JM365 Needs Your Help!

The earthquake/tsunami one-two-punch on Japan has resulted in several singles and albums being postponed until April, and so I'm quickly running out of new music to write about. I'm thinking the new Berryz Koubou album tonight, but after that I've got nothing.

So here's where I need your help: what should I do? Please reply by 4/1, 12:00 PDT.

UPDATE: The survey is closed. Thanks for voting!

RADWIMPS - Zettai Zetsumei - Better Than a Stalemate

First off, sorry for the Day of Fail yesterday. Let's hope it's the last for awhile.

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"Zettai Zetsumei" is the new album by RADWIMPS, a band that is quickly becoming my new favorite. They were founded in 2001, but only just began to gain ground on the charts around 2008. Their music is solid rock with odd touches here and there that make each song totally unique in both the discography and the rock world at large. Although I haven't listened to their music extensively, I've begun to get a sense for it and I already have a few favorite songs.

Knowing what little I do of RADWIMPS, I can't say whether "Zettai Zetsumei" is a good representation of their work. But I can say that I feel conflicted about it. On the one hand there are great songs peppered all through this album: "DADA," "Kimi to Hitsuji to Ao," "Gakugeikai," "Kyoushinshou," "G Koui," "DUGOUT." All of these are great songs that I'd replay a hundred times. But then there are the weird songs: "Daidarabocchi" and its dragging melody, "Ground Zero" opening with the laughter of small children, "Keitai Denwa" and it's rock-country fusion, and the fully unnecessary bonus track. These aren't bad songs either, but I can't really say that I enjoyed them. A good illustration of how odd the songs can get is in the vocal quality: Noda's voice sounds a lot like Fujiwara's (from Bump of Chicken) during ballads, which isn't so much bad as it is odd; and then in "G Koui" he turns around and sounds exactly like Eminem. And in the rest of the songs he sounds like Noda, his unique voice perfectly suited to the music. A lot of the songs start out really weird and get better, making for a disjointed experience through the entire album. As weird as RADWIMPS is as a band, I can see them making the album disjointed on purpose to keep it from getting boring. But I can't help but have the sneaking suspicion that they aren't intending for the album to be quite as weird and disjointed as it feels to me.

But even though it's disjointed, I do like it. Most of the music is good without question, and most of what's left if good once you see where they're going with it. And, just as important as these other two considerations, none of the songs are actually bad.

I listened in on today's UStream broadcast for GK, and I heard MellowB from JPop Suki mention that albums 3 and 4 ("RADWIMPS 3" and "RADWIMPS 4," incidentally) are the best in their discography. And although "Zettai Zetsumei" isn't ideal for me all the way through, I'm encouraged by how good the really good songs were and plan on listening to those albums as well. Although "Zettai Zetsumei" has introduced me to parts of RADWIMPS I'm not as sure about, I've come out more convinced than ever that I really am in love. (So wish me luck on albums 3 and 4!)

KARA - Jet Coaster Love - Kiddie Coaster

KARA is a Korean pop group that debuted in Japan last year and quickly began to take top spots in the Oricon charts. So right off the bat, these girls have some strikes against them: they're Korean (I hate Korean music - it sounds just as manufactured as it actually is) and they're mainstream pop. What a terrible combination. I picked the single to listen to, though, because the tsunami delayed so many releases that I didn't have too much choice. So I bit the bullet and went for it - how bad could they really be?

As it turns out, significantly less bad than I was expecting. As a matter of fact, I have a hard time applying the word "bad" to this single at all. "Jet Coaster Love" is surprisingly well-executed, with music that's just as cute as the vocal performances. "Ima, Okuritai 'Arigatou'" isn't as good as "Jet Coaster Love," but it's not actually bad, either. "Typical" is a better word for it, I think. It's a solidly produced pop ballad that I don't think I'll ever specifically decide to listen to again, but I didn't want to fast forward through it, either. The instrumentals, unfortunately, are more problematic: the "Jet Coaster Love" is not too bad, though the brass and "woosh" sound effects are much more annoying when there aren't sweet little girl voices to counter-balance them, but other than those two elements it's not that bad. (If I were the producer, I would have just removed them from the instrumental and hoped that no one would notice or care.) The "Ima, Okuritai 'Arigatou'" isn't nearly as good, which I blame on the damn synth strings. If they'd used real strings I think it could actually have been rather pretty, but the synth are so lifeless that I can't enjoy them.

I think the best way to describe the single is the words "Kiddie Coaster." The single isn't exciting or exhilarating or breathtaking, but it is fun. It starts high and a little fast, then slows down and ends nice and safe and a little boring. Not bad - and for a Korean pop girl group, incredibly good! - but still not enough to get me excited about the Hallyu Wave.

SCREW - DEEP SIX - VK, BGM Style

SCREW is an indies Visual Kei band, and "DEEP SIX" is their 12th single. I have to admit that I don't have a lot of say about it. It's solid v-kei: solid work on the drums, solid work on the bass, solid work on the guitars, solid work on the vocals. I couldn't find a lot wrong with it other than the fact that the four tracks all sound somewhat similar and tend to bleed into one another in my mind.

That being said, I couldn't find anything that I was truly impressed with, either. I think that the band's inspiration must be to play music that's "Dir en Grey light:" there's a lot stylistically (especially the vocals) that reminds me of Dir en Grey, but they lack the ragged edge that makes Dir en Grey unique. The music is easy to listen to (I could turn "DEEP SIX" on and listen to it on loop several times without it bothering), but if I wanted to listen to something that got my feet tapping or my head bobbing or my blood flowing "DEEP SIX" wouldn't be my choice. It's a hard to pin down what went wrong when a performance is essentially good but lacks the spark that animates a mass of coherent rhythm and sound into a head-banging Frankenstein's monster. Let me reiterate: the music on the single is good. It is not "meh." But it's not all that great, either.

TsuShiMaMiRe - GIVING BLOOD - Giving Their All

You may remember that I mentioned TsuShiMaMiRe in my review of POLYSICS' "Oh! No! It's Heavy POLYSICK!" as being similar to POLYSICS but not electric. That was based on my recollections of them from their 2005 show in Seattle, as well as my recollections of the CD I bought at the live. ("Pregnant Fantasy," by the way.) At the time, they were a bizarre fusion of cuteness, hard rock, manic sounds, heavy bass, school girl vocals, unrefined sound, and death metal screaming. Although I was thrown off by them at first, they grew on me like a fungus. (In a good way. Maybe a wish-granting fungus.) When I heard that they were releasing their first major album, I was stoked but also a little worried that they'd changed since I'd last heard them. I mean, you can't go major without going mainstream, can you?

Sadly, no, you can't. But TsuShiMaMiRe is still far enough off mainstream that you could consider them on the bank or, at worst, just getting their toes wet. "Giving Blood" is everything I wanted: all new songs, great vocals, strong bass, bizarre style combinations, cuteness, panicky tension.

I made myself promise that I wouldn't use the word "weird" when describing any of the songs because I didn't want to be repetitive, but you do need to realize that they're all weird, just at varying degrees. "Utsubyou" is classic TsuShiMaMiRe with Mari's wailing lyrics and Yayoi's crazy intense bass; "Sonata do Alarm" moves all over the place, going from upbeat with a pop-punk feel to surreal to desperate; "French Toast Rendezvous" is hard with a melodious chorus; "Doing Nothing" is desperate and tense with the drums and bass leveled way up and the vocals muffled and leveled way down. "Neko ha Hontou ha Yasashii Ikimono Ja Nai" is memorable for Mari's meowing. "Grapefruit Girl" and "Bryan" tend toward more mainstream with a straightforward pop-punk sound. My favorite songs were "Ramsheep" and "Kenketsu Song," which both start very chill and almost jazz-bluesy, then get harder and scarier over time, with "Kenketsu Song" including sections of Mari all but screaming and finally ending with her voice shaky and afraid.

Speaking of Mari, her voice is just as insane as it was six years ago. There are a lot of vocalists in the world, but I don't know of many that have the control and nuance that Mari does. She can pull off tooth-meltingly cute or death metal screaming, and I know of at least one song where she does both back and forth with no pause for several seconds, several times over the course of a song. (The quality is bad on the link, but you'll get the idea.) She's also good at emoting with her voice: she's just as good at happy and excited as she is at afraid, angry, nervous, desolate, and confused. Although it's clear that she probably hasn't been formally trained, I think she's got enough talent to make up for it.

Overall, the music is gruff and cute and unpretentious and rough around the edges, and I love it just the way it is. Although TsuShiMaMiRe tended a bit more toward plain-old punk on this album, there's still plenty of quirkiness to go around. I highly doubt that many of you reading this will love the album the way that I do, and you might not even like it, but you'd be remiss if you didn't at least give it a try.

"Grapefruit Girl"

AZU - AZyoU - *love* *hug*

Thanks to Jaylee from Gaijin Kanpai for the recommendation today!

I didn't realize it when I first started listening to this album, but I actually have listened to AZU before. I even reviewed one of her singles. ...Yeah...

Of course, it only took hearing the opening for "Broken Heart" and I just about jumped out of my seat with excitement. It's been over a month and that songs is still good.

I was surprised, but I really liked this ablum. Although it's not a pop revolution like ICONIQ's "Change Myself" or JASMINE's "GOLD," it's as easy to listen to as warm water is to slip into. The tracks range between quiet and slightly sad to quiet and slightly upbeat - only "AKS99" breaks the trance midway through the album with a much more energetic, refreshing sound. AZU's voice is beautiful, and the collaborations - with Yunhak from Choushinsei, SEAMO and K&G, and Hinouchi Emi - work with her voice and into the style of the album to compliment it. Unlike a some collaborations that stick out like awkward hairy moles that ruin an otherwise good face, these collaborations a more like cute Shiina Ringo moles that make a good album just a little better.

AZU's collaborations	BENNIE BECCA

Still, the album wasn't perfect. It takes a bit of a downturn with "Tashika na Koto," which isn't really bad so much as it's "meh." The album stays just inside "meh" territory until "AKS99" comes in and shakes things up and gets them back on track. But even with that minor downtun the sound is fairly homogenous but with just enough variation to keep it from being boring, each track leading easily into the next and making for a relaxing overall experience. This solid balance is something that most artists blatantly fail at, so this no small achievement on AZU's part.

Also, as if in answer to my prayers, AZU used precious little in the way of chimes in this album. The first time I listened to it I didn't notice them at all, and even when I went back specifically to find them they were so few and so subtle that most were still pretty hard to notice. I was delighted. GOOD JOB, AZU! you win a cookie!

POLYSICS - Oh! No! It's Heavy POLYSICK! - Oh! Yes!

POLYSICS is a band that, even if you've never heard their music before, you'll recognize them if you know much of anything about Japanese music. The music industry landscape is about as bland in Japan as it is in America, with little done to brand bands and distinguish them visually (or aurally, unfortunately). In a sea of faces, most artist just disappear. But not POLYSICS - Oh! No! - whose visual style stands out like vivid color against the black and white Japanese industry in the same way that Lady Gaga's does in America.

And their music is just as distinctive as their visual style. With heavy use of electronic elements and enough 8-bit sound that they should have appeared on the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack, they stand out from the crowd already. But they don't just settle into the electropop outcast group. Instead, they refuse to join that crowd either, playing music so energetic that it toes the line of being difficult to listen to...without crossing the line. POLYSICS is what would happen if Perfume got hit with Joker gas. Or, alternately, what would happen if if Tsushimamire went electric. The quality of the performance is also very high - Hayashi has almost superhuman control over his voice, the instrumentation is totally solid, and it's clear that the band worked really hard on their English pronunciation, which is always a plus in my book.

I like every track on this album - they'd all be great for dancing to, great for listening to while driving too fast, great for music-fighting your neighbors who keep their damn sub against the shared wall, great for nerdy moshing and head-banging. I'm especially fond of "Let's Daba Daba" and "Don't Cry" which are catchy as hell but, unlike other catchy songs, don't stick in your mind like dog crap to the bottom of a shoe. "Jump Up and Clash" is nice for being closer to normal - something to play if you want to prove to friends that Japanese music can be both bizarre and awesome. "Cough Cough" and "Heavy POLYSICK" are great instrumentals, and "Subliminal CHA-CHA-CHA" has a great off-kilter beat that keeps up the tension with some speaking between verses that's cute and quirky. (*nerd squee start* These mini conversations also remind me a lot of "Ieru Ka Na, Baby?" by Suzukisan of "Pokemon" fame. They even have the 2-Guys-1-Girl combo like Suzukisan! *nerd squee end*)

My one complaint is that the album feels slightly flat in places, like they're missing something from their instrumentation. It's nothing huge, but it does take a little away from an otherwise amazing musical experience. I'm hoping that this is just because they recently lost a member and are still trying to balance the music between three people. But even if it's not, I still plan on getting all their subsequent music. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it sure as hell is mine.

Well dammit

Look what I went and did, you guys.

I told everyone on GK about this blog today.

DAMMIT.

Now I'm going to actually be held accountable for producing content on a regular basis. No excuses anymore. And I don't even know what I'm going to review for tonight.

...

Wish me luck!

I suck, but it's okay

So I didn't post the day after that last post. Or the day after. Or the day after.

Gotcha!

Hahahahahahahaha!

....

Anyway, I do have an excuse. I had been planning to do a review of Sakanaction's single, "Rookie," that was released on 3/16. I even had the thing 95% written! But then I got word from my friends at Gaijin Kanpai that Zer0 will be on hiatus for a little while and I'll be filling in for her next week, and also that our planned single review (move - "Overtakers feat. KAWAMURA RYUICHIxSUGIZO") fell through, so we'll instead be reviewing Sakanaction's "Rookie."

So, woot me! Come listen to me on Wednesday on the uStream if you really want to know what I have to say about "Rookie" and/or you want to hear me trip over my tongue like Gene Simmons with a fleshy jump rope and back-pedal faster than Lance Armstrong moving backwards through time at light speed. If nothing else, I know it'll be amusing.

(UPDATE: Here's the show I was on! It was awesome!

*GASP*

*splutter*

*gasp*

*hack hack cough*

*violent, spasmodic coughs*

*collapse on newfound beach*

Oh my god. I'm back. I'm here again.

*fearful giggles*

(You wouldn't believe what I've seen, the things I've... washed off my hands.)

(My chainsaw. Where's my chainsaw?)

It's been 17 days since we were separated by the tides of time, and in that time the tides of the ocean have been doing naughty things to Japan. I can't say that I would have been here if Japan hadn't been hit by the Earthquake-Tsunami One-Two Punch-Kick In The Face From Nature, so I won't. But I will say that my thoughts and prayers and love and fear and dread and hope go out to everyone over there, as well as to anyone in the world who has someone that was affected.

I'll also say that I'm planning to start writing my reviews again. "Oh no!" you say? Oh yes. OH YES.

I'm sure that many of you are upset, nonplussed, or possibly excited by this news. Good for you, wherever you may be emotionally. I'll be picking up with a new selection of albums and singles rather than trying to go back and cover what I missed. I may double up one some days if I have a little free time, but we'll see how it goes. In the mean time, I apologize for the disruption of service; we'll be back up and running tomorrow.