Two webhosts (only one of which I recommend, Bluehost)
Four laptops (Don’t get me started…)
Three iPods (I finally upgraded to a 120GB model!)
One iPad
Morning Musume and AKB48 both making their American concert debuts – and way fucking overdue to return to these shores on a regular basis… no excuses, please, just book the dates and get on the plane! And yes, I know AKB were just in DC last week…
Twenty-one Morning Musume singles
Nineteen (soon to be twenty) personnel changes in Morning Musume
Two personnel changes in C-ute
No personnel changes in Berryz Koubou
More personnel changes in AKB48 than anyone can keep up with… (and I’m not even going to bother trying to anymore!)
Seven and a half Morning Musume albums (the “half album” being the 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu EP)
Twenty-one Berryz Koubou singles
Five and a half Berryz Koubou studio albums (the “half album” being their misnumbered (3) Natsu Natsu Mini Berryz)
Eighteen C-ute singles (all of their major-label releases)
Six and a half C-ute albums (I still consider 2 mini ~Ikiru to Iu Chikara~ to be an EP)
Seven Koda Kumi studio albums (I lost track of compilations and singles!)
Four Ayumi Hamasaki albums (Go ahead and yell at me, Vee…)
Two albums and three EPs from Maki Goto
Three albums, two EPs, one best-of, and four guitar tab books from SCANDAL
Three post-Whiteberry EPs from bands led by Yuki Maeda (One Yukki, two The Husky)
Nine Stooges albums (two of those being the remastered editions of their Elektra albums, another being a 180-gram pressing of Raw Power, and counting 2010’s 2CD and four-disc deluxe reissue of the original Bowie mix of Raw Power and the Raw Power Live album released last Record Store Day)
The entire Koharu Kusumi solo discography
The entire Buono! discography to date
The entire AKB48 singles discography to date
Six New York Dolls albums (three of those being vinyl editions of the first three studio albums)
Eight Puffy AmiYumi albums
Five Mission of Burma albums (and a new one on the way)
Three Panic! At The Disco albums
Three Meat Puppets albums
Three Cannibal Corpse albums and two DVDs
Three Deicide albums
Five Hank III albums (counting the Assjack album and the overdue legit release of the This Ain’t Country sessions as Hellbilly Joker) – and Hank III finally getting to say “fuck off” to Mike Curb.
Two copies of Flyleaf’s first album (one autographed)
Three autographed Sick Puppies CDs
One guitar autographed by Iggy Pop and the Asheton Brothers
One Asheton brother being transferred from the Stooges to Rock N’ Roll Heaven’s Helluva Band (I’m sure Ron is trading Mike Watt stories with D. Boon!)
James Williamson rejoining the Stooges
The Stooges finally making the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame (Next targets: The New York Dolls, Black Flag, and The Minutemen… and that’s a fucking vow and a promise from me!)
Lux Interior being transferred from the Cramps to Rock N’ Roll Heaven’s Helluva Band
Captain Beefheart succumbing to Multiple Sclerosis after several years… and the original version of Bat Chain Puller finally being released by the Zappa Family Trust a year later!
A Sex Pistols reunion
A Public Image Ltd. reunion
Malcolm McLaren, the former Sex Pistols “mis-manager” dying of cancer… followed by Johnny Rotten NOT singing “Celebration” or “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” (good on ya, Johnny…)
A fIREHOSE reunion (!!)
Seven books autographed by Henry Rollins
One book autographed by Sen. Arlen Specter
Three e-mails from Henry Rollins
Two e-mails from Jello Biafra
Three day trips to New York where I spent over $700 combined in one store (Virgin Megastore) alone
One day trip to New York where I didn’t spend any money in any record stores (Virgin Mega closed two years prior!)
Four visits to Apple Stores where I spent $0 (and wish I had been able to spend several times what I spent at Virgin)
One visit to an Apple Store where I finally bought something (my iPad!)
Six day trips to Philadelphia
Three day trips to Syracuse, NY
One Stooges concert
One Bon Jovi concert (goddamn motherfucking fuck!)
Two Flyleaf concerts
Two Evanescence concerts
Two Sick Puppies concerts
Two 3 Doors Down concerts (Which makes four times I’ve seen my fiancee’s favorite band, versus zero times I’ve seen my favorite band… that’s gotta be corrected quick-fast)
Two opening sets prior to 3DD by Hinder (Most boring band not named Nickelback or Daughtry, by a long shot)
Two Breaking Benjamin concerts (and unfortunately, although they played well as always, the sound at the second sucked! What was up with that, Ben?)
One Michael Angelo Batio personal appearance
One missed Puffy AmiYumi concert (goddamn motherfucking fuck!)
One missed Morning Musume concert (yes, that concert!!)
One missed Mike Watt & The Missingmen concert (which I made up for on April 2, 2011!)
Six 100-count spindles of CD-R’s
Two Palm Treo 680 smartphones
Three Blackberry smartphones (never again!)
One iPhone
Four SD cards
Three phonograph needles (I’ll be needing a fourth soon.)
Morning Musume CDs finally being released in the United States (until a certain “label” dropped the ball… REAL indie labels like Matador and Merge, the opportunity is now…)
Ten WordPress themes
Seven domain names (on top of the previously mentioned ones, there’s TGML’s URL, the one for the Meetan blog, and a second one for the Reina blog)
Two different Reina Tanaka/Robert Fripp header graphics at MotokoAoyama.com (Vee improved on the original)
Ai Kago finally making a comeback… then blowing it… then joining her fellow ex-W in the world of MILFdom.
One W album that’s gone the way of the original version of SMiLE
The original version of SMiLE going the opposite direction of W3: Faithful (and in a big way… five CDs PLUS double vinyl and two 45s? Got it!)
One Guns N’ Roses album finally being finished, handed in, and released!
Ace Frehley beating his ex-bandmates to record stores with new material… and not having to sell out to Wal-Mart to do it!
Four of the many Mike Watt-related albums that were recorded during this blog’s and its predecessor’s lifetime finally seeing release… and getting sneak previews of a couple of them from the man himself the day before hypenated-man came out!
Two animes with Reina Tanaka doing voice work
The return of most of my favorite O.G. MoMusus
Three knocked-up MoMusus
Two instances where I bitched about Nozomi Tsuji getting knocked up
Three instances where I remarked about what a lucky bastard Taiyo Sugiura is
Three snarky remarks made by me about Avril Lavgine
One snarky remark made by “Reina” about Jamie Lynn Spears
One snarky remark made by me to “Reina” about Beyonce Knowles
Countless snarky remarks about American Idle
More American Idle contestants losing their recording contracts
Five Reina Tanaka photobooks… and a sixth finally on the way!
Two tires
Three illnesses
Three NaNoWriMo wins
Three book projects (two simultaneous, one on hold)
One published short story (”The Man In The Hummer” in Deliver Us From Evil, available from Jaded Silence Press)
One novel coming out on my own book label next month!
All four versions of American Wota
All three versions of International Wota
No getting the Sunn O)))-themed IW 4.0
One nomination at the IntlWota Awards
The debut of IdolMinded
Two jokes stolen from Jeff Dunham
One joke stolen from Nothing Nice To Say
Three times I got under the skin of Tony Brummel at Victory Records… that I know of. (Might as well make it four: How does it feel to lose Silverstein AND Bayside on top of Hawthorne Heights and Atreyu, baldy? I hear Aiden’s next…)
Seven (or was it eight by now?) times my partner at My Sweet Meetan, Chris (CK) went to Japan
Reina Tanaka’s 18th birthday
Reina Tanaka’s 19th birthday
Reina Tanaka’s 20th birthday
Reina Tanaka’s 21st birthday
Reina Tanaka’s 22nd birthday
My 40th birthday… I stopped counting after that.
Mike Watt’s 50th birthday… and counting
Iggy Pop’s 60th birthday… and counting – face it, he’s one unstoppable motherfucker, for which we should all be grateful.
Several boxes of CD sleeves
Countless mouse and camera batteries
Five new electric guitars, all named after J-pop idols
Five effect pedals (two formerly owned by essential brother/up and coming guitar shredder/fellow MoMusu fan Maxxxwell Carlisle!)
Several packs of Ernie Ball Slinky guitar strings… and then I wised up late last year and switched to D’Addario .10′s, except for the Dean MAB3 I named after Erena Ono which will still get .09s!
A year and a half of experimentation with different kinds of guitar picks before I finally settled on 1.50mm Dunlop Tortex Sharps (heavy and pointy is best, it seems… – I could probably do a whole blog post on that subject!)
Countless VitaminWaters
Countless instances where I took to heart David Peel’s adage that “fuck” is not a dirty word
A year and a half of lost blog archives (Don’t trust your webhosting to anyone who stage-names himself “Vikki Stixx”… or for that matter your real estate matters)
Not enough trips to Starbucks or Sonic (yeah, N.E. PA got one of those in 2008!)
Two coffee pots
One K-Cup machine (about fucking time I got one of those… the aforementioned second coffee pot is now on reserve duty)
More money spent at CDJapan than at Gallery of Sound
Not as much money spent on vinyl since 2008, at least I don’t think so… but then again I’ve still taken that option whenever offered)
Virgin Megastore going out of business in 2009
Five Record Store Days (counting the forthcoming one this Saturday, which I’ll be honoring)
And one girlfriend, since upgraded to fiancée and then to wife on 6.26.10

AKB48′s self-played performance of their forthcoming single “Give Me Five” under the assumed name/side project Baby Blossom is getting a lot of attention in the J-Pop blogosphere. Despite the raw playing and the questionable sound reinforcement (the result of either no proper soundcheck the day of the performance, or the soundman not taking into consideration how different the room was going to sound with an audience full of people as compared to when the only people in the building were AKB48 and their road crew), they still made quite an impression on me. As someone that has been playing a variety of instruments his whole life, I definitely want to critique and give some serious suggestions to the girls because there’s a lot of room for improvement.

For those that don’t know, I’m a trained musician. I play several different instruments (guitar is my main one, and I presently own five that are all named after J-Pop singers) and there’s a bunch more that I’ve tried but could never get a good enough handle on (trying to teach myself alto sax at age 19 resulted in way too many references to Horatio Hornblower and goat calling from my otherwise supportive parental units) and I’ve played in several different bands for over a decade after my graduation for high school – in fact, it ended up being my main income during the waning years of Reagan America when the only other place that was offering steady employment was the Armed Forces (who had already turned me off when they were relentlessly trying to recruit myself and my other classmates during my junior and senior years of high school and then for months afterward). It’s this musical background that has been a blessing to my activities as a writer and blogger, especially since, as essential brother Ray Mescallado said once, I “aspire to quality music writing” (one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten on my work – thanks again, man.)

Anyway, having watched and listened to the live performance of the song, here’s my notes:

The four girls playing horns were basically the weakest link in the chain. With only a few months of experience on their instruments, they sounded not much different than the brass players in your average junior high or high school marching band. That having been said, brass and woodwind instruments are not the easiest instruments to learn. I attempted to learn trumpet in 6th grade, as well as my aforementioned attempt to try alto sax almost a decade later, and only realized one thing – I didn’t have the lung power to get away with playing a horn properly.

The keyboardists and percussionists involved were a bit inaudible, but I blame the soundman for that, and in all fairness, I won’t critique them.

Yuki Kashwagi did a very impressive job behind the drum kit – I don’t think she even missed a beat. If she found herself in a working rock band after graduating AKB48, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Minami Takahashi did fine playing lead guitar, but her silence for the last few bars of the second chorus before the solo was typical of the beginner. There was a couple of obvious missed notes, but the only thing that grated on me with her playing was her rather bizarre and uncomfortable/unnatural-looking left hand fretting technique. Continued woodshedding and a bit of study with some good guitar instructional videos would help tremendously – they certainly did when I picked the guitar back up after a couple of years of hardly touching it!

Yuko Oshima fluctuated a couple of times on bass but she held her own very well, while Atsuko Maeda showed a lot of confidence playing rhythm guitar.

It’s being openly hoped by AKB48 fans that the AKB48 members involved will continue with this Baby Blossom side project in live performance and maybe even in the studio, and I share those hopes. Quite frankly, it would suck if they stopped playing after pulling off what they did the other night!

A little more than a year after she graduated from AKB48′s Team K, Erena Ono is apparently going to make a return to show business. Earlier this year she had opened a new blog and mentioned “It’s been too long… too long.” Somehow, her announcement back in July was a shade premature because her original “new blog” disappeared. But now she has a new blog (with only one entry so far, the one mentioning her return to show business) and she seems a bit serious this time around.

I’m all for it. And I hope it means she’ll be making music again as well – anyone who heard her solo vocal on the “Namida Surprise” B-side “FIRST LOVE” is well aware how pretty her singing voice is. I would definitely be first in line to pre-order an Erepyon solo album:

OK, I know that nobody outside of the hip-hop world calls them mixtapes anymore considering that the primary sound carriers of these things are either CD-Rs or iTunes/iPod playlists, but the concept is still the same. You make a mix that you’ll be playing on the regular when you’re driving to the beach, lying on the beach, driving home from the beach, going on vacation… you get idea. The kind of tape where, if immaculately mixed and sequenced, will stay in your car all summer – maybe even during the fall and winter, too – until it either gets lost, borrowed, or left on the dashboard absentmindedly (where it’ll get fried by the sun).

And there is an art to making good mixes. You don’t just throw together eighty minutes worth of songs and call it a mix. You make the sequence as perfect as possible. You try not to be clever by putting ten-minute track from your brother’s favorite Yes album, or hip by slipping some American pop tartlet like Katy Perry inbetween tracks by Anthrax and Bright Eyes.

It’s been said by some aficionados of mixtape culture that mixtapes are going the way of the Edsel, thanks to the presence of iPods. Given that there are still plenty of participants on sites like Zen Running Order and Art of the Mix, that isn’t true. In my case, iPod/iTunes playlists have served to be the perfect test lab for making mixes. Ever since I first started using the program in 2004, I’ve used iTunes to do multiple drafts of mixes, playing the sequences on either my iPod or right on my laptop, fine-tuning the tracks until I have a sequence that a) flows well, and b) fits within the limitations of an 80-minute CD-R. That last parameter is of utmost importance – I’ve lost track of how many cassette mixes I’ve done back in the day where the tape ran out just as my carefully-chosen closing track was prematurely ended by the sudden appearance of the cassette’s plastic leader. Of course, if one could still find blank cassettes and the machines to record and playback with, one could pre-master their sequences on CD-R’s and then transfer those to cassettes – but unless one was being a retro hipster, why would you? (Hmmm… maybe I should do an eBay search for a good stereo reel-to-reel recorder and some blank reels… that would really be retro!)

Anyway, since this is the IntlWota Summer Refreshment Program we’re dealing with here, I’m contractually obligated to display both the refreshment that this program funded for me (in this case, a can from case of Arizona Green Tea – about the only goddamn thing I drink regularly thanks to being both straight-edge and lactose intolerant) and the tools that helped put this article together – my loyal laptop and one of my two iPods. Wait a minute, you’re asking: Two iPods? Yeah. They’d both be in the shot, but I had to use the other one just to take the picture.

I should explain about the two iPods – the one in the picture is a 160GB iPod Classic; a 64GB iPod Touch that is basically used like a miniature iPad/phoneless iPhone is what I took the picture with, and it’s been a rather handy device. I was on a first-anniversary weekend trip with my wonderful wife Tara and was using the hotel’s free WiFi to catch up on e-mail with the iPod Touch, when I got the go-ahead from International Wota to do this. I immediately started putting together the initial sequence right in the iPad Touch, sequenced it, and even gave it an initial spin via a very useful and very fun DJ app – wherein I discovered that my original track sequence was over 90 minutes long. Barely OK for a cassette mix – but we’re dealing with CD limits, so at least ten minutes of music had to eventually be chopped.

Summer, itself, was the basis for picking out the tracks. If it came out in summer, had a summer memory attached to it, or just reminded me of or even sounded like summer in some way to me, it went in. And, befitting this blog’s general ethos – that ethos basically being putting J-Pop and Western music on equal footing – I didn’t restrict my choices to just J-Pop material.

Once I was back home, I got myself the aforementioned fresh case of tea (I’m already halfway through it as I write this – it’s been one of those fucking hot weeks up here in Pennsylvania), sat down with the laptop, and got to editing and resequencing. Below is the final result: My soundtrack for the rest of the Summer of 2011.

1. WHITEBERRY “Natsu Matsuri” – A no-brainer of a logical choice to kick off this mix. When I started to get more seriously into Japanese music, it was Whiteberry that led me on my current path. I owe them a great deal of gratitude for that. I’ve long since heard the Jitterin’ Jinn original and I must say, Whiteberry’s version has the upper hand. Yuki Madea’s voice reminds me of J Mascis as far as her somewhat raw delivery goes; her post-Whiteberry recordings, first with the band Yukki and currently with The Husky have seen her get better with age.

2. REINA TANAKA “Manatsu No Kousen” – Yep, the idol who drives my wotahood (to paraphrase something Ray said at American Wota a few years back). It’s probably no surprise that all of her recently released solo singles are on my hard drive (thank you, US iTunes!) – the surprise is how well she pulls off her solo rendition of the early MoMusu summer classic.

3. HUSKER DU “Celebrated Summer” – Another no-brainer of a selection and the first representation of Western music in general and classic punk/indie in particular on this track list. It was probably my reading Bob Mould’s recent autobiography See A Little Light as well as a book about the Huskers from earlier this year that spurred me to include this choice a lot quicker than I otherwise would have. But then again, I miss the Huskers big time and wish they’d never split up in 1988.

4. BUZZCOCKS “What Do I Get?” – Yes, this is one of those tracks that reminds me of summer – specifically, one time back in the summer of 1994 when I found a copy of their box set in a used CD store in Bloomsburg, bought it on sight, and listened to it in the car on the way home. Plus, I’m starting to make some serious plans for getting a new band together – first time for me since 1997, first time back on guitar since my first band split up in 1984, and first time ever singing lead vocals full-time – and this is one of a long list of candidates that are going to be on the prospective band’s set list.

5. MORNING MUSUME “Souda! We’re Alive!” – Throwing one of my favorite songs by my favorite band of all time into the mix, specifically one from a classic lineup of the group. Gotta love those big powerchords in the intro/chorus/outro.

6. ROKY ERICKSON “Bermuda” – I threw this classic in – specifically this superior version from the Don’t Slander Me album – to add a bit of travel-related paranoia to the proceedings. Yes, this is another selection from my soon-to-be band’s list, too.

7. SAN NIN MATSURI “Chu! Natsu Party” – I had to throw in at least one of the Hello! Project Shuffle Units, and this classic collaboration between Ai Kago, Rika Ishikawa and Aya Matsuura was begging to be heard.

8. BORIS “Hope” – Attention Please and Heavy Rocks 2011 – both reviewed a month or so ago here at TGML – came out just as summer was unofficially starting. With lead guitarist Wata singing in a fragile manner over her own driving Jesus And Mary Chain guitar riffing, the song is a perfect fit.

9. SCANDAL “Koi Moyo” – That opening chord sequence sounds very summery, even beachy. I find myself playing it on guitar a lot when I’m warming up.

10. 11WATER “BE ALL RIGHT!” – the second representation of the H!P Shuffle Groups in this mix. Eleven H!P members take on some Bosstones-esque ska punk. Love this one even though I’m a little more used to MiniMoni’s version from their second album.

11. THE BEATLES “All You Need Is Love” – This one is here for a very personal reason: The day Capitol Records put this 45 out on the racks is also the day I was born.

12. THE MINUTEMEN “Search” – When I got into my first semi-pro band after graduating high school – this was the Summer of 1985 – one of the tapes I frequently carried was the My First Bells compilation tape of all of the Minutemen’s releases prior to Double Nickels on the Dime. I find myself associating that tape with summer weather and car travel a lot.

13. SCANDAL “Secret Base” – The Osaka Four covering the Zone classic. Sometimes I think the basic story line as seen in the Zone PV reminds me of a summer romance that never got off the ground any more come September. The keyboards, however – no matter whether it’s the original or SCANDAL’s retake – remind me of early King Crimson. And I got my first King Crimson records in the summer of ’81, too, if that counts for extra credit…

14. JUNIOR MURVIN “Police and Thieves”
15. MAX ROMEO – “War in a Babylon”
I’ve been in a serious reggae mood lately – the recent Peter Tosh reissues are partly to blame – and so, rather than slip 7nin Matsuri’s “Summer Reggae Rainbow” into the set list, which would have been a little too obvious, and even though I love the song, I opted for putting some more authentic classic reggae in instead. And one can’t get more authentic and classic with reggae without gravitating towards the Bob Marley canon, than by culling from the work of the great Lee “Scratch” Perry. Both tracks sourced from the great box set Arkology – do yourself a favor and find a copy.

16. AKB48 “Heavy Rotation” - One of the best things AKB48 did last summer, if not, all of last year.

17. BUONO “My Boy” - This single might have come out a month early for the Summer of 2009, but by the time the last weekend of May rolled around, it was a perfect fit and stayed that way for the whole season and then some, making it one of Buono’s best ever singles to date.

18. BERRYZ KOUBOU “Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND” – Likewise, this came out while there was still one month of summer left in 2006, but the 50’s style musical arrangement never fails to evoke summer nights, car hops, crusing, and the like… even if, at the time the song was recorded, most of the girls weren’t even old enough to get learner’s permits.

19. THE SEX PISTOLS “God Save The Queen” – Another deliberately personal summer memory creeping in here, this time of more recent vintage: When Tara and I were finalizing our first-dance and bridal-party song selections with the DJ we hired for our wedding reception last year, he told us to feel free to e-mail him if there were any specific songs we wanted him to play that night. Tara didn’t think of anything, but I asked for this song – admittedly, my favorite song of all time, period point blank – and got it, and got Tara to dance with me to it near the end of the night. Afterwards, our wedding photographer came up to us and said, “I never thought I’d ever hear the Sex Pistols at a wedding reception – that was fucking awesome!!”

20. THE BEACH BOYS “All Summer Long” – Yes, picking a Beach Boys track is pretty obvious for a summer mix, but I needed a good closer, and since this track closes out the American Graffiti soundtrack double-album (a favorite album since I was 7!) it was the perfect track to use. Also, there’s another summer memory attached to this song and the entire soundtrack album – the movie was available on an early pay-per-view hotel system when my family and I stayed at the Inn On The Park hotel in Toronto in 1974 (Around the same time Glenn Gould was using one of the other rooms in the building as a makeshift tape-editing studio for his recordings, I later found out), which is when I first saw the movie and heard most of the music from it. Ironically, while the movie takes place in 1962, this song didn’t come out until two years later. Go figure.

Have a good summer, everyone!

BONUS: Here’s a streaming version of the mix as I originally did it with the dJay app on my iPod Touch, before I discovered that I had to chop at least ten minutes off of the track sequence. Can you pick out the songs that didn’t make the final cut?

IW Summer Refreshment Test Mix 1 by TGML/IW Summer Refeshment

Given the amount of long playing albums – fourteen in total as of this writing, counting this release – that they’ve released in their short time as a group/project, it’s rather mindboggling to think that this is, for all intents and purposes, AKB48’s debut studio album. Last year’s second singles collection Kamikyokutachi did come off like a well-sequenced studio album, but given that pretty much 90% of that album was already released as A and B-sides of singles, its familiarity probably made listening to that album an enjoyable, if relatively surprise-free, listening experience (It’s still essential listening, given that it sums up the band’s career up to the spring of 2010.)

After all that time – extended even further thanks to manufacturing delays related to this past spring’s earthquake and tsunami – we finally get AKB48’s first real studio album (everything else, save for Kamikyokutachi and the band’s first best-of album Set List ~Greatest Songs 2006-2008~ (DefSTAR/Sony Japan), was “original cast albums” of the separate team’s stage shows). Although not indicated as such, the album appears to have been sequenced into separate sections by the band’s producer/lyricist Yasushi Akimoto.

The first part of the album gets off to a good start with the mixed-team opener “Shoujotachi yo” and three separate Team tracks, “Overtake” (Team A), “Boku ni Dekiru Koto” (Team K) and “Renai Circus” (Team B) – none of which would have sounded out of place on an AKB48 single or one of the separate team’s stage albums. So far, so good.

The next section of the album gets devoted to random groupings of the various group members. “Kake no Yukue” isn’t far removed from the kind of material that ends up somewhere in the middle of the various Team’s stage shows, and it’s ballad-like pacing is a balm after the opening four-song salvo. “Wagamama Collection” is basically an attack of cuteness dominated by some of the group’s younger members, while the following “Ningyo no Vacances” and “Kimi to Boko no Kankei” sound like outtakes from the first Berryz Koubou album. “Iikagen no Susume” appears to shift the album’s gears with an arrangement that recalls AKB’s classic DefSTAR singles, then things get turned backwards with the Team Kenkyuusei feature “High School Days” – which, for whatever reason, sees that team’s participants sound more assured (despite their young ages) than the Berryz-sounding cuts from their elder bandmates.

“Team B Oshi” is the album’s weakest track – like the title implies, it’s another feature for Team B, and it sounds exactly like what it is – a stage album song that somehow ended up on the wrong (virtual) master reel. In other words, it sounds completely out of place here.

The remainder of the album is dominated by four of the band’s more recent singles. I have to admit, after 2009’s “RIVER”, much of the band’s singles output since then underwhelmed me, with “Beginner” and “Heavy Rotation” being the best of the bunch – “Ponytail to Chouchou” seems more memorable for its infamous locker room skin-tease video opening than for the song itself, while “Chance no Junban” lies right inbetween.

The title track, featuring the band and its three sister units SKE48, SDN48 and Osaka-based NMB48, closes out things. The song itself is a very pretty ballad featuring some great mass harmonies and ensemble singing from the four units. I’m just personally not a big fan of albums having slow songs for closing tracks.

Outside of the album’s weaker tracks, it is the album’s sequencing itself, concentrating on grouping songs according to a loose concept rather than the more logical song-by-song flow a studio album normally calls for, is a bit of an Achilles Heel. Yes, the sequencing itself is pretty much Akimoto’s choice, but the listener would be better served devoting future listens to the full album not in its original sequence but either in shuffle play, or in a sequencing of the listener’s own making. The performances and most of the songs are well done, but the way this album was originally sequenced doesn’t make this album the most perfect of listens for me, and after five years, plus a mother-nature-precipitated two month delay, one would think that AKB48 and their creative team would have delivered a more consistent package for what is essentially the band’s first studio album. At least the band’s sales will insure that a second studio collection will be inevitable in 2012, just like hitting shuffle would make Koto ni Ita Kito a more enjoyable listening experience.

Four out of five stars.

Feel free to make a comment/remark/joke/whatever about why this guy is wearing a bandana over his face.

I’m not making that up. That’s, spelled out, FIVE THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED COPIES. I have been buying CD’s since 1988 (there I go showing my age again) and I’m not sure I even own 5500 different CDs. I’ve bought multiple editions of some Morning Musume and AKB48 CDs in the past and will continue to do so (stupidly, I forgot to pre-order the new single – D’oh!), and when Mike Watt’s newest album came out I fully admit that I am responsible for the sales of four different copies (Japanese CD, download from Japanese iTunes because I couldn’t wait for said CD to arrive in the mail, domestic CD and domestic vinyl).

Let’s put this in mathematical terms: This nut bought 1,375 times as many copies of “Everyday Katyusha” as I did of hyphenated-man. At the time of this writing CDJapan is selling both retails versions of the single for 1524 yen, or $18.36 in US dollars. That’s 8,382,000 yen or $100,980. That’s more than myself, my wife, and Vee probably make in a year.

To this extreme AKBWota, I ask: default your credit cards much, dude?

I’m sure at least 5,498 copies of the new AKB48 single will be turning up on eBay and Yahoo! Auctions soon, though. Take it away, Vee:

B.I.Shadow:
Kento Nakajima

BoA
BREAKERZ
BRIGHT
C-ute
COMA-CHI
Crystal Kay
D-BOYS
D-NA
Da Pump member Tomo
Daichi Miura
Fukui Hiroaki
FictionJunction
Five member Ryota Kamisato
FLOW
flumpool
Goto Yukari
GReeeeN
Gyaruson
Harisenbon
Hello! Project

Hey! Say! JUMP:
Inoo Kei
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuri Chinen
Hikaru Yaotome
Kota Yabu
Yuto Nakajima
Daiki Arioka
Yuya Takaki

Higashiyama Noriyuki
Hiromi
HOME MADE KAZOKU
Hoshino Gen
Hosoda Yoshihiko
Ichihara Hayato
ICONIQ
Ikimono Gakari
Ikuta Toma
Inoue Joe
Inoue Masahiro
Inoue Waka
Iwanaga Hiroaki
Izumiya Shigeru
GIRL NEXT DOOR
Hige Danshaku
Jasmine
JYJ

Kanjani8:
Ryo Nishikido
You Yokoyama
Okura Tadayoshi
Hiroki Uchi

Kago Ai
Kalafina
Kamiji Yusuke
Kana Nishino
Kaname Jun
Kara
Kato Kazuki
Kato Natsuki
KAT-TUN
Kawaoka Daijiro
Kiss my ft2
Kimura Ryo
Kinomoto Minehiro
Kitano Kie
Kitayama Hiromitsu
Komatsu Ayaka
Kumi Koda
Kusumi Koharu
M-Flo member Taku Takahashi and VERBAL
Maeda Atsuko
Mano Erina
Matsushima Shota
Matsushige Yutaka
MAY’s
MEG
Meisa Kuroki
Melody
MiChi
Miura Ryosuke
Mizushima Hiro
Monkey Majik members Maynard Plant and Blaise
Morning Musume
Mr. Children
MUCC
Nagashima Shugo
Nagata Anna
Nakagawa Shoko
Namioka Kazuki
Nami Tamaki
Namie Amuro
Nana Mizuki
NEWS
NICO Touches The Wall
NMB48
Noriyama Nobuyuki
Nozomi Tsuji
NYC
Okada Yoshinori
Okamoto Rei
OLIVIA
ON/OFF
Orange Range
Perfume
Pour Lui
Rie Fu
S/mileage
Sakurada Dori
Sato Megumi
Sato Takeru
Scandal
SDN48
SEAMO
Seto Kouji
Shaku Yumiko
Shida Mirai
Shimizu Shota
Shioya Shun
SHU-I
SKE48
SMAP
Sonar Pocket
Stereopony
Sugiura Taiyo
Sugizo
Suzuki Ryohei
T.M.Revolution
Tackey & Tsubasa
Takada Riho
Takahata Mitsuki
Taisuke Fujigaya
Teippe Koike
The Boss
The Takagi twins
The Touch

TOKIO:
Shigeru Joshima
Tomoya Nagase
Tatsuya Yamaguchi
Masahiro Matsuoka

TOTALFAT
Tsukamoto Takashi
Utada Hikaru
V6
W-inds member Keita Tachibana, Ryiuchi
Wentz Eiji
WISE
Yagami Ren
Young Sky
Yu Shirota
YUI
YUYA Matsushita
2NE1
?Pia-no-jaC?

J-Rock artists conformed safe
12012
13 MUSIC (This is a label. Everyone from that label are fine.)
2side1BRAIN
9GOATS BLACK OUT
9mm Parabellum Bullet

Acid Black Cherry
ACIDMAN
Administrator
Aldious
ALiBi
AliceNine
An cafe – Kanon, teruki, miku, Takuya
aicle
Aigis – Tenka
ALSDEAD
amber gris
AND
Angelo – Kirito
Aoi from Ayabie
Aqua Timez
Arc
Art Cube – Z
Asian Kung-Fu Generation
AUBE
Awoi
AYABIE

Base ball bear
Black cat – Makoto
(ex) Black:List – Kyotaro
BLACK LINE
Black run
Blam honey
BLOOD – Dora, Hayato, Kiwamu
Blood Stain Child
Blu-Billion
BORN
BUCK-TICK
BugLug – Issei, Kazuki

Calmando Qual
The Candy Spooky Theater
(ex) Canzel – All but Ruri confirmed
Chaos system – TOMO, Kyouka
Charlotte
Chemical Pictures (also ex member Jimi)
Chicken head – Kudai
CindyKate
ClearVeil – Ryuuto, Nozomi
Cocklobin
Crossfaith
Cube

D
D=OUT
D’eiz
D’espairsray
Dagan shoujo – Shina
Danger Gang
DaizyStripper
Dear L’Novel – Kazuho
DEATHGAZE
DecoLa Hopping
DELUHI
DER ZIBET
DIAURA – Yo-ka
Dio -Distraught Overlord – mikaru, denka, ivy, erina
Dir en grey
DJ SiSeN
the Dopes
DOG in the PWO
dolore
Doremidan
Downer – Kagome
DuelJewel

E’m~grief~ – Cecir
EGOIST – Rui
exist trace

FEECHE
FLOW
the fool

Gackt (plus Chachamaru, Jun-ji, Ju-ken and You)
Gakido
Galneryus
the GALLO
the GazettE
(ex) GHOST – Kousei
Girugamesh
GLAY
Golden Bomber
GPKISM
Guild

heidi.
HERO
Hi:BRiD – Zero, Jill (ex member)
HITT
HYDE (Since he’s in L’ac~en~ciel)

Irokui
Inoran

Janne da Arc
jealkb
Jin (ex Hime Ichigo)
Jinkaku Radio
Jui (ex-vidoll)
Juka
Jun (ex Hime Ichigo)

Kaya
Kagrra,
THE KIDDIE
Kiryu
KISAKI
Kozi
Kra
Kuroyume
KYOKUTOU GIRL FRIEND

L’arc~en~Ciel
Lacroix Desphere
La’cryma Christi
LAGING – Orochi
Lauder – MAST, LEN
(ex) Lareine – Emiru, Kamijo
Lc5
Lin -the end of corruption world-
Lolita23q
LOST ASH
LM.C – Aiji & Maya
LuLu
LUNA SEA
Luzmelt
Lycaon
lynch.

Mana
Matenrou Opera
Megaromania – Misery, Hyoga, Sui
Megamasso
Merry
MIEL – shin
Misaruka
MIX SPEAKER’S INC.
Miyavi
Moi dix Mois – Seth, K
MoNoLith
Mu?Mu
MUCC – Tatsurou, Yukke, Miya

Nega
NEXX – Shikoto
NICO Touches The Wall
NightingeiL
Nightmare
Number mouse – Kyohei

Oblivion Dust
-OZ- – Aki, Nao, Tama
ONE OK ROCK
Oyuugi wagamama-dan x PaRADEiS

Para:noir
(ex) Panic Channel – Kiri
Penicillin
The Piass – Takayuki
Piko
Plastic Tree

R-shitei – Mamo, Z, Kaede
Rabbit of Labyrinth – Teruhiko
Reivier – Jey, Makoto, Kou, Hiro
remming – Kosuke, Tomoa
Royz

QUAFF – (ex members: Hal, Shingo, Ukusemi, Takuma)

RADWIMPS
remming – Sou, Kohsuke
rice
the Riotts

Sadie
Satsuki
Schwein – Yam, Zin, Takeru, Hina
SCAPEGOAT
SCREW (ex member Yuuto as well)
Secilia Luna
Sekihan
Sel’m – Tsubaki
Shaura
SID
SKULL – Die
SOMATIC GUARDIAN – Saki, Junya
Souiumono
spiv states
SuG (also ex drummer Mitsuru is safe)
Sugizo
Suzaku
SWEET MADONNA – Takeru, shinnosuke, kemono
Syndrome – Tatsuya
Synside

Takanori Nishikawa (T.M.Revolution)
TissueHime
TOON FACTORY
Tokami – Agato, K, Shige
(ex) Tokyo Shitei – Shibuya, Ren, Runchu

uchuu sentai NOIZ
UnsraW
UN=(XAG) – Yun, Yukihira
UNiTE
Ultimate Sonic – Yuu
UVERworld

V-last
v(NEU)
(ex) VAJRA – L
Vallquar – Hikari, Mikoto
VAMPS
Velbet
(ex) Velgreed – Naru
Velvet eden
Versailles
(ex) Vettic – Hal
VII-Sense
Vidoll
Virgil – Roa
vistlip
ViViD
VURNY – Hina

X-Japan
XA-VAT
Xenophobia – Benjamin
xTRiPx

Zip.er
Zoro – Ryuuji
ZUCK

Confirmed Injuries
Yuto and Daiki from Hey! Say! JUMP are currently in the hospital with minor injuries.
Yuriko Kaida of FictionJunction has a broken finger
Masahiro Matsuoka of TOKIO – sustained minor injuries

(Mirrored mostly from Jpopasia.com, which has been going down at points all day today (no surprise. Being that I was at my day job when this post was first made, and had to initially post and then update this whenever and as quickly as possible inbetween the duties I actually get paid for between 10 and 5PM Eastern time, both errors and less timely updates may and have happened in past versions of this post.)

Somehow I thought that something major was going to happen in J-Pop during my two weeks of honeymoon, and just in time for the last day before I have to go back to my day job, it did.

Erena Ono, a member of AKB48′s Team K (Megumi Ohori was one of her bandmates before she was moved to SDN48) that has been on all of their major single A-sides and one of my favorite members of the group, is graduating from the band soon, reportedly to pursue first educational activities and then more entertainment work outside of the AKB universe. No date has been given for her final show, as far as I can tell.

To say that this is a major shockwave in AKB48 fandom is an understatement, given that the 4’11″, soon-to-be-17-year-old is one of the band’s most beloved veteran members. It also doesn’t seem completely surprising, since she isn’t one of the members selected to represent the group on the cover of the Kami Kyokutachi album. Given that she’s been a prominent member of the group on all of their major label A-sides, this is a damn shame.

Hopefully, Erepyon’s time out of the spotlight will be brief and we’ll still get to hear her lend her pretty voice to songs like “FIRST KISS” from the Namida Surprise EP. The OPV below, done by a fan earlier this year, should prove to be a fitting tribute to her.

I usually don’t like to do capsule reviews. In my view, they tend to be written by lazy hack writers who only seem to skim through the promotional copies of CDs they obtain for review before piling them up in a box somewhere for them to sell off at a used CD store somewhere – if they bother to listen to them in the first place. But since I’ve been doing a whole lot of listening but no blog-related writing over the past few months – thanks in part to all of the preparations I’ve been going through for my wedding this Saturday – this particular format will have to do. After the honeymoon and once I’ve gotten settled in, I’ll go back to my regular reviewing style. This’ll be part one. Part two I’ll be completing and posting after the honeymoon.

AKB48 – Kami Kyokutachi (You! Be Cool/King) – While there’s a whole pile of albums out there with the AKB48 name on them, they’ve all been, with the exception of the Set List – Greatest Songs 2006-2007 compilation, basically “original cast albums” of all of the separate teams’ shows – lots of good songs and good singing, but nothing that could cohesively be called a studio album. Fortunately, although billed as a “best-of album”, Kami Kyokutachi comes off as close to a coherent studio album as the group has ever come. All of the band’s King A-sides plus their interim digital-only indie single “Baby! Baby! Baby!” get supplemented with a few random B-sides (no Undergirls/Theatre Girls material or Erena Ono’s beautiful solo cut “First Kiss” though) and some new tracks and make for the most cohesive – and long overdue – long-playing experience to be released under the AKB48. Now if they could put out a single A-side that is a hell of a lot more exciting than the last couple of singles they’ve released since the year started…
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars Available on CD/DVD combo and on iTunes Japan.

DEVO – Something for Everybody (Warner Bros.) – When it was first announced that Devo had gotten back together full-time, resigned to their original American record label Warner Bros., and started working on a new album, I saw a couple of skeptical tweets from people who wondered why anyone would want a new Devo album in the first place. Well, not only have Devo debunked Thomas Wolfe’s old yarn about not being able to go home again by returning to Warner Bros., they’ve also followed in the tradition of the Stooges, New York Dolls, Mission of Burma and Ace Frehley and handed in an album that was worth both the multi-decade wait (two decades, in the case of our beloved spudboys), but they’ve made their finest album since 1983’s Oh No! It’s Devo. Simply put, they’ve redeemed themselves after the debacle of their Enigma Records period and made an album that stands up as tall as their classic back catalog (most of which has been very nicely remastered and reissued by Warner Bros.). (Also, in my opinion, Warner Bros. should surprise the hell out of casual listeners and service the ballad “No Place Like Home” to radio.)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Available on CD, LP, and in three different iTunes/Amazon MP3 editions; this review is based on the highly-recommended 16-track deluxe edition.

HANK WILLIAMS III – Rebel Within (Sidewalk/Curb) – This is the last album Hank III is doing for Curb Records, and once it was announced earlier this year that he had completed the album and handed it in to the label, people wondered how much of an effort he’d put into it, given his open disgust with how the label handled his music. Given his intentions to continue as an independent artist for all future albums onward, III could not certainly squander his hard-earned fan base for the sake of kissing off his soon-to-be-former-label. Thus, Hank hands in a set of mostly country material closer to Lonesome Broke and Driftin’ than his seminal Straight to Hell, but changes gears in a few places with the title track’s touches of Assjack-style hollering in the chorus, the eerie “Karmageddon” with its lyrical allusions to the plight of Native Americans, and – the true highlight of the album – a raucous country/punk/metal hybrid in “Tore Up and Loud”, where III’s “Hellbilly” style gets kicked up several notches with personal lyrics, power-metal double-kick drumming (done by III himself – like “Punch Fight Fuck” on Damn Right Rebel Proud, anytime you hear Slayer-style drums behind country guitars, III’s sitting behind the kit), and Pantera-esque electric guitar riffing, culminating in a blatant, obvious, and long-overdue Declaration of Independence capped with a “Fuck all y’all” to the Curb Records staff. Fuck Curb, indeed – and a big “fuck, yeah” for Shelton Hank Williams.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars Available on CD, LP with bonus CD, and on iTunes and AmazonMP3.

Again, part two comes after the honeymoon… see you then! Until then, one can follow our exploits via Twitter.

I almost forgot to post something today, but I have a good excuse: Today was also my fiancee’s bridal shower, and guess who had to schlep gifts back and forth in his car? Yep…

I should note that for the past few weeks I’ve been – on top of planning towards the wedding and subsequent move into mine and my wife-to-be’s new apartment – finishing up the novel (yeah, still… but then again if I didn’t have to hold a day job it would have been finished already), working on a screenplay for Script Frenzy, working on a couple of reviews for this blog (they’ll be up this week), and working on my guitar.

And last night, boy, did I work on my guitar… I got this thing (Epiphone Les Paul) a few months ago, but I never changed the strings until last night. Such was my Saturday night:

And to keep things J-pop related, here’s another part of what helped keep me sane, especially today:

Besides, I couldn’t figure how to equal or better the live MoMusu and Stooges clips from last year! But what I can do is (even though I didn’t get this finished until after midnight when the 11th became the 12th) update a list I posted two years ago on my second blogging anniversary at MotokoAoyama.com, which would make this “A List That Took Four Years To Make”:

Two webhosts (only one of which I recommend, Bluehost)
Four laptops (Don’t get me started…)
Two iPods (and I’m planning on finally upgrading soon… I have more music on my hard drive than can fit on my present 60GB model!)
Morning Musume and AKB48 both making their American concert debuts (come back here, both, er, ALL of you!!)
Thirteen Morning Musume singles
Eight personnel changes in Morning Musume
Two personnel changes in C-ute
No personnel changes in Berryz Koubou
More personnel changes in AKB48 than anyone can keep up with… (and don’t even get any serious AKB fan started on those team reassignments!)
Six and a half Morning Musume albums (the “half album” being the 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu EP)
Twelve Berryz Koubou singles (double the amount from two years ago!)
Three and a half Berryz Koubou studio albums (the “half album” being their misnumbered (3) Natsu Natsu Mini Berryz)
Eleven C-ute singles (all of their major-label releases)
Four and a half C-ute albums (I still consider ? mini ~Ikiru to Iu Chikara~ to be an EP)
Four Koda Kumi studio albums (I lost track of compilations and singles!)
Two Ayumi Hamasaki albums (Go ahead and yell at me, Vee…)
One and a half Maki Goto albums (That first one for Avex is pretty much an EP…)
One and a half SCANDAL albums (Again, the half-album is an EP…)
Three post-Whiteberry EPs from bands led by Yuki Maeda (One Yukki, two The Husky)
Seven Stooges albums (two of those being the remastered editions of their Elektra albums, another being a 180-gram pressing of Raw Power, and counting the forthcoming deluxe reissue of the original Bowie mix of Raw Power)
The entire Koharu Kusumi solo discography
The entire Buono! discography to date
The entire AKB48 singles discography to date
Five New York Dolls albums (three of those being vinyl editions of all three studio albums)
Seven Puffy AmiYumi albums
Five Mission of Burma albums (three of them being the new vinyl reissues on Matador)
Two Panic! At The Disco albums
Two Meat Puppets albums
Four Hank III albums (counting the Assjack album and his forthcoming The Rebel Within, of course)
Two copies of Flyleaf’s first album (one autographed)
Three autographed Sick Puppies CDs
One guitar autographed by Iggy Pop and the Asheton Brothers
One Asheton brother being transferred from the Stooges to Rock N’ Roll Heaven’s Helluva Band (I’m sure Ron is trading Mike Watt stories with D. Boon!)
James Williamson rejoining the Stooges
The Stooges finally making the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame (Next targets: The New York Dolls, Black Flag, and The Minutemen… and that’s a fucking vow and a promise from me!)
Lux Interior being transferred from the Cramps to Rock N’ Roll Heaven’s Helluva Band
A Sex Pistols reunion
A Public Image Ltd. reunion
Malcolm McLaren, the former Sex Pistols “mis-manager” dying of cancer… followed by Johnny Rotten NOT singing “Celebration” or “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” (good on ya, Johnny…)
Seven books autographed by Henry Rollins
One book autographed by Sen. Arlen Specter
Three e-mails from Henry Rollins
Two e-mails from Jello Biafra
Three day trips to New York where I spent over $700 combined in one store (Virgin Megastore) alone
Four visits to Apple Stores where I spent $0 (and wish I had been able to spend several times what I spent at Virgin)
Five day trips to Philadelphia
Two day trips to Syracuse, NY
One Stooges concert
One Bon Jovi concert (goddamn motherfucking fuck!)
Two Flyleaf concerts
Two Evanescence concerts
Two Sick Puppies concerts
Two 3 Doors Down concerts (Which makes four times I’ve seen my fiancee’s favorite band, versus zero times I’ve seen my favorite band… that’s gotta be corrected quick-fast)
Two opening sets prior to 3DD by Hinder (Most boring band not named Nickelback or Daughtry, by a long shot)
Two Breaking Benjamin concerts (and unfortunately, although they played well as always, the sound at the second sucked! What was up with that, Ben?)
One missed Puffy AmiYumi concert (goddamn motherfucking fuck!)
One missed Morning Musume concert (yes, that concert!!)
One missed Mike Watt & The Secondmen concert (sorry, Mike… still!!!)
Four 100-count spindles of CD-R’s
Two Palm Treo 680 smartphones
Three Blackberry smartphones (no, I’m not getting an iPhone)
Four SD cards
Three phonograph needles
Morning Musume CDs finally being released in the United States (the flipside… well, I’ll get to that soon enough…)
Nine WordPress themes
Seven domain names (on top of the previously mentioned ones, there’s TGML’s URL, the one for the Meetan blog, and a second one for the Reina blog)
Two different Reina Tanaka/Robert Fripp header graphics at MotokoAoyama.com (Vee improved on the original)
Ai Kago finally making a comeback
One W album that’s gone the way of the original version of SMiLE
One Guns N’ Roses album finally being finished, handed in, and released!
Ace Frehley beating his ex-bandmates to record stores with new material… and not having to sell out to Wal-Mart to do it!
Six Mike Watt-related albums recorded during this blog’s and its predecessor’s lifetime waiting mixdown or release
Two animes with Reina Tanaka doing voice work
Two knocked-up MoMusus
Two instances where I bitched about Nozomi Tsuji getting knocked up
Three instances where I remarked about what a lucky bastard Taiyo Sugiura is
Three snarky remarks made by me about Avril Lavgine
One snarky remark made by “Reina” about Jamie Lynn Spears
One snarky remark made by me to “Reina” about Beyonce Knowles
Countless snarky remarks about American Idle
More American Idle contestants losing their recording contracts
Five Reina Tanaka photobooks
One tire
Two illnesses
Two back-to-back NaNoWriMo wins
Three book projects (two simultaneous, one on hold)
One published short story (”The Man In The Hummer” in Deliver Us From Evil, available from Jaded Silence Press)
All four versions of American Wota
One nomination at the IntlWota Awards
Two jokes stolen from Jeff Dunham
One joke stolen from Nothing Nice To Say
Three times I got under the skin of Tony Brummel at Victory Records… that I know of. (Might as well make it four: How does it feel to lose Silverstein AND Bayside on top of Hawthorne Heights and Atreyu, baldy? I hear Aiden’s next…)
Five times my partner at My Sweet Meetan, Chris (CK) went to Japan
Reina Tanaka’s 18th birthday
Reina Tanaka’s 19th birthday
Reina Tanaka’s 20th birthday
My 40th birthday… I stopped counting after that.
Mike Watt’s 50th birthday… and counting
Iggy Pop’s 60th birthday… and counting – face it, he’s one unstoppable motherfucker, for which we should all be grateful.
Several boxes of CD sleeves
Countless mouse and camera batteries
Countless VitaminWaters
Countless instances where I took to heart David Peel’s adage that “fuck” is not a dirty word
A year and a half of lost blog archives (Don’t trust your webhosting to anyone who stage-names himself “Vikki Stixx”… or for that matter your real estate matters)
Not enough trips to Starbucks or Sonic (yeah, N.E. PA got one of those last summer!)
More money spent at CDJapan than at Gallery of Sound
Not as much money spent on vinyl since 2008, at least I don’t think so… but then again I’ve still taken that option whenever offered)
Virgin Megastore going out of business in 2009
Three Record Store Days (counting the forthcoming one this Saturday, which I’ll be honoring)
And one girlfriend, since upgraded to fiancée and soon to be upgraded to wife on 6.26.10