the oh so quiet show

I’ve listened to Japanese music before, but nothing ever really caught my ear. Also, J-Pop is scary. I wish I were more aware of music from Japan (or anything from Asia for that matter), as there must be a crapload of good stuff coming out of there, little of what trickles over to this side of the earth. (For lots of great random music stuff, a lot of it focused on Japan since that’s where its based right now, check out Nik’s blog, BiBaBiDi.)

On that note, “Supercar”:http://nippop.com/artist/artist_id-47/artist_name-supercar/ is pretty awesome, so awesome in my mind that I’m totally giving up writing this crappy anthropology essay so that I can update my blog (honestly, I have to really like the hell out of something to take the time to blog it…admittedly, I also really don’t want to write this essay). Unfortunately, I just heard of this band today and found out they broke up last year. Damn. First, check out this awesome music video for “Wonderword”:

I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t care. The beginning (of the song, not the video) automatically made me think of “Drawing Restraint 9”:http://unit.bjork.com/specials/dr9/ (the song “Shimenawa”), but then it goes into happy boppy whatnot. Which is good.

They have a lot of awesome music videos. Too many to link. But here’s another one for their song “Strobolights”, which you can download in mp3 form [via TrulyObscure]:

Yeaaah I love watching freaky animal puppets play instruments to blip-tastic…blippyness. DON’T YOU? Good. [pat pat]

Thanks to metafilter for sucking up my life with the power of the Internet.

A sweet Japanese Magnet fan, Mami, recorded a bunch of Magnet shows and sent them to me. I don’t think she’d mind me sharing them. Not like there’s a lot of live stuff out there. …And most of you probably aren’t interested anyway (I originally uploaded these just for one friend). Since these are on YouSendIt, only download if you’re really interested. First ones:

Live at Club Quattro, Osaka (November 9, 2005)
Live at Club Quattro, Toyko (November 10, 2005) (concert review at fusion musique)

I didn’t label all the songs correctly; some tracks are composed of two or three songs. The sound is a bit distorted, but if you’re me you’ll still love the recordings. He opens both shows with Quiet & Still, which I’m still dying to hear live (although solo, not necessarily with the band). Even though I don’t really like “All You Ask”, it sounds cool live. Actually, everything sounds cool live. Dammit.

Oh. Man. …This is ridiculous, but I’m still bummed that I only got to see him once when he was in the US. Once! That’s more than most Americans will get to see him. Why can’t I just be thankful for what I get? I constantly think about how undeservedly lucky I am, but then I think about how…oh, I saw him perform once this year, not in a small venue, boohoo…I guess I need to be smacked. I want to snuggle in with the Japanese crowd. They sound so polite, quiet and captivated. My god. There are so many times that I really feel like that I was born in the wrong country, with the wrong ethnicity, knowing the wrong languages, wrong wrong wrong…(yeah, I’m really not on topic anymore)…

Anyway, here’s another zip file:

Live at Docks, Toronto (March 1, 2006), Comfort Zone Toronto (March 2, 2006), and SXSW (March 16, 2006)

The shows in Canada were recorded by Mami–the quality’s pretty good. I added the SXSW show from Lullabyes because I figured I may as well get close to the 100 MB upload limit.

I probably shouldn’t be amazed by this, but…well, I am kind of amazed by how old some of these songs are, yet haven’t become tired from repeated listenings. Like. A gazillion repeated listenings. How many versions of “I’ll Come Along” can I take? A GAJILLION, apparently. The first time I heard it in 2001, I didn’t even know what it was called until his webmaster told me the title. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I could listen to “Nothing Hurts Not” a gajillion + a zillion times without getting tired of it. It almost makes me cry…

…but a different kind of crying than this anthropology homework makes me wanna do right now. Please shoot me.

That dude is wearing a silly hat (Rejected!…if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just ignore me). And he’s carrying around a huge speaker and a laptop, alongside other Shobo Shobo artists in Japan right now. RIGHTNOW! Why? Um. Because they can? I’d love to do that if I didn’t think it would lead to my back breaking in a most uncomfortable manner (as though there’s a comfortable manner). Momus explains it:

bq. Shobus Diary documents Shobo Shobo artists O.lamm, Domotic, Davide Balula, and Minifer during their “Shoboshobus / Mobium Japan Tour 2005”. (Ishida Daisuke is the Japanese host.) Since these are highly original people, this is a bit different from your average rock or laptop tour. Instead of playing concert halls, the French artists have opted to busk. They’ve built portable speakers which hang from their necks, each one supporting a laptop. They’re playing on the roofs of buildings, at the Tsukiji fish market, in malls and car parks, anywhere.

They’ve got some audio and video on their blog, from which I’ve decided that their music could drive me insane if I were nearby and trying to do anything requiring an iota of concentration. But it could also be fun. It’s better than hearing landscapers in the morning, at least.

Broadcasting semi-random noises in a city reminds me of the “Silent Night” thing last winter when loads of people carried around stereos playing dinkly sounds and walking from Washington Square Park to Tompkins Square Park. Many cab drivers were pissed that night. Mehehe.

If you like Lali Puna and Japan, then you will like Lali Puna’s Japan 2005 slideshow thinger!