The Last of the Beachcombers.

Yesterday, I only caught 3 bands because (a) I was tired, (b) I was burnt out by guitar overdose and (c) I had a terrible ringing in my ears the previous night before bed and it still hasn't dissipated.

I won't blame the young punkers, known as "Biba Textiles". They were actually quite good in a Sex Pistols-lite kind of way.











The next two groups were the Ponytails and the Chicken Masters. They were loud, but not abrasive. I think the damage had already been done. Enough about the tintinnabulation in my noggin.















The Ponytails were great as usual. Their enthusiasm outweighs their skill, yet it all sounds fab.



















The keyboardist from Swingin' Dotty Holes made a cameo for a song. Awesomeness prevailed.

The other guitarist. (I really gotta learn these people's names!)











And my favourite Ponytail is one who actually sports a ponytail. Yukie, the drummer, is always magnificent. And her percussion ain't bad either.











The Dotty girls, undotted and undaunted.
Special guest appearance by the 305 owners, who had been running on 2 hours sleep over 48 hours.
"the Chicken Masters" abate. I love these guys for their showmanship as much as their music. Like most of these rockers, they had all the typical moves down pat. They obviously attended "Rock Stance" at the School of Rock.


































I left around 4, but I heard some tunes blaring from nearby Jozenji park, and sure enough, there was a 10-piece Swing band called the "Roller Coasters" playing. An odd end to an interesting weekend.













I'll leave you with the Beachcombers intro. My Canajun friends will thank me.

Something Fishy is Going on Here.

After an 8 hour marathon of hearing guitar plucking of varying competency and amplitude, we split to catch last orders at a local 魚 (sakana=fish) restaurant. Alex, Akari, her cousin, the Ponytails dude and another guy and I went to "I don't know what it's called but if you click here you can check it out".





Alex attempts to catch our dindin.
They seem out of plaice, but they're not.
Akari tries her hand at flatfishing.
Ultimately, this is all we caught. Fortunately, they also served food that we didn't catch. And it was yummy. Recommended.









Alex and the cuz departed and we popped over to 305. Akari & I enjoying the ambiance.
A musical interlude.
Just us guys and a herd of drunken housewives.















































































I had fun, but after many a Corona at Enn I had to call it an early night (2ish). I started to look a little odd.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting.

The Blue III boys were in top form. They played their usual tunes and maybe a new one or two, but nobody really goes to see them for the music. It's all for the show.


















It's Blue I, drummer extraordinaire.




















It's Blue II, ax swinger.





















And finally, it's Blue III.















Fists of Death.











Enter the Dragon.













Working the crowd.














Flaunting the Nunchuks.

If you're interested in their newest cd, go for it.











BlueIII meets his most insidious opponent!

The Hippy-hippy Shake.

I was watching Lost and felt a tremour. None of my toys fell down, so I knew it wasn't too major. But as I was about to retire, I read this. This tells of a Nuclear power mishap in Kashiwazaki. I don't know if they'll be able to maintain their nickname of "Happy Town." It appears that the quake was a lot nastier than I imagined and I'm sorry for the families of the injured.

Rest assured that I am fine and as far as I know, so are my friends.

Shirking my Blogligation.

I know I had a Blog-Obligation to report on the entire Beach party, but after a day of drinking yesterday, I just listened to 3 bands today and then trekked home. (Actually, I discovered a 10-piece Swing band playing in Jozenji Park and then I trekked home.)

I'm just going to give a snippet of each band and then link you to a Flickr account (if I can figure out how.)

Sunday's lineup:

The first band I heard, and ultimately my favourite, was the "Swingin' Dotty Holes". Great name for a great band.












The lead, Kaori, had a powerful set of lungs and belted out Summertime in an Ella Fitzgeraldish voice. They played a few other jazzy tunes and it really was my high point of the weekend.









The keyboardist who I've seen previously with the Ponytails has an amazing pair of hands and kept the band swingin'.











I later had a chance to chat with Kaori and I hope to get her to perform at a future Echophonyk event.











Next up was "JETT3", really loud and really awful. Their best song was the last one and it was terrible. If it weren't pissing down, I'd have spent the session outside. I didn't even bother trying to get a better photo.









Next up were "Neutral" and that's exactly how I feel about them. The lead singer is about a head shorter than me and when he sang softly, he was tolerable, but then he and the band had to yell at the top of their lungs and it was horrible.









I liked the よそ者 (yo so mono=Strangers) and they kind of reminded me of the Canuck Punk band, DOA. I picked up a cheap CD of theirs for 500￥.









Then they let their female guitarist solo and she started off sounding like Janis Joplin but soon reverted back to J-Pop blandness. I have thus coined a new term for her, "Janis Jpoplin".










By this time, Alex had shown up, so he got to see the end of the "Furs" in all their glory. These guys were sooo cool. The lead reminded me of a Herman's Hermits clone and their liveliness really got the place jumping.









The dance floor suddenly became packed with an entourage of young ladies. Maybe they brought them along. I didn't notice any of them prior to their show.










I gotta find out where this guy got his suit. But the vertical stripes would make me look fat.













It appears that they have a new CD coming out...Vanishing Point. I'd consider getting it (as soon as it ends up in a used CD bin.)









The next dudes up were called "Wakusei" and they were pretty good too. The lead dude looked Stingish and he was unique in that his hairstyle was relatively normal.

Keep a look out for their new "Electric Eel Shock" cd.







Next up were "BlueIII" but I'm going to devote a separate post to them. They are such fun.












Second to last were the "Backdrops". Kinda Jaggerlike. I liked them but I was still exhausted by the previous band.











The final band were the "Chocolates" and it was a good way to end the night.












Very lively lead and a spooky looking drummer.













I'm tired and it's bedtime. Got a full day of work tomorrow, so I'll let you know how the rest of Sunday went and update on Sea Day at the Beach tomorrow. But I'll leave you with a picture of me with a Zima sticker on my cheek.

"She Sells Seashells by the Seashore."

No matter how hard I try, it's next to impossible to teach the above Seashell tongue twister to nihonjin.) It's got to do with the "sea" sound being pronounced as "she" in Japanese. It gets complicated. But speaking of tongue twisters, here's the first Japanese one I learned: “Nama-mugi, Nama-gome, Nama-tamago （なまむぎ、なまごめ、なまたまご in Hiragana / 生麦、生米、生卵 in Kanji）. This Japanese tongue twister means: “raw wheat, raw rice, raw egg.” (Just so my Francophone readers don't feel left out, here's one in French: "Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien." I think it means something about chasing dogs.)

Today is 海の日（７月の第３月曜日）(Umi-no-hi, Marine Day, the third Monday of July)

Here's a quote about it that I dug up. 海の日の趣旨は「海の恩恵に感謝するとともに、海洋国日本の繁栄を願う」ということです。The purpose of Marine Day is “to appreciate the benefits of the sea, and to pray for the prosperity of this seafaring country, Japan.” (You'd better appreciate it. You don't have much choice...you're an island Nation, people.)

Historically, the 20th of July corresponds to the anniversary date of the Meiji emperor's arrival in the Yokohama port, back from a voyage in the north of Japan in 1876. This anniversary had already been celebrated since 1941, but July 20th became Marine Day, observed for the first time in 1996.

By the way, "The Happy Monday System" (ハッピーマンデー制度, Happi Mande Seido) was a decision by the government of Japan to move a number of national holidays to Mondays, creating a three-day weekend for those who normally have a five-day work week. So thanks to that inventive move, I get the day off today! WooHoo! In celebration, I spent yesterday and today at the Beach, but more on that later.

Let's end with a tongue twister that everyone should follow on any holiday:
飲むなら乗るな、乗るなら飲むな.
Nomu nara noru na, noru nara nomu na.
If you drink don't drive, if you drive don't drink.

I Can Be Such a Knob.

I went down to Enn House for the beach event only to discover that it takes place on Sunday/Monday, not Saturday/Sunday. Every year it has been Sun/Mon and I knew that Friday was the 13th and that the event was the 15th & 16th, but do you think I could connect the dots? I really gotta consult a calendar one of these days.

So, since I was downtown anyway and didn't want to spend any money, I window shopped for a bit (bought some lovely windows), and snapped a few pics while waiting to meet our radio star, DJ Mixture, for coffee. Such as this TV chef cooking live for the punters. (クーキングライブ).








There's a little Miyazaki shop that has opened up a Goods & plants emporium. Here are a couple of choice items.

Son of a Beach!

It's time once again for the Annual Beach Party @ Live ENN House. I've gone before and have always had a good time.
It showcases several of my favourite Indie bands playing the Sendai~Tokyo scene including such groups as "Blue III", "The Chocolates", "JETT3" and the "Swingin' Dotty Holes" on Saturday; "The Privates", "Violets", "the CHICKEN masters", "The Pony Tails" and the "Middle's", but I'm curious about "Charlie Brown & Baseball Team" on Sunday!


If you can't go, you may want to whet your appetite with a couple of podcasts by our very own Echophonyk DJs, DJ Mixture and Mark Saito. DJ "Mixture offers up what IMHO is his best funky mix to date. Everything else he's done is utter crap in comparison. I hope he doesn't get too swelled a noggin, but DJ Mixture has now conquered yet another media...he's now on the airwave's via a local radio station. If I ever get some details, I'll hook you up with a live link.

DJ Mark Saito's set is equally cool, even though I've heard it all before. But if you haven't, you should definitely give it a listen. Boogie On Down!

Sorry, about that Chief!

With what is either the best news or the worst news ever, Get Smart is getting a big screen treatment. The cast is promising, Steve Carell is a funny, funny guy, Alan Arkin will make a great Chief, Anne Hathaway makes a cute 99 and say what you will about the Rock, but I find the guy charmingly goofy.

The fact that all of them pale in comparison to the original cast is a given, but since most of them are dead, I doubt if they'll be making any cameos (Maybe Barbara Feldon can come out of retirement to play 99's mom.) So far the only connection I can see with the original is via the character's names, but if anyone can pull it off, Steve Carell can. (Better to remake it now before Mel turns it into another musical.)

Click away to see a tiny trailer but if you want to see a larger (and far slower) version, go here. Best thing about the trailer was hearing the iconic opening theme music once again.

I'll reserve judgement until I actually see the movie, but one thing can be guaranteed, there will be puns to the Max leading up to the premiere and in the reviews afterwards.

Just so you remember the genius of the original, here comes a bit of political incorrectness with that Fu Manchu-esque "The Craw"!



For my Japanese readers, you can always pick up the original 60's series by going here. Apparently, それ行け!スマート (sore ike sumato or "Let's Go Smart") was quite popular over here. They even liked The Nude Bomb! (Though why, I'll never know.)