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Moby plays "Creep"
at Akasaka Britz |
| It's been a year since the September 11 terrorist attack in NY. On 9th and
10th, a native of NY, Moby played at Akasaka Britz in Tokyo as a Japan-tour for his latest album
"18". He sung "We Are All Made of Stars" after mentioning
the great tragedy. In the middle of the show, he said, " I really
love them but they refuse to sing this song, so I'm singing", then
played surprising "Creep" by Radiohead. He also covered Jimi Hendrix's masterpiece "Purple Haze". |
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The Go-Betweens played at Shibuya Club Quattro on 9th June
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9th June is Rock Day in Japan (not a national holiday, unfortunately).
Anyway, it was Go-Betweens' first Japan tour in their 25 years' career.
They played 'Streets Of Your Town', 'This Girl, Black Girl', 'Bye Bye Pride',
'Was There Anything I Could Do?' and so on but didn't play one of their
masterpieces 'Cattle And Cane'… Hopefully, next time, please!!!
http://www.go-betweens.net
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| MTV Music Video Awards Japan 2003 |
MTV Music Video Awards Japan 2003 was held at Saitama Super Arena on 25
May.
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Many celebrities attended including mega stars of Matrix, Keanu Reeves,
Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving together with Courtney Love, the gang
of Jackass, Craig David, Eve & Lisa Loeb etc… |
Lisa Loeb walked on red carpet with her favorite cat, Hello Kitty, hand
in hand. But it was obviously the high light of the evening when Keanu
Reeves appeared on red carpet. People were screaming for him but I was
screaming for Hugo Weaving in my mind. He is such a gorgeous guy and so
sexy!
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At the Awards, Courtney Love was a presenter for The Best Rock Video and
Red Hot Chili Peppers got the award. She said ' Sorry, they can't come
here because they are babysitting my daughter! '
The most astonishing was Jackass! They were presenters for The Best Album
Of The Year and a Japanese duo called Chemistry won honor. |
Jackass tried to embrace them but they looked so scared at Jackass… They
were just standing like a couple of stiffs. Hey Chemistry, Jackass
guys don't eat you, men! Anyway, it was classic! Chris Pontius from Jackass
wore a message T-Shirt, which read 'I like young boys' in Japanese…Oh,
dear…
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| Fuji Rock Festival and Summer Sonic 2003 |
Two big summer festivals in Japan, Fuji Rock Festival and Summersonic, have announced the first round of artists.
Fuji Rock Festival takes place at Naeba, Niigata on July 27 to 30. The price is 38,000 yen
for 3days. Audio Active, Bjork, Elvis Costello, G.Love & Special Sauce,
Coldplay, Electric Six, Iggy Pop, John, Squire, Mogwai, Prefuse 73, Primal
Scream, Steve Winwood, Underworld and Zwan have been confirmed.
http://www.smash-jpn.com
Summersonic will follow a week later at Makuhari Messe & Chiba Marine Stadium,
Chiba (near Tokyo Disneyland) on August 2 and 3. The ticket price is 23,000
yen for 2 days. The Army Of Freshmen, Blink182, Blondie, Blur, Buck-Tick,
Cheap Trick, The Datsuns, The Doors, Good Charlotte, John Spencer &
The Blues Explosion, Kings Of Leon, Mando Diao, Mew, New Found Glory, Placebo,
The Polyphonic Spree, Puddle Of Mudd, Radiohead, The Rapture, Rooney, Skin,
Starsailor, Stereophonics and The Strokes have been confirmed.The great
summer will come soon!!
http://www.creativeman.co.jp
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| Britney Spears Dances to The Kinks |
Top Pop icon, Britney Spears is on Japanese TV commercial for a drink called
G・G Tea. She cutely dances, jumps around and smiles in a lovely costume.
This commercial has two different versions and ‘All Day All of The Night’ by The Kinks and ‘Stay’ by Hollies are used. Good choice!
http://www.beverage.co.jp/ggtea/top.html
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| Sigur Ros Plays Church Live |
Sigur Ros are currently on tour in Japan, played at Shinagawa Church, Tokyo
on April 12.They were supposed to play there last winter for their promotion
but cancelled. Such an event in the church is very rare in Japan, and the
audience had to won the ticket by lot. One ticket of the event was sold
at Yahoo auction for 15,000 yen. Amazing…
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| Coldplay an open secret-live in Tokyo |
Coldplay played a one-off gig at Tokyo Liquid Room, 6th December. Fans flocked to get the rare tickets.
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| Number Girl split |
Number Girl, one of the most artistically influential noise rockers in
Japan announced its decision to split up last month.The bass player, Kentaro
Nakao wants to do his own music and decided to leave the band. They'd been
trying to extend their boundary by sheer willpower and tenacity, however,
they decided that there would be no Number Girl if he quit. Number Girl
worked with a fantastic experimental producer, Dave Fridmann and achieved
by far their best with him. They will finish their 7 years after the show
at Sapporo Penny Lane at the end of November.
Number Girl are:
Shutoku Mukai(Vo&G)
Hisako Tabuchi(G)
Kentaro Nakao(B)
Ahito Inazawa(Dr)
Hisako Tabuchi now plays in Bloodthirsty Butchers.
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| Music to Write Home About is on Channel 4 again |
This documentary, filmed by Shane O'sullivan at Leeds Festival 2000, was
repeated on 19 September at 1.25 am. It broadcast between Primal Scream's
new video and the MTV Music Awards. The documentary is about our life for
music and wonderful people includes Mr. Simon Williams, The king of Fierce
Panda label (you know, he's released so many fantastic one off singles
like Coldplay, The Music, Hundred Reasons and so on), and the Texas typhoon,
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Anyway, sorry for my stupidity
and I admit I'm still head-banging. (Utayo Furukuni)
Time Out comments;
It's the usual mixed bag but highlight for us has to be Music to Write Home About (on at 1.25am), a doc about two Japanese music journalists who refuse
to write bad reviews, choosing instead to only write about people they
like. Ah, we wish.
AH, WE WISH TOO
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| Hollywood stars are willing to be in Japanese TV commercials |
Nicholas Cage, Oscar-winning Hollywood star of "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Face Off", appears in a TV commercial in Japan for a pachinko company, Sankyo. He shouts "Pachinko! Pachinko!" while playing the piano in a gorgeous room.....His acting is superb, but the thing is, why pachinko? Well, I don't know how much the pachinko company paid for it...Maybe, over 50 million yen? Wow, it's an adorable job, isn't it?
Another Hollywood icon, Brad Pitt, husband of "Friends" actress,
Jennifer Aniston, appears in a Japanese commercial too. He looks so shabby
with beard, standing somewhere and looking for something... I don't get
the point. Well, this time it's for one of the loan sharks that pretend
to be a finance company. Again, I wonder how much the company paid to Mr.
Fight Club... I think he should choose good one...like Edwin Jeans...No?
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| We went to a small pub, named Psychedelic Bar Ganja, after the Lips show at Quattro. It is a den, rather than a pub, and they
had "The Flaming Lips Night" there. The owner (everyone calls
him Tetsujin-san; a homophone of an ironman and a man of wisdom in Japanese) really loves
the Lips and played only their songs all through the night! How cool! Fantastic!
Singing along! Get pissed! Cheers mate! |
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