The New England-raised, California-based composer played clarinet concertos when he was a teenager. He tried to study ancient Greek while at Harvard in order to read the classics in their original language. (He didn’t get far.) He’s composed operas about Richard Nixon and the development of the atomic bomb.
No ghost writer is listed on the cover of his autobiography, Hallelujah Junction, and given the college-level writing style, none was needed. (His blog is great as well. I really hope Marcel Proost is real.)
As such, Adams can’t help but come across as the smart guy he is, and when he’s relating stories about the creation of his biggest works, he’s entirely engaging.
ZAZEN BOYS’ mastermind Mukai Shuutoku produced and mixed the debut album of newcomers SuiseiNoboAz, reports Bounce.com. SuiseiNoboAz formed in 2007, performing steadily and gaining enough of a reputation to land a spot on the ROOKIE-A-GO-GO stage at the Fuji Rock Festival. The band recorded its 10-track self-titled debut, slated for release on Jan. 20, 2010, at Mukai’s Matsuri Studio.
SuiseiNoboAz’s Myspace page contains excerpts from the album, and the band shares quite an affinity with ZAZEN BOYS. The tracks certainly have that Matsuri Studio sound. (It’s in the drums.)
As I said before, it was easier to pin down the ranking of the first half of this list than the last half. The placements on this upper tier are fairly solid, and given the cop out of making a "favorite" list instead of a "best" list, I don’t have to make subject judgments about merit. I like these albums in this order because, well, I like these album in this order.
Like the previous set, the albums ranked 40-31 in this decade overview are bit unstable. Even after I started writing these entries, I was still shuffling albums around. The list gets more stable with the next set.
By the way, I’m linking to each previous and next entry, regardless of their publication status. If I don’t include the links now, I won’t remember to add them later.
UPDATE, 12/15/2009, 10:03 a.m.: I realized Onitsuka Chihiro’s Insomnia didn’t make it on this list, and NUMBER GIRL’s NUM-HEAVYMETALLIC had a pretty precarious spot on it anyway. So I bumped NUMBER GIRL off to make way for Onitsuka. Sorry, Mukai.
MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS returns with a new single, "Hikizuru Beat/Made.", on Feb. 10, reports Bounce.com. The double A-side single features drummer Yoshino Kou, who became a full-time member of the group after serving as a support musician. The single, to be released on EMI Japan, marks the major label debut for the newly-minted trio, which will embark on a tour in March.
Music writers geeks love their lists, as the characters of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity would have you believe.
All the fashionable online pundits are throwing together decade retrospectives, and there’s no reason my little dog and pony show shouldn’t get in on some of that action.
I’ll count backward, instead of using the traditional Desert Island Disc format (which reminds me …), and I’m splitting this list of 50 up by tens. That should really pad my Holidailies output.
This first set is probably the most unstable. I have to admit I was padding these lower ranks, and 10 years from now, I may change my mind about these albums. I’m far more certain about the first 20, maybe the first 25.
Tokyo Jihen’s next album, titled Sports, comes out on Feb. 24, reports Bounce.com. It’s been 2 1/2 years since the band released its previous album, Goraku (Variety). The 13-track Sports includes the pre-release single, "Noudouteki Sanpunkan", as well as "Senkou Shoujo", the title song a 2007 DVD release. A tour to support the album begins in March.
(Is it sick of me to wish this album were a track-by-track cover of the Huey Lewis and the News album of the same name?)