Summer Sonic 2014 Thoughts And Photos
I’ve been to many a music festival (eight Lollapaloozas, Outside Lands, Ultra and Deluna Fest, to name a few), and while I’ve always enjoyed going to them to catch as many live bands as possible, in recent years I became entirely dejected with them – thanks in large part to the horrible crowds.
In my experience, audiences at festivals have always been complete garbage, getting worse every year. People talk loudly over the music. They throw shit on stage. They have an overwhelming need to get fucked up or wasted. They start fights. They just generally suck.
But now that I live in Japan, I wondered – is it the same here? In my eight months here, I’ve noticed that Japanese people are by and large excessively polite (sometimes to a fault). Would that extreme courtesy and kindness extend itself to a festival?
Well, when it was announced that Kraftwerk was playing Summer Sonic 2014, one of the largest music festivals in the country, I decided it was time to find out.
And while I don’t want to spoil anything – yeah, Japanese audience are pretty dope.
Vinyl Showdown – City Of The Living Dead Soundtrack
City of the Living Dead (AKA Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi AKA Fear In The City Of The Living Dead AKA The Gates of Hell AKA That Movie with the Fucked Up Scene with the Drill) is one of Lucio Fulci’s most…let’s say memorable…films.
I mean, we should be honest here, City of the Living Dead is not a great film. Shit, I think it would be a stretch to call it a good film or even a halfway decent film. It’s an incoherent mess of a film, a film full of hilariously bad acting, horrid special effects and plot holes that a army of zombies could march through no problem.
But it’s also an oddly memorizing film filled with evocative and unforgettable imagery, with a dreamlike quality unmatched by many other horror flicks. It may not make a lick of sense and have some rather drastic problems, but that doesn’t make it any less visually stunning and captivating to this day. If a film can be so-bad-it’s-good and a legit classic at the same time, then it’s City of the Living Dead.
While much of the film’s high points can be credited to the amazing direction of Lucio Fulci, the score by Fabio Frizzi definitely deserves second billing in an explanation as to why the film transcends its cheesy nature. Many Italian horror films of the era featured spacey, prog-influenced soundtracks. Most were by Goblin, the prog-rock outfit who frequently worked with legendary film director Dario Argento on many of his greatest films, including Deep Red and Suspiria. Many consider their work on those previously mentioned films to be the best soundtracks to come out the Italian horror scene of the 70s and 80s. However, if you ask me, Fabio Frizzi’s score to City Of The Living Dead actually transcends them in many ways.
It’s the most “proggy” of the bunch, with a great bass and guitar sound that sounds highly reminiscent of Pink Floyd – if they had been big Romero fans. And it has more memorable hooks than most of those other scores. When you remember most Goblin scores you remember one key melody or theme, but the score to City Of The Living Dead has countless motifs that stick with you long after you listen to them. It’s simultaneously creepy and catchy. A rare combination.
So that’s why when I saw that Death Waltz was distributing Private Records’ limited edition re-issue of the original soundtrack on blue vinyl, I jumped at the chance to pick it up. I didn’t even think twice. Although I guess I probably should have, because I didn’t realize that, as a member of Death Waltz’s subscription service, I was already getting their own version of the film’s soundtrack as well.
Oh well, a great excuse to compare them then and help potential buyers out there figure out which one is best for them! So let’s get down to it!
CD Review: Harald Grosskopf – Synthesist & Oceanheart
About two weeks ago I was wandering Tower Records in Akihabara, looking for the latest Allman Brothers re-release, when I stumbled upon a feature display for someone named Harald Grosskopf. To be honest, I had never heard of him before, but the display caught my eye for two reasons. One was silver-painted portrait that graces the cover of his album Synthesist, and that’s a little hard to miss.
But what really captured my attention was giant text next to it that simply read SYNTHESIZER!!!! followed by a shitlaod of Japanese text that I couldn’t read.
I had no idea who Harald Grosskopf was at the time, but they totally had me at SYNTHESIZER!!!!
CD Review: The Allman Brothers Band – The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings
Let me just get this out of the way right now; I do not consider myself a “jam band” fan. I have never been to a Phish concert. I am not a Grateful Dead fan. The both times I saw Primus live I wanted to kill myself. As punk rocker/new wave aficionado, I can’t typically get into any band whose idea of a good time includes a drum solo that lasts more than one minute.
That being said, I think that The Allman Brothers’ At The Filmore East, an album known primarily for it’s lengthy “jam” sessions, is one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time.
A little Duane Allman goes a long fucking way in my book.
Continue reading
CD/DVD Review: The Value Of Entertainment + IQ6 Zang Tumb Tuum Sampled
Sampled was the first compilation issued by ZTT, first released in 1984. At the time, I was a five-year-old boy living in Toledo, Ohio. So pardon me if I missed it the first time around.
I first discovered the album about five years ago, scoring a used LP for a dirt cheap price. It quickly became one of my favorite compilation LPs, thanks to its oddball assortment of artists, and a stunningly great live version of “Born To Run” by ZTT mainstays Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Even though I don’t know much about many of the artists on the record aside from Frankie and The Art Of Noise, to this day it’s remained on high rotation on my turntable, despite the fact that the copy I had was scratched to hell and back.
Thankfully now I can retire that old, worn-out disc, with ZTT finally giving the album a proper CD release, as part of a two-pack that also includes the first DVD release of ZTT’s 1986 concert film The Value Of Entertainment as an added, um, value.
As the package treats the film as the main attraction, I’ll start with that
Psychotic Ramblings about Emerson Lake & Palmer
Fucking prog rock, man.
Okay, I’m going to get this out of the way right now. This will be less of a review of a product, and more just me babbling incoherently about my confusing and contradictory feelings towards Emerson Lake & Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery and the entire genre of progressive rock music. You want a quick take on this new re-issue? It’s pretty good – and the basic 2 CD/DVD combo pack both sounds great and includes a worthwhile collection of bonus cuts and rarities. If you like ELP, then you would probably enjoy this release – and I recommend picking it up.
Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, fucking prog rock, man. Continue reading
PonoMusic Is Bullshit
As I write this, the Kickstarter for the Neil Young backed Pono music player is nearing completion, with the campaign raising close to 6 million dollars, well over their original goal of $800.000.
And that’s too bad. Because the Pono music player is a bunch of bullshit, a rip-off of mammoth proportions that is taking advantage of pretentious “audiophiles” with more dollars than sense, and naive tech geeks who believe everything the Internet tells them. Continue reading
My Salaryman Soundtrack
Haven’t been updating a lot lately. It’s been difficult. Lots of reasons for it, but there are two big ones.
1. I kind of…don’t know what to write about? Okay, sure I could write about more record stores in Japan – and I plan to, trust me, but I feel like I should spread those out a bit. That shit gets old. So if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
2. I’ve been HELLA BUSY! Work is, well, a lot of work! On the weekends I’m usually at the office for 11+ hours, and during the week I’m usually in around 7:00 am, which means I have to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am. I still get two days off a week, thankfully, but on those days I typically spend as little time as possible inside my apartment and don’t really feel the need to write. When you live in one of the most exciting metropolises on Earth, you really don’t like spending your days off cooped up in a tiny room, y’know?
But yeah, right now my life is pretty focused around my work. And I’m oddly fine with that. I’ve never been one to settle well into an office job. Cubicles typically make me want to die. But I guess the fact that I spend most of my day teaching helps counter that. Teaching is fun! At least, I find it fun. It’s one of the few jobs I’ve ever had that I’ve actually found emotionally rewarding. That’s a nice switch from when I used to work in a warehouse packaging porn (long story).
As much as I love my job, that morning commute, it’s a real mother. While I’ve gotten used to waking up at 5:30 in the fucking morning, it’s not something that I ever think I’ll be happy about. Forcing myself to crawl out of bed before the sun is even out is not easy. And there isn’t a strong enough coffee (especially in Japan) to put a bounce in my step that early.
Once again, music to the rescue. Continue reading
Tokyo Record Store Report: Jar-Beat Record
When I go out hunting for record stores in Tokyo, I usually know where I’m going and how to get there. I research the hell out of an area, make my own custom Google Map, and set out on a pretermined path to maximize shopping potential and minimize needless walking. But even with all my research and meticulous planning, even I sometimes wander across a record store that I would have never found if it hadn’t been for dumb random luck. Continue reading
Vinyl Review: Last House On The Left Soundtrack (One Way Static Re-Issue)
When people talk about The Last House On The Left, one of the things they usually don’t bring up is the film’s score.
That’s not to say it’s bad or not worth mentioning, it’s just that in a film that features some of the most disturbing scenes of depravity and sadism ever put to celluloid, I guess discussions about the music kind of get swept aside.
In fact, the soundtrack never even got an official release when the movie first came out (despite what Wikipedia may tell you). It wasn’t actually released at all until 1999, and that was an ultra-limited edition affair that vanished almost immediately. It’s not until now, in 2013, that the film’s complete soundtrack is seeing a wide release – thanks to the new genre re-issue label One Way Static.
And it’s a really weird record.
Seriously. There’s a part with a kazoo. Continue reading