not always bought. And honestly, at $40,000, how could I possibly pay?

Determinations & Prince Buster - Al Capone / Determinations & Ego Wrappin' - A Love Song

2008-02-18T18:45:00.005-06:00

Osaka, Japan is the world's capital of Ska music. I'm sure Jamaica has quite the scene, especially in the 60's and 70's. Punk Ska has come and gone and come back, but for the most part I've never really felt it. Ska should sound like +40 degrees bathed in sunlight and it still does, in Japan. Determinations is a great example of Osaka's massive Ska scene. I am glad to say I've seen the Determinations and the dub-trip-hop inspired side-project Little Yossy Noise Weaver. I wanted to go to a ska show, but none of my friends were hip enough to go with me. I have never really gone out to a club on my own but finally figured I had a choice to make - either see what this Ska business is or go to some lame gaijin dive hating myself. Lucky for me I chose the former.

Ska nights in Osaka are an amazing experience. The crowds are absolutely crazy - and much younger than I had expected. Ska music seems to be particularly big with the college kids and that was exciting for me to see since the music itself would well predate the music my mother was listening to when she was their age. (Brass bands are really huge in Japanese high schools and even though most of those kids don't yet realize it, many are likely to hone their talents in ska bands.) So I get to my first concert and notice everyone is dressed like rude boys and rude girls, clothing that hearkens back to the 50s and I look to the stage and there's like a 12 piece band on a tiny stage. When they started playing I got to experience skanking first hand and I've never looked back. I hope there is a similar Ska scene secretly hidden in wait for me somewhere in Winnipeg but I don't hold out much hope.

Here are two Determinations videos that give you a look at Osaka's ska scene first hand. One with ska legend, Prince Buster and another with Osaka's jazz darling, Yoshie Nakano of Ego Wrappin'.

Pato Fu - 30.000 Pés / UA - Love Scene

2008-02-17T23:14:00.009-06:00

No!!! This blog is not dead! I swear. I have been busy with preparing a new portfolio. It seems that every six months or so I make a new portfolio for some fancy art school and it kills my blogging for the duration. But many of you people have been suggesting awesome music for me to check out and I have to say you are all on point. Most of the music I have on my iPod is a direct result of reader feedback. I love you guys, you have made my days at work so much richer (I can iPod it all day long at work if I waan). I would like to dedicate this post to Nyuudo. He has some great taste in music and has introduced me to all kinds of music from Chile, Brazil, Spain and France.

Pato Fu is from Brazil and is so good it makes me want to learn Portuguese. It's hip and soulful, fresh and diverse. I just purchased "Daqui Pro Futuro" which was released in fall last year and I find myself listening to it almost every day. I dare say it might be the overall best album I have heard in 2007, likely tied with UA's comeback album Golden Green. I wouldn't likely even have known the name Pata Fu if it wasn't for Nyuudo. Pata Fu is Brazilian for "Duck Fu" which seems to further solidify evidence of my love for any music involving ducks. There is of course a Japanese connection to all this. The lead singer is Fernanda Takai, who happens to be half-Japanese. While living in Japan I learned there is a strong Brazilian community in Japan. Japan and Brazil go way back in terms of trade and over the years both countries have been quite friendly with each other. I wont lie, I always thought the Brazilians in Japan were a little scary but after hearing all the cool music they come out with I think I had them pegged wrong. I regret not making a Brazilian friend or two when I had the chance.

UA's Golden Green is another album I can't seem to put down. UA is one of the first Japanese artists I can say I really got into. One of my goals in life was to see her in concert and I did. Another one of my goals was to collect her entire collection of old 8cm mini-CDs and I got pretty close. UA was on fire for quite a few years but like any self-respecting artist, began to experiment with her sound and released around three albums that were less pop and more like improv Jazz experimentations. I have them but they just don't resonate with me the way her earlier albums did. Then out comes Golden Green and I couldn't expect very much. I even thought twice about even bothering with this new disc, but I am sure glad I did. Golden Green could not exist today if UA hadn't taken some time off of her pop shtick and played around. Golden Green in many respects it the culmination of all that is UA. Out of the 12 or so songs I'd say half of them are perfect. Perfect music. Not a moment, ne'er a split atomic second is wrong. This shit's so smooth, it makes Barry White sound like a jack hammer. I want to call it pop... or jazz, but it's both and it's neither. This album should be in stores in Canada. It needs to be heard. Golden Green isn't as consistent as Daqui Pro Futuro but when it's on, it's like nothing you've ever heard. Honestly, I would have made the entire album 6 tracks and created the perfect extended EP. I love UA, and this album makes it clear why I do.

I hope I get more articles posted in a short time, I have so much to share. But I also have this nagging portfolio to finish. I will try to make time for both.

And for porno.

Jesse Dangerously - Righteous Bad Ass

2007-12-30T16:40:00.001-06:00

I finally managed to back up my old iPod so I felt safe to reinstall iTunes on my computer. A couple of years back one of my friends bought an iPod Mini (remember those?) and didn't know to turn the syncing "feature" off. When she deleted mp3 files from her hard drive to conserve space on her antiquated computer iTunes quickly decided she didn't need those songs on her iPod anymore either. I told my teary-eyed friend (she was teary-eyed quite often) that she would need to turn syncing off to avoid this from happening in the future. Ever since that event I have a very limited trust in Apple's software. While it was a good time to back up the my old 3rd generation iPod, it was basically full and I went to our local Apple retailer to look at the latest and greatest. I came home with a shitty haircut (not from the Apple shop) and an awesome 160 GB iPod Classic. It is not without it's shortcomings, it's a bit slower and has slightly choppy video occasionally but the additional capacity more than makes up for it.

It was also time to use my first iTunes card and see what was available in the store. I was very disappointed with their selection of foreign music while not completely absent it is safe to say it would not pass "The GOOD Music" test. The Canadian version of the iTunes store is so saturated with Canadian content that I gotta assume the CRTC (Canada's FCC) has something to do with it. Canada has some of the most draconian legislation when it comes to minimum Canadian content. In fact, you may not know that Bob and Doug Mackenzie were a sarcastic jab at the CRTC's content rules. It's much easier to complain about these rules when it means you must choose between Nickelback, The Hip and Rush but at least the iTunes store has a very very thorough selection to choose from. While on the iTunes site I picked up a Hifana single, a Four Tet EP and a new album by Halifax-born, Alberta resident, Jesse Dangerously.

I first came across Dangerously while reading an article from an excellent site called Hipster, Please! The article did little more than mention him alongside a number of other Nerdcore rappers but it did say he was from Canada and so I figured I would give him a try. It's too smooth to be Nerdcore and too nerdy to be mainstream. Indie hip hop at its finest with a strong nineties influence. Undeniably Canadian in prose, Dangerously is really darn tight with good production and high replay value. So much so, that I decided to make him the first artist I have ever paid for a bunch of ones and zeros coming through my tubes.

Top Ten Places for the GOOD Music

2007-12-27T18:44:00.000-06:00

“Closed from today.” That’s what the sign said at the music store in our mall. I never bought anything there so I guess I’m part of the problem but it’s still sad to see our little shitty music store go. I even recently thought about how I had been picking up the latest issues of Exclaim! Magazine for free and reading them in our local library, a nice escape that made our little town feel more like a big city. The year end seems a fitting time to write a top ten list unless your cracked in which case it’s always time to write top ten lists. Here are my top ten sources for new music. They are written in a rough chronology from oldest to newest. While keeping in mind that older sources are not always given up for the new, I can’t help noticing how the sources become digital over time. My initial sources depend on close relationships while the later rely on the faceless collective, I suppose resistance was futile.

1. Friends – High school friends did a lot to turn me on to different kinds of music. Grasshopper, the early Chris Sheppard mixes, Skinny Puppy, and the Digital Underground were always personal faves.

Chimo Bayo

2. Used Music Stores, Pawn Shops, and one Yakuza-Run Adult Movie Store – Into the Music was my personal Mecca for new music. A time just before file sharing became the norm I remember sitting along side punks and hippies at the listening stations. Every disc in the store could be listened to for as long as you wanted. People always respected the line ups and would usually make sure everyone had a decent chance to have some time with their music. I learned all about break beats at that place.

Fast forward several years to beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon in Japan. I was going for a walk in an unexplored part of my neighborhood. My favorite thing about living in Japan is that you can explore an area for months even years and think you have seen it all only to find a road you’ve never traversed and make the discovery of a lifetime. That Sunday was one of those times. I stumbled upon a small video store (which I later found out was run by Yakuza) and went in. There was a small front area which rented the standard blockbuster movies and a massive back area that rented out porno. They also sold used music CDs. Thing is they were tired of selling CDs in the store and decided to clear out their inventory as quickly as possible by slashing their prices to virtually free. This is the sort of stuff I dream about (literally). I walked out with armloads of discs, about fifty. And I didn’t spent more than a dollar a piece.

3. Radio – I’ve talked about my favorite radio stations before so I won’t go into too much detail but sufficed to say I wouldn’t know about Aiden Baker, The Books or Broken Teeth without them.

Broken Teeth

4. Trading Tapes Online – It was the dawn of the World Wide Web and I was a big fan of Skinny Puppy thanks to some high school friends. I craved all things industrial at the time and joined the “Smothered Hope” Skinny Puppy newsgroup. I asked some people on the news group if they would be willing to send me some mix tapes of their favorite music and to my surprise I got no fewer than ten tapes in the mail. Thanks to these mix tapes I learned about John Oswald and Negativland.

John Oswald

5. Art school – In art school I met a number of like-minded individuals who craved music above all else. None of us were exactly sure what it was that we wanted to hear so we all did a lot of personal research and shared out findings amongst ourselves. University taught me the fine art of Pan Sonic, Tom Waits, Tortoise and Godspeed, You Brave Emperor, saying nothing of the countless local bands that I love to this day.

Pan Sonic

6. Music Magazines – Uptown, Exclaim! and the Manitoban were a few of the free rags I could pick up at school or downtown. Between the three publications I had about all the music news I could digest between classes. While well known to me at the time I still clearly remember Kevin Matthews defending Beck’s fine Mutations album.

7. Peer to Peer – Napster got me interested, Audiogalaxy had me hooked. In my opinion Audiogalaxy had the best single song downloading system ever created. Look for a song, almost ANY song not matter how obscure and just download it. It worked flawlessly 99.99% of the time. Audiogalaxy’s song recommendation system is still the best I’ve ever seen. It introduced me to loads of cool music like BT, Röyksopp and Japan’s Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. After much legal pressure Soulseek was forced to go legit and is now known as the all but forgotten Rhapsody. A few months later, enter SoulSeek currently the best option for finding new music especially if you have a few friends on the network. And of course we cannot forget about the all mighty torrents.

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant

8. Night Clubs – I did a LOT of clubbing during my first stint in Japan and found out a lot about cool local DJs. I went with a crew of two other people and no doubt we were known for a long time as those three mushroom weirdos that never talked to anyone. People’s curiosity was piqued and after about a year became quite famous with the expat regulars. Thanks to my time a club regular I was introduced to the likes of DJ Shinkawa, Energy Dai, and Yoji Biomehanika. My second go at Japan was much more subdued due to my age and new found fear of mushrooms and a general disinterest in hard house. I spent a lot of time at more chilled out affairs like Ska clubs and turntablist events.

DJ Kentaro

8. You Tube & MySpace – You Tube is the reason this site exists. It’s no fun to write about a band without giving you a sample of how they sound. One day, I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of all the cool Japanese bands on my iPod and send it to all my friends complete with a list of links to videos found on You Tube. Problem was that the list became so huge that I knew there was no way anyone was going to go through all of it. The solution became The GOOD Music.

Lately, I have been looking at MySpace as a source of finding new bands. Simply pick a band you like, find them on MySpace and look at their friends list. Many of the people on the list will likely be other bands that have similar styles. How else would I know about Water Water Camel, Lullatone and the Cuntfaces?

Lullatone

9. Podcasts – When I am really hard up for new stuff I can always count on music podcasts for inspiration. I really enjoy Live365, imagine radio for ever possible niche you can imagine. It’s helped me connect with lots of unknown indie bands from all over the world. Podcast are to blame many of my recent favorites like Tomato Star, My Little Airport, and my recent love affair with Nerdcore hip hop.

MC Frontalot

10. All other websites – Like a brave explorer, I am never scared to dig through the dark recesses of the web to come up with bold new content. Some of it is obvious like this great new juke box site called Songza. It has an easy to use interface that scours the web for any manner of streaming audio and plays it like magic. Certainly, the weirdest place I’ve gone for music recently is the adult web cam site, Live Jasmine. Bear with me for a moment and I’ll explain myself. Live Jasmine is a site that streams live video of half naked chicks from all over the world to you computer in hopes that someone will pay to see one of the chicks stick things in their butts and things of that nature. A typical web cam will have some poor Filipina lying on a bed listening to music while trying to lure some lonely, rich American into paying for a private “chat”. I would go into these rooms and if I heard a song that I was interested in I would simply ask the girl what the name of the band was. Every now and then someone would bite and I would have a gem like “Ordertaker” by Parokya Ni Edgar to share with you all. System, anyone?

Parokya Ni Edgar

Reuben - Christmas Is Awesome

2007-12-24T22:05:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Adolph Hitler - Born to Be Alive

2007-12-24T01:21:00.000-06:00

I own a pair of kick ass Hugo Boss shades that I'm very proud to say George Clooney wore in the Coen Brothers movie, Intolerable Cruelty. I have no way of being certain that George Clooney actually wore Hugo Boss shades in that movie but that's the story I tell because who's ever going to dispute it. The other day one of my co-workers took a look at my shades and said, "You know Hugo Boss designed the military uniforms for the Nazis." A simple search on the internet proves legitimacy to this claim. From now on whenever I show off my George Clooney shades I'll be sure to let everyone know that my fashion statement would have been shared with the Schutzstaffel had they been made during Hitler's reign. While I was doing research (ie: Google search) I stumbled upon a video that was so great that it had to be shown on this fine Christmas Eve.

Now the title of today's post is slightly misleading as the song does not come from Hitler's own vocal chords, but the juxtaposition of the images and music does owe a certain credit to the Fuhrer. At first, what you are about to see will probably seem cheap and childish and to a point I will agree but beneath it I can see much more. This video exists in many variations on the web. The original is credited to Johan Söderberg of Sweden. The video below is seen as a reprise by DJ Farouk, who claims the original is much better. I disagree and even tho the video does seem to fall a little out of sync I believe the pacing and energy in this reprise is more suited to the music, which happens to be a little disco number by the Disco Kings.

Johan Söderberg has lip-synced some of the most hated and loved people in history to some of the most hated and loved songs. So, while you will probably find this video cheap and childish you will also find it catchy and that is the source of it's power. I have been to many an art gallery in my time and have yet to see a video that is a poignant as Hitler singing Born to Be Alive. Sure, war is bad, I get it, so showing me a bunch of depressing images of war victims is nothing more than predictable pablum. Show me a video of a war that makes me want to dance and now I have something to think about. The real interesting video art can't be found in galleries anymore, it is on You Tube, Newgrounds and You're the Man Now, Dog. Good luck finding it, though.

My little article is finished now, but I can't sign off without at least mentioning another Hitler video that has spawned a number of video responses and IS pretty childish (and really funny). If you have heard about Microsoft banning users from X-Box Live for having modded systems than you got to watch this.

Midori - Doping Noise Kiss/Anta wa Dare Yo

2007-12-23T01:06:00.000-06:00

My first exposure to a big punk rock festival was unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life. I was with a couple of good friends and we were all pretty into it. One moment really stood out and I still remember it quite clearly, the singer of one of the bands put a condom on his head and managed to get it pulled down under his nose but still above his mouth. In between screaming, "I'm a lousy lover, I'm a lousy lay" he managed to inflate the dube (haven't used that word since grade six) little by little until it exploded. I was pretty young at the time so while slightly traumatized by the whole affair, I was old enough to know how awesome this shit really was. This display of self-deprecation was my first experience of watching Much Music. A little research has taught me that the song was "Lousy Lover" originally by the "Minimalist Jug Band" as covered by "Look People". But as Q and others no doubt have said, "All good things must come to an end". These days, watching Much or MTV are little more than watching late night infomercials - carefully marketed, being ubercertain not to take any risks and making certainly that everyone is equally entertained. The problem with everyone being equally entertained however is that no one is really that entertained at all. People with condoms on their heads is a guarantee that someone is going to change the channel. Of course, that person is clearly stupid. That is why I am so happy to know that there is still one channel out there that is going to take risks and play some cool stuff, and that channel is Japan's Space Shower TV. I can say with a fair degree of certainty that every Japanese video I have reviewed on this blog, no matter how weird, has at one time been brought to the masses via Space Shower. Today's band is no exception.

Midori is a screamo-punk-pop-noh-jazz fusion band. All that might seem impossible for one band to do, but Midori manages to consistently fit all those genres into each of their songs. Mariko Goto is the bands vocalist and often plays guitar. At times her voices can be sweet and other times it sound like Meowth from Pokemon. Not enough vocalists sound like Pokemon characters. Yoshitaka Kozeni's drumming posture at times nods to traditional taiko drumming. Finally Hajime's piano playing provides a dramatic backdrop to all the songs. It's unpredictable, it's annoying and stupid, and most importantly it's amazing fun. How many other bands can claim to be screamo-punk-pop-noh-jazz fusion? I dare say none.

What I find particularly interesting about these guys is how popular they have actually become. Largely due to their fair shake on Space Shower. Last year Space Shower even gave them a live special. My friend Moorieman summed it up best when he said "Noise is beautiful again". The lyrics and music are so desperate, honest, strange and exciting that in the end it really is truly beautiful. Midori's second album entitled, well, "Second" is without a doubt my favorite album of 2007. Today's videos are from that album.

TEZ - Sexyback

2007-12-18T02:38:00.000-06:00

I like Justin Timberlake. I always have and probably always will. When I first heard Sexyback I knew I had to do an entry about the song on this blog. I have on two occasions started writing a Sexyback post only to give up because despite how much I may like him, I know blogging about Timberlake is fucking lame. However, the gods smiled upon me today when I came across this video. A slightly sarcastic beatboxed reinterpretation of that fine, but quickly annoying song by TEZ of France's CocoRosie. Say what you will but Bambury would have played it.

That's my post, there's nothing more to say. I just had to get this out of my system (and off my chest) and I can get back to business.

Manu Chao - Clandestino/Mr. Bobby/Rainin' in Paradize

2007-12-16T20:35:00.000-06:00

People on a few occasions now have asked me where I find my music. Today's artist I found on the famous YTMND site about a year ago. YTMND, for the uninitiated, is a site that juxtaposes an image (either still or a looped animation) with a looped sound sample. I forget the specifics of the particular YTMND I was "watching" that day but it had a clip from the song "Mr. Bobby" looped in the background. I thought it was pretty chilled much like a lot of the Japanese dub I was listening to at the time. A little research revealed it was by a French artist named Manu Chao. Chao is a world famous musician but you probably have never heard of him unless you listen to the French 91.1 FM CKXL in Winnipeg. It's another one of those stations I painfully sit through in order to find something new and interesting. I know there is a split infinitive in the last sentence but that's the way I roll.

Posers drink Perrier instead of San Pellegrino; posers listen to Bob Marley instead of Manu Chao. Ok, that may be taking things too far but trust me if you've ever drank Perrier and thought it tasted like fermented horse urine, seriously give the San P a try, I can't stress this enough. Consider uncapping a big bottle of the stuff late one Sunday morning and put some Manu Chao on in the background and you can't have a bad day, it's impossible.

If you've heard Mr. Bobby than to a large extent you've heard Bongo Bong, Je ne t'aime plus, and Homens. They all use the same essential musical backdrop and two of the aforementioned songs became singles. Chao does this a LOT in his music and lyrics throughout many albums. It's funny that a guy can get famous for regularly lifting the same samples of himself and use them over and over again in new songs.

While spending most of his years in France, Chao is originally from Spain. His musical style includes dub, reggae, and many French and Latin sub genres. He also sings in a number of different languages including Spanish, French, English and Arabic. Chao's inclusive nature speaks to his overall Punk attitude. Listen to even his sweetest of songs and it's still not hard to imagine him pulling out a gun and shooting you in the face. No wonder the Zapatistas love this guy so much. Today is a rare triple shot of Manu Chao tunes. I know that's more than I usually include but even getting it down to three was pretty hard. The clips range from oldest to newest, the last being the new single from the 2007 album, La Radiolina.

Zazen Boys - I Don't Wanna Be With You

2007-12-14T14:19:00.000-06:00

I bought a $20 iTunes card for the first time last night. I announced to the clerks at the 7-Eleven, "This is going to be the first time I am going to purchase some MP3s legitimately, I must be getting old". This was welcomed by some laughter by a guy who must have been around 19. I'm sure he's never bothered to pay either. Truth is, there is a lot of music I can't even find by illegitimate means and I am curious if spending the cash will yield any better results. I uninstalled iTunes a year ago because as much as I like my iPod, I sure don't like Apple's software very much. After I back my iPod's data up on my external hard drive (presumably later tonight if I don't get too lazy) I'll reinstall that cumbersome beast back onto my computer and try it out. The problem is, while iTunes is billed as the world's largest music store, I don't have access to music outside of North America. The record companies keep iTunes separated by countries and so if I want music from Japan (surprise surprise) I need a Japanese iTunes card. I don't think I have to explain why this is stupid from a consumer's perspective. Record companies want me to buy music as opposed to steal it, but offer me no legitimate means by which to acquire the stuff I want. I know my musical tastes are a little fringe but I don't see why making music they already have available to everyone could really hurt their bottom line. I will certainly try this whole buying music online thing out before I rush to judgment and will give you my perspective in my next entry.

When David Byrne is cruising down the streets of LA in his all-too-sensible sports car while sipping on some Gin and San P, what is he blasting on his stereo? Probably today's entry. "I Don't Wanna Be with You" by the Zazen Boys continues where the relatively unpopular third album, "III" leaves off. This song is the first single for the upcoming album so while it does set the tone for the new album, previous efforts would show it doesn't necessarily mean the band hasn't got any more surprises up their collective sleeves. Audience reactions range from "It's all down hill from here on out. :(" and "Fuck you, Mukai." to "Zazen Boys has only ever taken steps in the right direction. This song is hilariously awesome." I, for one lean towards the latter sentiment.

I was never a fan of Mukai Shutoku's first and extremely popular band, Number Girl. It always played off as pretentious and a bit too academic for my liking. Honestly, I would likely have a different opinion if I had been in Japan when they were still together. Mukai must also feel a little like I do and the best way he can deal with it is by putting together a band that (recently) is so over the top pretentious that it's become kinda cool. This is by no means a silly band, they are as earnest as ever but seem aware of how it may be perceived by a younger, more cynical audience. The video is so over the top with it's seriousness that it becomes critical of itself and the result is pretty funny and pretty awesome too. I am looking forward to seeing what else Zazen will come up with on their upcoming album release, a release that I likely will never find on the North American iTunes site.

Los Mono - Promesas / Ahli Fiqir - 2x5

2007-12-09T23:48:00.002-06:00

I'm a sucker for music I can't understand. I attribute this to my youth listening to Brave New Waves, a program the played on CBC from midnight till 4 am. CBC in their infinite wisdom decided a program that had been playing for over twenty years was no longer worth keeping on the air and axed the show in March. That's one less reason to want to be Canadian I have to admit. I'm going to have to buy an Olde English 800 (in a brown bag natually) and pour it on the steps of the rotting corpse that is CBC. Nightstream, BNWs replacement seldom really pushes the boundaries to the same extremes and so I have turned to Power 97 for my midnight trek home from work. Monday is The Ongoing History of New Music with Allen Cross, Tuesday is Punkorama with Kristan (a little disconcerting in a blizzard, but worth it to say I heard The Locust on P97), Wednesday is The Magical World Of Rock with Danko Jones, and Thursday I'm fucked. As much as I appreciate 97s late night lineup, none of this still holds a candle to what I once knew.

So yeah, I'm a sucker for music I can't understand and after a multi-month long hiatus I present two decent efforts from two countries whose languages I do not understand. One has monkeys, the other quacking ducks. I have taken this whole hipster attitude to it's inevitable conclusion, I only listen to music that no one else wants to hear. Sorry.

The first one is Promesas by the Chilean supergroup Los Mono. I call them a supergroup because that's what it says next to the video on the You Tube site. However I think it's kinda super if not only cute. It's b-boy, that's for sure and it's got a guy dancing in a hall with a morphing robo-monkey head and I'll be damned if that's not a little super. If you hurry you can still make your own version of the video and win a prize (not sure what that prize is) but hurry because the drawing is January 1st.

The next video is 2x5 by Ahli Fiqir (which means "Thinking Men"), I am so impressed that I didn't even have to double check the spelling on that one. One of my goals in life is to find a group from every country (in particular Asia, where everyone is accused of being tone deaf) that I think is pretty cool. Ahli Fiqir is from Singapore and it fits the bill quite well. Hell, the chorus is "quack quack quack quack quack quack quack quack quack" and I think that is a duck call and not something that Singaporean ganstas say.

YMCK - Magical 8-bit Tour, Go YMCK, Go!

2007-03-02T00:20:00.000-06:00

Today was a snow day, which meant the highways were simply too crappy to drive on and I could play hooky from work. This suited me just fine because it gave me a chance to play with my brand new toy, the R4 Revolution for DS Supercard! To those of you new to the wonderful world of grey market products from China, the R4 allows me to download any game or homebrew software I want onto a Micro SD card and play them on my Nintendo DS. I have always been fascinated by these almost but not quite illegal ways to exploit gaming hardware.

When I was just a young lad of say, 22 or so I remember getting my first modchip for the original Playstation. It was a snowy winters day not unlike today. On campus I had seen advertisements for a company called Modchip Canada and I decided to give them a call. The man on the phone told me to bring my system and gave me the route to his shop. His shop turned out to be a big, brand new house on the outskirts of the city. He told me that kids everywhere were buying these things hand over fist and that this was the house that modchips built. He soldiered a chip onto my motherboard in a few seconds and my days of booking computer labs with the sole purpose of pirating games had begun. I'm not really a gamer per say; my game was in the act of piracy. I enjoyed the challenge of getting what I wasn't supposed to have and unlike my shady run-ins with the music industry, it basically ended in huge spindles of unplayed games. I wasn't eating the meat - this was strictly trophy hunting.

The thing that makes the DS exploit more interesting to me is the sheer power stuffed into my little DS. The wi-fi, the touch screen, the microphone and the all around portability of the device. There are a whole slieu of possibilities built into this thing that are being developed by homebrew designers that can only be made available by having such a supercard as I now own. Whether I will use this card to any real end remains to be seen, but at the $45 Canadian I got it for, it's a chance I'm willing to take. Not to mention the undeniable novelty of playing a round or two of the C-64's Gianna Sisters on my DS.

Seeing that my head is in the game universe today, let me introduce you all to the 8-bit Bossanova kings of Japan, YMCK. Yellow, magenta, cyan and black. YMCK is the 8-bit pop unit formed by Midori, Yokemura and Nakamura. The most prominent feature of the band is the 8-bit sound that reminds people old game consoles, which attracts the enthusiastic support from wide range of generations. The 1st album "Family Music" released in 2004 made a big hit and made their popularity unassailable. The groups follow-up album, "Family Racing" is slightly less inspired yet bravely continues in the nostalgic path established by the first. YMCK also does a wide range of activities, such as remix works, video game sound tracks, DJ performances and development of 8-bit sound plug-in software. Today's video come from their first and second albums, repectively.

Enjoy the lo-fidelity.

LFO - Freak

2007-02-22T18:36:00.000-06:00

I am happy to see my site is getting some exposure out here in the wide world of web. Recently, I googled the name Rockasoo and found a couple of exotic links to this site. This Russian website linked to my review of Yamayo which made me pretty happy although I have no idea what he or she said about it, my knowledge of Cyrillic is shaky at best. Better yet, Ito-key from Tomato Star attempted to translate my review of his music into Japanese. While my Japanese isn't too good, my good friend Kagari was kind enough to tell me a bit about it, here is what she said,

"He said a GAIJIN wrote about Tomato Star in his Blog. I used the yahoo translation website to translate his review and it turned out really funny...." I read the Japanese translation and some part made no sense. Actually it was hilarious!!!! He probably copied and pasted your whole review and translated it. Like the phrase "has his shit together" was literally translated into "when he has his shit with him." The Japanese was sooooooooo unnatural! But I think that was the point. Maybe he was trying to translate it seriously for himself at first, but while he was at it, the word-by-word yahoo translation came out so funny, he just pasted on his blog. He's definitely doing it on purpose.

So I'm sorry to say, but the translation was not even close to what you said in your blog. BUT, I think everyone who read it (and who understands Japanese) laughed their heads off. I know I did!"

Thanks for the insight Kagari, and I'm glad that Ito-key could have a laugh with my less than glowing review. I have really come to enjoy a lot of his tunes and listen to him all the time.

Today's video is Freak by LFO. I saw them at the 2003 Electraglide in Osaka a few days after I got out to Japan (the second time), Mark Bell can be pretty cool when he wants to be. The song made me want to freak much like the school girls in this video. Kinda scary if you know what I look like. I'm gonna keep things short today as I am gonna look for some DS ROMS for my new toy, the SuperCard Lite (MicroSD). Sorry for the shitty review, Mark.

ZOOBOMBS - Funky Movin', LIMITED EXPRESS (has gone?) - Tiger Rock

2007-02-17T20:03:00.000-06:00

I have seen dozens of concerts while in Japan and none could rock out harder than the Don Matsuo. I first got interested in Matsuo when I was at my favorite hangout, that being Tower Records. I was at one of the hundreds of listening stations when I came across the new Limited Express (has gone?) disc. I had listened to these guys before but didn't buy the CD, they were pretty strange. But I had never completely forgotten about them and actually wanted another listen. I listened and grabbed their "limited" edition of Sacrificial Jesus Child. Is it good? Well, I guess that depends on your definition of the word but it is notably strange. The Tower Records listening stations usually feature three different artists along roughly the same vein, so if you like one disc, there are two more that may also be to your liking. This is why I loved the Tower so much, even at the end of my three years of solid research I didn't know nearly all there was to know and Tower was good at filling in the gaps. The second disc below Limited Express was by a guy named "Don Matsuo". At the time I didn't realize this was the frontman for the Zubons/Zoobombs (Zubons means pants in Japanese) but wow that shit ever rock.

I listened to the whole album, "O-re-ha-si-na-i-yo?" once, strolled around the store and listened to it again. I saw Matsuo solo during his "I'm No. 1" tour in Osaka's Fandango (good luck finding the entrance) and it was a some crazy fun. What's more his solo album featured the lyricist and the guitarist from Limited. At a time when Japanese music is known more for it's watered down pop than straight up no nonsense rock n' roll Matsuo really is a breath of fresh air. I e-mailed Don (who speaks a fair bit of English, yay!) the next morning at work to tell him how much I enjoyed the concert and he replied that same day. Please remember that this is in the middle of his tour and he found time and energy to think in English just for me. He'll always be number one, innovation, professionalism and love of his fans! Where Limited Express is a sort of post-modern stream of consciousness accident waiting to happen, the Don's effort proved that Express can play straight(ish) Rock and Roll. Zoobombs have toured all over North America and Australia with Flaming Lips and Jon Spencer and it's really a marriage made in heaven. They have a pretty big cult following all over the world. The Zoobombs will be touring in Canada later this month and all of March so if you are in Toronto or Quebec please check their MySpace page and try to get to their show. No chance to see them in Manitoba, the country's armpit as it were. So while I can't find a video from that album I picked up that day at Tower Records, I thought it would be fun to show you samples from both Limited Express (Has Gone) and the Zoobombs. Divide each by two and add them together and you're pretty close. Enjoy.

JASON FORREST - War Photographer/Steppin' Out

2007-02-11T01:50:00.000-06:00

I am starting to think the one-two video combos that have been showing up in more and more posts is going to become a regular feature in my blog. As this thing continues to grow and evolve it's becoming more apparent that one video does a pretty poor job of highlighting talented artists. To get a feel for the range of these musicians one really needs a minimum two examples of their work. Of course I doubt this is going to happen 100% of the time but when I feel one isn't enough, two will do nicely.

On my way home from a late after work drink, I was listening to the radio when I heard "Donna Summer" as I've never heard her, erm him before. I don't much go for the disco on the whole but some of the elements can go a long way when mixed sparatically with hardcore, acid and a wide assortment of non-over-the-counter hooks and jabs. That's something I learned after the bar from a visionary going by the name Jason Forrest. Stealing generously from the fountain of disco (amongst a vast number of other genres), Germany's Forrest is a master at disturbing and contorting it into his own brand of cock rock disco. Funny then that happens to be the name of the label he created, Cock Rock Disco. Like the label implies, Forrest may be slightly irreverent at times in his homage to the gods of disco but that doesn't make him insincere. This is the brand of breakcore noise terrorism that tastes more like fun than a reich-inspired experiment in cold sample crunching.

Up until 2004, Forrest recorded under the name 'Donna Summer' which is someone he's not, though an apparent fan. Other bands on his label following his vision go by cheeky names like 'Duran Duran Duran' and 'Dev/nul'.

Enjoy the sample chasing that is the magic of Jason Forrest in the two groovalicious tracks that rock straight from the crotch.

HALCALI - Girigiri Surfrider / Strawberry Chips (Tanaka Chigai Mix)

2007-02-07T03:53:00.000-06:00

Last night I had a dream I was back in Japan teaching English in some massive school. This isn't the first time I've had a version of this dream. Part teacher, part student and usually a bit disoriented I generally wander from class to class pretending like I know what I am doing. I guess that's not too far from the truth in my past experiences. Over four years of this, you get pretty good at faking it. In one of my past dreams I found myself trying to walk up a flight of stairs. These stairs seem typical at first but as I begin to ascend everything becomes wrong. This feeling of vertigo takes over and they begin to feel too steep and suddenly too shallow and back again. They seem narrow and unwielding going on forever almost disappearing from underneath my feet. I struggle as the fabric of reality seems to be closing in on me and almost crawling, with my last breath make to the top... or the bottom. Too much has been lost in time to figure where I am but at least I'm there. Last night, in my school I knew once again, for me to make it to the class I'm supposed to be at, I'd have to traverse those steps again. This time, however I have a plan. The school is so unimaginably huge that I can use my powers as a stupid gaijin to avoid them altogether. I stumble into what turned out to be another English class filled with senior students. I take a seat at one of the desks and find out that the students are starting a project in which they are to write a short story. My mind wanders only to realize that the bell has already rung and I woke up.

On some innocent level, I suppose that influenced my decision to highlight one of Japan's more interesting teen duos, Halcali. Halcali arrived on the scene as the winners of a competition put on by the members of Rip Slyme, a well known Japanese Hip Hop group. When the tweens first entered the contest, they claimed they didn't even know what Hip Hop was. The name Halcali comes from the combination of the names of the two members. The stage names of HARUKA (はるか) and YUKARI (ゆかり) are combined to form the collective name. Rip Slyme, picked them from talent competitions held around Meguro (the girls' hometown) area in search of creating a new manufactured group. A trend I have noticed in the naming of many Japanese bands is the choice to use a name that cannot be said correctly in Japanese. Halcali is usually pronounced as "Haru-kari" by the masses.

The resulting 2003 album BACON was certainly a step above your typical manufactured fare. The production of that first album is full of a mixture of cute, catchy, eccentric and the downright weird - all while never straying to far from the rap stylings of these two young girls, one still in Junior High and the other just beginning High School. Their rhymes are pretty fresh referencing everyone from Al Pacino (multiple times) to Dragon Ball to Slick Rick. Unfortunately, future releases have failed to recapture the sounds of youth that made the first album such a joy to listen to. The second release suffered as each track was produced by a different artist and the resulting lack of cohesivenesses becomes kind of grating after a while. All the singles released since also suffer from a lack of the signature Halcal sound. I was hoping for something of a Cibo Matto part II by now but am beginning to think I'll have to settle for a watered down version of Yuki. While that's not entirely a bad thing, it's not nearly as interesting as the path I would have chosen. For literal day by day updates on the group in English check the amazing HALCALI day by day blog.

The time I heard about this group was when I went to The Kirin Plaza Art Gallery and saw an exhibit on "Important Japanese Pop Music". I forget the real name of the exhibit or if it even really had one but that was the gist. The first two floors were composed entirely of the history of YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra). It was very cool and I like that band well enough but walking into the third floor gallery was like a wet dream for me (I went three times). It was full of DVD stations where one could sit down and listen to the music as chosen by the curators. Yes, in a country like Japan, a manufactured tween hip hop group is art. Fuck, I miss it. Please enjoy the first (and best) Halcali video I ever saw.

Below that is something I just saw a couple of days ago for the first time. It's a Mash up of the groups song "Strawberry Chips" from their second album along with elements of the first album by Tanaka Chigai. It's weird weird weird. Weirder still, I think it might be an official remix. Google doesn't seem to recognize the existence of Chigai outside this remix, so I guess he's relatively new, if he even exists at all. One commenter on YouTube simply used the word "orgasmic" to describe this video. I hip hope you agree.

CAMILLE JONES - The Creeps

2007-02-06T03:41:00.000-06:00

Ahh, to guilty pleasures. Some times I have my head way far up the ass of obscurity, other times I find myself on the pulse of the next big thing. I'm guessing this is one of those other times. Today's artist hails from Denmark selling her Danish brand of big beat club tracks. Camille Jones is kickin' it up in the US of A via Tommy Boy and the DJ's are having a field day with her latest single The Creeps. I'd say I beat Much Music and MTV to the punch if either of them even bothered to play videos anymore. Oh, well, maybe I beat Space Shower TV... (best music TV out there).

Sporting as many as 10 remixes, The Creeps most certainly will be one of those essential club anthems on every dj's playlist. It's cool, it's simple and it comes in a whole range of flavors to suit your particular tastes. I am partial to the paired down sensibilities of the Gauzz mix but the one that seems to generating a lot of buzz is the full on Fedde Le Grand version. I hate to condemn something that I'm really enjoying right now but this will probably stand in history as one of those tracks that feels like Sexyback in a few weeks, another track I will admit to liking a fair amount. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure you could mix Justin's once was hit right into today's offering.

This entry will be quick and dirty like the song. Below please find the original along with the Fedde Le Grand mix too! Enjoy.

GRASSHOPPER - Make Some Noise (remix...)

2007-02-03T15:36:00.000-06:00

Already an audiophile in high school, my best friend, Aaron and I were just embarking on our lives mission of hunting down strange and exciting music. It was a lot harder back then, being from a small town with no good record shops and mp3s being five years away, we were limited to what we could get off the radio and from other music seekers. We were pretty much addicted to the once popular Canadian Chris Sheppard's Techno compilations (Techno Trip foreva!), but we knew there was more. And Aaron struck bizarre surrealist gold when his friend from Hong Kong, Willy Wong lent him one of his HK faves. Willy Wong was in a strange situation, his mother was a broadcaster at a major Hong Kong network who decided Willy wasn't cut out for HK's cut-throat education system and sent him to Morden, Manitoba with truck-loads of cash to go it alone. He had it all, fast cars, cool clothes, the ability to break pencils with his mind and a CD that would go down in personal history as the most illusive bit of foil and plastic I could never get my hands on; that is until now.

I guess I was well into grade 10 when I first held Grasshopper's 'Make Some Noise (remix...)' album in my hands. I was immediately intrigued by the Asian design sensibility, which was one of the major reasons I went to Japan in the first place. Unfortunately, I can't show you more of the pretty boy trio featured on the inside cover but it all has to be viewed within the context of the CD it held. Grasshopper is a top-performing pop/dance trio loved by fans in Hong Kong and all over the world. Their music consist of mainly Cantonese and Mandarin pop and dance songs, performed by the group’s three male artists, Calvin Choy, Remus Choy and Edmond So.

I have from time to time tried to listen to some of their other music and to be completetly honest I don't dig it at all. What little I've heard is typical syrupy Canto-pop that conforms to formulas used by all the big HK pop names. What sets Philips Records, 'Make Some Noise' apart from their other efforts is the producer's bizarrely innovative juxtapositions of Americana infused into the crooning Chinese trio. This is 'Too Many DJs' in 1992 but with even less regard for copyright infringement. The idea of respecting intellectual property has alway been sketchy one in Hong Kong and never was it more apparent than in the making of these remix tracks. I have sent people on missions to Hong Kong three times with instructions to find this disc and they always turned up empty. I visited a huge Chinese department store in Osaka and asked a guy at a CD shop what the deal was. As far as I could tell the Chinese government has a lot of control over which CDs are to pressed and which are to disappear into the great unknown forever. Seems this disc didn't make the cut. I can say with 100% certainty that not a single sample used on this disc was cleared with anyone and this shit only gets better with age.

Here are just a few of the offending samples I recognize, and believe me it's not nearly half of them. This reads like a time capsule of the early 90's.

Street Fighter II Turbo - every sample on the game, it might seems a bit tired now, but it was the first time.
Chimo Bayo - Asi Me a Gusto Mi, "Chiki Dang Chiki Di Dang Dang"
Funky Drummer - I know, I think it's public domain now.
KLF - some track I don't know by name but it's essential Acid
Bart Simpson - "Yo, what's happ'nin dude?"
C & C Music Factory - "Everybody dance now!"
Gregorian Chant - A bit popularized by Enigma
Miss Piggy or Grover (Not Sure) - "Oh yeah?", definitely Frank Oz
Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman, famous riff that should have stopped this project dead in it's tracks, remember 2 Live Crew?
Flavor Flav - "Yeah, boyee"
Erasure - "I love to hate you!"
Chuck-D - "C'mon y'all!"
Slick Rick(?) - "Ladda dee Laddoo dah"
Nazareth - Opening drum from Hair of the Dog.
Manfred Man - Do wah diddy riff
Public Enemy - "Yo Dre! Wha? Gimme a funky ass bassline" hysterically followed by,
Vanilla Ice/Queen - Ice Ice Baby/Under Pressure sample
Brian Hyland - Yellow Polka-dot Bikini "One, two, three, four, tell the people what she wore"
Homer Simpson - "ehh"
James Brown - "Clap your hands, stomp your feet!"

Not only is this usually funny as fuck, it amazingly really works super-well! People tend to overuse the term so bad it's good but when it's not genuinely good, it falls into so bad it's good. So, like the kids say these days, it's all good!

Nowadays, it's hard to know what Grasshopper are up to. Despite their massive world wide fan base, there's very little English info on them. If pictures are worth all those words than their live show must be the kind of incredible that would make Prince blush. Dressed in the most flamboyant outfits you can imagine (think Village People meets Roman soldiers), the singers dance around and grab at the naughty bits of hot animal-headed Chinese chicks on stage. It's almost as strange as the album I'm reviewing today. Part concert, part fashion show, all pagan ritual, I'd stay till the end just to see if anyone would get sacrificed at this no holds barred orgy.

Reinvigorated by finding this great album, I plan to follow Grasshopper more closely from now on. If that producer ever got out of jail, I'd be curious to know if he has done a follow-up remix album. I know there was another Grasshopper remix album that came out in 1995 called 'Cocktail' but I'm setting myself up for disappointment.

Did Willy get sick of being asked if he was "Weally weally Wong?". Not sure. I lost track of him after high school but he will always be remembered fondly as the guy who brought that fucked up Grasshopper shit into my life. This should be in your collection if you are at all into electronic music, it's a definitive early example of uninhibited, and uncensored stream-of-consciousness mixing from the far east. Will you be playing this at any parties, I doubt it. But if you're at all like me, you'll sleep better at night just knowing it's there.

Click here to listen to a low-quality RealMedia version of the album or better yet e-mail me and see what I can do for you. Seriously, gimme a shout.

JUANA MOLINA - No Es Tan Cierto

2007-02-02T02:00:00.000-06:00

Switching tracks from a predominantly Japanese month, I have decided to look at one of the most haunting voices I have ever heard. A voice I heard for the first time today courtesy of CBC 2's best radio program, by which I mean Brave New Waves. This program which runs every weekday from midnight until 3 am features the most interesting, engaging and potentially life-changing music you ever liable to hear off our waves of air. Luckily, when on evening shift, I finish work just in time to enjoy our country's finest program. I only hope I don't crash my car trying to write down all the musical leads I get as I listen.

Today's entry is Argentina's Juana Molina. Once a well established sketch comedian Molina decided to change career paths after the birth of her first child. At concerts after the release of her first album people were more interested in seeing her do characters from her television programs than hear her sing. By the end of a concert only a handful of people were left. Fortunetly, she didn't five up her dream and ten years later people who come to her shows will often tell her that their parents were fans of her comedic work. It just goes to show that is really is possible to switch gears in the middle of a successful career. She credits Uruguay as a major influence in her music and is even tauted as modern voice for their music. She has toured with the likes of David Byrne all over the world.

I hate to use the lame cliches like tapestry of sound but that most appropriately describes her approach to the musical riddle. It's not so much about a guitar or a drum but the way the instruments are woven together in such a way that it's all one grand measure of sound. Reviews tell me that the lyrics are deeply personal and add another layer of depth to the mix, so it's a shame I can't understand them. Today's track is from her latest album released in 2004 entitled 'Tres Cosas'. The whole album is light and breezy, often embellished with ambient electronic sounds that make this a truly acoustic electronic album. What's more, she does all this herself. You can get the mp3 here or visit her website for this and many other songs.

RIOW89 - No Truth but Batman & Robin

2007-01-31T02:33:00.001-06:00

I am so happy! After my last entry, I actually got an e-mail from KDS6700 thanking me for my feature on his video. I know I shouldn't be bragging but it's just so nice to get a little back every once in a while. I have decided to expand my personal links section to include my Flickr, Hi-5, and Mixi (Japanese blogging/social networking site) pages. Please feel free to drop me a line at any of the above - not that I really update them much. Today's video will continue last entries successful theme: a Mash-Up video and an artist with a name containing cryptic letters and numbers.

The term music video has never been more appropriate to describe the work of Riow89, aka Ryohei. Please bare in mind that this guy is only 17 years old and is already doing things that many VJ veterans aspire to do. Between his YouTube page and his diary on Hatena, Riow89 has personally become an indispensable resource on all things Mash-Up. His interests in Mash-Up goes beyond that of the audio sample, judging from the entries in his diary, the end game is to sample audio directly from bits of corresponding video. Much like the work Coldcut has been actively trying to perfect in his live shows for the last 10 years or so.

Often, the sources Riow89 samples come in the form of odd juxtapositions of two (or more) popular music tracks ala Too Many DJ's. Take his mix of No Scrubs by TLC backed by a latin-inspired Basement Jaxx track as an example. I too, have dabbled in this, mixing Christina Agulera with a Beck track - a worthwhile afternoon project but nothing I'd consider particularly ground-breaking. The results of this brand of mashing can often lead to interesting results but what really makes Riow89 blog-worthy is the work he does with less obvious sources. Today's track is from that campy 60's Batman television series we all remember growing up. For Riow89, being a 17 year-old from Yamagata, Japan, to be sampling 40-year-old program really shows he is willing to look past the American top 40 shlock and try something a little more "classy".

And I like Batman, this is a fun little track. If Ryohei keeps pushing his boundaries, come graduation, he will already have his foot in the door as a big-time VJ.

Hardfloor/KSD6700 - Boys & Girls Rhythmical Gymnastics

2007-01-27T22:34:00.000-06:00

Straight away, I must admit that this entry is not Fishmans centric. I figured I needed a break from my favorite band and wanted to hunt for something new. I half started this blog with the intentions of "teaching" "you" "everything" that I "know" about Japanese music. Please imagine me speaking that last sentence while using annoying finger quotes for each of the stressed words. It makes me look "cool". Further to that, I wanted a reason to continue expanding my own musical vocabulary. In my search to expand the scope of my Asian music knowledge I did a YouTube search for 'Korean Techno' (still waiting on those "block rockin' beats", Beck) and the first few results were good examples of some pretty bad Korean divas belting out the typical Asian fodder. Nothing wrong with that, but not too much GOOD about it either.

It was that next entry that really caught my attention. The description was as follows, "North-Korean boys and girls dance by the techno music." Well, I was looking for the techno. Not expecting to see much blog worthy, but being a huge fan of the strangeness that is North Korea, I clicked. And, judging by the landmarks in the distance, there are indeed a small group of malnourished boys and girls from North Korea doing a rather robotisized gymnastic routine to the techno music. Any video footage I have ever seen from the isolated country has always had a strange in not downright creepy nationalist vibe to it and this video is no exception.

The thing that caught my eyes and ears while watching this video was how much like a Denki Groove track it was. Upon further inspection, there was a link included on the YouTube page to a Japanese artist collective website called ArtPublicity. The site features videos and live performances by various VJs and DJs. This particular video is brought to you by a DJ on the Inage label who goes by the cryptic name KSD6700. Previously on my blog, I featured the amazing Pierre Taki of Denki Groove fame. Today's clip seems to occupy roughly the same headspace as Taki's own series of gymnastic videos. Taki is well known in Japan for making videos for music performances and I might even go so far as to suggest he may have had some direct influence with the video work. KSD6700 has a number of mp3s available for free on his Muzie site so please check them out. The music is not by KSD6700 but from the German duo, Oliver Bondzio and Ramon Zenker of Hardfloor. The track is called 'Fried Laces'.

So I guess my quest to include a Korean entry in my blog still goes unresolved. I have something small and silly in the works so in the meantime please enjoy some children dancing for Glorious Leader.

BONOBOS - Thank You For the Music / Standing There

2007-01-14T02:13:00.001-06:00

I first heard Bonobos on Soulseek totally by accident. I would always look at different users' lists and if they had a lot of music that I liked than I would try to download some of the bands that I didn't know. The first song I ever played was from their Hover Hover album and I thought it was remarkable how much like the Fishmans they sounded. It seems that my thinking was in the right place because a few days later I picked up "Sweet Dreams for the Fishmans", a tribute album and front and center were the Bonobos.

While Bonobos owes much of it's sound to their fishy counterparts, the music isn't trapped in time. The Bonobos are constantly reinventing and innovating their music. It certainly doesn't hurt that vocalist Sai sounds very much like Sato. In many ways I think of Bonobos being the literal reincarnation of the Fishmans. As mentioned, Bonobos is fronted by Chung-ho Sai on vocals and guitar, Yasuyuki Sasaki also on guitar, hottie Natsuko Morimoto on bass, Izumi Matsui on percussions and Bondo Tsuji on drums.

I am happy to say that I had a chance to see the band perform live in the 40 degree heat of the Onsen Matsuri mini-music festival held in Osaka's Osaka Castle Park. They are full of cute and quiet energy. The music played at these sorts of festivals in Japan is usually quite varied so it was kinda hard to gauge the audience when it came to their performance (they were sandwiched between a crappy funk band and dull female vocalist on piano) but I could see a few people who turned up especially for these guys. I know I enjoyed the performance but could have done without the minor heat stroke. I think I was the only joker without some sort of hat. Funny I'd be self-conscious of that as being the only white person in attendance kept me visible enough.

Shortly after, Bonobos' Sai performed with members of the Fishmans at the Long Season Review Tribute Concert. These performances resulted in my favorite Bonobos effort, the mini-album, Golden Days. As usual the choice of the perfect video is always a tough one for me so screw it, I'm gonna give you two. First is 'Thank You for the Music' the song that really made me think these guys were the real deal. The second is their brand new single called 'Standing There'. These guys are so genuine and sweet as long as they continue to create new music I'll always be able to imagine the 'what ifs' in a world without the Fishmans.

MECHA NERO - Curtain Call

2007-01-12T18:54:00.000-06:00

It's my 50th entry! Again. Apparently my math isn't too good. I blame Blogger as it tells me a slightly different story each time I log on. I'm not complaining though, because I probably wouldn't have written my last entry so quickly if I hadn't thought I had hit the big five oh.

Today's band is Mecha Nero and that's Mecha as in mechanic not as in the Japanese "very" to all you novice Japanese speakers. It was only through my poor katakana skills that I was able to establish that. Mecha Nero seems to borrow largely from bands ranging from Clammbon and Scarlet to heavier acts like the now sorta defunct Number Girl and Zazen Boys. Their first album came out in late 2005 so that makes them relatively new on the music scene. In fact it's only though my search for yesterday's Fishmans video that I came across them. So they are also very new to myself. It's a nice little discovery that I'm happy to share. Mecha Nero is one of those bands that if I were to show up at a live concert people at the door would greet me with one of those "what are you doing here?" faces. And I'd likely spend the remainder of the night standing in a crowd listening contently to my little discovery while the people around me think the same thing. And I don't blame them for that because foreigners are usually at the lame wannabe American hip hop joints trying to get with the Japanese girls. Luckily, some Japanese people would have the nerve to approach me when I was at these smaller clubs and I made a few really good friends. I really wanted to be a part of the "real Japan" and was happy to leave my country (read: rural Manitoba) at the door.

This video is from 'Mekurumeku Sekai' the bands first full-length album which features a 90's alternative sound with sweet Japanese female harmonies. It's a nice bit of pop if there ever was. It looks it was filmed on a cheap little consumer camera and I like it a lot. Many of my days walking down the suburban bits of Osaka felt like this video looks. I'm also quite smitten by the Degrassi Junior stylings of the drummer, if you're reading this please drop me a line!

FISHMANS - Walking in the Rhythm

2007-01-12T01:10:00.000-06:00

It's my 50th entry! I am surprised because there are few things in my life I've done fifty times; I'd also be too embarrassed to name most of them. I thought a blog might be different than trying to maintain an entire website. I've tried running a site a handful of times and just found myself overwhelmed to the point that I give up in spite of my best intentions. Also, having something that I love to talk about helps. While there are only a few people who actually visit my blog there is a certain sense of self-satisfaction in knowing that I've hit a landmark entry. I've been saving myself for today, my favorite Japanese band and possibly my favorite band full stop. The Fishmans and their impact on the Japanese music scene is hard to ignore - unless you don't give a rats ass about Japanese music, then I guess it would be pretty easy. But I love these guys and many of the bands that are influenced by their music so I will dedicate the next few entries to their music and the bands that love them.

Fishmans was fronted by the late Sato Shinji who passed mysteriously in 1999. I have spoken with many fans at various Fishmans tribute nights in Osaka (and Nagoya) about his death and from what I gather, the doctors attributed his death to a cold. It's safe to say that even his fans are skeptical as Japan has a tenancy to protect its heros. Sato, who couldn't have weighed in at much more than a hundred pounds may well have succumb to the world's most common virus and I'm happy to leave it at that. What started off as a clever and unique Ska/pop/rock band quickly evolved into something much more. Fishmans was composed of Sato on vocal and guitar, Kin-ichi Motegi on drums, Yuzuru Kashiwabara on bass, Hakase Sun on keyboard and Kensuke Ojima on guitar. Dreamy meandering and silly, often nonsensical lyrics became fused with progressive basslines, reggae infused keyboards, psychedelic synths and explosive violin solos. Many attribute the change in sound to the producer Zak who, while not the most prolific producer in the world, has an helped direct many powerful artists.

Since Fishmans, all of the remaining members have either formed or joined amazing bands and their influence on the scene continues to gain momentum. Last year a massive tribute concert to the Fishmans was realized as the 'Long Season Revue'. Video images created by artists from various fields who were influenced by Sato were shown together breathtaking performances by UA, Ikuko Harada from Clammbon, Chung-Ho Sai from Bonobos, and Pod from the Thai band, Moderndog proving that the music that is still as fresh as ever.

Today's video is from their 1997 studio effort, Uchu Nippon Setagaya. I first heard this album from a friend that I like to think of as my Japanese brother, Atsu. I was staying over night at his Kobe apartment when Atsu, who is as mad for music as I am, started playing a selection of Japanese artists that he considered to be the most interesting. When he popped in this album I fell in love immediately. It was so different from everything else I had ever heard from Japan or elsewhere. All throughout University, my friends and I had been searching for that perfect band. That night in Atsu's apartment I found it, I was home. Today's video is a remix of 'Walking in the Rhythm' edited down for MTV friendly video play. I really like the remix but it can't hold a candle to the album version, which is an epic 12 minutes and 54 seconds. That song played at Atsu's as I was supposed to be going to sleep. In a state of total awe I couldn't sleep - I got up and played it again.

DIE DIE COLOR - Beauty Shadow / TOMATO STAR - HOTEL Sensational Love

2007-01-06T19:54:00.000-06:00

Tim is a good friend of mine from back in the day when I studied Fine Arts in University. He joined the JET Program (in Japan) at the beginning of my final year (in Japan). We got together a number times and relived a number of good times as well as new ones that only a place like Japan could provide. Now, I'm back in Manitoba and am largely cut off from the Japanese music scene, a scene that should be evident by this blog, I am pretty fond of. Recently, Tim offered as a "hi" gift to send me the Japanese CD of my choice. Finding a CD that I want while being so disconnected from the scene prompted me to search deeper on the net to find a new source of Japanese music to enjoy. I hit paydirt (whatever that actually means) of sorts through Live365.

Live365, for those of you who don't know, is a streaming radio service and boy does it ever have a huge selection. While I haven't explored many of the stations yet I gather the main focus is on lesser known independent bands. This is probably not because they are ultra-hip but rather due to the RIAA. But one man's trash...

Radio Eigekai Indie TYO is an Indies Radio Station out of Tokyo. And this is indie as in probably nowhere to be seen in the stores but maybe as CD-Rs being handed out at live events. Not always true cause they're playing Murr*Murr's absolutely beautiful "Azayaka na sora" right now. But by and large, most of the stuff spinning on this station will spin nowhere else. Which is neat because not only does it give me hip new Japanese music to listen to but it's so hip most people even in Japan will have a hard time finding it. This isn't so much music snobbery as it is, "you heard it here first". I am on top of my game, too bad no one gives a shit but evs.

The nice thing is when you are a Japanese up-and-comer you will do ANYTHING to get your self heard. Japan has the second largest music industry in the world and all that competition leads to some pretty interesting innovations like: giving all the music you ever made away for free on sites like MUZIE and NextMusic. Two bands struck my fancy on last weeks Radio Eigekai Indie TYO program: DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! and Tomato Star.

DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! formed in 2001, has achieved as fair degree of mainstream success and is even known by a number of western listeners, an accomplishment that many of the biggest Japanese Pop Stars struggle to realize. This is what they have to say about their musical style on their MySpace Page: "DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!!'s sound is a mix of hard, happy, Bakibaki, upper, emotional, shoehazer, pico pico and pop!!! We are trying to produce a new sound like none heard before!"

Admittedly, I don't know what the hell half of that is supposed to be but if I ever start my own band I'll be sure to refer to my work as "upper, shoehazer, pico pico, baki baki". Jokes aside, this band is pretty weird, effortlessly jumping from twinkly girly mainstream J-pop to Alec Empire inspired cyber-noise terrorism (in the same song). One highlight is in their song "Silence" where female vocalist is singing in her sweetest, most sincere voice and all of a sudden the bands male vocals begins to scream "DIE!!DIE!!DIE!!DIE!!DIE!!" over and over again. It's wacky, just a bit awful and totally worth listening to at least one time.
DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! - Are You Ready?
DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! - Silence
DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! - Pressure Ver. 2
and more...

Being largely unknown doesn't stop Tomato Star from being a hugely prolific project with well over a hundred songs available for free. Not all these songs are really album worthy in my opinion, but the 25% that are... uh... are! It's all loose and fully sloppy skillfulness. Part Beck, part Weezer, part Zoobombs; Tomato Star has a lot going for itself when Itokey, the band's only member, has his shit together. While not surprisingly unsigned I predict big things for Itokey in the future. He doesn't seem at all concerned with J-pop conventions and that will ultimately be his biggest asset. I wish I could find more information but his music says more than I can anyway.
Tomato Star - Plastic Ni Kimete
Tomato Star - Petra
Tomato Star - Achiki No Teenage World
and more...

So did any of this help me choose a Japanese CD as my present from Tim? Not really, I want the new Bonobos single. I love it.

Rockasoo's Recommended Holiday Viewing

2006-12-29T22:07:00.000-06:00

I know this site is called The GOOD music but there are some things that are just as important to me as music. Of course I am talking about the GOOD television. Today is my first ever feature on television that makes Rocky's heart go a-thumpety-thump. I had a chance to watch three of my favorite programs ever over the holidays and would like to invite you to do the same. If some time in the past you have watched and enjoyed all of the following, please let's get married; this being Canada, I have no gender preferences.

Over the second season I have really warmed up to the American adaptation of England's brilliant "The Office". Steve Carell may not be as subtle in his unique managerial stylings as his UK counterpart Ricky Gervais but nevertheless makes for enjoyable viewing. Both series are wholly recommended viewing especially if you have ever worked in an office. It only seems appropriate for the holiday season to offer up "A Benihana Christmas". Observe the not-so-subtle nod to my homeland of Japan. Simply, know the name of the episode you want and type it into Dailymotion's search for the rest.

The Office - A Benihana Christmas - Part One
The Office - A Benihana Christmas - Part Two

I never could get into Japanese Doramas as much as I tried. Four and a half years yielded nothing for me. I'm sure there were many worthwhile offerings but my lack of Japanese and cultural understanding made it difficult to get anywhere. While packing my boxes for my fated journey back to Canada I decided to take a short break and see what was on the tube (it was at least 40 degrees out there, man). That's when I discovered "GTO", or Great Teacher Onizuka. Starring the absolutely amazing Takashi Sorimachi, GTO is the story about the life of Eikichi Onizuka. He sets out to become the greatest teacher ever, using his own brand of philosophy and the ability to do nearly anything when under sufficient pressure. It's simply the finest school drama in existence. And yes, it's got sub-titles. You can find the other 11 episodes here.

Great Teacher Onizuka Ep. 1- Part One
Great Teacher Onizuka Ep. 1 - Part Two
Great Teacher Onizuka Ep. 1 - Part Three
Great Teacher Onizuka Ep. 1 - Part Four
Great Teacher Onizuka Ep. 1 - Part Five
Great Teacher Onizuka Ep. 1 - Part Six

And finally, here's something from my university days, Twitch City! I am so happy to hear that this gem is finally available on DVD. I remember being called up from my art studio by a bunch of friends to take a break to watch "Fishing with John", "Space Ghost" and some trumpeted new CBC program that I had seen cryptic ads for but never paid much attention to. Luckily for me, my friends had a talent for finding the cool and my life is that much better for it. Twitch City, starring Don McKellar as Curtis, is about a near clinical shut-in who goes about his life watching television. He devises a method of sustaining an income by double renting every square inch of his apartment. It's not a comedy or a drama but it's funny and dramatic. It's simply beyond the traditional cannon of television and it's possibly the greatest Canadian program ever made. Hai, douzo.

Twitch City Ep. 1 - Part One
Twitch City Ep. 1 - Part Two
Twitch City Ep. 1 - Part Three

While I was Out - An Update on the Lack Thereof

2006-12-23T18:10:00.000-06:00

My computer died. It died a slow nasty death. I had been planning on extending its usefulness by buying a new hard drive and simply ignoring the obvious bottlenecks and workarounds for another year or so when my computer would be crap by every single measurable standard; but it died. My beloved Hitachi Prius has left this mortal coil by way of a failing power supply. Rather, I suspect the connection that is soldered on the circuit board has come loose and the power just isn't getting where it's supposed to be very well anymore. I still have the task of trying to get the information off this beast and backed up onto disc. This whole effort makes me kind of nervous because the supply could say it's true final farewells at any given moment and the battery life is literally no more than fifteen minutes. Not a great prospect for someone who wants to hold onto over three years of teaching materials, drawings and miscellaneous accumulated curiosities. But that is for another time. As nice as my new wide screen Acer Aspire is, typing this entry is trying my patience a little bit. The main complaint is the lousy North American keyboard configuration.

The Prius was a Japanese machine and as such has gone with what Europe and the rest of the world sees as the superior keyboard configuration. For one, the Enter key is massive on the European design and now when ever I try to hit the Enter key it turns out as a (\) half the time. Don't get me started on the (@,',") keys. Anyone who has had to deal with the shitty N.A. layout after using a European keyboard will know exactly what I'm talking about.

While as was AFK (away from keyboard), I was surprised at just how much reading I was capable of doing. I read three books over the course of the week. All thanks to my bookworm of a friend, really more of a booksnake (draw your own conclusions) Mark Guppy. Mark has distinction of being the only person featured in my links area. Mark's a great guy and an infinitely better writer than me so please check him out. First, I read Modern Manners - An Etiquette Book For Rude People by P.J. O'Rourke. I read this book entirely while on the can. Methinks there's nothing more polite than reading a book on good manners while pinching loafs. Next, I read a book on punctuation called Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. While funny and informative the book is British and concentrates on the Queen's punctuation. I am Canadian, and while we take our cues from the motherland we also follow many of the standards from that country below us. At least I know can start up a sparkling (and very polite) conversation about the use of Oxford commas with all my friends. Finally, I trucked through Koji Suzuki's Ring in two days. It wasn't much like the movie at all and that turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

All worthy books in their own right but that chapter has come to an end because, once more, I have an endless supply of media to keep me occupied. Kinda sad really, I'll miss you Hitachi Prius...

ROYKSOPP - Remind Me

2006-12-02T02:11:00.000-06:00

Over the past few weeks I've been submitting resumes to different companies all over the world. I'll go anywhere for a chance at a brighter future - preferably one that isn't 35 below. I've been struggling with the idea of returning back to Japan for a threepeat. I miss that place so damn much. I miss the food and foul stench of Osakan streets. I miss the tacky cosmopolitan pleasures I took for granted and are non-existent in Winkler, Manitoba. I miss my friends and my freedom. I miss my money and my music (I know the Japanese music scene is passing me by...). Hell, I even miss my damn job. Despite my greater efforts I have yet to receive a single reply from a prospective employer. I refuse to admit defeat just yet.

Thinking about the past makes me think about people who have had an impact on my life. Today's video reminds me of someone who did just that. Röyksopp may be a bit of a one trick pony and this track isn't exactly new but in my opinion rises above the rest and there's a small spot in my heart reserved for this song. A small spot because I got a lot of songs in there.

Officially formed in 1998, Röyksopp is an electronic music duo based in Bergen, Norway composed of Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge. The popularity of the duo's first album entitled, 'Melody A.M.' was boosted by several graphically experimental music videos. Today's video for 'Remind Me', an infographic-styled video by French company H5, won the 2002 MTV Europe Music Award for best music video. A well deserved prize if you ask me, if ever there was a video that inspired me to fire up Adobe Illustrator and 'go for it' this would be it. It's constantly fighting for the top place on my best CG video of all time (tho Groovisions produced 'Rodeo Machine' is still in the contention).

Somehow I don't think I need to say who I dedicate this video to. I think anyone who is in the know already knows. Enjoy.

Lullatone - Little Songs About Raindrops

2006-11-25T13:19:00.000-06:00

I have always loved cute things. It's one of the things that initially attracted me to Japan - it's pretty freaking cute. Out in North America being cute draws parallels to being weak. I am weak. Most of us are. So screw you if you can't handle my choice to rock out like Hello Kitty every once in a while.

Self-proclaimed pajama pop duo Lullatone does just that. I expect they are pretty big fans of Gus Gus's Sleepytime album. But where Gus Gus puts you most pleasantly to sleep, Lullatone's latest is surprisingly uplifting with it's quiet beats and toy orchestra. Many bands use toy instruments these days, they're even in the forefront of the new college rock inspired (and surprisingly fun) Tragically Hip album. Toys can make some pretty cool sounds and a lot of lame ones as well because they're, well, toys.

Lullatone hails from Nagoya which is probably most famous for it's red light district in Sakae, a place I can say I had the awkward opportunity to experience. It's also famous in smaller way for it's indie post rock scene which I have also experienced first hand. Both make the Kansai/Kanto border city a worthy place to visit. Lullatone consists of Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida. They say their influences consist of daydreaming and humming in the bathtub which I can relate to as I do both to excess. Despite the fact their website is in English there isn't much information on them although they do have separate labels both in Japan and in America. Both labels' sites generously provide samples of their artists work and are worth checking out.

The video created by the duo features some homegrown stop-motion animation. It would be easy enough these days to take a more hands-off approach using consumer friendly flash to create a slick finished product but I like their choice in making the process more transparent. You can see their shadows in the shots as they reposition each frame. It's a signature that really makes the work feel more intimate and brings the viewer into the piece. It's cute, it's friendly and it's little like songs about raindrops should be.

Oh, and they really do rock out like Hello Kitty.

ASANA - Across The River (Tanaka Akira Cocharo Mix)/Le Le

2006-11-16T18:55:00.000-06:00

I hate a lot of things about my job. I have bad hours that (these last two weeks) make me get up at 4:45 or earlier. I am under the constant threat of having to go downstairs and work in the packing area which means manual labour and worse than that, an unrelenting boredom. This week I've been luck so far, I've actually been doing what they hired me for which is creating covers for books while listening to my iPod. Those things make me very happy. Today's video(s!!) are the result of my week's listening. Today's artist has made a daily contribution to my productivity. Another one of Japan's great exports, Asana.

I first heard Asana the same way I've first heard many great Japanese artists, at a listening booth in the best music shop on Earth, Osaka's Amemura Tower Records. A lot of snobs might want to claim that the smaller side shops (of which there are many) better cater to their specifics tastes, but only that Tower could offer such a wide range of music that consistently suited me. If you are ever in Osaka's American Village I HIGHLY recommend dedicating a few hours to the listening booths. It's a virtual box of chocolates, maan. The disc I heard was the 2005 'Split' EP between Asana and Akira Tanaka.

Initially I was seduced by Tanaka's electronic beats but was eventually won over by Asana's organic meanderings. What really does it for me with this guy is no matter where you start off and where you are taken through to the middle of the song you know you are home by the third act. It's really magical and makes me so fuckin' happy every time. My co-workers catch me dancing in my seat all the time. Here is what one website had to say about Asana's first (and possibly my favorite) CD:

'Inspired by the sounds of insects and frogs encountered on a trip to Bali, Yusuke Asano started the organic post rock project Asana in 2002. As can be imagined by this origin, Asana's compositions flow with an exotic ambience accented beautifully by the use of various instruments such as: jambe, gamelan, kalimba, ukulele, sitar, trumpet and analogue synthesizers... all used to push the keys and pluck the strings of audiences' hearts worldwide. Asana's debut album "Kupu Kupu" was released by the Japanese label Stiff Slack in 2002. The album has proved to be a long time seller, not only in record stores, but also in cafes, design goods stores, and select furniture shops.'

That pretty much says it all - heart strings and furniture shops. If that sounds strange to you than you've never been to Japan. Yusuke Asano's favorite bands reads like my iPod tracklist, minus my Hank III album but that's another blog entry. Check out Asana's MySpace page to sample some of this artists wonderful tracks. My biggest Asana related regret was not picking up his latest CD, LeLe before coming back to Canada. Oh well, I guess there's always SoulSeek.

Today is a first for my blog I have posted no one, but two Asana videos. The first is Across the River remixed by Akira Tanaka of Asana's Ina Ipa which features remixes of his first album. The second is a live performance in Taiwan together with Lullatone which shows how those wonderful sounds are made.

WESLEY WILLIS - Joe Hunter

2006-11-10T23:28:00.000-06:00

If I could go back in time and see three bands in concert it would be Johnny Cash in the 60's, Led Zeppelin in the 70's and Run DMC in the 80's. I will, however, have to live the remaining years of my life knowing this will never happen and that's OK, because in 2002 I got to see the most influential act of the 90's, by which of course I mean Wesley Willis.

My friend told me there was going to be a Wesley Willis concert in the 'Peg and it was pretty much implied that we had to go. The strange thing was that this news generated a pretty big buzz in our sleepy little town and soon we had FIVE people psyched about the show. Yes, where I come from five people showing interest in anything, let alone the same thing, is considered a seriously big buzz. Days felt like weeks as we waited patiently for that fateful day to arrive. The concert was held at the Pyramid Cabaret, a super-cool (but not too cool for school) club in Winnipeg. Out of all the concert venues I visited in Winnipeg, the Pyramid was easily my favorite. It has history, a decent sound system, two lava-lamp inspired projection lights, proper seating and stage areas, nice patrons and I could go on. From where I stand, it would be hard to think of what I don't like about the place. Go see a concert at the Pyramid if you ever are in the neighborhood (fat chance), you are gonna have a good time.

When we arrived, it was dead - it always is at the Pyramid. Oh, people will come, but I'm just not hip enough to show up an hour or two late which is always when the jet set get there. We ordered some drinks and before we knew it we were donned the heavy drinking table by our waitress. I was surprised because I had just commented on how we all seemed to be taking it easy that evening. I seldom drink because I usually land up driving somewhere and really can't afford to lose my license on account of a dry throat. That day however, I had a ride and so I partook in a few Molsons. This was going to be a real rock experience and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to have some kind of buzz on. Even so I was taking it easy because too much beer whilst chasing the green dragon equals a rock n' roll disaster waiting to happen. On stage was the first sign of things to come - we beheld Wesley's Technics KN1200 keyboard, all covered in Christmas lights.

The 300+ pound clinically-schizophrenic superstar entered from the back and walked over to the front and sat down near the main entrance so that people who came in would have a chance to meet the man. And meet the man we did. The first thing a noticed was the perma-bruise on the center of his forehead. Wesley head butts his friends and fans as a sign of affection and judging by the size of his skull it must have been five inches thick. My friend asked Wesley to play the crowd pleasing 'Rock n' Roll McDonald's' to which he muttered something complete unintelligible. We stood there briefly wondering if there was going to be more so he capped it off with 'buy a CD?'.

My words are simply inadequate to describe a Willis show and I'm not sure that anyone could do it justice so that's why today's video is from an actual concert. It wasn't the one I went to but it looks like it could have been. The Wesley Willis formula is refined to perfection and so all his shows (and songs) look alike on the surface. It's only through Willis' keen audience interaction that we see the genius of his live shows. Near the end of the show my friend donned a children's Burger King crown and danced on stage as Wesley obliged him with his requested 'Rock n' Roll McDonald's'. People kept rushing up on stage for headbutts and everyone had the best silly time you could ever imagine. A year after I saw him, Wesley Willis died of Leukemia. I am truly saddened by the death of such a strange man who had such power over myself and his adoring crowds. I will never see another concert as cool as the one I saw in 2002, I am so honored I got to see him at all.

Say RAWK! Say ROOOLL!

BECK - Nausea

2006-11-08T15:07:00.000-06:00

When I started university there was a call for programing at the brand new campus television station. I approached my long time friend and partner in crime to pitch a show and just like that the debauchery known as Rockasoo Owen Television was born. The origins of the name will be saved for another entry. It seemed every idea I pitched was widely well received and for the first time in my life things I said had a small but genuine impact. Highlights included the 30 Hour Binge that accidentally (honestly!) took place at the EXACT same time as the 30 Hour Famine held next door. We called up our local Molson brewery and told them that we wanted them to sponsor a drinking telethon that would be broadcast on campus. To my great surprise they were all like, hell yeah, where do we sign up and promptly delivered cratefuls of beer. The peak of imperfection had to be when the pizza we ordered was delivered to the room next door, yes, our sacrilegious pizza was delivered to the 30 Hour Famine. I'm going to hell for that one, that I'm sure but to this day I still drink the Molson. I owe them a life debt. But it wasn't all drinking telethons on ROTV, we had some serious segments too. Take this unaired bit of cinematic juiciness - a music review program that involved dancing marionettes where the better the song the more intensely they danced. The marionettes were mostly paper towel ghosts and a couple of He-man figures that toppled around the floor to lame techno music. Realizing that this was neither hardcore or drug-inspired enough this activity quickly turned into the destruction of glass where me and my partner in crime proceeded to break quite literally a thousand beer bottles and florescent tubes. This was all done INSIDE (as in indoors) the university in the name of art. In retrospect I can't remember where or how we got all that glass, how we didn't kill ourselves or how we managed to clean it up. Come to think about it there are a lot of plotholes from my university days. Which brings us to today's music video.

My apparent inability to spell nausea correctly made finding today's video more than a two click venture, but eventually after that third click, the amazingness that follows was revealed. I'm talking about 'Nausea', the song off Beck's brand new album 'The Information'. The second album to be released from Beck in as many years. I always liked Beck as a university student and while his latest albums haven't exactly been receiving the critical acclaim they used to there are always a few stand-out tracks. It seems gone are the days when a new Beck release would completely change the way you perceive music, blame it on age - blame it on Scientology, but pretty packed likkle bits of video remain. He seems to have gotten into the habit of releasing a thousand versions of each single that comes out and I'd say we're all luckier for it. In an interview Beck talks about how the internet is the best way to show off his videos and plans on passing on the 'MTV that makes him wanna smoke crack'. Well said, my good man.

This video features marionettes that are much cooler than ours were at ROTV but the same silliness is there. It made me pang for the days of my youth. A time when fucking with hungry people was a sponsor worthy event.

NEWPANTS - DT Jitan

2006-11-05T12:48:00.000-06:00

This will serve as my final entry in my official series of New Wave features. So far I've covered bands from Japan, Canada, UK and the US. Last night I stumbled upon another gem in rough, this time in Beijing. I was surprised to see the heavily regulated country even allowed to produce weirdness of this magnitude - so much so that I will immediately apply for work in this country. If fate allows and people ask me what brought me to China I will have an answer ready, the answer my friend is Newpants.

Newpants is a quartet formed in 1996 with Millionaire Peng as the vocalist, Groove Dog on guitar, Lobo on bass and the keyboard stylings of Fox Pang. As strange as this band is compared with China's standard fare, Newpants have enjoyed a number of appearances on Chinese television, released three CD's and are a popular draw at fashionable Chinese night clubs. The bands influences range from New Order, Blur and Pulp to Guns N' Roses and Ramones to Pet Shop Boys, Daft Punk and Michael Jackson. Having heard a number of tracks I'd say that their music does seem to embody by and large the qualities of the above bands. I'd argue that today's track is most reminiscent of the Japanese YMO's 1979 release, Tong Poo, Newpants seems to have been influenced by a number of other earlier Japanese artists - who incidentally got a lot of their influence from traditional Chinese music. Aural and aesthetic parallels to Denki Groove, another Japanese tongue and cheek electronic band heavily featured on this blog are also pretty clear.

DT Jintan is from the 'Dragon Tiger Panacea' released in 2003. It's a nice shout out to Chinese export culture right down to deliberate misspellings and kung-fu fighting. Millionaire Peng even 're-enacts' the famous battle between Bruce Lee and a slightly disheveled Chuck Norris. Check this gloden album wherever government regulated Techno-Pop discs are sold!

AJDAR ANIK- Çikita Muz

2006-11-04T15:20:00.000-06:00

I spend too much time hunting on the web for interesting bits of music video to post in this here blog and usually don't turn up anything I didn't know about before. Then there are other times when I'm not even looking for anything and greatness stares me in the face. Today is one of those days. Today is the first ever Saturday night WTF and it stars none other than Turkey's newest bargain basement pop sensation, the wise and mighty Ajdar!! My dearest friend is planning his wedding in the not-so-distant future and I will require this song to be played on repeat not only during the reception but throughout the entire ceremony as well. That's how much this song rules. Yes, I'm being a bit cheeky here but if it didn't hit me somewhere on my special place it wouldn't have a home on my blog.

As a long time fan of Turkish cinematic masterpieces like 3 Dev Adam (3 Mighty Men or Turkish Spiderman), Badi (Turkish E.T.) and Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam (Turkish Star Wars), my love for their pop culture was again realized through the Arabesque-pop music of this mysterious artist. While there is virtually (absolutely) no English information on Ajdar, I believe he was in Popstar Türkiye, a kind of American Idol style music show and as unlikely as it seems I can't confirm or deny his success in the competition. Somewhere, somehow this guy gained a large enough following to release an album called 'Nane Nane'. 'Çikita Muz' appears to be the album's hit single and it should be rushed to clubs everywhere while the wax is still hot! Other videos are available online through YouTube and his very own fan site.

Today's video is full of great things. Firstly, it's good to know the guy who played the bass tracks at the beginning of Seinfeld episodes found work in Ajdar's band. It's funky fresh dressed to impress and ready to party. Ajdar's singing is reminiscent of days gone by, listening to drunken Japanese businessmen trying to manage Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' when we all knew full well he never has had it his way. And even though Turkey doesn't exactly share borders with Russia they still seemed able to import some of their finest underage 'models' for the video shoot. The banana motif I can kinda understand but Ajdar himself seems more entertained by them than do his two female boat guests. I won't lie, I don't understand the radishes at all and can only guess that they are some sort of Turkish aphrodisiac. And his hair, what's up with that?

THE QUEENHATERS - I Hate the Bloody Queen

2006-11-03T23:25:00.000-06:00

A band so punk they only had one song. And what a song it was. A song criticizing the Falkland War, a song against figure heads, a song about scoring drugs - it's all there. A song with so much brit-punk attitude that it could have only come from our mighty 'piss-taking' Canadian kings of comedy, SCTV. As with my previous SCTV post, this segment had a profound impact in my pathetically twisted pubescent past. I remember acting out this skit (ON CAMERA) with my like-minded friend and thinking we were doing something truly cool - nay, important.

The Queenhaters (or incorrectly, The Queen Haters) were featured one time only (03/18/83) on a regular segment known as 'Mel's Rock Pile'. Clued-out and unhip, Mel Slirrup hosted a teen popular music show akin to American Bandstand or Top of the Pops. His audience was expecting top 40 bubble gum when Mel proudly announces that they would have a special feature on punk music and introduces the Queenhaters. The band was fronted by Martin Short who plays an angry coked-up British Punk quite convincingly. Joe Flaherty on bass and Eugene Levy (who also plays Mel) and Andrea Martin on guitar add full-on stage presence. John Candy, the bands drummer, works his magic with a demure intensity that only today's finest Ritalin could provide. It's a sight to behold and in my opinion one of the finer moments in Canadian comedy and strangely enough Punk music. The song is pretty cool and actually has an ounce of skewed Canadian street cred. It has been covered - there is actually version by Mudhoney on 'Oh Canaduh! 2', a tribute to Canadian punk disc. Too bad that it is much slower and nowhere near as fun... and slightly misnamed.

There are even some rumors floating around the net on exactly who wrote the music for the segment. Here is a comment found at one punk site speaking one strong possibility:

'Sometime in late 1982 about six months before The Queen Haters episode aired, Mike Lion of The Young Lions was going around outside the Domino Club on the Toronto scene telling everybody that The Young Lions had been taped as guests on SCTV. All we punks were telling him he was full of S*#t because SCTV only ever took the biggest acts such as The Tubes or The Plasmatics. Well, Mike changed his story and said that The Young Lions had really just taped some music for SCTV, and we all told him he was full of s*$t again. Six months went by, SCTV aired it's Queen Haters episode, and we all ate our words. But The Queen Haters didn't sound quite like The Young Lions, so we all had our doubts and asked Mike for confirmation. But he merely smirked. So the question remains. Were The Queen Haters really The Young Lions?'

And that was the last we were to hear from that magical band. Or was it? According to the SCTV homepage, in a later SCTV show, the "It's a Wonderful Film" sketch (12/20/83), a character is listening to the radio playing the unlikely collaboration of extravagant lounge singer Jackie Rogers, Jr. (also played by Short) and The Queenhaters. I've found a new mission in life, feck a girlfriend, I need that song!

54-71 - 69 My Pheromone Up

2006-10-29T15:40:00.000-06:00

It was my last big party before leaving Japan. It was a big deal for a few of us but most people were too jaded to bother showing up. I was really disappointed and little angry at those who didn't come. But as it usually is, the people who did come were for the greater part, the people I cared to see. It took place at a Japanese beer garden. Japanese beer gardens are a lot different from what many of us in the west are accustomed to. They are usually on the rooftops of large department stores and provide food and drinks for a set price. In this case it amounted to $30 for three hours for all you can eat and all you can drink. And as is tradition, everyone up there did just that. 'Off the hook' is an expression invented to describe events like these. After literally gallons of beer (each) people usually go to karaoke as an after party which always mean, another generous serving of the drink. Jude, one of my friends who always dreamed of DJing professionally, was with us which was a rare treat as he didn't come out that often. One of the girls in our group selected a Chili Peppers song to sing and Jude turned to me and said how much he hated the Peppers and actually hid outside of the room until the song was over. 54-71 is what the Peppers might have been if they were more interested in pushing their musical envelope rather than playing to their rapidly aging female demographic. Play for integrity or play for pussy, I can understand the dilemma.

54-71, which is pronounced 'gojyuyon no nanajyuichi' is the embodiment of Japanese post-hip-hop. I think the hip-hop scene has been around long enough that we can start post prefacing the word. I make up genres to suit my needs, I'm a self-proclaimed genius asshole (that is getting tardy on posting on this blog I might add). The band was first introduced to me by a friend on the Soulseek network whose knowledge of music from around the world dwarfs mine to near insignificance. 57-41 consists of Horikawa Hiroyuki, Kawaguchi Kentaro, Sato Shingo, and Takada Noriaki. In 1995, Kawaguchi and Sato started their musical activities together and by 1997, the current four members were performing together. Notably, every song is sung in English though it might not be ant kind of English you are accustomed to. After hearing several of their albums I have to think Kawaguchi's wonky lyrical choices are largely deliberate.

Never having seen them live, here is a rather large concert review from the amazing and essential Rock of Japan website:

'When I walked in 54-71 were already on the stage, but had not yet begun their set. They were setting up, but it wasn’t clear to me what they were waiting for. They seemed to be ready a while before they actually began. The singer was wearing camouflage pants and glasses. He’s a thin, young man, and comes off as a quiet, sensitive type. It would have helped their show a lot if he hadn’t been standing on the stage for twenty minutes before they began the first song, because even with his awkward rapping, and his modern dancing, it really took him about twenty minutes to wipe away the image of normality he had projected before the show started. The modern dance included some pantomime and was mostly quite mediocre, but its uniqueness eventually helped to envelop the singer into a rich character, half artist/half clown. By the end of the performance, I had a deep respect for the guy. His rapping (usually in English) never really took him too far, but he stretched his vocals in many other directions, and most of them were quite effective. Toward the end of the set he did a kind of drunken torch song, which totally won me over and elicited many cheers from the audience throughout its dramatic performance. He was supported by a drummer, a bassist, and a guitarist. The guitarist subtly mixed what seemed to be jazz stylings with a simple kind of funk twitch. There was a good bit of range in the material, but except for one or two numbers that involved all out epileptic thrashing, the rhythm section kept the beat simple and nervous. For some reason the bass guitarist performed the majority of the set at the rear of the stage with his back turned to the audience. It did not detract from the overall show, though. With a frontman of this caliber, the entire band could have turned their backs to the audience, and it would have remained a thoughtful and entertaining performance.'

I wasn't ever completely sold on the 'every track sameness' of their debut album but never under-estimating the staying power of mediocrity I felt compelled to pick up the 2002 'enClorox'. Recorded in Chicago, it was the band's first major-label release and it was amazing, every track had a unique flavor and a sense of humor about it. Today's video is from the follow-up to enClorox, 2003's 'True Men of Non-Doing'. It's a soulful little number that makes me long for another day in Japan - but then again these days everything makes me pang for that wonderful place I left behind.

YUKI - Joy

2006-10-28T23:05:00.000-05:00

I went to a lot of concerts when I lived in Japan and I saw a lot of talented Japanese musicians. Some were popular amongst very specific demographics while others were famous with people across the board. Today is an example of the latter, the time I saw YUKI. I went with a couple of Japanese friends to this great music festival that had all kinds of great and interesting artists. Two of which have already been featured on this blog - Ua and Polysics. YUKI was seen by many as the headliner of the event because she is probably the most famous and has remained relevant for almost 15 years. Just before the concert began one of my friends told me that YUKI had recently had a miscarriage which actually made it pretty hard for me to listen to her songs which were no doubt inspired by the child that never was. And her songs are always quite beautiful. Just recently she gave birth to a child on August 29, 2006.

Yuki Isoya, or generally just YUKI, began her career as the front woman for the near generation-defining noisy pop Judy and Mary in 1991. If you are Japanese, you'd have had to have been in a coma for the past 15 years not to know at least one of their songs. In all, they released seven albums, three compilation albums and twenty-two singles. Judy and Mary broke up in 2001 following the WARP Tour Final held at the Tokyo Dome, where fans bid them a tearful farewell. I thinks it's a matter of time before they rejoin if only to release an 'it's been a while' album. Japanese bands usually seem to enjoy functional relationships and if they break up it's usually genuinely to explore other creative directions.

YUKI has done that. While I don't mind JAM, I think she has really pushed herself to new directions exploring everything from dub to club-inspired dance pop. Both incarnations enjoy popularity in Japan and abroad. She's a J-pop girl whose talent and innovation makes her more than a guilty pleasure. Today's video for Joy is off her 2005 release by the same name. It's really hard to choose which YUKI video to show because they're all pretty great but this is the song that really stood out at the concert so I have to give her props for that. The video really seems to borrow from the early Daft Punk play book which is great to see - it's all a lot of fun.

TALKING HEADS - Once in a Lifetime

2006-10-27T22:45:00.000-05:00

When I was in my first year of high school I discovered SCTV. I loved it. Every night at 11pm (or Thursday Nights at 9 if you are a fan) on Channel 9 CKND, I would watch 30 minutes of pure Canadian comic genius. A lot of big players too, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Katherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, and Harold Ramis. SCTV was in principle the story of a perpetually failing television station with no budget, stars or talent. Of course in reality it had all of the above but they had a lot of fun making it look otherwise. But because this is a music blog I will draw attention to one particular semi-regular segment, The Gerry Todd show. Veejay Gerry Todd (Rick Moranis) welcomes Talking Heads and The Plastics to his high-tech variety show 'Midnight Video Special' - only to be defeated by an attack of superior technology from Japanese entrepreneur Tim Ishimuni (Dave Thomas). Plastics videos seem impossible to find or I would show one today, but of course Talking Heads videos are another matter. When I first saw the 'Once in a Lifetime' video on SCTV I was in awe of its - well, awesomeness.

To promise a series of New Wave videos and not show anything by the New York based Talking Heads would be unforgivable. I know maybe most people wouldn't group the band in such a tightly packaged genre but we have all the token traits. Synths, confused-sounding vocalist, more chroma keying than you can shake a stick at, Rugrats inspired haircut, seizure dancing, horned glasses, and a freaking bow tie. This ladies and gentlemen is New Wave.

A Talking Head is term used in cinema to describe a head and shoulders shot of a person on screen who carries dialog. Essentially all talk and no action. The band found this description in a TV Guide and thought it suited them perfectly. 'Remain in Light' was released in 1980 and 'Once in Lifetime' was the album's big single. Only the single didn't get any radio play. Music videos were becoming the next big thing at the time and when packaged with visuals the song suddenly became an overnight success. A well deserved one I might add. David Byrne, the group's singer is as interesting to watch as he is to listen too. A live version of the song has become pretty popular over time as well. Byrne looks like some Sunday School teacher who has accidentally stumbled onto the stage and decides to wing it in hopes of saving face. Really funny to watch.

PRUSSIAN BLUE - When I'm With You/Stand Up

2006-10-27T02:15:00.000-05:00

My friend told me a funny story at work yesterday. He told me about his trip to Germany he took a few years back. He was with a tour group and they were at Octoberfest. I should have asked if it really was October or if the German's keep that bitch going all year round, you know, for the tourists and as an excuse to get pissed all year through. They were at a beer tasting event and one of the girls on the tour was apparently not happy with the size of her taste so she complained. The server had refused to top her off and she yelled, 'What, are you some kind of beer Nazi!?'. A few minutes later she realized what she had actually said. Ha ha. She shouldn't worry too much, I bet Germans watch a lot of Seinfeld too.

How does that tie in with today's entry? Very poorly. Today we will look at a controversial group known as Prussian Blue formed in early 2003 by then 11-year-old fraternal twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede. Here's a recap if you are the only person on earth who hasn't heard about these girls yet. Prussian Blue are popularly referred to as the Olsen Twins of White Nationalism. The girls were home schooled by their mother, April Gaede, an activist and writer for the white nationalist organization National Vanguard. The twins' grandfather wears a swastika belt buckle, uses the Nazi symbol on his truck, and registered it as a cattle brand. Prussian Blue is named after the residue that was left over by the use of Zyklon B, the poison the Nazis employed to kill millions of Jews concentration camps during World War II.

Many news articles and television reports understandably have attacked their politics but what I find interesting is that they never hit them where it hurts - their music. Many people have heard of Prussian Blue but very few have actually heard them. Now 14, it's strange to think of these teens as a recruitment tool for intolerance but audiences are fickle and if they can't hold a note their effect will be limited. The bottom line for me is and will forever be is their music any good. Do these Neo-Nazis have any talent?

There are a few videos floating around YouTube but they are from their first and most amateurish album called 'Fragment of the Future'. It's crap. It really sucks, you can practically hear their Nazi mother prodding them in the background. I won't ever feature something that bad on my site - ever. That's why their latest 2005 album, 'The Path We Choose' is a bit surprising. It's actually not that bad - and THAT is kinda scary. Most of the songs on the second album lack the racial and nationalist overtones of Fragment of the Future and are about more mainstream subject matter like boys, crushes, and dating. That's what I find interesting about these brainwashed twins, material that has to do with white pride = crap while songs about bubblegum = better (if not quite good). One can't help but wonder if they're trying to tell their mother something through these mixed signals.

So while there are no videos for their latest effort, April Gaede has been kind enough to put up a few of PB's new tracks online. The first is off The Path We Choose called 'When I'm with You'. It's not that bad, the girls' husky tween voices work it as well as can be expected. I have visions of less successful Hanson b-sides when listening to the song. The other is 'Stand Up', which is their contribution to the 'Free Matt Hale' (of the Creativity Movement) CD being produced by Condemned Records.

UPDATE!! While I have purposely left the above entry as neutral as possible considering its obvious offensiveness (and how sorry I feel for the girls), I have found an excellent documentary that really helps fill in the blanks. BBS's Louis and the Nazis is available via Google Video for what I imagine to be a limited time only. It is really worth watching and shows just how sad the world of the White Nationalist movement is. Really, take the hour and a half to see it.

GARY NUMAN - Cars

2006-10-22T00:04:00.000-05:00

You know what I really appreciated about the early 80's? Weirdness seemed to have a certain mainstream appeal, if you were weird you were cool. Sure there are probably just as many, if not more, weird bands nowadays but they don't get the kind of exposure they used to. Maybe its near-sighted of me to say, but it's almost as if pushing the envelope in any interesting way means banishment to some dark part of web only to be discovered by a handful of obsessive elitist audio hounds. Why radio stations and video channels feel pressured into playing the same dull 'hits' over and over again is something I'll never understand. It's really too bad cause it's often exposure to innovative bands that pushes further growth in the music industry. Fortunetly, Gary Numan got some air time and has influenced a whole generation of artists who have imitated or hacked and slashed at his electro beats.

Gary Numan's most famous and enduring hit is without a doubt the 1979 song 'Cars'. I remember being really young (like 4) when I first heard it on the radio and loving this track so much. I know I had a full-on New Wave dance and everything for this puppy. The song seemed to have pretty much disappeared by the time I started school but I never did completely forget somewhere out there there was this totally awesome track hiding, waiting to be rediscovered. Fast-forward about 12 years or so and I found this great little used CD shop in Winnipeg called 'Into the Music' and I was once again reintroduced to the magic of this song along with many others.

Initially, recording under the band name Tubeway Army, 'Cars' is from 'Pleasure Principle' the first album to be released under his newly assumed Numan moniker which he plucked nearly randomly from a phone book. A lot of artists at the time pretty much hated Numan as a person. David Bowie, who Numan admired greatly, refused to appear on the same television program that they were both scheduled to perform. Eventually Numan fell out of the public eye despite many attempts to recapture his initial success. However, a generation later his contemporaries began referring to him as 'the godfather of electronic music' and he started to enjoy some respect from his peers. The list of artists that have either sampled his tracks or cited him as a major influence is really just too long to list. It would seem that I wasn't the only 4-year-old out there doing a New Wave dance to that kick ass track.

PETE SHELLEY - Homosapien

2006-10-21T14:30:00.000-05:00

Record companies are beginning to crack down on videos being 'illegally' hosted on YouTube (GoogleTube). I don't know what that will mean to the future of this blog because without them I don't have much to work with. I guess the question I need answered is why this form of online distribution is being discouraged. The Japanese seem to have the right idea when they refer to music videos as PROMOTIONAL videos. That's what they are - commercials. Maybe very cool commercials but people are supposed to see the video and say, 'My, how cool was that', and run over to their local record store and buy the LP. MTV doesn't play videos anymore so one would think that people willing to do the advertising for free should be able to in peace. But then again I'm not pimping the latest 50 Cent track... today I'm pimping Pete Shelley.

Pete Shelley is better known as the front man for the punk band the Buzzcocks. The Manchester-based Buzzcocks were one of the first punk rock bands to come out in the mid 70's. The name Buzzcocks comes from a local slang term meaning 'youngster'. Click the following link to check out 'Breakdown', a damn fine early recording by the band which is cool enough to deserve it's own entry. The Buzzcocks are still pretty darn good, they are still making new and fun punk tracks and are worth looking into. In fact, they just released a new CD this year called 'Flat-Pack Philosphy'.

Shelley's 1982 solo effort came to be almost by accident. He began writing the 'Homosapien' track for the new Buzzcocks album. He began composing the track on guitar and seeing his band mates were elsewhere, began using some synths to simulate the other backing instruments. By the time the song was done he realized he had a totally different beast on his hands and so he continued with this process until his first full-length solo disc was born. The BBC saw the title track as a gay anthem (it is) and banned it from the airwaves.

Both Javis Cocker of Blur and Trent Reznor of NIN have credited this single as a major influence, which is interesting considering the extreme differing end results. The track is very catchy and the video cries 80's from the bad luma keying to the immaculately designed Commodore PET computer. As an aside, I'd give my left nut for one of those Star Trek inspired bad boys. I especially like Shelley with his neatly parted hair and his all too tight white suit. Really, there's a New Wave Synth-Pop extravaganza waiting for you just below!

NEIL YOUNG & DEVO - Johnny Spud

2006-10-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

Sometimes this blog practically writes itself and I have a feeling today is going to be one of those days. As I mentioned in my first entry ever, I've been on a bit of a New (No) Wave kick lately and so this week (weak) I'm gonna try to cover some of my more recent finds. Today's video is something I've been wanting to write up for some time now. Winnipeg's granola boy, Neil Young together with Akron, Ohio's DEVO - as god intended it.

I should preface this by saying I know Young was born in Toronto but he grew up in our ass of the woods so as far as I'm concerned we own him... especially after seeing this fiasco. And yes, I also like DEVO. I remember the first time I saw Jocko Homo and after the full-body condom bit there was no going back. Vocalist, Mark Mothersbaugh now does much of Nickelodeon's cartoon sound work, including the brilliant Rugrats theme. Incidentally, it should be noted Mothersbaugh bares more than a passing resemblance to the cartoon's uncle figure, Drew Pickles. Latest in the devolutions includes Disney's oft misunderstood (self included) DEVO 2.0, featuring tweens covering old DEVO classics. As annoying as the end result is, I can't help but laugh when I hear those kids trying poorly to sell half-baked anti-consumerist messages and songs about masturbation to children - for Disney.

But I'm getting ahead of myself we must turn back the clock to a simpler time, a time of bad pseudo punk. Neil Young had met the members of DEVO during a protest at Ohio's Kent State University - not that protest. They immediately became good friends and Young became a HUGE fan of their music. He even made a New Wave inspired album shortly after their encounter called 'Trans'. Name sounds New Wave to me.

In 1982, Neil Young wrote, directed, produced and starred in the movie 'Human Highway'. This film displays a very unselfconscious Punk/New Wave aesthetic. It's disjointed and nonsensical, everyone's obviously having a lot of fun even if it is most painfully delivered at the audiences expense. Hey, it's got Hopper. DEVO is heavily featured throughout the 88 minutes of surrealist torture. It has it's moment, the one you are about to see, billed as a dream sequence where Neil Young jams with Booji Boy (pronounced Boogie Boy, one of Mothersbaugh's alter-egos) and the rest of the band.

KANA - Kuuchuu Buranko (Sky Swing)

2006-10-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

I know I call it the GOOD music but every now and then even I gotta question that. Today happens to be one of those days. I can defend myself fairly well when I say Justin Timberlake is pretty cool but this is sorta hard to stand behind. One day many moons ago I was pillaging files from Soulseek when I came across Kana.

First off I have to say I pretty much hate Visual Kei, or Visual Style in English. Visual Kei is characterized by bands using dramatic costumes and visual imagery (read: gay) to apparently enhance the band's performance. Visual Kei is often focused upon in the West as a uniquely Japanese part of the Rock music scene. Visually and aurally, the closest match in the west would be a band like Marylin Manson where eye make-up is as important as lyrics. That however isn't what I dislike about the scene. I am more turned off by the unrelenting nasal wailing that seems to be attached like a cancerous wart to the whole scene. There are debates as to whether or not Kana can be categorized as Visual Kei but I will simplify it and say she is, I suck, and I sorta like it.

One evening I was walking by Namba Hatch, a popular concert venue in Osaka, when I saw maybe a thousand lolita girls in neo-Victorian dresses, covered in bloody gauze, each holding little stuffed animals. It was the sexiest thing I saw all day. Later next morning while watching the news I found out they were there for a Kana concert. Kana helped me have a great little surreal experience so I'm giving her uber-points for that.

She began her career as a model for The Gothic And Lolita Bible magazine, and still appears in the magazine regularly. In 2000, she ventured into music by releasing the Maxi single, 'Hebi-Ichigo (蛇苺)'. Kana's singing is often the subject of severe criticism. Her vocals seem to alternate between cutesy and high-pitched to a harsh, screechy type. There's almost always no middle ground when it comes to its preference - you either love it or hate it. I guess I'll play the exception and say I'm still not sure how I feel. She collects pandas, and her main panda is Toraboruta. Most of the plushies do photo shoots with her, and appear in her music videos.

Today's video is from her third maxi single released in 2001. There's some pretty awesome chimpanzee-on-acid keyboard playing in the background and Kana let's off a couple of decent soul crushing screams so that was enough to win her a place in the GOOD music. Although her latest album was released in 2005, she hasn't released another 'official' music video since the one shown below. She has however recently released a number of bizarre early promotional/art videos that are worth checking out. Think 'The Ring' meets 'Hello Kitty'. For more information, check out the Kana-P no Mori website which is probably the de facto resource on all things Kana.

GING NANG BOYZ - SKOOL KILL

2006-10-13T22:54:00.000-05:00

It's been a week or so since my last post. The reason being I have been liberated from my one month stint at Wal-mart and have begun a job with very evil shift-work. I'm still trying to determine which is the greater of the two evils. This week I have been working from six in the morning until two in the afternoon. What's more, the job is half an hour away from home so factor in get ready time and I'm basically waking up at five in the morning - or at least I would be if I was getting any sleep. So basically I'm neglecting the blog so I can get some sleep which I don't which in turn makes me too tired to write and so on and so on and scoobie-doobie-doo. But it's the weekend so lets kick it!

Japan's punk scene is pretty big and the Ging Nang Boyz never hold back any of that punk attitude back. The band consists of Kazunobu Mineta of 'Going Steady' fame on vocals, Chin on guitar, Abiko on bass, and Murai on drums. I was sold after I heard 'Nipponjin', the first song off 'Young Alive In Love (You My Third Worldwide Great War Romantic Love Revolution)', their debut CD. The songs first line is sung in that all too familiar generic j-pop croon immediately followed screaming retardedly for the next 83 seconds. The chorus consists of "Waruwaru! Nipponjin wa!" or Bad Bad! Japanese! It's all a little too stupid to be true as they continue to barf up an absurd amount of frantic, too-old-to-be-teen angst in every note of every song that follows. Tiny Mix Tapes describes it better than I'll ever do so here it is.

"No more than three words escaped the Mineta's velvet throat before he screamed like he was deep-throating a chainsaw and the band came crashing in with the subtlety of a blitzkireg. Technical accuracy, rhythmic durability, harmony, and dignity all leapt out the window, screaming and hopeless. This ninety-second opening salvo,“Nipponjin,” put a shotgun to the head of everything the Berklee College of Music teaches, an unapologetic orgy of anti-music. I’d been punked. And I couldn’t have laughed harder."

Today's video is from the debut album's second and most famous track. It replaces Neil Young's 'Piece of Crap' as the best punk video I've ever seen.

FARRELL BROS. - Burning Desire

2006-10-08T16:12:00.000-05:00

I know my blog seems to keep my head in Asia a lot of the time, but there is good music all over, sometimes even in our own backyards, sometimes even in Selkirk, Manitoba. If you are from Selkirk, and chances are pretty good you're not, you probably already know who I'm talking about.

A few summers ago I remember being invited to a birthday/karaoke party in Winnipeg. Usually my miscreant friends would scoff at such an idea but the girl was very sexy so of course we went. It was my turn to drive out and I don't like driving in the big city so much. Not because I can't but because I don't think I can (if that makes any sense). Needless to say I got us where we needed to go and not any further. We did the karaoke thing for a while which was decent enough but when it came time to leave I wasn't quite in the head space to tackle the road again so I suggested going to The Royal Albert - a cool, if not slightly dangerous punk rock club that was literally down the street from the karaoke place. When we entered the club we were greeted by the usual toughs along with a group of teddy boys with unusually tall quiffs. My friends and I were all fans of the rockabilly after just having seen the Reverend so when we saw a upright bass on the stage we knew we were in for a treat and we were, as The Farrell Brothers got on the stage.

The Farrell's, who describe themselves as frantic rockabilly with a country twang, are a quartet that knows how to have a good time. At their live shows it's hard to imagine even the most jaded beer wolves not tapping their toes at some point during the performance. Everything from outlaw country to old-time gospels get their moment in the sun, all spiced with a hint of punk tuneage. Led by proud Selkirk natives Shawn on hollow-body and Gordie Farrell on upright, their energy is as contagious as it is inspirational. Some people don't like Shawn's constricted, almost constipated at times, vocal style but I'm willing to look the other way as it fits the music and he's such a nice dude. Burning Desire is a newer Farrell track which doesn't nearly highlight the range of the group but shows them progressively coming into their own.

AT17 - Our Prologue (我們的序幕)

2006-10-08T02:26:00.000-05:00

My hunt for info on yesterday's Sodagreen entry brought up a personal forgotten Hong Kong gem called AT17. I became immediately interested in the band when I saw the cover for their 2003 album entitled Kiss Kiss Kiss. Girls, you done Paul and Gene good! As the cover may lead you to believe, AT17 is not your typical Cantopop duo, who favor lyrical and musical quality to being pop idols. AT17 consists of Canadian, Ellen Joyce Loo and HK native Eman Lam, who are both involved considerably in the songwriting and production for their albums. Loo plays the guitar and piano, while Lam plays the guitar and various percussion instruments.
Loo and Lam met each other at a singing competition called 'Original Music 2000' (原音2000) held by Tom Lee Music Hong Kong, where Loo won the 3rd Prize and Lam won the 2nd Prize. They were the youngest participants. They began to tour universities together and about a year later were discovered by, Anthony Wong Yiu Ming, the chairman of the music production company People Mountain People Sea and a renowned singer of the 90's. Lam and Loo was then signed by the company on 1 January 2002, and the group was named at17.

While I think their first few albums sometimes suffered for the typical Chinese pop over-production, their most recent effort is very well packaged. Just out this August, Bian Bian Bian feels like the album they really wanted to make. The acoustic element so important in their live shows (check their performance of Radiohead's Paranoid Android) finally comes to life on the album as well.The sound is pleasantly stripped down where it needs to be and tastefully fills in along the journey.

SODAGREEN (蘇打綠) - Flying Fish (飛魚)

2006-10-07T18:35:00.001-05:00

I have a feeling today's entry is going to be a short one - not because I'm tired or disinterested, it's just that I can't read Chinese. The problem with liking music from different countries is that there isn't always a lot of English information available. This is especially frustrating when you are trying to create written bio's on bands for a blog. Oh, how I rue the day I decided to find out who's hot in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese Sodagreen, formed in April, 2001 by vocalist (Greeny) Qingfeng together with his older brother on guitar, is an indie pop combo with a light rock sound. While emerging from indie backgrounds, Sodagreen has received wide spread success for their unique style. They usually play at more upscale venues around Taipei city including Stage 19. They have also released several CDs on major labels. The members are Kay and A-ful on guitar, Claire on bass, Wei on drums, Zephyr on viola and piano, and Greeny as the vocalist.

Today's video is from Sodagreen's second single off their 2005 self-titled CD. The video immediately invokes for me memories of playing side-scrollers and shooters on my 8-bit Nintendo. It's a warm, cute little song that I enjoy listening to every once in a while when I'm at work.

DANIELSON FAMILE - Did I Step On Your Trumpet?

2006-10-06T06:11:00.001-05:00

The Danielson Famile, led by Daniel Smith, is one of the more interesting and certainly more memorable bands I've heard in recent years. When they are asked who their musical influences are, the usual response is they never really listened to music save Sunday School - and it shows. The Danielson Famile are just that, four sisters and five brothers, usually dressed as medical staff or police, spewing forth some of the most challenging Christian music you are liable to ever hear. What's more it's all pretty fantastic.

The Danielson Famile likely get more positive press from the secular media than they do their Christian counterparts. The contemporary Christian music scene can't seem to get behind Danielson's herky-jerky acoustic guitar, call-and-response vocals, tinkling bells aesthetic. Whereas the secular Pitchfork is happy to call their latest album 'a bona fide people-pleaser, retaining the Danielson Famile's endearingly skewed pop sensibility, while delivering the goods in a standard verse-chorus-verse package.' The group is has put out a DVD, 'Danielson, a Famile Movie (Or, Make a Joyful Noise HERE)'. which is all about the Danielson experience, I'm eager to get my hands on this one. You owe it to yourself to have a look at the trailer!

The Famile's latest effort comes in the form of their groundbreaking 'Ships' album. Today's video, from that CD, is called 'Did I Step On Your Trumpet?'. No sir, you certainly did not, but thanks for asking. If all Christian music were this cool I wouldn't need to listen to anything else. Get the MP3 here!

PIERRE TAKI - ピエール瀧の体操36歳 (36 Year Old Gymnastics)

2006-09-30T23:11:00.000-05:00

Welcome to part 3 of the Denki Groove Mega-party! Growing up, Pierre Taki had a mother who was a professor of nursing and was too busy to spend a lot of time with him. His father spent much of his time away from the family trekking in the mountains of Tibet. Without regular parental contact Taki was largely brought up by his older sister. He grew up learning about what young girls do and how to be feminine, a subject he uses in many of his works today. Later in life, Pierre Taki felt pressure to pursue a career in the medical field like his mother had but suddenly dropped out of university mid course in order to queue up for the debut release of Nintendo's RPG game, 'Dragon Quest II'. Today he is married, has one child and is still a game lover.

These days, performing often dressed in drag, Pierre Taki is the front man of Denki Groove. Taki is known for writing lyrics for many popular Japanese bands particularly for the pop band 'Puffy', now known as Puffy AmiYumi (thanks Diddy... lame asshole). He is a television presenter and is sometimes the goal keeper for FC Kaos. Now nearing the age of 40, Taki needs to be in good shape to block all those goals. Today's video will show just how he stays in such good shape in the form of '36 Year Old Gymnastics'.

Taki is as famous for his video work as he is being Denki Groove's primary vocalist. He has dedicated many years to producing video works in combination with live performance for himself and many other groups. In late 2004, he released 'Pierre Taki Presents COMIC Kiba Deluxe / Pierre Taki to Beethoven LIVE at LIQUID ROOM Vol.2', a DVD featuring some of his recent pieces.

While a talented lyricist, in today's video Taki opts for the minimal refrain, 'Pierre Ohayo!' which simply means 'Morning Pierre' over and over again. The video uses popular Japanese cultural references such as Totoro, juxtaposed by scenes of control and humiliation. As out there as the video may seem I can't help but relate to it on many levels. Maybe it's my comparative age. It also seems to mirror yesterday's Ishino entry nicely. Taki and Ishino obviously share a similar head space. If you liked Taki's 36 Year Old Gymnastics please check out the one he made six year earlier to celebrate his 30th!

TAKKYU ISHINO featuring Tabito Nanao - Last Scene

2006-09-30T00:40:00.000-05:00

Welcome to part two of the Denki Groove Mega-party! Takkyu Ishino has a lot to do with the musical direction of the group so it seems appropriate to take a look into his solo career. I had originally planned to feature the Ishino video for the single Rising Suns (2004) in this post. It's a great video that I saw featured at Kirin Plaza Osaka Art Gallery a few years ago. The video must have been a monumental effort, featuring crowds of thousands of people cleverly filmed from the air so please click this link to take a look.

It's great to see the serious side of Ishino but I will alway love him for his irreverence and so present to you 'Last Scene'. Last Scene was released in 2001 and is the first single to come out after the very funky, tongue-and-cheek, Karaokejack. It features the vocal talent of Tabito Nanao, who is an interesting vocal choice and is not really known for electronic music. It's Ishino at his most honest, not trying to be Denki Groove and not trying to be German-school tekno powerhouse.

The video is about racquetball, disco dancing (thanks largely to Japan's portly, afro-headed, disco king, Papaya Suzuki!), and finding true love. Ishino and Taki are real suckers for playing with male sexual identity and often use adolescent stereotypes in their music and videos.

UPDATE! This video seems to have been removed! Sorry, I'll keep an eye open and try to replace it soon.

UPDATE2! Still looking but in the meantime why not check out Takkyu Ishino and Pierre Taki's pet project released in 1992, 'Techno Kayou' by Fumie Hosokawa. Fumin' started her career as an sexy idol and became the Miss Magazine cover girl in 1990. The strange video is 'Niko Niko Nyan Nyan'.

Miceteeth - 霧の中 (Kiri no Naka) - In the Fog (trans.)

2006-09-28T13:55:00.000-05:00

It may surprise you to find out my favorite music in Japan was the traditional ska/rocksteady/dub scene. I must have gone to every Osaka Skankin' Night both in Osaka and Kobe for over two years and my favorite overall band I saw was the Miceteeth.

Long before I ever attended my first Skankin' Night, I found the Miceteeth's Kiri no Naka, their first CD single, at the Shinsaibashi Tsutaya Megastore. I have long learned to trust my instincts when it comes to trying random discs. Something about the Kiri no Naka single begged to be listened to and I'm glad I did or I may never have found this wonderful little group. As far as little groups go this one is pretty big sporting a ten piece band. Drummer and band leader Bondo Tsuji has lead the band to become masters of the essential ska vocabulary of chugging, syncopated proto-reggae rhythms and melodic horn parts, while at the same time nodding to the J-pop market in the form of singer Taisuke Tsugimatsu's sweetly delivered Japanese lyrics. Miceteeth have collaborated with many heavyweights such as Hakase-Sun, UA and most recently Bonnie Pink as well as a whole slew of Jamaican superstars.

I had a chance to meet the band in Kobe during one of my visits to Osaka Skankin' Night. I met Bondo who happens to speak perfect English which made it much easier to tell him and and the band exactly how much I loved them. As I expected, they were all pretty shocked and pleasantly surprised when I whipped out my iPod and showed them I had all their tracks. Then he promised me he had something new for that concert which I would soon discover was their new single (at the time), Sleep on Steps.

Today's track is true to many people's lives in Japan, finding small joys in the immense fog of despair. I know I felt this way on many occasions while living there. There is something so wrong about being surrounded by so many only to realize you are completely alone. This is a beautifully sorrowful track that accepts its own fate. I hope it proves a departure from the Emo preteen angst so forcefully marketed on the masses in North America. Adults get sad too sometimes.

DENKI GROOVE - Cafe de 鬼 (Oni)

2006-09-26T22:44:00.000-05:00

It's time for the Denki Groove Mega-party! I've been meaning to do an entry on one of Japan's most influential techno-rockers but the problem has been that no one entry can do these guys any justice so to remedy this dilemma I have decided to do series of posts related to the band/duo along with side-projects to give you a feel for their range and styles. I don't want to commit to a certain number of entries and may slip other interesting bits of music along the way so please try to enjoy this very weird band.

Denki Groove in it's current form consists of Pierre Taki (Masanori Taki) and Takkyu Ishino (Fumitoshi Ishino) along with help from Schadaraparr on their latest album. Former members are Yoshinori Sunahara and Jun Kitagawa.

The Shizuoka-born duo are lyrical comedians, nonconservative Japanese traditionalists, electronic pop stars, sound experimentalists and performance artists, all in a way that may make you question their sincerity. They seem to thrive on challenging their audience though seriousness vs. unseriousness and information vs. misinformation - in the most interesting ways possible. It's fun, it's strange, it's Denki Groove and it begins right now!

Beginning in 1991 with Flash Papa, their early works have a focus on pop sensibilities. With later releases their style has evolved through several types of electronic dance music, though often with many asides in unrelated genres. Recent work has largely been composted of German-style techno. Their lyrics are often tongue-in-cheek and sometimes quite bizarre.

Today's video, Cafe de Oni (which means devil or demon), is from their aforementioned debut with animation from comic artist and musician Masakazu Amahisa.

LITTLE SUPERSTAR - Rajnikanth and the Gang

2006-09-23T22:41:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure this video is well on it's way to becoming the meme of the week and due to its musical nature I felt not including it would deprive my extremely limited audience of true greatness! Today's bonus video is lovingly entitled 'Little Superstar'. It's a clip from a Tamil-language Bollywood film, possibly Maaveeran, starring Rajnikanth as the old guy lying on the couch. The music is from Swedish (AGAIN) DJ's, MC Miker G & DJ Swen's Holiday Rap, which is so school I plan to bust to that for a fortnight. If you didn't catch the inspired sample used, it is from Madonna's 'Holiday'.

While the following is unconfirmed, sources claim the little guy is a famous impersonator/comedian/dancer. In the scene he asks for a cigaratte. The old man says "No, you are too young". That is followed by "I only look small but I am 10 years older than you" (which is true). The old man asks "What will you do if I don't give you one". To which he answers, "I will cut you into pieces". The old man gives him the smoke.

BRITTA PERSSON - You are not my Boyfriend

2006-09-23T21:12:00.001-05:00

It's strange to feature two Swedish artists on my blog considering until this week I hadn't heard a single (I'm guessing here) Swedish group in my life. Granted the Basshunter was kinda a joke but he wouldn't have made the cut if he didn't do it for me in some offbeat way. Again, I'm not sure why I'm drawn to this so much but I do know that I'm gonna take the Swedes seriously from now on.

Today's treat is Britta Persson's 'You are not my Boyfriend' off her first full length album 'Top Quality Bones and a Little Terrorist' pretty much just out (August 23rd - Yesterday!). Britta Persson was born in 1982. She grew up in Uppsala in Sweden but currently lives in Stockholm. In 2004, she sang together with Swedish indie-pop heavy-weight Kristofer Åström on his record and later joined him on tour. On this album Britta has once again worked with Kristofer who has helped her with recordings.

On her web site she offered fans a unique chance to vote on one of three different songs to decide which would be her first and second singles. Today's offering actually was voted as number two. The video is beautiful in it's simple use of colors and images that work well in mirroring the vocals. It's probably safely to assume English isn't Persson's first language but it doesn't seem to matter in her lyrics. While simple, they feel open, vulnerable and a tad bit angry - really quite fun to sing along to. In the end however, it's that mad, grungy electro-beat that really wins me over.

This song begs to be remixed into a full-on club track! Dare I say it? Basshunter, anyone? I've lived in a small country before and (presuming they're both in it) know for a fact that they can't be more than 8 hours away from each other at any given time. Ok, maybe that isn't what the doctor ordered but it could be pretty awsome! Click here to see today's video at a much higher resolution via Burning TV, a site dedicated to the Swedish indie scene.

PREFUSE 73 - The End of Biters - International

2006-09-21T12:27:00.000-05:00

Prefuse 73 was introduced to me by a university friend a few years back and since then I have really grown to like his cut and paste style often referred to as glitch-hop. Prefuse 73 is Scott Herren know for fusing 70's soul with the vintage hip-hop of the 80's. But Spain-based Herren has his fingers in a thousand different side projects as well such as Piano Overlord and Savath & Savalas. Herren's Cubana/Irish/Catalan roots help inform his musical style on his many different projects.

Using laptops, turn-tables, samplers and an assorted array sampling and manipulation equipment, Herren is able to create and fuse sounds that simply wouldn't be possible by conventional DJing. This has lead many people to joke about the idea of seeing Prefuse live, seeing some dude standing behind a laptop playing with his mouse. Having seen a few laptop DJ's in the past (tho never 73) I know that it can sometimes work. But Herren has a wide assortment of skills including some awesome beat-bouncing powers that lead me believe that it would be great show to watch live.

Directed by Aleix Pitarch, Prefuse's video for 'The End of Biters - International' was released off his 2003 album, 'One Word Extinguisher'. The track is, at one minute and 17 seconds, probably the tightest, shortest, hip-hop jam to come out in '03. Cymbals crash into pianos and snippets of a voice are tossed into the mix, coalescing into a vigorous challenge rap. The animated video skillfully deals with the songs rapidly changing atmosphere and breaks out the eventual deconstuctionist's happy ending.

THE LOCUST - Moth-Eaten Deer Head

2006-09-20T01:26:00.000-05:00

There was a time a few years back when I was really into grindcore. The grindcore formula looks a little something like this. Scream in your loudest, trillest voice, play x instrument as fast as you can, and do it for thirty seconds, rinse and repeat. That's about it. Don't like this song, that's OK, it'll be over in 30 seconds. Oh, and don't forget to give all your songs funny titles. Now you too can make a grindcore band. Wasn't that simple?

Today's song is from San Diego's favorite grindcore band, The Locust, who have been assaulting their audiences for about ten years now. At concerts they wear charming hoods meant to look like Locusts or Mexican wrestlers, whichever floats your boat. They have played with Kid 606 which doesn't seem all that unreasonable considering the band already features a lot of wacky synthesizer acrobatics. They are also pretty good at coming up with names for their songs - take their 2003 hit, 'The Half-Eaten Sausage Would Like To See You In His Office' from the Plague Soundscapes album, as an example.

Today's video is called "Moth-Eaten Deer Head" which practically plods, clocking in at one minute and seventeen seconds. It is off their first full length (13 minute), self-titled album released in 1999. Even at 13 minutes, The Locust manages to find room for 20 tracks on the disc. I think the cover art on this disc is pretty amazing! There were two comments on the YouTube site regarding this video and I think it sums up the schools of thought on these guys nicely so here they are complete with spelling mistakes!

CaptainGaby says:
"I fucking love the Locust. Kick ass band. Thanks for putting thid up."

rkonbon says:
"how the fuck is this shit consiedered music.this is absolute garbage"

And if you'd like to scream along, here are the lyrics:

Damn it Jim, I'm not a magician.
And actually not even a doctor.
I'm not a fucking doctor.
A cuckoo clock never gives the right time.
We swim up stream for the cuckoo's dream.
It's no surprise just how low some will go.

Moth-eaten dear head! (x10)

BASSHUNTER - DotA

2006-09-19T00:02:00.000-05:00

Uhhh... when you see entries like this I'm guessing you really have to question my taste in music. I'm not saying I like what I'm about to show you (tho I definitely do love it in some perverse way) but I feel more like showing you this than anything else I have found today. I have plans but I don't want this to become an exclusively J-music blog and every now and then I like to throw you a little curveball. This is the first ever Tuesday WTF.
Today's song is called DotA from 21 year-old Swedish musician and DJ (guy in his basement) Jonas Altberg more often known as Basshunter. DotA, for all you noobs is an acronym for 'Defense of the Ancients', which is a custom map for Warcraft III. Don't worry about me too much I had to look that one up... DotA from Basshunter's second eurodance CD entitled 'LOL <(^^,)>' which just proves how 1337 this dude really is. (That's an emoticon of Kirby, btw)

The song is about Basshunter and his friends, using the voice communication application Ventrilo while they are playing DotA. Apparently, their hot girlfriends are happy to sit on the floor in total darkness while the geekmoles play online games. Only later into the video we find Basshunter taking all the girlfriends out on the town, I guess it was his turn to entertain the girls while his buddies game the night away. Even then all he can do is sing about how much he loves his game. I'm not great with the ladies but I'm not that BAD either! Note towards the end of the video some guy is holding a sign that I swear says 'ASShunter' - not sure how I should take that. If you like gaming, cheese and Swedish club chicks you've come to the right place. I'm going to listen to this at least one more time.

If the YouTube version isn't hi-fi enough for you than check out this site dedicated to translating this gem into seemingly every language on earth.

SUIKA - Attack My Life Voyage My Life

2006-09-17T14:04:00.000-05:00

This is my favorite Japanese Hip-Hop group. I saw them late one night on television when, for a brief time, there was a show that featured music from independent labels. I saw that show (couldn't tell you the name) three times before it was eaten by the J-pop monoliths. I'd complain but at least I was turned on to a couple of interesting acts such as the one that follows!

Suika, which means watermelon in Japanese, is the brainchild of Takatsuki (Shinjuku Spoken Words Slam) a rapper who was interested in hip hop jazz. He enlisted the help of the poetess Toto (Flow Words, World Apart Ltd.), hip hip artist ATOM (SSWS), the musician Yuko Takahashi (Gomes the Hitman) on percussion, and Kaztake Takeuchi (A Hundred Birds) on the elepian (electric piano), while Takatsu himself donned a double bass. The group is atypical both in concept and in it's sound.

The video, off their second album, Ripe Stripes, shows the group jamming in a bookshop which is sort of an interesting idea for a video. Even more interesting is the fact that that is actually how they DID record their album - their label Flying Books (or Fly n' Spin Records) is a small book store located in the district of Shibuya in Tokyo. It seems to have had a direct effect of the intimate quality of their sound. The voices of Takatsuki and ATOM resemble each other and complement perfectly. The sly softness of Toto's voice mixes well with the other lyrics. The music of the group is very fun and pleasant to the ear and gives the listener the impression of being at Flying Books attending a small concert between friends.

Suika's fourth (sorta) CD entitled 'Harvest for the Stripes' is a reworking of their favorite songs (and some new ones) in French, which is cool but I wish it were in English... heh, I understand French even LESS than I do Japanese.

HALFBY - Rodeo Machine/Screw the Plan

2006-09-17T00:33:00.000-05:00

Possibly on my top ten vids of all time, today's video is Halfby's Rodeo Machine/Screw the Plan.

Halfby, whose real name is Takahiro Takahashi, is on his way to becoming Japan's biggest breakbeat giant. He recently left Second Royal records for the much bigger and presumably plushier arms of Toy's Factory. Initially, there seemed to be some concern by fans that moving from a minor to a major label might compromise the unique sound of his 'Green Hours' album, but this video puts those critics in their places!

'Rodeo Machine' is from the 'Green Hours' album, while 'Screw the Plan' is off Halfby's major label effort of the same name. Both songs have a unique sound, and true 'Rodeo Machine' is probably the wonkier, strangely cajun-infused track, but 'Screw the Plan' is a full-on party track that features UK's Olympic Lifts. What I like about Halfby is he sounds so western-influenced while not seeming deliberately intent on catering to western tastes. Especially on the latter track Fatboy Slim comparisons could be made but we all know Fatboy no longer makes REAL club tracks...

The computer animated video couldn't be more suited to the music and may go down as my most memorable video of all time. I saw it one time at Tower Records and two years later I still pined to see it again some day. The video was produced by the Tokyo-based pop design collective groovisions. (I still display my Brockman figures with pride!) It's amazing just how much expression can be conveyed in the uniform human templates marching on the screen and in my opinion these videos represent groovisions strongest work to date!

ARECEE - All We Have

2006-09-15T00:16:00.000-05:00

I know you've all seen Arecee's great Future Country video! You know, the one featuring Denny (Blazin' Hazin') Blaze, Leslie Hall (of Leslie and the Ly's) and Cowboy Clark (aka. Arecee as a redneck disciple of George Bush). I sent a link of this video to my friends and got a great response! Nobody was quite sure how to take the whole experience. I had checked out the Blaze and Leslie in some detail before but I hadn't spend much time looking at the songs ultimate mastermind and so todays video is Arecee's 'All We Have'.

While always clever and often tongue and cheek, I'm pretty sure Arecee's the real deal. Having been in the blazin' Iowa scene for around 10 years, now living in Brooklyn, he has released five albums. Urban Smarts has a good interview with Arecee back in his early days that's worth a read-thru. The links above and the video below really tell the story better than I can, so without any further ado...

Click here for the mp3.

THE TASTE OF TEA - 茶の味 (Cha no Aji) - Yamayo

2006-09-13T14:25:00.000-05:00

Ya-ya-yaaa, Yama yama yamaaa!

That's precisely what I heard one day playing in the background as I was looking at CD's in my then local Tower Records. I went to investigate and saw what is today's video. It was a promo DVD for Katsuhito Ishii's 2004 film, Taste of Tea (Cha no Aji). Up until this point, Ishii was know most for his violent Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl films and to western audiences he is the man responsible for the dark animation sequence in Quintin Tarantino's, Kill Bill Volume One.

Here is what Midnight Eye had to say about the movie:

"Here he is, back again with a feature film that is a radical change from the throwaway superficiality of his earlier work. The Taste of Tea is a rather delightful look at the eccentricities hiding just beneath the calm surface of ordinary life, touching, funny, imaginative and pleasantly low-key. Even if it is a bit long."

Ha, pleasantly low-key is right. I challenge you to watch this movie any time other than a Sunday afternoon. It's slow and it's quiet, it's like being stoned for 2.5 hours, but it's also poetic, pretty and poignant in all the right ways (wow, the 3 p's!). Having no luck trying to summarize the plot of the story, I'll say the movie is a slice of surreality that takes place with a family of animators in the countryside, north of Tokyo. The film stars Tadanobu Asano (husband of the coolest pop-star ever, Chara) who plays a record producer and is forced to help his father record the music in today's video.

Cha no Aji's wonderful soundtrack by Little Tempo, really compliments the mood of the movie. Their drowsy arrangements featuring steel drums is just what the doctor ordered. I had known of the band since they came out with Musical Brain Food in 2003 and had read that they were doing the soundtrack for a film. I can't confirm or deny that they had any involvement with the 'killer track' you're about to hear!

Ishii's 2005 film, The Funky Forest seems to be the conceptual, if not literal sequel to Cha no Aji. Back are the same crazy characters, spiced up with some strange looking creatures. Check Twitch for a review!

Yamato (Oh Mountain)

Moun-Moun-Moun! Mountain Mountain Mountain! (x6)

Mountain!
Mountain!
Mountain!

Moun-ta-in!

Oh, my mountain, Oh my mountain,
The Mountain is alive!
Oh, my mountain, Oh my mountain,
The Mountain is alive!
Oh, my mountain, Oh my mountain,
The Mountain is alive!
The Mountain is alive!
The Mountain is alive!

(you get the idea...)

NEGATIVLAND - Gimme the Mermaid

2006-09-10T12:05:00.000-05:00

Ahh, the sweet sweet sound of copyright infringement. Plunderphonic superstars Negativland, formed in 1980, was busy sampling other peoples work before the term sampling was even around. Conceptually from dadaesque nonsense beginnings, the random sampling collages began to take on a life of it's own. Mark Holser of the group talks about Negativland's evolution in an interview shot at Creative Electric Studios after the opening of a Negativlandland exhibition in Minneapolis.

Negativland's most infamous project was the U2 record (often referred to as 'The Letter U and the Numeral Two') with samples from 'America's Top 40' host Casey Kasem ranting between takes in the studio. In 1991, Negativland released a single with the title 'U2' displayed in very large type on the front of the packaging, and 'Negativland' in a smaller typeface. An image of the Lockheed U-2 spy plane was also on the single cover.

U2's label Island Records sued Negativland claiming that the 'U2' violated trademark law, and the song itself violated copyright law. Island Records also contended that the single was an attempt to deliberately confuse U2 fans, then awaiting Achtung Baby.

'Gimme the Mermaid' (2002) is a short from the group, with help from Disney animator Tim Maloney, who created this using his employer's equipment after hours. 'Mermaid' combines the sound of a music industry lawyer with the voice of the Little Mermaid and Negativland's helium-tinged cover of Black Flag's 'Gimme Gimme Gimme.' The video appears on the band's release, No Business, available via Stay Free!

THE PANCAKES - 越過高山 (Cross the Mountain)

2006-09-09T23:06:00.000-05:00

Hong Kong has a cool music scene, I just KNOW it! I'd love to spend a few years kicking it HK because of the nightlife in a city that truly never sleeps and never stops. They say if you left Hong Kong for a month, you wouldn't recognize it when you got back. For all that hustle and bustle it may not be so surprising that much of the music scene is lo-fi and chilled right out. All that craziness out there it's easy to want to escape behind the headphones of an iPod.

The Pancakes, often solo - always fronted by a girl simply known as Dejay, is a great example of this urban escape. Formed in 1999, Dejay's music and lyrics are simple (usually in English), soulful and saccharine yet not cloying. Her music is often used in commercials in Hong Kong. Dejay, truly independent, is usually responsible for all musical composition,writing, instrument performance, singing, recording and production of her albums. Dejay plays various musical instruments such as the guitar, keyboard and drum. And once in a while she may do a ditty with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

The singer seems inclined to keep her identity a secret only going by the name Dejay (I happen to know her surname is Choi) and keeping her website free of any photos of herself. Even the video, in which she appears, obscures her face with an image of the moon. It's too bad because the girl's very pretty but I guess the music isn't about being a pop diva so the sensibility reflects her personality.

NEL HATE (Aka. Paranel) - Ee-Mu Remix Album

2006-09-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

No video today, but I have a free album for you to download! Many Japanese people have told me that there is not much of an underground hip hop scene in Japan. As an outsider that doesn't limit himself to any particular genre, I was very curious to find what allegedly could not be found.

Nel Hate was introduced to me by a German friend, Moorieman, who has never been to Japan and despite all my efforts knows more about Japanese music than I ever will. Moorieman is my god and the reason why file sharing is not only a good thing but vital to the music industry.

A short review of Nel Hate's full-length debute CD, Dobutsutachi No Ensoukai (Concert of Animals), can be found at SeekJapan. Don't let the Sam & Dave banner ads fool you, this site reviews some of Japan's more interesting, obscure bands, its worth a look. Paranel, in true independent hip-hop fashion, also does all the artwork for the albums. He also seems to try to integrate live painting at his performances. As compelling as some of his images are, it seems to run the risk of being overly art-faggy at a hip hop show. This is more of a side than a real criticism because I haven't personally seen him live.

The remixes done by Ee-mu, are taken from all four of Nel Hates major album releases. In most cases, the original mixes are more suited to Paranel's lyrical styling and off-key whining but that doesn't mean that this disc is a miss. The Red remix of "CAVE" is pretty funny if not cool and the Ee-Mu's take on "LIGHTS" is pretty fresh. While most of these mixes are purposely loose, they often come off sounding ill-timed and amateurish. That may be all good in the land of the Japanese basement jack. I don't think I'd count this remix album amongst my favorite Nel Hate efforts but it is kind of interesting especially if you are familiar with the original tracks. I like it when bands release special internet only remix albums. It acknowledges the fact that much of the material is possibly below release quality but gives hardcore fans something special to tide them over until the next official release. For that alone I'd be willing to give this disc a solid C++.

Click here to download the album.

For more of the undergrounds sounds check the music samples of Nel Hate and friends at this site.

Dale's Birthday Party @ the Cherry Bar Soi 8 Pattaya

2006-09-04T23:46:00.000-05:00

I have a strange one for you all. I was browsing YouTube when I came across some promotional video for Cherry Bar in Thailand. You all know what that means, awsomely strange Thai music in the background. I've just e-mailed the bar in question asking the who's and what's of the background track. Here's to hoping they don't mind fielding the weird questions.

Pattaya is apparently pretty famous for bargirls. Just in case you aging hipster types are looking for some dirty validation on your next holiday. And who's Dale anyways?