PiNoisePop 2005

Last Saturday, August 27, I went to the last of three PiNoisePop shows up in San Francisco. There were a dozen or so bands performing over 6 hours, and combined with my jetlag, it proved to be a LONG night.

Among the bands I stayed awake for, I enjoyed Sanawon and Ninja Academy. Unfortunately I missed out on From Monument to Masses (as I napped in the car), and was disappointed by the Skyflakes who I usually have enjoyed in the past.

Ninja Academy is a bass and drum duo, not unlike the guitar and drum duo Hella. While I don't think I'd ever listen to a CD of theirs, seeing them live is freakin' mind-blowing!!! The bassist is probably the best I've ever seen, and the drummer is also amazing. In between songs they would rattle off faux-ninja banter, and the drummer had a little gong he would bang. It was all quite entertaining.

Sanawon wasn't super amazing, but fairly energetic, and the petite singer Jenny has a mouth like a sailor which she was unafraid to use in between songs. Sanawon is like the poor-man's Mates of State, but that's not a bad thing to be called if you ask me. I actually probably would've enjoyed Sanawon more had the acoustics at the warehouse not been so horribly echoey. Their keyboard progressions and melodies were pretty good, but were mostly lost in the massive blob of reverberating cymbals.

Sambomaster

In a way Sambomaster is like the Modest Mouse of Japan. They're a strange rock band that has somehow risen to immense fame without changing their approach to music. Walking around the streets of Shibuya in Tokyo their videos would appear on big video screens on the sides of high-rises, their songs were in soft-drink commercials, and their new single was on display at every record store across the city (more on the new single some other day).

I've been listening to their album "Sambomaster Wa Kimi ni Katari Kakeru" non-stop since I got home from Japan 3 days ago. It's incredibly inspirational and sentimental, while at the same time being rowdy and gross (in a good way! I often call music I like gross). It's an awesome mix of anthemic indie rock with funky horns, like a weird new incarnation of James Brown in a nerdy Japanese dude's body.

Their website can be found HERE.

Twinkle is... Looking for the 3rd Man

Melodic, mod-rock band featuring former bassist Okura and guitarist Tsukamoto of Japanese ska-punk legends Fruity. The band released only two 2-song demo tapes and one 3-song CD, all of which are recorded rather poorly, but all the songs contained therein are rather catchy, driving rock. It's the same type of rock and roll that Ted Leo would play.

Check out http://yourchoice.mods.jp/japanese/melodic/twinkle.html for more info (sorry, the page is in Japanese).

I've Sold Out!

So I finally started a blog! I'm curious how long it will be before someone I know discovers this!

The main reason I started this is to have somewhere to ramble about music that I like. Furthermore, I suppose it will a place for me to spew insults at music I hate.

Niiiice!