TGIF!!!

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~ ;)

Friday Night Drinking Song; Leeway

Old-man Rock n' Roll

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!!!

"Frustration Never Disapear"

３月は１７日(土)にマイペースながらの自主企画、今年一発目やります。今回のゲストは先ず「TheMiscasts」。数枚のレコードシングル (DRIFTAGEとのSPLITも含む)とテープリリースが中心で音の知名度は低いかもしれないが、吐き出す激ヴォイスとポップセンスと見事なドラム捌 きは圧巻。ビート感抜群のベースと、replacementsばりのギターメロディが絡まって、最高なサウンドを奏でる。最近配布中のデモCDRではまた 新しい境地へと向かっていっている。更に今回はそのMISCASTS権氏がサポートドラムを務めるSANHOSEも初来松決定。UNDERGROUND GOVERNMENT/RECESS JAPANからアルバムもリリースされている彼らのその音はまさにドタバタPOP PUNK。初期LOOK OUT,RECESS,Plan It X等のレーベルファンからHARD CORE,オルタナファンまで必見。そして四国勢は要注目のニューカマーLEEWAY。シカゴ出身高知県在住のマット（ベース）とインディ（ギター・ ボーカル）、そして徳島のメロディックパンク若頭Thirsty Chordsのアツシ氏（ドラム・ボーカル）、サポートギターにHAMKの荒瀬を迎えた豪華BAND期待大のその中身やいかに！？

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~

Live @ Crowbar

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.