Sidestepping Through This Misadventure: The Past Few Days: A Recap Of Sorts

Ok, days have lost their distinction at this point, so I'll start by saying that everything in this post may or may not be in chronological order. There are no more guarantees.

Anyway, a few days ago, we took a train out to the Tokyo fringes to meet Makoto. Makoto is a sound musician of sorts, who makes many/all of his own instruments and tries to push the limits of sonorous creations. He experiments a lot with feedback, both in audio and video forms. Many of his instruments implement feedback in ways in which it can be "played". In addition to being a interesting musician and engineer, he's a really awesome guy. Lewis had met him last year, and had become friends with him, so for the interview, we hung out at his place/recording studio. This was a great change of pace from the run-and-gun interviews we've been doing in stairwells and basements.

After the interview, he demonstrated a new creation. He had three independent machines that would send electric currents through a piece of sheet metal, causing it to reverberate. The Sheet metal was attached to a wooden box with an amplifier built into it. By twisting bolts drilled into the sheet metal, Makoto could control the frequency of the reverberations, and create some amazing sounds.

While all three of these are running, the waveforms align at certain moments and a pulsating effect is produced. Because of these waves and pulses, Makoto had named the instrument an oniphone (I think - which means wave or pulse in japanese).

So after the interview, we were off to Shimo-Kitizawa for an Arcorhyme show. This band was definitely the lightest music we've heard thus far...mostly covers of bands like Lovin' Spoonful and other American pop 60's bands. Cheesy stuff. The interview took place in a room the size of a closet. The photo makes it look way bigger:

Okay...the next day, we split up because two shows were overlapping. First, I went to Makoto's performance. It was taking place in a space not far from where we live in Sendagaya, so it was the first show I saw without taking a train/subway to get there. Makoto performed an experimental noise set using a video-camera as his instrument. By holding the camera in certain positions, and pointing it at a monitor he set up, he created audible and visual feedback. There was a projector displaying the psychedelic images he was producing. Very awesome stuff. (photo or video clip coming soon)

So after the show, I hopped on a train and headed back to Shimo-Kitizawa to catch up with Eric and Lewis at the Para show. These guys have a futuristic jam band sound, although in their interview they clearly said they were not a jamband. I guess it's more composed than jamband stuff, but it was totally quirky. One of the guitarists had 3-pedal boards...a mini space station at his feet...these guys played one of the best shows thus far. It was many layers of catchy melodies, and overlapping rhythms. It was built like electronic music, but done with instruments live.

So after the show, once again, we interviewed...and it was the worst interview yet. They didn't want to talk about anything. Which was akward and boring. What gives? These guys rock onstage, and then they totally freeze up on camera!

So after taping an hour of them nodding and responding with one word answers, we left, upset and tired.

But after a few amazing bowls of ramen, we were psyched and back on track for the next day.

So I need to explain ramen in Tokyo. When we in the U.S. of A. think of ramen, we imagine the 25 cent chicken flavored packets you get at the supermarket. They're salty and cheap and taste alright with an egg cooked into 'em.

But here, a bowl of ramen is incredible. You buy a $6 bowl of ramen, and it's a stew with fresh veggies, meat, spices, and dumplings in it. The bowls are enormous, about 3 times the size of a hefty portion. And there are onions, peppers, mushrooms, scallions, pork, chicken, chili, noodles, egg, among other things in there. It's the most filling meal, and it comes out piping hot. And GET THIS! When you eat ramen, it's polite to slurp! It's so hot, you can't help it anyway....but it's actually a compliment to the chef...so we've been heartily slurping down ramen every chance we get...fills the ol' tank, and is a tasty/fun meal ta boot.

So then yesterday (I think), we saw Kuuru Krew, which is a heavy metal band. They were intense, but short lasted. Their set was only 20 mins. or so. The sets tend to be very short here, as many bands co-bill a show. However this was even shorter than usual. They played two songs. Woo. No great photos from the show unfortunately...here's a blur of what happened...which is actually similar to how I experienced the show...

Anyway, afterwards we talked to an American radio crew that was at the show too. KFJC 89.7 of the San Francisco area was doing a live broadcast from the venue. I talked to 'em a little, told em about my brother's gallery, GoForALoop (goforaloop.com), and then we headed home. Wham bam kazaam!

Okay, on to today. So I forgot to mention it, but our second camera was partially broken a few nights back. The microphone input (a cheap mini input) was broken and jammed inside the camera. So today, Lewis met up with Makoto, the king of electronics, and they went on a scavenger hunt for a replacement part. Makoto is gonna rebuild the pieces, which is amazing of him. However he's going to actually have to make some moderations to the camera. So in turn, he's going to replace the plug with a quart-inch plug instead. Alright, circuit bending our HD Cam! Suping it up!

So this evening we went to an interview/show with Marble Sheep. This band formed in '87 and has been rocking hard ever since.

They play classic down and dirty rock, and play it pretty well.

The drummer was also a member of Kuuru Krew (who we saw the night before), which was a surprise for us. We're starting to meet a lot of people who know each other, and in turn are getting a sense of the underground music scene over here. Names are becoming more and more familiar. This is good.

There was a double encore, during one of which, this white animal thing came out on stage. I love this country.

These guys rocked it oldschool. And they had the light show to prove it. The light show and stage backdrop were being lit by two people who sat behind transparency projectors. They put colored theater gels in front of the projector lense, and glass plates of oil and water on the projector surface. Looked awesome, just like those visualizations you see in the Grateful Dead videos. Here's they are, hard at work: