Posts Tagged philadelphia

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Posted by Jim in ｌｉｓｔ十 on 2012.12.31

Since time immemorial, man has made introductory disclaimers to lists. Grand and authoritative, yet totally not a big deal, the introduction of a year end list discounting the importance, even complete futility of such lists, leading into the exact same type of list, is at this point in history, a refined art. But in making such a statement, I would be declaring my myself a master of such an art, which is something I would never want to be seen doing. Luckily no one reads these introductions.

  1. Best J-pop video

    Close enough.

  2. Best Albums I Did Not Buy

    Best album trailer. No real competition. Didn’t really listen to it. But am sure to be subjected to it plenty at terrible parties which are really, really terrible sober. But that’s my life. (Not really anymore.)

    • Swans – The Seer

      I am afraid of Swans. Some people say that but they have all the albums, like that guy who’s afraid of spiders but he has 6 aquariums of tarantulas in his bedroom. You know that guy? No you don’t. There’s no guy like that. The best you can do conquering a true fear is to not have a total breakdown in its presence. So I was able to deal with Swans in streaming form this year in limited amounts but that’s as good as it gets.

    • Namie Amuro – Uncontrolled

      This album I listened to a lot. I would have liked to buy it but can’t spend $40 on a CD right now. $30 has always been the upper limit. Of course, there’s a Namie page on iTunes right now but it only has a long bio that stops at 2005 and no music. That’s shitty. Even people that already like J-pop aren’t talking about stuff that is not available digitally somehow. (Also, everything is available digitally now…actually it’s been 10 years.) Most don’t even bother with piracy anymore; this CD-only stuff is becoming invisible. I sometimes justify the expense of J-CDs for the language learning value of having the official booklet and all but this album is mostly in English.

  3. There were some good J-pop videos for real tho, right?

    Yes, and Perfume ruled the year without putting an album together. And Kyary still rules when she’s not ripping off Tommy heavenly6. (Altho Tommy herself has gone off…that double album had some good stuff, but not really that memorable.) And there’s that group with only one song. You think Namie would have one in there but she never bothered to put out any full-length videos this year. Unless you’re supposed to buy them on DVD or something. That’s not happening. (She seems to not care all that much anymore in the videos anymore.) Can you blame her? Hardly anyone’s going to see them. She’s locked into a losing strategy.

    There was some other good stuff coming out of net-phobic Avex label: Koda Kumi’s Lay Down and Crystal Kay’s Delicious na Kinyoubi. Not especially great videos, but good songs, available, like the entire albums, on the internet. (For which Avex gets $0.) But neither album was close to Namie’s. (Available for $0 or $40, which will you choose?)

  4. Top 5 Albums of Significant Significance

    In the order I thought of them:

    Sigh, Gojira, Meshuggah, Melvins, Overkill and Killing Joke made really good albums but didn’t stand out as much as their last albums. And I just realized I bought the new Torche but didn’t listen to it yet. I bet I’m forgetting some other stuff.

  5. Top 5 Albums I bought on Bandcamp

    In the order I liked them:

  6. Best live shows

    So many great shows this year. I missed most of them. But I did manage to see some bands that I had missed in previous years so I feel like I’m caught up on the bare minimum of show attendance. The only way this changes in 2013 is if I can make more money or get a job as a roadie or something.

    • Motorhead/Megadeth@MSG

      So glad I saw Megadeth before Mustaine had that complete meltdown. Everything surrounding this show was more almost more enjoyable than the show itself tho, I had almost the worst seat at the back of the theater and the sound was terrible. But I got to check off several things off an imaginary list.

    • Ghost/Opeth/Mastodon@Electric Factory

      This place has great sound. Swore off going here for years, I’m dumb. It’s not bad in general, it’s not even that big a place. I think the last show I saw there before this I was actually psychically smaller, I had this memory of this large, impersonal space. Weird. Ghost and Opeth put on good tho subdued shows, and Mastodon was so great. Getting up front for that is like the most I’ve felt at home at a show in a while, even tho I had to take off my glasses and couldn’t barely even see anything except lasers most of the show. Sounded way better than any live recording I’ve heard of them or any video out there, vox too. (I could have just been like, enjoying myself.) Parking situation sucks tho.

    • Converge@Union Transfer

      This new venue is amazing. Those old Philly punk venues are going to seem more special for their use of odd rundown spaces (This space is also repurposed, but it seems new. They actually fixed it up.), but this place has a real sound system. Which is nice if you like music. Oh, Converge is amazing live, too.

    • Decibel Tour@The Troc

      I talked about this already. All these bands were great. They couldn’t really do the blood thing cause it’s Philly, which is fine by me. Behemoth I did not realize how much they use backing tracks, don’t think I mentioned that. They’re almost like an industrial band.

  7. Best list

    Personal fave: Magnetar SGR 1806-20

  8. Best Mix

    the_e | Japanese_e Dozen (Dirte_e Dozen Mix 08/12)

    J-rap has not done too well lately; even the big name singers and bands are getting crushed by the idol machine. This is great mix of ‘real’ hip-hop into dance stuff and then classic pop. There’s even a cover of an anime song. But all almost seamless, some amazing segues.

  9. Best comic-based pop music history series

    Semi-related: How sad is it that people don’t get that Gangnam Style is a modified version of the Apache dance which Will Smith did not invent? Teach your damn kids.

  10. Best video-based pop music history & meta-criticism

    Chris Ott, Shallow Rewards, obvs. He’s not into J-pop or Metal very much of course. There’s more to life tho, c’mon, vast audience.

So I got a lot of stuff straightened out now so I’m going to be reviewing a lot of records but it’s almost completely out of a nervous compulsion to keep following through with a project. I think I’ve learned some organizational skills I can apply to other stuff, maybe even to jobs that still exist in America. Haha, just kidding. Happy New Year, suckers! %

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Shonen Knife @ Johnny Brenda’s 2012.07.19

Posted by Jim in Ａｂｏｕｔ on 2012.08.04

I left my last Shonen Knife show feeling a little over-philosophical. My writeup stops right before I walk out the door (naturally), but as I’m going back to my car in the community college parking lot, I roll up my autographed poster and think, “well, I guess that it.” You know, you follow a group for a long time…they get signed to a major and tour stadiums with legends, they have a series of their own tours in large-ish clubs…they never break up…eventually…they’re playing a local school auditorium for 50 people. Probably how they started out. It’s the circle of life or something.

So I’m glad I made this show. (Things have been kinda tight, it was close.) Back at JB’s where I saw them 3 years ago (when I was on blogging hiatus), they were right back in their element, and the usual crowd followed.

I walked in on the middle of Creem Circus‘ set. Visually, they immediately reminded me of kitsch-glam era Redd Kross but now that I think about it, I’m not sure this era of Redd Kross literally existed. They looked like what I thought Redd Kross looked like at some point but possibly never did. (The new Redd Kross record is pretty good, btw.) Sonically, they were were pretty straight up Rock with some really good twin lead stuff going on. Later I find out this is a local band led by Chris DiPinto of DiPinto Guitars. This guy is already a local legend (by name) for his guitar shop so it was cool to see him perform. (I thought he was a much older dude.)

Next was White Mystery. (I should have got pics of the openers but forget the memory card in my camera so I only had a few shots.) They’re a two-piece, kinda like a gender-reversed White Stripes but not so Blues-obsessed, just there to rock. And so they did. Really expected some part of the dude’s drum kit to break at some point and the guitarist is no joke. You’re gonna be seeing more of them if that’s even remotely your thing.

Last time at JB's the openers were Jeff the Brotherhood and (then duo) PO PO, who are both doing pretty well. I don't know if Naoko books the openers, but that some some pretty hip booking. They could be going out there with like, Johnny Poppunk & the Poppunkers, some generic whoever bands, ya know? Probably from switching labels so many times, they can make some more genuine hookups with different-type bands.

I thought I saw PO PO a/k/a Big Zeb (now a solo act) but I suppose that could have been any 6-ft tall long haired Pakistani gentleman. I did see Brian a/k/a Supreme Nothing but didn't get to talk to him. I see a lot of people I recognize at Philly shows, especially SK shows, that I don't talk to. They may or may not have bands or websites. I think I saw someone I knew from MySpace. How do you start that conversation in 2012? You don't. Well, I don't. Most of these people I don't know their names or anything, I just see them again and again. Nobody ever comes up to me and just starts talking (unless they're hustling something) so it's a mutual awkwardness. I don't think I'm recognized beyond being a regular, but I am visible. I have mass. I mean, I'm trying to watch my weight, but you can see me. I exist in physical space is what I'm saying.

Let’s move on… Uh, so Shonen Knife played some songs.

They come out on stage now to the own music, which you think they must get enough of, but there’s Naoko mouthing along to the first song on their new album, Welcome to the Rock Club. (But what does it really mean? You’re not here to think, you’re here to rock.) They launch into Konnichiwa, as they do. “Are you ready to rock?” Yes, of course.

Like, you expect all of this be get kinda old by now. But even if you’re planning to enjoy them 75% (it’s hard to compete with seeing the original lineup, in my mind), they get you all the way there. Ritsuko & Emi have totally won me over. Ritsuko is crazy headbanging everywhere, Emi looks like she winning the lottery at a surprise party with every other cymbal crash. It’s delirious.

They go through the usual stuff, the old crowd favorites like Bear Up Bison and Twist Barbie, some of the newer similar stuff like Pop Tune and Osaka Rock City, and Naoko seems to really like the Rubber Band song (some crowds must get into the chant part, I haven’t seen it) and Banana Chips (not bad songs, but they’ve got better…so many damn songs). And they did Devil House, a personal fave which was a Michie song that Ritsuko sings now. The beginning of BBQ Party almost makes me cry; I manage as the song soon veers into an almost out of control Thrash freak-out. A similar themed song on the new album, All You Can Eat sweetly cautions “not to overeat”, but live they substitute this older tune loudly insisting you PIG OUT PIG OUT PIG OUT. Despite a perceived flip-flop on record, it’s clear where Naoko stand on this issue. And they played some Ramones songs which was not really necessary but hard to argue with. There was some confusion with the setlist that was funny but I guess you had to be there, I’m not transcribing their broken english. Naoko really wants to play those Ramones songs. I used to get more upset of setlist omissions than I do now. They can play whatever. They did the crushing (for them) Cobra vs. Mongoose and then ended with the softer poppy tunes from the new one: there’s the Emi-led Psychedelic Life which I’m not going to question and the Ritsuko-led Sunshine, which is kinda like a Carpenters song that ends in a kind of Beach Boys counterpoint thing at the end they all sing. And they close with Move On which is a bit of a bummer, but then they do an encore of Antonio Baka Guy, which is almost the same song as Cobra vs. Mongoose but no one seemed to mind.

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Acid Mothers Temple@Johnny Brenda’s

Posted by Jim in Ａｂｏｕｔ on 2012.05.13

Acid Mothers Temple must be seen live, obviously.

The afternoon of the show I started feeling nostalgic for all the times I have almost seen this band in the past because I almost didn’t see them again. (I was late getting a paycheck. It’s always something dumb.) But at the last minute things came through and off I went. I told myself it didn’t matter that much anyway—there was a moment of panic where I thought I would never see them now, what with them saying this is their last tour in America and all—but wouldn’t these guys be deep into the 2012 thing? It’s a psych band. Yeah, if the world is ending, this would be the last tour wouldn’t it. Sure enough, the tour poster has a Mayan calendar symbol right damn in the middle:

I seem to have misplaced my pictures for the night so this is going to have to do for an illustration.
It was pretty much like this.

I do not think the world is ending, not this year anyway. But some people might disagree with me. The opening acts on this tour for example. The AMT set seemed typical, a mind-melting performance, but nothing that suggested impending retirement or cosmic extermination. No goodbyes, barely any audience interaction at all. But these other guys really set the mood for apocalypse. All shrewd marketing maybe, art even. Really you can’t ask for a better theme.
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