Category Archives: music

New sights and sounds

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A nice easy post here. Just a few notes on some new content I’ve either bought or been given over this festive period.

On the music front, after many months of virtually no new music, I got 3 new CDs in the last month or so. I picked up Robbie Williams’ “Intensive Care” which was a very decent effort, a nowhere near the impending disaster many people thought it may be since his writing break up with Guy Chambers. Santana’s “All that I am” was disappointing, with the master guitarist increasingly sounding like an extra track bolted on to an existing song, and whilst some tracks are nice, most aren’t up to the level of those on “Supernatural”. Finally, I picked up James Blunt’s “Back to Bedlam” based solely on a 20 second slice I heard on an advert – not the way I usually select music, but needless to say, it’s a fine album, and definitely worth a listen.

On the video side, it was all comedy – I picked up a double bill of musical comedian Bill Bailey, and a DVD of ‘dark poetry’ from Bill Hicks in the form of the ‘Revelations’ show, along with an included documentary. It’s hard to believe Hicks has been dead for almost 12 years. Rock on Goat Boy.

Southern All Stars Live

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OK, I admit this is a bit late, but last week (Dec. 1st), we went to the Tokyo Dome to see Southern All Stars live, and really, it was probably the best live gig I’ve seen – ever. Almost three hours of continuous music, by probably Japan’s best band. Complete with an amazing light show, screens, dancers, fireworks and balloons big enough to be out of ‘The Prisoner‘, the whole night was just amazing.

For me, it was great that they included a lot of my favourite songs, including the single ‘Bohbo No.5′, complete with hilarious animations running around the back screens, ‘Rock and Roll Superman’, and ‘Yellow Man’, which is the first time I’d seen that live, and it really is a great live track. That made up for a lack of ‘Manpi no G-spot’ in the set though!

Compared to the previous live show at ‘Rock in Japan’, and despite it’s length and the size of the hall, this seemed a little bit more ‘for the fans’, with Kuwata, the lead singer, showing why he’s not only a good vocalist, but also a consumate showman, chatting with the crowd and generally setting the mood. It also let the band put some stunning visuals on some moving video walls, from patterns, to animations to photos, illustrating each song, and doing some of their slower, more melodic songs.

Fortunately for us, we’ll see them *again* on Dec. 30th in Yokohama, but it seems that generally, it’s really hard to get tickets, because they don’t tour that often anymore – indeed Kuwata lamented that at 49 and a smoker, he’s not sure how much longer he can do it (Though as he runs around the stage dressed as a schoolboy, you’d never guess his age!).

For those who have no idea who these people are, I really recommend buying or renting the new double CD “Killer Street”, which is a combination of some reworked old songs, and a lot of new tracks. Personally, I’ve been really impressed with them, and it’s great to see a band who can put tens of thousands of fans in an arena and do a long, fantastic show. Roll on Dec. 30th!

Rock in Japan '05

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Just a week after 3 days at the Fuji Rock Festival, yesterday we headed out to Ibaraki for a day at the Rock in Japan festival, mainly to check out the Southern All Stars who put on an absolutely fantastic gig. If you haven’t heard or seen them, they really are worth a trip.

No full pics, but take a look at the flickr! stream. It was very hot and sunny though, which made a change. I’ll tack a full review onto the Fuji Rock one if I ever finish it.

AirTunes

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Last week I bought myself an Apple Airport Express. It’s a fairly regular wireless 802.11b/g access point amongst other wireless functions, it’s very small, stylish box, and, being from Apple costs a bit more than other slightly less well designed rival products.

The only wireless product I own right now is my PSP. So now I can get game downloads on my PSP! Great! Hang on, I could do that from hotspots around Tokyo anyway. So why?

Actually, both of the above, but also because of Airtunes. Airtunes is an extension of iTunes which basically pumps out a stream to Airport Express which then pumps it out through it’s small optical/3.5mm jack socket on one of it’s sides and from there into the back of my stereo. The benefit is that in my apartment there’s a wall mounted network port just behind my TV / stereo which my Airport Express is wired into. Thus, I can send my huge iTunes library to my stereo for almost 10 days of continuous songs!

Super Freak Out

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I’m rather embarrassed that I didn’t post this earlier. Last Friday was FreakOut 3: Super Freak Out. If you haven’t attended one, you really should. Basically it’s this: a bunch of artists and musicians get together for a night and put on a great show. Simple right! The band Sonica are the anchor act, playing a jam like fusion of funk soul and jazz, and in between sets they encourage open mic jamming, and audience participation drums and percussion. That’s not all though – there was Kazu, the mime artist, and local artist group ‘Gravity Free’ who did some great artwork whilst the band played and Goro came in to do a didjeridu (spelling from website) set, which was just incredible. It was a great atmosphere, with everyone relaxing on the comfy furniture, chatting to new friends and generally relaxing. Hopefully some people were enjoying some of the visuals I was helping get on the to big wall projectors. It’s based at Super Deluxe in Roppongi, and no sooner had we all woken up on Saturday afternoon, than mention was being made of another gig next February, which we’re all hoping will be even better.

A-Z music on an iPod

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I was looking down my iTunes listings earlier and realised that there are some things on my iPod *that I haven’t listened to*. What’s the point of having your 2,598 songs with you in one device if you don’t listen to them all? In answer to this question I’ve started going through my songs in alphabetical order starting this morning, but in truth I’m still in the numerals and am hoping to start on ‘A’ tomorrow. The only exception is the spoken word stuff – I’ll be skipping that – I know it sounds like a cop-out, but there we have it.

Son Of Freakout

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Last Saturday saw a bit of a new experience when my friend Ryo and myself “VJ’d” the ‘Son of Freakout’ night being held in Super Deluxe near Roppongi. It was a funky night of jam music from Sonica, live art by Ponzi, some performance art and general chilling out.

The visuals were mainly psychedelic video mixing and visualisations pumped out the back of the PC I dragged across Tokyo. I’d never done this kind of thing before, and it was all thrown together in a couple of days, but generally it all went well – with the exception of someone spilling beer all over the video mixer, which meant we only had the computer for a while as it dried out! I even managed to gt all the photos into the mix that I was hoping to.

I have to say that it was a lot of fun, and hopefully we’ll be doing it again in December at ‘Super Freakout”. Next time though I’ll be sure to remember to take more equipment, as we were missing a couple of cables we hoped would be there, but weren’t (so next time we can get those snowboard DVDs in the background!).

son of freak

Typhoon Beach Party

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It rained. It really rained.

As I mentioned a while ago, last Saturday was the Kamakura Beach Party. Unfortunately, a typhoon rolled into town and swept the beach. However, if anyone thinks this may have brought the whole thing to a standstill, they’d be wrong. The music played, the lights in the beach huts stayed on and the rum and cokes had just enough coke in them that you couldn’t taste it.

Let’s face it, if people are going to make their way down to the beach in a typhoon, they’re pretty serious about having a party, and that was definitely felt – the rain added to fun, as we dodged the leaks in the roof, and the bands made sure all their gear was dry. Over 150 people turned up, and I for one had a great time. Make-a-Wish Japan also made some money and when you can have a good time, and make some money for children so they can have a good time, then that’s a pretty decent day out in my opinion.

I can’t wait for next year, but maybe then, I’ll move out of that comfy deck chair I was in a little more often…

Kamakura Beach Party 2004

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Kamakura poster

Just a quick advanced post to those who are interested in going to the 2004 Kamakura Beach Party on August 28th (Saturday). I’ve been speaking to event organiser Brent o’Leary a lot over the last few days (we work for the same company), and the flyers are now ready, and pretty much all the information is on the website.

The Kamakura Beach Party is an annual charity event, with all proceeds going to Make-a-Wish Japan and also just happens to be a great live event down on the beach. So get your t-shirt/bikini/umbrella and get down there. Tickets are available on the door (men: 3500yen, ladies 2,500yen).