Suishou No Fune & Maher Shalal Hash Baz @ Silver Elephant

I saw Maher Shalal Hash Baz a few months ago play at Koenji High to a tiny crowd. They were playing with Doronco Gumo. C'mon, Doronco was in Les Rallizes Denudes!! Why wasn't anyone there?

Last night MSHB played with another legendary psych band, this time Suishou No Fune, and there were only about 12 people there!! Nevertheless, I still felt I was witnessing something special. Incense was burning, the lights were down low and smoke machines were pumping haze into the Silver Elephant in Kichijoji. Pirako, dressed in a dark cape-like coat and a black beret, and Kageo, in black clothes and sunglasses came on stage, causing no reaction from the serious lone guys who made up the audience. They were joined by a bass player and drummer who added some rhythm to the mainly guitar-and-vocal-only sound I'm used to hearing on their recordings. Pirako and Kageo applied their massive collection of effects pedals to creating a huge guitar wash saturated in delay, feedback, and a perfect control of volume. They played 4 or 5 songs of over 10 minutes each and punctuated by Pirako's high and Kageo's low poetic droning vocals. They've taken the best parts of Japanese psych like Fushitsusha, noise artists like Haino Keiji, elements of psych-folk, improvised music, shamanism and shadows and created a beautiful melancholy sound that could have existed at any time in the last 30 years.

You never know what to expect with Tori Kudo and his band of constantly-changing members known as Maher Shalal Hash Baz. If he's in the right mood and has the right people to do the things he demands them to do, something beautiful can be created. But sometimes it all just falls apart. At that gig a few months back, things weren't working. He attempted a bunch of ridiculously short songs which he gave up on half way through. The band didn't know what he expected of them. Tori often has a concept for each show and scribbles down compositions which he hands to the amateur musicians he has assembled for that show. Where he finds all these musicians is something I've always wondered. Last night he had collected a bassoon player (from Doromco Gumo), an accordionist, a drummer, two guys on trumpet and one on sax and it really worked! Tori had decided to play long psych songs focusing more on the guitar than usual, perhaps because they were playing with Suishou No Fune? He still of course abruptly ended each song when he became tired of it, stumbled (intentionally?) on the guitar and sang in his trademark child-like avant-savant manner, with the other members sounding like a primary school orchestra. You see so many tight, highly-skilled bands of musicians who have burned out all their ideas and cannot offer anything original. Tori knows that surprisingly creative and interesting things happen with people who are not concentrating on skill. That's what punk is supposed to be about, right? MSHB finished their set with an incredible shambolic version of Close To You by the Carpenters!

Kaji-kun!

Hideki Kaji is one of my guilty pleasures. He is unabashedly Pop, but he has taken his cues from Swedish indie-pop and created a very unique style with fast, upbeat songs, big guitars and impossibly catchy vocal melodies.

When I came to Japan I was getting into the whole Shibuya-kei thing, so I was so pleased to be able to buy his whole back catalogue from second-hand shops for a few hundred yen. You see, he'd experienced a short boom a few years earlier, and then, like Kahimi Karie, disappeared back into the indie underground. When I tell Japanese people I like Kaji, they are often surprised to hear that he still makes music.

I remember the first time I saw Kaji live; he was playing a late night acoustic show at a cafe in Shibuya which I managed to get tickets to. The cafe was jam-packed with adoring girls and Kaji-kun (as the girls call him when they scream his name) put on a great show. I had to sleep in an internet cafe afterwards and then go directly to work. Since then I've seen him play a couple more times at larger venues like Shibuya Ax and Astro Hall.

Showing his dedication to the Shibuya area, Kaji's show last week was at Shibuya Club Quattro. The only acts printed on my ticket were group_inou and Hideki Kaji, so I was surprised when I rocked up and saw an electric cello being set up on the stage (group_inou are just two guys - 1 mc and 1 dj). Then three guys with bright tights and sunglasses came on stage - one on synthesizers, one on the electric cello and one on a ridiculous headless guitar. It was B-Club. They played tongue-in-cheek techno-rock complete with huge choruses, dance moves and big 80's synth sounds. The audience didn't really know how to react except to giggle. I can see why Kaji chose them as a support as his new album Lollipop has a definite 80's influence.

group_inou came on next and played a short set of their original take on glitchy reverby electronica and hip-hop. The fun they have on stage travels to the audience, all bouncing around with big grins.

group_inou hyped me up for Kaji who I expected would be on next. A band came on stage and out ran the singer! Yeah! Hang on, that's not Kaji! Whoever it was, the girls were certainly going crazy for him. It turned out to be Riddim Saunter. If Kaji is capital P Pop, Riddim Saunter are all-caps POP. They played a set of punk and funk-influenced radio-friendly POP which it seemed half the crowd was there to see. Just when they started to become tedious, they finished their last song, causing a bunch of people to leave and a bunch more to push their way to the front for Mr Kaji.

Hideki came on looking all embarassed wearing a tie, shorts and knee-high socks. The girls in the front went wild shouting "Kaji-kun!" and giggling. He played guitar for most songs and was joined by another guitarist, a bass player, a female drummer (Yoshié?) and a flute player. They blazed through a few songs from Lollipop, starting with Amai Koibito, a couple from the previous 2 albums and a couple of oldies like La Boum～My Boom Is Me～ (the definite highlight). Kaji joked around shyly between songs and kept stopping to fix his fringe which still hangs in his face in his trademark style. Just as the audience was really starting to let loose and enjoy ourselves, he suddenly announced the last song. They had only been playing for about half an hour! Of course they came back for an encore (a very rocking Typical Me, Typical You) but in total they played no longer than the support bands! Admittedly, the set was great fun but I did feel a bit ripped off.

Gigs

Hideki Kaji is playing a daytime show at Honmaji Temple on November 29th for Mona Rock Caravan 08 along with Kotoringo, Maezono Naoki Group, Yukawa Shione and Youmoutoohana. Details here.

group_inou are playing a one-man gig at Unit in Daikanyama on December 7th. Details here.

B-Club are playing at Grapefruit Moon on December 15th. Details here. They will also be playing a street gig at Yoyogi Park on December 13th.

Riddim Saunter are playing at Shelter in Shimokitazawa on December 23rd with asphalt frustration, Fed MUSIC and he. Details here.

Where to buy Japanese music online in English

Digitally

These days, it is easy to legally purchase and download mp3s. Although the quality is still not usually as good as a CD, it is instant; you don't have to wait for shipping, and it is usually cheaper.

For super-convenience, of course there is the iTunes store, but their choice is rather limited when it comes to Japanese stuff. The same can be said for Rhapsody,



HearJapan has some a nice selection of Japanese albums and songs on mp3 that you can't find in the iTunes Store. They have mostly indie and electropop stuff, as well as visual-kei and JRock.



JapanFiles is similar, and has a good selection of indie songs for 99c per mp3.

Physical CDs and Records

Sometimes we still want an actual CD or record that we can hold in our mitts and file alphabetically on our jam-packed shelves.

Let's start with the big guns.

Amazon Japan is good for those living in Japan as their website is available in English. For international orders, their shipping rates are very high though. Same goes for HMV.

If you live in Japan and can read Japanese, Disk Union is a good place to look.

If you are in the US, you can find a pretty good selection on Amazon.com.

You can find quite a bit of good stuff from a variety of genres on CD Japan or YesAsia. They also sell movies and anime and stuff.

For more specialised music, and of course to support the little guys, I recommend the following:


Otonson has a great selection of experimental and electronic music searchable by label. They also have reasonable shipping costs.



Sonore is based in France and has an interesting choice of electronic and experimental Japanese music. You can see a list of artists Sonore stocks here.

Das Gemeine have some good psych and experimental stuff. Their website is closed for maintenance right now though.



Jetset Records is a cool little record store in Shimokitazawa and Kyoto which also has an online store in English stocking a lot of Japanese and International electro, dance and indie-pop CDs and records.



Tokyo Recohan (Tokyo Record Hunting) specialises in cheap second-hand Shibuya-kei and Japanese pop CDs which you buy using PayPal. They have low shipping costs and the website is in English and French.

In England, there is Far Side Music, stocking mostly older Japanese music like YMO.

You can often order directly from the labels you like. Check out the links page for some record labels.

Some other record stores in Japan like Vinyl Junkie and Onsa can ship internationally and accept orders in English even though their websites are not in English.

Feel free to leave any other recommendations in the comments.

Radiohead Oct 5th @ Saitama Super Arena

I happened to have a ticket to Radiohead's show on Sunday but wasn't sure whether to go or sell the ticket. I had to think; do I really like Radiohead?
I remembered buying the Creep single on cassette when I was in high school and then copying Pablo Honey from the library. My mum is an aerobics instructor and used Creep in her classes! I had a look around and realised I had all of Radiohead's albums except that Thief one in some form or another. Was I a fan but didn't know it? Or was I denying it because I felt too indie to like a band that was so immensely popular? I decided that while I wasn't a huge fan, I did like them enough to go along to the concert.

Although I've been to countless gigs in my life, this, excluding festivals, was by far the biggest one I have been to. Saitama Super Arena was super enormous and from my seat the band was super far away and super small. Unfortunately, the big screen beside the stage wasn't utilised although there were some nicely directed live images of the band projected on screens behind them.

Before Radiohead, Thom's buddies Modeselktor came on to play an extremely short set which most people ignored. Sitting in seats watching DJs play 10kms away = strange. The Björk remix was pretty cool.

A 30 minute break before Radiohead came on allowed me to swill some beer from paper cups and try to join in the buzz of excitement passing throughout the crowd. Most of the audience jumped to their feet and cheered, signaling that the band had appeared on stage. By the time I stood up and caught a glimpse of them, they had already launched into 15 Steps from their latest album. After straining my eyes and regretting not bringing along those binoculars my mum had sent me for my birthday, I saw that the band were all wearing black clothes except Thom's bright red pants. Without much speaking except for arigatou, 15 Steps was followed by Airbag, Just and There There.

On one side of me were a bunch of very enthusiastic people from Hong Kong and on the other side were a couple who remained seated and motionless as if they were at the cinema. I thought about getting them some popcorn.

I had expected some big light show and pyrotechnics and all that, but there were no explosions and the light show was confined to the stage. Placed around the band were giant beams like organ pipes showing coloured lights. During the song Everything In It's Right Place, the word “everything” could be seen moving across the beams. For Idioteque, definitely one of the highlights, there were broken white bits of light like a crazy computer game. I tried in vain to take photos with my mobile phone as I hadn't brought my camera, thinking it might have gotten confiscated, but it turned out that cameras were okay. Not that any good shots could have been taken from so far away anyway. Idioteque was surprisingly followed up with Fake Plastic Trees. Another surprise they had played earlier was Myxomatosis. It seemed no way near being loud enough for the impact that seemed necessary for songs like the next one, Bodysnatchers. My ears weren't even ringing after the show.

A piano was wheeled in and out for some songs like All I Need, another highlight. In fact, a lot of the songs I enjoyed hearing the most were from In Rainbows. The guy next to me made a good point that they play their new songs with passion and meaning making their obligatory oldies sometimes sound a bit tired. They didn't play Karma Police or Creep, songs I regularly destroy at karaoke, but did play some hits like My Iron Lung and Paranoid Android.

Everything went so amazingly smoothly. The songs were carefully ordered to control audience tension and balance slow with fast, old with new, quiet with loud. I think there were two encores, though I couldn't tell if they were encores or if the band was just taking a break. Anyway the second encore was Go Slowly, My Iron Lung and How To Disappear.

In quite a buzz after the show as the thousands of fans streamed out, I found that I had quite enjoyed myself and was glad I had decided to go.



By the way, I don't have as amazing a memory as it seems; I found the set list here.

tenniscoats & secai, d.v.d

o-nest 29 sept 2008

This was a 'two man live' meaning there were only two bands playing, and that meant they could play long sets - a rarity in Japan.

I had been to O-Nest on the previous night and seen Jimanica play an amazing set, just him on drums and triggering samples from his kit. Tonight he was joined by Itoken and YMG who make up the unit d.v.d. In d.v.d, Jimanica and Itoken trigger visual samples from their drums, along with visual artist YMG on laptop and electronic toys. It's hard to know whether these guys are primarily a band or a digital art project. The music is a tight math-rock-like percussion extravaganza with digital sounds. Still managing to stick tightly together, they sometimes compete against each other with simple computer games like pong and pinball which are triggered by their drums and projected on the large screen behind them. At one point, YMG produced a Tenori-on and announced that he wanted to show Japanese technology to the Live From Tokyo documentary crew from America who were filming the show. I was surprised to see a musician actually using this toy live, though I suspect that Yamaha must have given it to them.

If you know me at all, you know that I love Tenniscoats.
Saya and Takashi Ueno make warm, japanese free-folk-naïve-pop. Saya, with her sweet if unconventional voice and analogue keyboards, and Takashi's original style of playing guitar, saxophone and all kinds of instruments. I've even seen him play the harp! Anyway, tonight he stuck to the guitar and the duo were joined onstage by another duo, Secai.
Secai are NSD and Dasman and together they make atmospheric abstract breakbeats (secai - mammoth mp3). Tenniscoats are known for great collaborations such as with Tape and DJ Klock, Saya with Nikaidoh Kazumi and Satomi from Deerhoof, and Takashi with almost everyone in the Japanese music underground.
With Secai, they've hit upon a beautiful combination of ambient sounds, beats, and the Tennsicoats sound. I was lost in their sound world throughout their long set of songs mostly from the new Tenniscoats & Secai album, causing goosebumps, goofy smiles and slow body-swaying from the audience. In the last song, Saya suddenly held the microphone out to Kiyokazu from Andersens who was standing in the front row and who tried to sing along with the song with help from Saya. It didn't really work out and Saya left the stage in a ball of embarassment. I was glad some of the usual charming Tenniscoats clumsiness could find its way into the performance.

A great interview with Saya can be found at Tada Music, where you can also hear their song 'baibaiba bimba' as well as a bunch of other good Japanese music.

Tenniscoats & Secai are playing again on October 28th.

Tenniscoats are playing this Thursday, October 9th with Tape from Sweden. Details.

Takashi is playing with Gutevolk and Kazumasa Hashimoto on October 12th and 13th.

He is playing with Ignatz and LSD March on October 27th and 29th.

Saya is playing with Mimura Kyoko on October 21st.


d.v.d


tenniscoats & secai

miaou, jimanica, .plot, epic45

o-nest september 28th 2008





miaou



.plot



jimanica



epic45

Google Street View - live house view

Last month Google launched Street View in Japan, receiving criticism about it being an invasion of privacy.

Yeah, but you can explore the streets as if you were actually walking there! How cool is that? Not only can I see my house from above, but I can stand in front and see myself watering the garden!
Okay, I kinda made that up. Unfortunately my street is way too small to be covered by Street View.

I see Street View as a great way of familiarising yourself with the way to a live house from the nearest station, especially when you can't read the kanji on the map or don't know the area well.

Let's take Penguin House in Koenji for example.

If we go to the Penguin House website and get the address in Japanese (unfortunately you can't search Japanese adresses in Google maps in English), it looks like this: 〒166-0002 東京都杉並区高円寺北3-24-8 みすずビルＢ１. We don't need the postcode (〒166-0002) and the building name is unlikely to be known by Google so we can scrap it too (みすずビルＢ１). So we are left with 東京都杉並区高円寺北3-24-8 which we can search for in Google maps. Alternatively, you can often find the live house just by searching for the title. For Penguin House, we can find it by searching for "Penguin House" or "ペンギンハウス".

Okay, so we can see the approximate location of Penguin House marked on the map and can see Koenji station (高円寺) nearby, but it's hard to imagine what things will look like if you haven't been there before, isn't it? So click Street View and familiarise yourself with the route from the station:



You can see you need to go down this street:



And then turn left after Denmark and a pig:



Stop and wonder what this guy is doing:



And then, yay, Penguin House is here on the left:



So okay, this means more future projects:

• Adding an extra field on the Add Livehouse page so we can include the address in Japanese as well as English.
• Adding a link to the URL of the address on Google maps.
• Plotting all (or most) Tokyo live houses on a public user-created Google map.
  

Renewal Open!

Massive changes have happened around Tokyo Gig Guide!
The site has been completely redesigned and has many new functions such as the ability for anyone to add gigs directly to the site.

More info

Free advertising? No thank you!

I had posted two videos of small Japanese bands playing at Fuji Rock Festival here, but both of the artists' record labels asked me to remove them from Youtube.

Having such videos on Youtube and posted in a blog like this seems to me to be a great way for more people around the world to have a chance to hear those labels' artists, and therefore sell more CDs and have more people attend their gigs.

It's a real wonder so much great music continues to be made by some wonderful musicians in Japan when the record labels have no idea, not to mention the other ridiculous difficulties they face such as the live houses ripping them off.

Anyway, enough ranting from me.

Fuji Rock Festival part one: days one and two

DAY ONE. THURSDAY JULY 24th 2008.

After four hours of annoying people with our massive amounts of luggage on local trains, we finally arrived in Yuzawa. Then came an hour standing in the rain waiting for the bus to the festival. Rain is an unfortunate but unavoidable consequence of holding the festival at a ski resort way up in the mountains of Niigata. Rain is what caused me to get drenched on Sunday, the only day I forgot to bring my poncho, and probably why I now have a cold.



Getting there on Thursday is definitely the way to go. We managed to find an ideal camping spot near some toilets, a stream and not on too much of an angle. In the next couple of days we witnessed people pitching tents all kinds of wacky places like the side of hills, in swamps and in the trees.



The atmosphere on Thursday night was amazing. There were fireworks and surprise bands and thousands of grinning fujirockers. We mixed up some drinks at the campsite and went in to the festival. Takkyu Ishino got us dancing, and soon we were drinking more and more and making friends with almost everyone who passed, people who we kept running into and hanging out with throughout the festival. A bunch of 20-year-olds we met happened to be our campsite next-door neighbours. Despite the language differences, they had a great time with Pete drinking at their campsite until they started vomiting in their tents. Who taught Pete "iki iki"?

DAY TWO. FRIDAY JULY 25th 2008.



As it did every day, the bright morning sun woke us up way too early and turned our tents into saunas, causing us to seek alternative places to sleep. Fellow Melburnians, Midnight Juggernauts kicked off Saturday in the Red Marquee with a solid dancable set that got us in the right mood for the rest of the day.



Then it was time to explore the festival site and make ourselves familar with the location of all the stages. It is an incredibly huge place! Walking over to Orange Court took about 40 minutes and on the way we had to endure a couple of The Presidents of The United States Of America songs. Who invited them? Once at Orange Court, we only got to see a couple of songs by French hip-hop group, Hocus Pocus before it was time to turn around and start heading back to Red Marquee again to see Spoon.



On the way back we watched a couple of Quruli's songs. Well-polished Japanese indie-rock. Spoon gave us more indie-rock and I was happy that they played lots of songs from their last two albums (their best, in my opinion), and the big Spoon fans would have been happy that they played lots of oldies too. It started raining when I wandered over to get food and I heard Travis from the Green Stage very appropriately playing 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me?'

The Gossip were up next in the Red Marquee and Beth put on an amazing show that was definitely one of the highlights of the festival. She howled, sweated and announced, "Japan is so hot!", taking off a layer of clothing. The crowd loved her and went absolutely wild, especially when she came down from the stage to sing among them. They included a very punk cover of 'Like a Virgin' as well as their hits like 'Jealous Girls' and 'Standing In The Way Of Control.'

Unfortunately, the main role of the security guards was to stop people from taking photos, so it was hard to get any decent band shots.

Maybe it was partly because of Gossip's amazing performance just before, maybe it was partly because of the rain, or maybe it was because I had such high expectations, but whatever it was, although I did enjoy them, Bloc Party failed to impress me all that much.



My Bloody Valentine were everything I wanted them to be. Incredible. They played my favourites from Loveless and Isn't Anything and even some from their EPs. They even did 20 minutes of delicious noise in the middle of the last song! The fans absolutely loved them, and Pete, Meri and I were speechless for a long while after they finished. The rest of our group didn't dig them much though.



Wandering over to Orange Court, we caught a bit of The New Mastersounds who sounded as good live as they do on record. Unfortunately, Orange Court was ridiculously crowded making it impossible to properly appreciate Dexpistols and Denki Groove. We had to sit right up the back on the side of a hill trying to balance our drinks. Should have just stayed and watched The New Mastersounds.

It was time for late night hip-hop back way back at the Red Marquee. I've been really loving Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's debut album lately so I had been looking forward to seeing them play live. This duo from England ended up being one of my highlights of the weekend. For their song, 'Thou Shalt Always Kill,' Scroobius Pip changed the words to include Fuji Rock bands.

Grandmaster Flash reminded us that he is the DJ who first made the turntable an instrument and that he is the first hip-hop artist to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame countless times, told us to put our hands in the air countless times, and continually ranted about a Japan Times interviewer who he thought had dissed him (in fact, all he did was ask why many Japanese people didn't know who he was). But he also played a fun selection of old and new songs that got us dancing, and we all loved him because, well, he is Grandmaster Flash! At one hilarious point, after referring to the Japan Times reporter yet again and boasting about how Japanese people loved him, he played 'Smells Like Teen Spirit!'
I heard that song three times throughout the festival...

My Jero

While I was slinking to the station after just another day at the office in Shiodome on Wednesday, I stumbled on a free gig by Japan's newest It Boy: Jero the pseudo-hip-hop enka singer.

I figured I might as well check it out to distract myself from sulking about being too broke for Fuji Rock this weekend.

Certainly most of the ladies seemed enthralled by this American crooner, who says that his Japanese maternal grandmother introduced him to enka and the Japanese language.

I was more enthralled with his jarring image. Jero eschews kimono for gear straight from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but still performs traditionally: standing in one place, overusing facial expressions and randomly grabbing at the air as his diamond earrings glitter in the light.

Behind him, Jero promotional videos rolled on a screen, instead of, say, cherry blossoms and oceans like in the usual enka videos. His voice was a bit deeper than I expected, and while quite pleasant, I'd like to hear it again in a few more years when he's got a bit more polish and power.

Because his image is so jarring, I was expecting him to add his own touch to the music, but the arrangements he sings over are starkly traditional -- no beats, samples, skits, or other accouterments of modern hip-hop.

During the post-performance harassment -- err, questioning -- by Nippon Television flunkies, Jero remained soft-spoken and gracious. He must really be a publicist's dream: a novelty, but not enough to alienate anyone, and seemingly tireless, as shown by his endless number of TV appearances, gigs and coffee advertisements.

What do you think, is Jero nothing but shtick or is he the real thing?

(photo is from Jero's official blog)

The Battle Continues

Laptop Battle Tokyo, vol. 3
7/16, SuperDeluxe

Combining the craziness of computer-generated music and the thrill of competition, the sporadic Laptop Battles at SuperDeluxe are becoming some of my more anticipated events in Tokyo. It's a way to see how individual musicians, working in the very solitary medium of computers, can translate their gadgetry to a live performance.

The third edition did not disappoint. The music is always the focus, but this time I feel like the competitors upped their showmanship. While some may dismiss crazy masks, wigs and dancing as gimmicks, I figure that if you already know you can throw down, you might as well go for entertainment value as well -- something the judges seemed to take into account.

The battle featured eight musicians in a bracket-style tournament, competing for software and gear. It was off to a strong start in the first round, when Hiroaki Oba's mix of disco-y influences rightly won out over Azop Corp's more technically proficient but rather standard beats.

I won't go into detail of each round, but highlights for me included lots of samples from old-school Nintendo games, and the stage antics of Lastboss (who went on to the final) and Naotoxin, a competitor from the first laptop battle who unfortunately was eliminated.

Technical problems terminated competitor T3 from the running, but perhaps his dark, expansive music wasn't cut out for the competition.

The final paired ambient DJ Yuko Ono with the spastic stylings of Mancunian mixer Lastboss. It was a tough call because the two are so different stylistically. The crowd seemed to favor Ono, but Lastboss' supporters definitely knew how to be vocal.

Ono started out strong and I was sure she had it, but her second offering wasn't as sure. Lastboss was consistent in his seizure-inducing glitches and samples, and maybe it was his technical prowess and showmanship that won him the title.

Even though I thought the decision should've gone the other way, I don't think that Ono lost out, and I hope to see her again soon.

Check out the Laptop Battle website for lots of info. And anywhere else for pics better than mine.

Flo Union Summer special

Flo Union is a monthly event which has been happening at different venues and with different organisers since 2004. It has morphed from a book exchange to an arts showcase to its current incarnation as a Media Lounge, organised by the VJ, David Roy (Modius Cafe) with the help of Craig Exton (Tokyo Gig Guide).

The July Flo Union on July 20th, will focus on live music with some very special international guests: Mixtune For Cully, visiting from Denmark, Cigarettes For Ping Pong from Australia, as well as local, Eri Makino.

Like every month, there will also be VJs and artists showing their work.
In fact, any kind of artist is free to perform or show their work. Live painting, short films, DJs, VJs, performance art, dance, poetry, live projection, animation, design, photography... Just let us know in advance if you can. flounion@gmail.com

Between performances, DJs Mr Craig e, Bamboozled, Stick Close Like Dogs, Dolly and more will play DJ tennis.

It will be held on Sunday, July 20th at The Pink Cow, a cool loungeroom-like event space/restaurant/bar in Shibuya.

Entry is free and it starts at 8:30pm.



Mixtune For Cully
Aage Hedensted; the man behind the previous Danish indierock successes such as Yellowish and Slowburn is back on track with his most ambitious project so far, Mixtune For Cully. A singer/songwriter with a preference for the traditional shoegazer scene, Hedensted, with his beautiful and piercing voice, masters to muster a fragile thoughtfulness in his lyrics. The noise of the guitar has been tuned down and replaced by insisting, acoustic elements. We Know Where The Aircrafts Hide is released in Denmark the 6th of October by GoodTape Records in collaboration with Playground Music. Aage will bring the new album with him to Japan and play some of the songs from it live.

Cigarettes For Ping Pong
From Melbourne, Australia, Carol Micallef's (Cartwheel, Like Chandeliers) new project Cigarettes For Ping Pong play music which conveys both tenderness and charm like that of a new foal attempting to stand on it’s own. We hope you will be fond of it.

Eri Makino
Eri Makino is “Piano and vocal and something” style musician, with snare drum, with many toy, with laptop, with impromptu, with sampler, with orchestra, with band, with idol unit, with i-pod, with a teddy, with my friends, etc.

Eri Makino and Cigarettes For Ping Pong will also play on the afternoon of Saturday, July 19th at Stax Fred in Koenji for a special lunchtime live show with electronic duo lotusloop. Details here.

Maher Shalal Hash Baz & Doronco Gumo

Koenji High May 12th





Doronco Gumo





Maher Shalal Hash Baz

Aprils, Hazel Nuts Chocolate, Aira Mitsuki, Furil @ Basement Bar 26 April

Deciding I needed a dose of happy-happy pop, I went down a Shimokitazawa basement to Basement Bar. Surprisingly, the place was chock-a-block with an odd mix of folks.

First up was Furil, who I didn't know anything about and who didn't really help with my need for happy-happy pop. They were a squeaky synthetic karaoke act who took themselves too seriously, but seemed to go down well with the otaku I noticed congregating at the front of the stage.



The otaku didn't quite know how to react to the next performance, Hazel Nuts Chocolate.
Yuppa made a hilarious entry and danced about singing a bunch of Hazel Nuts classics. Although she was singing to a backing track, she also played synth and was joined by Dr Usui from Motocompo on guitar. They were loud, eccentric, danceable and put a smile on my face as they always do.



When Henachoco finished, there was sudden excitement on the otaku front. Patrick, who I ran into at the show, was perfectly correct in guessing they were all there to see Aira Mitsuki, the idoru who was up next. She was an idoru of the Perfume type, and like Perfume, she was actually blessed with some interesting songs, produced by Yasutaka Nakata worshipper, Oonishi Terukado. At first I was admittedly a bit afraid though; a singer who looked like a doll wearing a maid-like dress, her management wearing suits, choreographed dancers, nerds enthusiastically copying the moves.. Was this Shimokitazawa or Akihabara? Well, perhaps Akihabara via Shibuya. Well, via the post-Shibuya-kei techno-pop of the likes of Capsule.
She even did a cover of Cornelius' Star Fruits Surf Rider and even pressed a couple of keys on a synth. Bonus points.
Everything she sang was through a vocoder and she not only sounded, but also looked like a robot. However, this artificiality was indeed intentional and part of what made her interesting.
Quite enjoyable actually. Though those otaku were scary.. But they made a mad dash to the merchandise table after Aira finished, leaving a bit more room for us to enjoy Aprils.



I pulled out the light stick Aprils gave out for free (Oh no! Otaku behaviour! I'm becoming one of them!) and watched Aprils enthusiastically belt out some of their happy-happy pop classics. As usual, they filled the stage with supporting members, lights, smoke, pico-pico-flipper's-guitar-pop and monitors synched up to their songs. No appearance by the giant blue panda this time though. But they did play Pan・da:



Check out the Chipple report of this show.