Archive for Uncategorized
Hikashu invade Toronto, Ottawa & Quebec!
Hikashu are a legendary prog/avant-pop band fronted by Koichi Makigami. They’ve been around since 1978 (35 years!!) and were influential in the 80s as part of the new wave boom in Japan. Although they achieved mainstream success as a ‘new wave pop’ band and signed with major label EMI Records, since inception they have always [...]
NMFT 5 promo vid
Rob Perry created the fantastic promo vid for volume 4 last year. In fact, Rob has been driving up from Baltimore to Toronto each year to film the NMFT tour, help supervise the bands, act as roadie, and occasionally lend us his drum kit. He tagged along with us for the entire tour: Toronto, Montreal [...]
NMFT5 T-shirts (need some help!)
Mouse on the Keys are fascinated by architecture as evidenced in this interview. In fact their album “An Anxious Object” is a ‘sonic representation of Tokyo’ with each song exploring the city’s residents, politics, culture and architecture. Since mouse on the keys are headlining the tour I wanted to design a t-shirt focussed on them [...]
タニさん、ありがとう！
タニさん (Takawa Tani) was one of the founding members of otori but unfortunately he’s leaving the band to return to his hometown of Kyoto. His last performance with otori was on Dec 31, 2012 @ Akiba Goodman. I really wanted to go this show but had to leave Japan on the 30th, so big thanks [...]
My December Schedule (暫定)
It’s only been a month but I’m back in Japan with the primary goal of sorting out the roster for NMFT5. Unfortunately the Japanese indie music scene isn’t as strong as it was just 2-3 years ago and there’s a paucity of can’t-miss shows during my current visit. tricot and jizue played a show in [...]
Austin Powers… Up!
The Mornings, SuiseiNoboAz and チャラン・ポ・ランタン will be tearing up Austin, TX during SXSW 2013. These three bands alone are sexy enough to consider flying to Austin to satiate one’s hankering for great music, free beer and barbecue brisket. I hope you all make some serious noise and a pooload of new fans stateside in March. I [...]
めっちゃ覆ってる
I’m back in Japan!! Sad news = just for four days Good news: soooooo many great shows going on Challenging news: a lot of these shows are happening at the same time (ie 覆ってる) It’ll be tough… probably impossible… but if the timing of performances work in my favor I plan to catch the following [...]
Wiping the floor with Godzilla: En Masse attacks Tokyo Nov 13-15
If you enjoy art especially that which is exceedingly fresh, spontaneous and masterfully drawn by a number of people heavily influenced by comics, hip hop and DIY/underground culture… then EN MASSE is right up your alley. A lot of you may remember that EN MASSE is a collective of artists based out of Montreal who [...]
Next Music from Tokyo Manga!!!!
How did I not know about this?!!! Click on the pic to read the whole thing. Kim H rules!!!! edit: Wai Au who drew the manga is a god among mortals! By the way, we didn’t start early… we delayed the start by 30 min!!! but most people still didn’t show until another 15 min [...]
A Week in Japan Oct 2-9, 2012
I’m still bummed I couldn’t make it to Eternal Rock City last month. Luckily the vice prez of NMFT operations, Geoff, did go and will write a review of Ero Fes. That and another show with hyacca, tacobonds and MIR. Hopefully Geoff didn’t get too wasted drinking with Ian and has some recollection of the [...]
