Phew~ What a busy week it's been! After an exhausting 8 hours in the studio on Sunday, I've had to phone and e-mail with our band members in Tokushima everyday about what things we want fixed on our new 11 song album. What sort of parts we want mixed better, what parts we want brought to the forefront, what vocals we want softened, what we should do with the lyrics booklet/cover designs I drew, etc.... I even had to drive all the way back to Tokushima on Wednesday to re-record one track (a song where I have aprox 30 seconds of vocals) because the computer decided to delete the damn thing (though our producer cutely said it was because the computer was so surprised a foreigner was singing Japanese into it that it's brain died for a minute). Although, I must admit that even though I had to drive 4 hours round trip to record 30 seconds of vocals, I'm really really proud of what we created, I got the first burned copy of the tracks, and I was taken out to dinner by our producer and fed the most amazing yakitori (that, and getting our guitarist drunk enough to start spouting hilarious English phrases like "Oh Gyoza, get into my mouth. I won't use my teeth, I'll just use my tongue. Get into my dirty mouth" is always worth a 2 hour drive).
Other than that craziness, we plan on having our last practice tomorrow before looking forward to 4 weekends in a row of shows!! Yay!! After this month of shows, we'll have completed the island of Shikoku ;)
3/17: Ehime-Ken; Matsuyama, Hoshizora Jett
Frustration Never Disappear
Miscasts (京都)
Sanhose (京都)
Leeway (高知／徳島)
Turncoat (愛媛)
etc...
3/25: Kochi-Ken; Kochi, Chaotic Noise K-Club
黒死国
Leeway (高知／徳島)
Thirsty Chords (徳島)
etc...
3/31: Kagawa-Ken; Takamatsu, Blowin'Bar
Parkmates Farewell Live
Leeway (高知／徳島)
Parkmates (香川)
Cheap Audio (香川)
etc...
4/7: Tokushima-Ken, Tokushima, Crowbar
Leeway's "Tin Cans Calling Tokushima" CD Release Party
Leeway (高知／徳島)
What's What (岡山)
Parkmates (香川)
Hushpuppy (徳島)
So anyway.... even though it's not all completely finished, I want to share one track from our album with you guys! The song is called "Friday Night Drinking Song" and it is destined to be the first track on our album. The sample at the beginning is from "Blues Brothers" if you weren't sure~ ;)
I'm actually amazed how fast the drive from Kochi to Kyoto was, as well as the drive from Kyoto to Tokushima. It took 4 hours on the highway Saturday morning to get to Kyoto, and less than 24 hours later we packed ourselves up and drove the hour and a half to Tokushima for band practice Sunday afternoon. People make Japan sound big, but things are a lot closer together (without trains) than one would expect. I will definitely be going on more road trips now that I know this :)
Mall playing Bass for TURNCOAT in Kochi
Band called AIWANA in Kyoto
Sabu and Kiyomi playing in Kochi for TURNCOAT
Singer for AIWANA, Kyoto
Can't remember the band's name, but they had matching instruments, hahahaha~
I like seeing my older Japanese friends up on the stage, performing enthusiastically even on a Wednesday night. They still have passion for something they like to do and aren't conforming to the old-man standards! Long live old punks and rock n' rollers!!!
Busy weekend complete with seeing "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (ものすごくうるさくて、ありえないほど近い) with some friends, an art exhibition opening (Sea's landlord's paintings from the past 40-ish years), once again proctoring for the Eiken interview segment (ugh, kill me), and band practice in Tokushima. Also, this poster for my band's (Leeway) next show just came out on a (locally) popular blog called "FND" that two of my friends write on. If the nihongo is okay with you, the little segment about my band is at the end. :) I'm pretty excited for this show, because we get to play with my friend Mall's band "Turncoat," as well as a band I'm rather found of called "The Miscasts" from Kyoto. I've never heard of any of the other bands.... but I'm looking forward to it all since Hoshizora Jett usually puts together some pretty excellent shows~
Instant camera picture. I love developing these things and being surprised at what I find!~
I feel like I've been really busy these last two weeks, but really don't have a lot of interesting things that I want to talk about. My weekends have been booked practicing/learning new songs/lyrics for the album we are starting to record at the end of February/beginning of March, so I've been back and forth from Kochi to Tokushima a lot. My wrist feels like it's going to fall off from all of our three-hour long practice sessions, but I'm excited about what we've come up with and accomplished so far. We had to turn down a show at the beginning of March in order to record... so I hope it all goes smoothly and is done by our Matsuyama show.
With the coming of February (usually the coldest month in Japan), I find that more and more of my children get sick and more and more of my classes are cancelled due to "influenza" (which is seriously over-exaggerated here). This always worries me, because I'm the type of person who picks up colds and flus from the people around me really really easily, and up until today I've been fine.... but then yesterday morning my throat started to hurt and I was struck with a stuffy nose. :x I blame it less on this "influenza" craze and more on the crazy weather that's been going on. It was in the negative numbers on Sunday, only to switch rapidly to rainy and warm yesterday/today. My system has never liked rapid changes in the weather, and with the horrid condition of my house (I live in the most run-down piece of crap apartment.... I'm convinced there is black mold growing in all the walls because one of my walls sweats when I put the heater on...), I feel like my allergies have probably just been super-revved. :P That, and Japanese schools seem to think that leaving the windows open (even when it snows) "exchanges the bad air with the good air" which is BS and they are only making their own children sicker.
Taken after I won "Best Speaker" at a Japanese speech contest and was gifted with wayyy too many oranges. I have crazy eyes.... and everyone says me and Matto look like middle schoolers :P
After-party, everyone hung around the live house and we sang to Arase's acoustic playing.
This past Saturday marked the first show my band, LeeWay, has gotten to perform! Everything about the night was spectacular, and I don't think I've been to a better show than that one (and I'd say that even if my band hadn't been playing). The line-up was amazing (three great Tokushima bands and two great Tokyo bands), everyone was in a good mood, and the place was the most packed I've ever seen it!
We went fourth in a line-up of six bands. At first, we were all kinda nervous about it because that meant we'd have to hold off on the drinks and just let the nerves build up over the course of three other bands.... but honestly once we got up on stage to start setting up and tuning, the nerves just kind of melted away and our set went amazingly. The bass player from FOUR TOMORROW even jumped off the stage and started crowd surfing!!
FOUR TOMORROW went second. Second time I've seen them and they were amazing <3
After the show, instead of going out to an izakaya as usual, we all stayed at Crowbar and had a birthday party for the guitarist from THE MADWIFE (the band that set the show up in the first place). Everyone sang happy birthday and there was a very very cute cake presented~ Afterward, we all stood around the stage, singing songs to acoustic guitar (the best part of this genre, pop punk, is that even in Japan, everyone knows English songs like Weezer, Jawbreaker and Blink 182). Perfect perfect night.
Our set~
Tuning before hand
Those "speed red" glasses (originally our drummer's) really got around that night. Me with Spalding from What-A-Night's
Sea's b-day was also Saturday so we took her along to the show <3
THE MADWIFE went after us
Kana fell asleep on an amp after the show
But during the show, she showed off speed red too
ELMOC, being amazing as usual
Hikko was sooo drunk she fell over onto stage once, into the crowd once, and into an amp once <3
More speed red
After the show, presenting Ayaka with flowers and cake for her birthday.
I like how our band's name is the only one not all in caps.
The flyer for our first show was finally made!! Yahoo!!! The picture used for it is one of Hikko from ELMOC in a particularly drunk-looking state, hahaha. Oh man, can't wait! Other than FOOL THE PUBLIC (which I've never seen before), the rest of the bands we are playing with are awesome. I need to be on my A game for this...yesterday, we had the singer/guitarist from THE MADWIFE, one of her friends, and the bass from WHAT-A-NIGHT'S come and listen in on our practice. I got kinda nervous the first song and royally messed up my guitar part. :P The song we always start with is a little tougher, so having an easier song to start with will help take the edge off playing a real show I think. As soon as the first song was done, I eased up a lot and was able to get through the rest of the songs fine. I wonder what they thought of it all... the singer/guitarist from WHAT-A-NIGHT'S really liked our practice recordings and mentioned that at the show me and Matto went to on Saturday evening, but no one said anything in particular when we were taking a break Sunday. Of course, I don't really think that means they didn't like it or anything. Thinking about it, when I went to the recording for Horse and Deer, it's not like me and Matto jumped up and down and yelled "OMG you guys are soooo awesooome~!" or anything. You just smile, bob along to the music, and enjoy what you're listening to.
Turncoat
Saturday, me and Matto headed out to Takamatsu to see a show at a place called Rizin. I've mentioned this before, but Takamatsu is famous for their udon, and ever since I had a taste of it (at a place apparently called "God Hand") I've craved it. I did not satisfy that craving Saturday because the place we chose to eat at was just a lame chain restaurant, so the udon was only so-so. :\ Next time I'll have to do it properly. The only notable bands were Turncoat, WHAT-A-NIGHT'S, Shipyards, and Parkmates. Everything else was pretty bad...
Wine wine win~
Friday night, one of my friends in town had a wine and cheese party that I went to. It was really nice tasting different wines and indulging in ligit tasting cheeses. Japanese cheese tends to be so mild and dull tasting... it was really nice trying a strong blue cheese and brie with apple slices and nut-filled bread. I brought a crumble cake to the party, and Sea brought some cheddar. Unfortunately, the cheese was rather mild and only had a hint of any true cheddary taste. I miss sharp cheddar's bite so badly sometimes...
Last week of classes and work until I take a 12 day vacation! Pretty busy week, actually: I have classes everyday this week, a bonenkai on Thursday and Saturday night, practice late Friday night, and I'm holding a little Christmas party on Sunday the 25th right before I head out to Korea next Monday! Me and my college buddy (that came to visit last month) living in Mie Ken are going to Korea from the 26th-30th, and then I'm bumming at her house until I have to go home on the 3rd. We decided that we are going to go to the extremely popular and very famous Ise Shrine for New Years. I've never done the traditional Japanese New Years thing before, so I'm excited to get freezing cold receive omikuji, and see what sort of fortune next year will bring me~
Atsushi's new nickname is going to be "Speed Red," after those awesome glasses we got for him in Tokyo.
Arase nicknamed himself "This is shit" after the poop stickers we also brought back for them. His Tokyo gift was a lighter that had a heart that lit up on the front when you used the lighter. Hahahaha~
Yesterday was the second public holiday
this month! And really, what's a better way to get through a cold
workweek than to have a holiday splitting it into two manageable
halves? I do love my three-day weekends, but with how cold it's been
getting recently, it was a relief to not have to wake up before the
sun rose, as well as wear jeans. :x
Since it was labor day here in Japan, me and Matto packed up our gear and drove over to Tokushima to
have band practice and see a live. Why they decided to have a live
show on the actual holiday and not the night before so everyone could
party.... I will never understand (but it was a fantastic show,
nonetheless). We practiced for two hours in Torigoro's
(practice/recording studio) nicest studio; it was soo spacious and
fancy feeling, compared to the cramped old spaces they rent out here
in Kochi. We finished a 6th song together and finally
decided on a band name: Leeway. It feels appropriate for our strange
little group of four (our two Tokushima bandmates keep getting
weirder/more interesting the more time we spend with them. I'm loving
it).
Arase, our amazing teddybear-esque lead guitarist and my lyrics notebook in the spacious studio <3
Atsushi still in his work clothes. Isn't the studio fancy looking?!
After practice, Atsushi had to get to a
show at another venue called Grindhouse, so Matto, Arase and I all
went out to an izakaya/sushi-ya to eat, drink, and bond (I could not
participate in the drinking part, seeing as I am always DD). Since
there was so much time between practice ending, and the show at
Crowbar beginning, we wandered over to see Thirsty Chords play at
Grindhouse. They played amazingly, as usual, but for a crowd who was
not thrilled to see them. Now that I've seen them enough times in
enough live houses, it's interesting to see what songs they choose to
play for which crowds. When they know that the crowd loves them, they
play all their amazing songs from the “I Continue I...” album.
Otherwise, they play either really old or really new stuff...
The band before them was a Sublime
ripoff, and the guys after them (who were assholes) had this
reggae/ska/rap thing going that I was really not a fan of. Thank god
the tickets to the show were cheap, because we peaced out after
Thirsty Chords finished and headed over to Crowbar to see anti-18,
not for, Your Pest Band, Gleam Garden, and WHAT-A-NIGHT's. As usual,
I love WHAT-A-NIGHT's and their perfect performances (they seriously
sound like their recordings every time), but I was especially excited
to see Tokyo's Your Pest Band again. I think the main vocalist got even more attractive since I saw him last time in Tokyo during the summer... and I
forgot how tall he was too!
Your Pest Band
Spalding from WHAT-A-NIGHT's
Anyway, great way to spend a public
holiday (even though I didn't get to sleep until 2AM): full of music
and Arase's drunken kabuki poses. :D
Since I write a lot about Japanese music and going to see shows here in my blog, I decided that my entry to the Japan Blog Matsuri this month, hosted by Cooking In Japan, and under the theme: An acrostic poem spelling out AUTUMN, was going to be band/song related! I will share one or two songs from a few of my favorite bands as well as a picture/link/some info on them! The link on the song title (italicized part) is the link to the MP3 download. The link on the band's name is to their website/myspace.
PALL MALL, a picture from the second show I went to see of them play: One More Time Vol 7; The Lions, Parkmates, Tin Soldiers, PALL MALL, In The Unknown (all fanfuckingtastic bands
PALL MALL: (picture above) One of the first bands I was introduced to upon arriving to Kochi and some of my better friends here. From left to right, Kyohei (Mall), Kyosuke (Pall), and Dorami. They would fall into the Melodic Punk/Hardcore genre around here, because their songs are a bit darker, and there are a lot of screaming parts as well as the vocal melodies (vocals being both Mall and Pall). After The Rainbow is my absolute favorite song, and the have never failed to play it as their last song whenever I go and see them. I love these guys; they have dragged me along to shows, come to my house parties, and have been fun friends over my stay here in Japan.
THE BECAUSE: All I have is a picture of one of their 7-inch splits with One Reason at the moment because The Because had already broken up before I came to Japan this time around (also have yet to find video). I love their sound; it's more Rock than Punk, with a dash of folksy blues tossed in (like Balladmen). Their songs are feel good and I wish I could have seen them play a show once. Luckily! Their members are now in two other bands, "Balladmen" and "The Tiffs" both of which I've seen play shows a few times in Kyoto and Tokyo now.
THISTY CHORDS: I could not rant and rave about these three guys enough. Just in case you didn't get to see enough of them in my last post, here is one more photo for you featuring all three of them! From right to left: Daisuke, Atsushi and Yusaku. I fell in love with the first album I ever heard of theirs called "I Continue I..." and I only wish their other recordings were not out of press (although, now that I think about it, I could always ask Atsushi about handing over some MP3s....). They would fall under the genre of Melodic Punk but with way less screaming than PALL MALL. Atsushi, as I've mentioned in previous posts, is the drummer in the band I've been practicing with over the last 2-ish months.
FRAGMENTS: Another band that is no longer together but instead scattered around three of the four prefectures of Shikoku now! The bass player is Mall (left) from PALL MALL, the guitar/vocalist is Spalding (right) from WHAT-A-NIGHT's (another awesome Tokushima band), and the drummer is Ikawa-san (center) from Matsuyama (Ehime) who plays in about a million bands (I swear, every time I see him he's in a new band playing the drums amazingly for someone new), one of which is called "Conception" and has most of it's members based in Kochi (not a fan. hardcore/wall of noise type of music). I'd consider Fragments to fall into the alternative/indi category of music these days.
ELMOC: As I said in my last post, ELMOC are the three lovely ladies from Tokyo who we will be playing a show with in January! I've only recently been introduced to them and their music, so I'm still getting to know it a little... but I love what I hear so far!! They remind me of another, slightly older band called "Pear Of The West" that is also from Tokyo. Worth taking a listen to.
TURNCOAT: Turncoat is a supremely attractive band (hahaha). The female drummer and guitarist (Kiyomi and Sev) are the most beautiful couple I think I've ever seen. They are also amazingly nice and amazing at playing what they play. Once again, my buddy Mall plays bass in this band as well as some lead vocals. They are a Matsuyama/Kochi band and have been getting pretty popular recently, doing some shows in Kyoto and Osaka. They just put out an 8-song CD called "Raise Your Flag," which is what the two above MP3s are from. I also included the video below of them playing late last year!
Just as an added bonus, another amazing band called "Balladmen" who is made up of members from the infamous "The Because" and "Blotto," two great Tokyo Pop Punk bands that are no longer in existence. Instead, members from those bands are in Balladmen and another band called "The Tiffs." I'd share MP3's but these bands only have 7-inches out and my record player does not have one of those MP3 converter cords with it. :(
Hope that was an interesting view into my area of the sub-culture that is Japanese pop punk/melodic punk/indi bands. Obviously, there are more bands out there than I could ever think to have taken a listen to,and I've really only skimmed the top in my own region of Shikoku/Chugoku (though if I wrote out the list of bands from here I've seen/heard, it would be sickeningly long...). More importantly, these are the bands and people I've been going to see, supporting, making friends with, and playing music with over the past year. I couldn't be more pleased~
Last night reminded me why I love being here in Japan, that not all people are as lame and shy as the people living around me, and that I know some really really awesome people.
My all-time favorites: Thirsty Chords with Atsushi singing in the background.
Me and Matto went to a show in Okayama City yesterday. Since the drive was only about 2 hours on the highway, we got there early and did the touristy thing for a few hours: saw the castle (which is special because it's black and not white), a gorgeous garden (which is a world heritage site and the 3rd prettiest garden in Japan), and walked around the city (which reminded me vaguely of Kyoto with it's square layout and wide sidewalks). We ended up heading over to Pepperland early (4:30 for a 7PM show) because Atsushi called us to find out if we found cheap parking. We were introduced to the (super sexy) guitarist/vocalist from the headlining band, "What's What," who had a really amazing Husker Du tattoo on his lower back (as Matto said, the boldest tramp stamp he's ever seen) and was only 22!!
Two of the three ELMOC girls. I want the one on the right to be my new best friend. She hug tackled me after they performed.
We ended up going out to dinner with the three girls from ELMOC and all three guys from Thirsty Chords. Let's just say, I'm really excited to play a show with these girls in January. If I hadn't had to proctor for the Eiken (English Proficiency Test) today in my city, I would have been indulging just as much as everyone else was (sucks being sober driver sometimes). I don't remember ever having seen Atsushi drunk, and it was hilarious. It was also just really nice to be able to hang out with him and the girls from Tokyo. If only Arase had been there, it would have been a nice band bonding moment. :)
Bass player from Short Story, a band with 3 guitarists and a singer who looked like he was going to explode.
The show promised to be pretty long... a 7 band line-up (Japan just doesn't know when to stop sometimes), but it all went by pretty fast, and I don't think I've ever had such an amazing time at a show before, honestly. The guitarist/vocalist from The Mad Wife came with all the members of WHAT-A-NIGHT's, we were introduced to so many different people from all over Japan who had come to the show because they had friends playing that night, and the atmosphere was just so much more friendly than any show I've been to in Kochi. It actually felt like a little community rather than a bunch of moody punks dressed in black, smoking outside. For once, people didn't get freaked out by the two foreigners joining in the conversation. No one even really batted an eye at our ability to speak Japanese. They just embraced it and let us join in! Seriously, such a breath of fresh air compared to how stuffy and alienating Kochi can feel sometimes.
Thirsty Chords played 3rd from last, and at the rate Atsushi and Daisuke were drinking, me and Matto were slightly concerned with their ability to play... but as usual they nailed it and were the only band that had everyone singing along to every song, getting rowdy, and even had some crowd dives (Daisuke threw his bass down for the last song and dove onto the crowd at one point, ahahaa). I was also concerned about my new besty from ELMOC, Hikko, because she was falling-over-drunk by the time their set came about. Of course, with a little water in her she pulled it together and they also killed. The show ended around 11:30 and we were back in Kochi by 2AM (with my expert driving skills). Wish we could have stayed over-night in Okayama to go to the after party with everyone, but that will have to wait until January. Or in the case of the ELMOC girls, December, since me and Matto have already booked plane tickets to go to Tokyo and they happen to be playing a show on the Saturday that we will be there. :) Can't wait~ Sorry for the photo spam, but here are some more of my favorite shots from the show.
