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August 31, 2008
Tokyo Boys Bravo, DJ chipple in Koenji 9/12
Announcement! / 告知
I will be DJing at Kōenji café-bar Connection on September 12, in an event focusing on techno-pop of the 80's. I plan to play techno-kayō, vocal pop of the 80's either produced by or reminding of YMO, and also perhaps some of techno-pop/pico-pico of the recent years. Those who like Perfume, capsule, Usagi-chang records should also enjoy it!
The price is only ¥500, and there will even be a live set by polymoog of Elektel that I'm looking forward to!
The event starts at 19:00 and goes on all night. After 1am anyone can bring their own CDs or records and borrow the turntables.
9月12日に、高円寺コネクションでDJします！イベントは80'sのテクノポップを中心に、僕はテクノ歌謡をかける予定です。最近のお気に入りのテクノポップも持っていきます。
YMOももちろん、Perfume・capsule・ウサギチャンレコーズなどが好きな方も楽しめるイベントになる思います！
時間がある方、遊びにきてください！
1時以降は飛び入りOKなので、好きなCDやレコードを持ってきてね。
Tokyo Boys Bravo
東京ボーイズブラボー
Tribute to Techno-pop
on 9/12 (Friday)
at Kōenji Connection (map)
DJs:
momo 8
akashic
donbei
chipple
polymoog (Elektel)
Live: polymoog
Price: ¥500!
Opens at 19:00, all night
I will be playing from 20:40 and 0:20.
Posted on August 31, 2008 at 13:44 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (7)
arcorhyme "aoi neko" video
Here's a brand new video from Arcorhyme (MySpace) which I just found out about! Taken from album "la douce vie", this song is titled "aoi neko" (translates to "blue cat").
Those who haven't, also check out "amai hibi".
Posted on August 31, 2008 at 01:22 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
August 28, 2008
Family kanshasai - YMCK & Kaji Hideki: live report
Yesterday was the first of YMCK's 2 day event "Family kanshasai" (ファミリー感謝祭) named to sound like a sort of "thank you sale" at your local supermarket. I went there of course to see YMCK but also Kaji Hideki who I had just seen for the first time last weekend.
At the beginning and between the sets was some DJing, and every once in a while would come up a supermarket-like jingle by YMCK. And before every artist was a funny message...
"Attention please, Kaji Hideki is asked to please come to the stage in the basement. Thank you." Haha. :)
Opening was Kaji Hideki, who was this time accompanied by a full band with two long-haired guys on keyboards and bass, and Yoshié on drums!! Yoshié is Shibuya-kei's leading female drummer since back in the day, and she kicks ass. That was a really energetic set. It seemed that they maybe had a sort of light backtrack, but it gave full room to the band's sound.
Partial set list: Muscat / Typical / Siesta / amai koibito / My Boom Is Me ...
Kaji-kun has a new album coming on October 22!
Next up was Watanababy, who isn't just quite my thing so I took a little break at the back, meanwhile finding my friend Akiko, but he sure was very popular! Even though he just sang and talked, accompanied with his acoustic guitar, the place was full of fans clapping and waving their hands to his every direction. Entertaining anyway!
Last on stage was of course YMCK! They played a full set similar to what I had seen at Womb 2 months ago, but in addition they played 3 brand new tracks! Two of these are covers from their upcoming cover albums coming next month, and the other is the ending theme for Japan/Korea anime series "Arado senki" (aka "Dungeon & Fighter", it seems) to start airing next January! They said that the anime's ending will not only feature YMCK's music but also their 8-bit graphics.
Partial set list: Starlight / Go! YMCK, Go! / Panic Racer 005 / Inoue Yōsui's yume no naka e / Sugar Babe's Down Town / Amado senki Ending Theme / Future Invation / Arigato Mr. Roboto ...
On my way out I bought a very cute YMCK mobile phone strap that doubles as a screen cleaner. Usually the back of these are black, but this one shows the 3 8-bit characters faces on the front, and the back of their heads behind. :)
Posted on August 28, 2008 at 23:59 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
August 25, 2008
Kōenji Awa-odori 2008
This weekend was the annual Awa-odori dance festival in Kōenji. It was raining lightly throughout the weekend, but just enough so that the crowds weren't as dense as usual, and the dancers didn't seem to mind at all. :)
We had a great time although we couldn't catch Microsoft-ren or Roy's recommended Edokko-ren.
This time we went with an Indian friend from work. I learned many things about India in a short time from him and two other friendly co-workers, but they are all leaving back to their home country by the end of the month. I will sure miss them!
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
More photos from previous times I went: 2005, 2004, 2003
Posted on August 25, 2008 at 22:26 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (0)
August 24, 2008
Soundmatic Circle of Friends vol.4: Kaji Hideki & Arcorhyme live report
Yesterday was the 4th of Arcorhyme's event series "Soundmatic Circle of Friends", held at Mona Records in Shimokitazawa. Even though I often see them, I couldn't manage to make it to the first 3 of the series for a reason or another. They always invite very interesting artists with a certain similarity in sound or influences, and this time the main guest was Kaji Hideki!
It was my first time to see Kaji-kun live, and I even got to briefly meet him, he was a very friendly and nice guy! He told me that he had been living in England for 5 years but just recently moved back to Tokyo this year.
First things first, the opening act was Everyday People from Osaka, a band that I hadn't heard about before, but it turns out they've been active for 15 years! They had a good soft rock sound with male vocals, and at times reminded me of Original Love. Good show!
Next Kaji Hideki got on stage on his own with just his guitar, and proceeded to perform a greatest hits set, and also two songs that he wrote for the movie "Detroit Metal City" (a manga-inspired film that's full of Shibuya-kei references, just out in theatres). The opening song was actually one he wrote for Chocolat, and he played that one on ukulele. His whole set was very lively and full of laughs, he's really a great entertainer!
Set list: Blue de Happy ga ii (Chocolat) / natsu monogatari / The Heart of the Saturday Night Live / amai koibito (from "Detroit Metal City") / Sally My Love (from "DMC") / August of P. / My Boom Is Me / atarashii Sabot
Next up was Arcorhyme, this time accompanied by Nakayama Tsutomu (a Sony-era Pizzicato Five support musician, who later also played with Original Love) on keyboards. Nakayama-san's piano and organ sounds gave a brand new flavor to Arcorhyme that was really nice. The set focused on songs from album "Soundmatic Brain". Takanami-san played guitar, and singer Ikuyo also played percussions and flute.
Set list: Do you believe in magic / tsukiyo no hōseki / Shadow tail / You really got me / Strawberry decandence / aoi neko / Don't you believe in magic? / amai hibi
Throughout the event they had been screening old foreign movies that have yet to be released in Japan, and at the end of Arcorhyme's set Kaji-kun came back on stage for some talk about movies and also to play two songs from his latest album and mostly instrumental side-project "Hideki Spaghetti" (album out on Spanish label Siesta) that took inspiration from spaghetti western soundtracks. It was the first time he performed songs from this album live, and I really hope he'll consider doing a full Hideki Spaghetti show sometime, because that was really great!
Set list: the pretty young girls from polto / spaghetti men's club
Upon leaving, I bought the Hideki Spaghetti album, and since Kaji-kun was nearby I asked him if he'd give me an autograph, but I'd never have thought this would create a big line-up of about 15 girls all wanting autographs too! I just hope I didn't cause trouble. :)
Kaji Hideki can be caught on stage with YMCK next Wednesday at Shibuya Seco Lounge (details at Tokyo Gig Guide). Arcorhyme will be back at Café Après-midi for monthly free evening sets on September 16 (Tuesday) and October 20 (Monday), it starts at 20:00.
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on August 24, 2008 at 14:51 | Permalink | Trackback (1) | Comments (3)
August 18, 2008
HKG 2008 #3: Day 2 - Hello Kitty Black Wonder
Monday July 28, day 2 of our Hong Kong trip. Before leaving for Hong Kong, we had learned of a special Hello Kitty attraction that was taking place just while we were there. It was related to brands like Silly Thing and Colette, which made me curious about it, but not being quite a Kitty fan I didn't feel serious about checking it out.
However when we got there, I had found the latest Milk magazine that had more info about it, and came with a free Hello Kitty mouse pad in collaboration with local artists Softhard and Mcdonald's. This got me a bit more excited and I felt like this trip would get its share of Hello Kitty action.
So on Monday we set off for Hello Kitty Black Wonder, a sort of life-sized RPG where you must go through a dark castle in order to save Kitty and Dear Daniel, who have been made prisoners by Kuromi. While all things Kitty are usually pink and cute, this dark setting made it seem more interesting.
Upon entering, we were handed a lantern that if lost or broken we'd have to pay about ¥30000, ouch! You bet we were careful. We were then explained the game, which consisted of searching for our designated symbol in each of the rooms and collecting the letters found next to those. At the end you have to make a word from the 5 letters, which is enough to rescue Kitty. Each of the rooms were quite interesting, with the symbols hidden in creative places.
The whole thing was also quite hi-tech, with videos on large screens in most rooms, and also the lantern contained some electronic tag (RFID maybe) that when placed in a specific spot in a room's entrance it would record that we had been there. This was probably meant so that you couldn't complete the game without really going everywhere. :) At the end we input our winning words in computer (ours were QUEEN and BLACK), which printed out our results from the whole journey.
While we initially had low expectations, we really had quite a fun time in there!
Oh but the greatest surprise came at the end when we visited the shop at the exit. I was going to buy the soundtrack CD anyway because it was a really cute design, a clear CD with a pink skull, but then I looked at it and it said: "All tracks by Lullatone"!!! Incredible to find my dear Nagoya friends in such a place, and in Hong Kong. :) Pure coincidence! Most of the other cool goods were sold out, no more T-shirts of any decent size or any of the cheaper stuffed toys, but we grabbed a quite nice candle holder (see video below) and a set of pins.
After a quick break at Honeymoon Dessert in the same mall, where we had mango pudding and rice dumplings in warm sweet peanuts soup, we headed to station Kowloon Tong for a bit of shopping at another mall called Festival Walk. There was a skating rink in it that attracted lots of people.
We had got day passes for the subway, so we took the train down to Causeway Bay for some more shopping and also to check out the Eric Haze exhibition at Delay No Mall, a young mall produced by G.O.D
We ended the day by going to a Shanghai-style restaurant, where I loved the spring rolls!, and then we stopped by Ching Ching Desserts.
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on August 18, 2008 at 01:12 | Permalink | Trackback (0) | Comments (2)
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