Turning It All Around

[PV] VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE - Turning Turning

Newest PV from VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE in support of their newest album "SA-KA-NA ELECTRIC DEVICE". This song demonstrates pretty well what the main changes that have been made from VOLA's previous sound, as the entire album is filled with a much stronger emphasis towards a synth-based, new-wave dance rock and moving away from the post-punk twin-guitars that had drawn me to VOLA in the first place. If I had known that they were going with this before I had seen them back in June, it might have made seeing them live a little less disappointing as most of their set was filled with the new songs off this album. But, yeah, ultimately, all I can say is that it's different. I know people say that change is good, but in my opinion, it's not necessarily better or worse in this case. Just different. Take it as you will.

As there isn't too much of significance that has been going on with me as of late (yet), I've decided to talk about something I forgot to mention in my last post. I found out last week that the Japanese band SPARTA LOCALS had announced they were going to break up next month. Initially, as with many other fans of the band, this came as quite a shock as the band was apparently in the midst of recording a new album. Many people believed that the future of the band was looking bright. It seemed like they had recovered from losing one of the founding members, drummer Akihito Nakayama. They had a pretty successful return to indie grace as they released a generally accepted album "Leecher". They had just toured the US for the first time this year, with SXSW's Japan Nite Tour. Plus, judging from my experiences with seeing them live in Japan, it seemed like they would go on for a good number of years. But, it seems like the exit of Nakayama has caught up to them. While the band has not released an official reason for its breakup, it was pretty obvious for everyone that the essence of the band changed a bit after his departure. Whether for better or for worse is debatable, but, regardless of opinion, one of the premier bands in the Japanese indie world and one of the first Japanese indie bands I got into is ending. We can only hope that the members of SPARTA LOCALS will find other promising projects to join or start.

-REG

Curly Ecstasy in the Mashed Machine

[PV] mothercoat - Curly Mash

Newest song from the indie rock band mothercoat off their first full-length album "Patchwork Shiki". The only other song that I've listened to from them was "galileo" off of the album "interphone", so I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to hear this one. It is much more of a playful and quirky indie pop song that borders on experimental/post-rock. It really reminds me of the song "STROBOLIGHTS" by SUPERCAR. The tone of the music carries through into the video as well, which is nice.

Apologies for the lateness in updating. It's been tough finding new things to post on. Plus, it's been getting kind of crazy busy with all the midterms and the upcoming finals. Ugh. Anyways, I'm sure some of you are wondering how my "ECSTACY IN THE MACHINE" show went. It went, um, swimmingly? Yeah, even though I had a paper and a presentation to do the following day, it's probably the most at ease I've felt at the Japanese concerts I've been going to. And by at ease, I mean not feeling totally awkward while desperately trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.

In any case, LIQUIDROOM was nice as usual. A funny moment in the beginning was when Ahito Inazawa (the frontman of VOLA) made his way to the DJ booth to run it for a bit and, when people noticed it was him, all of girls got crazy excited and practically bum-rushed the booth. It was kind of funny to see how even Inazawa has rabid fangirls. It really seemed less of actual DJing though, and more of "Inazawa picks random songs he likes and he dances to them. If you like them, you can dance too". But, yeah, eventually, the opening band you're gold, i'm pink made their way to the stage. Can't say I really liked them at all. It was cool that the band had a bit of variety in their instruments. But, they had too much of a unrefined pop sound that ended up reminding me of a Hanson-type band that depends far too much on their looks and their soft and whiny harmonies.

After you're gold, i'm pink finished their short set, Riki Kinoshita from ART-SCHOOL had his turn on the DJ booth while VOLA set up. It was pretty much the same thing as when Inazawa ran the booth. But, I thought it was pretty awesome that Kinoshita picked both "SUNDAY" by lostage and "Coin Laundry" by OGRE YOU ASSHOLE during his DJ session. I was pretty into those two songs. Anyways, eventually, VOLA started their set. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed. I know this is going to sound bad, but I really dislike it when bands just play new songs and don't play any of the songs that they are known for. It leaves me trying to listen to the new songs and not getting into it as much. It didn't help that I wasn't really liking the way the new songs were sounding. There was way too much of Inazawa just dancing and not enough of the delicious twin guitar licks of the past. The one saving grace was that the set was started with "self-defense" moving into "An imitation's superstar". The closing of the set with "Mexico Pub" was pretty awesome too. But, seriously, no "A communication refusal desire" and no "Principle of machine" made me sad.

As I had that long paper and presentation due the following day, I decided that it would be best if I had left after VOLA. My sincere apologies to those who were interested in seeing how ART-SCHOOL was. But, anways, onto the crazy concert week that includes Base Ball Bear, lostage, and possibly even more. Yay. (Also, onto finals. Boo.)

-REG