acchikocchi

( look, I actually wrote a gig report for once! )

( setlist )

Bonus video: Wuthering Heights from the Montreal show, because it was fabulous

Röyksopp - What Else Is There (Thin White Duke Remix)
Spitz - Koi wa yuugure

Thanks to the identical chord progression, I'm unable to listen to the first without hearing the second. If I were the kind of person who taught myself to make mashups - but I'm not.

Will try and post annual seasonal music share soon.

--

In case I'm not the last person on lj to hear about the upcoming adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (which I read about five times in junior high, just saying), see the cast. So... that'll be the next big kink meme, I take it. With even less characters of color than Inception!

This is old meme to everyone in Sherlock fandom. I know. Next time tell me these things early and I won't be forced to repeat them to you.

--

This post is really my way of saying no, I have not started my Yuletide fic, and yes, I have instead written 5500+ words of self-indulgent AU in the last week. More, actually, because every night I have also significantly rewritten at least one major chunk of the story thus far. Which is not how I usually operate. As I was saying to winterspel, gee, it would be great if some day I could actually repeat my process from one story to the next... Starting to reach the uncertainty threshold, at which point I will probably have to post an excerpt under lock, because this is shaping up to be way too long - and too dependent on plot - to deal with in a vacuum.

and also a news update: I'll be shipping out for Japan in August, as I did get into JET after all. :D The period from application to departure is so long that it still doesn't feel very concrete, but I imagine it'll pick up once I get my placement.

--

Anyway, the point of this is recent discoveries:

I seem to be the last person to have heard of sleepy.ab, which is kind of surprising because they're right up my alley. Ambient and melodic, with a clear high-ranged vocalist and dreamy lyrics, but plenty of darker edges. Various tracks have also reminded me, at certain points, of Shugo Tokumaru, Muse, Fridge and the Sigur-Ros-et-al brand of melodic Scandinavian cold weather music. This is not surprising as they're from Sapporo and understand cold weather.* (The difference is that not all of their music is meant for COLD and ICE. XD;;) That's not to say that overall they sound particularly like any of those groups... I am really awful at the "group x sounds like the lovechild of group y and singer z after a pub crawl with band c" type comparisons so it's just, idk, freeform sonic association. Uh. Downloading would probably be a more reliable way to find out what they actually sound like.

Everything is from paratroop, their latest album, except "loop", which is from fantasia. I'm happy to upload more for any interested parties. :)

diver
do re mi
flee
insomnia
mori
loop

The hook for noanowa is that they have a cello-playing frontman (frontwoman), which as a former cellist I can't in good conscience resist. After love at first listen with "Haku", I then found that... the rest of their music is cheerful bouncy pop that sounds nothing like that. Well. Haku remains an excellent track, wailing cello and ethereal vocals and all. Sort of Björk-ish. Just give it a minute to get past the piano intro and out of the initial melody.

Haku
Haku live, i.e. cello action

Not so recent discoveries in the next post.


*It's hard to explain but some bands do cold climate music and some don't. Spitz doesn't, for one, winter music for Spitz is a cold day in Tokyo, no snow. As a matter of fact I can't think of a single snow or ice lyric off the top of my head, probably because Kusano grew up in Fukuoka. Versus the aforementioned Scandinavians - Sigur Rós, Kings of Convenience, Björk, Röyksopp, etc. - or the Arcade Fire. Or even GLAY. White landscapes broken by black branches.

In all likelihood, half of my flist will know everything here and half won't know any. XD Except Ayaka.


Chara

I never did post the second half of the May concert reports. I've got it half-finished around here somewhere, and a proliferation of notes on the back of a handbill, so if anyone wants to read it I'll post? But I think nyonyo covered the same night, anyway. :) The point of that is, never got to expand on my thoughts on Chara, who has stage presence like none else, good lord. I'm hugely fond of Chara in general and have a Special Attachment to certain songs, but I had no idea she was such an excellent performer. She owned that auditorium. XD Anyway, I think I've posted an mp3 or two before but never made a concerted attempt to, to proselytize. Uh, Chara is amazing the end. Seriously, I think you can appreciate her from an intellectual perspective even if you don't batten on emotionally; of course I'm guessing this because I appreciate basically all music I like on a squishy emotional level. Aha. Her music runs the gamut from pure pop to funk influences to - idk, ambient? to wibbly acoustic guitar, so there is SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE.

Biggest hits: "Yasashii Kimochi" and "Swallowtail Butterfly ~ai no uta~".

You may already know her from: the film Swallowtail Butterfly ("Bandage" fans take note, it was another Iwai-Kobayashi collaboration), all-girl rock band Mean Machine, Tokyo Babylon image songs, the ED theme of Kimi ni Todoke, that one episode of cartoon KAT-TUN. XD;;;

Note: Newcomers to her music will probably be taken aback by her voice; for some it's love at first listen and for some it's an acquired taste. *g* Give her a chance even if you're not immediately convinced, because she does good music.

Tsumibukaku aishite yo
Tsumibukaku aishite yo (a scenery like me version) <-- from her self-cover album, just what I mean about wibbly acoustic guitar.
Milk
Yasashii kimochi
Private Beach
Isshoni kurasou
Aishitai no
Violet Blue
70%--yuugure no uta
Swallowtail Butterfly ~ai no uta~

Tsuji Ayano

A girl with a ukelele, what more do you want. Plus she does excellent covers - two albums' worth - Spitz, Chara, you name it.* (Arashi fans may be interested in her cover of "Happiness". Bet you never knew an acoustic ukelele version of Arashi could sound so good. XD) I saw her at Zepp Tokyo in... summer 2007? and, I mean, that was it, it was her and her ukelele in a chair on the stage. She covered Spitz's "Sunshine", actually, and by the end you could have heard a pin drop.

...huh, and apparently she was on NPR a couple years ago. I had no idea.

Sakura no ki no shita de
Ougon no tsuki (Suga Shikao cover) <-- ♥_♥
Kaze ni naru
Cherry (Spitz cover)
Happiness (Arashi cover)
Tsuki ga naiteru

Ayaka

I think everyone and their cat has head "I Believe" at this point, but I wanted to bring her up because I was looking up information the other day and I didn't realize a. she was going on indefinite hiatus and b. she was diagnosed with Graves' disease. DDD: She has got one of the most naturally beautiful voices. ;_; She was another performer from the second night of Kame no Ongaeshi, and hearing her voice in person was really something.

She said in her intro to "Mikazuki" that when she originally heard the music she told the producer (Kameda) she wasn't sure if she could do it, and it's true that in the original recording from 2006 she does the high note fine but it's nothing special compared to the complete effortlessness and clarity with which she now hits it live. Post-production? What's that? She obviously doesn't need it. It's the same quality that got me hooked on the first few notes of "Te wo tsunagou" - "mimi wo sumaseba..."

Mikazuki
Te wo tsunagou
Konya mo hoshi ni dakarete... (live)
Okaeri <-- Zettai Kareshi theme for those keeping score at home

Cocco

Amefurashi
Kumoji no hate
Kemono michi
Mizukagami

UA

Soramimi bakari
Oyako bashabasha
Summer Melancholic
Mizuiro (live a cappella)
Kasa ga nai (Inoue Yosui cover)

Amano Tsukiko

Ningyou (Meg Mix)
Bodaiju

Yano Maki

Ookina tsubasa


*HA, like I'd get through a whole music post without mentioning Spitz.

I heard the LANDS album with winterspel today and this is the one that hooked me.

LANDS feat. Akanishi Jin - Hatachi no sensou

( War, Age 20 )

( kanji )

( romanji )

1. So give me the lowdown on SM Entertainment as a corporation. How do they recruit/train/market/etc., especially in comparison to JE? Info on shady business practices and lawsuits and things of that sort also welcome. XD ...How does the Korean music industry and market compare to the Japanese in general, actually? There is no such thing as tldr in comments here.

2. Favorite Korean artists/songs/albums/music videos? I am woefully ignorant. Pop, not pop, what have you - hit me. (Assume I know basically no one except Park Ji-yoon, since that's... true. Oh, and BoA.)

( Kame no Ongaeshi, 05/02 )

( Spitz )

( Hata Motohiro )

( KREVA )

( JUJU )

( Hirai Ken )

( Shiina Ringo )

( Finale: Spitz + assorted others )


...and that's just the first night. To come: Chara, Suga Shikao, Ayaka, Do As Infinity, plus song samples for both nights' performers.

So I thought a great way of verifying my perception of Graham Coxon would be to check out J-fandom and see what the doujinshi were like the consensus is over there (the consensus is to call him "megane-kun", which right there validates most of my thoughts). Dipping one's toes in the nebulous "Western music" fandom is a dangerous proposition, ahahaha. This means everything from the Beatles to Nirvana to MCR/FOB/PatD/etc. to Radiohead to Erlend Oye to the Libertines and company -- like, all on the same website, sometimes. The rockslash vs. bandom vs. bandslash people would be thrilled; here's the answer to those thorny terminology problems! XD

This is the first time I've seen the English terms slash, fanfic/fanfiction, and -- notably -- RPS in Japanese fandom. (And in one notable instance, incest.) Kind of threw me, actually. *g* I think I've mentioned before about the ridiculous lengths Japanese JE fansites go to hide and/or protect themselves, generally involving elaborate puzzles to determine passwords and URLs (as presumably they have much more to fear, ahahaha), and while there's a little bit of this here far fewer sites are protected and the splash pages are much more up front about what you'll find behind them. To a disconcerting degree, when you're used to vague explanations that generally consist of, "If you don't know what 801 stands for, please press your back button". XD;; For the ones that did have some sort of protection, the questions almost always seemed to use one or more of those English terms. On a shallower note, the site design and graphics are on average way beyond the average Japanese fansite, which generally remind me of the mid 1990s.

Oh, also, all the site owners have last.fm accounts. XD

The quality of the art itself is generally fantastic, as expected. *g* The bandom people would go crazy if they knew what they were missing. (Interested parties -- in any of these areas -- may apply for relevant links. XD) As for the subjects, I was expecting, you know, Blur, Oasis, Franz Ferdinand, the Libs, the Decaydance label bands, etc. -- I was not expecting to come across fanart of, say, SebastiAn or Ed Banger (aka "Ed-ojisan). XD;;; The former is especially popular, for the record. The feeling was similar to the first time I heard D.A.N.C.E. in the credits of cartoon KAT-TUN. "Wait... but..." And then there's Bloc Party -- I mean, every time I saw a drawing of Matt Tong, it was like "Oh look, it's Oshitari Yuushi."

Other popular subjects: Alex Kapranos as a cat.

The lesson we have learned today is that Japanese fandom will always surpass my expectations. XD



Related: Further reading reveals Noodle (the Harajuku Girl of Gorillaz) has a crush on Graham. (Direct quote: "Who rocks harder, Jimmy Page or Graham Coxon?" "Graham, of course!") Oh, Damon.

Not related at all: Neil Gaiman's plugging Momus on his blog? I am so disappointed. XD

Edit: Oh, and I almost forgot, leak of new single GET. *_* (I act all calm, haha, you should have heard me when I found it.) Let me know if you are an interested party...


...Yup, this band is still my favorite.

As always with Kusano Masamune lyrics, there's a healthy dose of personal interpretation involved. Also this is not exactly the most coherent translation in the world as my primary concern was just to share the song and some inkling of its meaning with whatever victims I could. The song is here. P.S. 胸痛くなるほど好き。

06/15/10: Translation edited significantly; I've still got the old version if for some reason someone's looking for it.

( kanji )

( romanji )

( translation )