Hi, I'm Nobu and these are some of my favorite songs~a never ending mixtape. Dance, slam, chill...hell, click your fingers while kickin' back in the futon, if that's what you're into. And, YES, buy the music! Support the band! Liner notes, record jackets and smokey clubs ARE cool!

Sunday, May 30, 2004

EYE and EYE


Boredoms
God From Anal
Anal By Anal 7".
Trans Records 1986

This is off of their first 7" when the Boredoms were still a duo, Yamatsuka Eye and guitarist Tabata, later of Zeni Geva. Years before the trancy, hypnotic Boredoms of today, this EP was apparently recorded in 30 minutes in Eye's room. You can tell.
No-fi, noise/garage punk: the work of either a genius or a fucking madman.

Eye is said to have, with Hanatarashi, his pre-Boredoms band:
1> Played shows with a chain saw and animal cadavers.
2> Played shows with Molotov Cocktails, which were flung into the audience.
3> Set up a Hanatarashi show with a 100,000 yen ticket price. A thousand+ US dollars (which, based on the exchange rates of the 80s, probably doubled that.) Needless to say, no one showed.
4> Showed up at a Psychic TV gig with explosives, which pretty much cancelled the show.
5> Destroyed a club during a set with a bulldozer.

There are endless stories, true or false, I have no idea.
Eye started the Boredoms in 86, Hanatarashi not being able to get any more gigs.

Genius or madman? He seemed like a nice guy when I met him.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Problems solved

Moved the music files off of Geocities, you should be able to listen to them now. Well, everything other than the Big Boys track.

See you.

on the stereo: The For Carnation

Sunday, May 23, 2004

High School Bands/My First Punk Show

High school...Weren't those three or four years, like, fun? Everyone has a few high school stories, here's one of mine: the events leading up to my first punk show.

I attended a private Christian high school on the outskirts of Tokyo. The commute was hell, two hours each way, every day, for three years. I don't even want to think about the total accumulative hours spent on that train over the years. Thank God for Walkman's and books!

Anyway, the faculty were somewhat stuck in the middle-ages, especially concerning school regulations. You could not:
Work: I guess working at McDonalds got in the way of one's academic life, fuck if I remember.
Get A Driver's License: No bosozoku at our school.
Grow Out Your Hair: Or dyeing your hair, get piercings, tattoos, etc... One sempai I knew who secretly played in a thrash metal cover band and had long hair, wore a wig to school every day for a few months, only to have it fly off during judo. I am not shitting you.

I could go on, but the one regulation I will never forget, it's almost embarrassing to share.

Someone got it in their head that rock music was evil. Satanic evil. So I guess they had a meeting.
sensei A: "What defines rock music?"
sensei B: "Uhh, electric guitars?
sensei A: "Yes, that's it! Regulation #666, our students will not play power chords!"

Yes, electric guitars were banned at our school. They were considered, "The Devil's Instrument." I am totally serious.

So, yeah, we started a band.

It wasn't really a reaction against the regulation, we were all into music and wanted to play. We had a name, Prelude XXX (don't ask). Eguchi and me on guitars, Motegi on drums and Ao-chan on bass. We didn't have a singer. We did Sex Pistols and Beach Boys covers and whoever felt like it, screamed along. Or attempted to. We never played live and would have probably been lynched if we had. I actually have a practice tape around somewhere, never to be heard unless I get really, really drunk.
Somehow, rumor got around school that we were in a band. A friend of the aforementioned toupeed/thrash metalist (who was now, newly, sporting a crew cut due to the judo incident,) got in touch and, hey, we had a singer. We practiced, changed names, got a new bassist and started writing songs. We were a real band!
Our new singer, Uchino-san, was and still is, a hard core punk scenester. He had been going to shows for a few years and knew a lot of people in the Japanese hard core scene. I had never been to a punk show, let alone a club show. So I jumped at a chance to go see a band that he was friends with, a band called Trash.
The show was at Yaneura in Shimokitazawa. I have no recollection of who they played with. Don't really remember Trash's set either. Probably freaked and in awe.
One memory though, a punk coming up to me, eyeing my skateboard and telling me that if I was a skater, that I should pick up the S.O.B record.
That I did, along with a Trash 7" from which this song is from.

"Trash "Tiger Boogie (Special)"

Endnotes
1. The skit in the middle of the song includes Jha Jha (Lip Cream), Hiroto (The Blue Hearts), Masami (Ghoul), Baki (Gastunk), etc...
2. Our band got some songs together and played about 25 shows or so, before I left. We actually played a show with Trash, and they played this song!
3. Uchino-san somehow became our school president. I still see him once every couple of years at an odd show. And they are still together, he being the only original member.
4. No matter how horrid it sounds, my high school wasn't that bad.

はじめて観に行ったパンクのライブって何でした?僕はトラッシュでした。ライブはあまりおぼえていないけど、7"を買いました。いいっすね。リップのJha Jha、ヒロト、バキとマサミさんも参加!
1~2年後、トラッシュと対バンをした。"タイガー..."やりました。YES!

10,000 volts in your pocket, guilty or innocent



Image from new(ish) blog. Found on the streets of New York City.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Used Records+Slam Dancing=(ex) Nerd Memories

June, 1984. Santa Barbara Junior High's Graduation Dance. Trying to act cool and failing miserably (hey, I was a nerd.) A few hundred kids standing around, drinking punch for all I can remember. There is a DJ. He's from a local band, The Tan. Probably trying to make some extra cash because his band aren't.

Hey, would you want to DJ a fucking junior high school party if you didn't have to?

Anyway, he starts his set. All I remember is two things.
The first is, though I had not heard anything like it at that time, I'm pretty sure that he played a ska song. The Specials, possibly? So, the song starts and some of the stranger looking kids start this insane/violent/stomp/fight/dance and the teachers are going nuts.

Chaos! Anarchy! My introduction to slam dancing!

To tell you the truth, I don't remember what I thought at the time. I knew of punk, had seen a Dead Kennedys record (WTF!) at the local record store, but, you know, I was a kid into Van Halen and the whole LA hard rock scene. (Look for my Forgotten Hits of Hair-Metal post soon!) Dreamed of going to the US Festival, the metal day. It's like, what? New wave day? The Clash, who the fuck were they!

Who knew I would be stage diving and playing hard core a few years later.

The other thing I remember from the dance is that the DJ played one of his own songs, a Tan song. I'm not sure, but he may have sung along to the record on an extra mike. A song called "Bad Party."

Fast forward about a decade.

Back in Japan, browsing through the used record bins at Reco Fan in Machida. I hit the 100 yen corner. You know what's coming. Yes, a 12" by The Tan. And, yes, "Bad Party" is the second track on the b side.

Hell, ya, I picked it up.

There are 3 songs on the 12", "Bad Party" being the best. Why? Because it was played at my junior high graduation dance.

The Tan "Bad Party"

One thing, how the shit did this record get to Japan? My copy is stamped #0782 so I'm guessing that 1000 were made. And you know what the really fucked thing is, I saw another copy a few years later at a different shop.


僕のアメリカの中学の卒業ダンスパーティーでThe Tanっていうバンドの人がDJをやってた。10年後、町田レコファンでそいつらの12"発見。¥100。売れなかった、安っぽNew Wave?

Monday, May 17, 2004

Chiba Yusuke

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant "Blue Nylon Shirts (Live)"

A live version from the "Taiyowo Tsukande Shimatta" CDEP. Since breaking up last year, vocalist Yusuke Chiba has sung on Raven LP, which is a solo project thingy from the ex-bassist of Blankey Jet City. I never really got into BJC, but the Raven album is quite nice; which I guess leads us to Rosso.
Rosso is Chiba's side band (or his main band now with TMGE gone) with the guy from BJC/Raven and drummer from the hardcore band Assfort. They put out an album a few years ago, played a few shows and were gone. Now they're back, adding a guitarist and switching drummers. Can't wait for shows!

Rosso "Calypso Baby"
From the "Bird" CD.

42 seconds of the "Sharon" video here (Real).

チバユウスケ祭り。Enjoy!

Sunday, May 16, 2004

How's it going?

I'm Nobu. And these are some of my favorite songs.

Big Boys "What's The Word?"

Before !!!, before The Rapture, these Texans were teaching the indie kids to dance. From 30 second hardcore hits to Kool And The Gang covers, the Big Boys were a huge part of the soundtrack of my teenage skatepunk years. Rumored to have been a great live band. Ian MacKaye says it best (recalling, a Minor Threat/Big Boys/Dicks show from the liner notes of The Skinny Elvis out on Touch And Go):
...but it was nothing compared to the way I felt when the next band went onstage-the almighty Big Boys. I felt humiliated, how could we play after this? The Big Boys pulled out all stops. More enormous men, decorated jump suits, food props, great songs, a horn section, 200 friends on stage singing and dancing...we were fucked. We made it through our set, maybe it was a good one, I can't recall. I only remember the other bands. The next year we came back to Austin and did it right-we opened for the Big Boys. The way it should be.

This track is from The Fat Elvis compilation, also out from Touch And Go. Originally on the No Matter How Long The Line Is At The Cafeteria, There's Always A Seat! LP (Enigma/1984).

ちは。ようこそ。のぶです。聴いてくれ!

!!!、Raptureとかよりやっぱこれ。Big Boys。テキサス。ハードコアからふぁんく。イアンもぬれた。ライブみたかった!