shota n me

Today is Boxx. First live in awhile with a soundcheck and a nice long set!...where 'long' is 30 minutes, since Shikkoku Symphony was 20. We could only do 3 songs!

Shota and I are groovin' to Sikth right now♪

Live Report 8/15/09, Saitama Kaikan: Chemical Pictures, FIFTEEN OTHER BANDS

When unexpected or unplanned stuff happens on stage--if I get a wire wrapped around my leg, or I bump into Joe, or my mic stand falls over, or Tenten tickles me onstage, what have you--I laugh it off and move on, try to recover well. After all, part of the measure of a good band is how well they can play off of that blip.

And honestly, all in all, things went fine last night, but I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed on stage!

First of all, it was really cool seeing a lot of the old Narciss staff again, and they remembered me and 'welcomed me back' with open arms and big smiles. So great to see Hidetora again, and I also had a great reunion with Kuma, now in Gizel. He's a friend of Joe's too, which just goes to show how dang small this VK world is.

Zero, formerly of Ghost, is now in Hi:BRiD and we hadn't actually spoken in almost a year or so, so it was cool to catch up with him too. And Leo from Cinema Strip. Yuri from Rubik has been a great friend to the band and he was there, as was former beaU bassist Kino, and Soan from Moran. He's been around a lot lately and he has the most calming effect.

Now, after each band's performance, a member or the whole band goes out to the front to do a short talk session with the Zenit Music Factory boss lady, who is admittedly a cool old lady. The idea Tenten wanted to do was, since he was going to jump off the front of the stage and run to the back door after our last song, he wouldn't be able to do the talk. So they were going to send me out there. All I really had to do was announce our single, our 3-man with Otogadead and Juliette, and that we'd be playing at Narciss in October.

Tenten thought it would be funny if I went out there and put her on the spot and say "I don't speak Japanese". I would be speaking Japanese the rest of the time anyway, so I wasn't put off by the idea for the schtick.

I hope I'm remembering this right, because it was sort of a blur.
I get out there and play it Steven Wright-ish, and I get laughs, but I realize that suddenly I have to be committed to this gag. Because she kept asking me questions, when she had assured me that she would keep it short! So I had to come up with these short English answers that Japanese people would understand.

FINALLY, she gets to the question about upcoming activities for CPs and I switch to Japanese, and I got HUGE cheering and applause.

And then it was over and all, and by everyone's account it went fine, but I was SO embarrassed for some reason!

And apparently people were really confused as to whether I can actually speak Japanese or not. Now, she was asking me questions in Japanese and I was answering them in easy English, so I don't know how I could have answered them if I didn't understand. Or how I could wing the tail end of the talk session in Japanese if I couldn't speak. Oh, silly people.

Man, this is why I quit being the singer in bands years ago!

Anyway. Next is

-Shibuya BOXX on the 18th, with VelBet, DOG in the Parallel World Orchestra, Cellt, and Downer

-Ikebukuro Cyber on the 27th, with Canzel, Cult Fiction Club, SuG, Toon Factory, DragonWAPPPPPPER

-9/18 O-West, with OZ, Nega, Lulu, born, Skull

-9/23 Meguro Rokumeikan, Chemical Pictures (with Otogadead and Juliette), release date of 'Praparat'

-10/4 Omotesando FAB, with Inugami Circus Dan, Hana Shounen Baddies, Monokuro Cinema, Hitotsume, and comedians Gorgeous and　Jaa Takeya (Gorgeous is a space pirate with a globe who does jokes that end in country names, and Jaa Takeya sings about awkward situations, I guess comedians warm up VK shows now)

-3/14/10, Shimokitazawa Mosaic, 1st birthday of Chemical Pictures

and some in-stores?? I think those scare me the most!

Mステ

Les Paul will also be missed; everyone says he was just the nicest, most helpful person in the world, and an incredible innovator and musician, performing regularly up until he left us.


So, next Friday. August 21st. Music Station, 8pm, broadcast LIVE.
Steve Appleton w/ JJ and yours truly.

:D

JY

Jasmine You passed away, and I don't really know what to say or how to say it but I've gotta say something.

He was always a lot of fun, definitely a unique guy. The first time I went out to dinner with him he tried to help me talk to women, and while it was a bit embarrassing, there was a sweetness to his attempt all the same.

The last time I spent time with him was on the Ascendead Master shoot. They say hindsight has 20/20 vision, so I don't know if this matters at all, but I remember him not being as conversant and thinking he seemed like he deserved a rest, considering the other four were in relatively high spirits and spent downtime in lively conversation not only with myself but some of the other foreigners on set.

The very last thing was when he had me play his bass, as the other guys were interested in actually hearing me, which they'd never been able to. I played a little bit for them, and they said I was good, and Jasmine You said I was good, and I thought, that was very nice of him to say. I'll miss him.

Zeus

It is RAINING and LIGHTNINGING super hard and basically God is pretty mad probably at something you did.

I was Skyping with my parents, wanted to go out shopping for some food, took one step outside, got pummeled by sky bullets, and gave up. No way. No. Way.


Rain in the summer is pretty nice actually. This is just... a bit much.

Also, no weather outlets are giving me any information on this storm. They insist we are merely 'cloudy'. I insist they are merely 'severely stupid'.

um what

I am watching women's volleyball on TV right now, and the background music they've used so far underneath all the clips are some of the more obscure Yes songs, Vince Di Cola's instrumental tracks from the 1986 Transformers animated movie, one of the more ridiculous System of a Down songs, and Maximum the Hormone.

I know that all might not be too obscure but there are other times when I seriously think, "hey, I know this song, why the heck would they use that"

Joeday

So on the 4th it was Joe's birthday as well as my president's birthday, so that's pretty cool I guess.
I got him that Kimura Kaela photo collection that I made a huge deal about a couple of years back. He loved the thing. It might be one of the best reactions I've ever gotten from a birthday present I've given someone.

Mom sent me a package in the mail with some American goodies, some music they liked, and a copy of The World is Flat. She also sent me a sizable photo album she made, and it's lovely and very well-done and carefully crafted both in a material sense and a pull-my-heartstrings sense. There's a particularly great image of my grandmother on the steps of the church where she got married and she is clearly moved. And then of course just seeing the requisite family, extended family, friends, old friends, and NEW BABIES.

I really don't like being so far away from NEW BABIES in the family. ;_;

Ｘ marks the West

Schwarz took this of me on the stage after all was over. :D

That was fun!

also you guys are seriously funny with your suggestions for next goals

oh man

Shibuya is Chaos right now. Vans and bands everywhere, girls in unrealistic numbers, hilarity... wow. More later, almost go time-- Hime Ichigo just went on and we're next♪♪♪♪♪

next goal

Ever since I'd joined Laverite, my goal was to someday play O-East or West. Then, I'd be fine.

Today is West, so now I need a new goal.

shoot'n dance'n

Even though I got a bit sunburned, little girl on set found a four-leaf clover, and afterward I hula hooped with Ueno Juri for some reason. She's nice and lovely.

Studio at MIDNIIIIGHT

beardy

Also, you guys, my beard is MAGNIFICENT.

too early

Ugh, morning call at 6 for a small movie shoot, it is not that cool at all but hey a tiny bit of free money for just standing there. And then people can play where's waldo again!

big and gentle

Thanks to Silv for turning me on to Bigelf; I love their covers straight out of the serious '70s and the Pink Floyd-isms that don't put me to sleep... I love the snake oil salesman/traveling medicine magic show image they've got going too, almost Western.

Whee~

This is good

The Dear Hunter's album Act III: Life and Death is just utterly perfect. It's like if Muse and Elton John had a kid, and then Pink Floyd and Queen had a kid, and then those kids met up and got married and had a kid with that one really good My Chemical Romance album so the resulting kid could have American citizenship. This is the dumbest thing I have ever written.

But seriously. It's modern with deliberate twinges of vague European and gyspy sounds, but it is by no means irritating or annoying or sound 'indie', nor is it by any stretch minimalist, even at its most minimalist moments. It is very carefully layered and meticulously constructed with Beach Boys/Queen vocals with plenty of emotion. I have been looking for a modern band with good vocal work for ages.

It is undeniably prog, but it is not prog metal, and that's honestly very refreshing. I am quite metal-ed out to be quite truthful.

Now to track down the first two albums.

Oh yeah so quick announcements

-The following people are seriously flippin' aweome: Cryptomayhem, Mrs. Cryptomayhem, Silvanos, Nemo

-Yes, we are on Fuji Pro now, along with Dolly and Hi:BRiD and Smells which is basically Merry Go Round minus one. Other bands that used to be on this label are Gimmick, Ghost, Vogus Image, Henzel, and Clover.

-We have a maxi-single coming out on 9/23, Praparat. 2 songs + one DVD. :D

-The reason we were filming the live was because footage from it will be used as a short promotion commercial that will be shown on the video screen above the Donkihote in Shinjuku. :D

-Then a CPs shusai event for the CD release, another one-man on 3/14 at Mosaic, and lots of other junk!

-I can't get MY OWN BAND'S WEBSITE to show up properly on my computer!

Daaaaang

holy crap look at this

today is a birthday

Today is Tenten's birthday, yaaaaaaaay!

also we have a show

New Japanese Blog

So apparently we're celebrities* now, which necessitates us getting celebrity blogs, and I honestly have no idea what it means and why it meant that we had to make entirely NEW OFFICIAL blogs with the website and not just, like, keeping all the other entries and stuff or moving them or anything. So it doesn't make a lot of sense, I guess I just "leveled up" or something.

Anyway!

http://ameblo.jp/cps-jimi/


*this doesn't mean anything; pretty much any band on any tiny label or management will have this ranking, as will random people you saw on TV like, twice

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall...

Who is the most awesome American bassist in a Japanese Visual Kei band of them all?

(I have rigged this question as you can see)

Still Alive

Tee hee~




Whee~!

Today's stuff

Got my application form in for my share of the government refund check. Yes, even foreigners get a piece. A small piece, but a piece.

Met up with JJ for some stuff; that guy is so ridiculously uplifting in the face of a lot of the junk we have to go through and I'm very glad to have someone like him around.

Roppongi is yeeeaaaarrrrrgggghhh.

im not dead

Busy getting things ready for the one-man and beyond.

One thing I decided not to mention but now want to; when our van pulled into Astro Hall on Sunday, we were already in full makeup because of things we filmed/shot in the morning. A group of foreigners, all complete and utter Bros, saw us and started hooting and laughing and being like HAHA WE GOTTA GET PICS OF THIS BRO. I was embarrassed and annoyed and tried not to show myself and that was cowardly. Tenten took it in stride and posed with the guys, which in retrospect was the correct thing to do. We could see them hanging out outside the live house for several hours from the upstairs window trying to pick up on the multitude of girls waiting outside, but thankfully unsuccessfully. I think they were hoping to see more of that WILD AND CRAZY JAPAN that people seem to insist is all Japan consists of.

I handled it poorly; Tenten and the girls handled it well.

I feel rather productive today.

its over!

All done.

We're back in a groove, and our new song is a killer. And Inertia was there!, which honestly made up for the admittedly rough morning. :D

also dancho has a chemical pictures sticker on his nintendo ds, just thought you should know.

I took 250 polaroids today, that is dumb

Small size t-shirts SOLD OUT D:

gonna go crash, aaaauuuggghhh :D

what i can say

-Here are the t-shirts.

-The new song will be 500 yen.

-Various announcements will be cool. We had a meeting with XXXXX yesterday and I can't wait to tell details of that.

-Schwarz cut his hand on a string during rehearsal today and didn't notice ALL THE BLOOD until a few songs in. It was pretty rock n roll. (j/k it was kinda scary at first)

-Your emails really brighten my day, and I'm trying to find time to write yall back. Crypto for lotsa stuff, Mr.Volt for tons of stuff, etc. Couldn't have asked for nicer readers and friends.

-TOUR FINAL TMR

wear

Chemical T-shirts are IN, suckas!

Gah so much preparation to do.

Off to a sorta cool meeting today. You might find it mildly amusing when I can mention it.

Whee〜

2 down 1 to go

We went into the studio the night before to tighten up the set list and hopefully get the new song in working order to be performed live. There were reservations as to whether we should have done it at all, but in the meantime we left it in.

Went to Osaka.

I've been friends with Yanagi from Swallowtail since before either of us were in our current bands, so for us to have the opportunity to play together is a real treat. Joe is friends with NoGoD, and Tenten and Joe are both friends with Moran, so really it all felt like one chill group of friends puttin' on a show.

Made quick friends with NoGoD's bassist Karin, who may be the only Japanese person I've met who had even heard of groups like Incubus, 311, Infectious Grooves, or Primus, all of which happen to be guilty pleasures of us both. He helped me work through a lot of my sound concerns.
And Dancho is a deep, deep thinker who seriously has some amazing things to say. And you know what, after these two shows, I feel like if you're unable to appreciate NoGoD in any way, you are probably a huge dork.

At the time I felt like the Osaka show went well, but upon consideration it was obvious that our set construction was a huge mistake from the get-go. The first few songs were all our heavy numbers, but it just... didn't work. We're not that kind of band. Anyway, I initially felt good upon leaving the stage, but Tenten was super down about it, and I started doubting myself further, like I was the only one unable to read the mood. Still, it was clear the crowd was having a good time and I definitely spotted Kellie and Midori in the audience and glancing over at them certainly gave me the strength to keep goin' crazy! (The Muse stage is huge so maybe I moved too much. :-P) Afterward Midori gave me some seriously awesome baked goods that really hit the spot.

So we drove to Nagoya, checked into our hotel (I shared a room with Joe), and had a very serious band meeting which initially left me doubtful and confused. In the morning we headed to Nagoya. Now, I was further anxious because the people of Nagoya sort of have a reputation for being cold; and if they're not really into you or your set they will sit down. Heck, we didn't even include time in our set for an encore because we were that scared.

But Nagoya was INSANE; just absolutely bonkers and I can never help but wonder if no one's coming out of there critically injured or what. Totally great. And then we got the encore, which surprised us, so we went out and did two heavy songs. Right after the first one I thought, "wow, shoulda just done the one" because seriously my body is at its limit right now. I'm cannot fathom how, say, Kuroyume could physically handle 200+ shows a year in their heyday.

I got FIVE bottles of iced chai from a darling girl who worked up the bravery to approach me as I headed to my van; you rock, ice chai chick.

And Schwarz, who has nearly never spoken a word to anyone that hasn't involved music or guitars in some fashion, came up to me after he had taken some time to go buy some supplies, and could barely squeak out, "Nagoya... look around, amazing... the women... wow..." So you know the guy's serious!

Anyway. Lots of ups and downs this weekend. I thought we had a bead on what we are as a band, but we all frankly discussed the fact that maybe we don't quite have a concrete image formed and that's a bit scary, considering all that's coming up for us. Still, I'm very glad we got that out, because somehow even in that mood, it made Nagoya way way better.
We're still not completely sure of ourselves, but I think we're getting there finally. This week and next are the real tests.

Things'll work out somehow. In the meantime I'm seriously on my last legs here! >_<

Shota

Tada!

Drummer Shota.

And my current savior, iced chai.

hehe

whee

road

osaka done, now in nagoya. more when i get back to tokyo.

newness

So, one might notice we have a new homepage, http://cps-official-web.com . The old domain was way easier to remember, but various problems with stuff led to this. OH WELL, that's why God made bookmarks.(>_<)

At least new pics are up!

Things are movin'; just hoping the movements are justified. Hard to tell yet!

Live Report 6/30/09, Sendai Macana: Chemical Pictures, DaizyStripper, Skull, etc

So here's how Sendai worked:

-Wake up at 6, head out to Ikebukuro to meet the rest of the band and our staff. Ride horrible morning trains.

-Joe, who is supposed to bring the car, oversleeps and says he'll be there an hour or so later. Eat McDonald's breakfast.

-We get a really late start and head off. Tochigi and Fukushima prefectures feel like annoying underfoot cats, but otherwise the drive is fine.

-Get to Macana just in time for our rehearsal. I loved that bass head they had, and I still don't remember the maker. And even though I'd only seen a tiny bit of it, Sendai's pretty cool. DaizyStripper's bassist immediately chats me up and he's a great guy. It was neat realizing that everyone but the vocalist used to be Clavier.

-Shoot a video comment for Visunavi and start our show! Tenten's mother and sister (Eri Taira, a model who shows up a lot in girls' fashion magazines) are in the crowd; I talk to them later and they are lovely.

-Macana's stage is TINY; the wings are pretty wide but then you're hidden behind speakers. The crowd was a little less crazy than we woulda liked, but this is because DaizyStripper fans make up the vast majority of the evening's crowd. Now, this is not a bad thing, as it means we get exposure to more new people, and granted we're still "new".



-As we pack up stuff to load into the van, a girl works up the courage, runs up to me with a present and letter, squeaks out a few words, and runs off again. I don't know what it is, but to me that is the cutest, most adorable type of fan. There are also ones that walk right up and talk to you and say weird stuff, or maybe its not weird I'm just not used to it, and maybe I just haven't learned how to be smooth yet.

-As we start the drive back, we are super-tired. Joe needs to stay awake, so he puts a mix of early Luna Sea on his iPod and sets the volume down low enough not to be a bother. Our makeup girl speaks up. "Hey, uh, Joe..." I'm thinking she wants him to turn it down so she can sleep. "Can you, uh, turn it up?" It quickly turned into an old-skool Luna Sea sing-along with lots of great Ryuichi impersonations. I don't care who you are; Ryuichi impressions are hilarious.

-I end up actually sleeping a little bit in the car, a rare feat. We get back to Ikebukuro at 6am, I go to work at 8:30 after a brief stop at home, and boy was Wednesday difficult. I think my body actually treated today as the day after Tuesday and not yesterday, because I'm way more sore now.


Oh, and some news: Masami is no longer drumming with Chemical Pictures. I love the guy to death and wish he could have become a full-fledged member, but he has his plans and we have ours, so we're going to go with the new guy, Shota. He's young, loves metal, and I love his little touches that skyrocket the song's groove to a euphoric level, particularly on the final portion of "I wanna get away".
Anyway, next time I hang out with Masami, which will happen certainly since we have lots of Ace Attorney and Gyakuten Kenji talk to catch up on, I'll be sure to let y'all know. :)

Also had a nice long talk with Tommy today about a whole bunch of stuff. All youz guyses' awesomeness and the awesomeness of my family aside, she's the only person on this side of the ocean recently who has somehow magically said just the right things to keep me going.


NEXT:
OSAKA, NAGOYA, HARAJUKU, then ONE-MAN, at which we'll be selling a song called "In My Dream" (not a Luna Sea cover), and we have a big announcement! ... I don't know what it is, but Tenten keeps saying we do, so! (I mean, I have an idea of what it could be, but not sure which bit he means.)

Whee~

Mountain Man

Finally in Sendai; Joe and Tenny's friends and fam here in plenty.

Lovin' the bass setup here at Macana. Marshall cab and...head starts with an A and its not Ampeg and it looks really old but I have amazing control over my mids.

And the green room is easily the most relaxing; up there with Narciss.

Whee〜

Confuzzle

I seem to have confused all yall when I talked about getting the song the day before.

I mentioned that we'd written a particular song and played it at our one-man in March.
We don't want fans to get restless so we decided to self-finance at least one song to tide people over, for sale at our one-man next month.

But Schwarz said, well if we're going to release just that one, I'd like to make it better.

He worked very hard, but we were so busy that he couldn't finish the rough demo until, say it with me, THE DAY BEFORE.

So yeah, that's all. :) And it's almost a new song entirely!

Anyway I'm sure somehow you guys n dolls will hear it, so I hope you at least like one idea in there!;;

I am in a car to Sendai MACANA right now, gonna rock some clocks aw yeah

Tenten and Joe are from Sendai, as is Skull. Should be a good show, sponsored by Visunavi.

Lotsa green up north here; quite a nice change of pace!

Recording. I can't decide if it's really fun or really soul-crushing.

Here's how it worked:

-Write a song several months ago and work it up to speed and perform it at one-man live

-THE DAY BEFORE recording, receive a "reworked" demo which might as well be an entirely different song, get asked to write some new lyrics and melodies, scramble, panic

-Meet in 'bukuro at 6 AM goodness gracious, drive forever and a day to the studio, it is really far, listen a lot to the song in the car considering we only got it THE DAY BEFORE

-Drums take forever, not because the guy is bad, because he's fantastic, but hey remember we all got the song THE DAY BEFORE

-other than a couple of small hiccups, bass takes no time at all; how awesome am I (very) (nah but seriously it didn't take that long, even though I got the song THE DAY BEFORE)

-guitars take a few MILLION YEARS because we must have layered every single guitar part--and there were so, so many. Also since we got the song THE DAY BEFORE Schwarz played most of the guitar parts while Joe provided some brilliant tinkly-bits, if I do say so myself, but not so much of the main riffs, because remember we got the song THE DAY BEFORE

-similarly vocals take a few MILLION YEARS because Tenten hasn't recorded in a few years and I have never had to lay down my own vocals before. The engineer tells us point-blank that our voices don't blend very well for the harmonies, which is sad to hear because live they sound good and I sort of pride myself on my ability for vocal arrangements, so I had to quickly attempt to teach all my parts to Tenten, and there were a lot. I have not mentioned in this point yet that we only got the song THE DAY BEFORE

-leave the studio at 3am, get home at 5. I have been up for over 24 hours and that is really dumb you guys.

A lot of my arrangement ideas were perhaps too ambitious for a session of a song we'd all only received THE DAY BEFORE, and either couldn't be laid down in time or, upon listening in context, did not fit the song at all. One of my big ideas made it in, but given the time crunch it'll be interesting to see how the mixing turns out. Also we couldn't figure out what the difference between mixing and mastering was, even after being told.

Positives: But I mean, I learned a ton and learned that there are still things I need to learn and it is really, really cool to hear a final project coming together. Starting to feel like a band. I've been saying that a lot, but there are various moments when I believe it just a little bit more.

So, live news, if you are like me and lazy and aren't gonna check a different site just to see some live dates:

-Shikkoku Symphony on 8/15 with Duel Jewel, Clear Veil, Dali, Heisei Isshin, and a bajillion more

-9/18, Shibuya O-WEST! When Laverite started, I once thought, "you know, if I get to play O-West one day, that can be my high note." Seems a bit of a small goal now. Anyway, that show is with Oz, Nega, Lulu, born, and Skull.

Whee~

updates

-check the website for cool live news!

-We bought a car!

-We're recording today!

-Cool surprises coming up.

-Tuesday is Sendai, sort of our warm-up for the tour. July came fast!

drum circle

For our Sendai live next Tuesday, Masami won't be coming with us as drummer.

But the guy that's coming with us should do just fine~ :D

When in Rome...

...郷に従え。

And now a taste of my Japanese blog, and most band dude blogs, and you can see that we are boring and not-at-all hardcore.

I saw bottled iced chai. Chai is delicious and I don't do Staba so I bought it.

It's stuff like this until rehearsals or lives. (°□°;)

Scuber Dive, Shibuya ga Taihen

There's a summer VK festival in Tokyo and Osaka; Scuber Dive. It's divided into "Shibuya ga Taihen" and "Naniwa ga Taihen".

The Shibuya one will be on August 3rd at O-'s East, West, Crest, Nest, Duo Music Exchange, and club Asia. You buy one ticket for the whole day and can get into any of the live houses.

There's no timetable yet, but here are the bands that are going to be in Shibuya on 8/3:

Aikuru, Ashe, Administrator, 12012, M, Elm, Gizmo, Zoro, Dali, Deathgaze, Duel Jewel, Tokyo Michael, NaiL, Nega, Hacchi, Lolita 23ku, Art Cube, Aoi, ALSDEAD, Gilltia, Jully, Juliet, Danger Gang, NightengeiL, heidi, Hi:BRiD, boogieman, Arc, Vanessa, Varna, Vidoll, Kalvary, Clear Veil, Dog in the Parallel World Orchestra, Heisei Isshin, Moran, Lycaon, counting a sheep, Kelli, Dhalis, Chariots, Dio, Hana Shounen Baddies a.k.a. Billy, Megaromania, meth, Layla, and CHEMICAL PICTURES wassup

shoot 3

Photo shoot last night. Whee〜

Also haircut!

am

Why do people keep saying I'm in Versailles's new video??

Is it because I am? Most obviously at the 2:46 mark?

Augustish

Some news; on 8/27 at Cyber, we're gonna be playing with Cult Fiction Club, Canzel, SuG, Toon Factory, and DragonWAPPPPPPER.

Live Report 6/17/09, Ikebukuro Cyber: Chemical Pictures, etc.

Cyber is tiny and cramped and dirty and a real pain in the butt to deal with at a physical level.

On the other hand, the staff is great, and there is no dividing bar at the front, so the fans are crammed right to the front of the stage. It is a great feeling. You think that since all these places are relatively small you'd feel some sort of intimacy as it is, which is more true of some places than others. Holiday and Area feel a little far, Narciss feels good when it's packed, but Cyber is just soooo tiny and dingy and such a dive but they're crammed up to the front with you and you can look them in the eyes and watch their hearts flutter, and I sort of laugh inside because I think there are so many more interesting things than me to go crazy about.

It was an early morning that started with us filming something BUT I'M NOT TELLING YOU WHAT, NOT YET, JEEZ, then heading in to rehearsal. The place is crazy tiny, and the dressing room is like, a closet, so we really didn't have a chance to chat with any other bands. Tenten knows some of the guys in Hana Shounen Baddies (formerly Billy), but that was about it honestly.

I remember the lights being extra hot. Oh also it's Schwarz's birthday today (6/19)! He got tons and tons of letters, and some from overseas. One from America had 150 yen taped to the inside of the letter, which is just enough to buy a bottle of our favorite milk tea. :D He really liked the presentation of that one.

All in all it's been incredibly busy as a band lately, maybe not so much in terms of live activity (although that certainly contributes), but lots of behind-the-scenes preparations. It's exhausting and I'm a bit more moody than usual, and that's sort of sad to realize. And I know I don't have much to show for it yet, not to you guys, much as I'd like to... but come summer time I should have interesting things to talk about, I hope.

One thing that's been fun is all these little inside jokes that are coming to fruition as we play a lot and meet people. Steve Appleton and I also chatted about how great it is to be a musician, because without even speaking to each other, having played the same songs together even just over a day, you already have your own little language of musical communication within that group, whether they are musical gags/jokes or just the sheer joy of playing together. If you've gathered a good group together, that is. And I do feel that with these guys.

Masami will be with us up until the one-man on Tenten's birthday, and then... I dunno. But dang I love this guy.

And I got my first two letters ever from Japanese fans! One was sent to our fanmail address and one was brought to Cyber itself. Whee~

Whereas last year I felt like I depended mostly upon all the wonderful, amazing, and diverse people who read this English blog, I've been glad to be a part of something that has a decent following among the Japanese fans as well, because through the Japanese blog I've been able to meet similarly wonderful, amazing, and diverse people.


also is it just me or are most of the people who read my blogs way super hawt


Next is Sendai! I will have no opportunity to eat any of its famous beef tongue, and for that I am very sad. ;_;

Steve's Japan band

I'm going to assume I'm not allowed to post the shots with Steve, but you can see his picture whenever you want, because he is a good-looking bastard and I do not want you to look at me and then look at him and then never look at me again because seriously look at that guy what a jerk; talented and young and studly and a super-nice guy; wanna punch him this is HIGHLANDER right here*


Ahem. L to R, Ryo (drums), Jimi (that is ME; bass), JJ (keys), Tomas (guitar).



*i do not really want to punch anybody he is a fine upstanding fellow and we can make a crowd DANCE i tell you what

Live Report 6/12/09, Shinjuku Holiday: Chemical Pictures,

We had trouble from the get-go, all morning, into rehearsal, it was horrible and crazy and I was a very depressed, sad little guy, wandering around the building with the guys, apologizing to anyone and everyone who would lend an ear...

BUT I GUESS EVEN JUST OUR REHEARSAL WAS MIND-BLOWING because everything was smoothed out and everyone was like "psh jimi why you gotta worry". And most people just said, "well, if you feel the need to apologize, you can make it up to everyone by rocking the crap out of the crowd tonight."

...which was a beautiful sentiment, and just what I needed to hear. :)

J-mom Michika showed up, as did Ryo, Satsuki, and Shun from Rentrer en Soi... initially just to see their roadie's band play, but once they knew that I was playing, they stayed until the end of our set. That was way, way cool of them and they didn't even have to stay.

The other cool thing about this show was getting to hang out with the Yumeji/Kenji/Shunsuke/Maru/Tsukasa session guys!

Here's me and Maru. We became friends instantly. He had me take a bunch of polaroids for their merch table with him and Yumeji. Shunsuke has been setting up really cool events for us, and is a reassuringly laid-back guy. Kenji, formerly of Wyse and now in Virgil, has also become a fast friend.

And Yumeji, from Mello and Rhyolite. An utterly fantastic guy; everything he says to me, every piece of advice he gives to me, is just so... sagacious. Was definitely almost moved to tears at a coupla points, and that was just in normal conversation. The older brother I never had, without a doubt.

How nice to know I have people over here who insist I am their son/brother/cousin! :D

Their session opened with Pink Spider, a Rize song, Lips by Kat-tun, and some bis songs.

Also I got my first present from a fan! Or rather I should say a present from someone I didn't already know! Not that I don't appreciate those too! Just, felt like a little milestone, yanno? :-P

SETLIST
-Yodare Chaos into SE from homepage
1. Human Rubbish (a brighter song than the title would suggest! Visual pop rocks)
2. Präparat (quickly becoming the big CP song)
3. Walking Ashland (high-tempo countrified blues)
4. Suffering (punch-you-in-the-face metal)
5. I wanna get away (pop-punk chorus and a heavy crushing bridge)

Next one is at Cyber on Wednesday!

Steve Appleton Showcase

I'm cheating on CP today.

Tomas, JJ, Meev's drummer and I are supporting Steve Appleton at his showcase live tonight. We had a long, productive, fun rehearsal yesterday. Tomas is an amazing, amazing jazz guitarist, JJ is a brilliant rock keyboardist, Meev's drummer is disgustingly tight, and I'm just some punk kid from a little VK band. Also, Steve is a genius jazz pianist and no slouch on guitar either.

Should be fun!

Reunion

Why am I with JJ (drummer from 4 most recent Tommy videos and TV appearance with me) and Tomas (drummer from first 2 Tommy videos with me), and Miyavi's drummer?

All will be revealed tomorrow!

Magazine #2

I totally forgot to mention, but there's a long 2-page interview with Chemical Pictures in this month's issue of Alive...

("Alive" is part of Visualive who have been helping us out tons lately; good peeps. Also we have the cover of the next issue, shhhh :-*)

Live Reports-ish: Gossip, ...

Gossip had a one-day reunion show, and Chemical Pictures' current drummer, Masami, was their drummer, so after various separate errands, Schwarz, Joe, and myself met up at Shinjuku Holiday and made our way backstage. We had bought some drinks for the Gossip guys but we got there just as they were about to head onstage. We ran into Ryo and Shun from Rentrer en Soi, who remembered me and gave me warm greetings, and finally put two and two together that the gaijin in Chemical Pictures is me. (Both "gaijin in VK" and "that new Chemical Pictures band" are getting around pretty fast.) Joe's renewed presence in VK is also a blast from the past for a lot of fellow band dudes, and he seems to have a lot of old friends with a lot of catching up to do; Ryu from Administrator was one of them. Nice guy. Almost forgot; had a reunion with Yumeji too! (ex-Mello, ex-Rhyolite)

Gossip was fun. Hiro's pretty funny. Kaname and Schwarz briefly played together in the recent past so it was cool to meet him too. Masami was having a lot of fun; in the MC when he mentioned that he was drumming for CP, the 3 of us in the back almost, almost cheered but that woulda been annoying. :-P

Schwarz, clearly a non-believer in the concept of private property, decided to try on Masami's jacket. I still don't think he's noticed that my face is in the picture.

Afterward, Masaki called me up and wanted to chill some more, and he also knew Joe, so we went and said hello, and Schwarz and Joe headed back to their respective homes while Masaki and I had a very, very chill drinkin' time.

And that was that!

Banzai Butterfly

Just darling and dreamy!

I loved "Doko" and its video, and while I'm not often sold on Kaela's concepts, she does manage to look like she's having a lot of fun and cute to boot in "Banzai", which is a nice, fun song.




And then she surprised a friend at the friend's wedding party by coming out and performing this song impromptu for them. I like the melodies involved, and while I think the song could benefit from a sparser instrumentation, I think it works all around. :)

Askew 2: Elec-tric Boogaloo

If you go to Askew and download the 2nd issue, which you should because I am in it but also people way more interesting than me as well, then you might make a few people really happy, me for sure, but also the people who worked hard to put it together, to build it up from the dirt out of nothing like a primeval creator god;

just do it okay, sheesh

There are pretty pictures. There are pretty colors. There are pretty boys and girls. Also I'm sure, like, some of the fonts are pretty too, you weird font people.

(by "I am in it" I mean "I am in it because Chemical Pictures is in it", and Chemical Pictures is a band I am in)

And even if you buy a subscription this is way cheaper than trying to import a Japanese magazine and also easier because it is in the Queen's English. Heck, I have qualifications and I'd still rather read an English magazine!

QUIZ TIME
Q: what are you going to do right now?
A: i dunno, call a friend, see if they wanna go see-- WRONG! The answer is, download Askew #2.

oh my erm what also fanmail

Lots going on, hoping everything falls into place nicely. I'm not really a fan of having to, like... do things. In the band. That aren't related to just making music. OH WELL :D (i like you guys though)

Oh, so we have a fanmail address now!

〒163-0990
東京都新宿区西新宿2-3-1
新宿モノリスB1F
MBE120　「g-heart」内
ケミカルピクチャーズ　〇〇宛

※メンバー宛の郵便物には必ずメンバー名を記載してください。


163-0990
Tokyo-to Shinjuku-ku Nishi-Shinjuku 2-3-1
Shinjuku Monolith B1F
MBE120 "g-heart"
Chemical Pictures (member name)


Just in case anyone wants to be ridiculous (or awesome!) and pay high prices for overseas shipping. :-P