Good lord. Also, look for the video of 12 of these playing “Rydeen”.
Bent Pikachu Limited Edition (via Kaseo)
3 weeks agoA commenter on another of Shiina Ringo’s videos sums it up best: “God is a woman.”
I have the DVD of this and it blows the fucking roof off.
She’s playing live in November; I’m going even if I have to kill for tickets.
1 month agoUnsurprisingly, perhaps, it turns out that concentrating on recording and writing about it are not that compatible — there are so many things in flux that writing about them comes to seem a bit pointless. The dust needs to settle a bit. Blogging also takes up cycles that could better be used making the stuff.
So, what have I been doing (if you’re interested)? Furiously writing lyrics, learning to use the great-sounding but idiosyncratic MFB 503 drum machine, making time to lie down in the dark and listen to Shiina Ringo’s Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana and Scott Walker’s The Drift, realizing that vocals don’t really need reverb or delay on them, and rather enjoying the Tenori-on as a MIDI controller.
And with that, and half a new song (roughly) in the can this afternoon, I’m off for dinner.
1 month ago
This weekend marks the last bit of preparation. The mixing desk, keyboard stands and a load of colour-coded cables should turn up tomorrow lunchtime, at which point I break the studio down into its basic bits and reconstruct it in a more ergonomic way that doesn’t require me to plug things in every time I want to do something different.
Forcing yourself to write lyrics seems to pay off; I’ve got a good start on about five songs now, and I’ve hit that spot where fragments of things start to pop into my head here and there. I found myself humming a new phrase out of the blue at the ticket machine in a car park the other day, which hopefully will find its way into a song somewhere or other.
1 month agoCame across this on YouTube: Depeche Mode playing “Enjoy the Silence” on top of the World Trade Centre.
Bit of needless trivia: the first keyboard I ever owned was an E-Mu Emax that Depeche Mode used on the Music for the Masses tour. (This guy has one too; perhaps even the same one. Correction: I jumped to a conclusion; he’s a DM fan with an Emax, but it may not be one of theirs).
(via sodaspops)
1 month ago