For some reason, I decided to sign up for Holidailies this year. It’s a month-long writing challenge to update a blog every day for the month of December, and it’s hosted by some friends of mine. I didn’t sign up Musicwhore.org, though — I signed up my Vox site instead.
Yeah, I know. I’ve got a backlog that I keep complaining about, and a month-long writing challenge should have caught me up. But my Vox blog is incredibly neglected, and I ought to show it some attention.
I’m still working in the studio, and I’m still busy at work, which means I’m pretty much taking a vacation from Musicwhore.org this month. Newsworthy items will always spur me to post, but for the time being, let’s say see you in the New Year.
Billboard.com lists Feb. 17 as the release date for … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead’s next album, titled The Century of Self. It will be the first release on the band’s own label, Richter Scale Records. Conrad Keely says this time, the band took a less meticulous approach, getting rid of click tracks and recording live. The Billboard article describes a few tracks from the album, and it sounds like the more prog-rock leanings of the last two albums haven’t been totally abandoned.
A while back, an item on Pause & Play led me to believe a new Wendy & Lisa album would be out in September. That is clearly not the case, since the duo relaunched their website yesterday (Dec. 9, 2008) with their new album, White Flags of Winter Chimneys, on sale. The album is available now as a digital download, with a CD release following in March 2009.
Shiina Ringo’s 10th anniversary commemoration campaign ends with another live DVD release in March, reports Bounce.com. No details about the DVD are yet available, but the official ringo10th website says a film crew caught a "premium live" performance at the Saitama Super Arena. The Bounce article mentions Shiina’s 7 year-old son serves as narrator.
STRAIGHTENER is set to release their new album in February, reports Bounce.com. The title hasn’t been announced, but the sound of the album has been "scaled up", according to the article. Not sure what that really means. New member Ooyama Jun, who was a former member of ART-SCHOOL, was featured on the band’s most recent single "Little Miss Weekend".
I haven’t really been paying too much attention to STRAIGHTENER for the past two albums, but with one half of ART-SCHOOL playing in a band that’s quite similar, I think I might check this next album out.
November is done, and December isn’t big on releases. So I’m calling it — my Favorite Edition list for 2008.
A number of titles got bumped around — or bumped off — the list for this final draft, but I have to say 2008 has been a near embarrassment of riches. Competition for this list was really stiff, with a lot of albums getting heavy play time on my media player. I even like the ones I didn’t absolutely love.
If there was an overall theme to this year, it was the number of releases by gay artists I actually liked. Most of the time I run across someone name-dropped in the Advocate or Out, they tend to fall into two genres: wispy folk music or club music. This year, I’ve run across musicians either pushing the boundaries of those constraints or working outside them altogether.
Guitarist Narahara Eisuke has joined VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE as a full-time member, reports Bounce.com. Narahara performed with VOLA as a support player after original guitarist Aoki Yutaka left the band to concentrate on unkie. According to the band’s official site, Narahara plays a Fender Jazzmaster and is influenced by Thurston Moore, Kevin Shields and Nels Cline. He also plays violin and keyboards.
NUMBER GIRL’s appearance on the Fuji TV show Factory is headed to DVD, according to the most recent e-mail I received from CD Japan. It comes out on Jan. 21. Is there anything really left to release after the massive OMOIDE IN MY HEAD anniversary campaign from 2005?
NUMBER GIRL’s former bassist Nakao Kentaro also co-produced the forthcoming mini-album by MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS. The CD Japan e-mail didn’t have a title, according to the band’s official site, it’s titled World Is Yours and has six tracks clocking in at 22 minutes.
The second and third quarters of 2008 seemed to give up the proverbial ghost, but then the release schedule ramped up, and I managed to stumble across a few discoveries. As a result, I’ve got a lot playing right now, and I’m impressed with a lot of it. Not all of it, but a lot of it.
Before I get around to writing a more detailed review about my Lala.com user experience, I just wanted to jot down the purchases I made from the site. Lala is unique in the way it allows listeners to put a down payment on a song or album, allowing them to listen online. If you want to download, you pony up the balance. The site even offers a test drive — the first listen is free.
I like this idea. It’s better than tossing random things in a queue, just to burn through a quota, as I did last night on eMusic. Thank goodness Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea turned out to be a lucky grab.
For my inaugural Lala investment, I paid $15, which is equivalent to my current eMusic subscription level. So far, I’ve bought only "web albums", to which I can listen online. I may need a few more spins before I commit to a purchase. With the way I’ve been watching my pennies recently, it may take a while.
Here’s what I’ve bought, organized by familiarity:
Since I’ve been neglecting this site these last two weeks, a number of release items went unreported.
GO!GO!7188 releases a new album titled Antenna on Feb. 4. I doubt it’s a full cover of Quruli’s album from 2004. The album contains 12 songs, with the single "Futashikatashika" preceding the release on Jan. 14.
BONNIE PINK has been keeping busy. She has a song, "Try Me Out", being featured in a new commercial for Attenir Cosmetics, and on Dec. 13, she performs at Billboard Live in Tokyo. Fans who buy the special edition of her upcoming Christmas EP CHAIN can win a ticket to the event, but only a limited number will be available. CHAIN hits stores on Nov. 26. BONNIE PINK is also collaborating with UK R&B artist Craig David on the track "All the Way", which is included as a bonus on the Japanese release of David’s Greatest Hits. The compilation is also being release on Nov. 26.
LEO Imai releases his next single, "Synchronize", on Jan. 28. Imai’s previous single, "Taxi", was released in July 2008.
Tommy heavenly6 has a new song featured on the anime Kidou Senshi Gundam 00 titled "Unlimited Sky". There are no plans for a single release yet.
Other December releases include a collaboration single between Yaida Hitomi and Odu Kazumasa titled "Koi Bus" on Dec. 3, while Van Tomiko’s second non-cover album, Van., gets a Dec. 10 release date.