Blog - July 2013 Archives

July 2013 Archives

Index

.27 Weekly revue: 2013 week #30 (July 20 to 26)
.20 Weekly revue: 2013 week #29 (July 13 to 19)
.13 Weekly revue: 2013 week #28 (July 6 to 12)
.06 Weekly revue: 2013 week #27 (June 29 to July 5)
.02 Weekly revue: 2013 week #26 (June 22 to 28)

July 27, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #30 (July 20 to 26)

Food: - Galette bretonne & crêpe concarnoise (crème de marrons), Crêperie Le Bretagne à Kagurazaka
- Rhubarb pie, Hand Bakes at Lumine 2, Shinjuku
- Chicken meat ball & winter melon curry, at Tapir, Shinjuku

Music events:

- Went to see Seiji, a French chanson singer whose recent debut mini-album was produced by Takanami K-taro. K-taro was there to MC the event (and also sing chorus during the encore!), and the guest DJ was Konishi Yasuharu! (Like if this wasn't enough, I can't resist to say that Maki was in the audience! Talk about a reunion. :))
Also Kaji Hideki and Koshi Miharu had guest spots in the show.

1st set: La vie en rose / kuchibiru ni uta o / Que reste-t-il de nos amours / Speak Low / Je te veux (w/ Koshi Miharu) / Parlez-moi d'amour (w/ Koshi Miharu) / minatomachi / Nana no uta / Life is a cabaret
2nd set: Paris Wellington / Le tour du monde / Les feuilles mortes / C'est si bon (w/ Kaji Hideki) / La javanaise (w/ Kaji Hideki) / La java bleue / Bon voyage / Quand on n'a que l'amour
Encore: kuchibiru ni uta o (w/ Takanami K-taro)

- And, I went to see a classical concert of the "ongaku no ehon" series, featuring Zoorasian Brass, string quartet tsuru-usagi and the pipe organist owl. Musicians with beautiful animal masks perform well-known pieces, with added bits of humor to keep the kids entertained. It's impressive to see them play brass instruments despite the large masks!

Music release news: Negicco, sōtaiseiriron, playtime rock, nakayoshi group, Seiji

Playlist: frenesi, FPM, hitomitoi, p&art sasanoooha, "Crue-L Café", Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

This week's videos:

"ongaku no ehon" Music picture book classical concert

Pizzicato Five "Baby, It's You"

Negicco "Idol bakari kikanai de" (full version)

July 20, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #29 (July 13 to 19)

Spent last weekend mostly relaxing in the countryside, and had a busy week, so not much to report. :) Lots of music news updates though!

Food: - Delicious cakes from Acacier (Saitama)

Music event report: I wrote a report of last week's Playtime Rock (Takanami K-tarō) show at Saravah Tokyo, Shibuya. Check it out!

Music release news: Lullatone, Toki Asako, Misola, Tommy february6, hitomitoi, "Getz/Gilberto + 50", Urbangarde, "Photo Kano", keme, Towa Tei, (((sssurrounddd))), Takahashi Yukihiro, Negicco

Playlist: playtime rock, Towa Tei hitomitoi, Takeshi Nakatsuka with Iga-Bang BB, Takako Minekawa amp; Dustin Wong, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Tarte Tatin

This week's videos: Towa Tei "Apple"

nakayoshi group "haru no arashi"
(Video directed by VIDEOTAPEMUSIC)

Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr

July 13, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #28 (July 6 to 12)

Food: - Mexican breakfast for lunch at World Breakfast All Day, Gaienmae
- Great bagels from Maruichi Bagel, Shirokane-Takanawa
- Bella's Cupcakes, Shirokane-Takanawa. We actually found their sales truck by accident. The cupcakes were really good! Unfortunately the choco mint flavor was sold out.
- Macarons from Acacier (Saitama), currently at Isetan's "Ma pâtisserie" corner until Tuesday. Big and delicious!

- Also we went to an event by Indian curry unit Masala Wala. We had been to their events before, and by coincidence we met one of the guys at a Sri Lankan restaurant the other day and he told us about this event. They showed photos of a recent trip to India, during which they got to meet famous actor Rajinikanth, it was their dream. There was a buffet of food they prepared so we ate while watching the slideshow and listening to their stories. That was fun!

Exhibition: Randomly dropped by gallery Arataniurano in Shirokane-Takanawa, and got to see an exhibition by SF manga artist Yokoyama Yūichi. Very cool!

Music event: Takanami K-taro (ex-P5) was in town (he currently lives in Nagasaki) for a show with his unit Playtime Rock! They have a new album coming later this month, and it was sold in advance at the show. That was great! Nosa Reina also appeared for 2 songs. I'll try to write a report soon, but meanwhile here are a few photos. (More photos here.)

Music release news: CTO LAB., The Aprils

Playlist: Love and Hates, hitomitoi, salyu x salyu, Nosa Reina, Takanami Keitaro to Playtime Rock meets Shibata Kenichi, Tomoki Kanda

This week's video: playtime rock "Play Time" digest clip

July 6, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #27 (June 29 to July 5)

Last weekend were little outings to Kunitachi and Yokohama for a bit of shopping.

Food: - Indian curry at Indo Fuji, Higashi-Koganei
- Brownie and coffee at Room 103, Kunitachi, the sister shop of vintage furniture shop Let'Em In just next door
- Jordan breakfast (for dinner) at World Breakfast All Day, Gaienmae. This is a recently opened restaurant that does what the name says, it serves a breakfast from somewhere in the world, and not only at breakfast time but all day! They change countries every month or so (now it's Mexico for July and August, and then it will be Vietnam in September). We'll have to try them all. :)
- Curry at Paku-mori with my friend Alan visiting from the U.S. Always good seeing you!
- Had some last Sunday Bake Shop before their summer holidays! My favorite brownie & more! :)

Music event: Went to Vanilla Beans' 4th show as a live band. This time they shared the stage with Nomiya Maki (actually her new unit Nomiya Maki & BIBA, with Bravo Komatsu and Ujino)! There's too much to say about this great show and I'll surely write a full report soon. :) Meanwhile here are the set lists.

Nomiya Maki & BIBA set list: Tokyo wa yoru no 7ji / Superstar (World tour ver.) / Venus (Bananarama cover) / Magic Carpet Ride / Sweet Soul Revue / Twiggy Twiggy

Vanilla Beans set list: sakasaka Circus / onegai, Doctor / Choco Mint Flavor Time / oppai / Baby Portable Rock / koi no Theory / Summer vacation / Muscat Slope Love / Jewel Memories
Encore w/ Nomiya Maki: Tokyo wa yoru no 7ji !

New music: - hitomitoi "Surfbank Social Club": the follow-up to last year's "City Dive" that I really loved. This new album again has Dorian and Pan Pacific Playa friends teaming up for a great electro-taste nostalgic-sounding city pops album.
- Vanilla Beans "Muscat Slope Love": I had missed getting this single when it came out in May, but better late than never! I got the limited edition with the bonus DVD of France footage which is quite fun!
- The Aprils "High Flying Girl": Brand new single of a song for NHK program "dai! tensai TV kun", and includes a song for iPhone game "Groove Catch". This is the latest of the Aprils' upbeat sound that I love! (I still have to post about this one at Tokyo's Coolest Sound, I've been running late with updates, but I will!)
- jōdan hakushaku "LSB-1002 [Second Edition]": This is the new unit of Maezono Naoki (of Maezono Naoki Group) and Arai Toshiya (current programmer for Konishi Yasuharu). This 2nd edition contains a remix by Mizumoto Akira (ex-TMVG).

Playlist: ... also Playtime Rock, Vanilla Beans, Nomiya Maki

Music release news: "Revisit - Brunswick" (Sunaga Tatsuo), FQTQ, MEG Zombies / MEG

July 2, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #26 (June 22 to 28)

This is last week's revue, a few days later than usual.

Music events: - On Saturday June 22 was an event with blue marble and mishmash* Julie Watai at strobe cafe. Check out my full report here.

- Then on Sunday (June 23) was Nakatsuka Takeshi's 10th anniversary show at Shibuya O-West. It was a long event running from 3pm until the night.
I got there early evening and first got to see hoshikuzu Scat, a Shōwa-kayō drag queen trio I had been curious about because they have songs written by Takeshi. Turned out they have really good voices! After a cover of Matsuda Seiko's "aoi sangoshō", they sang "hoshikuzu Scat no Theme", "Magnet Joe ni ki o tsukero", "Cosmetic Siren", and I believe "News na yoru".
Next up was Rocketman who did a special DJ set only of his own songs. One featured singer Cana on stage. Rocketman has a new album coming out on July 24 under his real name, Ryo Fukawa, titled "life is music".
Partial set list: La mer remix / Mermaid feat Cana / My favorite things remix / koi Romantic / tonda Hattary Boy / Love Disco / It's time / dancemusic

Then was of course the best of the day, Nakatsuka Takeshi backed by a big band of 13 musicians, Iga-Bang BB! Takeshi's usual band was also on stage, as well as bonus percussionist "matzz" from Quasimode. The set didn't focus only on Takeshi's latest works, but also included several from all over his solo career. There were also several guest singers, Bikke (aka Bikkoo) from Tokyo No.1 Soul Set, Qypthone's Izumi, Nomiya Maki, and Toki Asako (ex-Cymbals). That was a wonderful show!
Set list: niji o mita kai (Have you ever seen the rainbow?) / tsumetai jōnetsu (Cold Passion) / namida ni nureta yume no kakera / Skip Beat (Kuwata Band cover) / kaze no tobira feat. Bikke / On the parade feat. Ookawara Izumi (Qypthone) / Beautiful feat. Nomiya Maki / Young, Alive, in Love (Flipper's Guitar cover) / Kiss & Ride
Encore: Your Voice feat. Toki Asako / kita no kuni kara (cover)
Takeshi has a new album featuring Iga-Bang BB coming at the end of July, and it was available in advance at the show so I picked up a copy!

- And last Friday I went to Elektel's Lounge at Koenji Connection. Both members of Elektel, polymoog and Ueken, were DJing there. Ueken seemed to play more 80's songs while polymoog played more 90's. :) It was fun! And I got to meet Jellyfish's Tomoko, who often contributed vocals to Elektel. I have to dig around to try to find a Jellyfish CD I must have somewhere..!

Music release news: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, mishmash* Julie Watai

Playlist: Takeshi Nakatsuka with Iga-Bang BB, Nosa Reina, frenesi, Kinoco Hotel, MissWonda, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Denki Groove

This week's videos: Nakayoshi Group "Psycho Drastic Kiss"

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