The Opening of the Victorian Era

Testing, testing... Hello Nagoya? Hello Hobart? Hello Brisbane? Hello Osaka? Hello Melbourne!

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, we all evidently are ladies and gentlemen, here in the Victorian era. We've travelled forward in time until we arrived back at the dawn of the 20th century. The Victorian era: scones with jam and cream, unemancipated women, and a dower looking female monarch. Maybe? Maybe not?

We left Tasmania in a similar frenzy of activity as to when we arrived. Slammed the door on house-sitting and low level admin temping and pushed the pedal to the floor up the Midlands. Personally I couldn't wait to get out. The list of things I won't miss about Tassie is longer than the list of things I won't miss about Japan. 10 miles longer. Depressing vibe. High-unemployment. Lack of permanent jobs for a lass like myself. Ever-present threat of abject poverty. Crumby temp jobs. Over-priced food. Over-priced real estate. Over-priced utilities. Crumby weather. Parochialism. Stiflingly familiar. Lack of anonymity. Lack of freedom. Lack of culture. Lack of public transport. Lack of things to do.

Get me out of here now! Get me out of here yesterday!*

*However, I will miss Rachel heaps. I feel like such a douche for not hanging out with her more whilst I was down.

We sailed over on a haunting full moon on an almost glassy, calm Bass Strait. Loved the boat this time (because we had a cabin and I slept the whole damn way). Arrived at the new house, gob-smacked by its loveliness. High ceilings, wooden floors, modern kitchen, plenty of space. A great start to the second Melbourne mission. We're paying a tad more than we were in Osaka, but we're able to have band practice at home, which actually makes up the difference. Went to a few employment agencies. Had to wait a couple of weeks but within three weeks of arriving managed to secure a job for myself (Tom got a job first this time). It's hard, because we did lay down some cold hard to get here, I've had to live on the credit card for a while which never feels good and I'm just about to receive my first pay packet and start clawing my way back to $0. But I feel very optimistic about the beginning of the Victorian era. I'm getting paid exactly twice as much as I was in Tassie to do a job that is inspiring, conceptual, difficult, but over-all, pleasant and well-suited to my qualifications and temperament. There's a list of things I want to do as long as my arm, and I am about to get down and do some of it.

Concert-wise, so far, went to see Bastardfest and Coffins. The Bastardfest line up was Blood Duster (silly grind bastards), Mindsnare (slightly too serious about themselves hardcore), Psychroptic (blistering tech death), Extortion (thrashy heavy hardcore) and The Kill (not my favourite - can't really remember). Liked Extortion a lot. And really getting into some of the newer Psychro tunes. Awesome fun. Saw the perennially friendly Dan McKay, got to do some excited Tassie ex-pat chat. Went to see Coffins (who are wicked death doom from Tokyo) with support from Gospel of the Horns (Venom worship), Cauldron Black Ram (kvlt fat metal), The Day Everything Became Nothing (brutal death), Clagg (sounds like Electric Wizard with Phil Anselmo singing - unfortunate), and Ignviomous (death metal wearing BM pants). I was too late to catch Whitehorse and for that I am a dickhead. Got to see Rob McManus, Rob Mason, and arrange a jam with Nick Warren. Fun times!

Anyway, Mayhem (the very significant Norwegian Black metal band) are playing next week, and if all goes well, I'm gonna try catch that show too.

Thrall's been offered two shows already and looks like we'll be hitting the stage with Ruins at the Arthouse in early October at this rate. Awesome.

Get this:

- I am saving $50 a week so far on groceries because I am not in Tasmania. (Aldi, Victoria Street Richmond, Gangemi Fruit and Vegetable market, Mediterranean supermarket).

- I am getting home 20 minutes earlier and spending $20 less per week on transport because I am not in Tasmania.

- I have attended two concerts so far, seen more than 10 bands. I really enjoyed most of them (which is a pretty good strike rate for a picky bugger like me). Because I've been going out at night, I've not been hitting the turps too much, which also saves me money.

- We are paying exactly the same amount of rent as we were at Napoleon Street five years ago. Five years ago I was working that horrible call centre job with unfixed casual hours, Tom was a student, and our earning potential was significantly less.

Things are looking up! They really are!

On a sad note, Tom's computer got knocked off the table and the screen came off, so, much like when Snowy ibook died for me, Tom's in a similar state of computerless misery. On the upside, he's doing well enough in his job that he will probably be able to replace it very soon. Great things are about to happen, but like any bold move, you have to be brave for a moment first. It's not all worked out perfectly, but I feel pretty good about where we are right now.

To finish this post, I thought I would share my newfound aphorism for you all that I found in a news paper article.

"Look for opportunities to do something better. Accept risk as a necessary evil. It thins out the competition. Goals aren't enough. You need a plan. You need to learn from your mistakes and alter your plan as you go. Don't re-invent the wheel. Learn from others. Make sure the math works. If the math doesn't work neither does the business. Make sure everyone understands the mission. There will be difficult times, but you will work through them. Whining is a waste of time. There will be sacrifices. Work to find a balance. Don't be a financially successful loser. It's not about the income, it's about the outcome."

Off into the distance once more...

Musing on Music

We finished working! The cherry blossom came out to co-incide with our last day, and we've been enjoying a few days of basking in the sun and drinking in the park. Of course, we've been mega busy as well, but it's a really lovely atmosphere in Japan at this time of year. The winter slowly breaks, the spring emerges in a riot of fluffy cloud like cherry blossom, that drifts into the humid muck that is summer.

I love rehearsing in Japan. It's great. For years in Australia we were unable to make a racket without risking pissing off the neighbours, but here, we just roll down the street, there's a drum-kit and guitar amps already set up. It's all just there for you to use. We've been able to take Thrall from a frustrated bedroom black metal project into a full fledged band (admittedly only two piece, but Trent will be joining us on bass if all goes well), and it's largely due to the fact that we moved house to a place where we are 5 minutes bike ride away from a fully equipped rehearsal space. Subrock: thank you.

However, we couldn't record at Subrock because it's under a train line, and I just don't believe that we'd be able to get a recording that isn't riddled with outside noises. So that's why we asked Chew where Corrupted record, and he put us on to LM Studios and more importantly, Ippei Suda.

Suda-san is just one of those people who puts you at ease. He laughs at your jokes, encourages you when you're nervous, and generally just engenders a good atmosphere. And he knows his recording studio inside out. He has some amazing equipment, which I might take a photo or two of, but I'm afraid Suda-san won't be appearing because he's really not into his photo being taken.

So, anyway, today we're starting day two of recording the drums for Thrall II: Vermin to the Earth. The first day was awesome. There are two takes that are just so good, I doubt I could ever top them, and two takes that sound good enough to keep. Now we've just got three songs that need to be sorted. From 1pm today, that's what I'm going to do. Kick some ARSE.

Wish me luck everyone... or to break a leg or whatever you're supposed to do. This is the clincher.

See you all on the other side!

Japanese Music - Part 4

D-Beat

What is d-beat?

According to wikipedia, d-beat is this:

C: | x - - x - x - - x - - x - x - -:| | C= cymbal

S: | - - o - - - o - - - o - - - o- :| | S= snare

K:|o - - o - o - - o - - o - o - -:| | K= kick

There is some debate over the origin of the d-beat, some attributing it to Filthy Animal Taylor, others saying that it was used by heavy psychedelic bands before Motörhead got their hands on it.

Yeah, whatever. BTW, the wikipedia entry on d-beat sucks.

So, we're back where we started. What is d-beat?

Urban dictionary has a good definition: "D-beat is basically crust punk without the hippy part."

D-beat is a style of aggressive, hard-core punk rock, modeled on the concept that Discharge are the best band to have ever existed. This is a good concept, and I subscribe to this theory whole-heartedly. For no adequately explained reason, d-beat appears endemically in Sweden and Japan. Osaka has, as I've previously mentioned, a kick-arse d-beat scene, populated with all manner drunk-punks, operators, thugs and misfits. The music's not as shabby/hippy as crust-core. It's a lot heavier than most hard-core, with bigger, fatter, yokuzuna-sized guitars, wild thrashing vocalists, and drums that sound like a herd of charging rhinoceros. It's really charged, stirring music and I find it extremely listenable. D-beat remains thematically fixated on concepts such as human annihilation (black metal anyone?)... and most importantly... I really like it.

Bands that might be called d-beat include:

Disclose

Framtid

Gloom

D-clone

Disturd

Redrum

Unarm

Reality Crisis

Fortitude

Punk and Destroy Record Store

Look, I don't claim to be an expert on these things. I'm just an enthused antipodean BM drummer, so don't get too upity if I've got d-beat on my crust, or some metal in my punk. But yeah, if you can, listen to all of the above bands. Especially Discharge. They're ace.

A Sense of Scale

With each week that passes, the end creeps closer. A few weeks ago I could barely detect it, now I can smell it in both nostrils. No doubt in a couple of weeks it will be a deafening roar in my ears. This is the last of our days living in Osaka. This is the beginning of the end.

On the weekend of the 6th through to the 12th of May we had our first return visitors! Our first visitors Dave and Kerry, came back for a second time. We all got into the food and drink when they were in Osaka and then we all jumped on the shinkansen and went down to Hiroshima. Great company, but unfortunately for us, shit weather. It sleeted for the entire two days we were there, which meant that we couldn't make it to Miyajima. Poo. However, we ate a lot of delicious okonomiyaki - in both Osaka and Hiroshima - ate oysters, we sang karaoke, we did photobooth, Kerry and I went to the public bathhouse and enjoyed some Japan style retail therapy. It was all extremely pleasant, until poor Dave was struck down with some kind of mysterious stomach bug. It caught Kerry the day after they left our house. Whether it was food-poisoning or a 24 hour virus I don't know, but he went down like a sack of potatoes on the Tuesday night, but had been resurrected in true Easter style by Thursday morning, back on to the shinkansen for Tokyo and skiing with Luke.

Genbaku, the A-bomb Dome was a stirring sight. I know it is truly impossible to know the absolute decimation that must have ensued after the atomic explosion, but this building is an eerie and evocative monument to an event that truly opened Pandora's Box. The accompanying museum also has a sensitive, even-handed exhibit that outlines the human side and the administrative story of this horrific event. I defy anyone who goes there with an open heart and an open mind to remain dry-eyed.
However, there were a few people amongst the visitors, let us say from a certain country that finds this event particularly difficult to interpret in a favourable light for their own purposes, who were being quite disrespectful about the museum. I heard one middle-aged man say "I get the gist, let's get out of here." I mean, why did you come here? Did you think this was going to be a "U.S.A! All the way!" experience? This event happened, and it was the United States Army that decided how this was going to go down. The funniest part was that this certain specimen of historical denial was only in the first room, in the first few exhibits. He hadn't even gotten to the far more moving exhibits about the hibakusha (a-bomb survivors) upstairs. The pain, the poisoning, the instant deaths, the prolonged suffering, the lurking cancers - some skin and flesh was vaporised, others skin and flesh harboured the poisons that would ultimately kill the victim years later - the potential lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals, wiped out.
Parts of exhibit made me quite angry, particularly the written evidence that the existence of this new, more deadly weapon was hidden from the Japanese and the target city was chosen because of its high civilian population. It was a scientific curiosity for decades after. There is something very cold and calculated about such a decision being made in the name of science, as well as military merit of the bombing, as the penultimate event in the series of reversals against the Japanese army that ultimately resulted in the decision to surrender.
Genbaku (A-bomb Dome) and Hiroshima A-bomb Museum
The atomic bomb museum seems like a very poignant place to commence "The Beginning of the End."

V.V.V. by Thrall
It's the beginning of the end, and it's the beginning of the start as well. Next adventure, here we come. Thrall has done the last Osaka show (thanks to Elsa for the above video footage). As usual, we got offered another show off the back of that show, but it was on after we are gone, so we had to decline. We had lots of people turn up to show support, which is seriously sweet of them, as I know that many of them are not the kind of people who usually (a) go to shows, or (b) listen to misanthropic antipodean black metal. We soundchecked for a good 10 minutes. God, it made all the difference. That, and that Tom bought a line splitter so he could play through two amps at once (which really helped thicken out the sound). We played hard and fast, we roared through all the lyrics, and the crowd stood around and nodded their heads approvingly. It was a good little reception for our last Osaka show. Next we have the Kyoto show, and then it's Sayonara!
So, we've been busy, busy, busy, and to round out our busy time in the last few weeks we went to a very interesting festival, which I shall enter into this blog at a later time...
I recently went back to Nagoya, the town where I spent my first solo year in Japan. And it was tiny! Living in Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan, Osaka is just so much bigger than little Nagoya is. Nagoya just falls asleep at about midnight, the venues close, the bars lock you out, and there's no street culture compared to the vibe of Osaka. I remember when I first arrived in Japan, Nagoya just seemed so enormous, and now it just feels so tiny. My sense of scale has been completely skewed by living here. I really wonder how we will fare when we return to Australia... will it just feel too small for us to fit there anymore?

Japanese Music - Part 3

Atom-age annihilation

Zeni Geva (Money Violence/Money Monster)

I have been a huge fan of this band for many years. I used to order their music through the local music store in Hobart when I was a teenager:

"I`d like to order in Desire for Agony by Zeni Geva."

"You`d like to WHAT??"

Given that now I can order ridiculous titles without ridicule from the internet, such record store clerks are now contributing generously to the length of the unemployment line. Jerks.

Zeni Geva (ゼ二げバ) is the brain-child of one Kazuyuki Null, AKA KK Null. KK Null had already made a name for himself as a, shall we say, sonically challenging/borderline unlistenable auditory assault solo noise artist. He came up with the idea to form Zeni Geva in the mid-80's. Tabata Mitsuru - the other half of Hanatarash - is the other longest serving member of Zeni Geva.

Zeni Geva is two guitars and one drummer. Despite the lack of bass player they make an absolutely massive sound. Down-tuned, pitch-shifted, but for the most part, recognisably guitar. The song writing is a kind of hulking, geometric, angular approach to songs. Major pre-occupations appear to be with body-mind issues and nuclear war. There's a kind of aching Omega man loneliness to some of Zeni Geva's songs. Others itch with sexual energy, life blood screaming the the veins.

Although they consider themselves to be a sort of experimental/hardcore kind of band, they fit very nicely into my sonic interests as a mathematical exercise in riff writing (see Shellac), and what I consider to be part of the metal cannon, be it in a rather avant garde manner. Steve Albini is reputed as saying that he likes Zeni Geva because they do not attempt to Westernise their sound - and I agree. They are distinctly Japanese, mercilessly experimental, and yet eminently listenable. Highly recommended.

Japanese Music - Part 2

Very important but extremely obscure

Hanatarash ("snot face")

Hanatarash (ハナタラシ) was a band formed in Osaka by Yamatsuka Eye and another bloke in 1984. Their music remains relatively unknown compared to their awe-inspiring, life-endangering live shows. Cutting a dead cat in half with a machete, Yamatsuka Eye almost cutting his leg off with a circular saw, driving a bulldozer through a venue wall, smashing A LOT of things, and throwing molotov cocktails... superbly crazy, but unfortunately unsustainable. By 1985 they were banned from playing at pretty much every venue in the country.

The band split and the members contributed to two of the most important music exports Japan has ever produced...

Japanese Music - Part 1

Japanese music. From the weird apparently atonal warblings of traditional instruments, to the cat-yowling racket of enka, Japanese music feels like it comes from a completely different world. This is largely because it does. Let's start with the obvious stuff...

J-pop

All pop music is a commercial consideration as much as it is a musical venture. That said, the money making device of J-pop is a very finely honed tool. The "idol" system that exists largely around Tokyo is the main source for J-Pop stars. "Idols" are ubiquitous stars, that are vaguely reminiscent of the Hollywood system stars of yester-year. These "idols" turn up on every second television show, star in movies, endorse endless arrays of products and "make" pop music. Whilst not being stunningly good looking most of the time, none of them are hideously ugly. Whilst not being particularly talented, they have a wide range of talents. "Singing," "dancing," and "acting" are all secondary to their ability to smile blithely, appear on endless variety shows, and keep their noses clean.

Among the idol performers are people such as SMAP, Ayumi Hamazaki and Kumi Koda. None of these people mean anything to me, and when students ask me for opinions of such people, I find myself hard pressed to boil up anything except IDON'TCARE.

Outside of the idol system, there are some bands that seem to have had a more normal ascendency from obsucre pop musician to J-pop star. Amongst these artists are Mr. Children (urrghh, what a name!), Kinki Kids (again! The name!), or Exile. They are slightly more tuneful than the average idol, but by no means virtuosos.

The actual music made by J-pop stars is incredibly bland. One theory that I have heard (and would not be at all surprised if this is completely accurate), is that karaoke has influenced J-pop due to the ongoing revenue generated by karaoke royalties. For older pop music, more revenue is generated by karaoke plays than by record sales, and it comes second only to radio for creating a lasting income source for older music. Most karaoke pundits have, at best, a limited vocal range, and so, easy to sing melodies are a major consideration when penning a potential J-pop hit. The operatic divas of American pop music are far too difficult for an average singer to perform comfortably at karaoke, and so, most J-pop is medium-paced, middle-registered, and sounds almost exactly like every other J-pop song anyone has ever heard. I have heard hundreds of hours of J-pop, but I would be hard pressed to hum you a tune, or tell you the title of anything because it's just all so damn same-ish.

Music, sweet music...

Well, it's been a busy little week. Very, very busy.

We had our first night on the grog on Wednesday for this year. Reminded me why I've not been on the grog. A powerful and bombastic hangover ensued. I strained a muscle in my shoulder whilst being silly and drunk, and have yet to feel it fully heal.

Ah! She'll be right.

I say that because I have been reminded by Tom's recent trip to the doctors (with what was presenting as either tonsillitis or a cold) being quite traumatic. He was bombarded with questions that he couldn't understand, given treatments that he didn't understand either, and was told to come back the next day. He decided that it would be better for his health if he just had a lie in instead. Doctors that don't speak your language = stressful!

All health problems are being put off until we get back to Australia. I've had it with Japanese doctors. Japanese dentists are awesome, Japanese doctors are stressful.

So, anyway, the Wednesday drink was brought on by a gig. Leila was doing her first show, her solo performance called The Patty Hearst Noise Opera. I watched and took photos for Leila's Artists CV. There were some points that I thought were quite moving, hypnotic, interesting, and there were other bits where I was just wondering "what am I meant to be thinking about here?" I'm a bit simple when it comes to performance art. I don't really get it. But I think it might have been good.

Either way, with the entry to the venue, you get a free drink ticket. And that was my undoing. I spent the drink ticket on beer, and had a few more, and was suddenly on Father Jack's Rollercoaster of "drink! drink! drink!" After the gig I had the excellent idea of going to Bar Konton for a few extra drinks, and well, got completely hammered. It was at Bar Konton that I received the shoulder injury. I didn't really feel untoward until the next day when I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

But I was having a happy hangover, so I went off and tried to make the most of the day. Only much later did I start to realise that I wasn't bouncing back from this.

On Friday I had one weird event lesson type thing, on Saturday they gave me three kids model lessons (!) and one event lesson (!!) - a move that I was kind of annoyed with because I was on that shift with someone who is a more than competent Kids teacher, that the branch have decided to go cold on, so instead of talking to him about it, they just loaded me with all the model lessons. Pretty pissed about that. Will be having firm words with said school this week.

The shoulder strain was a bit of bad timing, that's for sure. We had to play a gig on Sunday evening, and this gig was with bigger and better bands than we've played with since we left Australia, so we were really hoping to put on a good show. I rushed all the way from Kuzuha to Amemura carrying my stupid, heavy, piece of shit kick pedal with me to get there on time, and then realised that this venue doesn't do on-time, and I could have actually saved myself the hassle. Unfortunately, the stars were crossed unfavourably. The amp that was supplied at the venue was a Marshall JCM900 that shat itself every time Tom tried to apply the "big muff" to the sound. So when the music should have sounded louder, it ended up sounding quieter! What a pain! I couldn't get the drum kit to sit together in an ergonomically sensible lay out, and the snare skin looked older than Byōdō-in. No one seemed to be mixing us. Tom's vocals were too quiet, my snare wasn't cutting through. It took us two songs to really lock in, and by the end of the 5th song, I was quite tired from struggling against my injury and my less than ideal set up.

Lesson to be learned from this: soundcheck. YOU MUST SOUNDCHECK. It doesn't matter if everyone has to wait for a few minutes. It's better for all concerned if you soundcheck.

I'm not too disappointed because I think we still did a fairly intense and fierce looking performance, and those three songs in the middle had enough smack down in them to make up for the three that sandwiched them, but I would have liked to have done better.

That said, after the gig, the venue owner asked us to do another show in March. So, we went from "Last show" to "not last show" again! And then we got a call from a dude we met at the gig on Wednesday night asking us to do another show in Kyoto in April. People seem to like us even when we're not firing on all cylinders. How strange.

But I suppose that's it. Music is a powerful force. Surprising. Thought changing. Strong. Emotional. Physical. That's kind of what Thrall is about. Creating something Thrall inducing. To put yourself into a sort of trance and let the music overwhelm you, and your audience. When it works, it is truly gob-smacking. When it doesn't work, it's just another band.

I'm off to another Zeni Geva show tonight. I'm really excited about seeing them again. The last show was so good, and this show is at a much vibier venue, so hopefully they'll be laying the smack down in quantities that won't be able to be resisted by the audience. It's my turn to lay down my will to someone else's sound and feel the power of their 'thrall.'