From the “Making Bootleggers Look Bad” department:

An enterprising DIY-for-profit T-shirt merchant somewhere apparently decided that the world needed Joy Division T-shirts that they could sell on eBay. Fine.

Continuing this line of thinking, they decided that the shirts should depict Joy Division’s iconic late frontman, Ian Curtis. So far so good.

Unfortunately, when they googled for pictures of said iconic late frontman, they came up with this:
Read the rest of this entry »

2010 is barely two days old, and already there’s new music to look forward to. Nothing on the Western music front yet, as far as I know. But by the time this post is less than a week old, a new Shonen Knife album will be on my desk. A new Koda Kumi album and new Buono! album will follow next month, followed by a new Morning Musume album the month after that – the latter just in time to define the final months of my bachelorhood. And there’s also singles from MoMusu, AKB48, Buono! and SCANDAL to deal with during that time period as well. The last time I recall looking forward to a new non-J-pop release at the beginning of the year, it was The Stooges’ The Weirdness album, which was scheduled within days of Morning Musume dropping Sexy 8 Beat – and those two albums dropping within weeks of each other early in 2007 made the rest of that year quite the anti-climax. By the end of the year, while I was trying to sum up the year in albums at MotokoAoyama.com, I was also planning to propose to my girlfriend.

Oh yeah, there’s that little interruption.

Truth be told, I’m already planning ahead, and not just for that. I’ve already anticipated that there’s going to be a short break in blogging action around the last week of June and going on for at least another week. Which only means one thing: I intend to stay as busy as possible, trying to post as much as possible here and at So Hot She Shits Fire (and whenever I can at My Sweet Meetan), while also going into final preparations for the wedding, getting the last scenes folded into Here Is The Wonderland in the immediate weeks to come, thus finishing that long-in-the-making first draft before plunging into the second, which should only take a minuscule fraction of the time it took to complete the first draft. And also upping my guitar skills.

What?

Yeah, I got a new electric guitar over the Christmas holidays. I don’t think I will be discussing it much here – this blog is meant for serious music discussion, and personal ramblings about trying to re-master the pentatonic scale or getting a better handle on sweep picking don’t really belong here, so there may be a little place somewhere where I’ll let those out of my system. (Updates about my personal life don’t belong here either, of course. I might refer to them in vague here or in “conversation” at SHSSF, but that’s another story, and I already have places for that.)

This, in a nutshell, is as personal as I intend to get, and I’m keeping it in topic: 2010 is going to see a lot more activity here. Beyond that, I’m not hard to find, as the list of “personal” links that has always existed here and at this blog’s predecessor will attest. With one of the series that I hinted at back in November (the Best Albums of 2009 series) out of the way, the other one will be starting next week to formally kick off blogging activity here at TGML for 2010. For now, I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend decompressing from New Year’s Eve/Day.

Other than that (and my wedding), I don’t know what’s going to take place in 2010. Hell, I didn’t know when 2009 started that Morning Musume were getting ready to announce their American debut and that Ron Asheton was going to be transferred from the Stooges to Rock N’Roll Heaven’s Helluva Band either.

Stay tuned. Things are only going to get insane here. But in a good way, of course.

Before I reveal the top two albums of the year, I figured I’d throw in something different to prolong the agony of revealing those two top albums… by throwing up a second list, and a first for this blog (and its predecessor): A top singles list.

#10) MILDRED AND THE MICE “I Like My Mice (Dead)” (Third Man)
Officially supposed to be a socially awkward goth chick from a small town in Kentucky, but more rumored to be the wife of Jack White playing a rather eccentric character, with a few Raconeturs/Dead Weather members posing as Mildred’s “band”. Either way, this is demented two-chord garage punk that makes The Cramps look like the Carpenters.

#9) BIF NAKED “I Won’t Cry (Fuck You 2)” (Her Royal Majesty)
Bif’s big comeback single after her cancer-forced layoff… and boy, did she come back swinging! Never before did a standard 50’s doo-wop chord sequence sound so menacing.

#8) WE ARE THE FALLEN “Bury Me Alive” (self-released)
Mistake this for Evanescence, and you wouldn’t be far off, as three-fifths of this group were the creative hub of Ev. Throw in a more fuller-bodied-voice compared to Amy Lee (courtesy of American Idle alumni Carly Smithson), and you’ll wonder why The Open Door didn’t sound like this. The band had planned to slip out leaked tracks every month or so, but fate – and a contract with Universal Music – intervened. Now this is just a teaser for next spring’s LP.

#7) CARL SAGAN “A Glorious Dawn” (Third Man)
This song – comprising of AutoTuned monologues from the late scientist/TV personality’s Cosmos mini-series – started off as an experimental pro-science viral video with a free download available to those who wanted it. Then Jack White heard and saw the video, wanted to put it out on his own label, and the rest is history – just like the Voyager Golden Record whose design is reproduced on the back of the one-sided single.

#6) AYUMI HAMASAKI “Sunrise/Sunset ~Love Is All~” (Avex)
Two ways (uptempo and ballad) of saying the same thing, and both done very well.

#5) KODA KUMI “3 Splash” [EP] (Rhythm Zone/Avex)
Three sides of Kuu-chin in one handy single: Upbeat pop-rocker (“Lick me”), heavy techno in the vein of “Taboo” (“Ecstasy”), and a solid foray into funk-rock (“Hashire!”) – and all with PVs to go with it. Sold.

#4) MORNING MUSUME “Kimagure Princess” (Zetima)
The opening high-register vocals notwithstanding, after three rather emo singles a more upbeat number was the perfect track to close out both one of Morning Musume’s most triumphant years as well as Koharu Kusumi’s tenure in the band.

#3) AKB48 “Namida Surprise” (King)
In my opinion, the best of AKB48’s four single releases this year. It was definitely the most memorable, both for the title track and for the solo cut by Team K member Erena Ono, “First Kiss”.

#2) MORNING MUSUME “Shouganai Yume Oibito” (Zetima [Japan]/JapanFiles [US])
Referring to this particular period of Morning Musume’s singles as their “emo” period should not be interpreted as a putdown, because it isn’t. The fact that this single took Morning Musume back to the #1 spot on the singles chart in Japan shows that they were on the right track at the time; it’s definitely the standout of the three “emo” singles.

#1) BUONO! “My Boy” (Pony Canyon)
The guitar riffs in this song alone are insane – putting the sweet voices of Airi, Miyabi and Momoko makes it sound even more insane thanks to the seeming clash of elements, but it works, big time.

THE DEAD WEATHER
Horehound
(Third Man/Warner Bros.)
Available on CD, double 180-gram LP, iTunes and AmazonMP3

How many bands does Jack White need? As many as he wants. Since his lucky number happens to be three, it should only be appropriate that the reluctantly iconic guitarist/songwriter/producer should have three bands (the first two being, of course, The White Stripes and The Raconteurs) under his belt to let loose musically with. The fact that for most of the album, he takes a back seat (almost literally – he returns to his first instrument, the drums, with this group) does nothing to lessen his leaving his distinctive mark – sounding retro, contemporary and timeless all at once – on the finished product. Bonus attribute: The Dead Weather also ended up being the catalyst for White turning his Third Man label from an imprint that he owned his masters under to a stand-alone label that released a growing and eclectic multitude of 7” jukebox-hole singles.

MIKE HALE
Lives Like Mine
(Suburban Home)
Available on CD, LP, iTunes, AmazonMP3 and eMusic

This gentleman’s recent back story begs to ask the question: How devoted are you to your art? Weeks before former Gumball member Mike Hale was to release this, his second solo album, he had made the decision to quit his day job, put his belongings in storage, and travel the globe with no fixed address, concentrating solely on his music (both as a solo artist and with his trio In The Red). (Going even further in the determination department, Hale’s label Suburban Home also offered the album as a free download, which only help raise awareness of Hale’s work – and made for a nice tideover as the initial vinyl edition was delayed in manufacture). Hale’s solo records are very stripped down affairs, consisting mainly of Mike and his guitar; On this release, he also plays electric piano on a couple of cuts. Lives Like Mine (and its highly recommended predecessor, 2008’s Broken with No Hope) is emo music gone both pure and mature.

MEAT PUPPETS
Sewn Together
(Megaforce)
Available on CD, colored-vinyl LP, iTunes and AmazonMP3
GIRLS GENERATION (SDSN)
Genie: The Second Mini-Album
(SM Entertainment)
Available on CD

One of the reasons this year’s list took me awhile to finalize is because there were some albums I simply couldn’t bring myself to cut out of the list. This installment is one of the most extreme cases.

The Pups’ first album since brothers/founding members Curt and Cris Kirkwood reconvened, Rise To Your Knees (Anodyne, 2007), was a nice restart, but wasn’t completely up to the level of their classic back catalog. This time around, however, the group returned with all cylinders firing, recalling much of their glory days (Up On The Sun, Mirage, Too High To Die, Huevos) without breaking as much of a sweat. The album’s title seems more indicative of the band’s unlikely label for this release (the more metal-oriented Megaforce label) than for the state of the band’s lineup, which is playing like they never left in the first place.

As for the group known in their native Korea as So Nyeo Shi Dae: K-Pop isn’t something that I ever seriously delved into, and to be honest, I still really haven’t, except for this particular band (via the recommendation of my female counterpart, Vee from PinkWota.com). Genie, their current EP, got me hooked in with the title track and went from there. Besides the very catchy title song, the shameless 80’s pop of “Girlfriend” and the Strauss-interpoating “My Child” are the EP’s other high watermarks that had me going back and getting the rest of the group’s back catalog, which didn’t hook me as quickly as this EP did. But that’s OK, because if this EP is their current creative high point, then that’s enough to have me looking forward to future releases from them.

Just got this press release that says it all:

For Immediate Release

DEVO SIGN GROUND-BREAKING WORLDWIDE PARTNERSHIP WITH WARNER BROS. RECORDS

LABEL TO REISSUE DELUXE VERSIONS OF ARE WE NOT MEN? AND FREEDOM OF CHOICE ON NOVEMBER 3RD

BAND LAUNCH SPECIAL TOUR TO PERFORM BOTH ALBUMS IN THEIR ENTIRETY

September 16, 2009 -  Burbank, CA -DEVO have signed a unique, ground-breaking worldwide partnership with their original label home Warner Bros. Records that exhibits the band’s long-time commitment to innovation in all aspects of their career. In the ’80s, the band put the “new” in the music revolution labeled “New Wave” with their synergistic mix of electronic rock, unparalleled theatrical live shows, and self-directed, groundbreaking music-videos – creating a multi-media art assault that resonates in contemporary pop culture. Now DEVO continue to pioneer new territory by exclusively teaming with Warner Bros. Records to internationally service all aspects of the band’s career, including recorded music, touring, merchandising, web services, promotion, ecommerce, sponsorships, licensing, and endorsements.

“Devo have been called everything from geniuses to deviants and have always been ahead of their time,” says Elyse Rogers, SVP of Touring and Artist Development at WBR. “They are brilliant multi-media innovators who express themselves through far more than just recorded music. Their videos, live shows, merchandise, and visual attack are as big a part of their art as the music is. We could not be more excited to continue to break new artistic ground with them while working to redefine the evolving music-industry paradigm.”

“We are excited to embark on DEVO’s latest sonic subversion with the label that first unleashed us on the unsuspecting public,” says the band’s Gerald Casale. “De-evolution is real!” Adds Mark Mothersbaugh: “We wouldn’t be doing it if it weren’t in our genes!”

Warner Bros. Records released six of DEVO’s classic albums between the years of 1978 and 1984. To mark the band’s new deal, the label will reissue deluxe CD and limited-edition coloredvinyl versions of DEVO’s 1978’s gold debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and 1980’s platinum favorite Freedom of Choice, as well as a seven-inch vinyl single of “Jocko Homo/Mongoloid” on November 3rd.

The day the reissues are released, DEVO will launch a series of very special live performances in select markets (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York City, and Toronto), during which they will play back-to-back nights in each city. One the first night, the band will perform Are We Not Men? in its entirety; on the second night, they will perform Freedom of Choice in its entirety. As a bonus, fans who purchase tickets onlineto any one of these concerts will receive three demos recently uncovered in the DEVO vaults. The three previously unreleased versions, “Whip It,” “Red Shark” (later re-titled “it’s Not Right” and recorded with different lyrics), and “Turn Around,” were all recorded on a four-track in the band’s rehearsal space at Modern Music in Hollywood, CA.Tickets for most of the shows go on-sale on September 18th. All tour dates are listed below.

Formed in Akron, OH in 1974 as a multi-media experiment, DEVO caught the attention of such pop music luminaries as Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Neil Young, whose support led to a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records. The label released the Brian Eno-produced Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! in 1978, followed by Duty Now for the Future in 1979. In 1980, DEVO released its commercial breakthrough album Freedom of  Choice, which featured the timeless Top 20 hit “Whip It,” followed by 1981’s New Traditionalists, 1982’s Oh, No! It’s Devo, and 1984’s Shout, its last album for Warner Bros. Records. After releasing 1988’s Total Devo and 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps on Enigma Records, the band went on hiatus. Mark Mothersbaugh applied his aesthetic to the task of composing scores for TV and film features, while DEVO co-founder and principle co-songwriter Gerald Casale applied his DEVO-driven skills to directing music videos for scores of hit bands before becoming a full-time commercial director.

Now original members Gerald Casale, Bob Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Bob Mothersbaugh are back with drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Guns N’ Roses) and cooking up huge plans. De-evolution 2010 will include the release of a brand-new studio album (featuring top-notch producers and collaborators), international festival appearances, and a proper tour of North American, Europe, Japan, Australia, and South America. Stay tuned for more DEVO news, or visit the band’s website, www.clubdevo.com.

DEVO’s upcoming tour dates are as follows:

11/03  Los Angeles, CA      Henry Fonda Theater
11/04  Los Angeles, CA      Henry Fonda Theater
11/06  San Francisco          The Regency Ballroom
11/07  San Francisco          The Regency Ballroom
11/08  Seattle, WA               The Moore
11/09  Seattle, WA               The Moore
11/12  Chicago, IL                The Vic Theatre
11/13  Chicago, IL                The Vic Theatre
11/15  Washington, DC      9:30 Club
11/16  Washington, DC      9:30 Club
11/20  New York, NY           The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
11/21  New York, NY           The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
11/23  Toronto, ON              Phoenix Concert Theatre
11/24  Toronto, ON              Phoenix Concert Theatre

I’ve had a Last.fm account since around the late summer of 2004, around which time I had a nice Apple PowerBook, no iPod to speak of then (although I did have iTunes and was burning mix CD’s like a motherfucker), and come to think of it, last.fm was known under another name back then. Anyway, thanks to last.fm’s scrobbling technology I’ve found it quite interesting to see how it charts my listening habits day to day and week to week as far as my iPod and laptop go. Obviously, it does nothing when I’m slapping a record onto the turntable or slipping a CD into the player of my car, but since the iPod still seems to be the primary device I derive much of my melodic and rhythmic intake from, we’ll go with that.

Using my last.fm page’s static weekly charts as a guide, I’m going to self-analyze my listening habits and try to put a paragraph to them. Because goodness knows, I’m the only one who can explain why Mission of Burma comes up on my iPod one moment and John Coltrane comes up the next. (I’m sure the guy who has been running Gallery of Sound in West Hazleton since it first opened in 1987 sometimes tells the guys who work under him about the one time in 1992 when I walked up to the counter with a New Kids on the Block remix CD in one hand and the Bitches With Problems CD in )the other…

Just as a general foundation, here’s what my overall last.fm Top10 chart looks like:

1) Morning Musume
2) The Stooges
3) Nine Inch Nails
4) Minutemen
5) Black Flag
6) W
7) Puffy AmiYumi
8) Sayuri Ishikawa
9) Frank Sinatra
10) Hank Williams III

Now, here’s what my listening habits looked like, from #10 on down, as they looked for the week ending Sunday, August 30, with my somewhat pithy/pitiful explanations following each one: (Last.fm usually finalizes these charts at Midnight Greenwich Mean Time on Sundays) Read the rest of this entry »

First, to Miyabi Natsuyaki of Berryz Koubou and Buono! (one of whose shirts inspired this blog’s name), who turns 17 today…

Then to Megumi Ohori of AKB48 (well, until October, anyway) and subject of our sister worship blog My Sweet Meetan, who turns 26…

…and finally to Elvis Costello, who turns 55 today.

Matador Records co-owner and indie-label industry veteran Gerald Cosloy’s house in Austin, Texas burned down to the ground the other day, leaving Cosloy and his two housemates without a place to live for the time being. With typical humor, he joked to Pitchfork by way of his sports blog that “This was a hell of a way of getting out of hoovering the living room.”

Such as Cosloy’s status amongst his industry peers is, he recieved “from friends and strangers alike” plenty of “support, a place to stay, something to eat, etc.”.

And one backhanded e-mail tribute, reportedly from Victory Records founder, professional loudmouth, and alleged till-tapper Tony Brummel:

The response, referring to an post Cosloy had made a couple of years earlier on Matador Records’ blog mocking Victory Records for getting sued by Hawthorne Heights mere months after the band gave Victory their highest-charting album, led Cosloy to note, “I’ve got to admit, I had previously underestimated Brummel. Not only would I have bet real money he couldn’t spell karma if you spotted him the K-A-R, but he’s even capable of attaching a .gif all by himself. But here’s the serious conclusion you can take away from this ill-advised attempt at a rejoinder ; Brummel considers my watching my home and possessions turned to ashes karmic payback for….criticism of his record label? An innocent pet burning to death is acceptable payback for mocking his dopey-as-fuck records, ads and business practices?”

Then again, this is coming from Tony Brummel, who made a career out of saying that his bands weren’t recouping their expenses to justify not paying them their royalties, even though these bands were recording for Victory on budgets closer to Double Nickels on the Dime (or at least Daydream Nation) than Chinese Democracy.

I e-mailed Mr. Brummel regarding his taunting of Mr. Cosloy and how he should know what karma feels like, what with Hawthorne Heights, Atreyu, Thursday, and Taking Back Sunday all walking out of Victory’s front door with their middle fingers behind their backs. True to his nature, he did the only thing he could do in this case: He lied through his teeth:

“Those bands wanted to go to major labels, they did not “leave”, they were sold. They also (all) sold more records at Victory.

For the record- I have a number of Matador’s releases.

I do not know the Matador guys and have never said anything about them. Several years ago Gerard started bad mouthing me. I never made an issue of it.

Now, he has made a message that is sent to him public after his immature and inaccurate ramblings. If you support that type of thing- good luck in life. My friends and family know who I am.”

Oh, really, Tony?

Atreyu left Victory for Hollywood/Universal and achieved mainstream success, including two hit singles, with their first album for the label, Lead Sails Paper Anchor. Atreyu didn’t sell more copies of their Victory back catalog until Victory rushed out a Best of Atreyu album in the wake of “Becoming the Bull”.

With the exception of Thursday, who had to have their Victory contract bought out by Island, none of the other bands were “sold”. Hawthorne Heights, in one of Brummel’s biggest embarassments, sued Brummel and Victory; the guy had to bend over and let the band leave after one last studio album; they have since signed to Wind-Up.

As for Brummel owning a number of Matador releases, I have no way of really verifying this, but I can’t picture the guy who claimed to Guitar World that he listened to nothing but his label’s releases on his iPod when he worked out putting Sonic Youth or Yo La Tengo on his stereo.

While he says he didn’t make an issue out of Mr. Cosloy’s mockery (don’t you love, by the way, how Tony refers to Mr. Cosloy by his first name even though he says in a previous paragaph that he doesn’t know anyone there?), he did make one out of a lenghty, truth-filled screed entitled The Horror, written by his openly disgusted ex-A&R man Ramsey Dean. He has repeatedly sued or threatened to sue sites that post the article in order to supress the information, but the article continues to exist.

Keep it up with the bullshit, though,  Tony. Maybe when Victory finally implodes, he can take  over Jason Lee’s role in a revival of My Name Is Earl.

Quite personally, he’s lucky that Bayside, Silverstein, and Aiden are still on the roster. Otherwise, his label would really be fucked without a kiss.

Raybeez from WarZone must be rolling in his grave right now.