It’s probably been up on their homepage for a while now, but while browsing the Ging Nang BOYZ’ site today I came across a very…interesting live show that will be taking place in May. It seems that there is a group in Tokyo that puts on rock shows in a Japanese sento (public bath) called Benten-yu in Koenji, west of Shinkuku. They’ve been doing shows there since January, holding them on the day the bath is closed. On May 18th, the guest will be Mineta Kazunobu from Ging Nang BOYZ, and he’ll be giving a talk and playing solo (an acoustic live, I hope!)

Now, I’m not really sure if this show is going to be done in traditional Japanese style, with everyone all naked with maybe just a small face towel to use as cover. I think that’d certainly make for an interesting display of crowd surfing, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the first Onanie Machine show I went to (where a naked bassist Chin came surfing from the back of the crowd, narrowly missing a few peoples’ eyes and mouths in the process)!

Volume 6 has also been announced, and will feature Mukai Shutoku from Zazen Boys. It takes place on June 6th at Benten-yu.

Unfortunately, the Mineta date is already sold out, but it seems that you can still request tickets for the Mukai event. Let’s get naked and listen to some rock ‘n’ roll!

EDIT: It appears that no one is naked at the show. -_- For some pics check out this link: http://furorock.web.fc2.com/public_html/photo1.htm.

Technorati Tags: Ging Nang BOYZ, Koenji, live, Mineta Kazunobu, Mukai Shutoku, news, public bath, sento, Zazen Boys, 銀杏BOYZ

It’s been a long time in the planning, but AKIAKANE’s U.S. release through Asian Man Records is almost upon us. I’ve heard talk about Einstein Records releasing a CD in the States since last March (ever since Mike Park last came through Japan and crashed on Einstein Records’ floor), but now the May 9th release date is just a couple of weeks away. The album, KASUMISOU, is essentially a compilation, pulling in the best tracks of AKIAKANE’s two Japanese mini-albums (Hana wa Sakuragi, Hito wa Bushi and No White Supremacy) and single (On The Record, sold only at Tower Records outlets in Japan and limited to 1500 copies). This type of release is similar to the last Asian Man release of an Einstein Records band, SOFTBALL’s Tenku. The U.S. version of that CD, too, was pulled together from the Japanese version of the Tenku album plus three (I think) tracks off of the Kurage mini-album.

While the U.S. release date isn’t until May 9th, the CD was released here in Japan on April 5th, reaching an astounding 13th place on Tower Records’ J-POP (Album) ranking (as of 4/8). I’ll leave any in-depth information on the release for another post, but it’s an interesting assortment of songs. Some tracks have been carried over exactly as they were on the Japanese releases, and some have been re-recorded (or at least re-sung) with English vocals.

The band now has an English page up at Myspace.com, located at http://www.myspace.com/akiakane, so feel free to check it out and get some English info on the band.

On April 29th, the band band will be putting on a “Look Back History Days” special live at Yoyogi’s ZHER the ZOO. Also taking part are Lump, SARCASTIC+ZOOKEEPER, and a band called “3-Piece-Girls-Punk-Rock-Band” (well, that might not be the band’s real name, but I can’t read the kanji right now) Osumesu. The night is a celebration of sorts of Akiakane’s U.S. release and of last year’s CD releases by Lump and SAR+Z. As a bit of a bonus to their old fans, the bands (or just Akiakane? I’m not really sure…) will also be playing some old SOFTBALL songs in addition to their normal set. The band has set up a webpage for fans to vote for their favorite song, and as of a couple days ago, Tokoshie ni was winning by a decent margin (with 29 votes; “Prostrate”’s Japanese version is 2nd with 20 votes). That’s probably the song I’d like to hear most, too, but I’ll probably vote for something else in order to push *that* song a bit higher up in the ranking.

In other news, SARCASTIC+ZOOKEEPER, whose first mini-album Destruction I liked *very* much, have recently finished up recording of their sophomore effort, titled Going Nuts, scheduled to be released sometime in June on June 8th. EDIT: Mr. Nakamura from Einstein just put up a page with two sample tracks, “Going Nuts” and “Spiny Spiral,” located here All of the members graduated high school this past March and it looks like they’ll have more time to make music and play shows.

Lastly, it appears that Lump’s bassist, Shotaro, is no longer in the band. The band will have a new (temporary?) bassist as of the April 29th show. It seems that the parting was on friendly terms and moreso due to schedules than to any bad blood.

Technorati Tags: Akiakane, Asian Man Records, Einstein Records, live, Lump, news, punk, SARCASTIC ZOOKEEPER, SOFTBALL, Tokyo, Yoyogi ZHER the ZOO