SXSW 2006 updated its partial list of bands performing at this year’s music festival. As is my habit, I search for any Japanese bands listed. Here’s who’s booked so far, schedules as always subject to change:
Afrirampo
Caroline
Dir en grey
DMBQ
Ellegarden
The Emeralds
eX-Girl
Gitogito Hustler
Limited Express (has gone?)
Luminous Orange
My Way My Love
Masahiro Nitta
Noahlewis’ Mahlon Taits
PE’Z
The Rodeo Carburettor
Kunimoto Takeharu
Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re
Toru Yonaha
Dir en grey? What the fuck is up with that?
I know at this point I want to catch PE’Z and Luminous Orange. I would love to see what eX-Girl has been up to since 2003’s Endangered Species. And I’m vaguely curious about Noahlewis’ Mahlon Taits. We’ll see how the scheduling goes, though.
The good news: ACO is coming out with a new release on Feb. 22. The not-as-great news: it’s 7-track mini-album.
It’s been three years since ACO released her stunning 2003 album, irony, and now she returns with mask, so says Bounce.com. The mini-album includes “Chuukoku”, produced by absolute ego collaborator Sunahara Yoshinori, the commercial song “guilty” and a remix of an old song, “Fuan no Onna”.
As soon as I’m done posting this entry, I’m ordering it. I didn’t even realize it’s been three years since irony. I did, however, feel a twinge an ACO jones a few weeks back and wondered when she would re-emerge.
I wonder if she’s turning into Kate Bush, with all these slow turn-around times.
One of the hidden extras on Number Girl’s first DVD release, Sawayaka na Enesou, is video footage of guitarist Tabuchi Hisako singing “Mappurima Girl”.
It’s a performance she reprises during the career-capping Number Girl film. Karaoke makes anyone sound reasonable good, and in those clips, she sounds all right.
It’s a different story for I dedicate D chord, the debut album by toddle, which Tabuchi formed in 2003. There, she sings slightly off-key, sounding earnest and bittersweet.
Sigur Rós has always struck me as a band I could probably like, but my exposure to them has always been at inopportune times.
I was under the mistaken impression the band’s third album, () (I like to call it Two Hot Dogs Facing Each Other), would be the kind of subtle ethereal as Wayne Horvitz’s 4+1 Ensemble.
It wasn’t, and I returned the disc to Waterloo Records when I discovered a debilitating scratch on it.
Then I listened to Takk …, and when I heard the driving conclusion of “Glosoli”, I thought, “Huh. Just like mono and Explosions in the Sky”.
Takk … got under my skin, and before I knew it, Sigur Rós had me.
After achieving crticial and commercial accolades for 1985’s Hounds of Love, Kate Bush released two albums not considered her most shining moments — The Sensual World in 1989 and The Red shoes in 1993.
And then she recorded nothing else for 12 years.
In 2005, Bush re-emerged with Aerial, an album quite out-of-step with anything happening in popular music at the moment.
But it makes me curious — what would have happened if more than decade hadn’t passed between releases?
It’s been nearly 20 years since Madonna commandeered the imperative, “Shut up and dance”.
It’s an imperative Madonna at times has lost sight of herself.
2003’s American Life was described by its performer as an “angry” album. It can also be described as scattershot and cold. I can’t see how she ever thought Mirwais would add any value to her work.
For her eleventh album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna recorded with her touring music director, DJ Stuart Townsend, a.k.a. Les Rhythmes Digitales, in his home studio.
The result is one her strongest, most focused albums in years.
In 2004, Enya’s management company, Aigle, had to backpedal the overly enthusiastic announcements of Warner Bros. Japan regarding a new album by the meticulous Irish songstress.
So when Tower Records Japan started accepting pre-orders for a new Enya album back in September 2005, I had to wonder whether it would be for real.
To gauge whether I looked forward to a new Enya album, I took out A Day Without Rain, her previous album from 2000, and gave it a spin. At the time of its release, I didn’t warm up to it. When I listened to it again half a decade later, I confirmed what I couldn’t bring my long-time Enya-loving ass to consider — it really, really sucked.
I never listened to Hüsker Dü nor Sugar, and the only exposure I’ve had to Bob Mould’s solo work is a 7-inch single from his first album, Workbook.
So I can’t approach a review of Body of Song in context of his previous work. My credentials are insufficient.
I can, however, approach the album in terms of gay men who play rock music. Lesbians usually have a lock on the really good rock bands, ranging from the defunct Butchies to the gay-inclusive Sleater-Kinney. What do gay men have? Judas Priest and Pansy Division.
Insert requisite Seinfeld quote here. (“Not that there’s …”?)
I wish YesAsia had a wish list more like Amazon — a gift registry rather than a personal checklist. Because my wish list is look mightly long at the moment.
I was surprised to find ZAZEN BOYS 3 available for pre-order. YesAsia doesn’t usually have a great track record when it comes to stocking indie rock bands. A bit of random browsing also revealed Sasagawa Miwa will release her third album, Yoake, on Feb. 22, 2006.
If Shikakui Vision by SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS turns out to be any good, I might bundle these purchase up together. I guess I’m going to have to resort to Amazon for VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE’s Waiting for My Food.