I have been going through the CDs of my youth, most of which are pretty embarrassing, but some of which are standing the tests of time and (slowly) broadening horizons.
Take this one, from The Mermen: Epic, reverbelicious guitar music perfect for (say) careening down the slopes of a remote Andean peak on your flaming snowboard.
I have been playing a lot of SSX 3, the acclaimed snowboarding game. I’ve been logging the hours on the PlayStation 2 version, but it’s multiplatform, which is good, because I think lots of people need to play this game. It’s that great.
(more…)Upgraded to Movable Type 3. It was harder than it should have been. There may still be some residual problems, but (hopefully) nothing that will show up on the front end.
It was really stressful. When the site rebuilt sucessfully, some fun music played. As MC Solaar put it: Avec des la la la.
On Saturday I am going to have a party. We will eat homemade hamburgers and watch the Ewok movies.
Yes.
But I need a good hamburger recipe. Wait, no—I need a great hamburger recipe. I know you’ll come through for me on this one, Gabe.
Today’s genre: Getaway music. The second album from Pe’z, “Kiwamari Zuki” is even more manic and weird than their first one. The world needs more groups that describe themselves with terms like “Samurai Jazz Warriors.” This track, “T.K.O.,” has a subtitle that translates as “That’s a bit fast, don’t you think?”
Oh yeah.
(This is Hiizumi’s other band. You know, the freaky kid behind the keys in Tokyo Jihen.)
Before I went on my pink-cotton-candy-flavored Flaming Lips binge, I’d heard producer Dave Friedmann’s work elsewhere—he was behind the board for the raucous Japanese group Number Girl. These guys are nuts, all metallic-tasting blood and frustration. The Pixies, but Japanese and angrier.
NUM-HEAVYMETALLIC is track one from the album of the same title, and although it has kind of a kitschy Japanned melody hook-ish thing going on, I think it works. Oh, who am I kidding, I’m a total sucker for this sort of thing. Also, it’s spooky.
Here are two songs from the musical highlights of my life recently, Tokyo Jihen’s “Kyouiku.” The first is one of the big singles, a tune filled with life and urgency. The second is complicated and strange—and has the most interesting English lyrics I’ve ever heard from a Japanese artist.
Chris, if you’re out there, I know you’d love this stuff. I hope you’ve heard it.
I can just tell I’m going to get a little upload-happy with this dread power I’ve granted myself. But forget about that—do you realize that you have the most beautiful face? The Flaming Lips do, and they want you to know this, and some other things. Things about life and death.
This album, which I first heard in the friendly confines of Jake’s car back in the day, is totally undoing me. I think one reviewer compared it to what Radiohead’s “OK Computer” might’ve sounded like if Thom Yorke believed in God. I’ll go one further and suggest ol’ Thom would need to see God before he could do something this warm and wonderful.
Here’s a great story my father sent to me, all about a form of Japanese motorcycle racing dedicated to gambling. Well-written and with that spark of romantic mechamysticism that is the hallmark of the best Oh My Goddess! chapters, this is the kind of thing that makes me miss riding that much more acutely.
Alright. I wrote an AppleScript that uploads files and generates the relevant markup for me, so it’s now trivially easy for me to post a song I’m digging and have y’all enjoy it. I even have a brand-new, irritatingly-named category for it. Here’s the first one, one of those rare epic hip-hop tracks, and it’s from my latest CD purchase.
You may expect the files to be deleted after about a week. Goyukkuri.