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.
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 »
Today would have been the 51st birthday of an American Musical Legend…
Dennes Dale Boon, known to most music fans as D. Boon, was born on this day. D. Boon was the guitarist and frontman for the mighty trio known as the Minutemen.
It is pretty much inconceivable to think of how the American music scene would have been without the Minutemen. The Minutemen would probably have been just another short-term band from California had Black Flag not taken the initiative to invite them to make a record – the Paranoid Time seven-song 7″ EP – for Black Flag’s SST Records label. Had that initiative not been taken – or had been turned down by the Minutemen, we probably would not have been blessed with The Meat Puppets, Saccharine Trust, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, or Dinosaur Jr. And American independent music itself would have been drastically different.
But thankfully, the Minutemen did go into the studio with Black Flag’s Greg Ginn one hot California night to record Paranoid Time, and the rest was an important part of music history. For the next six years, the Minutemen would create a wide body of material, all of it now considered classic and influential. Their 1984 double album Double Nickels On The Dime is considered to be a must-own, must-hear, classic album. Read the rest of this entry »
Last year, I posted two bakery-related videos from MiniMoni at this blog’s predecessor, Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama, and a post with more substantial food over at So Hot She Shits Fire. Since there’s no way I’m going to repost those videos (or make that joke about the kind of pie people were getting from certain ex-MiniMoni’s around the time of that post), I’m going to do things in reverse: First, here at the Pagoda, some more substantial food, since there’s going to be a boatload of cake going around the IW circuit (I’ve already seen Vee’s at the time I wrote these posts, and it looked multilple levels of great to me). Specifically, one of my favorite chicken recipes:
SMOKED PAPRIKA CHICKEN THIGHS
First, we start off with some music to accompany the food prep: in this case, my iPod in its JBL speaker/dock delivering the Cramps’ first long-player Songs The Lord Taught Us (RIP, Lux Interior).
While Lux’s vocals and Ivy’s guitars permeate the air of my kitchen, we gather the ingredients:
On the day I shot the photos for this post, I only made half the recipe, enough for one person (me!). One package of chicken thighs should feed two people, but these are so addictive that often it ends up being one package per person.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly coat the bottom of the baking dish with the olive oil. Open up the chicken thighs as much as possible and arrange in the dish (it is perfectly okay to have the thighs touching together). Cover the thighs with smoked paprika, but not so much that you can’t see the original color of the chicken underneath.
Sprinkle pinches of kosher or sea salt onto the thighs to taste. (Yes, that is an Alton Brown salt container of my very own, filled with kosher salt. Alton is the man. Fans of any other Food Network star that isn’t Raechel Ray or Masaharu Morimoto from Iron Chef can e-mail toughshit@thegroovemusiclife.com!)
With a peppermill, add the pepper to taste. Sprinkle the thighs with olive oil. Bake uncovered for at least 45 minutes or until the internal temperature of the thighs reaches the standard 165°F.
Serve immediately. Devour like you’re Edward Cullen and the chicken is Bella Swann.
For those of you that still want cake, some special cake is being served over at So Hot She Shits Fire…
The Anime News Network had the scoop. The record is titled Legendary Punk Songs Collection and is due out February 25, 2009. Sadly, we could not find samples of these songs.
Halko Momoi – “Sex and Violence” (The Exploited)
Haruna Ikezawa – “Basket Case” (Green Day)
Kaori Shimizu – “White Riot” (The Clash)
Mai Kadowaki – “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” (The Offspring)
Rie Tanaka – “Anarchy In The UK” (SEX PISTOLS)
Yuko Goto – “London’s Burning” (The Clash)
Halko Momoi – “Call Me” (Blondie)
Haruna Ikezawa – “God Save The Queen” (SEX PISTOLS)
Kaori Shimizu – “Blitzkrieg Bop” (Ramones)
Mai Kadowaki – “Search and Destroy” (Iggy & The Stooges)
Rie Tanaka – “Ruby Soho” (Rancid)
Yuko Goto – “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (Nirvana)
This looks way too interesting. A couple of the cover choices seem off the beaten path (The original version of the Exploited cover that starts this off was actually a filler track that the band made up in the studio during the sessions for their first LP, and I would have never expected anyone to cover Rancid), but this is too good to resist. I won’t have too long to wait: the album comes out next Wednesday.
In an almost opposite note, PunkNews.org reported today that MxPx’s next album, On the Cover II, is going to feature a cover version of The Blue Hearts’ “Linda Linda” (probably more familiar to many of you from Paranmaum’s cover version from the movie of the same name.) Now THAT sounds like it could be interesting. Or a train wreck. Or at least an interesting train wreck.
A couple of months back, Alternative Tentacles Records held a contest where they invited their customers/followers to send in a story about the most prized vinyl record in their collection. Top prize for the contest was a set of Alternative Tentacles’ latest vinyl releases. Alternative Tentacles said that they would print every story they had received after the contest.
Apparently, they got a whole shitload of entries, as it took awhile for their small staff to read through every entry and decide on the winner of the contest, but they kept to their word and posted every entry they could – including mine. It’s up on Alternative Tentacles’ website at this link, but I’ve also reposted it here at TGML, behind the jump: Read the rest of this entry »
Some self-proclaimed “pure” punks probably screamed “sell-out” when they heard Johnny Rotten was going to to a butter commercial in his native England. Well, this 41-year-old punk rocker says that it’s too bad they didn’t wait until the ad in question (seen below) ended up on British television and worldwide YouTube before making their snap judgments. A very, very entertaining advert, indeed.
This had to be a British ad producer’s dream. When you’re doing a commercial and you get a certifiable legend whose mere presence can command every camera in a 100-yard radius to star in it, you’ve already scored major points before you shoot a single frame of film or DV tape. The fact that the butter company the ad represents openly supports its country’s farmers doesn’t hurt either.
THE HUSKY Husky
(Chockyu)
Availablilty: CD EP Rating:
While the rest of Whiteberry has been, for the most part, idle and out of the limelight since their final concerts in March of 2004, lead singer Yuki Maeda has not. In 2006, with fellow ex-Whiteberry, bassist Yukari Hasegawa briefly in tow, Yuki Madea reemerged on the Japanese independent label Deadgirls with an eponymous CD EP from her first post-Whiteberry band, a four-piece all-female unit dubbed yukki. The existence of the new group was something I wasn’t aware of until Zush at Kakko-ii.com wrote about her new band’s project in late 2006. Thankfully, I got a hold of a copy of the CD in time for it to make my list of the Top Albums Of 2006 on MotokoAoyama.com v1.0. yukki (the band and the EP) found Yuki Maeda not only singing, but playing guitar and writing all of the material. It is a great EP – imagine Whiteberry without the keyboards.
Unfortunately, yukki the band never followed up yukki the EP. Yukari Hasegawa disappeared again (presumably to return to college), and the band continued for several months before quietly disappearing. No one who followed Whiteberry and yukki knew what was up until the group’s homepage presented a link to another site – the homepage for a new band fronted by Ms. Maeda called The Husky.
With their sort-of-eponymous debut CD EP, again an independent release (this time on a label called Chockyu), Yuki Maeda seems to be slowly progressing away from her Whiteberry past. While her distinctive vocals remain, with the existence of The Husky, Yuki Maeda finds herself, for the first time in her professional career, to be the only female member of the group. Joining her in the lineup are former La’cryma Christi drummer Levin and newcomers Yasuaki Miyaji on guitar and Sunao Nakamura on bass and baritone guitar. Like with her previous post-Whiteberry band, Yuki Maeda continues to rely on her own material, having penned all of the songs on the album, save for two songs where her lyrics are set to music composed by Miyaji.
“Story”, the EP’s highlighted track (a PV exists, Yuki’s first since “Shinjiri Chikara” – yukki never made any) opens the proceedings in fine form. Initially, the song retains the Whiteberry-minus-keyboards punk sound from yukki, only to be interrupted first by a baritone guitar riff from Nakamura and then by a tinny acoustic-sounding guitar (actually an unplugged electric recorded with a microphone) initially underpinning Yuki’s vocals before veering back into Whiteberry-style punk.
“Hitori Botsuchi” follows with a slightly slower rock tempo and an arrangement and chord sequence that recalls some of Living Colour’s minor-key material from Time’s Up. Miyavi does some rather interesting guitar work in the recording’s left channel that sounds more like a synthesizer than a guitar, while a creepy-sounding string synthesizer (played by an uncredited keyboardist) intrudes on the song’s atmosphere.
“not control” (the song title isn’t capitalized), one of two songs co-written by Miyaji, takes the band and the EP on a left-field turn by bringing some ZZ Top-meets-George Thorogood blues riffing into the mix for much of the song. A false ending suddenly takes the band into a jazz-rock vein for the song’s coda.
“Tsuchi” keeps the band within blues/classic rock territory by way of Elvis Costello, slowing down the tempo and giving them a 12/8 time signature to contend with. A slightly anarchic Theremin (or at least Miyaji making some Theremin-like sounds with his guitar and effects) interrupts things as the band goes from the song’s B-section to its chorus. The third time the B-section around, Levin changes things around by throwing in some tribal-sounding drumming before shifting back into gear for the final choruses.
“Ime” sounds like its going to veer into early Chili Pepper-esque funk at first, but Levin’s Motown-esque drum beat nips that in the bud, while Yuki’s lead vocal obliterates further Motown comparisons and Miyaji tosses in some modern rock guitar noises for additional texture.
“Mekumori”, the second of the Maeda/Miyaji songwriting collaborations, returns the band to mid-tempo 12/8 time, but with songwriting and playing that sounds both familiar and new at the same time. While not a fast rocker, the song itself is quite anthemic, and allows Miyaji to take flight with a tasteful extended guitar solo.
It’s safe to suggest that The Husky’s EP represents a considerable and major musical progression for Yuki Maeda. The EP allows her to come further out of her old shell, forging a new musical background that compliments her distinctive and instantly recognizable vocals. Hopefully, the next recordings we hear from Yuki Maeda will be a follow-up release from The Husky rather from yet another new band. Unless Whiteberry reunites, of course.
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