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!

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Skate and Destroy

Friday Hardcore



I used to hang out at a skate shop in Shimokitazawa called Violent Grind. After school, Grind was the place to hang out: we could skate, listen to punk rock records, get totally fucked up...hey, it was paradise for us high school kids. Mudafukin Pushead designed the logo for the place! How more hardcore can you get?

(Duh)

Anyway, though getting plastered every other few days was sorta fun, another reason we showed up was that we could watch the latest skate videos...for like, free. Remember The Search For Animal Chin? Ban This? H-Street, Alva videos?

Neil Blender quitting mid-way in some contest to spray paint some of his art work onto a ramp was immensely cool. (Does anyone remember which video this was from?)

We watched these things endlessly. And most of the soundtracks featured punk rock.



The Faction
Skate And Destroy
The Faction Collection 1982-1985 CD (buy)
Goldenrod 1995

To tell you the truth, I have no idea which video (if any) this was included on. But with Steve Caballero on board (no pun intended, I swear) it must be on one.


McRad
Weakness
Absence Of Sanity CD (buy)
Uprising 2001

Stupid assed name and they sound like the Offspring. But put together will Ray Barbee's awesome street skating in Ban This (I think), this song is pretty good.

The Odd Numbers
Little Kings And Queens
Jazz Cigarettes LP
Munster 1996

Again, another song from some skate video. Mods. Maybe from a Santa Cruz Video?

I used to be able to ollie.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Emerald, Sapphire and Gold



ESG
Erase You
A South Bronx Story CD (buy from Forced Exposure)
Universal Sound 2001

The four Scroggins sister plus cousin Tito. Sparse, minimalist funk. This song is from 1991's self titled 2nd LP, parts of which are compiled with their more well known earlier releases on the Universal Sound CD. Are still together, they put out a CD on Soul Jazz a few years ago.

When's the last time you liked a song with a guy barking like a dog?

Bonus song!
To commemorate !!!'s first Tokyo show tomorrow, here's a song from their debut 7".



!!!
The Dis-Ease
The Dis-Ease/The Funky Branca 7"
Hopscotch 1998

You can still hear their punk/hardcore roots. Doubt they'll be playing this one tomorrow.

Endnotes
1. Check out Something I Learned Today... Great stuff focusing on punk/garage/hardcore. Christ On A Crutch! Haven't heard that name in ages.

2. Finally updated the links. Thanks again.

Friday, July 23, 2004

Material+Fuji Rock



Material
Square Dance
Memory Serves LP
Celluloid/CBS Sony 1982

Bill Laswell and gang. Jazzyfunkskronk. Check it out, you'll like it.

Endnotes
1. Laswell will be playing at this year's Fuji Rock Festival with Praxis, which kicks off next week. The lineup this year is pretty good: Pixies, Fiery Furnaces, !!!, the Stills, Lou Reed, Dizzee Rascal, Franz Ferdinand, Basement Jaxx, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Stripes...you get the picture. Plus, Shina Ringo's new band Tokyo Jihen, Tha Blue Herb mixmaster O.N.O., Boredoms' offshoot Omoide Hatoba, old school punks Aburadako, and way old school Mentai Rock band the Roosters, playing one last show.

I'm not attending.

Spending three days stuck in the mountains of Niigata with tens of thousands of raving drunks is not my idea of fun. Yes, there are NO one day passes: all tickets cover the full three days. If I had ¥36,000/$330 US (not including parking/camp fees) to spare, I might check out a day.

BTW, Niigata is hundreds of kilos from Fujisan, the mountain the fest is named after.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

TIALTNGO

(Post) Hardcore Friday


(photo by nobu)

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
非常事態 (Emergency Situation)
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out/Vanilla split CD (buy from Dim Mak)
Grok Plastique 2002

Post hardcore/emo from Tokyo. They were great and are no more.

That's all, I need some sleep. The new blogger editor seems to like to eat posts.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Hai Yah!!!


(image borrowed from skatepunk.net)

Supernova
Calling Hong Kong
Pop As A Weapon CD
Sympathy For The Record Industry 2000

I saw these guys at
Bimbo's in San Francisco in the mid 90's, opening for the Buzzcocks. Supernova were great, definitely one of the more fun shows I've attended. Band heckles crowd. Crowd heckles band. Supernova rag on the Buzzcocks ("The old farts are next...The Buzzcocks suck!")
A good portion of the crowd were decked out in hand-made aluminum foil space gear and helmets: dress code for Supernova fans. You see, the band were self proclaimed aliens, from uh...Cynot 3, who had crash landed on Earth (the Mojave Desert, to be exact.) They couldn't get home: fuck it, they decided to conquer the planet thru punk rock.

So, yeah, maybe they didn't succeed.

Supernova went on to release two albums and a video on Amphetamine Reptile (of all labels!) plus a single and a 5" record on Sympathy. The original guitarist moved on to Man Or Astroman? and Servotron. Alien to robot.

This song was originally from Supernova's second 7", from Goldenrod Records. The SFTRI CD nicely compiles most of the early singles, including "Chewbaca", which was featured in Kevin Smith's film, Clerks.

Endnotes
1. Thanks are due, once again, to the Tofu Hut for the post/link @ Monkey Filter.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

POL POT!!!

(sorta) Hardcore Friday.


DJ Lebowitz
Holiday In Cambodia
Beautiful Happiness comp LP
Shigaku/Sounds 1988

As he points out on his site, no, he is not a DJ, but the "ROCKINEST PIANO PLAYER IN THE WORLD." Still active, DJ Lebowitz plays bars in the Bay Area, belting out instrumental piano versions of, uh, classics by 7 Seconds (Racism Sucks), Ramones (Judy Is A Punk), Black Flag (Jealous Again)...according to him, he can whip out over 2000 covers.

Plus, he has originals.

This is one of his covers though, a Dead Kennedys tune. Taken off a compilation that Sounds, a long gone British rock weekly, put together. Though it seems to be marketed as a US/HC comp, post-punk prevails. Halo of Flies, Naked Raygun, Bullet LaVolta, Live Skull, Bastards...the only real HC is from Stikky (pre-Spazz) and the Disappointments.

A great, demented song from Art Phag also.

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Outlet Store CRAP



There is a thrift store near my house called...Crap. The owner caught me taking this photo on my phone, it was pretty hilarious. I swear, he had the beginnings of a smirk/smile on his mug.

And yes, what they had was the shit. Unfortunately, the bad kind.

Endnotes
1. Thank you Royal Music for the link.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

A somewhat reddish black



Raven
Demonstration
Kagirinaku Aka ni Chikai Kuro CD (buy)
Universal 2004

This CD was mentioned in one of my first posts: Chiba Yusuke/Thee Michelle Gun Elephant etc...go here. To recap; solo project/album from Terui Toshiyuki, ex-bassist of Blankey Jet City and Chiba side band Rosso.
Most of the songs feature Chiba on vocals, this one is a rare departure. Terui on vocals and guitar, Yuko on main vocals and Yamaoka Koji on Jim O'Rourke.

Endnotes
1. Nice article about mp3 blogs here.
(via The Tofu Hut)
Luv this post from Tofu-san:
I'm a bit tired with the whole "not targeted by the RIAA... YET" chickenlittle vibe that always accompanies any conversation about musicblogging. Our intentions are clear; our willingness to take down any tracks that anyone considers misappropriated are regularly stated (and, when necessary, obliged); our audience is confined to a small host of devotees and we're not making money on this enterprise, WE'RE SPENDING MONEY TO PROMOTE ARTISTS WE LOVE. So what's the problem?

I certainly hope I won't be proven wrong, but I think the music industry has come to realize that fans are not the problem, they're the solution. We aren't napster. We aren't Kazaa. We are, in fact, manna from heaven: intelligent tastemakers that encourage buying from label catalogs and hype up unknown or new artists. In a more rational world, we'd be getting payola.
Yes, TOFU power!
2. And to totally fucking negate the above: dude, are there any stereo versions of the Antics, you know, like, available? I...have...mono.
3. Got tickets for !!!'s show at the new Liquid Room in Ebisu. OOIOO is opening.
!!!+OOIOO...a rock show or computer code gone haywire?

Sunday, July 04, 2004

I guess I'd like the hot bread, you can't go wrong w/ a name (?)


Gastr del Sol
Work From Smoke
Crookt, Crackt, Or Fly CD (buy)
Drag City 1994

The new Wilco disc and Jim O'Rourke's contributions have got me listening to Gastr del Sol once again. I don't think I have put this thing on in quite awhile: it was nice subway-commute-headphone music, especially this song. You can sort of get lost in the intertwining guitars and forget about work or whatever.

Does anyone know what's up with David Grubb's lyrics?

Endnotes
1. Thank you The Tofu Hut and strange fruit for the links!

Friday, July 02, 2004

Dead punx & a cork placemat to put your beer on

Friday hardcore.


Battalion Of Saints
Second Coming
2nd Coming 7"
Mystic 1983

From the pits of San Diego. All out, nihilistic punkers. Most of 'em are dead. Oh well.

Endnotes
1. Picked up two records today, the new Wilco and the Los Crudos/MK-Ultra split 7". I got the ultimate promotion item today with A Ghost Is Born...a coaster. A fucking Wilco coaster!



You people be jealous!!!