April already. The year is moving fast and I’m already looking way ahead through 2013. It seems in the end I’ll be attending Indietracks once again, supporting the many Cloudberry bands that are playing as well as the whole festival. It will be my fourth one! Clearly, I must like going there a lot even though I complain about a thing or another. But it’s true, it’s as close to perfection when it comes to indie festivals. Now, if they can please book The Brilliant Corners?!
Then later in November I’m going to be visiting Peru. Not so sure what’s the plan there. Perhaps I end up doing some tourism too. I’ll be there for the Thanksgiving week. Probably it’s too late to go to Cuzco at that time, it’s the rainy season I believe. But perhaps I can go to the Amazon? I wouldn’t mind looking at monkeys in the wild and eating exotic dishes!
Also I’m hoping to go at the end of the month to Boston. Just because. I’ve never been. It’s close. And I want to see their record shops. Just for a weekend. Any recommendations are welcome, especially for local seafood. I would love some lobster!
Yesterday night I had a good time at Glasslands watching Sea Lions and Golden Grrrls. I missed the first band of the four band line-up, and the second was quite terrible. The highlight of the night were Sea Lions. Even though they made many mistakes and forgot some of their songs, what they played was really fantastic. I reckon this size of venue is perfect for them, much better than the other times I’ve seen them. They sounded powerful and Adrian’s guitar was frantic, almost Wedding Present like. Their crashing-jangle songs sounded huge. I liked it a lot. And will definitely attend their second show in NYC in this tour on Monday at the Cake Shop.
Golden Grrrls are good, and I bought a bunch of their records. Still my favourite song of theirs is their cover of Look Blue Go Purple. They are fun band to see though this time they didn’t have that energy I’ve seen in them before at Madrid Popfest where they were such a happy surprise for me as I’ve never heard about them before that day . I also noticed that this time the vocals of the drummer were a bit low and hard to listen at some points. Maybe they were a bit jetlagged. I don’t blame them. Monday I’ll see them again.
Let me tell you some news today too. We have a release date for the Tripping the Light Fantastic 7″. It is April 15. Okay, now that you marked your calendar and pre-ordered the record, I can confirm too that a new stock of t-shirts is on the way, the fanzine is finished, and there is a new series of CD albums coming out very soon. This time new albums, not retrospectives. More news on this probably next week. Just be patient!
This week is a short post, been a bit busy working on so many different things for the label. I’m also putting together a Bandcamp were I want to have at least the 100 3″CD singles of the original series for streaming. That’s a project for the next couple of months. It will be very time-consuming I can tell.
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Dorotheanthus bellidiformis (Livingstone daisy) is a species of flowering plant in the family Aizoaceae, native to the Cape Peninsula in South Africa, where it is known as Bokbaaivygie. It is a low-growing succulent annual growing to 25 cm (10 in), and much cultivated for its iridescent, many-petalled, daisy-like blooms in shades of white, yellow, orange, cream, pink and crimson. In temperate areas it must be grown as a half-hardy annual, and lends itself to mass plantings or as edging plants in summer bedding schemes in parks and gardens. It is still widely referenced under its former name, Mesembryanthemum criniflorum. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
Some days ago I got the first album by Livingstone Daisy, “33 Minutes Before the Light”. You probably haven’t heard about this band. It’s ok. It’s a Japan only release, but I’m going to recommend getting it.
Sure you don’t understand Japanese. But does that matter? Can’t you enjoy a beautiful record anyways?
Livingstone Daisy is the new project by Hideshi Hachino who used to front the wonderful 90s indiepop band B-flower. Maybe you are familiar with them. If not I suggest checking the interview we did in the blog some time ago. Though be ready that this record is quite a bit different to his previous band.
There are similar things of course, the fragile vocals are still there, that hasn’t changed a bit. Heartfelt sounds. The music made by Sakana Hosomi, who has released many records as Maju, blends perfectly with the lyrics and vocals of Hideshi. It’s all about the aesthetics here. Everything carefully put together, like a tiny puzzle, where every piece falls in the right place.
Could the name, the poetic name of the band, mean something. I like to think so. If livingstone daisies, as flowers, are what represent fragility, this record is a good example of that. It feels fragile, something you could only touch softly, and thus, listening to it at high volume could be a terrible idea. Because the music is soothing I find it very brave to even make this kind of music today. It’s clear that Hideshi is not re-inventing the wheel here, but he is just making a very honest record that even for me, that I don’t understand Japanese, I can tell this is a passionate and sincere record. Just by having a listen to it’s 33 minutes and 48 seconds. To it’s 10 songs.
For this record Hideshi also counted with his old partner at B-Flower, Wataru Okabe, to play drums and doing some backing vocals. While Sakana contributed by playing all other instruments, doing vocals, and even engineering the record.
It’s a very welcome comeback for one of Japan’s most beloved indiepop artists. It was in 2000 when he stopped B-flower after 8 albums only to return in November 2010 to release the debut single of their new project Livingstone Daisy, “This World of Sorrow”. Since that moment the album started to take shape, little by little, and they finally decided to put this record out on their own Seed Records. Being this their seventh reference (the first one, was the first single by B-flower back in 1990!).
The record is available in Amazon Japan, HMV Japan and also on the Sugarfrost mailorder record store. For those of us English speakers the Sugarfrost site might be the best option. Akiko is in charge of it and she’ll take care of you in the best way possible.
Like the press sheet of the record says, “Like how William Eggleston captured the scenes from dull everyday life of 1970s America, Livingstone Daisy recreate in their music the anticlimactic moments of unglamorous Japanese life in 2010s.”, this record is for those who like a bit of melancholy in their music, for those passionate enough that don’t need to blow up their speakers, it’s for those who can appreciate elegance.
It’s another beautiful effort by Hideshi Hachino, if you are looking for something that is not throwaway, that has some worth, feeling and value, “33 Minutes Before the Light” is your record.
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