naraxa

I wound up with an extra plot this year. I planted seeds and then carefully mulched the plot forgetting that's the fastest way to kill seedlings. But we were foiled at tilth! So now I have to come up with something else to plant. I already have lettuce, 1 tomato, basil and peas....

I must be the last person to get a hold of The Killer’s last album. These days it seems music acquisition is a concerted effort and I generally go out every two months or so and just pick up everything I’ve missed.  Seriously, the only I buy new on a regular basis is food. And usually only the fresh stuff, total failure to hit the farmer’s markets.

 

AKFG Fujisawa Loser single and assc. Surf Bungaku Kamakura Album - Really good. AKFG is back in force, being very AKFGぽい. Not quite as rocking as Kimi Tsunagi Five M, but close.  They have turned away from the coma of mellowness. It’s pretty similar to World^3 I think. More AKFG goodness. It’s sort of like trying to review an AnCafe album. It’s good. It’s not really all that different from the last one. Sadly the copy I have is damaged, so I’m not entirely sure I’m heard it all.

 

STRAIGHTENER singles Lightning and Little Miss Weekend - We used to have a game, back in the days of Dear Deadman and Sol-fa, called AKFG or Straightener? You pretty much had to have the two albums memorized to know the difference.  It wasn’t *too* hard since Dear Deadman was Awesome and Fanclub was really just a stopgap between Sol-fa and Feedback.  Anyway you can’t play that game any longer, the two have diverged.  Straightener has gone back to a slightly more experimental sound, and in these particular cases, a soft one. Lightening is quickly possibly my new favorite mellow song. Which is a feat, considering I hate all mellow songs.

 

UVERWorld singles 恋いしくて and 儚くも永久のカナシ - Not that great really. Their last album was as good as the one before, with the additional feature that it really held together as an album. Especially if you played it very loud, on a dark empty road. These singles while UVERish are more on the crappy over orchestrated Jpop side of things. Reminds me of the horrors I experienced when I heard violins in a Miyavi song. Violins! In VK! Bah.

 

Alice9  Vandalize album - Wow it sucks. I actually deleted this it was so bad. I remember when alice9 first came out and they were generally reviewed as ‘Another VK band’, but a P&S VK band which meant that at least he could sing, even if he sounds like everyone else. They came into their own after a while though, better than the surrounding junk (cough, Dangercrue, cough).  And then…. I think they ran out of ideas. It sounds like someone trying to play Cure songs as death metal.

 

The Killers Day&Age album - I am the last person I know to have heard this. Personally I feel really good about the fact that I’m listening to US music again. I place it in the Gaslight Anthem category. Absolutely Brilliant on the first five listens and then you never want to hear it again. Just go and get a copy anyway, you know you will.

SOFFet: New Standard (get info)-  Good. This is a fun album. Every song is a joint effort between SOFFet and some other (indie) act. I haven't liked a mix album this much since the last Ryukyu Disco with Beat Crusaders. Of particular smileyness is the Mongol800 song.

 

Yanawaraba: NagiUta - OK. Not nearly as strong as their first album. It's completely mellow background music, much less Okinawan.

 

Rise Against: Appeal to Reason- Very Good. Good enough to make me pick a number of their previous albums.  The Sufferer & The Witness was better, but this is a damn good punk/rock album in the Bad Religion vein.  Political bend.

 

Orange Range: Ura Shopping- Bad. I have liked Orange Range, but it's very spotty. This is (another) re-hash of a lot of their previous songs.

 

ONE OK ROCK: Beam of Light- OK. This was billed to me as an Ellegarden replacement, but they are really more on the pop side of things.

 

The Gaslight Anthem: The '59 Sound- Good. The songs do eventually get old, but that was after almost two weeks of continuous play.

 

Gabriella Cilmi: Lessons To Be Learned - Pretty Bad. I got this because she had a single on the St. Trinian's soundtrack, Sancutary, which I just love. Apparently that is the only decent song she's recorded. Got dropped by her label even. Good voice, just boring,  stupid songs.

 

Five Finger Death Punch: The Way Of The Fist - Good. Not really my style,  but an excellent Hard Rock/Metal album.

 

Alkaline Trio: Agony and Irony - Good. Oh can we hear the self-entitled/self-pitying whining any louder? But I love it so. Mellow for a punk band. Reminds me of how Violent Femmes was sort of mellow for the time. 

Pretty Good. I am generally ambivalentabout RipSlyme, but this one is good. Reminiscent of last summer's Orange Range IKA summer. Fun, with no real reason for it.

Pretty bad. I don't know why Remioromen has the following it does. It's like watered down AKFG. Avoid Avoid.

Pretty good - They've dropped a lot of the rap stuff lately, leaving that to bands I feel quite alright totally avoiding. I always come back to Orange Range. It's nothing that sticks really, but it's decent and fun. Wish I lived on a tropical island sometimes.

http://umechu.com/narinari/?p=6

pen and pencil, not fancy, but then I'm just trying to get Stuff Done

Okay seriously, I am so not on top of the scene any longer but this one is special.

Bad: I *liked* MusiQ and OrangeRange even more, but this? This single is why people mock Orange Range. It's terrible. Right up there with new Miyavi. bleah.

bounce bounce bounce

Seattlites get giddy in the sunshine and it was sunny Two days in a row. So lovely. Everyone's starting to come out of hibernation. Now if only I can get my window screens finished before the sun decides to invade my bedroom far, far too early.

There's a conspiracy with daylight savings I hear....

This is how I know my life has gotten out of hand:

1) I have no honey or black tea left in the house
2) I have to go to the roof to fold laundry because there are no flat surfaces left in my apartment
3) I've had the same 2 Non-Japanese albums on repeat for a month

Something must be done.