Is the ultimate display of Japanese honesty, someone left their bike parked for obviously a long time....are they overseas?....deceased?....got rich and don't care? ....OR .... IS THIS ART ? in Shimo..... you never know !
Had a yum lunch at"traditional" noodle ....but you buy the meal at a vending machine and give the ticket to the bar attendant ... thats the way it is n Shimo mxture of old and new ways. e.g A level crossing in the middle of Shimo town, wait for the express trains to rush by then cross railway line walking around I met a couple of nice guys who run a guitar shop down the road, tried out a $5000 Les Paul I can7t afford, and they gave me the low down on a couple of venues might suit Stormcellar and offered to introdud\ce me to operators. Will check one out tonight called YANEURA ( trans The Attic) that has all genres of music and OS bands as well. 6 bands tonight will head down as gigs start at 6.30pm straight after work...how practical they are here.
Another venues called "The Shelter" sonds like a good place for the Cellar to be . Ithink there are at least 10 live venues with in a 5 min walk from house i am staying in.
Also saw a Masai Market ...but not game to go inside..... Remember this is Shimo
A quiet little gig last night at Club Cue. Saw 24/7, a ska, bluebeat, reggae, jazz-blues band, They had the whole place singing and swaying, so the audience obviously knew their songs.
Next was a power rock blues band sort of Yardbids on nitro thing,.bassist like John Paul Jones, a drummer like Keith Moon, gtr player with SG like Angus, and singer like Greg Brady meets mick Jagger. Rocked the hell out the place, lots of jamming and bass and guitar swapping solo licks. They were called Okamoto`s
Last band was a well known act, Dohatsuten (trans Angry Hair Heaven), been around 25 yrs , sort of a legend, they had a the moves, lots of power songs like No Music No Life, which had lots of arms thrusting in the air to the beat, the audience seems to know just the right times to do the chanting Oi stuff and stop the moment the singer starts again. if the gtr player is going off and playing a key riff or solo well , up they start again to drive them on. Really great to see people enjoying their music so much.
Funnily too, they seemed to buy very few drinks. u get a free soft drink with your ticket ($47) and most people happy with just that.
I was surprised to see a huge line forming on the way out to by T-shirts and head bands. A great night and well worth the ticket price ($35 if you pre-paid).
Gonna scan the gig guides on line and collect some more fliers todayto see whats on. Chasing some blues clubs but a lot are outa town, an open mic night for blues is around if you can hunt it down. Will gather some clips if I can , not sure if its cool to do here yet.
Hi Sliders. Its The Whizz here, in J-Land checking out a potential Stormcellar tour, so here's my adventures so far.
This is the little street I staying in. area is Shimokitazawa. its a cool where lots gigs music people hang and live. not tourist spot.heaps of tiny little shops but some open into bigger areas with lots of different stall holders. Found some good rock n roll t-shirt in there of bands that play in the night clubs like Club Cue. Club Cue runs 7 nights a week and you can see bands there that play at much larger venues in a smaller setting, 150-200 max people. Tues night saw 3 bandsand was going off big time, packed to the rafters sold out. All 3 band were RnB old style , like Yardbirds on nitro fuel. crowd went crazy, then bought t-shirts and cds like pirahnas....lining up politely of course...
Downtown Shibuya (Shibs) , shopping for clothes good here but not of- beat stuff. not too busy cos only 11am.
Had a Maccas Beef Teryaki Burger. Yum
This a Promo Truck-u. new girl singer Becky. Saw about six different band promo truck-u driving around constantly with the music going for latest release.
I am gonna be talking to our golden roadie Carl about this when i get back. Blues Brothers anyone?
Harajuki main street or Omote Sando. Nightmare for parking tickets as meter flashes with red light when expired so parking officers zoom in.
Takeshita Street in Harujuku , my fave shopping street, lots of shops with strange names, mixture of hip hop , rock and cute dressup girl clothes (Cos Play) and even a Vampire clothes shop.Lots of African guys spruiking their shops in the street, all hip clothes. Store My Duck??? , What the ? At the end of this street is a an area near the station where all the up and coming young busk on the weekend, and their fans dress up like them, or Cos Play style.
This ominous looking building is the famous AVEX talent school where lots of singers and vocal groups are formed that dominate the mainstream.
You can buy a fire suit to keep cool in summer , its 30C plus over here , so great to be inside shops, and even the subway is cool with aircon blowing like a hurricane down the stairs. I was gonna by these shoes for Rosie but they didnt have his size.
My fave Nepalese curry shop in Shimo . They serve them gianto Naan bread. Nan Station is run by two nice Nepalese boys and so economical , 6-8 $AUD for dinner.Faces on the dish are a bonus : ) The Spinach Chicken was awesome.
Hey Sliders, I'm in Japan visiting the local Roots and Blues scene. So far no earthquakes but I am just waiting for one.
Went out to a Bar called Club Cue tonight, 200 people packed into a tiny place for three hours worth of music - best part is - no one is allowed to leave! No smoko breaks, no going outside for a phone call, you come in, listen to the music and that's it.
I took some mobile phone video but I dont know how to work the youtube thing so I will have to leave it to my pet IT slave (MJEB) to do it when I get back. Meanwhile, I'll post some more pics and such as I go visit some more rock-out places.
Howdy Folks. The next newsletter is just about to go out, in the next day or so, and having discovered the super secret nifty features of unlisted Youtube vids, I am going to post a bunch of stuff from the Stormcellar & The Southern Fried BigBand night in the newsletter.
So if ya wanna see it, you're gonna have to sign up...or possibly just visit this site as I'll probably relent and post them here too.
And so it begins.... the best recording times we've had have been playing live on location. The Mangrove Mountain sessions for Spacejunk and the entire Carl's Chair experience were the most fun and best vibe recordings we've had.
Thus, with a new album in the works, once again I have turned to Google, Facebook and all resources digital in order to find a quiet, rural spot for us to spend a week recording.
GC, our illustrious engineer on Carl's Chair says we were just 'bloody lucky' on the last recording. Luck? Ha! (he's right but reality bothers me so I prefer to ignore it). Besides which, we press our luck all the time. Why stop now?
Yep, somewhere in rural New South Wales lurks the right place for us to soak up the vibe and record another album. All we have to do is find it...The Search Commenceth-eth! Be warned...we might wind up near you!
