Do As Infinity is BAAAAACK!!!!

I WANNA SCREAM MY LUNGS OUT! DAI IS BACK!!!!!
YES THEY HAVE REFORMED!!
There'll be a free live performance on Sep 30.

DAI fans, check out this forum thread for more details
http://www.daiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=16473

Watching their comeback performance nearly sent me crying for joy. It's just, bloody fun! I've never seen a happier Ban-chan!


DAI Reformed (It's been 4 years guys!!)


NOW! Shall we get up and dance?!

LOVE PSYCHEDELICO - Freedom

LP - Freedom (theme song for national baseball event)
I ran out of adjectives to describe this PV, surely one of the highest budgeted in LP history. Just right for the sweltering hot sports event.



Jady should've posted this lol (Check out her fansite Salut,Delico! ). Their new album 'Golden Grapefruit' will be on sale 27th June. Audio clips are available on their official website. I have a pretty good impression of this album, much anticipated!

Also check out the exclusive 'Golden Grapefruit' site on jvcmusic

Love Psychedelico releases new song

I hate the stone slackers behind LP’s official site—smegheads do sporadic, infrequent news updates in Japanese and none in Chinese, Korean or English since December 2005. NONE! And oh, looks like Chinese and Korean are one and the same with English language now—the news pages are an identical triplet anyway. Employ new staff please!! Call out and you shall get tons and tons of multi-lingual volunteers fling themselves at ye!! Here is one enraged and unfortunately non-Japanese speaking fan throwing rotten tomatoes, for a start...

Hate/threat mail aside, latest news hot from the oven (it’s posted TODAY and I had a hunch to check just this instant. No, I don’t hover over the site everyday and no, they don’t have RSS.) So quote I:

新曲「Freedom」がNHKのMLB放送イメージソングに決定

6月発売予定のNEW ALBUMに収録される新曲「Freedom」が、NHKのメジャーリーグベースボール（MLB）放送のイメージソングとして使用されることが決定しました。

このイメージソングは、ベースボール発祥の地アメリカ、MLBという最高峰の舞台において活躍が期待される日本の選手たちに、LOVE PSYCHEDELICOが、“フリーダム＝自由”にのせて送る熱
いメッセージです。

Google translation sucks at this, the bot can’t handle a piece with too many punctuations still. So before a kind human soul translates this, I am gonna guess it said one or more of the following:

- LP’s new song Freedom is gonna come out.

- A new album is coming in June, (DAMN it's ABOUT TIME TO!!! Jumping and whooping in joy. Please tell me I didn’t get this one wrong!!) and it contains Freedom (yeah whatever...let me get over the previous sentence first).

- And LP is going to perform Freedom in some big deal baseball event. Japan is a baseball freak nation. XD

Anticipation!!

Happy Birthday, Elton!

It's Elton John's 60th birthday, and you can watch him live on the birthday show in New York as well as look at his long and immense career here.

Rufus News

Woke up this morning at 11:11, and my google reader notifier calmly said I have about 60 new feeds (10 hours after I last read), most of them under the ‘music’ tag. I thought Oh man, I hope blogspot didn’t automatically republish ukulele…and as it turns out everything was from this one “Rufus Wainwright RSS feed”, talking about bulk updating for your musician…

So, lots of Rufus news--sold-out live shows and touring and interviews and all--Rufus is one busy man (or maybe just that he can’t help being in High Demand). The most exciting of all is his new song on The Robinsons soundtrack, called Another Believer, is available for listening on his MySpace page. The song sounds catchy and cheerful, pop enough for an anime movie, but very Rufus nonetheless. And the most ‘bizarre’ of all is the cover to the new album, Release the Stars, due for release on May 15.

Does anybody else think this is a little unsettling on first glance?

The tracklist is also released, it reads

01 Do I Disappoint You
02 Going to a Town
03 Tiergarten
04 Nobody's Off the Hook
05 Between My Legs
06 Rules and Regulations
07 I'm Not Ready to Love
08 Slideshow
09 Tulsa
10 Leaving for Paris
11 Sanssouci
12 Release the Stars

I think I just saw some interesting title choice…and words foreign to me. Seems Rufus likes his literary allusions as ever, and I have a good feeling it’s not gonna disappoint me in the least.

In other news, the anticipated documentary film Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (in which Rufus among many others pays his tribute and performs 3 songs) just screened in New York. I have great respect for the man (though the man has not released any new material in many a year…But I’ve yet to exhaust his rich old stuff, so I am not as disgruntled), and I am hoping it comes my way soon (if at all). Without further ado, a trailer for your pleasure.



and I'll wrap up it all with Rufus live in concert, performing Greek Song. Yum.



(and...I curbed the next thousand incoherent words I wanted to say of Rufus...no small effort I tell you...)

an update

(blogging out of pure frustration that I am in no shape to attack a congested desk of work right now..) Finally got this blog into the post-beta version, which looks pretty much the same as before except for the hierarchical archive list (which does not load and expand well in firefox, just this single case. I am investigating) and the ability to rank tags—I don’t like it in this case as the numbers are not very helpful excepting indicating this blogging circle is primarily into north American and Japanese music scene—so I put that at the bottom of the sidebar, in case you still want to know the stats.

In other news, two other albums that I noted in the upcoming release list of ’07 have come out-- Air’s Pocket Symphony and Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy—zhu still owes a sweet mini-review on Norah’s latest Not Too Late released in January. Well zhu, you know the saying, and you are not too late if you cough it up about NOW. B-) Back to the new stuff, I'm look ing forward to hearing them, especially Chinese Democracy. With the complete line-up change and this long of hiatus and no studio album I wonder where GNR stand now, and if they have gone entirely obsolete for that matter. That’s a sad nagging thought, but I’ll hold off my doubts for now.

Put on old Grammy compilation music all afternoon, they made up a long playlist and I didn’t bother to change—it was just…mindlessly easy on the ears, and a lot of them remind me of the times when I still bought cassettes (a lot), and recorded radio programs and trading with friends…good old days. And after this revision of pre-Britney pre-hip pop music I have to say they were almost too sweet…melodious sometimes to the point of being formulaic. Is it a thing of the late 90s or has it more to do with whoever voted for those Grammies…just a thought, I have not been following the award for years..

and Last.fm keeps recommending me stuff that either I already own but have yet to scrobble, or stuff that I went to try and really liked, gotta love this brainy music bot…

a bit of Rufus news from FolkFurieuse

Just saw this (see below) on Folk Furieuse, I am so amused by that thing Mr. FF wrote about Rufus being the same 'drôle, folle' (funny and 'silly'? haha) guy very much involved in the gay cultural scene as ever. (The 'Têtu' mentioned (French for "stubborn") is a gay magazine published in France, where the interview page (and the literally smoldering Rufus shot) is taken from. And apparently FolkFurieuse himself interviewed Rufus, as far as I understand. HOW IMMENSELY LUCKY!)

Rufus Wainwright dans Têtu

Un peu d'auto-promo n'a jamais fait de mal à personne. Je vous invite donc à vous procurer le dernier Têtu (n°119, Février 2007) afin de consulter - entre autres, l'interview de Rufus Wainwright réalisée par votre serviteur. J'ai interrogé Rufus sur le spectacle qu'il va donner en hommage à Judy Garland, le 20 février à l'Olympia, mais aussi sur son prochain album, Release the stars, qui sortira en mai et dont il parle en avant-première. En interview, Rufus ne change pas, toujours aussi drôle, toujours aussi folle, toujours aussi impliqué dans la culture gay. Il a même balancé même une petite vacherie (c'est le cas de le dire) à propos de Madonna, ce que peu de gens osent faire. Juste un regret, ma traduction de "Over the rainbow" pour le titre de l'article est mauvaise. Je pense que "Par-delà l'arc-en-ciel" aurait été mieux. Je le saurai pour la prochaine fois... En attendant, si le coeur vous en dit, il reste des places le 20 février à l'Olympia : www.olympiahall.com.

Eagles Inching Toward First New Album Since 1979

Source: billboard.com

August 02, 2006. by Gary Graff, Detroit

The Eagles hope to take flight with a new album -- sooner rather than later, according to guitarist Joe Walsh. "I would say the first half of next year we should be able to put out a new Eagles album," he tells Billboard.com, adding with a laugh that "it'll be nice to have some new songs to play, 'cause we're sick of the old ones!"

The Eagles have been talking about a new studio album, their first since 1979's "The Long Run," since launching the tongue-in-cheek series of Farewell tours in 2003. The recording sessions so far, according to Walsh, have yielded "pretty much basic tracks for people to take and write words to. We've got a bunch of stuff floating around."

But after touring Europe earlier in the summer, Walsh says there's a new resolve to start turning those ideas into finished songs. "We decided we better get some new product out, some new songs," he says. "We could rest on our laurels and play our catalog forever, but we're not a nostalgia band. We've got another record in us. We don't have a mean ol' record company to tell us we're done anymore, so we're taking too long. We really need to just police ourselves and get in there and get it finished and put it out."

Two new songs, Walsh's "One Day at a Time" and Glenn Frey's "No More Cloudy Days," appeared on last year's live DVD "Farewell 1 Tour -- Live From Melbourne," which the band released via its own Eagles Recording Co. imprint.

First up for Walsh, however, is his first tour with the James Gang in 35 years. As previously reported, the outing begins Aug. 10 in Sturgis, N.D. Walsh won't rule out the possibility of recording new music with the trio too, but he quickly adds, "I really don't know what to expect. I just don't see a whole lot of improvising rock'n'roll bands out there now, so I think maybe there's a little window here for a spontaneous group like us. I'm excited to see where it goes."

Upcoming releases - Jady's pick

It’s January 23th—date of release of The Shins’ third album—I am elated! But I reckon it’s probably not an internationally simultaneous thing so I’m trying to sample it online first…get the real deal later. (in other good news, isohunt is up and running again). When is Singapore going to come to its good business sense and import, I scratch my head very much. It’s been years since I set foot in any of the labyrinthine music chain stores and see the billboards and charts. I’ve no idea of the trends and changes in taste—if any—and I am guessing there isn’t much. No time soon would they glue a poster of an indie band or anything remotely cult for that matter to the prominent glass panels and order thousands of copies in advance. Sighs.

Back to music. So in the high spirit of anticipating the first and very illegal sounds of Wincing the Night Away I am doing a search on upcoming releases of the year. More elation!! Here’s some—

23 Jan Tuesday
The Shins	Wincing The Night Away
30 Jan Tuesday
Norah Jones	Not Too Late

Norah! Norah! I didn’t know she’s working on a new album, I didn’t know it’s coming out so soon, but hey, I am not complaining in the least! It’s about time too, elation!! (A lousy fan begging to be stoned…)

6 Feb Tuesday
Yoko Ono	Yes, I'm A Witch

Ah, I didn’t know Lennon’s widow is still making music…does Yoko sound like Lennon, in any way, by any means? Clue me in…or I’ll read wiki or something, quietly, if any outraged Beatles fanatic wants to smash my face right now (I know one such person...alright, wiki it is.)

6 Mar Tuesday
Air	Pocket Symphony
Guns N' Roses	Chinese Democracy source

Air - I meant to find out more—a lot more—about them. I like their sound, I like a lot of their songs and lyrics, but I just never got around to them. It’s time now.

Guns ‘N Rose – this announcement is both so good and sad. And old. Chinese Democracy has been rumored to be released since way before the time I even listen to music regularly—the name meant to provoke controversy as it was due for release before the return of Hong Kong to China (now you know what period i am talking about). BUT, it has been in production for almost ten years now, at a cost of over $13 million, making it the most expensive unreleased album ever recorded. The grunge/glam/hair band had since been through multiple line-up changes, disputes, hiatus…all negative publicity and little productivity. The once smoldering, drugged and very angry frontman Axl Rose is the only one left…and I wonder what the various big-hair exbandmates are up to now. And I wonder if he had rewritten songs to just fit the title theme, which has grown…a little less relevant since ten years ago.

8 May Tuesday
Dolores O'Riordan [of The Cranberries]	Are You Listening?

The Cranberries disbanded?? Or just a break and experimentation with solo? I hope this is just a break, though I am sure Dolores would do just as well on her own, with a voice like that.

Anticipated Future Releases
Aerosmith	[Title TBA]	Spring 2007
Bjork	[Title TBA]	Spring 2007
Coldplay	[Title TBA]	Late 2007
The Cure	[Title TBA]	May 2007
Dido	[Title TBA]	2007
The Eagles	[Title TBA]	2007 source
Feist	[Title TBA]	Spring 2007
Gnarls Barkley	[Title TBA]	2007
Iron & Wine	[Title TBA]	August 2007
Michael Jackson	[Title TBA]	Late 2007
Jimmy Eat World	[Title TBA]	Summer 2007
Annie Lennox	[Title TBA]	2007
Linkin Park	[Title TBA]	2007
Massive Attack	Weather Underground	2007
Moby	[Title TBA]	Fall 2007
Nine Inch Nails	Year Zero	April 2007
Oasis	[Title TBA]	2007-2008
The Pixies	[Title TBA]	2007 source
Portishead	[Title TBA]	2007
The Postal Service	[Title TBA]	2007
Radiohead	[Title TBA]	2007
R.E.M.	[Title TBA]	2007
Rufus Wainwright	Release the Stars	May 2007
Smashing Pumpkins	[Title TBA]	May 2007
Tegan & Sara	[Title TBA]	2007
U2	[Title TBA]	2007
Suzanne Vega	[Title TBA]	Spring 2007
Gillian Welch	[Title TBA]	2007

Loads ahead to look forward to!! =D

The Shins - something about everything

After the last Norah post and an unplanned discourse on masculinity issues on this blog (which is at a historical low at the moment), zhu and I agreed we need to turn our attention to the non-female side of musicdom, males and Martians qualify. And so this post seems well called for and very appropriate to me (all smug), since our other problem, besides having polarized ear-brain connection that respond all too strongly to female sounds and little else, is that we tend to blog about artists we already take every opportunity to rave to each other about anyway (we here refers to two nutcases that’s zhu and me, but anyone is welcome to join the collective, non-extant *grin* emoticon). Blogging is hence just making babbling a little more coherent (and less scandalous) and take it to the next level. I say we do something about the growing list of each of our new favourites, now.

aww these guys ain't glamorous rock-star looking, I know, but they rock!

The Shins is a relatively new and extremely delightful new find of mine (though the band started way back in 1997 as Flake Music.) My shame at my slowness is slightly mitigated by the fact that the indie band’s profile was greatly boosted when two of their tracks were featured on the critically acclaimed 2004 indie film Garden State (Zach Braff, Natalie Portman), which I love, and which was how their sounds first reached my nerve endings a year ago. Since then they have become an absolute favourite.

As to their sounds and discography…here is where my musical vocabulary becomes a limiting reagent, so I’ll quote wikipedia instead.

The Shins' first album was 2001's Oh, Inverted World, released to critical acclaim for its lyrically deft, jangly pop sound. Dave Hernandez, former member of Scared of Chaka, joined the group following the departure of bassist Neal Langford. Chutes Too Narrow followed in 2003 to much fanfare in indie music circles, featuring even more multi-layered lyrical inventions and a musical approach that explored new genres, song structures, and levels of production fidelity.

and this bit is fun..

The Shins played a critically acclaimed show at the historic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, with Scotland's Belle and Sebastian on July 6, 2006. Both bands described playing at the venue as a career highlight. During live shows, the band members (particularly Crandall and Hernandez) are known to frequently swap instruments, making it somewhat difficult to define their exact roles in the band.

Oh, Inverted World

Chutes Too Narrow

The exciting news is that their next record, Wincing the Night Away is set for release on January 23, 2007 (soon!!). It was said to have been leaked to the internet but I'm totally waiting for the official release--I'll buy that as the first record in a hiatus of three years not of buying any music. I'll put up a few tracks for you guys to sample when the connection gets better (yelling for help from zhu!). Before that, please contend with this teeny tiny radio. (toothy emoticon =d)



Update: A sample of Young Pilgrim (zhu's pick) and Turn a square (mine) from Chutes Too Narrow is ready here, thanks to zhu! Expires around 7 Jan, old disclaimer apply. =d

maintenance worker blogging

Well I'm done playing truant for now and here's a report: Blogger has come out of beta officially as of today, and besides the long needed tagging function they also dished out a (yet rudimentary) recent comments in sidebar function too! Boy, aren't they aiming to push the other service providers off the cliff! Hoho... don't mean to make this into a lengthy geek post though, just some excited whistles and I'll snap right back to normal. Anyways. a little deserted this place looks, I wonder how everyone's doing...musically or otherwise. ;-) The last two of fish sama on classical music was just...mind boggling otherworldly and awesome, more more! and I say let's revive it rejuvenate reincarnate rewhatever! (and zhu I want to revamp uku, major itch. =$ shall we?)

upcoming album releases (to be completed)

Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way

The nine time Grammy-Award winning Sony Recording artists will release this highly-anticipated fourth album on May 23, 2006. Release notes and review.

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Jewel is returning to her folk roots after the 0304 stint, releasing album GOODBYE ALICE IN WONDERLAND on 2nd May. news and review on the new album.

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Zhu: added a promotional video on Jewel's upcoming album.

March releases

Ok I'm back editing this post. I'll send the albums to our yahoogroup to avoid posting links on this blog.

1. Rie Fu - 2nd Album - Rose Album (2006.3.24)

-> track listing
-> official site

My rating: 8 out of 10

Rie Fu's back with her 2nd album, which isn't VERY different from the major style of her debut, but you can feel the influence of the Carpenters on her musical conceptions more strongly, especially in the 2nd and 3rd track - 5minutes & funny dream (rather humourous and romantic). Other tracks such as 'Tiny Tiny Melody' and 'I Wanna Go To a Place' still mirror the melodious and gentle recipe from her debut hit 'Life's like a boat'. Overall, this's an authentic Rie Fu album with new ideas coming into play.

2. Tomiko Van Debut - Farewell (2006.3.29)

-> official listing

My rating: 7 out of 10

On second thought, I shouldn't be so harsh so I changed the rating from 6 to 7. Still personally, I'm rather disappointed, not with Tomiko's vocal performance, but with the music itself. Nagao DAI wrote all the songs and he's the one who in a sense defined Do As Infinity, who brought out the wild spontaneity in Tomiko's voice and pushed it to full potential. Now DAI's disbanded and Tomiko started her solo career. It's a tough ride. It's almost impossible to ask fans to dissociate Tomiko from shadows of DAI and that's why comparisons between the DAI Tomiko and the current Tomiko are inevitable. I'm sure Tomiko herself won't like this to happen so I'm trying to be impartial and judge her as if I know her for the first time. And I soon realize, casting away the past of DAI and looking at Tomiko again as a new-comer, she doesn't stand out much from average Jpop singers. The songs are mostly mellow ballads which are pleasant sounding but just as easy to forget. Nevertheless, I recommend 'Farewell' and 'Hold me...'.

ET's comments (since she's here, and listening, and humming) : good mix of vocal techiques employed in Tomiko Van's work as opposed to previous Jpop greats like Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru who essentialy employ the same techniques to achieve good effects. In addition, little spice can do no harm. - quoted verbatum from ET-sama (who's lying on the temporarily made Japanese-style futon like bed, half dreamy, half dead...)


3. Love Psychedelico - 2nd Album - Live Psychedelico (2006.3.22)


My rating: 9 out of 10

NICE NICE NICE. You know Love Psychedelico performs GREAT alive!! I especially like 'Wasting', 'Neverland' and 'Mind across the universe', all of them with moody sophisticated acoustic guitar introductions.

Ah, I'm done ^^

Love Psychedelico

News updates!! (from Love Psychedelico Official Site)



5TH ALBUM
LOVE PSYCHEDELIO
release date: 2006.3.22

# 01. Mind across the universe
# 02. Everybody needs somebody
# 03. Free World
# 04. Last Smile
# 05. Wasting
# 06. life goes on
# 07. These days
# 08. My last fight
# 09. Your Song
# 10. "O"
# 11. neverland
# 12. LADY MADONNA～憂鬱なるスパイダー～
# 13. A DAY FOR YOU

LP's new album! It's a collection of best live performances, definitely something to look forward to! CHeeRs!! One thing I find very funny about their album is, take a look at the titles. 2nd album - Love Psychedelic Orchestra, 3rd album - LOVE PSYCHEDELICO III ,and now 5th album - LOVE PSYCHEDELICO!! C'mon people, you can do better than that! I'm sure that saves a whole bunch of neurons on naming, which is most often a painstaking task... Did mention I downloaded LP's live concert (1GB) off emule, for a whole month, and guess what happens? It's missing codes and no bloody player can play it! So much for gastric surge. Oh but LP, so wonderful *_*