今夜はブギーバック

今夜は夜阿佐ヶ谷GamusoにてJohnny Bearfootのレコ発イベントに出演させてもらいます。

しかも今夜は他もmana hardcore, dead sea dropouts, & grand delinquentsという仲の良い人々ばっかり。

楽しみ♪

今週はampelのライブには時間間に合わずいけなかったけど、夜ハ短シとSammさんのバンドS&Hのライブに行けた。

両方すごく良かったね！先輩方流石です。来週の月曜には関取花ちゃんのライブもひさしぶりに見に行くし楽しみだ♪

どんな音楽であっても真剣に音楽をやってる人たちはみんな素晴らしく、周りにそんな素敵な人たちが沢山いることは幸せだ。

今夜はIGP頑張るぞー！

夜に向けて徐々に集中力を高めて。

強い精神とDIY精神をもって。

健

PS.

犬のレオンは元気に育っています♪

Jake Bugg

先週の木曜日に渋谷QuattroでJake Buggの
アコースティックショーケースライブを見てきた。
１人で歌とアコギだけ。バンドも打ち込みも仕掛けも細工もない。
１人で歌とアコギだけ。
それなのに1時間飽きる事なく、むしろまだまだ聴きたいと思わせる最高なライブだった。
どこか古く懐かしく、田舎っぽさがありつつも都会的でクールに決めた声。
歌の抑揚やギターのタッチ。
全ての音が素晴らしく、鳴るべき音がとても自然に、聴こえてくる。
特別なテクニックが凄いというわけでもなく、
曲が凝っていて作り込まれているというわけでもなく、
とても自然に自由に、クールでスタイリッシュに威風堂々と歌い上げていた。

ギター１本なのにビートはしっかり聴こえたし、身体も自然に揺れて踊れた。
そして、アルバムの曲だけでなく、初めて聴いた新曲も頭の中でドラムが鳴っていた。
とても自然にドラムのリズムやパターンが聴きながらぽんぽんと生まれていった。
ちなみに新曲たちも本当に良かった。バンドでも早く聴いてみたい。

ビートルズやディラン、ジミヘンなどがデビューした時、
初めて人々が聴いた時に受けた衝撃はこんな感じだったのかもしれないと思った。
いいバンドやいい音楽をやってる人々は沢山いるけれど、
この人はこれから伝説になっていくんだろうな、と19歳の歌を聴いてて思った。

---------------------------------------------------------

けどそれにしてもQuattroは好きじゃない。
柱は邪魔だし、ドリンクは試飲用くらいの
小さなコップに氷沢山入れられて500円も取るし、
何よりもライブの後の余韻に浸りたいのに、
帰りに階段でブックオフを通りながら降りなきゃいけないし。

サマソニJake Bugg以外観たい人初日誰もいないけど、
それでも観たいなぁ。フジにJake Bugg出れば確実に行ったのに。

---------------------------------------------------------

=====================
あぁ台湾に行きたいなぁ。
地下社會に行って、
その上の食堂に行って、
クーラーの効き過ぎた
ホテルに泊まりたい。
=====================

健-ken-

レコードを探す旅、Twitterより

4月20日

@srkr_shinnosuke: どうしても欲しいレコードがあって、それはまだ聞いた事ないんだけど、絶対に素敵なことはわかっていて。

あんまりにも素敵だから誰にも教えたくなくて、それで仕方なく1人でそのレコードを探しに行く旅に出る。

多分しばらくかかるけど、行ってくるよ。

@srkr_shinnosuke: それは日本語詞の音楽だよ。僕は外国語の音楽がずっと大好きだったけど、最近はあまり聴いてない。それに、もう日本人が外国の音楽をそれらしい感じでやってる音楽には全然興味ないんだ。

@srkr_shinnosuke: 特に昨日一緒にやったような連中とかね。僕はそれだったらカサビアンとかストロークスとか、君たちの元ネタの方を聴きたいなと思う。昨日の演奏もとてもカッコよかったと思う。ただ僕は、その爆音のパフォーマンスをみながら、ああ、「カレーライス」を生で聴きたいなあと思っていたんだ。

4月21日

@srkr_shinnosuke: 今日吉祥寺に一件見に行ったけど探してるレコードは見つからなかった…

前回ユニオンみても無かったしなぁ。

違う街に行かなくちゃあ。

4月22日

@srkr_shinnosuke: 探していたレコードを下北沢のユニオンで一つ見つけました。

その人から繋がって、他の日本の素晴らしい音楽家達に出会う事ができます。日本にはこんなに素晴らしい人達がいたのか。きっとみんな名の通った人なんだろうけど、僕は今まで知らなかった。とても興奮している。旅はまだ続くのです。

@srkr_shinnosuke: とにかく、メディアは公正さをもっていないといけないと思うんです。あなた達は誰よりも大きな声を持っているのだから、正しい事を話さないといけない。

こんなに素晴らしいものがある事を内緒にしているあなた達は、この国が抱えている問題についてだってまともに教えてくれていないのでしょう。

4月24日

@srkr_shinnosuke: 渋谷の某レコードショップで、店頭に並んでない在庫から無理やり出してもらって、ついに探していたレコードのうちの一つを手にいれました。

DJイナのおかげです。

@srkr_shinnosuke: レコードレコード言ってますが、それはCDです。こんなに一枚のCDを探し回ったのはいつぶりでしょうか。

それで気付いたんだけど、みんなCDを作り過ぎなんですよね。世の中に500枚とかしかなくて、中々手に入らないとなればみんな昔のように音楽を愛すると思うんです。

@srkr_shinnosuke: それでそのCDは1970年代の日本のいわゆるインディーズで、その人が自宅兼オフィスみたいなところでやっていたみたいなんだけど、なんとCDの帯をみたらその住所が杉並区久我山でした。

今の家から五分くらいのところ。

僕は子供の頃に多分この人とすれ違ってる。そんな素晴らしい偶然。


@srkr_shinnosuke: そして、今日手に入れたこのCDは本当に今まで聴いた事が無いくらい素晴らしかった。ありがとう、と誰かに言いたい気持ち。
今月は十分に音楽を手に入れたから、次の旅はまた来月。それに、素晴らしい音楽は一ヶ月聴き続けたってなくならないものね。

ロックバンド

あなたがロックバンドに何を期待していようと

そんなものはすぐに壊れてしまう

どのロックバンドにも一瞬くらいいい時期があって

自分たちこそが最高だと思っている瞬間があって

全てのロックバンド達はそう思っている

でも所詮は人と人との結びつきだから

時が経てば至る所から綻びが生まれて

気づいた時にはなにもかもうまくいかない

酒をあおり壁に頭をぶつけて

粉々になって

また一つロックバンドが壊れた

あなたがあれほどまでに信じていた

あのビートルズでさえ

壊れちまったんだ

だから

そんな意味の無い事は最初からやらない方がいいかって

そんなことはない

俺たちは意味のために何かをやってるわけじゃない

無意味に輝くために生きているんだ

今からだって遅くはないさ

ロックバンドを始めて

それでノーベル賞をとろうぜ

http://icongirlpistols.com

SS

555

At the end of March, icon girl pistols celebrated our 5 year anniversary, which is longer than your average Hollywood marriage. And Ken and I are both 27 now, which means as musicians the grim reaper is out for us this year. Although I think you need to be famous first for that to happen so we might be OK. Not sure whether to be pleased about that or not.

Anyway, in a moment of not-so-rare nostalgia, I’m gonna look back at the last five years and try and remember all the shit we did. Please excuse my egocentricity and here we go with my best/worst list:

Best gig: Gamuso, Asagaya in January 2011 (Takashi’s birthday and his final gig with the band) or Underworld, Taipei in December 2011 (mostly because we love the venue, but I remember this being one of the best gigs we have done as a three-piece)

Worst gig: An out-of-the-way venue in Shinjuku (genuinely can’t remember the name) in 2010 where the sound was awful and we got shafted by the organiser.

Best band played with: Many honourable mentions, but it has to be 1976.

Best stage moment: Shinnosuke playing a solo rendition of Dylan’s “Silver Dagger” at Shibuya NOB October 2011 just a couple of days after telling him how much I fucking love that song.

Most embarrassing stage moment: Falling over the speakers at The Wall, Kaosiung September 2010 during “Ammonia” and playing the rest of the song on my back.

Favourite igp song of the last 5 years: “Death of a Papier Mache Policeman” (at the moment anyway)

And here is a couple of stats about the band over the past five years (for anyone who cares enough to have read this far!)(and yes I am a geek and keep track of this kinda thing)

Gigs played: 105

Songs released: 40

Songs played live (originals): 60

Songs played live (covers): 25

Top 10 most played songs live: 

“車輪の下敷き　Crushed Beneath the Wheels” (61), 

“革命の仕組み　Structure of a Revolution” (60), 

“グッバイドーナツ自由の女神　Goodbye Donuts (Hey Statue of Liberty)” (52), 

“ママ、僕の服はもう買わないで　Mama, Don’t Buy My Clothes Anymore” (52), 

“アメリカ　America” (47), 

“象の尻尾　Elephant’s Tail” (45), 

“首輪　Collar” (45), 

“DIY精神　DIY Mentality” (44), 

“脱NYC　Escaping NYC” (41), 

“路上　On The Road” (37)

Anyway, enough of the past, and here's to the next 5 years! Starting with 2 gigs coming up in April:

4/19 @ Shinjuku JAM at the latest installment of "Alternative Current" with an awesome line-up of bands:

http://www.facebook.com/events/550013281685490/?ref=2

4/20 @ Asagaya GAMUSO we are back once more at Gamuso Live:

http://www.facebook.com/events/266648746804161/?ref=2


[christopher]

empty orchestra

Earlier this week I managed to get a ticket through work to see the London Symphony Orchestra at Suntory Hall, making it the first time I have been to see a professional orchestra live. It's a beautiful venue, and everything sounded fantastic, but even so there were a few things about the whole experience that didn't sit quite right with me.

To begin with, the structure and ceremony of the whole thing can get very tiresome. I don't know for how long the applause continued, as the conductor would walk off, then walk back on, shake the hand of the lead violinist, bow, walk off, then come back on, do it all again, and then repeat a further two or three times. And not just at the end of the night, but also before the interval. Yes, the performers are deserving of the praise, but it all felt very forced. Did the audience really want to be applauding for 10 minutes? or was it simply because the players would not leave the stage until the conductor had completed his fourth walk off-back on routine. Have you ever been to one of those gigs where the band finishes, leaves the stage, but the crowd just keeps on cheering, forcing them to come back on for a final bow? That feels natural to me. At the orchestra, it was all, well, very orchestrated. As far as i am concerned, the artist should be returning to the stage as a result of audience applause, rather than the opposite (and awkward) situation where an audience feels obliged to applaud. Whatever happened to keeping the crowd begging for more?

But thinking back, the central reason why I didn't enjoy the show as much as a good pop or rock show was simply because there was practically zero emotional connexion between the performers and the audience. In July 2008 i stood in a vast crowd at Benicassim festival of music lovers from around the world listening to L. Cohen sing "Hallelujah" and I was surrounded by people in tears, myself included. I don't think I could ever be that moved by an orchestra.

Obviously a singer has the added arsenal of poetry to grasp ahold of the listener, and also the personalised element of the human voice, but I am still capable of being blown away emotionally by classical and other instrumental music. Take the soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream by Clint Mansell - some powerful powerful music, and you can feel the emotional investment. These compositions are performed by a quartet, and I think that is an excellent medium for each instrument (and consequently the person playing it) so have a personality in the music and therefore an emotional connexion with the listener. In the symphony orchestra, there were 8 double basses, countless violins, violas, cellos, so that each "voice" gets so diluted that all that remains is a very pleasant sounding piece of music - but very little soul. I understand that volume is an issue, but this isnt the 18th century anymore and we can mic up instruments where necessary. I think (or rather, I am certain) that i would rather clearly see and hear 1 bass rather than 8 all playing the exact same thing in perfect choreography.

It all boils down to the same topic as I made in my last post - and forgive me for belaboring the point - of making art a personal experience between the artist and the audience. If someone hit a wrong note in the London Symphony Orchestra performance it would be unforgivable. If it is a smaller group, where there is a relationship established between performer and audience, it is not such a big deal. it adds to the appreciation of the fact that live music exists for that moment only, and should not be about perfectly copying something you can hear on a record, but about creating a one-off experience that is shared by the players and the audience. with the LSO, I did not get this feeling at all.

Ah well, I cannot scoff at a free ticket (although I can scoff at the face value of 30,000 yen). It was an all-round pleasant experience, but I don't think I am going to be lining up to see something similar anytime soon.

Back to Icon Girl Pistols, we have a gig on March 19th at Shibuya NOB (details here: http://www.facebook.com/events/436784803063974/)
It is our five-year anniversary since Shinnosuke and Ken started IGP back in March 2008, so should be a fun and special gig - perhaps we will bring out some of the old tunes we have not played in a while. Also we will have music from our friends Samm Bennett and PlayFight so hope as many people can stop on by as possible.

hope you Tokyo folk are enjoying the warmer weather - unfortunately for me Welsh white skin + 4 hours of football in the sun = a bright red burned forehead. yikes.

[christopher]

art for art’s sake

Monday night I went to see a small theatre production, hidden away in the back alleys of Ueno – the kind of venue you could never accidently stumble upon, and that you would only find by pure chance even if you were searching for it (the odds made slightly easier by a girl standing out in the rain pointing people into the basement). A friend of mine was acting in the play, a multi talented actor director writer who you probably won’t recognize from his 1 second of screen time as an extra in The Last Samurai. In fact he deserves far greater fame than that, not only when acting in other people’s shows but also in his own productions with his company “Nagi Pro” – mostly comedy sketches and if you ever want a bit of quality amusement I thoroughly recommend his shows (in Japanese). http://www.nagi-pro.com/

So the play I saw was amazingly well scripted, acted and directed. It is hard to explain here and do it justice, but the story was about simultaneous interpreters at a police interrogation who each understood only half of the dialogue, with the other sounding like gibberish. The story featured two groups of interpreters, one of whom would hear gibberish when the police spoke, the other hearing nonsense when the accused spoke. The scene would be acted out with one side of the story being “voiced”, the other half in silence, and then the scene would be repeated from the alternative perspective with the other group “voiced” while the first group acted out in silence the scene they had just done out loud. In the first take the audience would see the police talking normally but the accused blabbering nonsensical noises. The scene would play again with it completely reversed. Sound confusing? Yeeeaaaahh well it all makes (kind of) sense on stage, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone.... it was called 笑う通訳者 and this run finished today. Maybe there will be a repeat showing in the future? It would be great to see someone do this in English one day too.

Needless to say, the acting skills it took (and the writing and directing!) to pull off a play of this complexity blew me away. It was clever and funny and one of the most entertaining things I have seen in a long time (granted, my standards would have been lowered a little after sitting through A Good Day to Die Hard the previous day). And all in a small theatre out of the way in Ueno, to an audience of maybe 40 people. This little theatre group surely does not make a profit, and might even be operating at a loss. The same can be said for a hundred other theatre groups in Tokyo, a thousand musicians and other artists in this city. How many geniuses there must be living in anonymous poverty. So why do they keep doing it?

I think I have quoted Walter Pater before in this blog, “For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality of your moments as they pass, and simply for these moments sake”. Sure, some people are in it for socio-political reasons, a small number (I would hope very small) might be in it for the wish to be famous (let’s not confuse a desire for fame with a desire for recognition; any artist seeks appreciation of his work and money & fame is one obvious measurement of this). But I genuinely think most people I know in this “art” game are in it because of the joy it brings in those moments of the highest quality – and last night I was fortunate to share that with a handful of people; some on the stage, some behind the scenes, some in the audience. Each element essential for the performance to work.

Working full time, it can be hard to find time on a Monday night to get out to see a friend and their theatre group, magic show, rock band or whatever. But it is overwhelmingly worth it – in the worst case scenario your friend is delighted you came, whereas best case scenario, on a good day you might stumble upon a real gem of entertainment that will possibly never be repeated, a quality moment shared only by those people in that room on that day.

Our next show is Saturday, February 23^rd, at Asagaya Gamuso. I hope that in some way we can make this, and each of our shows, moments that the audience would feel pleased to have been a part of, if only it be for that moment’s sake. And if you want another moment, buy our album (hah).

p.s. just got the new nick cave record. love jubilee street, mermaids sounds lovely on first listen. higgs boson blues is a great tune but im not sure what that bit about fucking miley cyrus is all about... will need a few more listens to the record as a whole to make any judgment.