Blog - January 2019 Archives

January 2019 Archives

Index

.27 Weekly revue: 2019 week #4 (January 19 to 25)
.20 Weekly revue: 2019 week #3 (January 12 to 18)
.15 Weekly revue: 2019 week #2 (January 5 to 11)
.06 Weekly revue: 2019 week #1 (December 29 to January 4)

January 27, 2019

Weekly revue: 2019 week #4 (January 19 to 25)

Food: - Last dinner at Tapir, Shin-Ōkubo. It was a favorite restaurant for a long time! Thanks for all the wonderful and delicious food!
- Galette des rois from Avranches Guesnay
- Curry & biriyani at Marujō, Ikenoue
- Strawberry mille-feuilles at Matsuki, Nakano

Music event: On Friday the 25th, I went down to Yokohama to see the Scooters! They performed at an old style live music restaurant called Friday, which seems to be famous as a place where Crazy Ken Band (of Yokohama) often perform. I rarely go outside of Tokyo to see a show, but I thought this was a great opportunity! I ordered Tahiti curry which was very good!

For the 1st set, the Scooters' girls wore new cheetah print outfits designed by latest member Coco (of fashion brand Masse Mensch). Part of that set was "Hey Girl" which is a great original song from album "Une Manche et La Belle". The set ended with latest song "Be My Baby" for which Hoshino Michiru joined to recite her narrative part.

The 2nd set began with MC Turban Chada Jr. on guitar accompanied by the other vocalists. They first sang "kanashii uwasa" (YouTube) from the same album as above, a song written by Konishi Yasuharu. This set also included the Scooters' signature Motown Medly and more great covers. Towards the end of the show, there was a special appearance of Nomiya Maki who was in the audience, to give a flower bouquet to leader Shindō Mitsuo for his birthday (the following day)!

There was an encore of "Tokyo Disco Night" for which Michiru-chan joined once again. They performed the song in the same style as the single version of her cover, in which verses are sang in turn by her and the Scooters. That was great! Thanks for a wonderful show! :)

1st set list: (Love Is Like a) Heat Wave / Dancing in the Street / I Believe in Miracles / Break-a-way / Young Americans / Hey Girl / Make You Mine / Be My Baby (with Hoshino Michiru)
2nd set list: kanashii uwasa / Stubborn Kind of Fellow / Baby It's You / Motown Medley / The Key to Her Ferrari / Shout
Encore: Tokyo Disco Night (with Hoshino Michiru) / So Long Baby

Music release news: moonriders, Natsuki Mari, Mint-Lee noka

January 20, 2019

Weekly revue: 2019 week #3 (January 12 to 18)

Food: - Meals lunch at Ōiwa Shokudō, Nishi-Ogikubo
- Premium C.C. Rider burger at Teddy's Bigger Burgers, Harajuku

Music event: - On January 14, event "Cult Club ~MANON Sweet 17 SP~" was held at Shimokitazawa Three. A special edition of HNC's "Cult Club" series, this also celebrated MANON's upcoming 17th birthday (actually at the end of the month). The event also featured young rappers Tokyo Invaders, Kiwami on The Beats and Mom. All were fun and of great quality, and I especially enjoyed Mom!

MANON's set was backed by producer Yuppa (HNC), who always plays live keys and samplers, and VJ unit onnacodomo! They did a full set of 8 songs, including a brand new one that had some killer bass sounds and featured a guest vocalist, and the premiere of a new video clip for "Gomenne Girl" (from album "Teenage Diary"). It seems that the new song will be released digitally, hopefully soon as I can't wait to hear it again!

There was an encore which began with a cake (decorated with a photo of her and another of her cat's face). Normcore Boyz happened to be in the audience and they joined on stage for their remix version of "2 Live In A Real World", which was followed by "Popcorn Crisis".

MANON set list: xxFANCYPOOLxx / Wavy Pineapple Days / Somewhere / Gomenne Girl / New song / 2 Live In A Real World / Swipe / Coco Boi Romance
Encore: 2 Live In A Real World feat. Normcore Boyz / Popcorn Crisis

Tokyo Invaders, Kiwami on The Beats, Mom

MANON with HNC and onnacodomo, and Normcore Boyz

Music release news: lyrical school, Kamoda Jun featuring Yano Akiko

This week's videos:

MANON "Coco Boi Romance"

Mom "Boyfriend"

Cutie Pai "miss you (short ver.)

January 15, 2019

Weekly revue: 2019 week #2 (January 5 to 11)

Food: - Hitachino wagyu burger @ Hitachino Brewing Mito

Music event: - My first show of the year was Watts Towers (Kishino You-ichi, Jon (the dog), Mint-Lee, Itoken, Seaweed Sisters et al.). This open price show (pay what you want after watching) is held by Kishino-san every year on January 11 (his birthday) at Shibuya O-West. The event also featured VIDEOTAPEMUSIC (with Dorian) and Korean singer-songwriter Lang Lee, and also DJ Park Daham.

VIDEOTAPEMUSIC is always impressive, with a mix of VHS video mash-up and live instruments. He was accompanied by a guitarist and a percussionist, and for the 2nd half of his set Dorian joined on keyboards, playing warm keys and his skillful solos as I like!

That was followed by Lang Lee, who sang with her guitar accompanied by a Korean cellist. Despite singing all live, her songs were sync'd with large projected video of the lyrics translated in Japanese so that the crowd could understand. A few times they were joined by several musicians from Watts Towers' band (Mint-Lee on keyboards, Itoken on drums, and Seaweed Sisters on winds). That was very good, however the best of set was when Shibata Satoko joined for a song, doing great vocal harmonies with Lang Lee. They announced that they'll release something together next month.

Last up was Watts Towers, whose set began with Kishino You-ichi at the DJ decks. After playing one or two songs and dance-miming the lyrics along (as it's his DJ style), he then played "Bohemian Rhapsody" and walked onto the stage continuing to dance as the band members joined and started playing along to the song. That was a quite impressive and also hilarious performance, as probably most of the audience had already seen the Queen movie. The live show then followed, and after a while Jon (the dog) also joined to dance and play along. It had been a long time since I had seen Jon, and that was really great! Also, all of the musicians were so skillful, and of course Kishino-san is always unique and amazing.

New music: My first music buys of the year were nimit & co. and BANK's split cassette, and at the same time a used rare Frenesi 7". I was also able to get Mint-Lee noka's first 7" picture disc which I had wanted so much ever since I saw it online.

Music release news: nimit & co. / BANK, Dance for Philosphy, Controversial Spark

This week's video: nimit & co. "Bask"

January 6, 2019

Weekly revue: 2019 week #1 (December 29 to January 4)

Happy New Year!!

Food: - Soba at Kura+Soba Nakaya, Naka-shi, Ibaraki

Movie: - The first movie of the year was "Bohemian Rhapsody"! It was good to learn about the history of Queen and Freddie, and also see a lot of good live scenes.

Music: At the end of the year, I wrote a lengthy retrospective of Vanilla Beans, who disbanded in October, including reports of their last two shows. Read only if you want too much information. :) I wrote it mostly to put my various memories of this great duo into writing.

Music release news: Way Wave, Chikada Haruo, lyrical school, Orangeade, Denki Groove

This week's video: Denki Groove "ichigo musume wa hitorikko"

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