Updating this blog to latest version of WordPress: done.
(Should have done it ages ago, it looks so much better and is so much easier to use than the one I had installed previously. But I’m always worried about the update process going wrong or losing my database or something so I try to postpone updates as long as possible.)

I have nothing really important to say at the moment, except that I’m very sad and worried and at the same time I feel completely powerless because I’m not feeling sad or worried about myself. So there’s nothing I can do except write this cryptic paragraph down which must be frustrating for you, the readers, and I’m sorry about that.

Tomorrow’s November 12. End of the ultimatum.

As the end of the year draws closer and closer I can safely say that Aruto koronii no teiri (アルトコロニーの定理), the 5th album by Japanese rock band RADWIMPS, is already among my favourite albums released in 2009.

I’ve been meaning to translate a “7 Keywords” feature they did as part of the promotions for the new album (released on March 11) in the Japanese music magazine B-PASS (4/2009) ever since I got it, but alas have only found the time to do it this week. Name-dropping Foals and Radiohead is probably the safest way in getting me to translate something ^^;

Just a short bit of information about the band:
RADWIMPS are Noda Youjirou (vocals & guitar), Kuwahara Akira (guitar), Takeda Yuusuke (bass) and Yamaguchi Satoshi (drums), all born in 1985. They debuted in 2003.

Here’s the B-PASS interview. Please see the credits at the end of this entry before posting this translation anywhere else!
[Translator's notes look like this.]

We set out to analyze (!?) RADWIMPS for everyone who wants to know more about RAD and, of course, their album with the help of seven keywords.

The origin of the album title

Noda: I like mathematics but I’ve never really believed in “theorems” or “propositions” [Japanese: teiri]. It’s just that in my opinion this album can become a kind of “solution” when you’re confronted with problems and doubts in your life.
“Alt” [Japanese: aruto] is a term which refers to a register. It’s pretty high for a man and totally fits the songs we recorded.
The term “colony” [Japanese: koronii] expresses our wish to create a collective with this album.
And it’s also a pun on “in a land far, far away” [Japanese: aru tokoro ni]. *laughs* We have some fairy tale-inspired songs, like track 8 on the album which is called Meruhen to Gureeteru [Märchen to Gretel, English: Fairy Tales and Gretel] too, so we thought we just had to give the album that title.

The design concept of the album cover [click here for a close-up]

Yamaguchi: I think the cover image represents what we are as a band quite nicely in the sense that it maintains its balance even though it looks like it’s out of balance and it becomes one whole being the second its respective components are put together with a certain intention. The character on the cover looks a lot like Youjirou because it’s wearing a hat, so it was exactly the right thing for us and we instantly chose it to be on the cover. According to Nagato Tetsuya, the collage artist who let us select one of his works, the character’s name is “Jack” [Japanese: Jakku] because we used it as the album cover [jaketto (jacket) in Japanese]. *laughs*

Your lucky number

Yamaguchi: 4. It has that sort of round-ish image like a “circle” in my head and it gives off a certain “sense of solution” which I find really nice. But that’s just the image I have of it. *laughs*
Noda: It’s probably 7 for me, just like you’d expect. I have a certain affinity for the number 7, so much so that I even wanted to call this album “7″. I’ve always liked numbers but the number 7 had that image of “it’s a bit of trouble but a good one after all”.
Takeda: For me, it’s got to be the number 3. Every time I want to buy something, let’s say juice, I buy three bottles of it. It’s the same for cup ramen. It just makes me feel at ease if I have three of them. *laughs*
Kuwahara: It’s the number 2 for me. Simply put, I just think that two people is better than one person alone. If you want to go shopping it’s so much easier to walk around when it’s just two people instead of three. And if you want to talk about something serious with someone, I really like it when there’s just me and one other person talking face to face.

What you were into during the recording of the album

Yamaguchi: We all drank Dekavita [a vitamin softdrink] when we were exhausted. I also wrote about it in our blog but let me just repeat that it really worked and gave us new energy. We drank so much that I’m now asking myself “Wouldn’t it be cool if they finally let us appear in a commercial for it?” *laughs*
Noda: Probably sleeping. They had pillows and blankets prepared for us in the studio so I used to lay down and sleep for a bit. But of course every time I flopped down and thought “Ah, I can finally fall asleep”, someone came calling for me. *laughs*
I always find it very hard to fall asleep to begin with, plus when we’re in the studio recording an album I’m totally excited all the time so it was pretty hard for me.
Takeda: I was very fond of alcohol. *laughs* During recording breaks I often went for drinks all by myself. I also liked to buy cheap whiskey at the convenience store and drink it mixed with cola.
Kuwahara: For me, it was meeting friends. We were classmates in middle school and they don’t have anything to do with music nowadays. We went to family restaurants and bars and stuff and just chatting to them always made me feel relaxed, more so than anything else.

A few words to your fellow band mates

Yamaguchi: I have to say “The restaurant you took me to yesterday had the best take-out food I’ve ever had!” to Kuwahara. *laughs* Every once in a while we go out and have dinner together. He’s the type of person who likes to check out everything before he finally decides for something. Me and Takeda on the other hand are the kind of person to make quick decisions so we demonstrate our leadership when it comes to food. *laughs*
Noda: I want to say “Thanks” to [Yamaguchi] Satoshi. He’s sent me emails pretty often during the recording of the album. The other two haven’t sent me any messages at all, though. *laughs* I recorded my vocal takes alone in the studio, so Satoshi messaged me with his impressions. In a way, the band members are my first audience to me, so it makes me really happy when I receive criticism in the form of simple words.
Takeda: I’m going to talk about an email message too now. On the very last day of recording, Youjirou sent all of us a message that read “I’m so glad that we made this as the band we are” which made me extremely happy. So I’m just going to use this opportunity to say thanks, too.
Kuwahara: There’s this huge wardrobe in Youjirou’s apartment which we bought at IKEA and which all four of us assembled. And I paid for it. Won’t you pay me back soon? *laughs*

An impressive concert you went to recently

Yamaguchi: I went to see Foals. Well, it wasn’t all that recently, rather in May last year. I saw them at Ebisu Liquidroom. It had been a while since I last went there. And it had also been quite some time since my last concert at a live venue. The way they put together their sound is pretty close to what we sound like. I bought their CD as well. We’re also pretty close as far as age is concerned so there are things about them that I find quite impressive. They’re really cool.
Noda: I saw Radiohead at an extra tour date at Tokyo International Forum. I fought my way through to the fifth row from the front and I think we made eye contact a couple of times. But everyone thinks that, don’t they. *laughs* They’re only humans so of course the band made some mistakes but that couldn’t spoil their fun and they were so into the music, which was great to watch. It made me realize that I want the people who create something as interesting as Radiohead to receive a lot of praise in the Japanese music scene, too.
Takeda: Bread&Butter. I was able to watch them from their rehearsal on. They are all such talented and influential musicians so everyone did their job very efficiently. When they were playing, everyone had a lot freedom but at the same time they were a very tight ensemble which I found very inspiring.
Kuwahara: I saw 9mm Parabellum Bullet last November. They were even cooler than on CD.

A challenge you want to face in 2009

Yamaguchi: Cooking. I already like cooking quite a bit but I want to do it more often. I’m really concerned about current issues and I think that I haven’t had enough of the awareness of “appreciating things” up until now. Bearing that in mind, I want to get to know a lot more about what we call “food”. I love tanmen [Chinese noodle soup] and I want to cook the most delicious food in the world. *laughs*
Noda: I just want to do something exciting, like every year. On the one hand, this includes music because we made this album and a lot of doors have opened for us. This might sound a little abstract but I don’t like carefully planned, preestablished harmony to begin with so I think I just want to try and do exciting things.
Takeda: I want to build a musical instrument. I had the idea before but didn’t really know how to do it and lacked quite a bit of determination. I don’t think I can go as far as chopping the wood myself, though. *laughs* I just want to try to collect all the necessary parts and assemble a bass. I think that when I say it now I’m definitely going to do it, so here is my announcement!
Kuwahara: I’ll just talk about my life as a musician now, but I really want to do a Battle of the Bands tour. I’m only friends with 9mm at the moment *laughs* and that way I’d be able to hang out with a whole lot of other bands too.

Translation credits: Yuuya @ coinlockerbaby.org.
Please leave this line intact when re-posting this on other sites.

Oh, I still like knowing what’s become of the (ex-)members of the bands I followed many years ago. Yesterday when I was browsing random music information sites, I came across the news that kannivalism are going to resume their activities very very soon!

Kannivalism are the band Ryo and Kei were in before baroque, a band that originally came out of the visual kei scene but actually had songs worth listening to (and that I had a fansite for), was formed. After baroque disbanded, Ryo and Kei revived kannivalism, Yuchi of k@mikaze (another not-so-visual vkei band that put out quite good CDs which I can still listen to today without feeling ashamed of myself) and Kiri from Porori (yet another fun not-so-visual vkei band that etc. blah blah, I ♥ed them) joined and they could have turned into my new favourite band except I had completely grown out of that sort of music, especially because of its fanbase. Their releases were good but nothing too exciting so I never really followed kannivalism. I wasn’t too surprised when they suspended their activities in January 2008. They were on Avex, Ryo and Kei were young and liked to have fun so I knew it wasn’t meant to last.

Now last week, on August 25, the band held a press conference at the Avex headquarters in Tokyo and announced they are ready for a comeback! This is what kannivalism look like in 2009:

They have a new drummer, Mitsuya (far right in the picture above). Ryo who’s been suffering from adjustment disorder said at the press con that he’s doing fine now and wants to give his best now that they have a new member in the band. Even though Mitsuya’s younger than him, Ryo thinks he’s got a really strong attitude and comes across more like the singer in the band (sort of more like a band leader). Yuchi added that because of Mitsuya it really feels like a fresh start as a band and Mitsuya himself hopes the band’s going to be even better than before now that he’s joined them.

Kei also said at the press con that they and the record company have been thinking about changing the band’s name because it doesn’t exactly have the most positive meaning, obviously. He’s been wanting to ditch the kanniva bit and reduce their name to “ism”. The timing would be perfect now but they’re not sure if they really want to pull through with the name change.

Kannivalism have a full schedule for autumn and early winter including a new single and a concert:

- From September 9 on, kannivalism’s new song “life is” will be available for download as a full ringtone via mu-mo.

- On September 30, a solo mini album by Kei titled “for a fleeting moment.” is supposed to come out (also via Avex).

- On November 11, a diary-like book by Ryo will be published (by Random House/Kodansha – Avex often has tie-ups with Kodansha) chronicling his fight against his illness (AD). At the press conference he stated that he’s very optimistic now when it comes to his illness and hopes to offer a little bit of support to those people who’re suffering from a mental illness just like him. I think that’s a very admirable thing to do, especially in a society who likes to remain silent about people with mental problems. It’ll also offer a good explanation what he’s been going through when kannivalism was inactive. But at the same time, I can’t shake a certain feeling of suspicion because the book release is so conveniently placed before the band’s comeback… Anyway, I really hope Ryo is strong enough to keep kannivalism alive with the other band members. The entertainment industry probably isn’t the easiest surrounding to work in when it comes to stress but I wish him all the best!

- A week later on November 18 (yes, how convenient), a new single will be released.

- Shortly before the end of the year, on December 26, the band will play a comeback show at Zepp Tokyo.

- A new album, kannivalism’s second, will be released in 2010.

Well, well. We’ll see how that goes.
News link 1 & 2.

PS. As a personal note to myself, baroque’s Akira and Bansaku are now in a band called boogieman, together with Kagerou’s Yuana and Yuuichirou from Metronome. One would think that something like baroque+Kagerou+Metronome would make something completely amazing, but no, not in this case :( They are a quite horrible visual kei band that sounds just like what 80% of vkei bands sounded like when I was still a fan. Not that visual kei every scored high when it came to originality, but still. Some things never change, ey?

I’m still a little bit blinded (positively!) by G-Dragon’s debut performance at Inkigayo yesterday. (Oooh, the stage design ♥ And *cringe* at the tomato pants.)

And now that Big Bang are back in Korea and busy with musicals/promoting or recording solo albums/recovering from car accidents, their summer activities in Japan are crowned with a nice new sales record for overseas artists in Japan. I guess all the hard work and slight awkwardness during Japanese TV shows paid off really quickly:

Big Bang’s first Japanese major album “BIGBANG” debuted at #3 in the weekly Oricon album charts dated August 31, 2009. This makes Big Bang the first overseas artists ever to enter the Japanese Top 5 with their first three consecutive releases, i.e. their debut album, their first single (”MY HEAVEN”) and their second single (”GARA GARA GO!!”).

Meanwhile, their best of album “ASIA BEST 2006-2009″ which was released on the same day as their first major album debuted at #20 in the weekly album charts. At the same time, it ranks 4th in the weekly overseas album charts.

Their live DVD “2009 Big Bang Live Concert ‘Big Show’” is at #1 in the Oricon music DVD charts and at #5 in the rental DVD charts.

In a thank you message to the fans posted on Aug 27 at the official Japanese blog their Japanese staff described Big Bang as a band who is – just two months after their major debut – continuing to make the transition from artists representing Korea to a band representing Japan and even all of Asia. They thanked the fans for all of their support which made it possible to achieve such a great success in Japan. Together with Big Bang themselves they want to work just as hard so the band can continue to be just as successful with their future Japanese activities and releases.

One of the best albums of recent history, The National’s Boxer, is getting its own making-of film! The DVD plus EP package comes out sometime during the second half of May (5/20 USA, 5/19 UK, 5/16 Germany). Yes, that’s totally worth making one of my infrequent blog post before disappearing again for two months! :) Now, if only I could make the band come back to Berlin in the very near future…

Countdown: 4 months till graduation!

Here’s my personal top 10 of records that came out this year. I went through a brutal day-long internal struggle, trying to decide which album should be on top of the list – but I just couldn’t say whose new album was better, The National’s or Interpol’s. As a result, there are now two records of the year because I couldn’t pick one over the other. The same can be said of the rest of my top ten, which I had to list in alphabetical order because judging the quality of a record by saying it is better than this but worse than turned out to be an impossible task…

Album of the Year I
The National – Boxer
This is an album of an incredible density – once the songs have drawn you in, you’ll find yourself unable to escape them. Matt Berninger’s seemingly calm baritone voice forces you to listen closely due to its slight monotony and thus creates a certain intimacy between himself and the listener. These songs speak to the audience through their familiarity of themes like everyday white-collar drama, the transience of youth and the path of uniform conformity a lot of people choose to take. You’ll find yourself haunted by melodies that are being pushed forward by sharp, precise rhythms of an almost hypnotic quality. The additional instruments (horn, cello, piano, violins etc.) aren’t just the icing on the cake but have a voice of their own and enhance the general feeling of menace and darkness. At the same time, the songs are very clean in their textures as they aren’t overloaded with layers. They never lose their aforementioned density which in itself forms a sort of strong connection, a thread that binds all the songs together into one brilliant whole.

Album of the Year II
Interpol – Our Love To Admire
OLTA shows a lot more variation than its predecessor Antics. It’s more open, more dramatic to a cinematic extend and it’s perfectly sequenced so when you listen to it in one go, you won’t have to skip one single song because they unfold like one big narration, with intricate songs carried by grand instrumentation followed by faster catchier songs which aren’t less beautiful. The two closing songs, Wrecking Ball and The Lighthouse, suggest a completely new direction to the band’s sound altogether and are so overwhelmingly intense… The album clearly has its faults and weaknesses, but it’s also a testament to the band’s growth and considering the album as a whole, as a sum of its songs, it’s simply majestic.
(Just where in the world did the bass go?)

Albums # 3-10 in alphabetical order:

3. Band of Horses – Cease To Begin
Small town idylls meet epic arrangements meet country elements meet lyrical love songs named after… Detlef Schrempf? Band of Horses have managed putting all of these things onto one record and the result is quite amazing!

4. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup
My favorite francophile album of the year. No seriously, I didn’t like the Balkan pop of the debut album but this one takes you on a voyage through France which, as a culture, I find ultimately more accessible as far as musical influences are concerned. A great and charming, at times pompous pop record.

5. Bright Eyes – Cassadaga
Wide in scope, this is a personal but at the same time universal record which is reflected both in the lyrics as well as in the music itself. It’s a bit of the private versus the political, and the songs focussing on the former are clearly the stronger ones as the political-themed ones often seem to be the exact opposite of subtle. Nevertheless a beautiful record!

6. Feist – The Reminder
This is an album that’s diverse in sound but brought together by themes like love and loneliness which Feist delivers in her truly unique, dreamy voice. The contrast of the music and the lyrics creates a good sort of tension, as even the most uplifting-sounding songs can quite unexpectantly bring tears to the listener’s eyes due to what the singer expresses in the lyrics.

7. Okkervil River – The Stage Names
Some might say Okkervil songs might be too weighty on the lyrics side to an extend that the music and the melodies suffer but I couldn’t disagree more, at least as far as this record is concerned. The music supplement the lyrics so well and in a few instances, the melodies are simply so fantastic they make you follow them so closely that you forget to pay attention to the actual words for a moment. When you do listen to the lyrics though, you’ll get to hear some dramatic, personal and sometimes downright hilarious (in all their tragedy!) stories you won’t forget any time soon.

8. Radiohead – In Rainbows
There’s absolutely no doubt that this is a fantastic and unexpectedly accessible album, the only question that remains is: could this album just as well have been released in 1997?
 
 

9. The Shins – Wincing The Night Away
I still love this album as much as when it came out, or even more now which is a surprise really because I first thought that one day I might grow tired of the catchy hooks and wonderful melodies of the album’s most outstanding pop songs like Phantom Limb (which features the best impressionist lyrics ever) or Australia – but that never happened even though this is one of my most-played records of the year! And even better: the songs that seemed slightly less accessible or maybe even bland at first revealed their true beauty after some time. So it’s a really rewarding album that also didn’t lose any of its initial appeal.

10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Is Is EP
Simply the most powerful and sexiest of this year’s releases, period.
 
 

Songs from almost all of these albums (plus a few others) can be downloaded in the songs of 2007 post.

Next up are a couple of music-related posts – yes, my albums of the year list is on its way! (Compiling a list means having to make difficult decisions about what should be on it and what has to be excluded and whatnot, and that’s not necessarily something I’m good at and explains why I need a hell of a lot of time to write one.)

I’ll start with this year’s most disappointing releases, CDs I’ve really been looking forward to or that I liked when they came out but that turned out to be not as exciting or in some cases downright bland after repeated listens:

Maximo Park – Our Earthly Pleasures: A very good album actually, but doesn’t show too much progression when compared to the band’s debut. It doesn’t offer much variation both as far as arrangements and lyrics are concerned – although the lyrics have their moments of beauty (oh, the last line of the closing song, Parisian Skies: I like the tiny veins on your back/They remind me of the way that porcellain cracks).

The Good, The Bad And The Queen – s/t: This album kept me sane and safely wrapped up in its warm melancholy during the last winter, especially during my daily commuting. The song patterns are just too similar, though, so with the spring came other albums I liked much better which made me forget this one quite fast.

Architecture in Helsinki – Places Like This: Weird in a fun and playful but sometimes too infantile and unstructured way. Could have done with a bit more diversity, too.

Idlewild – Make Another World: Has a few songs that recall the once magnificent songwriting this band used to be capable of but fails to deliver anything outstanding.

Bloc Party – A Weekend In The City: Over-produced, self-absorbed and superficial. I have not given up on them though and look forward to their next album that – for heaven’s sake! – should better be kept out of the hands of producer Garret Lee.

Editors – An End Has A Start: Super catchy melodies that wear off as quickly as they got stuck in your head. Lyrics that try to be clever and Emotional (yes, with a capital E!) but fail horribly. Too superficially melodramatic. I sincerely hope – because I onced liked the band quite a bit – they won’t go further down the Coldplay stadium pomp path with their next album. Another record killed by Garret Lee with too many U2-esque, unnecessary layers.