11 posts tagged “maggie”
(Japanese text by Tomo, translated into English by Maggie)
Supercar are probably the closest you'll ever get to a Japanese
shoegazer band. They hail from Aomori, a place in the countryside in northern Japan that is usually considered their version of
"the boonies." When they first started out, they were a guitar band
that seemed happy to just layer their ringing guitar sounds with
beautiful melodies. But with their 2nd album Jump Up, their sound
suddenly evolved (and this was evolution, not change), going from
Britpop copy band to developing their own sound identity.
The product of this was their 3rd album, the 2000 release Futurama. They got the title from a combination of the words "future" and "panorama," and sure enough, it was a record that seemed to depict the future and an all-encompassing view of sound itself. At the time, their use of both rock and electronica drew comparisons to Primal Scream and Radiohead.
Usually, it's very difficult to put Japanese lyrics to UK guitar band-type music as it comes off sounding very unbalanced (perhaps that explains the dearth of such bands in Japan), but Supercar skillfully maneuver around that, and the music and lyrics are written by different members of the band. Another feature of the band is the use of boy/girl harmonies, but on this album, the female vocals tend to take a backseat.In the beginning, the guitars jangle in
the instrumental "Changes," and lead into the deeper guitar sound of
the masterpiece "Playstar Vista." Despite its futuristic feel (perhaps
aided by the synths), this is an album that leaves you feeling
mysteriously warm. The first half of the album is so solid that when
you get around to the latter half, it sometimes seems like the album is
a little too long. But, there are still some gems like "Fairway" and
"Restarter" tucked away.
Post-Futurama, Supercar continued to evolve, stretching out into the far reaches of the electronica universe with the release of their 4th album, High Vision. After that, they once again changed direction and headed back to Earth with a more conventional, Talking Heads-esque 5th album Answer, and then they broke up.
Official SONY site | English fansite
ORIGINAL TEXT:
しかし2nd『Jump Up』になるといきなりその音は進化（変化ではなく進化です）の速度を時速150kmくらいに上げ、いかにもＵＫ好きってだけではなく、自分たちの音処理のスタイルがまるっきり変わりました。 ところがその音の進化はまったく止まることが無く、速度維持しながらも真っ直ぐだけではなく縦にも横にも向い始めました。
それが結晶されたのが2000年に発売された3rdアルバムの『Futurama』です。 タイトルはFutureとPanoramaを合わせた言葉らしく、まさにその言葉通りの音の未来と音のすべての景色をあらわしている傑作アルバムです。 発売当初はロックとエレクトロニカとの融合ってことでPrimal ScreamやRadioheadを引き合いに出して評価されておりました。
通常英国的なメロディとアレンジがあると、そこに日本語の歌詞を乗せるのは非常にアンバランスで難しいのですが（だから日本にはそういうバンドが少ないのかも）スーパーカーはその辺がとても巧みで楽曲と詩は別々のメンバーが書いています。 それともうひとつの特徴はヴォーカルが男女ひとりずついるということであり、このアルバムは男性ヴォーカルの割合が非常に高く、女の子の声は控えめに後ろから、または横からとても可愛げに顔を出してくれています。
さて、その後のスーパーカーはさらに進化をし続けて、エレクトロニカの星にたどり着いた4th『High Vision』を経たのち、その進化を 無理やりに止めて地上に戻ってきてTalking Headsのような原始化した5th『Answer』のアルバムを残して解散してしまいました。
１枚とも同じアルバムが無く、好みは分かれるとは思いますが、自分は最も動き続けていたこの『Futurama』が一番好きです。
Maggie | my♥posts | maggie@weheartmusic.com
Last night the Canadian band Stars took over the beautiful Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Somehow it seemed the perfect venue for this grand performance. Lead singer Torquil Campbell came out to introduce the opener, who's quite a legend in his own right: Lloyd Cole. It was just him and his guitar but somehow it seemed right.
When he was done, we were counting down the minutes until our heroes took the stage. Looking around I saw Sandra Oh in attendance, and apparently the Watson Twins were hanging out, too. There was a row of enthusiastic kids (I don't know how old they were but I call everyone "kid") dancing to "Video Killed the Radio Star." And then. And then, the lights went down and the opening strains of "The Beginning After the End" filled the room. The band took the stage amidst cheers and screams and Torq yelled for everyone to "Get up, GET UP!!!" (The Orpheum is an all-seated venue.) We all did and it was non-stop dancing and smiles and flying flowers all around.
Stars are the kind of live band you could see a hundred times and every time they will create for you a new experience. The band were in top form and Torq's seemingly-endless energy was contagious. Stars have been around for a while so you get the feeling that they never take anything for granted, and perhaps it is this earnestness that earns them a special place in my heart.
They played a nice mix of most of the songs from their new album, In Our Bedroom After The War, as well as some of the older favorites. For "The Ghost of Genova Heights," Torq came out wearing a light-bulb jacket, asking if we wanted to hear a ghost story. During the encore, they played an old crowd-pleaser, their cover of the Smiths' "This Charming Man," and the very last song was "Calendar Girl" which came to a glorious close with Torq holding out his mic to the audience, the whole room singing "I'm alive."
W♥M ♥s Stars | More photos
Hong Kong is a city known for its East-meets-West sensibilities. HK-ese identical twins Ming & Ping are the perfect embodiment of this aesthetic. The electropop outfit consists of Ming, Ping, and their producer Bao Vo, and they are currently based in San Francisco. They've just self-released their 3rd album, Causeway Army.
西洋/Western sound: Their music is pure electropop, replete with bloops, doots and original NES sound effects. The music and lyrics conjure up images of skyscrapers and technology and a busy nightlife. Electronic music can, at times, seem a little cold and impersonal, but there are enough bouncy melodies and the duo's voices are warm enough to balance things out nicely. The first track on Causeway Army starts off sounding suspiciously New Order-esque but then it takes off and you're in for 60 minutes of pure '80s-inspired pop pleasure.
東洋/Eastern visuals: Ming & Ping are known for their theatrical live shows, which come with a live drummer, dancers, and a certain Cymbal Monkey, who at times invade the audience to dance with them. Ming takes the stage in Cantonese opera garb, while Ping takes it easy (somewhere? where? hmm, very suspicious...) up on the screen singing backup. I was lucky enough to catch them the other night when they were in L.A. as part of the Monsters of Electropop show, and I can honestly say I was most impressed by them, even though they weren't headlining. If you're into dance music, the Ming & Ping Dynasty will guarantee you a spicy good time!
There are probably a lot of people who will file them away as another revivalist of a much-hated era, but there are still some of us who just can't let that decade go, and it is to us (or maybe it's just me?) that I'm dedicating this post. 乾杯！
Official site: http://www.mingping.com/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/mingping
When I first listened to them I couldn't help but be reminded of Pretty Girls Make Graves- at times, singer Munoz sounds uncannily like PGMG's Andrea Zollo. They also remind me a bit of former tour-mates Rainer Maria, and the new album was produced by Jason Caddell (formerly of the Dismemberment Plan), so that might give you an idea of what they sound like. That's not to say that Pash don't have their own charm; their earnestness shows through in their music and in Munoz's voice and lyrics, which seem to center on relationships ("baby you shouldn't just call me over when you're lonely/ 'cause you can't just love me when it's good for you").
Their current single "The Best Gun" is off their second album, also named The Best Gun. There are some pretty catchy tracks on it (check out "What Do We Always Say?" and "ABCD"), and if you're interested you can stream the album from here.
Official Pash ♥ myspace
I've been wanting to post about these guys for a while now. They're no longer active, but they've released 2 full-lengths and a remix album. The group is comprised of 3 members: Meredith Figurine, David Figurine and James Figurine. Out of the three, James (aka Jimmy Tamborello) is probably the best known, as he is the guy behind the keyboards/laptop of the Postal Service, and is the genius behind DNTEL.
Figurine predates the Postal Service by about 5 years. They're decidedly geeky, making songs about robots and UFOs and internet love. The music they make is bouncy synthpop with some videogame sound effects thrown in. They do have their more subdued moments, and the lyrics are whimsical and romantically bittersweet ("'Cause you're just way too good for me/That you even look my way is hard to believe/ I don't know what you see in me/ A disappointment's all I'll ever be"). They're great for singing along, alone in your car on the way home from a botched date....
The first Saint Etienne song I ever heard was 'He's On the Phone'-- I think it was on Rodney Bingenheimer's radio show. Prior to that I'd been curious about them because I kept seeing ads for their Too Young to Die compilation in magazines like Select and Vox, and I thought their name sounded cool (I was 16, okay?). I'm terrible when it comes to identifying genres but for me there's no other way to describe this song than: dance-pop. Pure, triumphant, sparkling, fabulous dance-pop. Every time I've seen them live this song turns the floor into a madhouse. Saint Etienne have loads of good songs but there's just something about this song. I like their final version the best but there are several different incarnations of this song.
It was first written by French singer Etienne Daho back in 1984, and was a pretty big hit off his album La Notte La Notte. Back then the title was 'Week-end à Rome' and it sounds somewhat dated now but I still think it's way catchy and great to sing along to (even though I don't speak a word of French!). Then in 1995, Daho and Saint Etienne collaborated on the Reserection EP, which includes 'Accident' which is basically the first English version of 'He's on the Phone.' The lyrics contain an extra couplet in the second verse (and hers is lilac and gold/ the things she has/ she's feeling sad/ she's feeling old). Then they turned up the piano, mixed it up and re-released it as 'He's on the Phone,' which is included in several compilation albums (Too Young to Die, Continental, Smash the System, Travel Edition).
Incidentally, Saint Etienne got their name from a French football team, and I'm not sure how they first got together with Daho, but they've collaborated on several songs, the most (relatively) recent being 'Le Premier Jour' which was a song that first showed up on Sarah Cracknell's solo CD as 'Ready or Not.'
I apologize for not posting this sooner but I had to go in for some oral surgery today. Now I'm holding some frozen burritos up to my face and I'm a little loopy from vicodin but I love this band so much I had to post this before I went to bed. First news is, Stars' new album In Our Bedroom After the War is set to be released on CD and double-LP on Sept. 25, 2007. But, in keeping with current technology and downloading trends, they have decided to make their new album available for legal download now:
From their myspace:
Friends, fans and supporters of Stars...
On September 25th, Arts&Crafts will release Stars' fourth studio album, In Our Bedroom After War.
We love it and are excited and proud to be bringing it to the world.
We enlisted Joe Chiccarelli to mix the album. He finished in early June, passing the tapes along to Emily Lazar at the Lodge for mastering. Last Friday, July 6th, a final master was delivered to us.
Traditional music business practice says we are to begin sending out copies of this album now. We give advance copies to print publications in hopes of securing features that coincide with our September date. We meet with radio stations in hopes of securing airplay. etc, etc.
Inevitably someone will leak the album.
Throughout this process, the most important people in this value chain, the fans, are given only two options - wait until September 25th to legally purchase the new album or choose from a variety of sources and download the album for free, at any time.
We hope you'll choose to support the band, and choose to pay for their album. However we don't think it's fair you should have to wait until September 25th to do so.
We believe that the line between the media and the public is now completely grey.
What is the difference between a writer for a big glossy music magazine and a student writing about their favourite bands on their blog? What differentiates a commercial radio station from someone adding a song to their lastfm channel? or their myspace page?As such, we are making the new Stars album available for legal download today, four days after it's completion. The CD and double vinyl versions of the album will still be released on our official release date, September 25th. We hope you will continue to support music retailers should a physical album in all it's packaged glory be your choice of format.
It's our hope that given a clear, legal alternative to downloading music for free, you will choose to support the creators.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Sincerely,
Stars and Arts&Crafts
Now, I'm still a big fan of buying CDs (call me old-fashioned but there's still a great feeling about ripping the plastic off a brand new CD that just came out that day) so I'm sure I'll be buying their CD when it comes out but the temptation of being able to listen to it NOW is also pretty great. I'll probably compromise and buy a few tracks now and the CD later. But if you're curious about their new album you can download the song 'The Night Starts Here' for free off their myspace, or from here. Or just listen to it here on W♥M!
Also, they will be touring in the fall to support their new album. Some pre-sale tickets are available through their website now, which I would recommend as it means you'd be avoiding ticketmaster and their exhorbitant "convenience fees."
maggie ♥ contact
Having been a twinkie ("yellow on the outside, white on the inside") and a hardcore Anglophile for most of my life, I've never really been a big fan of J-pop/rock. But the last time I was in Japan, which was in 2004, I kept seeing this music video by a band that sounded, well, not too bad. In fact, the song was pretty catchy and by the time I came home, I had bought the single and album by them. I suppose I liked them because they weren't vacuous like a lot of j-pop idols or Johnny's boy bands, but not overly dramatic and flashy like the visual-kei bands.
Asian Kung-Fu Generation was born in 1996, when dummer Kiyoshi Ijichi, guitarist Kensuke Kita, bassist Takahiro Yamada and singer Masafumi Goto met in college. They seem to be influenced by British and American indie bands, which probably explains why I like them. In fact, there's even a song off their 2nd album that I could swear was by a band called Weezer, but whatever. On their website they describe their sound as: "Weezer-ish sound a la japonaise. Emotional Sense and Literary Rock."
If there are any anime fans out there, you might recognize them from Fullmetal Alchemist and Naruto. For 'Rewrite' I decided to use the cover art for the single since I'm quite fond of the artist who does their cover art, Yusuke Nakamura.
So far AKG have released 5 albums, and a slew of singles. Also available are 2 compilations which include tracks by bands such as Ash, the Rentals, Silver Sun and Dogs Die in Hot Cars, along with other Japanese bands that I admit I am not familiar with. Their later releases seem to showcase a mellower "Aji-kan" (the Japanese sure love abbreviating names), but I've yet to get my hands on their latest CD. Discography can be found here, but it's all in Japanese. (The English version is not complete.)
I'm presenting some of their more popular songs, 'Rewrite' from Fullmetal Alchemist, 電波塔 (Denpato "Radio Tower") from 君繋ファイブエム (Kimi Tsunagi Five M), 遙か彼方 (Haruka kanata, which translates to something like "very very far off") from Naruto, and the video for 君という花 (Kimi to iu hana "Flower called 'you'"). If there is any interest I will translate the lyrics and post them.
Ja, mata ne!
Maggie.
[ e-mail: maggie@weheartmusic.com ]
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Patrick Wolf is a mere lad of 23, but has apparently been making music for more than half his life. His first album Lycanthropy was released in 2003 and was met with critical acclaim but strangely enough he has yet to achieve widespread fame and glory. Which is perhaps not such a bad thing, considering the state of popular music these days. But that's neither here nor there. Ahem.
It would be easy to dismiss Wolf as just another pretty face, as glittery style over substance. But he's actually got the musical chops to back it up. His voice ranges from deep growls to effusive whoops, and everything in-between. He plays quite a few instruments, including but not limited to: pianos, violas, ukuleles, dulcimers, theremins, harmoniums, bells, gongs, synthesizers, and handclaps.
His latest release, The Magic Position, is the most "pop" album Wolf has released, as evidenced by the lyrics from the title track: "You've put me in the magic position/ To live, to learn, to love in the major key.../ Let me put you in the magic position, darling 'cause/ I'm singing in the major key." While on past albums his music has been described as "dark" and "apocalyptic," this time around he even sings straightforward love songs ('Enchanted'). That's not to say it's all sunshine and butterflies, however, he's still got a few songs ('Magpie,' 'Augustine') about love's lament (which are my favorite kinds of pop/love songs actually).
I had a difficult time trying to decide on which songs to include here so I tried to choose ones with a somewhat different sound. While I think all three of his albums are equally excellent, I would venture to say that The Magic Position is probably the most accessible to date. Enjoy, and when you realize you can't stop playing his stuff don't say I didn't warn you!
Bonus: video for 'Bluebells'
Inspired by Vu's post last week about the Gothic Archies and my purchase last night of their 2000 EP I'm Lonely (And I Love It), I've decided to write about another Stephin Merritt project, Future Bible Heroes, where Merritt collaborates with Chris Ewen (former keyboardist for the 80's band Figures On a Beach) and Magnetic Fields vocalist/percussionist/pianist Claudia Gonson. Merritt's website describes the Heroes as:
Future Bible Heroes is the fruitful product of Ewen's exotic electro-pop instrumentation, replete with samples ranging from Hawaiian birds to computer printers, overlaid with Merritt's exquisite pop songs and humorous lyrical style.
Thanks to Ewen's electro-touch, Future Bible Heroes' songs have a definite synthpoppy feel to them, conducive to remixes and the complete dancefloor treatment. Now, I like "serious" music as much as the next indie kid, but I'm also partial to the 3-minute pop song, upbeat and effervescent and full of synths and driving basslines. Add to that Merritt's witty and (at times) hilarious lyrics and Gonson's sweet yet plaintive voice and voilà! You've got yourself a sparkling little pop gem.
I've included here the title track off I'm Lonely (And I Love It) (with Merritt on vocals) and also a song from their 2002 full-length LP Eternal Youth, 'Doris Daytheearthstoodstill.' Only Stephin Merritt could rhyme "asteroid" with "gas droid" and have it make perfect sense in a pop song.
*Apparently they have released a brand new song 'Mr. Punch' last year, which appears on a Neil Gaiman tribute CD.
