JAPWNESE

I don't "get" Japanese music.

Maximum The Hormone.  Amazing name, but dance choruses...with nu-metal verses and Japanese gibberish...?

And then...

Blood Stain Child, a Japanese In Flames with heavy trance elements.  I love how the front man is wearing a toga.  He even tries to match Anders' dreadlocks.

Dir en grey would be the equivalent of a Marilyn Manson...?  If Marilyn Manson had grind influences and made videos that looked like The Ring.

When I was in Finland I met a girl who made a documentary focusing on the cultural impact between Japan and the Scandanavias.  Scandanavian metal gets exported, anime/cosplay/pocky sticks/bento/whatever gets imported.  It just surprises me when I find out from other Swedes that Dir en grey concerts are filled with 13 year old girls wearing cat ears screaming for "Kyo-sama."  This would be the complete antithesis of emasculated Asian male figures in the American media.

Alex is getting his masters in Chicago.  Maybe I should go back and get mine in Sweden.  Or, better yet, I can just sit all day in front of YouTube and hope to one day mirror Marty Friedman's career.

Canned applause and all.

ehl ohe ehl

Chinese guy
by takatosh2

I believe this was taken from a Japanese version of Cops.  The guy with the altered voice is a Chinese national and eventually gets caught with having 2 alien registration cards.  Not sure what the intro credits are, but about 3:00 in you can hear Yngwie Malmsteem shred over a chase scene.

And for some reason, I found that incredibly funny.  Deportation isn't funny.  Larger than life Swedish virtuosos are funny.  Especially when they pop up in the least expected places.

Recap

I just now realized that "Everything Counts" from In Flames' Whoracle was a Depeche Mode cover.

Duh.  Seriously.

I had four consecutive practice days and then...Friday came.  I started work at 7, got a hair cut, met (and booked) a wedding with a client in October, bought a new hard drive, started other work, got lost in Fullerton, and then did a wedding at the Nixon Library until 11.  My first dry wedding ever, but I have to give them props on having 8 kinds of soda.  No ginger ale, however.

Afterwards I headed over to Ian's house to watch a bunch of drunk Long Beach kids sing Sublime songs until 2.  Had a "Jason Takaki" moment with Ian over a cover of "Hey Joe."

Now I need to fix my G Major and work on press materials.  Maybe I'll get a chance to start mixing Steven Shafer's solo stuff.  No promises.  Skamikaze is coming back with two new songs for a split with Taco Tuesdays.  Should be fun.  We'll probably end up buying 50 tacos from Holy Mole again.

READY. SET. GOALS!

I decided that if I practice gutiar for an hour a day for a whole month I'm going to buy myself a new guitar.  Probably something pointy with a whammy bar.

Oh yeah, and as a byproduct I intend to prove it by blogging more.  That is all.

I met up with Cameron from The Pocketeers last night.  He insisted that I call him "Cammy Bear."  It was weird.  They're rapping up some stuff right now with a dude but the drums are all electronic and the guitars were recorded direct.  I'm not sure if Trent Reznor style production suits them, but we're trying to work something out for early summer.  I'm thinking an Alec Empire vibe would be a much better fit.

Steven Shafer is coming over again this Sunday, again with a horn section pilfered from Half Past Two and Nastalja.  I'm going to take pictures and yell "MOAR RIDDIMS" a lot.

After that I have The November Curse scheduled for the end of March.  Aaron the Longhaired plays bass, he's the one sticking out at HP2 shows for being too metal.  One of their guitar players is named Tickle.  How metabrutal, I know?  Anyways, I'm going to make sure they blast a lot.

Speaking of other non-ska projects, Set for Stun may be coming in sometime later this month.  Jeff from Failed To Victory plays bass and we're supposed to be doing a four or five song demo.  I don't think they play blast beats, but I do enjoy surprises.

One day I'm going to find time to finish guitar for the Jacob Greene recording.  And then we're going to find a vocalist.  Haha.