having been a gravure idol gives her a slight edge, which is manifest in the promotional video, where for some reason she is the only girl in a badass boys school, casually waving behind them as the beatup bodies pile up. look at her moon eyes as she smiles! too cute!

and should i mention she always wears her glasses? not quite so cute without them, or the very 80s idol look that tsunku has foisted on her. to be rated somewhere between the annoying buriko of ayaya and the “i am pissed off” of ex-soloist mikitty.

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what was i trying to achieve with this? after fiddling with it for ages, i decided i just wanted album covers with little or no words on them. actually a design with the artist’s name plastered in big letters is pretty ugly anyway.

joel plaskett touches down on australian soil for the first time for shows with fellow canadian hawksley workman and the awful grunt of russell crowe. after kathleen edwards came to australia, i figured it might only be time before joel did. such a long time coming. you know, in some selfish ways i still clutch onto him as that lanky dude from thrush hermit.

i was listening to the jp emergency’s last album, truthfully truthfully, on the way to work this morning. as in the song all the pretty faces, sometimes i think perth has the same trajectory as his hometown, halifax - everyone leaves, or wishes they could. and i know that old thrush hermit song, c’mon teacher, that they never recorded together, but joel took the liberty to put it on his solo album. and years ago, we were sending him letters and foreign cash to buy his albums.

and then dylan moran has three shows in melbourne.

“he wrote three series of the brilliant Black Books sitcom that, in my view, constitutes one of the few good arguments for having a television.”

the new chimpanzee is out! if you can get your hands on one, it’s a nicer full bleed comic book size (and yes, there are plenty of comic book reviews inside too).

there’s a japanese hip hop special that i wrote (well, only the ones i think are worth listening to, no bling bling please) plus a review of inside man (i would be so happy if we returned to the state of american movies in the 80s when mainstream film was well thought out and done well).

download issue 5 from the pdf archive.

man, these shitty pictures be old. so i picked the least corny one.

from vikki’s blog (of the clothing/publishing/management/artist group silly thing) - grace ip is making a comeback!

while it’s nothing like a suzuki ami situation, she had reportedly been blacklisted by her record company, eeg, after publicly admitting she was in a relationship with songwriter eric kwok. nothing bad about that in itself, but idols in hong kong don’t let their zealous fans on about who they’re dating, since it’s seen to affect popularity and sales (andy lau is over forty now, but has never acknowledged rumoured relationships with actresses or the supposed wife from malaysia). eeg is powerful, nonetheless.

her eeg compatriot, joey yung, started out in the business about the same time, and is now the top female artist in hong kong.

nothing much doing, except that work has been very busy because of the new interlibrary loans system implemented by the state library (anyone who thinks librarians do shit all gets a headslap); listening to my 45s again since i got a shiny red new adapter (you know the stupidest things you lose somewhere in the abyss that is my room?); thinking up a design for the chimp website; working on a design for my own website and leaving this restrictive free stuff behind; writing for the chimp again (it will revolve around these guys)…

and oh man, this person on youtube has the awesomest videos. there’s too much. thank you!

“hi i’m izzy stradlin”
“don’t sign to a major”
viewmaster
how can i forget that asshole looking presenter, or this band and besides, drew yamada is hot

serious musical influences listed here. and out.

my brother and his girlfriend are getting married in a couple of weeks, and they’ve just moved into a new place, so i find myself running around with my mother doing stuff.

firstly, the new issue of the chimpanzee is out! for those of you who aren’t able to get hold of an actual copy, look up the pdf archive for the file name “Chimpanzee_4_lores.pdf”. my article is the four page spread on perth indie music. when i look at it, i think i could’ve changed the odd word, or profiled more bands, but i think it’s pretty representative and well worth the sleep lost.

secondly, i recently subscribed to hyphen magazine, an asian-american pop political magazine of sorts. i think i just wanted some more meat than giant robot could offer, and stuff like audrey magazine is too poxy to consider. the fact that my brother took it off me to read is a pretty good indication as to its interestingness, seeing as the only reading material he usually touches has engines in it. there’s a well written piece about the vietnamese americans in the wake of the katrina disaster. in lieu of a decent australian publication (except for the alien invader zine by jen tsen kwok and amin-reza javanmard), i don’t mind sending a few dollars over there.

thirdly, christopher hitchens. if you read my old blog i think i posted once how i find him weirdly attractive, even when he is displaying one of his vices on the cover (the other is rumoured alcoholism, though i could care less unless he were pissed when writing). this particular book is a series of ‘mentoring’ chapters, kind of like chatty letters on ethics and politics that meander a bit, just like a good letter should. while i get antsy at his constant nitpicking (if you have not read all the classics, oh poor you), there are some hopeful notes at being oppositional when it seems the hardest thing to do, and a bit of wry humour.

lastly, the new album from roger joseph manning jr, or just plain roger manning. the connection is jellyfish and imperial drag, and it’s the kind of pop i would expect from jon brion and jason falkner and more. previously a net only release, now on pony canyon in japan (import on not lame), and later in the year, the us? final verdict on the music is very good.

there’s something very majolica majorca about this design (joey yung’s “ten most wanted” album), down to the mirror containing the eye with elongated lashes. what are they selling, makeup or music (or joey yung)?

that’s what i dislike about hong kong album covers - they seem to pinch things with little imagination (shya-la-la is a pretty bad offender), but i’m forgetting music is an overly commercial production thing over there. images that sell.

the efficient promotion team behind the silents has posted the video of nightcrawl to youtube. oh, it’s too much - damn damn damn damn. you know that selfish feeling you get, not wanting to share them with anyone else (that is you, rest of australia)? but yet they must be heard.

tiny japanese man, apologizing for his “broken english” when he need not. when damo said to come closer to the stage, we did. even though the words sung are not words but improvised, my ears kept picking up ‘new ways’. that’s what i wanted to hear, i guess. and he’d clap towards us and at the band at the end of songs (or ten minute freakouts, if you like) and had the tigers bow together with him at the end. i don’t need anything artificial (unlike the guy in the crowd rocking noticably forwards and backwards) because it’s all unity.

interview from last year. the bands that make up his network are ’sound carriers’. and “most important is ambition which brings positive energy”.

aibon caught smoking!

see, nobody is as cute as they think they are.

i made myself go to the big day out last sunday. it was hot. i got sunburnt in stupid places. i left straight after sleater-kinney, who made the day for me (i can’t stop saying how much i still love carrie brownstein). everyone was using phone cameras and digital cameras/slrs to take pictures. i felt like an anachronism with my old yashica. (but film forever etc etc)

and i’ve been spending time with this lovely duo while they’re in town. today was lunch in central park along with the two chris’s, and jasper was smearing strawberry everywhere.

it was so hot again that my eyeliner ran riot, but i feel like i could take on the world.

after joining a major label (sony) i was worried halcali were going to turn into singing puffy twins, what with tip tap tips and all.

but their flow is back with the oshare track factory in tow (two of our favourite members of rip slyme). twinkle star is the best song since baby blue, i say. i suddenly feel like some doughnuts…

after the meeting finished, there wasn’t much point driving all the way back to work again, so i took the opportunity to go op shopping. i almost bought a very transparent white skirt, but decided that the creator had actually used their old lace curtains on the bottom and decided not to. but i did pick up this book as a consolation, nick drake songs tabbed for guitar. but i’ve listened to very little nick drake, making it an opportunity to hear some more.

the cover image is strange. fuzzy, like out of focus, but like the light behind him has caused it. maybe i read too much into looking at pictures of dead people.

the new issue of the chimpanzee is out! or at least you can view it online. follow the “links” on the right hand side to the pdf archive, and the chimpanzee 3 (lo res ver) is what you want! shiina ringo obsessed is me!

(*except for issue 2 when i decided to get very sick and just wrote some record reviews instead)

i bought these. i canna help myself! i too want to be in japan wearing jay striped sleeve shirts! even though the palais royale is in toronto. and, you know, money city maniacs is my favourite video clip evarrrrr, and i dig the chopped up album cover idea stolen from polish artwork. or was that czech?

and so for the unintiated, may i present my favourite band…

worried now from 1994’s ‘twice removed’
it’s relatively cold and detached, that’s why i like it

everything you’ve done wrong from 1997’s ‘one chord to another’
my favourite song from my favourite band?

on the horizon from 1998’s ‘navy blues’
the breakdown/buildup & spastic solo

summer’s my season ‘don’t you believe a word’ b-side
man singing a spoof about effeminate things. also good to sing at the top of your lungs

false alarm from 2003’s ‘action pact’
the surprise package from that album

aye, so stupid (lit. meaning) man is still pissing me off by turning up at the library more regularly than i care for, and asking if i want to do something (’i'm pretty busy the next few days’). he’s a doctor for crying out loud, surely should have enough brains; but emotional intelligence, zip.

as other people working here have told me, and as i have witnessed myself, there are more than a few people who visit the library who are mentally deficient. you know, people who come up to the desk and babble on about shipbuilding, even though you never said a word to them to initiate; or the one who thinks ‘the people upstairs’ are stopping him from accessing the betting website…

i was joking the other day about the subject shelf marker for ’social issues’ in the library supplies catalogue, saying we should stick one permanently on the front desk instead. which could be interpreted in two ways: a) old people who come to talk to librarians at the issues desk; b) general weird people.

so as a general rule, working in a library is not going to find you love, it looks for loons for you. although if i worked in a library in a higher socio-economic area, i would bitch less about the appalling state of the stock (found cigarette burns in a book the other day) and the people, and we would get nice donations of middlebrow and highbrow titles that would otherwise go to one of those elizabeth’s secondhand bookshops.

after i get out of here at eight, it will take me forty-five minutes to drive home or thereabouts, afterwards i eat the pasta i prepared the night before, maybe change clothes if i feel my librarian duds today aren’t good enough for the amplifier, rush over to the eight dollar carpark and catch ash naylor playing solo. i’m really excited about it, opposite to the way i’m shitted about work lately (i love my work, but this old man is really bothering me). ash is playing three times in town, and i’m secretly aiming to go to all of them. maybe, cos i kinda stick out due to my ethnicity and i’m embarassingly in the front all the time.

down with communism! bring on western capitalistic ventures! (well not really)

looks like someone actually agrees with me (see my comments in the pk14 review thing). from jon campbell’s foreign devil column in popmatters:

Chinese punk got a lot of attention in the late ’90s, and into this millennium, based on — as in the case of most punk — the completely visceral nature of it and the implications of revolution that it signalled for anyone whose experience with China did not extend past the local takeout joint. Children of communism and Tiananmen in leather, studs, and Mohawks, screaming bloody murder . . . or something, who could tell (whether it was English or Chinese)? What foreign correspondent could resist? But they seemed to overlook one small detail: With a few exceptions, the music was crap.

and in other crap music, china has discovered what reality television does for music sales. the winner makes me wonder if the girls of china are secretly gay but won’t admit it, because her vocal skills and interpretation are really quite average (hearing her sing bryan adams kills me). what else are they going for? the new york times thinks it’s rebellion, but like that stinker of punk, i think he’s got the wrong idea.

ketchup - in love again

so here you are, a couple of tracks from ketchup’s 2005 release:

spring time
hot shower

i think it’s time for a mailorder for me…

a very interesting look at the indie scene (or lack thereof) in malaysia (i read this kind of stuff for fun, you know!). some of his points i certainly recognise, even though i don’t spend much time in malaysia, not being the place of my birth etc.

found it while looking up photos of streetroar, held recently in kuala lumpur. while you already know i love false alarm, word is that subs is amazing.

long overdue post, especially for K

alok - 29 minutes from the end

a series of collaborations music and visual wise (dvd included in the foldout packaging). dark and psychedelic, i’ve been playing this a lot.

cheer chen - adventure

on my last day in hk, i finally found a copy of the limited edition booklet version. i used to run a mile away from this music, mostly because it was not rock enough! sentimental kills convinced me that cheer could have enough bite if she wanted to though.

there are also now three versions of the album - regular (bright blue cover), stab bound book (my one), and a box set with bonus dvd. it’s enough to drive you crazy, and the trend in general, as i contemplate ending up with more than one copy of several albums.

endy chow - light

he’s not obtuse rock at all, and i find myself apologising for liking something so straight. but endy writes some catchy songs, although i would prefer to scrub the ballads. he seems to have learnt a lot from joannes lam (black box), taking on more of the arrangement and production on this album.

he lists silverchair as an influence from the time he spent in new zealand, and it does come out in his singing style. also in his past two albums, he has done covers of hong kong indie bands, namely amk and anodize. there’s touches of the underground in his major label music, and his teenage band zarahn plans to release a cd in the future. i don’t know if he will be the first “hong kong rock artist to suceed” (whatever that means) since beyond but i’m glad for his presence on an otherwise band-less stage.

denise ho - butterfly lovers

the album is made up of the songs from the musical, loosely based on the butterfly lovers legend, but with a more modern interpretation (love exists in all forms).

in his review of the cd in esquire, pong nan gives credit to denise’s songwriting abilities, but also hopes that she uses less mainstream means to flesh out her songs. i would have to agree, although it’s hard to argue against the way she’s managed to put together an album that can do well commercially without being reductive, as well as being able to link up her artistic ambitions in the musical.

ketchup - in love again

acoustic tunes all sung in english, really quite lovely. i should’ve bought all the ketchup cds i saw while i was there, cos i sure can’t find them online either.

krusty - hello krusty

i can’t help but think of puffy when i see this duo. a lot of fun and the songs and production (courtesy of ho shan from pixeltoy and carl wong) are top notch. their first ep is a bit too short, but that’s because the new wave tunes and cute pop songs leave me wanting more.

my little airport - because i was too nervous at the time

the artwork and some of the songs make me think of nervous young love, naturally. nicole sings songs like gigi leung is dead, a pop idol used as a euphenism for the death of innocence (though fans of the real gigi leung were chucking a shit about the songtitle). i couldn’t really stomach the cutesiness of their debut album (the ok thing to do on sunday afternoon is to toddle in the zoo) but have found the guitars and drum machine of this one much more to my liking.

oliver - freddy and king

sorry, haven’t really been able to listen to this much. intense.

pixel toy - science of love

one thing that the artists in people mountain people sea and their signings (at17, pixeltoy) is that they’ve created their own signature sound while still managing to be commercially viable (the reality of the music business in hong kong). i’ve heard pixeltoy used to be less commercial before their debut album, and i have to wonder if it’s true.

nethertheless, their electronic pop is so fresh in the current musical climate, and their only real missteps are the vocal-less tracks where some of the cliched samples get tired.

pk14 - who and who

i was unable to find somewhere to buy this online (not even modern sky seem to have it), so was surprised when i spotted a copy in the panic. beijing punk is hackneyed, as if it’s either the sign of oppression or a new freedom. hang on the box has moved onto new wave. pk14 is somewhat unexpected then, as they look more to mission of burma and gang of four than nofx and the sex pistols.

yumiko cheng - yumiko’s space

produced and written mostly by eric kwok and carl wong, this album has been quite surprising coming from a cantopop singer. it would be interesting to see the sales, if the public used to their dosage of ballads and an occasional fast song could stomach it. it’s not revolutionary - akin to kylie minogue, though on a much smaller budget. no amount of production could hide yumiko’s thin voice though…

hey hey, the silents have their own page on rubber records now… (although i’m still a bit annoyed at whatever went down with even last time) and finally the long overdue ep will be released in march. fingers crossed.

it’s that time of year again, when the flurry of award shows in quick succession happens. last night stayed up ’til two to watch the cr903 awards. the awards are based on airplay on the radio station and fans votes, with the station generally aimed at the younger market. they also have the coolest djs (i love you boyz, sammy, mini etc). i’d sooner watch this than the upcoming tvb jade solid gold awards, which kinda stink of nepotism for me.

notable things:

• their “favouritism” of 903 dj jan lamb’s music, which is actually deserved, and ignored by other outlets.
• the only radio station where chet lam could be in the top five for ‘most favourite male artist’
• endy chow winning ‘best singer songwriter’ award, a year after winning ‘best new male artist’ and almost bursting in tears (above). i love you endy! (even if i’m going to have to buy your album again now that it’s in 2nd ‘special‘ edition goddamn)
  
• dino of soler saying that no matter where they went, they were always foreigners (referring to their italian and burmese heritage), but they became the people of the place they were living in. even when in hong kong, they are referred to as coming from macau, but he said ‘tonight i’m representing hong kong’.

pictures are from here.

i saw broken flowers at the theatre the other day, and am trying to get through garden state on dvd at the moment, though my computer and guitars seem more interesting and the player seems to be on eternal pause. anyway, i have a big problem with the musical scoring in garden state. it’s so intrusive the way the shins enter the film, which is good publicity for the band, but doesn’t help with the way the editing seems rushed between scenes.

on the other hand, holly golightly’s big plugs in broken flowers seem to be a good fit, and the music in general drives action, instead of being some jarring track over the top of the picture, which subjectively affects my judgement of the film itself, depending on whether i detest the particular song or not.

maybe i have been spoilt by jon brion and mark mothersbaugh.

(unrelated, but if jason falkner has such a pretty mug, why isn’t there a picture here?)

notes:

• 小島麻由美 (or kojima mayumi) - probably the only jazz/blues influenced singer i really like, without veering too far into those genres, cos i hate jazz, really. girlish blues?
• neil and iraiza - aka horie hirohisa and matsuda gakuji. closest in style to their friend kaji hideki, but owes more to the uk than sweden. i love ny and johnny marr? albums are my favourites.
• meligrove band - okay so i downloaded a leaked copy of their upcoming album planets conspire. after not bothering to listen to them for a few years because i had too much sloan in my head, i figure maybe i should loosen up a bit, and maybe even listen to rooney, whilst resisting the call of ‘mediocre’!
• bice - having not released anything since 2002 (let love be your destiny album), i was worried she had disappeared for good. apparently not though, as she’s still performing. been listening to her music a lot to and from work on my minidisc, trying to figure out the balance of drums, acoustic & electric guitar and vocals. it sounds so good.
• at 17 - their new album bian bian bian (’change’) could be marked as ‘more mature’ - no more silly children’s ditties or the like. needs more time to digest, although the title track is already stuck in my head.

from chara’s website:

For those fans who can’t understand Japanese, or have trouble buying her albums because they live in foreign lands, Chara wants you to know that she does think about you, and is looking at options available with the newer internet technologies to provide more music to more people. This English website is the first step in that direction…

couldn’t resist posting this because the playlist image features koshijima toshiko of capsule. and yeah, i got one of those accounts.

some notes:

• shugo tokumaru i’ve been playing because i have a bit of trouble getting to sleep initially, which is a terrible way to listen to music, but it seems to work, although there are some interesting textures in the songs.
  
• les macchabées includes stéphane plante and jean masson of les sequelles, and you know how much i like retro quebecois bands.
  
• i would buy a copy of burst city just to see the stalin perfom in it.
  
• samara lubelski sounded interesting when i read about it on the white noise records page. less downbeat, more “psychedelic” tara jane o’neil?
  
• i gave my heart to the treeberrys.
  

today i passed by the living end loitering outside their hotel on the way to buy rice milk from the korean grocery. tonight i went and saw the band i was a sort of member for about a couple of months. the change (or not change) in lineup has been good for them i guess - i anticipate they’ll be headlining their own gigs pretty soon…

meanwhile i’m budgeting to buy some very basic recording gear and instruments, and practicing clarinet again… which i haven’t touched since i quit the thing in year 11, and the case has been a doorstopper since. i haven’t been poisoned by whatever’s in the parts and case yet, so it must be okay…

filling my brain with shiina ringo (as if it’s not usually) in an effort to finish the article. i suppose shuraba is growing on me. (whoever did those wiki entries sure has a lot of patience…)

blah blah blah i have too many ideas in my head right now i need a brain dump

i heard okkervil river’s for real for the first time on the radio this afternoon, and for a minute i thought i was listening to joel plaskett. the album title is after tim hardin’s black sheep boy, of which joel did a pretty inspiring cover a few years back. similar booming production as plaskett in ‘emergency’ mode (i’m surprised it isn’t ian macgettigan behind the dials) and there’s even a line about ‘the blinding light’ in there. i didn’t pay attention when they did a split single with julie doiron last time. tis a pity they are only stopping as far as adelaide on their tour…

the panic originally uploaded by lovelikepop.

next time i am in hong kong i’m going to find all the other interesting record stores i meant to look for in the first place…

the panic is on the 2nd floor (1st floor after ground for westerners) above a hairdresser. no signage or anything - i’d never have found it if i didn’t insist on going up the stairs. and i’d have missed the mural…

everything interesting is hidden up another flight of stairs or in a back alley…

click for larger i was so excited when i realised that i could get these at the post office. i guess being on a stamp is a kind of immortality, and recognition of his importance in hong kong music. he’s not just a “hong kong pop singer”…

i was told by a library patron whom i’m fond of, that i look like a girl out of the ring today. stuff you wear when you can’t think of things to wear to work - puffy knee length denim skirt (’princess-like’, said a colleague, even though i hate princess anything), tights, faux pearl button cardigan and mary janes. i was really aiming for a godard character.

i also pre-ordered the limited edition of hello crazy gentleman (i don’t want to miss out on the bowie cover bonus track), as well as tokyo jihen’s otona; and another order for marked down cds such as baby blue (tuneless but so catchy!), and some keigo iwase (not heard of him before, but listening to all the samples without going ‘bleah!’ and leaving the page must mean something - maybe i should rename my zine ‘crush sandwiches’, hahaha).

too much to spend before a trip, but limited offers get me everytime.

e-tickets are stupid, and making me stress. how do i know for sure that they won’t send me packing when i give them the code? i want a real ticket to hong kong, not a string of numbers and letters…

other than that, i can barely stay awake at work. i’ll probably sleep the whole flight through; i’m hypertired already.

i can’t wait to find things to take pictures of.

but for now until five fifteen zzzzzz

i just realised i’ve been sick for the past three weeks straight, and well, that has kinda sucked.

also i’m thinking seriously about going to the big day out for the first time ever, because of sleater-kinney, m.i.a., wolf and cub and the greenhornes. i guess i could endure the uncomfortableness, the heat and the kids a bit just for that.

• recieving a letter and subflex cds in the mail
• peanut butter chocolate anything. mostly reese’s and m&ms; the peanut butter jumbo kit kat is only passable
• finally getting my rumble fish soundtrack lp, three months via sea and quarantine ripping into the package. under the picture of stewart copeland (i didn’t realise how good looking he was then), he is called “the rhythmatist”. there are also three pens in the pocket of his white shirt just waiting to leak.
• the silversun pickups are kinda alright.
• hana yori dango the japanese adaptation of the manga for sure. meteor garden was the taiwanese version that came first, spawning that awful f4 boyband. it was excruciating to watch, even though everyone was watching it. somehow the characters seemed to be thinking with their hair follicles, and every action came out pained and nonsensical. in the japanese version, makino has real guts and likes to punch boys, which is exactly what i’m looking for.
• boy meets boy by david levithan
• i discovered strawberry switchblade after i kept hearing about some dvd coming out soon. yoshikawa hinano does a cover of since yesterday in japanese. no wonder they like em - they’re a little like wink, but western, bigger hair, more makeup, dark and light at the same time.