blast from the past: live report | J (8/2003)

Friday, August 1
New Best Concert Ever!

Now playing:
j
pyromania

I don't even know where to begin!

It doesn't look it, but i think it was about 50/50 boys-to-girls.

I arrived around 5:30; Tomo (a friend of a friend who got me an FC ticket) showed up at 6:00, we chucked our stuff in lockers (¥300) and headed inside. No drink charge, and the merch table was open but everyone was heading for the stage, so so did we. And we stood there for an HOUR listening to HIP-HOP on the sound system. And the headbang bars were arranged like the gates for horses at a race track ("And they're off!"), perpendicular to the stage (so you can't lean forward and headbang on em, unless you wanna look like an idget and be pointed sideways towards the exits... but of course, J isn't a headbang kinda live -- it's a bounce kinda live.)

The two girls on the left were collecting photos and quotes for a birthday site they're making for J; it'll be up on... when's his birthday? 8/21? And then down one month later. Here's the addy anyway: http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~xgate... but i think you need a password to get in. (My quote: "Kick Ass Mother Fucker!"

Also, someone (right now i can only remember her username "Butter Cookies!") came up and went, "Are you Go?" -- which is enough to make my day right there (i love that, esp. when they follow up with a complement on my writing in front of other foreigners, because then other people eavesdropping nearby look over like, "ooh, famous writer desu ka?!?").

The three of us chatted for a bit, and then over Butter Cookie's shoulder i saw the bar closing... and then up on the lighting rig the techs were taking there places behind the spotlights... and then on the second floor there's Kaytea and Rosi and Izumi waving at me! Hello!

Guitarists Takashi Fuzita and Franz Stahl, and Scott Garrett on le batterie.

Lights out, and Diablo March starts up, and onto the stage comes Franz and Scott and Takashi and finally J... right there, ten feet away! And oy, the C-R-U-S-H of bodies!

Which leads us to the best part, but also the worst part, of the night... there's many more guys in the crowd. So it's brutaler than Deg ever was. My head! My neck! My skull! My eyes! The lumps and bruises and cuts and bloody lip! All those boots, raining down from the heavens as far as the eye can see!

And it being a slightly older crowd -- the median age was probably 25 (compared to 18 or 19 for Deg standing lives... oh! and the opposite of a standing live is a "hall" live -- not a sitting live - new term i learned last night...). The practical result being that it's not the polite-lightweight-teeniebopers-skittering-across-your-shoulders kind of crowdsurfing, it's NFL-linebacker-pile-up crowdsurfing -- everyone's older, stronger, stockier, tattoodier... and it's virtually non-stop, because all but one or two of the songs the band ripped through were of the fuck-shit-up fast-fast-fast punk variety.

One cool mother fucker!

I don't even know how long the show went -- time lost all meaning. It must've been like 15 or 16 of those 3-min, 4-min rockers though, closing with... i -think- they closed with Feel Your Blaze but that might've been the second-to-last song... before the band headed off stage with some waves and much cheers. Ah, and J saw me a bunch of times. :)

They came back out maybe five minutes later, as soon as the audience started up the encore chant (only it wasn't en-co-ru, en-co-ru, i think it was just "J! J! J! J!"). J pops out, thanks everyone, jokes around, cool guy. (He smiled and was having a good time the whole show; and you should see him leap off his riser; he gets like 10 feet of air! And knocking down the mic stand with the headstock of his bass, on purpose, like tee-ball, that's pretty cool too if you can afford to do it!)

Me n' X -- AKA David, from japan.box.sk.

And it's time for member shokkai, and first out is Scott (audience: Scott! Scott! Scott! Scott!) and he struts up to J's mic as J sits down behind him. Scott tilts his cap hip-hoppily and goes, "Yo! Wazzup!" and the crowd is like, "Huh!?" so Scott goes "What's happening!?" and again the crowd, being unfamiliar with the phrase, is like, "Huh?" so Scott turns to J and goes, "J, how do you say 'what's happenin'?!"

J grins, nonchalantly sets down his water bottle, walks up to the mic, pauses for a sec, and then like a punch to the gut (but all in good fun, of course) goes:

"Dou!"

Just, SLAP! "Dou!" And it's the funniest thing in the world. The timing was comedic brilliance! It'll go down in history as the funniest thing ever (i was crying from laughing -- a lot of people were -- and keep in mind we're all totally dehydrated so those tears come at an exceptional cost!)

Then out comes Franz, who rattles of some stuff in japanese, in a humourously gangsta-rappish-ly fashion (says something about Shibuya saiko, which everyone loved of course).

Me, Izumi (Aion) and Kaytea.

Then out came Takashi, and said a few words, then he and J delivered a funny exchange, the jist of which i failed to catch, but i DID see Takashi glancing sidelong at J in mock-anger, gripping his fists as if to prepare for a fight, and J laughing... Ah! And Takashi and Scott did a little Street Fighter 2 battle on stage as well, to audience oohs and ahhhs.

And they rolled through a couple more songs, including, as J said, "laaaaassst sonnngggg.... ...Champagne Gold Supermarkeeettttttttt!!!!" and the joint exploded; so much so that when the girl behind me tapped me on the shoulder and pointed "Up?" i got my second wind, smiled, nodded, turned around to lift her, but then without warning I FELT *MYSELF* RISING OFF THE GROUND!

FEET: Uh, Houston, we've lost contact with the ground...

EYES: Danger danger danger building collapse! Roof and walls... rotating!!!

INNER EAR: Mayday mayday mayday! Balance lost! Balance lost!

ME: What the... CROWDSURFING?!?!

LEFT BRAIN: Abort abort!

RIGHT BRAIN: Waaah this is fucking great!!!

And thusly, above the heads of many a J fan, i was conveyed the six short feet from where i had been standing to the front of the stage, where i (amazingly) landed gracefully on my feet, with a little help from one of the slightly intimidated body-catching staff guys, who just braced my shoulders for a split second while my feet touched down. It was all surprisingly gentle up there... But too short! More more more! Again again again!!

Because in the five seconds i was aloft, I had two important realizations:

1. I'm heavy, but unlike the compact, stout, heavy surfer that comes along and crushes those beneath him, my weight is displaced over a larger area! Girth mitigated!
2. I can't surf at a Deg live because the audience is teenaged birds; but here at J, the crowd is all sturdy, weatherbeaten punks! So now's my chance!

I never thought i'd be able to do it; i figured once you pass the age of 25, your crowdsurfing permit gets revoked, yanno? I'm forever indebted to those girls that hoisted me up.

Anyway, yes, so i land on my feet, dash along the front of the stage, around to the side, and back into the fray! The middle of the theater is mosh pit, but a kinder, gentler one -- very much like those kiddieland inflatable bouncing-room things. A couple other crowdsurfing guys i'd seen/nodded to earlier waved to me -- "Come 'ere!" -- so i came to 'em, and they made a face like "Again!?" and.. here we go again! Only this time, the stage is like thirty feet away! So I'm on my back, splayed out, looking up at the second floor (wondering if kaytea had a camera handy, and if so, praying that she'd sneak a quick pic) and i'm keeping my boots up so as not to knock anyone unconscious, and i'm smoothly gliding along, it's like sitting on a floating lounge chair in a pool; no elbows, no pain... it's downright relaxing!

At some point i roll over, onto my stomach (still with my boots up... in the classic skydiver's pose), and suddenly i see the floor rushing up to meet me, but i've got so much whatever-chemical-your-body-produces-when-you're-crowdsurfing gushing through my arteries that the rush is in slow motion. But i don't touch the ground. I bob right back up like a beach ball that's been pushed underwater, and continue on my way, gliding, flying, lights flashing, the music spinning, and then you see the end of the crowd, like a waterfall... and we're going over the edge! And -plop!- i'm back on my feet again, jogging towards the side again. But no more surfing for today, the song's winding down...

Let's just hang out and wave to the band, the song's is ending, ending... people are smiling and and wooo-hooo-ing and J spots me (even 30 feet back, i stand out) and chucks a water bottle right to me. Almost as if to say, "Congratulations on successfully crowdsurfing, here's your plaque!" and i catch it and everyone in a ten-foot radius spins around and looks at me like my head has begun to glow like Christ's in all those Renaissance paintings (i caught the bottle with one hand, leaping maybe, i dunno, thirty feet into the air? Forty? High!) and J's still watching, so i just whip the bottle in a circular motion and splash everyone with a spray of cold water and everyone cheers, including, i want to think, J! What camaraderie! And the band heads off stage.

But the house remains dark. Only a few people make for the exits. A second encore? Doesn't seem like J's style. Then...

A remix of Champagne comes on the speakers, and the colored stage lights burst to life, flash and gyrate... transforming the theater into an actual, literal, full-on rave. People are dancing, girls are on guy's shoulders, dudes are standing on the headbang bars, chanting "J! J! J! J!" to the beat, dancing -- no one's leaving! I'm waiting for people to start throwing of their clothes, so convivial is the atmosphere.

And i meet a bunch of cool people, not in the hi-nice-to-meet-you-i'm-Go kinda way but in that deeper eye-contact-/-smile-/-head-nod way. Holy fuck, what a fantastic, fantastic sense of kinship i feel. Wondrous.

Afterwards, when the house lights scare the music away and people start exiting the venue, i'm walking down the side hall and shaking hands and beaming like i don't know what... covered in sweat, completely wet and reeking, and at the lobby bar i spot Kaytea and Rosi and Izumi. And we chat for a little. I also meet David, (aka X, from japan box) and his hot wife, and everyone's got backstage passes but me but that's OK; i couldn't ask for a better time the the one i had tonight. And i'm looking forward to grabbing a drink with some random slew of J fans and enjoying a simple night of chattering about bands and songs and albums and being the center of attention (which is another thing i love...)...

But as I'm talking to Izumi and David and Kaytea and Rosi over a beer about what a fantastic live tonight was, i'm completely oblivious to the fact that all the other sweaty, messy moshing fans are gradually trickling out. So when i look around for once, i see that the twenty or so souls still in the lobby are all well dressed and have green or red passes in plain view. Uh-oh!

Amazingly, i am not harassed by the AX staff; maybe my pass is just hidden under my shirt, and I'm a foreigner after all... and i'm clearly "with" other approved personages...

And David, wonderfully, he runs out to my locker and gets my stuff (i couldn't go outside to get them myself; i had no pass to get back in!)

Without his help, I'd've had no camera, and thus no photos of meeting J. Who , speak of the devil (ha-ha) joins us after a short while, meets some of the business people and friends of his that are present, eventually comes over to us, i bide my time and (in English) thank him for the show, it was my first J live and very very memorable, and he's like "Oh! Glad you liked it!" and very down-to-earth (and not too eagerly!) i ask (still in English) if a pic is OK, he's like, "Sure," and ka-ching! X snaps the shot and that's three Luna Sea members down, two to go! :)

J bravely bravely fights to remain conscious despite the deathly stench emanating from my filthy, sweaty shirt.

We also chat with Scott and Franz, and how they met up with J (in a nutshell: he liked their music!) and they share some cool little details about touring and studio stuff; just a fun, educational, life-affirmingly cool evening desu.

Then Izumi gets on the phone...

Six Japanese Proverbs with which I Concur

The inarticulate speak longest.

The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.

One who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger.

It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive disenchanted.

When the cat mourns for the mouse do not take her seriously.

First the man takes a drink; then the drink takes a drink; then the drink takes the man.

Ricci, et al. v. DeStefano, et al.

You can read about it in clear, deep detail at this ScotusWiki page, but in a nutshell: White, black, and Hispanic firefighters take a promotional exam, more whites pass than blacks, which means only whites get promoted; the city panics and cancels the test results, which pisses off the people who passed, so they sue the city.

Sotomayor, who's likely to become the newest addition to the US Supreme Court, ruled against the (white) firefighters who passed the test, and the appeal got bumped up to / picked up by the Supreme Court.

I just wanna see the damn test, so we can decide if Soto's biased or not! (I'm not a big fan of any kind of "we should do X because your skin color is Y" sort of rule.) It's kinda hard to imagine what a "pro-white" firefighter exam would look like. [insert pedantic stereotype-based humor attempt here]

review: askew magazine #2 (april 2009)

ASKEW #002

Had to click through five screens (including one that accused me of being "UNAUTHORIZED") but eventually I got to the final download button and got the new issue of Askew onto my desktop. There's a lot of really, really pretty pages in this mag.

Got to the table of contents and saw one thing of interest, a Chemical Pictures live report, and then also spied a "Women of VK" piece. But there's no hyperlinks, so I actually have to "flip" through pages to find what I want, or use Foxit Reader's dropdown page menu, which means I might as well just look at every page because I am singularly lazy.



As I read teh D review, I find myself wishing for a lot more detail and follow-up questions... like, we quickly discover Ruiza went to high school in Canada! But all we get was, "It wasn't humid, so it was relaxing." ARGH! What about his first kiss or first girlfriend? His first drink? Getting his driver's license? Did he ever get stuffed into a locker?



After that I just skimmed the interviews -- and there's a lot, like 10 or more. I didn't expect to find anything amazingly enlightening and was not disappointed. The Ken Lloyd interview was briefly interesting ("Oblivion Dust was kinda like Zilch's kid brother," he says at one point.)



I liked the D and Auncia pics, they're big and colorriffic. Auncia had a pretty layout too, one of the few advantages of the pdf. format!



I also dug the Gearbox piece on 9Goats Black Out's guitarist -- not because I really care about him, but because finally, the layout clicked! Most of the other interviews were the same Arial-like font and color (black), with only bold turned on to differentiate questions from answers. It tires the eye. But the Gearbox column used a smaller font, italicized and in a lighter, tan shade for the questions, versus the black text in a slightly larger size for the answers, and it was a pleasure to read. And the dude turned out to be rather interesting, giving concise, direct answers instead of beating around the bush and crap. Could do with the quotation marks, tho.

The next page has Hiko from Danger Gang, interviewed in a too-overwhelming font/color combination, and she's boring. Half the reason I "bought" the mag, this article was.



The Spinalcord interview was cool, Syu was cool ("Is metal very popular?" / "What kind?" / "The loud kind [imitates percussion]"). Good colors (greens and white on dark grey) but coulda used more white space and wider columns (it's set to 4 columns but I think 3 woulda made for more pleasurable reading). That's the thing with pdf's -- I can't control colors and fonts and line lengths like I would in html.

The Meth interview was eh. Liked the color scheme this time (red and black on white, similar but much better than Hiko's page), and the serif font increased readability over the sans-serif fonts from earlier in the mag.



The Chemical Pictures live report was not very you-are-there (basically it was five paragraphs that boiled down to "there were fast songs, there were slow songs, there were two encores, and Jimi stood on the left.") All photos but the main one lacked speed and movement. So the other reason I would have "bought" this magazine was for naught.

The Mucc CD review was two full pages of text, almost tax-code-like. Skimmed it quickly, seemed capably writ by multiple authors, but Kyutai's ancient news now, I gots no int-o-rest! It has motivated me to do 10-words-or-less CD reviews from now on, tho.

Evan's Alone in the Dark-ly interview with four people I didn't know needed pictures of the people so I could make some sort of basic connection. Also, less lines like Juno's "music is a universal form of experssion, it's an art..." because, um, NO SHIT. Next she'll be explaining that CDs are small shiny plastic thingies that spin and if you hit them with a laser just right music falls out. It doesn't tell me anything about the person OR the song she's supposedly explaining, it just waists mah time! [points to watch]



Askew's From the Ground Up section is sorta like those black & white back pages in Fools Mate (or Shoxx?) that feature super indie bands. You get a pic, a bio, and a URL, and that's cool 'cos I'd never heard of any of these bands, and the main point of me reading is to learn shit. However, I think the section would benefit from:

• more bulletpoints
• less full sentences

...because who wants to spend 30-seconds on a band they never heard of before when you can just gimme the outline in a couple words/phrases and we can both be done?

On the same page, Cliff (~no Taion~) blurbs five CDs that came out monnnnnths ago. Monnnnnths!!!!



Then there's a short interview with the guy who does J-Shoxx, which I've heard of but not heard-heard; it's streaming radio and plays VK apparently.

I'm more of right-click > shuffle all type of guy myself, so I wish they had talked about how the webcast improves upon building a nice "rating=at least 4 stars" and "genre=j-rock" playlist, because that's something that I don't know. What's the benefit of the product? Tell me, I want to know!

The interview with Tokyo stylist Kaytea (I think her & I hung out a couple times backstage at gigs in '03-'04, but only a couple times because I wouldn't tell her my job and thus she couldn't maneuver her way into getting information/contacts outta me -- that's kinda harsh but it's the vibe I got).... Anyway, it was a cool interview because I know very little about hair & makeup and the questions were short while the answers were long and they all possessed informative detail, huzzah!

And on the last page, I totally skipped the product reviews.

I hope the font/color layouts on pages 27 & 40 get used more, and I hope the interviews have good, detailed, succinct answers that will blossom from the intelligent deployment of specifically worded questions, and I hope the reviews don't waste time on anything more than a month old, and I hope the pictures continue to be cool.

And I hope it remains FREE!

Not mind-blowing but worth perusing.

rating: :\

review: star trek (2009)

Dug the new Star Trek, like it could be my favorite of all of the films; it left me eager for the next one, unlike all the other films that have come out and been like, "eh, ok" that I've never watched again. (Except the Save the Whales one, because that one I'll watch whenever it's on TV.)

It's a true reboot -- I read it was a dozen times but it didn't hit me til the end of the film that they're totally startin' over. Which is good.

One thought I had was in the 1960s, having a Russian on your ship would be like having a Muslim Fundamentalist on your ship today, and given that, and the annoying Russian accent on Chekhov (it approaches Jar-Jar-ian levels of suck), I thought it woulda been cool if they had updated Chekhov.

As we left the theater, E amicably pointed out, "They haven't ruled that out, he could be Chechen!" which would be satisfactory. ^_^

Just something as alien to US doctrine now as Socialism was during the Cold War, yanno? To stir things up a little. Maybe even make one of 'em a chick -- it worked for Starbuck!

Anyway. Enjoyable flick, despite all the "why didn't they just ______" questions that the time travel thing will always, inevitably, raise.

I Think So Too!

Esquire, June 2008:

"It's a tarp!"

Versailles vs. I

6 song, 3 PVs: 49 bucks.

Warner Music Japan:

(thanks R!)

ASCENDEAD MASTER(通常盤)
WPCL-10692 ¥1,000(税込)
発売日：2009/06/24
Ｍ-1 ASCENDEAD MASTER
Ｍ-2 月下香
Ｍ-3 DESCENDANT OF THE ROSE [SOUNDTRACK]



ASCENDEAD MASTER(初回限定盤-Ⅰ)
WPZL-30130/31 ¥1,300(税込)
発売日：2009/06/24
Disc-1
Ｍ-1 ASCENDEAD MASTER
Ｍ-2 HALLWAY [SOUNDTRACK]
Disc-2
ASCENDEAD MASTER [STORYⅠ]



ASCENDEAD MASTER(初回限定盤-Ⅱ)
WPZL-30132/33 ¥1,300(税込)
発売日：2009/06/24
Disc-1
Ｍ-1 ASCENDEAD MASTER
Ｍ-2 PILGRIM [SOUNDTRACK]
Disc-2
ASCENDEAD MASTER [STORYⅡ]



ASCENDEAD MASTER(初回限定盤-Ⅲ)
WPZL-30134/35 ¥1,300(税込)
発売日：2009/06/24
Disc-1
Ｍ-1 ASCENDEAD MASTER
Ｍ-2 COVENANT [SOUNDTRACK]
Disc-2
ASCENDEAD MASTER [STORYⅢ]

Unless the PVs are high quality 30-minute short films shot by the most talented up-and-coming filmmakers Japan has to offer, this fucking ripoff takes the cake.

DON'T ENCOURAGE THIS SORT OF BEHAVIOUR.

Norwegian Day

Last Sunday was Norwegian Day, and me being like 1/16th Norwegian or something, me & kate went to check it out.

People dressed up, music was played (for like an HOUR), but there was not much food to be bought, only boring trinketry.

It was disappointing, but I suspect Kate gleaned something about changing dress codes or swordfighting or live music from it.

disc review roundup: "A" is for Average

Abingdon Boys School
Jap/Valkyrie (2009)
these two tracks are heavy but not authentically heavy, more pop-rock heavy, and the lush production doesn't cover up the fact that these songs don't launch as well as some of their other hits. :\

~

Administrator
Temanekui Taiyou (2009)
your usual catchy above-average-but-not-especially-special pop-rock coup d'etat that serves the purpose of bringing the band to your attention without actually encouraging you to listen to the song ever again. :\

~

Angelo
Metallica Butterfly (2009)
Kirito has always had a Marilyn Manson thing going on, and there's some tracks on tis album that push that comparison further. There's also more heaviness to this disc than their last few. None of them inspire much, tho.

"Pandemic" is one of the better heavy numbers, "Sister" is catchy in the usual Kirito vein, "Micro Wave Slider" is playful. Unfortunately, most of the riffs rely on repetitiousness so the songs run out of steam after three minutes, but are pushed beyond the four and even five-minute mark. :\

Ore wa Jacku Bow-wa! Happy Memorial Day Weekend everybody!

Japan Probe:

Song 1:
I’m Jack Bauer / Always in danger
I’m Jack Bauer / I never die
I’m Jack Bauer / I get pissed easily
I’m Jack Bauer / I’m actually a crybaby…
I’m Jack Bauer / To the guys who don’t confess
I’m Jack Bauer / I yell at them from really close
I’m Jack Bauer / 24th is 24’s day
I’m Jack Bauer / Let’s go to a rental video place

Yeah, it's from '07, so what? :p

Song 2:
I’m Jack Bauer / I don’t take orders from anyone
I’m Jack Bauer / and I drag everyone along
I’m Jack Bauer / I’m good with dealing with danger
I’m Jack Bauer / Weak for my daughter
I’m Jack Bauer / I’m an immortal man
I’m Jack Bauer / Sometimes I pass out
I’m Jack Bauer / My phone bill is crazy
I’m Jack Bauer / But my job pays for it

"Denwa-dai ga ~SUGOIII~!"

Apparently it's "sung" by the guy who does Jack's voice.

Last.fm & RIAA Part 2

techcrunch:

Deny This, Last.fm

Last.fm didn’t hand user data over to the RIAA, it was their parent company, CBS, that did it.

There's a followup by Techcrunch here.

A lot of stuff you may have listened to is on CBS/Sony; it's pretty popular in Japan... (Blue Blood, in addition to having the worst album cover of any japanese release ever, was a CBS/Sony release).

And the fact that CBS has a relationship with Sony means all the Sony artists you've been listening to -- L'Arc, Deg, Hyde, ABS, Puffy, Scandal, Tommy FH6, and those are just the Japanese artists -- could be on some lawyer's desk RIGHT NOW.

Buy that retired soldier a drink!

washington post:

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese man was pushed off a bridge by an angry passer-by after his threat to commit suicide held up traffic for five hours, Chinese media reported on Saturday.

Retired soldier Lian Jiansheng, 66, broke through a police cordon and reached out to shake the hand of would-be jumper Chen Fuchao before shoving him off the bridge.

"I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish. Their action violates a lot of public interests," Lai was quoted as saying by the China Daily newspaper.

"They do not really dare to kill themselves. Instead, they just want to raise the relevant government authorities' attention to their appeals."

Chen, 2 million yuan ($293,200) in debt because of a failed building project, fell 8 meters (yards) onto a partially inflated emergency air cushion and was hospitalized with wrist and back injuries. Lai was detained by police.

Chen was at least the twelfth person since early April to threaten suicide at the same spot, the Haizhu bridge in Guangzhou. But none jumped and -- until Lian gave Chen a helping hand -- none was pushed.

Jesus, five hours! And the cops couldn't do anything? Once you've got the inflatable thing underneath, shoot the fucker with a tranquilizer, hit him with a rock, whatever! I thought the Chinese cops were on top of shit like this.

review: deluhi | "flashb[l]ack" (2009)

I like this PV because it's the first clear look at the band I've gotten. I dislike it because the song is fast, and the cuts are fast, but the shots are slow pans -- they should be faster, sloppier, full of zooms and pans and tilts from face to face to hands to drums to eyes to mouths to hands again, god damn it. Also, those pills? They're suppositories. >_<

deluhi
flashb[l]ack
¥2415 | 05.2009

________

The CD has two tracks, "Skapegoat" (season with brackets and semicolons at to taste) and the "'09 remix" of one of their best tracks, "Orion Once Again."

The first hits you with 10 seconds of melodeath before mellowing out with actual singing and less crazy drums; and epic solo played with Yngwie-esque bravado is also noteworthy, as are many of the guitar and drum fills that keep this song prety bitchin. Sharp production, too. But the disparate elements never quite gel. I have no suggestions for remedying the situation.

The second is a dancey-dancetrack more at home at Velfarre; guitars replaces with 90s keys, drums replaced with 90s beats... only the vocals remain. Cool as an informal analysis of genre-jumping, but irritating as music. I like some of Dir en grey's "dancey" remixes because they're at least dark and foreboding; this is just shiny.

The live DVD i haven't watched or heard yet, partly because I get a depressing sense that Deluhi is already becoming Yoshiki, re-releasing their old, good stuff to cover up the dearth of good new stuff in the works. Which is sorta unfair -- I prefer bite-size lives, and a couple live b-sides is pound-for-pound far more enjoyable than a whole 2CD live album -- but, what the hell, life ain't fair, kids.

rating: :\

review: the studs | "alansmithee" (2009)

the studs
alansmithee
¥3000/¥3800 | 05.2009

__________

This is alternative rock, a genre I can only very rarely appreciate.

Having said that, and spun this disc almost barely once, I can at least say that the instruments have a nice texture and the production has a descriptive depth to it, the vocals don't try to annoy on purpose, and that the songs each have their own character, and mostly avoid sounding the same. A few sort of rock in the same way an average child might do karate.

The Studs are Yukino, Aie, and Daisuke.

If you're into the Deadman or Plastic Tree or the late-era Kagerou side of things, you might dig this. I didn't hate tracks 7, 9, or 10.

"Alan Smithee" is the name directors put on films when they don't want their own names attached to a project because it sucks, though.

rating: :(

Battlesea Pacifica

The tribal wardrums (which I now realize are just college football game drums, drag!) and the extreme long shot of 10,000 cruising, darting cylon raiders birds feels like a nice big BSG space battle to my BSG-deprived heart!

Dare to tell me that the editors weren't inspired by Galactica at @ 0:10~0:20! That music, and holding the shot for so long... be still my beating heart!

review smackdown: ken | "in physical" (2009) vs vamps | "vamps" (2009)

ken
in physical
2009 | ¥3150

After the massacre that was "Jack in the Box 2008" I had zero hopes for Ken (of L'Arc)'s solo album.

It's so fun to be happily surprised. In Physical is the best solo album by a jrock guitarist in a decade.

Ken beats Anchang (who he sounds a lot alike here, only smarter and with better support) and Circuit V Panther and Sugizo and Inoran and J and Tetsu and Hyde and Pata and Heath (of course) and sits down next to Hide's brilliant mid-90s solo jobbies.

In some ways In Physical is even better than a Hide album, as it never condescends with whoa!~weird~cartoony~voices! or distracting sound effects or lame little fillerific non-songs. Ken's straight up and from the heart, writting and playing with dedication and brains.


Best thing about it hands down is the guitar tone. It's like walking into a guitar shop with someone really good playing a great axe through a great amp, a very natural, full, textured sound that seems impossible to capture on record (whenever a guitar sounds great in a room, it ends up sound like crap on tape, yanno?)...

The hard rocker "S" is definitely my favorite, whereas the title track that follows it is more about mood than metal. "Spin Along" is another Anchang-on-nootropics barnburner, with a great solo; Deeper (the single) rocks, "My Angel" reanimates the verse guitar chords of L'Arc's old classic "Milky Way" (Heart, 1996), "Gimme Your Name" has an early-Shiina Ringo vibe ("Identity," I'm thinking).

Though there are a few songs I'll tend to skip over, none of them suck. Whereas...

~

vamps
vamps
2009 | ¥3059

...whereas Hyde & Kaz's moneymaker Vamps (now on iTunes, for sale for real next month) is a ream of soggy photocopies apparently being purchased solely by silly women who you'd think would know better despite themselves.

This album, composted from the various schlocky singles already in wide release, is so dull, so charmless, so unwilling to challenge or engage the listener in ANY WAY, that it barely qualifies as music. I've heard kitchen appliances with more character, LITERALLY.

winner: KEN :)
loser: VAMPS :(

Hyde sez, "Just find some clip art and stick the word Vamps somewhere in whatever default typeface you got," while Ken actually bothers to get some cool pics taken... And dig his Cyrillic "N" -- it's the little flourishes that are the most rewarding.