ICON GIRL PENCILS

Dear Fans,

We received an email yesterday from EMI Records, home of the Sex Pistols, informing us that they were taking legal action against any bands using the word 'Pistols' in their name. This is the latest in a series of court battles being fought by Johnny Rotten and Co. against the deformation of the Sex Pistols' legacy.


Rather than fight this long and expensive legal battle, Icon Girl Pistols have therefore decided to change our name to Icon Girl Pencils effective immediately.

We will be re-printing the album cover in the near future, but we ask that you all change the name of our band in your iTunes libraries etc.

We hope for your continued support,

Shinnosuke, Ken & Christopher
Icon Girl Pencils

LIVE INFORMATION

エルビスコステロライブレポートなんちてな

おし。
インターネット復旧につき、書きましょうよ。
昨日、エルビスコステロ”solo”コンサートに行ってきたよ。

まずはセットリスト。
01. Green Shirt - with iPad accompaniment
02. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
03. Motel Matches
04. Little Triggers
05. Veronica
06. Good Year For The Roses
07. Pennies From Heaven / A Voice In The Dark
08. New Amsterdam / You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
09. Everyday I Write The Book
10. The Spell That You Cast - sitting in a chair
11. A Slow Drag With Josephine - partly without mic
12. Almost Blue - without mic, sitting on the edge of the stage
13. Watching The Detectives - with iPad accompaniment
14. The River In Reverse
15. Alison
Encore 1
16. Beyond Belief - sitting in a chair
17. Toledo - chair
18. She - chair
Encore 2
19. Oliver's Army
20. Shipbuilding
21. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?
22. Radio Sweetheart / Jackie Wilson Said
Encore 3
23. National Ransom No.2 - with iPad, loudspeaker, guide light and siren
Encore 4
24. All Or Nothing At All - sitting in a chair
25. Brilliant Mistake
26. Man Out Of Time
27. I Hope
28. Pump It Up - including Subterranean Homesick Blues


これ、アンコール４ってかいてあるけど、ほんとは７回くらいだった。
最後のアンコールは歌い終わる度にギターを降ろして、声援を浴びるんだけど、
声援浴びてるうちに帰れないと思ったのか、また１曲、また１曲と続けていく感じで。
結局2時間ちょっとで２８曲。全部完全に一人きりで歌い上た。

今回の公演は、ソロでの来日ってことで、バンドが観たいファンからは期待外れとの声もあったみたいだけど、俺は、こういうライブが観たかったから感激しました。

ステージにはアコースティックから、ハコもののギターまで６本ぐらい並んでいて、
センターに立ち用のマイク、ちょっと横に座り用のマイク。
譜面台にはipadとネタ帳。小さいテーブルを置いて、そこにドリンクと何やら小物を少々。

会場の照明は非常灯まで完全に落とされて、コステロのひっそりとした自宅に案内されたような雰囲気だった。
ピータードハーティーとかもよくやっているけど、こういうソロの宴、みたいなのはイギリスではよくあることなのかなあ。
多分曲順なんて大体しか決まってなくて、観客の声に応えるように次々と持ち歌を披露するコステロの姿、俺にとっては理想的だった。
バンドでこういうアットホームな雰囲気というか、観客との親密なコミュニケーションを計るのは中々難しいことだけど、IGPというバンドは常にその距離感でライブができたらいいと思ってる。
そうした距離感についてもそうだし、ギター１本と歌だけで2時間、観客を飽きさせないで魅了し続ける力量と構成力ね。演出なんか勿論殆どないけど、それでも沢山のメリハリがあって、最終的にはアンコール以降観客全員を総立ちにさせてしまう、そんなライブ全体の見せ方が非常に勉強になった。

セットリストを見てもらえば、知ってる人なら分かると思うけど、ヒット曲、名曲の連発。
(the angels wanna wear my)red shoes、Veronica、watching the detectives、Alison、She、Oliver's army、(what's so funny 'bout)peace, love and understandingなど、要所を押さえた超有名曲だけあげてもこんだけ。

しかし、中でもハイライトだったのは、最新アルバム「national ransom」から披露された、a slow drag with Josephineからその次のalmost blueへの流れ。
センターでこのアルバム曲の美しいフィンガーピッキングに沿うように優しく歌い上げていたコステロは、途中からマイクから完全に離れて、まったくの生声で観客に語りかける。
PAもそれに反応してギターの音量をオフにし、会場に響くのは全くマイクを通さない、生のアコースティックギターのつま弾きと、コステロの掠れた生声だけ。
そのまま次の曲では、ステージの淵に腰掛け、同じように全くの生声で１曲を演奏。
会場は文化村オーチャードホールで、それほど小さい会場でもないのに、最後列までコステロから漏れる声の吐息が伝わってくる、そんな瞬間だった。

勿論彼は今でも全然現役のアーティストだし、額縁に飾られて崇められるような歳では全然ないし、本人もこれからもそんなことは望まないだろう。
でも、やっぱりエルビスコステロってのは俺にとっては一つの伝説だし、ボブディラン、ジョンレノンといった歴史的存在の次の世代の、ジョーストラマーやパティスミスと同様の音楽ナイス野郎なんだよね。
だから、同じ空間に彼がいて、その生声を聴けるってのは、それがレノンだったとしたらヨーコだけがもってた特権みたいなもんですよ。
そういう意味で、俺にとってはこの瞬間がまさにこの"solo"公演が持っていた一番の魅力であり、最高の瞬間だったな。

ギターが時々つまったりとかね、構成を忘れそうでギリギリのとこがあったり、歌はまあ完璧だったけど、曲が終わる度に満面のドヤ顔をしてみせたりと、かなり人間臭いところが垣間見えたのもとても良かった。

きっとコステロは今も昔もあんな感じで自宅にギターを並べて弾き語り、新しい名曲ができる度に一人でほくそ笑んでいるんだろう。
そういった意味では自分となんら変わりのない音楽好きのただの男が、ステージに立って、長い間観客を共有し続けているんだと思うと、それは理想的な生き方だななんて思いました。

自分の曲の間に、ビートルズやディランを混ぜて歌ったりしてさ、随分楽しかっただろうよコステロのおっさん。

ss

THE FALL OF TOKYO

ハロー、健です。

ついにスペインのネットレーベルTRASTIENDAから

ヨーロッパ版EP "THE FALL OF TOKYO"をリリースしました♪

1st Albumに収録されていた曲も新たに録り直したのでぜひ聴いてみてください。

今回もフリーダウンロードとなっております。イェイ。

そんでさらにスイスの音楽紹介サイトでも紹介をしてもらえたり、

モンゴル人のフォトグラファーから嬉しいメールをいただいたり。

そして、毎月東京渋谷NOBで行なわれているパーティーイベント

"LADY JANE'S RAMBLING REVUE"にも遊びに来てくれる各国の皆様、友人達。

ありがとう。謝々。Thank You。

アルバムやライブの感想やリクエスト、コメントなどくれるとなお嬉しいです。

Hello, it's me, Ken the drummer of IGP.

We are now very happy to announce that "TRASTIENDA", the label in Spain, 

released our EP "THE FALL OF TOKYO".

Have you listened to it already?

Thanks to those of you who have ever listened to our new EP.

Also thanks to those of you who have ever come to our show!

Please comment and tell us about our new EP, music, or shows mean to you.

WILKINSON

ども、健です。
IGPの白倉新之助と言えば、コーラ好きで有名ですが、
僕が去年くらいからハマっているものをご紹介します。

"Wilkinson Ginger Ale"

もうね、やみつきになります。
Canada Dryとは全然違います、本物の味がする。
辛くて喉が痛くなるけど止まりません。

ぜひ試してみてください。
僕らの大好きな阿佐ヶ谷GAMUSO、渋谷BYGにも置いてありますよ。

popularity blows

I'm trying to understand why, when I go to a shop to buy something, clerks in Japan are always quick to say, "This is very popular". Do Japanese people actually like that?
I was out with the missus looking for a wedding band and we went into a jewellery shop where we were shown a ring that is "very popular" this year. Why would we want the same ring that a thousand other people are wearing?

Am I alone in thinking this?

a digital death

I had an interesting conversation with a friend a while back that came to mind again today as I copied a new CD onto my computer. We had been reminiscing about our high school days, when we would drink beer and talk nonsense at one or the other’s house, all the while listening to our favourite CDs. By the time I was eighteen my copy of ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magic’ had been completely worn out, and various other soundtracks to my youth had also spun their way towards near oblivion – ‘The Battle of Los Angeles’, ‘Word Gets Around’, ‘Nevermind’, ‘Without You I’m Nothing’, ‘Relationship of Command’, and others too embarrassing to mention here. I guess it was the same for millions of other kids born in the 80s. But no matter where the house party, how late the hour or how many cans of Strongbow lay empty in the sink, the night would always end with a run through of the Manic Street Preachers’ ‘The Holy Bible’ for the few remaining stragglers sprawled out on the carpet as the grey morning approached. From the opening dialogue of ‘Yes’ to the desperate voice at the end of ‘PCP’, the room was silent but for the album and the occasional cry chiming in with James Dean Bradfield’s ‘who’s responsible – you fucking are!’ or ‘so damn easy to cave in, man kills everything!’. The record would finish, the CD would spin out, and silence would descend.

My friend told me about having recently listened to the Holy Bible again through an iPod on speakers. It sounded fine, and the songs were as brilliant as ever, but there was something important missing from the experience – he was talking of course about that sound at the end, after the music stops. For my parent’s generation, it would have been the scratch of the needle as it wound its way towards the centre of the turntable before rising and returning to its bed. For us it was that whoosh as the spinning of the CD came to an end. That sound has now been lost, thanks to digital playlists and shuffles and iTunes and all those other inventions which are killing the concept album.

I remember the first time I saw an iPod when I was seventeen or eighteen. One of the kids in my school had one set up with the radio connector which allowed you to play it through a stereo. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen, and I wanted one immediately. I saved up my money, and the summer before my first year of university I bought an iPod. My oh my, who’d have thought it would have ever gotten so huge. Who’d have thought that only a few years later you could instantly buy any song online and have it playing on your phone in seconds? Steve Jobs maybe. When I was a kid, if there was one song you wanted, you had to buy the entire album. Hence my possession of a Smith’s cover album just for the Cursive song; of the Godzilla soundtrack for ‘No Shelter’; of the Good Will bloody Hunting soundtrack just for Eliot Smith. If only I had grown up in this age of pick ‘n’ choose, I’d have been a far richer teenager.

So, maybe I’m an old fart. But I miss the excitement of going out, buying a record, coming home and flicking through the artwork for surprises. Remember the hidden booklet in the Kid A album? Anyone else line up to get a numbered edition of Maladroit? What about hidden tracks? There is no mystery if you can already see that the song is 14 minutes long before you start listening to it. Super Furry Animals put a hidden track at the beginning of ‘Guerilla’, so you actually had to wind back from track 1 in order to hear it. That’s impossible now that everything is sold per song, and all the information is given away before you have a chance hear the record. What about short interludes, such as those in ‘The Wall’ or even as recent as ‘The Ugly Organ’ – do people just not buy these, opting to spend their money only on the song-length tracks? What is the point in even making full albums anymore?

This new CD is the first I have bought in 2011. In 2010 I think I bought only two or three, and only because they were from bands not available digitally. Icon Girl Pistols hope to make our second album this year, but a big question facing us and every other indie band is ‘do we make a CD or just sell downloads online?’ As a music fan, I want to make albums, tangible objects that you hold in your hands, flick through the pages of, discovering things you could not see when you bought it. I want people to hear the scratch of the vinyl or the whoosh of the CD when it finishes. But realistically, I know that when the album ends, the music will just keep on running straight into the (International) Noise Conspiracy. Although to be fair, that’s a great band to be opening for. 

-christopher-