2010 Reunions

As things stand, as far as I’m concerned 2010 is shaping up to be one of the greatest years for artists making their comeback:

Pavement

The Libertines

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

David Bowie *PENDING*

The X Japan guide for Lollapalooza

The purpose of this entry is to familiarize X Japan with those who will be attending this years Lollapalooza festival in Chicago on August 6th – 8th. In particular, it is aimed at people who are not acquainted with their range of work and are curious to know; who they are and what they offer. I won’t be dwelling too much on history or discographies, but instead I shall be providing a possible setlist (based on recent shows) and other general information regarding the band’s appearance at Lollapalooza.

[A Brief History]

X Japan is:

• Toshi – Vocals (1982–1997, 2007–present)
• Pata – Guitar (1987–1997, 2007–present)
• Sugizo – Guitar, Violin, backing vocals (2008–present)
• Heath – Bass, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2007–present)
• Yoshiki – Drums, Piano (1982–1997, 2007–present)

X Japan was formed in 1982 in Chiba Japan by Yoshiki Hayashi and Toshimitsu Deyama. While the band started out as a heavy metal outfit, their sound has developed throughout the years to incorporate elements of hard rock, progressive metal and featured a large emphasis on power ballads. The band during the early 90′s were notable for their glam rock influenced attires, but throughout the years this has since been toned down.

After achieving substantial mainstream success during their tenure, the band decided to break up in 1997.

The band reunited in 2007 and provided a song for the movie SAW IV which marked their first exposure to a western audience. The band followed this up with successful comeback shows in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

[Setlist]

The following is a collective suggestion of songs that might be played during their one hour slot at Lollapalooza. The list is based upon previous setlists since their reunion, audience preference, and marketability.

*The total length of the following songs falls within their probable one hour slot*

Rusty Nail: Almost unanimously chosen as their opening song.

Week End: Very often follows Rusty Nail.

Silent Jealousy: A crowd favourite and one that showcases all of the band’s talent.

JADE: One of their newer songs to date that also features a lot of English lyrics.

*NEW* BORN TO BE FREE: X Japan have recently announced that ‘Born to be Free’ will be their newest song and that they will be playing it at Lollapalooza. Details concerning the song are minimal at this current time of writing, but I’ll be sure to update this entry as soon as I get new information regarding the song

Kurenai: The one song that has been played at almost every single X Japan concert since the late 80’s.

I.V: Their offering to America is almost guaranteed to be performed. The short length of the song also adds to the probability that it will be played.

X: The trademark closer to their shows.

[Extra Information]

The band’s encore consists usually of a long ballad usually in the form of Endless Rain. Due to time constraints and the demographic of the audience, it would seem unlikely that the band would finish with this song.

Songs like SCARS and DRAIN may be favourites for some, but they don’t encompass the true ability of the band and therefore would not be suitable.

There is no doubt that the band’s collections of ballads are very popular with a lot of fans. However, due to their lengthy performances and frequent use of audience participation, it would not seem appropriate for Lollapalooza and would be rather anti-climatic.

The pink-haired guitarist is the late Hideto Matsumoto who was formerly the band's lead guitarist. The band still consider him to be a member and often make tribute to him during their performances.

For more information about the band and their history please visit: Last.fm, Wikipedia, Xplosion, X-Freaks.

Thank You and have a great time at Lollapalooza!

Welcome to the Times (feat. Sander) Pt.3

So here be it, the final installment of the already infamous day out with our good friend Sander from X-Freaks forum. What fitting way to end this day of epic proportions than an Italian meal in Little Italy.

One thing that needs to be addressed first is our culinary expertise. In New York there is a popular method of identifying whether or not a restaurant is good and being the kind host that I am, I will enlighten you on this trick:

#1 – Approach Restaurant/Food establishment

#2 – Think to yourselves – “Would Kristen Bell (of Heroes and Veronica Mars fame) eat here?”

#3 – If the answer is yes then proceed, if no then move on.

Low and behold we found ourselves eating in a restaurant that is regularly visted by our favourite electric lady.

After indulging ourselves in Italian food it was time to say goodbye to our friend Sander, and thank him for spending the day with us. We hope you had as much fun as we did! But the day is not over yet..

Before departing the restaurant our comrade Ad-Craggs decides to use the bathroom. Fair enough, God made us in a way that would require moments like these, so we waited patiently for him. As time went on we thought to ourselves “why is he taking so long?”. A glance towards the toilet indicate that after 10 minutes Ad-Craggs was still waiting outside the toilet. Boy, that person using it must have eaten a bad meatball or something. Anyway, after waiting a ridiculous amount of time, some Italian local (I think it was a small child) heads for the toilet, OPENS the door, GOES in, and releases his waste into the toilet while a red faced Ad-Craggs is stood there. No worries though, nobody saw..APART from the table next to us full of English girls! In particular one girl who we will refer to as Restaurant girl, her sympathy for Ad-Craggs in this situation was heart-warming. It was like some 90′s romantic comedy starring Kristen Bell as the owner of an Italian Restaurant. That being said Ad-Craggs eventually used the bathroom, and we said our goodbyes to Sander who must have enjoyed this hilarious toilet situation

Nice meeting you Sander and hope to see you again in the future!

Tänan!!

Welcome to the Times (feat. Sander) Pt.2

Modern Art, what is it? Well in contemporary society we can safely assume that art can just about be anything in any shape or form. A dog riding a car, a macro shot of an inanimate carbon rod or even a ridiculous piece that looks like:

Say hello to the  ‘Penis Hat’.

I’ll admit that I am not too keen on art but I do like to be a pretentious indie noise hipster so I felt right at home alongside my other starbucks drinking PETA loving vegetarians. That being said, I was impressed with the exhibit which measured everybodies height and marked their name down depending on how tall you were. Unfortunately a ma of my stature would never equate to the heights of Yao Ming or Verne Troyer so I was right in the middle alongside people called Andre, Esteban and Mars. However, if I ever was challenged to a game of Basketball by someone called J.Hoyes then I would be beaten severely as he is CLEARLY the tallest man to ever grace the MoMa based on this exhibit. Oh, and did I mention that a famous yellow skinned boy also seemed to have enjoyed this exhibit (and loyal to his persona he decided to use his own pen and go against museum regulations!:

Well after exhausting our appreciation for Art we decided to pay Times Square and other surrounding areas a visit. It was nice to see Times Square in all its glory after playing Grand Theft Auto IV so much. It was also nice to spend time with Sander who I must say is a top guy (visit him at: http:www.x-freaks.com). That being said after doing the infamous X Japan pose in front of the rockefella center and in front of the large number of tourists in Times Square it was time to pay Little Italy a visit for food. But not without stopping at M&M world to witness drug paraphernalia being sold to innocent sweet toothed children! tut tut!

The Sander trilogy will be concluded in part 3 where we learn about the beginnings of ‘Toilet Boy and Restaurant Girl’

ps – A few sources have confirmed Pavement to reunite in 2010! time to return to Central Park!

Welcome to the Times (feat. Sander) pt.1

No, this is not a post about our friend Sander doing a 65daysofstatic cover but rather about the wonderful day we had with one of our favourite X Japan friends.

We had arranged to spend a day with Sander ever since we knew he would be in Yonkers NY, so we decided to meet up in the Bronx beforehand. The plan of the day was Central Park –> Met Museum –> Rockefella –> Times Square –> Little Italy and soon you will find out which one of these locations resulted in a massive faux pas on our part.

After walking through the lovely Central Park it was soon time for Breakfast. Unfortunately we were not near any significant areas that offered options for food and also we were against the idea of visiting common chains such as McDonalds or Subway. So, for breakfast, yes breakfast we decided to have this:

I don’t even recall what it is, I just asked for lots of meat thrown on top a mountain of rice with a few vegetables and this was the result.

So after stuffing ourselves, it was time to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is considered one of the best musuems in the world. At this time of writing I would like to inform that people who guessed that our faux pas would occur at the Museum, you are correct..the museum is CLOSED on Monday! A message of warning for all travellers, make sure that whenever you visit somewhere, you check if it is open! Anyway it wasn’t the end of the world, we decided to go to the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) instead.

I should have mentioned that myself and Sander were sporting our X-Japan t shirts this day so we would recognise each other easier and we had hoped that there would be a small possibility that we would run into other X Japan fans, and our hope was met when on our way to the MoMa I was complimented by the following gentleman:

I cannot completely remember what he said but it went along the lines of:

“World Tour in Asia 2009..that’s cool. Japan..X..I like you people” – I’m no expert in jive but this clearly translates into “I like X Japan and their tour in Asia in 2009 was cool”..

All Points West Day Three – Mogwai

I feel as though this deserved its own seperate post as it was truly the peak of the entire three days for me and one of the finest moments in music that i’ve witnessed. It was going to take a monumental performance to top what My Bloody Valentine did on Saturday and I had expected that the glasgow fivesome would live up to all the hype and expectation that their fans place on them. Pre-show expectations included – an amazing live peformance, powerful music and emotionally driven music. So here is the detailed review of Mogwai’s performance on Sunday 2nd August 2009 at All Points West Music and Arts Festival at Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

1. I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead – The show as predicted opened with the remarkable ‘I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead’ the opening track of their latest album ‘The Hawk is Howling’. Best described as brooding, the song begins with Barry Burns on keyboard playing a lovely melody before the band kicks in with their subdued instrumentals. Although the track has nothing to do with Jim Morrison or indeed the Doors it conveys such energy and emotion from start to finish. The song ultimately reaches an incredible peak towards the end when the soft and delicate sounds of the keyboards collide in unison with the guitars. Delicate and remarkable opener and to quote someone on last.fm…”I felt emotion”

2. Hunted By A Freak – The ever present and popular ‘Hunted By A Freak’ followed which featured remarkable guitar work by John Cummings with the memorable guitar melody. You could feel the immense nature of the ‘vocals’ by Barry Burns on his VOX. This song is truly one of the most distinguishable songs from the entire post-rock genre and captures the vision the band had when recording their fourth album ‘Happy Songs For Happy People’. Transcending stuff.

3. Mogwai Fear Satan – OH MY GOD! I previously wrote a blog entry about my three most Prodigious (or in other words beyond epic) songs. This post included Art of Life by X JAPAN, Yearning by Mono and Mogwai Fear Satan by Mogwai. I could never imagine that I would be able to experience two of these songs live, the other being X Japan Art of Life in January. Without a doubt one of the bands most famous and epic songs, the live version clocks in around 10 minutes and can simply be described as ‘the creation of the universe through music’. Everything about this song is wonderful and the live version exceeded the superior nature of the Young Team version. It was so amazing that somebody right next to me in a ‘Sublime’ T-shirt fainted (realistically probably due to dehydration) due to its awesomeness. This song IS the best song I’ve experienced live.

4. I Know You Are But What Am I? – A much underrated classic off ‘Happy Songs For Happy People’. The gorgeous but simple piano melody and the electronic nature of this song was a perfect choice for this festival. The sun was setting, people were dancing in the mud and this song just added to the amazing nature of the festival. A calming experience after Mogwai Fear Satan. This song was simply lovely and captures the message of the album that it is featured on..Happy Songs for Happy People.

5. Ithica 27ø9 – What a treat! This was our ‘rare’ song of the night and it was the vintage ‘Ithica 27o9′. The song is a favourite for old school fans and features all the key elements of the classic post-rock crescendo style. I’ll admit that even though this song was our ‘rare’ tune it isn’t particularly one of my favourites but the extreme distortion period was amazing and due to time constraints I guess it was the most appropriate choice.

6. Friend of the Night – YEAH! I thought they weren’t going to play this fan-favourite. I’ve always said that you require more than two ears to fully appreciate this song and it was godlike live. I also believe that this is one of their more accessible songs so that newbies to Mogwai will enjoy this and judging from the crowd response they seemed to very much enjoy this song. The chorus is just incredibably powerful and delicate, a juxtaposition of noise and beauty over five minutes of amazing instrumental rock. Words are overrated. Pretty musicians are overrated. Mogwai RULE.

7. Helicon 1 – HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! they were running out of time yet they play Helicon 1, I COULDN’T believe it! this is AMAZING. This is another one of my favourite Mogwai tracks and an old favourite. Almost similar to a song you would expect from Mono it lasts over 8 minutes and perfectly conveys the loud/quiet dynamic. I once saw a video where somebody put this track onto a video of a BBC documentary about the Hiroshima bombings during World War 2 and I can say that the song is a musical representation of before the bombings, the atrocities with the dropping of the hydrogen bomb and the aftermath. Such an incredible song and totally unexpected too.

8. Batcat – The last Mogwai song of the set and what a way to finish it. Many had expected Glasgow Mega-Snake but Batcat was played instead and in hindsight it was the ideal closer as it is longer, louder and more heavy. The song is one of Mogwai’s more straight forward rock songs but the song’s distortion is so heavy and loud that is makes the six minutes feel like a kick in the face. Sheer awesome but I knew that this would be the end of the most incredible hour of music ever. Mogwai with this performance exceeded all expectations and proved to me that they are indeed one of the best bands around in my opinion, their extraordinary music and immense live performances will forever be remembered and one day I hope to catch them again. Thank You.

ps- I was so very close to the stage/beach volleyball was annoying/ they went over by 10 minutes which was the icing on the cake, cheers lads!

[Photo taken by Ad-Craggs] ((I was actually very much closer than this))

All Points West Day Three – Review

So here we are with the third and final day of this exceptional festival. Unfortunately Liberty State Park was in a right state therefore the festival was postponed for 4 hours and people were told to stay in a nearby historical train station.

Time was ticking..Mogwai on at 19:05pm, please to God don’t cancel today.

However much to my delight we starting moving into the festival around 1600hrs, It was a bit sad that we missed The Gaslight Anthem and we didn’t make it in time to catch The Silversun Pickups but anyway here is the review of day three:

We are Scientists – Absolutely canny lads, their set was unfortunately shortened due to Akron/Family going over their scheduled time but they still played all of their hits in front of a fairly large audience. Shame that it only lasted about 30 minutes but this only meant one thing..Mogwai would have more time..and they were next.

Mogwai – See following post

Coldplay – I laugh at anyone who doubts Coldplays brilliance as headliners. Although I am not a fan of their latest album their stage prescence and style made for an amazing closer to an amazing three days. From hits such as Yellow to The Scientist to newer songs such as Viva La Vida the foursome wowed the large audience who had chosen them over MGMT. Covers of ‘Fight For Your Right’ and ‘Billie Jean’ only added to the remarkable spectacle that was Coldplay. Thanks APW for a fabulous three days!

WEATHER: The Rain returned and delayed us but we got to see the bands we wanted to anyway and mud = fun.