Sleepy.ab

Jady's been diligently updating this blog and looking at the string of posts,let me just say I'm both moved and guilty. So here's my return-to-the-team post on a Japanese shoegazing band called sleepy.ab.

(Murmur to self: Did I recommend sleepy.ab before? O_O)

If you search for 'sleepy.ab' on wikipedia (Eng), the first hit that comes up is 'advanced sleep phase syndrome'. I'll mark it joke of the day. The name stands for 'sleepy.abstract' which aptly captures their soporific and ambient electrical sounds inspired by dream pop and alternative rock. They're the modern shoegazers (follow the link and read more), a rather short-lived movement active from the late 1980s to early 90s. Shoegazers use various pedal effects to create sophisticated layers of noise and atmospheric reverberations. Sleepy.ab however is much sweeter than 'noise' and you can hardly associate them with the word 'heavy'. Even in Japan this band is only active in the indie scene and remains obscure to the major consumers. It would be a great joy to share the magic of their music with more fans.

The line-up (retrieved from wikipedia japan):


Official Site (has audio and video clips)

Top left - 成山剛 (Tsuyoshi Nariyama),Vocal, Guitar
Top right - 山内憲介 (Kensuke Yamauchi),Guitar
Bottom left: 田中秀幸 (Hideyuki Tanaka),Base
Bottom right: 津波秀樹 (Hideki Tsuha),drums


Tsuyoshi has been compared to Radiohead's frontman Thom Yorke.The similarity is certain. Personally I think Tsuyoshi's voice is more tarry and resonates with more power and dimension. It's hard to imagine one man equivalent of a surround stereo and you simply soar in their magic forest of sound. Their compositions divide among the saccharine melodious (such as Yume no Hana, merodi), the introspective darker wave (fluid, aufheben), and the weightier and noisier timbre (mass gymnastic display, Must it be?).They produce truly great, psychedelic melodies that infiltrate and saturate your senses. Just don't fall asleep! (warnings by Jady)

They have released 4 albums so far. It's hard to lay hands on their previous albums but you can try your luck with the latest 'Fantasia' which features a beautiful artsy cover (all their albums feature the same oil artist). My overall impression of 'Fantasia' is, compared to their previous, this album leans more towards dream pop and is more restricted stylistically. My favourite pick would be the 3rd album 'Palette'. The first track '四季ウタカタ' (Song of four seasons) gives you a fantastic shock of Tsuyoshi's vocal capability and it's also the track that gets me hooked to the band.

Albums:
face the music (2002.12.11)
traveling fair (2004.5.26)
palette (2006.3.8)
fantasia (2007.3.7)

DOWNLOAD, megaupload(8 tracks selected from the above albums, for sampling purpose only. Please support the artist by purchasing the original albums.)

Here're 2 precious live clips. A million thanks to the uploader, love ye!

(What kind of name is that, Kraps Hall...)

Live at Kraps Hall 2007.06.29, performing 'Yume no Hana'(Dream flower)


Melody (from 3rd album 'Palette')


Merry go round (from 4th album 'Fantasia')


Scene + Pain (from 1st album 'Face the music')


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Now playing: Mojave 3 - Bringin' Me Home
via FoxyTunes

The Ditty Bops

Hmmm, what should I say about the Ditty Bops...um, try, "I ADORE THEM!"? Yes, yes, that sounds about right.. =D

It wouldn't be too exaggerating to say their eponymous first album is one of the most delightful finds of the year for me. It is playful, joyous, wicked, smart, mellow, funny. It's what I'd happily put on on a sunny morning, or a cold rainy afternoon, or jogging to it, or dance a bit. I feel I could listen to it the whole day and indeed I have for a fair bit. These girls are just such fun. =))



Come to think of it, I know but one other girl duo, t.A.T.u., and even that is for all the (old) buzz around the fetishsized image and not the music--which, incidentally, is some pop and probably worth a listen, or so I heard. Oh wait, HOW did I forget Tegan and Sara! Really dig this lovely (real) twin duo from Canada...but that's for another day and I digress too much...and oh, the Ditty girls too have some rather interesting pictures, check them out... and I realize I was just thinking of the European-American scene, I am sure most of us would agree we've more than a fair share of girl duos in Asia, no? OK, end of freewheeling digression..

Some general biography:

The Ditty Bops is a band from Los Angeles, California that play a blend of folk, bluegrass, jazz, swing music, ragtime and musical theater. They are headed by Abby DeWald (vocals and acoustic guitar) and Amanda Barrett (vocals, mandolin and dulcimer). They are noted for their excellent harmonies and generally playful style and tempo.

Official site.

Download The Ditty Bops the album here. Link expires one week from now.

Due to chronic laziness I usually do my research as I write along, so I regularly get embarrassed by my outdatedness / shocked / pleasantly surprised. And this piece of old news I just found...well, will complements the above photo link real well, and may I call out to all my dear lesbo friends, it's worth your special attention, *winks*.
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Now playing: The Ditty Bops - Wishful Thinking

download notice

Just to update and let you know - here's the ten-track selection for the last weekly roundup, download link valid for a week. Particular highlight is Norah Jones' cover of Arcade Fire's Ocean of Noise, which is a rare find =d. Happy sampling~

update on beta last.fm and mediamonkey compatibility

I got my reply from last.fm staff about said problem, and apparently it's because in installing the beta client it also automatically updated the plugins, which affect mediamonkey since the winamp plugin (which MM uses) is now updated to accommodate the latest winamp release (which, by the way, looks pretty slick, so much so I actually downloaded and tried out, and I rather gleefully say that functionality-wise it is still nowhere nearing MM.) and inadvertently loses the support for MM.

The rather simple solution is in this thread on the MM forum, but just to sum things up:

Download this .dll file. Exit MM and Last.fm, Locate the Plugins folder for MM (usually C:/Program Files/MediaMonkey/Pugins), and overwrite the file "gen_wa2_scrobbler.dll" with this file with the same name. Restart MM and it should work.

(I suspect it will work just as fine to simply backup your existent scrobbler.dll if you already have had MM installed and scrobbling working. Install beta or any version that has winamp plugin updated, and overwrite the gen_wa2_scrobbler.dll file with backup.)

Never used MM to scrobble before? It's easy. In the last.fm client, click on "tools" --> "Get plugin" --> next --> Add --> choose "Winamp" in the dropdown box and then click on 'browse' to locate your MediaMonkey folder, choose MediaMonkey.exe, click "Open" and then "Ok". You are set to scrobble now. ;)

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Now playing: Diary Of Dreams - Darker

beta last.fm and more

Alright, I'm a last.fm junkie, I like looking at stats, wandering tech forums, digging for easter eggs and extensions, and hopping on the endless 'similar artists' links and read whatever catches my fancy--works for me like wikipedia for some wikiholics, and sucks time like a black hole, xD.

So I installed the beta client yesterday--it's supposed to work just as slick, with improved tagging and some other goodies, but unfortunately it and my Mediamonkey don't seem to go along this time (I emailed and last.fm staff is already investigating), so MM users, don't rush in to test the new water yet. I now have to resort to listen to the rarely utilized radio stations in the client (out of reluctance to let my tracks go unscrobbled...yeah I'm this hooked), and which, delightfully, turned out to be very good! It streams quite smooth (with my not-so-broad broadband service) and the audio quality isn't bad at all. Totally loving it now.

As for tricks, statistic lovers are gonna love this: Extended last.fm stats based on weekly artist charts. Just enter the username and any specified time period, and it will generate a very comprehensive and rather impressive sheet of stats, like this. Sweet eh? =D

Another find is this Open Minded Index Generator--it calculates the so-named OMI by looking at the user's own tags in relation to the top artists of the last 12 months. Even as a lazy and sporadic tagger, I think the work is pretty nice (not that I got a very high score lol). Try and see for yourself. ;)

For the old tricks, see here.

Emmy Rossum - Slow Me Down

Random tubie of the day~

I didn't even know to how to tag this besides pop, she sort of channels a little Imogen Heap--which is of course a much welcome thing--but not trip-hop or indie or new-age or anything of attitude enough...HAD to be pop then, #tags# (Blimey, jady can't even tell pop and non-pop apart now. Wasn't those cute dresses and fab hair and rolling-in-bedsheet shots clue enough?? *rolls eyes*)

I had no idea who she was when I watched it embedded elsewhere, and then turns out she's the 'Phantom of the Opera' star and this is her debut single, hmmm, might be interesting to see that movie..

dark(wave) week

For lack of any one artist that I particularly want to write about yet wanting to write something @.@, I thought I'll attempt a Weekly Top Artists round-up (of last.fm chart). It should be interesting since some of the weekly tops may not make it to the more permanently visible Top 50 chart in a long time--if ever, but they are certainly no less worthy to put forward and recommend. And I don't always have an more varied chart than this...

UPDATE: download a ten-track selection here, link valid for a week.

1. All my faith lost
An Italian neofolk duo that makes quiet, pensive and somewhat dark (some label it 'goth') music and takes their subject from enchanted world of fairies, folklores, and lot more--my favourite track for example, An early fright from The Hours, muses about existence and Kierkegaard. Try a free track here (courtesy of last.fm).

2. Marissa Nadler
Melancholic and strange but perhaps not so appropriately grouped into the 'New Weird America' folk movement, Nadler exudes a rather more traditional and mystic aura than her contemporaries. She sings airy and slow, with simple and delicate guitar backing, and it totally charms me. Recommended Ballad of Living and Dying for a start.

3. Jewel
Do I have to write about Jewel? Really?? Well, let's try tags: folk, pop, rock, singer-songwriter. Ever since she releases the latest Goodbye Alice in Wonderland I have been ignoring it--gave it a listen, thought it unremarkable and never touched it again. This week I dug it up and listened alongside her earlier efforts, and may I say, it's actually good. Maybe the music is not as intense and so-honest-it-hurts (or apparently embarrasses, as some reviews evidenced) as before, but the life she continues to narrate...is more than some tracks in some album. Way to go, Jewel.

4. The Beatles
I'm not a fan, not by a long shot. I could never quite understand the strong emotions the mere name excites in some people (especially those born long after Beatles disbanded--John is not your personal god! Nor is George, for that matter..*prepares invisible cloak*) Alright. But quite needless to say, they are a great band, especially on the last few albums (my fav: Revolver), truly genius stuff.

5. Black Tape for a Blue Girl
Another darkwave/ambient band--the name was what attracted me first, gotta admit. I still don't quite get what 'gothic' exactly means--it's so musically vague and unilluminating, so I'll just forget that and quote wiki: "their sound could be described accurately as an ambient soundscape of analog synth and old world instruments (both real and synthesized), mixed with vocals of poetic and melancholy themes."

6. Nightwish
Nightwish is probably the one of the most famous and representative of the symphonic metal genre. I remember hearing 'Wish I had an Angel' (youtube) years ago and how the powerful and expansive soundscope stunned me. It had since had its lead vocal fired and replaced, and the new Dark Passion Play album is still very awesome.

7. Green Day
Green Day is a popular American (pop) punk band, and I'm imagining an disapproving stare from Jeremy our residential punk boy as I am writing this, but I have to say: the music is just...sweet! For a long time I was just listening to American Idiot--and never got tired of it, but now I'm starting to go back in time and begin from the beginning, and it's been thrilling.

8. The Ditty Bops
Quirky and playful indie pop band of two girls from California, they play a blend of folk, bluegrass, jazz, swing music, ragtime and musical theater. The eponymous first album is a gem.

9. Norah Jones
I was just indulging myself...I should know better than voluntarily sinking myself in that Sultriness...again... lol.

10. Explosions in the Sky
Someone asked me if I was listening to some violent metal stuff and I asked why. Oh no, this is not a loud metal band. Quite the contrary actually, it's an instrumental band (I still don't like the non-instructive post-rock tag) that makes ambient, experimental music, with equally long and idiosyncratic album names like Suddenly I Miss Everyone or The Earth is not a Cold Death Place.

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Now playing: Lisa Germano - After Monday

Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

I should leave this post to zhu to finish, but I thought I'd put up the file link first before it expires (soon). Download BOH's latest album here.

Placeholder intro from All Music Guide:

Seattle, WA's Band of Horses plays dense, aching mid-tempo indie rock reminiscent of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Formed in 2004 by multi-instrumentalists Ben Bridwell and Matthew Brooke out of the ashes of former incarnation Carissa's Wierd, the group caught the attention of Sub Pop during a show with friends and future lablemates Iron & Wine. The label signed the newly minted outfit in 2005 and re-released their self-titled EP. Their full-length debut, Everything All the Time, arrived in March of 2006. Four months later, while touring in support of Everything All the Time, Brooke left Band of Horses, going on to form a new project entitled Grand Archives. ~ James Christopher Monger

Now c'mon, zhu! xD

music-alerts: keep track of your favourite artists' releases

As its slogan says, now music-alerts.com allows you to never miss another album release. Simply type in artist names and it automatically creates a customized feed for you. The engine roams amazon server every three days and updates your feed reader timely (what's a feed and what's a feed reader? Start reading here or trying out here).



Last.fm users can go to the bottom of your 'Top Artists Overall' chart and click on 'Paste your taste'--voila, it has your top 50 artists, and loads of work saved! Add on artists if you have yet more tucked away (I kinda wish last.fm gives a full feed for my top 100 or 150 artists...but people like me who have too voracious an appetite should be restrained ;P). Do remember to remove the last line when you are done pasting. =)



The generated feed looks something like this. Enjoy. ;D

Tim Minchin

I first came across Tim Minchin on a TV show with Darren Hayes, where he did an kiwi song on piano (dedicated to Alan Brough from New Zealand). Always spotted with a bird's nest hair and 3 o'clock eyes, Tim's a modern Renaissance comedian whose quirky talents and creativity never cease to tickle the audience. 'Rock n' Roll nerd' (scroll to the bottom, scroll scroll scroll) is my favourite. It's bloody honest and hilarious.

More about him from Wiki, Official site.

The dark side


Inflatable dolls (singing about sex dolls I believe)


Here's the Alan Brough tribute


Live, Not perfect


The rock n' roll nerd