Rolling Stone Japan's 100 Greatest Rock Albums

The much smarter than me people at neojaponisme recently put up the list of the 100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time that was in the September 07 issue of Rolling Stone. I'm not really all that familiar with a lot of these acts but since I love lists and rock I thought that I would try to dig up what I could from some of these albums. After listening to a couple of the tracks I could find on youtube I think I'd have to more or less agree with one of the reader comments: "Wow, somebody has a very different definition of rock than me." Still, if it gets people listening, it gets people listening.

Here are some songs from the top five albums:

1. はっぴいえんど (Happy End) - 風をあつめて (from the album 風街ろまん).
This song was used in Lost in Translation although I don't remember where.

(Thanks to youtube user hepuuuu)

2. RCサクセション (RC Succession) - 雨上がりの夜空に (from the album ラプソディ).
Their lead singer is the guy we saw kissing Ryuichi Sakamoto here.

(Thanks to youtube user inventor009)

3. ザ・ブルーハーツ (The Blue Hearts) - リンダリンダ (from the album ザ・ブルーハーツ).

(Thanks to youtube user bluehighlow)

4. YMO - Technopolis (from the album Solid State Survivor). I've talked about YMO before. Rydeen is from the same album.

(Thanks to youtube user VickySakamoto)

5. 矢沢永吉 (Yazawa Eikichi) - 時間よ止まれ (from the album ゴールドラッシュ).

(Thanks to youtube user brkc2d22)

Like most Top Whatever lists, the top tends to go more for historical (read: older) records and takes commercial success into consideration. The highest ranking release from the last five years is Dir en grey's Withering to Death at 34 although two release from the late 90's Fishmans' 空中キャンプ and Cornelius' ファンタズマ come in at 8 and 10, respectively. And of course people will probably look at the addition of Utada Hikaru (in at 99 for First Love) and raise their eyebrows just a bit.
Anyway, this was an enjoyable little task and hopefully I'll be back with more later!

Muscle Musical on Muscle Channelマッスルチャンネル におけるマッスルミュージカル

I've written about the Muscle Musical before but I haven't really shown you guys anything about the show yet. Well, right now on BS-i they are broadcasting the Muscle Channel (マッスルチャンネル), the latest show produced by the people who brought you SASUKE (hosted by 佐藤弘道 Hiromichi Sato). The Muscle Musical will be playing in Las Vegas and they also have their own theater in Shibuya。The Musical A Team will go to Vegas to spread the word while the B Team (I'm looking at YOU 知幸) will perform in Shibuya. Anyway, some kind soul with access to BS TV (I know, I know) has uploaded the Muscle Musical part of the first Muscle Channel episode that shows the history and the making of the 2007 version of the Musical. I'll embed part 1 here and give links to the rest. Thanks goes out to youtube user musclemusical (I don't think they are official)! It's eight parts that takes about an hour to watch but some of the stuff they do is pretty amazing. Enjoy!



Pt. 2
Pt. 3
Pt. 4
Pt. 5
Pt. 6
Pt. 7
Pt. 8

坂井泉水 Sakai Izumi of Zard (1967-2007)

From MDN:
"Singer Izumi Sakai has died after sustaining head injuries in a fall from the edge of a hospital building in Tokyo, her management agency has announced. Sakai, a member of the popular group ZARD, was 40."
(Japanese version is here.)
Other articles are here and here.
Sakai made her debut in 1991 and as well as hits with Zard such as Makenaide she also wrote hit songs for other artists:
突然 (Totsuzen) for Field of View
Teenage Dream for Deen
あなたと共に生きてゆく for Teresa Teng
I first found out about Zard through the Best of Detective Conan theme song CD which contained the song 運命のルーレット廻して. I also enjoyed Sakai's cover of 異邦人 with B'z guitarist Tak Matsumoto.
At the time of her death, Sakai was battling cancer but had been planning to release a new album later this year.
According to her official fansite, a service will be held for her 27 June 2007, more details to be announced.

Wikipedia links:
坂井泉水
Izumi Sakai
ZARD (Japanese)
ZARD (English)

神保彰 in 宇部 Jimbo Akira in Ube

Just came back from seeing the 神保彰ワンマンオーケストラ (Jimbo Akira One Man Orchestra) in Ube.
Some brief background: 神保彰 (Jimbo Akira) is a Japanese drummer well known for his use of electronics (specifically triggers and electronic drums). He started out with the Japanese jazz unit カシオペア (Casiopea) before going solo and doing work with other artists. Right now he is doing a club tour of Japan with his One Man Orchestra, which is really just him, his drums and electronics. Tonight he performed a number of songs including Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, a Sound of Music medley, Rhapsody in Blue, a spy medley including the 007 and Mission: Impossible themes, a Jimi Hendrix medley, Stevie Wonder's Superstition, Take the A Train, Cream's Sunshine of Your Love, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, some original songs and a bunch more I'm blanking on right now. It was an amazing show because he's an amazing drummer. The amount of time, effort and planning that have to go into each song is mind-boggling. He has to map out each song, arrange each part and pre-program his pads and triggers because he is integrating the melody into the drum part to put together the song. If he mis-hits he can screw up the sequencing and therefore sometimes the entire song. Here are some examples of his one man orchestra:

The Theme to Mission: Impossible (thanks to Youtube user control75). (note: I know he hits a wrong note at about the 1:22 mark)


Cream's Sunshine of Your Love (thanks to Youtube user N3maN)


Since that time he's added more electronics to create a fuller sound. In addition to the electronic drums he has triggers on all his acoustic drums (including the bass). One pad is used to trigger the next sequence required. I took a photo of his set before the show:


If he comes through your town, you should definitely try to go see him!

Other links of interest:
Jimbo Akira uses Yamaha drums.
His signature set
A closer look at his signature snare
He uses the DTX series of electronic drums
The Yamaha DTX commercial
He has a signature sticks for Vic Firth and Yamaha
He uses Zildjian cymbals
Also, check out his drummerworld page which has more videos. I can't recommend that site enough. (Quicktime needed to watch videos)

Just because...

More DJ Ozma news

Japan Probe
Youtube
Also apparently rebroadcasts had this
Response by the public: Mainichi Daily News and CNN

DJ OZMA and the 2006 Kōhaku Uta Gassen

Okay, my favorite thing of 2006 just happened during the annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen.

First of all..
This is DJ Ozma.
Prior to the Kohaku Ozma had promised to do something people would remember. This is a guy who regular disrobes and drops his pants during TV performances. Well...

































So Ozma flies around like he's Peter Pan. Amusing but not really something all that memorable. But wait..



Huh...



Remember, this is on NHK.



Yup, during the performance all the background dancers disrobed. (And yeah, that's a clown in the back.)



The old man in the middle is Saburo Kitajima, an enka singer who publically criticized Ozma for wanting to do something possibly too risque for such an important event.





















All this pretty much left Red team captain Yukie Nakama speechless.



And a bit later this NHK announcer had to come out to assure viewers that the dancers were wearing body stockings and were not actually nude on stage..on live TV...on one of the most watched programs in Japan...on what is supposed to be a government funded TV station.

Yeah...I know..

DJ Ozma is AWESOME.