Four entries so far in April? And it’s almost the end of the month? Man, have I been neglectful. I even managed to miss out on posting these latest Bounce.com missives:
Drummer Sakurai Yuuichi has left ART-SCHOOL to form his own band. I’m surprised he didn’t go on to join STRAIGHTENER.
VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE releases a split EP, titled 50/50 with Italian band Hey! Hey! Radio on June 17. The two bands met through Myspace.
The new cutman-booche album, my way, includes a cover of Cocco’s "Tsuyoku Hakanai Monotachi".
Now that I think about it, this month has been pretty slow.
Waterloo Records opened on April 1 some 27 years ago, and the spring storewide sale usually happens around that anniversary. This year’s sale starts this coming Thursday (April 2, 2009), and I’ve already drafted my shopping list. It consists mostly of albums I saved on Lala.
This year will be the first time in a long time I am not attending SXSW. (I didn’t in 1998, but back then, I didn’t know what the hell it was.)
That doesn’t mean I won’t be participating in the madness. The way the festival takes over this town, it’s tough to avoid. So this year marks the first time I’ll be siphoning off the free shows all over town. I’ve even made a schedule:
Wednesday, March 18, 2009: I’m catching Natchuu at a Cheapo’s Discs in-store at 12:50 p.m. on my lunch break. Yeah, I still need to head into the office. The spending cash for my Japan trip in November — the reason I’m skipping SXSW — won’t earn itself.
Thursday, March 19, 2009: I will take a half-day from work. At 2 p.m., I’m catching Department of Eagles at a Waterloo in-store performance. Then I’m heading to the Creekside Lounge to catch the rest of Japan Preview. If I feel really adventurous, I might check out the free show of Hawaiian artists at Whole Foods in downtown that evening. Most likely, I’ll head home early because, yeah, I have to go to the office the next day.
Friday, March 20, 2009: It’s the two-hour series finale of Battlestar Galactica. I want to know how this frakking show ends. It’s a good thing the Japan Nite showcases this year don’t really interst me.
Saturday, March 21, 2009: At noon, Gentleman Reg performs at Home Slice Pizza. I’ve never been to Home Slice yet, and I’ve been curious about Gentleman Reg since reading about him in Out magazine. The albums he has up on eMusic, however, haven’t quite sold me to get them. Then at 8 p.m., Explosions in the Sky takes to Auditorium Shores. Never did the Auditorium Shores thing before, so I have no idea how I’m going to navigate parking.
Even though I didn’t sink $100+ on a wristband, I fully expect to be buying up a lot of alcohol and merchandise. In short, I’ll be doing my part to sink cash back into the Austin economy. Probably not as much cash as I would attending four of the five nights of the festival, but I’m not going to be miserly this week either.
Maybe this year will wean me from my wristband dependency? Doubt it.
Bounce.com reports Do As Infinity is holding a song contest, but rather than translate the article, you can read the details of the contest for yourself at the band’s official site. Since the site is translated into both Japanese and English, I’m wondering if the band is accepting songs from outside of Japan. Of course to get around the logistical nightmare of international publishing rights, a condition of the contest is an automatic transfer of publishing rights to Avex Trax — and they get to keep the song forever!
If entrants from outside of Japan are accepted, I just may send something their way. Of course, I can’t send anything I’ve already written because I’ve already registered the rights with my own publishing company. So I’m going to have to send them something new — but nothing I’d want to keep for myself, though!
Entries will be accepted at the Do! Creative!! site from March 14 through April 13. The band plans to hold this contest twice a year.
I recently relaunched all my sites — including this one — with a new web framework (as evidenced by a new URL structure.) So I missed out on the following news items from Bounce.com:
Zoobombs’ mastermind Don Matsuo is releasing a second solo album, titled New Stone Age, on March 11. The album consists of 10 songs and is described by Bounce as being energetic and funky. Matsuo’s first solo album was released three years ago.
MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS singer Miyamoto Natsuko was diagnosed with chronic chorditis, thus forcing the sudden cancellation of the duo’s tour. Doctors have ordered Miyamoto to give her vocals a rest. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery.
ZAZEN BOYS are heading to New York for a few quick performances before embarking on a nationwide tour of Japan. The three-date tour from March 6 to 8 includes stops at Cake Shop, The Saint and Pianos. The band played some gigs in New York last year while recording ZAZEN BOYS 4 with Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios. (I actually learned about those gigs first from the Keikaku message boards.)
I wasn’t inclined to go to the music festival this year on account that I need to save cash for a trip in November, but now that I’ve looked over the full schedule, I can’t say I’m missing much.
If I were to go to the festival, I’d probably catch just the Friday Japan Nite, then spend the rest of the festival going to shows of gay interest. The Cliks and Jay Brannan aren’t listed, but Mirah is. So are the Indigo Girls, but I was never a fan.
Tokumaru Shugo is also no longer listed, but Flower Travellin’ Band and Natchuu have been added.
I might make it out to the Explosions in the Sky show at Auditorium Shores, since that’s free to the public. And if Grizzly Bear is doing a day show somewhere free, I might make an effort.
At least now I don’t have to worry about taking vacation time for that part of the week. But my friend Ryan is going to be in town for the Interactive festival. Hmmm …
Still busy as all get out, but I thought I should mention I’m over at Blip.fm, which is essentially Twitter for music. I don’t post often, but when I do, I try to make it interesting. Not much on the Japanese content because my gimmick is to quote a line from the lyrics in my "blips", which are then cross-posted to Twitter, which then subsequently cross-posts to Facebook.
When the music festival line-up for SXSW 2008 was announced, I couldn’t contain my excitement at the thought of a Steve Reich showcase or a performance by Wing. The festival line-up for 2009 doesn’t have that kind of revelation. I did, however, spot a few acts of gay interest in this year’s list:
Jay Brannan
Margaret Cho
The Cliks
Gentleman Reg
Grizzly Bear
Grant Hart
los super elegantes
Grizzly Bear is really the only must, must, must-see band for me in the entire list, and if they do a free show somewhere in town that week, I’d probably go to that and forego the wristband this year. (Recession recession recession.)
Two songwriters from Honolulu are also performing at SXSW.
John Cruz
David Tamaoka
I must be getting old because I don’t see anything on that list that screams "hipster buzz Pitchfork worship". No hint of a classical showcase at all, and nothing off-the-wall like Wing. I think I may not regret not getting a wristband. But the day party list that goes around each year? I’m keeping my eye out for that.
SXSW announced its complete line-up for the 2009 music festival, subject to change, of course. Here are the bands from Japan traveling all the way to Texas, some previously mentioned:
Asakusa Jinta
BO-PEEP
Cubismo Grafico Five
Dirty Old Men
Futumono Satisfaction
GAGAKIRISE
Geeks
Grapevine
HONEY SAC
ok city ok
quaff
Sonpub
Special Thanks
Stereopony
Tokumaru Shugo
Not on that list but announced by the SXSW Asia site are FLiP, SA, SPARTA LOCALS and the Emeralds.
I’m supposed to be taking a vacation trip to Japan with my brother later in 2009, and in order to save cash, I’m considering skipping SXSW 2009 this year. But I thought I should wait till the Japan Nite line-up has been announced before I make a decision. It would pretty much take Tokyo Jihen or MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS to get me to SXSW this year.
And now that the line-up has been announced, I think I may actually skip this one, the first in 10 years.
That’s not to say there aren’t some interesting bands on the docket. I wouldn’t mind seeing SPARTA LOCALS or Grapevine or even detroit7 again. But I think this year, I need to strict with the finances. Maybe I’ll skip the wristband and try my luck paying at the door. Hah.