On Thursday night, I received confirmation just how conservative I would have become had I pursued music composition back in college.
I arrived at Central Presbyteran Church before 9 p.m., hoping to catch Zeena Parkins, a harp player who has worked with the likes of Bill Laswell and Björk. I entered the church, and someone other than Parker was playing — a solo violinist shrouded in shadow, his visage illuminated on a scrim overhead.
After 15 minutes of listening to the player drone on and on with a limited set of notes, I asked myself, "What the fuck is this wanker shit?"
Slightly more than three years since the break-up of Number Girl, all four members have now released albums with their respective projects.
Mukai Shuutoku had a head-start with ZAZEN BOYS. Nakao Kentaro sat in with Spiral Chord before getting serious with SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS. Tabuchi Hisako formed toddle in between guitar duties with bloodthirsty butchers. And Ahito Inzawa formed Vola & the Oriental Machine after splitting from ZAZEN BOYS.
It’s been a long time since I shopped over at CD Japan, having migrated to Amazon Japan for slightly cheaper shipping.
Since then, CD Japan has expanded its shipping options, to include Global Priority Mail. I ordered Vola & the Oriental Machine’s Waiting for My Food mini-album to see how long it takes to arrive. Verdict: three weeks. Amazon usually takes only one.
But CD Japan’s cheapest shipping option is noticeably (but not really significantly) cheaper than Amazon’s, so it’s a good alternative to keep in mind if instant gratification isn’t a must.
That said, when the fuck is YesAsia going to list the new album by Hatakeyama Miyuki (titled Reflection) for pre-order? YesAsia’s shipping is reasonably quick and cheap, but it does me no good if the item I want isn’t even listed in the damn catalog.
The flag was raised when I was paying more attention to the muscular hottie in the tight t-shirt off the side of the stage than to Luminous Orange.
(Very much straight, but the way he was dressed, he probably shouldn’t step into a gay bar if he doesn’t want to get hit on.)
It’s been a few years since I listened to Luminous Orange’s Drop You Vivid Colors, and it’s the only album of Takeuchi Rie’s band I’ve heard. So most of the set list at Luminous Orange’s Wednesday night showcase at Habana Calle 6 was lost on me.
Takeuchi herself epitomized the shoegazer stereotype, focusing on singing and playing, eyes concentrated on the ground. Given the complexities of her music, it would require a single-minded focus.
It still didn’t really make her a very engaging frontperson.
I’d heard of Audioscrobbler and Last.fm years ago, and I passed on it. In my mind, Musicwhore.org is supposed to fill the purpose of letting people know what I’m listening to, thank you very much.
And of course, I get to wank like all the rock critics I read.
I didn’t really want to reveal what I was listening to before I had a chance to write about it.
I’m over that now because I’m not writing as frequently as I used to. It’s tough to let the world what you’re listening to when you don’t have time to tell anyone.
There was a time when Mukai Shuutoku wasn’t the force of avant-garde nature he is today.
Wrapping up a reissue campaign commemorating what would have been the band’s 10th anniversary, Omoide In My Head 4 ~(Chin) NG & Rare Tracks~ brings together the flotsam and jetsom of Number Girl’s output.
Compilation tracks, demos, live tracks — the two-disc set charts the development of Mukai’s muse in more detail than Omoide In My Head 1 ~Best & B-Sides~.
When the Carpenters were listed as an influence on Hem’s previous album, Eveningland, I braced myself for a sophomore slump.
The band’s debut album, Rabbit Songs, was my favorite album of 2002, and it was so good, I instantly wanted a second album. Eveningland arrived, and I found myself … not as mesmerized.
When news came down that No Word from Tom would contain outtakes, live recordings and b-sides, I thought it would be scattershot. As it turned out, the album’s clarity is threaded by its adventurous choices.
About a week ago, I requested an upgrade to PHP5 from my web host. I didn’t run the appropriate tests on my code, and as a result, all entries on this site were flagged as "unpublished", even though they were. I have now fixed the code to accomodate the changes in PHP5, so now you should be able to navigate the site as expected.
(Are you all reading through RSS now? Because no one even told me this was screwed up.)
UPDATE: Ha! Now I know why no one could tell me it was broken — the damn contact page got messed up as well! OK. The e-mail form should work now. I guess that means I can’t use registered globals with PHP anymore. Suck.
When I was in high school, I lamented the fact I lived and went to school just outside of the broadcast range of the local college radio station.
I didn’t understand the appeal of classic rock stations — why would anyone subject themselves to that overwrought Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin shit when Camper Van Beethoven and Sinéad O’Connor were far more interesting?
During the days of the Musicwhore.org Audiobin, I collected demographic information from registrants, and I discovered the average age of a person seeking out Japanese music was 18.
So I can just imagine readers out there now asking, "Why would Greg subject himself to that underwhelming Talking Heads and Morrissey shit when ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION and the Back Horn are far more interesting?"
The simple answer is because I’m old, and I’m going through my practice run for a mid-life crisis.
So yeah, you’re going to have to put up with more writing about old-people music.