26/11/2010

WEBSITE UPDATE


I updated my website, HAVE A BUTCHERS.

25/11/2010

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 100 OBJECTS


Fantastic BBC Radio 4 show on the 100 objects from The British Museum that played a significant part to the history of humankind. Each episode/object is around 15 minutes long.
DOWNLOADS PARTS 1 / 2 / 3

THE BEATLES - THE END


The Beatles Medley (side two to Abbey Road) is quite possibly my favourite piece of music off all time, in 22 minutes it encompasses everything I love about The Beatles, I think I've listened to it about 10 times already today.

THE BEATLES - THE END

The End in particular is a favourite for the solos, if you don't know the medley idea was Macca's and for 'The End' he wanted all 4 members to do a solo, Ringo's rather begrudging solo is at the start (20sec-35sec), which is then followed by Paul (54sec-59sec), George (59sec-1min 03) and John (1min 03 - 1min 06), which is then repeated twice more up until the "And, in the end, the love you take/ Is equal to the love you make." bit. What I love is that in those tiny solos you can get a clear sense of what each Beatle contributed, Paul with his bendy and bouncy style (like the way he wiggles his head when he talks), George all melodic and technical and John rhythmic and distorted.

SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY

24/11/2010

MR. INNERNETTE


That's it David.

15/11/2010

MOULD MAP 1


Jonathan Chandler, Massimiliano Bomba, Daniel Brereton, C.F., Colin Henderson, Matthew Lock & Leon Sadler all under one roof.

GOING PLACES


Friday 26th November at Visions.

13/11/2010

BAMBOO - GIVE ME SOME MORE OF THAT GOOJA


BAMBOO - GIVE ME SOME MORE OF THAT GOOJA

11/11/2010

PRODUCERS SERIES - BILL LASWELL


Great compilation of Material's Bill Laswell's best moments at TEST PRESSING.

DOWNLOAD

10/11/2010

JIRO'S TOP 50 BEACH BOYS SONGS

If I had to choose just 1 band or artist to listen to for the rest of my life it would be without doubt The Beach Boys, I could listen to those guy's beautiful harmonies all day long. There are a lot of SMiLE bootleg versions of songs here because in my opinion a lot of those versions are better, usually because they sound less polished compared to their later re-worked versions.

50 - AT MY WINDOW - SUNFLOWER


49 - LITTLE HONDA - ALL SUMMER LONG



48 - YOU'RE SO GOOD TO ME - SUMMER DAYS (AND SUMMER NIGHTS!!)


47 - BE HERE IN THE MORNING - FRIENDS


46 - HOLIDAY - SMILE (VIGOTONE)

Maybe just a mess around for SMiLE but something about it just makes me wish SMiLE was released.

45 - I WENT TO SLEEP - 20/20


44 - DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER - SURF'S UP



43 - SAIL ON SAILOR - HOLLAND


42 - FRIENDS - FRIENDS



41 - LET HIM RUN WILD - SUMMER DAYS (AND SUMMER NIGHTS!!)


40 - VEGETABLES - (SMILEY SMILE)


39 - GIRLS DON'T TELL ME - SUMMER DAYS (AND SUMMER NIGHTS!!)


38 - OUR SWEET LOVE - SUNFLOWER


37 - I'D LOVE JUST ONCE TO SEE YOU - WILD HONEY


36 - ALL I WANNA DO - SUNFLOWER


35 - WOULDN'T IT BE NICE - PET SOUNDS


34 - THE WOODSHOP SONG - SMILE (VIGOTONE)

I don't know why a song full of noises of nails being hammered and wood being sawn would sound good but it does here, another example of the playful and unusualness of the stuff being recorded on SMiLE.

33 - PASSING BY - FRIENDS


32 - ANNALEE, THE HEALER - FRIENDS


31 - WHISTLE IN - SMILEY SMILE


30 - CHILD IS THE FATHER OF MINE - SMILE (VIGOTONE)


29 - KISS ME BABY - THE BEACH BOYS TODAY


28 - I GET AROUND - ALL SUMMER LONG



27 - PLEASE LET ME WONDER - THE BEACH BOYS TODAY


26 - THE TRADER - HOLLAND


25 - BLUEBIRDS OVER THE MOUNTAIN - 20/20


I think this is the only cover on this list.

24 - WIND CHIMES - SMILE (VIGOTONE)

Like the rest of SMiLE, this version is a lot less polished than the Smiley Smile version.

23 - CAN'T WAIT TOO LONG - UNRELEASED

This song was never actually ever finished and ultimately never released on any albums other than as a bonus on later re-issues, no idea why, it's beautiful.

22 - CALIFORNIA GIRLS - SUMMER DAYS (AND SUMMER NIGHTS!!)



21 - BUSY DOIN' NOTHIN' - FRIENDS


20 - IN THE BACK OF MY MIND - THE BEACH BOYS TODAY


19 - LONELY SEA - SURFIN' USA



18 - YOUR SUMMER DREAM - SURFER GIRL


17 - AREN'T YOU GLAD - WILD HONEY


16 - SLOOP JOHN B - PET SOUNDS



15 - ALL SUMMER LONG - ALL SUMMER LONG


14 - HELP ME RHONDA - SUMMER DAYS (AND SUMMER NIGHTS!!)


13 - THE SURFER MOON - SURFER GIRL


12 - FEEL FLOW - SURF'S UP


11 - DON'T TALK (PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER) - PET SOUNDS


10 - GOOD VIBRATIONS - SMILEY SMILE



9 - LONG PROMISED ROAD - SURF'S UP


Carl's best song.

8 - OUR PRAYER - 20/20

Another SMiLE song that ended up somewhere else.

7 - IN MY ROOM - SURFER GIRL



6 - 'TIL I DIE (ALTERNATIVE VERSION) - SURF'S UP


5 - HEROES & VILLAINS - SMILE (VIGOTONE)

The thing with this song is that I don't think anyone other than Brian or Van Dyke Parks actually know how this was supposed to sound. The version on Smiley Smile is a nice pop song but there are elements in this Vigotone SMiLE version that make me believe that SMiLE really could have been the greatest album ever made.

4 - I JUST WASN'T MADE FOR THESE TIMES - PET SOUNDS


3 - SURF'S UP - SMILE (VIGOTONE)

Beach Boys Surf's Up
Uploaded by zoltard. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

The main reason I prefer this version over the Surf's Up version is it sounds a lot rawer and closer to the live performance Brian did which is my favourite version of this song.

2 - FOREVER - SUNFLOWER


Dennis showing he could write something just as beautiful as Brian.

1 - GOD ONLY KNOWS - PET SOUNDS

Not only the best Beach Boys song but in my opinion the greatest song of all time.

08/11/2010

06/11/2010

ROBERT WYATT - STALIN WASN'T STALLIN'


ROBERT WYATT - STALIN WASN'T STALLIN'

05/11/2010

DO AS THE CORNBEEFERS DO



PAMMIX009 - NOASAKI DJ - DO AS THE CORNBEEFERS DO

YAMANTAKA EYE INTERVIEW



I just had the honour of interviewing one of my heroes Yamantaka eYe for Vice to coincide with his performance at the ICA along with Soft Circle. Here's the unedited interview, thanks to Lena Oishi for translating.

Hello eYe, how's it hangin'? You're playing at the ICA with Soft Circle on 6th November and I can't wait - will this be very different to what you do with the Boredoms and your recent Boadrum shows? I know Hisham Bharoocha, who is one half of Soft Circle, had a big hand in organising the Boardrum shows in New York and LA with you and plays in them as well. He told me that when you 2 have played together in the past you formed some kind of duo named GaTax, is that what will be playing at the ICA?

We haven’t decided yet, but will probably be a primitive voice improvisation. GATAX was actually the name of our art exhibition. We won’t be performing as GATAX this time around, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless. 


As well as Hisham and Soft Circle you seem to collaborate a lot with people whether it be musically or with your art, I'm a huge Misha Hollenbach fan and recently saw you did a new t-shirt for his clothes label Perks & Mini who you have previously worked with producing a book of your art for PAM Books and remixing a video for his collective, The Changes. How did this and other collaborations come about, are they usually friends or do people often come up to you about collaborating?

I first met MISHA quite a long time ago, and I’m glad I was finally able to catch up with him again in Melbourne recently. With PAM, I always feel this extraordinary flow of energy, as if I’m standing in front of a waterfall. I often collaborate with friends but with other people too. For example, I collaborated with an elementary school from my local neighborhood.

The Boredoms' music has evolved heavily over the past 20+ years, it's still incredibly powerful although there seems to be a bit more order in all the chaos, is this just a natural progression of growing up or has it been a conscious decision to change?

I agree with your insight. I think that it also rings true if you replace the word “order” with “accuracy”. It’s like an email address; even one misplaced dot will prevent the email from being delivered. In Japan, we have a tradition called hatsumode where people visit a shrine in the new year. There are rules as to how many times you must clap your hands before praying. People can’t just be like “I’ll only clap once” or do it their own way, because you can’t get your feelings across to the other side if you do it differently. When we are able to acknowledge the chaos, we can find some sort of order there.

As well as the music you also often make very musically varied mixtapes which seem to keep that fun/spastic spirit of Boredoms' work. Like previous mixtapes (Live Mixxx, Cassette Acid Garage Punk and Planetary Natural Love Webbin' 199999) your recent one, Sky Size Sea, is pretty out there and unlike any other mixtape I've heard (other than your other ones), and in some ways it's quite commercial with Kate Bush, Yello, The Cars and Black Box, yet they still manage to have that chaotic feel you get with your own music. What's the process with these?

I’m amazed that you’ve heard SKY SIZE SEA. That’s awesome. Thank you! The concept behind the tapes is to use the kinds of records that are sold for 100 yen a piece at thrift stores along the highway, rather than those sold at normal record stores. I must admit I’ve used a few songs that don’t fit that description on occasion… but my idea was to create something that doesn’t represent a particular era, something like a thrift shop. Or like a random CD that came with a bunch of stuff that you bought at a jumble sale.

Could you tell us about the incident when all your artwork from a show in Tokyo was stolen, and what happened in the months afterwards. I remember reading about the culprits coming to your house and waiting hours outside before returning some of the work and apologising as well as giving you some gifts then stealing clothes from your clothes line when they left?! Also didn't the news reporting it at the time describe the Boredoms as a "charismatic dance band"?

I think the culprits were shocked when they saw footage of themselves stealing artwork from my show on TV. It was one evening in the summer, when there were fireworks going off, that these culprits sneaked into my house. I was surprised to see that they were wearing quite fashionable outfits and drove a fancy car. They apparently came to apologize, but they caught me by surprise for the second time when I saw them stealing clothes from my washing line and shoving them in their car before leaving. Plus, they were people who I had shaken hands with at the art opening. Anyway, I wonder how charismatic dance bands dance? Wait, I probably don’t want to know… Does that genre even exist? 



I saw a show of your artwork a couple years ago in London but as far as I'm aware that is the only show you've done in England recently. How come there haven't been more? I know you do all the artwork for the Boredoms' records but you have also created a huge body of other artwork in a variety of media. To me there is clearly a relationship with the styles in your music and your art, do they relate at all or do they work as separate pieces of work?

Obviously they are related; I have always placed equal importance on the music and the artwork of our records. Even 12 inches that didn’t have any artwork allowed me to enjoy them from a visual perspective. With everything being turned into data nowadays, the significance of music, and of course images, is shifting. I guess you could say that they are becoming a type of art that places utmost importance on the exchange of information, or sharing in general. I almost feel as if this movement can be described as a third Summer of Love. Yet the internet is only one of the many options that are available to us. Because we have access to the “innernet”, we can make a conscious choice of using the internet. 


When I saw the Boredoms perform their Boadrum a few months ago the first thing that struck me was how much it reminded me of being a little kid going to a Matsuri in Japan and hearing the Taiko drums. Is traditional Japanese music an influence on your work? To me the Taiko drums are such a strong part of Japan's identity and I loved that your performance reminded me of that.

I grew up in the town of Kokura in Kyushu Prefecture, which is famous for their traditional taiko drum performances during festivals. I played taiko drums when I was a kid too. I think I’m also influenced by gagaku (ancient Japanese court music), such as the Shinto flute melodies that you hear at noh performances and shrines, without knowing it. The Japanese taiko drums are adorned with studs around the edges, almost like the studs that punks wear as a fashion statement. I love scraping them with my drumstick. Japanese taiko drums have a sense of anarchy to them.

Are there any plans for future Boredoms releases, Super Roots 11?

We’re currently working on it. It won’t be finished for a while yet.

It's an honour to ask you these questions eYe and I really look forward to your show at the ICA.

Thanks!

VICE VERSION

04/11/2010

XCLUSIV - FOOLS ARE FRIENDLY


XCLUSIV - FOOLS ARE FRIENDLY


XCLUSIV - FOOLS ARE FRIENDLY (INSTRUMENTAL)

MASAYOSHI TAKANAKA - ILLUSION


MASAYOSHI TAKANAKA - ILLUSION

03/11/2010

PANTHER CLUB - THE BEGINNING PRINTS


JIRO BEVIS

COLIN HENDERSON

MICHAEL WILLIS

ESPEN FRIBERG

LINDSEY GOODEN

BENBO GEORGE

Glow in the dark A2 silkscreen prints for sale HERE.