I picked up “I Don’t Wanna Die” today at the local CD shop. Amazing. “I Don’t Wanna Die” makes me wanna pop open a beer and jump around my room screaming “YES YES YES YES!!” as loud as I can. Track 2, “Tohoku Shinkansen wa Chihiro-chan wo Nosete” reminds me a lot of “Tokyo”. Well worth the 1050 yen yen price for the single.

Included in the single was some information on the band’s winter tour, which doesn’t happen to be up yet on their official site. The 2007/2008 “Sensou Hantai” tour hits up:

12/10 Shin Kiba Studio Coast
12/13 Niigata Phase
12/16 Zepp Sapporo
1/8 Zepp Nagoya
1/10 Zepp Fukuoka
1/15 Zepp Osaka

Tickets are 2800 yen in advance and 3300 yen at the door (yeah, like there will be any tickets left!) Tickets for the first 3 shows go on sale 10/13, and the last three on 11/17, but I highly recommend applying through a ticket service that has pre-pre reserve tickets, like Pia and e+.

The Ging Nang staff reported on the band’s homepage that they’ll be releasing a single, the band’s first, on August 22. 15 minutes in length, the single contains two tracks. Information on the release is as follows:

Ging Nang BOYZ - I Don’t Wanna Die
SKOOL-015
1050 yen
On sale on August 22, 2007

Track 1: I Don’t Wanna Die (あいどんわなだい)
Track 2: Tohoku Shinkansen wa Chihiro-chan wo Nosete (東北新幹線はチヒロちゃんを乗せて)

Technorati Tags: Ging Nang BOYZ, Japan, news, punk, 銀杏BOYZ

As mentioned on this site in a posting on January 24, Ging Nang BOYZ are going to be previewing their new live DVD, “Boku-tachi wa Sekai wo Kaeru koto ga Dekinai,” at the Bausu Theater (Baus Theater) in Kichijoji from 3/24 to 4/6. All screenings are once a day from 8:45 pm until 11 pm. Tickets are 1300 yen each through Ticket Pia only. As a bonus, the band will be appearing at the 3/24 screening to have a discussion about the movie and talk with fans.

While the DVD goes on sale on 4/11, those people who are lucky enough to get tickets will be able to purchase the DVD early (though you can only purchase the DVD on the day that you have a ticket for). The band will also be selling some other assorted goods related to the DVD release during the screening period.

For those of you who are in Kansai, the band hasn’t forgotten about you! On 4/10 there will be a single screening of the movie at the Kyoto Minami Kaikan. Tickets are 1300 yen in advance or 1500 yen at the door (as if there will be any tickets left!)

I tried to get tickets to the 3/24 screening but was shut out. However, my 2nd choice came through and I’ll be headed out to Kichijoji on 3/30 to catch the show and buy the DVD (and any other related goods they may have left!) For those of you who may be thinking of going, all weekend and Friday shows are already sold-out, though a small amount of tickets are still available for the shows between 4/2 and 4/5. Tickets can be purchased at convenience stores that have a Pia Kiosk and the reservation number/P-Code is 552-911. Good luck, and see you at the show!

Technorati Tags: DVD, Ging Nang BOYZ, Koenji, Kyoto, 銀杏BOYZ

In recent years, the number of Japanese acts touring abroad has continued to increase dramatically. The Blue Hearts toured the States back in the day, and the yearly South by Southwest music festival continues to draw a large crowd with its Japan Night presentation, often featuring artists which are decently popular here in Japan. Smaller tours by up-and-coming bands in Japan are also on the rise, such as the tours undertaken by Red Bacteria Vacuum, Amppez, and Last Target over the last couple of years.

The newest member to the Touring Club is Akiakane. After Akiakane hit up Taiwan for their yearly (?) show (appearing at the “Spirit of Taiwan” event going held on 2/28 at Chun Shan Soccer Stadium), it turns out that the girls have been hitting up Europe for some dates as well. Tentative dates and venues are as follows:

March
UK shows
16th - Underworld (London)
17th - Rigger (Stoke)
18th - Daenaer Bar (Sheffield)
21st - Daddy Cools (Knaresborough)
22nd - Cavern Club (Exter)

Netherlands shows
23rd - Parkhof (Alkmaar)

Germany shows
24th - Juzi (Gottingen)
25th - Wild at Heart (Berlin)
26th - Hafenklang (Hamburg)
27th - EAC (Freiburgh)
28th - Gladhouse (Cottbus)
29th - Sonic Ballroom (Cologne)
30th - Magnapop (Krefeld)

Belgium shows
31st - Pit’s (Kortrijk)

April
UK shows
1st - TBA
2nd - TBA

I’m not really sure how a European crowd will react to a Japanese girl punk band singing in Japanese and Japanese-accented English, but I wish the girls the best!

While this is Akiakane’s first tour outside of Asia (though Moe toured the U.S. a bit back in 1999 while a member of Softball), Gito Gito Hustler have been making their 6th (7th?) appearance on American shores. The girls put on a great live show and appear to be quite well loved in the States. And playing 24 shows across the U.S. in 29 days gets my respect. More than half of the tour is already over, but if you’ve got a chance to check them out, go! Supporting artists who go abroad is the only way that we’ll get more to come over. And really, isn’t that the best for everyone?
March
1st - High Five (Columbus, OH)
2nd - 31st Street Pub (Pittsburgh, PA)
3rd - Subterranean (Chicago, IL)
6th - Bender’s Tavern (Denver, CO)
7th - Burt’s Tiki Lounge (Salt Lake City, UT)
8th - Double Down Saloon (Las Vegas, NV)
10th - Alex Bar (Long Beach, CA)
11th - The Doll Hut (Anaheim, CA)
12th - Scolari’s Office (San Diego, CA)
13th - Gearhead Records Showcase (Mesa, AZ)
14th - Vaudeville Cabaret (Tuscon, AZ)
16th - Darkside Lounge (Dallas, TX)
17th - South by Southwest Lava Lounge (Austin, TX)
18th - Notsuoh (Houston, TX)
19th - The Circle Bar (New Orleans, LA)
20th - Murphy’s (Memphis, TN)
21st - Rhythm and Brews (Chattanooga, TN)
22nd - Lenny’s (Atlanta, GA)
23rd - Ground Zero (Spartanburg, SC)
24th - The Milestone (NC)
25th - Atomic Burrito (VA)
26th - Sidebar (Baltimore, MD)
27th - Khyber (Philadelphia, PA)
29th - Radio Heartbeat Powerpop Festival (Brooklyn, NY)

See you at the shows!

Technorati Tags: Akiakane, Gito Gito Hustler, live

Finally! After having talked about releasing a DVD since at least December 2005, Ging Nang BOYZ will release their long-awaited DVD “Boku-tachi wa Sekai wo Kaeru koto ga Dekinai” (僕たちは世界を変えることができない) on April 11. Priced at 3990 yen, the 138-minute DVD looks like it’ll contain live footage as well as other goodies. Product number is SKOOL-008 and the first pressing will be in a “clear package.”

The main question is probably, “What took so long?” Well, from a message posted by principle cameraman/editor Tezuka Kazuki on Ging Nang’s hatsukoi.biz website, from its conception the project quickly ballooned into 600,000 minutes of footage (roughly 1000 videotapes each 60 minutes long) which took 425 days to edit into a releasable product.

Not only will the video be released on DVD, but the band also plans to show the film at a theater in Tokyo before its official release. I’ll be lining up for that! Hopefully I can get tickets for that more easily than it is to get tickets to the Ging Nang/The Back Horn gig at Yokohama Blitz on February 23. Yes, I forgot about tickets going on sale and they are probably sold out already.

Technorati Tags: DVD, Ging Nang BOYZ, The Back Horn, 銀杏BOYZ

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2007, the Year of the Boar here in Japan. 2006 has been left behind and with it another year of me not doing much with this site. Oh well! Each day brings with it the chance to start anew! And no better chance than right now, since I’m here at work with no real work to do for the foreseeable future.

Some news to start things off: Yamaty, the guitarist for one of my most favorite bands here in Japan, Ping Pong Dash!!, has decided to leave the band after 4 years. No real reason was given in the statement the band released, but it did mention that his decision wasn’t due to any bad blood between the members or anything like that. This leaves Ping Pong with 4 members, including Fat Kohey on the bagpipes, and they are currently looking for a new person to take over for Yamaty as they don’t want to play as a 4-piece (hey, it could be YOUR chance!). Yamaty’s last gig will be on January 19th at Shinjuku Antiknock. Unbelievably, this show will only cost 500 yen to get in and an additional 600 yen will buy you all-you-can-drink for the rest of the night! So, even if you don’t know who Yamaty or Ping Pong Dash!! is, a cheap night out with cheap booze should be all the incentive you need to come check it out! The event is a record release party for THE LONGISLAND LxLxP and their “A Scare of Back to Back” release. Other bands appearing are ALTRA, DAT’S, CHILD STOP, SPLIT SECOND SKATER, and more. Doors at 5:30 p.m. and show starts at 6:00 p.m.

One band I’ve been seeing some press for lately in the indies circles is 3-piece girl-band ROMANES. I haven’t heard them myself yet, but they are supposedly quite RAMONES-esque (as if you couldn’t tell by their name!) and recently did some dates together with Guitar Wolf. I had plans to check them out last night at a Yoyogi Zher the Zoo event with The Vickers, Crispy Nuts, Super Baby Face, and Lump (along with DJ mixes provided by Ryoma and Hayato from Last Target), but other things came up and I had to give it a pass. The group was recently the main feature in Kaze to Rock (風とロック), with lots of pictures and a lengthy interview.

Speaking of Kaze to Rock, it’s a pretty sweet free magazine available at Tower Records and other locations in the Tokyo-area. In the same issue with THE ROMANES, Mineta Kazunobu of Ging Nang Boyz took out a full page ad wishing all of us a Happy New Year. Down in the lower right corner he happened to mention that the live DVD which has been scheduled to come out since early last year will “Soon be on sale!!” It’s about time! I’ve been wanting to see my face on the TV since December 2005 (the DVD contains footage from the Kawasaki Club Citta show I was at, I think)!

These days more and more Japanese bands are breaking out from Japan and doing some touring elsewhere in the world. Once of those bands, Gito Gito Hustler, have swung through the U.S. a couple of times and will be headed abroad again in the near future. But they’re not about to leave Japan without throwing one hell of a party! January 20th sees them play “Yellow Crazy A Go Go!!” Volume 4, featuring their good friends Arinco*Gang and Red Bacteria Vacuum. When I went to Volume 3, the “grand finale” of sorts was a giant Battle of the Bands-type deal where all the girls formed two groups and then rocked out some covers, later polling the audience for the “winner”. It was good fun! As this is also going to be a “New Year Special Event,” there are going to be lots of prizes for audience members. How can one go wrong? The show’s going to be at Shimokitazawa Basement Bar on January 20th. Doors at 6:30 p.m., starts at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are 1800 yen in advance and probably 2000 yen at the door.

That’s all for now! Raise a pint and let’s keep rocking out the whole year through!

Technorati Tags: Ging Nang BOYZ, live, Mineta Kazunobu, news, Ping Pong Dash!!, Gito Gito Hustler, ROMANES, Shinjuku, Shinjuku Antiknock, ピンポンダッシュ！！, 銀杏BOYZ

I just got word of a cool-sounding show taking place on October 7th at Shin Kiba’s Studio Coast. Looks like it’s going to be an all day event with plenty of bands to see and get your money’s worth.

The line-up for the day consists of:

HAWAIIAN6
Beyonds
Breakfast
COQUETTISH
ENDSZWECK
FC FIVE
Garlic Boys
G-Freak Factory
Holstein
Idol Punch
No-All
Razors Edge
SA
Scum Banditz
Slang
The Genbaku Onanies
Tropical Gorilla
Urban Terror
FUCK YOU HEROES

Doors open at 11:00 and the show starts at 12:00.
Ticket prices are 2800 yen in advance or 3300 yen at the door.
Tickets can be purchased at convenience stores using the Pia ticket system by using P-Code 239-251 and at Lawson using L-Code 38485.

Technorati Tags: live, Shin Kiba Studio Coast, Tokyo

This Friday night, June 9th, Shibuya CYCLONE will present an all-night concert event with the somewhat unwieldy yet-still-awesome title of “69DAYS -God of Rock is Death God-”. For only 2000 yen in advance or 2300 yen at the door you can see:

マイライト (My Right)
EXTINCT GOVERNMENT
COCOBAT
ENDZWECK
RISE
FREAKS
ガンフロンティア (Gun Frontier)
THE CHERRY COKE$
RED BACTERIA VACUUM
LAST TARGET
FIREBIRDGASS
CARAMEL MAN
WARNING
Dr.Downer
ATGC
DJs:ウッチー (WORM’MEAT), パイン (マイナーリーグ), SEIKI (COCOBAT), NAOTO (マイライト)

I’ll be going for The Cherry Coke$, Red Bacteria Vacuum, and Last Target, though Cocobat and Firebirdgass will undoubtedly put on a great show too. Most of these bands I’ve never heard of, let alone seen, so it will be good to see some new faces and hear some new music. I’ve been a bit focused on the same group of artists for a while now and could use a fresh show!

Technorati Tags: live, Last Target, Shibuya, Shibuya CYCLONE, The Cherry Coke$, Tokyo

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