Chiba Yusuke, Asai Kenichi and Life Jackets

Japanese rock group The Birthday had finally found the replacement for their lead guitarist position left by Imai Akinobu last year. Kenji Fujii, ex guitarist of MY LITTLE LOVER(never heard of them, sound a bit too poppy), had previously worked with the bandleader Chiba Yusuke on an album by Q;indivi+. As I expected, Chiba cant handle the big axe, why, I dont know. Maybe he still not quite comfortable singing and playing guitar at the same time..maybe(sound like a pretty fucking lame excuse).  Just hope this new guy can lit back the fire of rock and roll in Chiba's heart cause it seem with every new release, Chiba(and The Birthday) stray even farther from my sonic preference. I mean even Lord Satan weeps at the sight of the man with dragon's voice singing slow indie-pop rock stuff like The Birthday's..

Move on to Chiba's counterpart, the Japan's King of Gretsch, Asai Kenichi. Different from Chiba's dragonlike voice, his natural voice is softer-almost womanly gentle- and in the beginning of his career he even try to force his voice to be more growly(check Ikaten King videos at youtube) it is almost embarassing to hear. Over time he become confident with his voice and emphasis more on his true forte, his genius guitar playing and song composing ability. 

Earlier, I got his 2009 'Sphinx Rose', I know, a bit late but that album is just a glorified collection of his recent singles plus 2 or 3 new songs. And the album was pretty decent- with more mellow songs than rock tunes, I give it a 6 out of 10. Probably the weakest effort of his solo stuff. But there is a little scan of the booklet that bring a big-stupid grin on Your Humble's face..

Its a shot of Asai's cool bike and the surprise: the small stickers on his gas tank, on top and bottom of the fiery 'Salinger'(a title of one of his song, also the name of Catcher in the Rye novelist-J.D Salinger)-the Malay/Indonesian word 'Jeket Keselamatan Didalam'(Life Jackets Inside)...

The musician I respect and champion the most, and a cheap small sticker in my language.

I grinned stupidly-and happily- in front of my laptop for 5 full minutes before the ability to think rationally return to me. No, I dont think he understand my native, insignificant language-even his english lyrics is sort of mumble-jumble. I believe he merely shares my little romanticism in enjoying the charm and curiosity of other unknown  language. 

But why,O my brother, would you put a life jacket in your gas tank ?

Soil & Pimp Session

Its time to jazz this little shit hole up a little bit. These Japanese cats play what they called "Death Jazz"- a bit rough,aggressive and punky around the edge, but they always maintain that elegant and mature sound of jazz. These guys had travelled around the world playing some big name jazz festival and winning some jazz awards-pretty much recognized internationally.

A little story on their name, from the mouth of Sacho the front man:

"Soil is like the sand or the mud or the earth which are very natural and warm things. ‘Pimp’ is based on something brilliant like a gold chain, which sometimes is linked to gangsters. These words have opposite meanings I think, like ying & yang. Two opposite meanings into the one music - that is our style...We expose both sides of the human being...'Sessions.’ We always want to present our music as an individual session, because coming up we did not want to do the same set every live gig."

SOIL & PIMP SESSION - FULL DISCOGRAPHY

Swan Song

Blankey Jet City-Saturday Night single

This song always very special to me. It perfectly captured the raw intensity of early BJC material and the sleekness of their later era. The perfect final song indeed.

N' Shukugawa Boys

 A side project from the King Brother's members Maya and Shinnosuke, plus a punky, smoking hot Linda. Every band should have a Linda I think, it make so much difference. She makes me think of Jack White playing the drums while possessing Meg's body. Somewhere in their sloppily google-translated website mentioned that she is a model. I don't have no argument about that. And in an amateur videos of their gig in London's Catch, Maya announce that he work as a house cleaner(windows beatiful thankyou! Floor beatiful Thankyou!) A very fitting job for a rocker I must say, must have soak up lots of blues there.


It is an indie minimalist guitar-drum-vocal combo, with lo-fi style much similar to early King Brother's(minus the blues). The boys getup a bit strange though, with Maya and his blue panda eyes and Shinnosuke's suggesting that somehow Jimi Hendrix's DNA managed to trickle down to him, but only the fashion sense I must say.

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Pontiacs-Galaxy Head Meeting

Forgive my neverending losts in this holy battle against my procastrinating demons. I've been meaning to post this for a while now so here goes.

Pontiacs-Galaxy Head Meeting

I know I should write a review or something. This album is awesome but it could be awesomer if somethingsomethingsomething...

Sorry I'm really not in the mood for writing. My body feel like three-days old crap..
Well thats it.
Fucking cheerio for now.