review: 9goats black out | "tanatos" (2010)

hati (b), ryo (v) & uta (g), or uta (g), ryo (v) & hati (b)

9goats black out
tanatos
2010

Some bands you keep around because you never know when your mind will open up to their offerings.

9goats does a hybrid VK/indie thing, taking the worst aspects of both genres and making tracks that, like comprehending higher mathematics, are really hard to parse but clearly have something to them.

"Red Shoes" and "Who's the Mad" are the only traditional, listenable songs that I can imagine ever listening to again; closing ballad "Nagai" ain't bad either I guess. The rest of the songs on this CD are more nebulous, less structural, too noisy or too quiet by turns, and just generally odd.

Not my cup of tea, but I appreciate 'em for not being like every other j-rock act out there...

rating: :(

KeyHoleTV: Live Japanese TV, Online, Legal, and Free

Wikipedia:

KeyHoleTV is an online free television portal that links to Japanese television channels, radio stations, and user-made channels... part of a project by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs testing out peer to peer technology ... TV Asahi, Fuji TV, TBS, TV Tokyo, and Japan TV ...

The video quality is a throwback to 1999 RealVideo, blocky as hell and looking like 320x240 or so, and the audio is half a second out of sync, and the app is more Win95 than Win7 (also available on Mac & Linux)..

Nevertheless, having this on in the background will be really cool for Jack & Kate. And K & I!

Official site here: http://www.v2p.jp/video/english/index.html

review: deluhi | "revolver blast" (2010)

deluhi

revolver blast
2010

"Revolver Blast" - are they making fun of thrash with this song?

"Remember the Rain" - I like the intro guitar (notes and tone!), I like the bridge vocals and guitar, and the chorus is predictably sweet but nice enough.

"F.T.O." - I thought they were saying "FDR," so naturally I pictured a man in a wheelchair with a cigarette and monocle frantically wheeling away from an angry mob.

Deluhi's kinda losing me. They still sound good, and the guitarist has a lot to offer, but they're not striking me dead with their awesomeness anymore.

rating: :/

How far will YOU get?

thx Kytrax!

Thoughts as I watch:

Why does the A-bomb victim have a Christian cross on their chest? They weren't Christian. Oh wait, the whole wings and halo thing is Christian too! God dammit!

40% wear glasses/contacts!?! (Yeah that seems about right...)

I like (HATE!) how Tokyo Tower is used as the symbol for Tokyo... and not Paris.

Got to the food part and decided I was bored of the flashy visuals and plodding narration ("Three. Dot dot dot. Food. long pause."); stopped watching. Let me know if I missed anything!

Cheeseburger Josh

The great thing about the internet is it's power to widely publicize people's poor behavior:

via reddit

My favorite comment:

jcmegabyte (51 minutes ago)
It's a jungle out there! Food is so scarce - we have to scrap over cheesebugers at the local Mickey-D's! Welcome to America! XD

Japan considers end to cellphone 'SIM lock'

physorg:

"Japan is moving towards ending restrictions on mobile telephone users switching operators or using an overseas network by changing the SIM memory card, a government official said Monday.


"Ohhhh it's dead..."

The government has launched a review of the 'SIM lock' system used by Japanese cellphone carriers to prevent people from using a handset from one operator on a rival network by replacing the SIM card."

Sounds good.

(This was actually just an excuse to post pics of Japanese girls with cellphones, but the internet had surprisingly few images that were also penisless.)

The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done (Video Game Roundup, Q4 '09 / Q1 '10)

I played about an hour or two of Borderlands before confirming that IT SUCKED:

• Hooray, another dog-shooting mission.
• I don't want to interact for an hour with dumb characters to get upgrades, just gimme a fuckin' loadout screen.
• Online play consists of trying to fight your teammates because there's nothing else to do. :(

Left 4 Dead 2 (now only $25...) was more fun, but whereas L4D1 got played a dozen times a week (or much much more), L4D2 only lasted a couple months before I got bored. I don't even have it installed anymore. The new characters blew, for one, but mostly, the whole undead hordes thing is played out. :\

Now I'm on Bad Company 2, and diggin' it, but it too is starting to get old already. (And BF2 lasted for two or three YEEEARS). The hassle of connecting combined with the cruelty of fate (will your teammates suck? will the opfor be skilled-to-the-point-of-possible-cheating? who knows!) makes for a 1-in-10 chance of getting in on a *goooood* match. :)

I gave Bioshock 2 a shot and was not disappointed: it sucked as bad as i predicted. (Dumb fight mechanics, lots of wandering/scrounging for shit, cutscenes that mock the very concept of a game being controlled by the player...) :(

And lastly, Metro 2033 is another game that doesn't understand that GAMES ARE NOT MOVIES. Zzzzzz. :(

CYOGH: Plastic Tree!

Another fine collection...


With three or more votes:

Anten

Circus

Tremolo

梟 (Fukurou)

Kuuchuu Blanco

Rocket

Consent

Ghost

Gentou Kikai

Petshop

Mahiru no Tsuki

Sabbath

Elegy

Wareta Mado

Slide

Monophobia

Sunset Bloody Sunset

Suimin Yaku

Yuki Hotaru

Sanitorium

Read why these songs are the best: here!

Love is Dead or Alive

thx cliff!

review: D | 7th rose (2010)

D
7th Rose
2010
The back-to-back tracks "7th Rose" and "Hanatsumi no Otome" are ferocious, but "7th" is by far the more successful of the two, jam-packed with different, unpredictable sections. Based on the orchestral backup of the more palm-mutey "Hanatsumi," the guys didn't have as much confidence in their own playing/writing, though the fleet-fingered acoustic guitar solo remains a nice touch.

"Tightrope" is "Tightrope." I think it's catchy as hell without being too commercial/sell-outtie/lightweight, but many disagree...


"Crimson Fish"'s dangerous undertow is diggable. "Independent Queen" and "13gatsu" are filler, and slightly Versailles-ish, which feels like a threat.

"Day by Day" is also catchy as hell but does fall into the commercial/sellout pit. I like the breakdowny bridge @2:04-2:12 but the verses and chorus drip with sugary juice.

"Karakuri Emaki" gets a little Phyrygian (that's the Egyptian one, right?). "Toki no Koe" is unusual with it's bass-led, growling verses and gang chants and plundering, ponderous interlude and worth checking out if you think all D songs sound the same (I do too sometimes...)

"Sleeping" is slow and boring (I think they were going for epic, but the melodic themes aren't there). "Mikazuki Youranka" is an excellent two-minute outro, just voice and slow organic organ/piano/synth.

"Kaze ga Mekuru Peeji" ("Peeji?!") is billed as a bonus track, sorta ruins the closing, but isn't bad, just typical, pleasant D-ness.

A decent album displaying maturity and growth.

rating: :)

Clifford and Nemo

Build Yer Own Flying V

Rhoads Custom Shop:

"The JCF Custom Shop is for entertainment purposes only. Any damages arising from its use, consequential or inconsequential, are the sole responsibility of the individual using it."

thanks Ame!

Aikawa Nanase Meets Metallica

Love music, hold the criticism

The Boston Globe:

"Am I suggesting that music criticism is a pointless exercise?

Yeah, I guess I am."

I'm not sure what to think of this. On the one hand, I hate every professional music critic i've ever read, because none of them ever recommended anything I've ever even remotely liked.

(Me in 1884.)

On the other, when one had to buy a CD to hear the music, yeah, they offered a valuable service describing the music, where it fit into a band/genre's history, and all that. But their biggest value was introducing new music to the reader.

Nowadays, all you really need is some guy to say "this is cool" or "this is crap" along with a brief description or a link to youtube...

CYOGH: Plastic Tree?

I only own Parade & Puppet Show and deleted everything else late last year because I eventually came to the realization that these guys would never rock me in any meaningful way. (I only dig the Nirvana-esque tracks "Slide," "Sink," "Bloom," and "Juujiro.")

• title
• album/year
• reason...

THIS is what i want!

MaxPC:

The Microsoft Courier!

• Clamshell form
• 5" x 7" when closed
• Tegra 2
• Zune HD OS or WinMo 7 OS

Second half of 2010...

Ah yanno what, I already changed my mind. 4" x 6" is the limit. It's gotta fit in a pocket (at least a cargo pants leg pocket)!

@

NYTimes.com:

...No one knows for sure when it first appeared. One suggestion is that it dates to the sixth or seventh century when it was adopted as an abbreviation of “ad,” the Latin word for “at” or “toward.”

Whatever its origins, the @ appeared on the keyboard of the first typewriter, the American Underwood, in 1885... It remained an obscure keyboard character until 1971 when an American programmer, Raymond Tomlinson, added it to the address of the first e-mail message to be sent from one computer to another.

...developing a communications network for the U.S. Department of Defense... Mr. Tomlinson was responsible for the messaging service. He wrote the addresses in computer code, which needed to be translated into a form of words that the rest of us could understand. Having decided that the first half of the address should identify the user and the second the computer, he looked for a symbol to indicate that he or she was literally “at” that machine. The @ not only had a similar meaning, but was so seldom used that it was open to reinterpretation...

I wonder if he had any idea how widespread that simple choice would become?

Name That PV #5

1. 
2. 
3. 

Best J-Rock Band of the Decade: It's Official!

Winner:

Nogod - encompass the 00's better than any other VK band. Talented writers and players, and not beholden to commercial interests... yet.

~

Not winners:

• Fake - naaaah, the members were already famous in other bands, that's like entering a race halfway to the finish line. Plus I hate pretty much every song they ever did.
  
• Gazette - Certainly the most popular and successful of the post-2000 VK bands.
• Rentrer en Soi - i love these guys. rockin' dudes. but also quitters.
  
• Scissor - Know the name, but couldn't name or hum a single thing by 'em.
  
• Versailles - This castle rock was tired two decades ago.You can predict every note a minute before they play it!
  
• Deluhi - started strong, but lately, a little too slick. (Unless I'm thinking of Matenrou Opera or that other band... the ProTools worshipping one... argh... actually I think Matenrou's a little better than Deluhi, no one nominated them!?!)
• Abingdon Boys School - haven't spun the 2nd album since i got it; great musicians but the music's a little too TV friendly.
• Gilgamesh - auspicious start, then repeated themselves for too long, then switched to unadulterated suckin, and now have no hope of ever being anything but laughable.
• Deadman - they have my respect, but not my love. a little to indie/garage for my tastes? i want a ~little~ arena rock in my rock.
• Baroque - Sug Life is cool, but there's too much sound effects-tation and scratching and bucketlike drum sounds (I really dislike the drumming).
• Fra-Foa - The best rock band needs to, um, *rock*. Fra-Foa is NyQuil. Zzzzz!
  

By the power of Greyskull!

Like song covers, I like when visual artists reinterpret originals in interesting ways.

He-Man Gallery:

Meggs
"Skeletor Was OG"
aerosol and acrylic on plywood
35.5 x 35.5 inches
$1,200.00 - SOLD



Sean Clarity
"Ultimate He-Man"
acrylic on board
12 x 16 inches
$450.00 - SOLD



Terribly Odd
"From Here To Eternia: He-Man"
18 x 24 inches
$650.00 each

Terribly Odd
"From Here To Eternia: Skeletor"
18 x 24 inches
650.00 each - SOLD

I just wonder: do the copyright owners get a cut? They must! Right?

Misaki's KDR

Make your own BC2 stat sig and post it here! (Upload a pic, crop it, get code. Took 30 seconds.)

review: dir en grey | "hageshisa to, kono taituru no kabaa apu itsu shittinesu no yami" (2010) pv

I can't believe I once proclaimed this track was "in the same ballpark as 'The Final'"! For as I listen to it now, it BORES THE SHIT out of me. Except for the all-too-brief doubled/tripled AhhhhhAHHHH Kyo whips out halfway through the "chorus," there's nothing but unpleasant, splattery, mechanical noise. Was I on drugs!?

Visually, I dug the special effect on Kaoru's partially rotted arm and cringed at Totcher's leg wound, and felt relief when this onslaught concluded. I am certain to never watch or listen again.

rating: :€

So bad it earns The Chthulu Sad Face!

Who's the best post-millenial j-rock band?

INSPIRED BY THE SHOUTBOX: Whose the best post-2000 band?

Any band whose first concert or release happened after 1/1/2000 is eligible...

(this pic has nothing to do with this post)

review: HBO's "The Pacific: Part One" (2010)

I didn't like it.

First off, the first three-fourths was just plain dull. I understand setting the mood of an abandoned-feeling island for maybe half the episode, but jeez, i was wondering if the credits were gonna roll without a shot being fired.

But mainly, I simply find it hard not to sympathize with the Japanese soldiers. Partially because they didn't want to be there either; partialy because my own personal experiences in Japan were just so damned *delightful*; partially because there's a weird, alien/sci-fi vibe to the enemy (they eat different! their women wear different clothes! they talk in weird cadences! they sleep underground!) that gets in the way of the reality of the situation; and partially because the Marines seem just as guilty of being uncool as the "Japs". (That scene where the last Japanese guy is so pissed off at his situation that he throws his hat to the ground?! Didn't that just break your heart?)

So, while it looks as gorgeous as Band of Brothers did, something in the undercurrent of The Pacific left me feeling uncomfortable.

I'll still watch the rest, but I have a feeling I won't enjoy it much.

rating: :\