Canada, Seattle, and Musical Form

Alright! Tonight was a relatively easy night. Early this evening we met up with Micah for the last time sadly. He is flying home to Seattle tomorrow, and will be away until after we have left Japan. He has been awesome both as a translator for us, and as a buddy. Thanks Micah!

Later on, we had a great interview. Cal, the organizer of the event we saw called Test Tone, sat down with us. Kelly, one of the musicians who had performed, and a long time friend of Cal's, also came. They're both originally from Canada, but have been in Japan for around 10 years. Both are musicians, and play alternative sorts of music, but are not limited to one genre.


Kelly was playing with the Polish guy at Test Tone, and they played really loud and scary stuff. It was angry, and gritty...but as an academic musician, Kelly listens to it from a different perspective. One of form. He finds form to be the great unifying aspect of music. He plays heavy distortion noise music one day, then jazz the next, but does so with the same ear towards form.



Cal on the other hand says he is moving more and more away from form. He is very interested in spontaneity to the point where he enjoys playing with people and not having an idea of where a piece will end up.



Cal also has been organizing Test Tone, which is a monthly event at which a variety of musical/visual artists perform. In Japan, bands have to pay venues to perform, and there is a lot of pressure to draw a large enough crowd. If too few people attend, bands will often have to fork over some more dough after the show. To break this seemingly backwards system, Cal started Test Tone, where bands are not charged to play. The venue, Super Deluxe profits from the drinks it sells, and the artists don't have to worry about financial issues. Instead, they can play whatever they want, and risk being alternative or experimental. Very cool.

As a result the event incorporates an eclectic blend of musical genres and styles, as we saw.

So, good stuff tonight.

More news a comin'.

Ian

Oh Yeah! I almost forgot...so Cal was talking about how he really likes bringing various musicians together. And it turns out, he was the impetus for D.V.D to form...He knew the two drummers separately, and thought it would be cool if they played together, and set it up. Very quickly, they began writing songs, and incorporated YMG, the visual artist who made them D.V.D! What a coincidence that we meet a guy who caused one of the bands we love to exist...thanks Cal!

On a completely different side note, I wanted to mention that at no point does the Tokyo citizen ever have to buy tissue (Kleenex). There are people who hand out small packs of tissues everywhere on the street. They have little advertisements on 'em which explains why they're free. You can easily get a few packs every day. What a world! Tissues for every man, woman, and child! If all it takes is an advertisement to make it free, I say bring on more free stuff! I'll sit through an ad if it gets me a bowl of ramen. Heck, I'd do it just for the bowl...