Best of 2006 pt. 1

I've been slowly coming to the realization that I'm extremely out of touch with the music scene, despite the fact that I love music so much and it's practically my life. It's a weird feeling. So, if this here opinion still matters to you at all, here's the first part of my best of 2006 list!


Rx Bandits - ... And the Battle Begun

I fell in love with Progress right around the time that the ska scene was really dying. The Rx Bandits seemed like they were developing alongside my tastes. When ska was really popular and I listened to quite a few sub-par ska bands, Rx Bandits were one of the worst! When ska kids started to move on to harder punk and emo, Rx Bandits introduced more passionate and technical elements to their repertoire, and they suddenly seemed like the only good ska band left. A few years later, around the time of The Resignation's release, emo and punk were having their lifeblood drained from them by soulless emo-metal mascarading as progressive and genuine music. The Resignation was soulful, honest, and desperate, and the lyrics touched on the truly menacing nature of George Bush's regime, personal convictions, and all sorts of good stuff. Everytime I saw some moron at an Rx Bandits show wearing a Finch shirt, or something along those lines, I had to wonder if they found the same redeeming qualities in RxB's music as I did, or if they just liked them because the Drive-Thru hype machine had gotten to them.

By the time ...And the Battle Begun was finally released, I had probably seen Rx Bandits in concert a dozen times, and my love for them had inexplicably waned through no fault of their own. Boy, was I stupid. I listened to the album twice and felt unimpressed. 4 months went by, bringing me up to 2 weeks ago, when I gave it another shot and suddenly realized that RxB had just made their best album. More soulful, more honest, still desperate, and also more mature too. The music remains very technical without flirting with metal as much as The Resignation's detractors would say, and incredible pop hooks can be found in every song, between the improvisation and noodling.


Nikaido Kazumi - Nikaido Kazumi no Album
I saw her perform in San Francisco about 3 years ago and wasn't too into her music. It was just her and a guitar, and her singing was off the wall, and her songs dissonant and meandering. The highlight of her set was when she sang and scatted as if her voice was a trumpet.


Fast-forward to August, 2006, and I'm in Tokyo at the Kakubarhythm office. My friend Tezuka had her new record in his hands, freshly released by Kakubarhythm, but I didn't pay any mind to it because I remembered how little I liked her live show. Fast-forward again to November, 2006, and I stumble upon some information online that Sakerock performed as her backing band on the record!!! I LOVE SAKEROCK!!! I checked out the 2 song single and the title track, "Lover's Rock", was graceful and sweet. The B-side, "Ittemo Tattemo Irarenai wa", was catchy as heck, AND it turned out to be a version of a song I'd previously heard performed by Illreme on the "Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy" soundtrack. I don't know the exact relation between the versions, but it's definitely the same song.


Her full-length is quite a bit more ambient and less organic than the single, but Nikaido Kazumi's Bjork-like warble of a voice is very melodic and aptly accompanied by the slow-building accompaniments of her music. I wonder what I'd think of her were I to see her again...

You can watch her video for "Lover's Rock" here!!!!

More to come in the weeks/days/nanoseconds that follow. Hardy har har!!!