Tokyo Gig Guide presents Farm Party #1 on Jan 31st

On Sunday January 31st, Tokyo Gig Guide will hold its first music event.
It will be a bit different than the usual Tokyo gig though.
Tokyo gigs often have heaps of bands playing straight after each other, but at this event there will be three bands spaced out through the evening. Between bands, DJs will be playing some eclectic sets.
Also, it won't be held at a typical livehouse, but at Gamuso, a fun bar/gallery in Asagaya. Gamuso has a bar downstairs and a small live music room upstairs. You can read about it in this Metropolis article.
It will be cheap too, just ¥1000, plus ¥500 for a drink.

The bands playing are Abikyokan, Walkie Talkie In The Cornfield and PSOCASE.


Abikyokan formed around the core trio of Jacob Arntson (Seattle, USA), Grant McGaheran (Sheffield, UK) and Tatsumi Ochiai (Chiba, Japan) in Tokyo in 2004. The band pool a wide variety of influences to create a new avant-pop sound.


Walkie Talkie In The Cornfield is a two-piece Irish/Australian lo-fi experimental electro-pop group which formed last year.


PSOCASE is a Japanese experimental lo-fi duo which combines electronic sounds, guitar, sax, vocals and keyboards. The wonderful Eri Makino will join them for a song.

DJs on the night will be Jake and Grant from Abikyokan, DJ Timebread, and dj craig eee who will also be providing video projections.

The party kicks off at 7pm.

Details here: http://farmparty.tokyogigguide.com

Don't worry by the way, although it's called Farm Party, there won't be any chickens wandering around and there (probably) won't be any barn dancing.

Lightning Bolt

Fever in Shindaita (one stop from Shimokitazawa) is a new and promising livehouse. A decent size, though sold out and jam-packed tonight, with a side bar outside the live area which you can escape to during dull bands. Before the show, lots of gig-goers were hanging around the front and the nearby convenience store drinking beer so let's hope complaints from neighbours don't have any effect on the place.

First up were legendary Japanese masters of noise Incapacitants who I was very excited to finally get the chance to see. Wow. Ever since I first came to Japan, I'd been wanting to see some real live pure noise music, and I have seen a lot of live noise since I've been here, but this, these guys, they are it. Two older guys with side parts, regular workers during the day, who have been making noise since the early eighties. There were loads of odd effects, feedback, sheets of metal, bizarre microphone-things, and the they were encouraged into further craziness by the fans at the front (mostly by Dave). I loved the guy on the right's (Fumio?) T-shirt with a crossed-out musical note printed on the front.



Ten people spread out across the stage for the next band, Surfers of Romantica, and they all looked like a hodge-podge collection of members of skate-punk, funk, rap, hippy, kraut-rock and jam bands. They ended up sounding heavily influenced by the last couple of Boredoms albums, but not quite as interesting. The songs never seemed to actually start and the singer did lots of posing but hardly acually sang. It was time to try some of the beer in the other bar.

DMBQ did their usual hilarious loud psychedelic rock 'n roll freak out with all the best rockstar poses and wah-wah solos. For the last song they managed to get the drummer and his drumkit on top of the crowd and actually play! Madness.



We knew that Lightning Bolt wouldn't be playing on the stage so we tried to position ourselves in a place where we would be able to see them, not knowing where they would set up. Somehow I managed to find myself directly in front of the drummer, spending the whole set struggling to hold the people back behind me and not fall onto the drumkit. All-out loud craziness. Sweat everywhere. They played songs from their new album, some from their old albums and lots I didn't recognise. Loads of energy and noise. Brian Gibson just stood there all nonchalant as he played wild sounds on the bass and banjo strings on his instrument through all those overdrive, octave, wah and effects pedals. Brain Chippendale went wild on his two snare, no high-hats drum setup being held together by the audience members in front of him.











I could hardly hear the next day.

13complex vol.13 on Nov 1st

The 13th 13complex event will be this Sunday. Ooh, two thirteens the day after halloween... Nothing scary at this event though. It will be a great day of quiet original music.

Live musicians:



sheeprint
A quiet delicate pop unit with female vocals.
http://www.myspace.com/sheeprint

Akalcry
Acoustic and electronic trio.
http://www.myspace.com/akalcry

Ware Ware (我々)
Brazilian influenced instrumental pop duo playing classical guitar and bandolim.
http://www.wareware.jp/

Makino Eri
The event organiser, Eri will play her lovely sparse experimental folktronica.
http://www.makinoeri.com/
http://www.myspace.com/erimakino

DJs during the day will be:



DJ Niagara, caolwave, qutti, Mu-tan, DJ craig eee, and tsuma-saki.

Kamishibai artists matocotoshuco will entertain everyone with their paper show.




There will be exhibitions by aion, ham&ex, IOЯI, kaede mira, rib, SAKURAYAMA, 83, シュトーリョー (matocotoshuco), Terajima Daisuke, and more.

It will be held in Jiyugaoka at gallery size #401, a gallery, not a livehouse, so the quiet sounds of the participating artists should suit the space well.
Address: A&D House room #401, Jiyugaoka 2-15-10, Meguro-ku, Tokyo.

For tickets, send your name and the number of tickets required to a.chain.brick.yard@gmail.com
It costs 2000yen which includes a drink and canapes!

It will kick off at 2pm and go until 8pm.

More info:
http://13complex.makinoeri.velvet.jp/

http://www.tokyogigguide.com/gigs/details/1801

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=158422061198

Girls and boys at Highti

I searched the industrial area along the Arakawa, riding my bike around some rusty buildings stinking of cooking oil until someone finally pointed out the abandoned-looking building Highti was in. No sign, no signs of life. A rickety stairwell lead to a makeshift space on the second floor, lit by a couple of bare lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. I put my 500yen donation in the cup and bought some 200yen cans of happoshu.



First up was legend of the Tokyo underground scene, Samm Bennett, tonight playing some great bluesy American folk on his amazing instrument called the strumstick.



Samm was joined by his wife Haruna Ito next for SKIST. They played experimental drones, rhythms, harmonies and hums with various toys, fans, unusual instruments, bassdrum, walkie-talkies, strumstick, vocals, loops, effects and bits of plastic.



Two girl-boy duos form Brisbane in Australia played next. The first was Do The Robot, sitting across from each other and singing to each other, her on toy keyboard and sampler, and him on shoegazey guitar. Very sweet indie pop. More gorgeous shoegaze guitars were next with The Rational Academy who usually play as a louder band but were performing tonight as a 2 piece. Delicate vocals and music to make you melt, or dance as Samm's daughter was doing.



Just to throw things way back out there and remind us we were in a semi-ruined building in the middle of nowhere, the incredibly odd ju sei played next. Another male-female duo, they both sang and yelped and made great sweet weird incredibly original pop. Where do they come from?



Hard to find and no beer at the bar, but otherwise Highti was a great underground music and art spot I'm keen to visit again. I'd never been to a place quite like it.

Sound Gardening #3

Arriving at the peaceful Kiyosumi gardens, I couldn't imagine how the Sound Gardening #3 experimental music event could be held here. The old lady at the entrance pointed us to the Kiyosumi-Teien Ryotei Tea Pavillon, a tea-house overlooking the pond at the back of the park. I peaked inside and didn't see any amps or speakers anywhere, but upon entering it all became clear - on cushions on the tatami floor were dozens of headphones!




We made ourselves comfortable on the floor, donned the headphones and enjoyed the first performance by Living Astro. They fiddled with knobs and played samples and beats, as well as playing bass and electric guitar through effects. Why their guitars had no heads, I don't know. Maybe they also play in a metal band? Thankfully they weren't too loud, seeing as we had no volume control on our headphones. I enjoyed their experimental/electronic/sample music which reminded me of Dymaxion.




After a brief orange juice and raisin break, veteran sample-based composer Carl Stone got on his laptop and produced a long minimal piece from a voice sample and various building, droning sounds. I stretched out on the tatami, closed my eyes and the meditative music had me dreaming of carp and clouds and moss. I couldn't imagine a better setting for such music, a piece Carl had composed specifically for the atmosphere of the tea house.

Sound Gardening is a regular event held in the Kiyosumi pavillon about once every two months. Look out for the next one on Tokyo Gig Guide and get tickets early, because seats are limited to 35.

Carl Stone will be playing in a trio with Otomo Yoshihide and Keiichiro Shibuya on October 16th at Super Deluxe. Details.

LITE, Boris, Cro-Magnon, nenem @ LiquidRoom, June 12th

by colin


After a rather lengthy walk around the lovely Ebisu gardens and Yebisu beer museum I made my way to the LAUNCHPAD event at the Liquid Room. The Liquid Room is a popular live house in Tokyo and considered to be one of the city’s best. Tonight’s LAUNCHPAD bill included a healthy dose of some of Japans finest trend setters - Nenem, Cro-Magnon and LITE, with Boris headlining the night.

As usual, the gig started on time with the first band of the night walking onto the stage to zero applause or acknowledgement. It was early and sunny outside, so they probably had expected a small crowd.

Nenem are a 5 piece that make some incredibly well crafted songs with bizarre noise samples and guitar rhythms that would grab anyone’s attention. People seemed immediately engaged in their set with songs blending into one another and lots of surprises thrown in randomly for good measure. A really great sound to the whole set I thought. An incredibly skillful guitarist armed with an large selection of effects lead the band and seemed to orchestrate the other members with his nodding head. The performance and sound were both absolutely flawless. The keyboardist positioned himself centre-stage and rightly so; superb talent like his just can't be ignored.

Next up was the brilliantly trendy Cro-Magnon. A Tortoise meets New Order type mash-up which the smallish crowd completely lapped up. The trio appeared quite confident throwing ominous stares out to the crowd. They had the crowd in the palm of their hand and moulded us into their dancing puppets with ease. The addition of a cowbell, drum pads, some pitch shifting tools and a guy busy tweaking knobs on his Korgs really made this more memorable than your average gig. Really enjoyed this even if it leaned a little on the eighties side.

It was time for LITE and I was genuinely pumped for it. I knew LITE quite well and I like their stuff a lot. They were one of few Japanese bands I was quite crazy about before I left for Japan, so I was very excited seeing them play on their native soil. I caught them on their last Irish tour in Dublin’s intimate Whelans venue where they played to about 80 people, mostly people who went by themselves and had nothing better to do on a Monday night, and the average age was 25. Tonight was much different. They were playing on their home turf to the most diverse crowd I had ever seen at a gig. Some people were as young at 18 and I saw some borderline granddads floating around too. Marshall stacks and an impressive drum kit were wheeled onto the stage, which was quite the contrast to the ram-shackled setup they had when I saw them in Dublin where they had presumably rented the gear or borrowed it. Even with that gear they performed one of my favourite Whelans gigs to date. Again, taking to the stage to not even the slightest clap or a "woo!!," LITE broke into a killer rendition of "Ef". Probably my favourite LITE song and they were in top form. The crowd started to roar and it was obvious that most people were here to see them, including a spattering of foreigners. LITE have travelled the world quite a bit now and I am not surprised they have foreigners coming back for seconds. What I like about LITE is that they are not about costumes, gimmicks, fake moustaches, fancy back drops or dry ice. They are the real deal. A scarily talented bunch of guys who play complicated guitar compositions with ease and I'm pretty sure every guitarist that was present tonight felt a little inadequate after LITE's set. I certainly did. The small banter with the crowd was completely not understood by me but they sounded incredibly grateful to be playing the gig and to be acknowledged in a scene that is saturated with rock music. The crowd applauded politely and the crowd pleaser "Human Gift" got a well-deserved airing, transforming the crowd into a flailing limb frenzy. A brilliant band and I cannot wait to see them play with Adebisi Shank on the 15th July in Super Deluxe. The set was over after about 7 songs and I contemplated giving Boris a miss as I was on a high. But I stuck around and I really regret it.

Quite the contrast to LITE's incredibly accomplished and engaging set, Boris performed very loud (I have heard nothing like this since My Bloody Valentine at last years Electric Picnic; I was genuinely scared) drone, psychedelic, stoner rock. They have the long hair, double neck guitars, a sweaty bare-chested drummer, reverby vocals and an overused dry ice machine to go with it all. Their equipment set up was beyond ridiculous and it was just not needed for a 900 capacity venue that was only half-full (many left after LITE's set). It's acceptable to see this at a stadium but not in a venue this small. Enormous Orange PAs dominated the back of the stage towering over the band. The drummer sat on a podium with a huge gong glimmering behind him. I was waiting for heads to spontaneously explode around me during some of their over-the-top self indulgent "wall of sound" efforts. The skill is certainly there. I have no doubt about that but for me Boris's set is 100% style over substance unfortunately.

More photos of LITE: