The Blog Thread

[Nola D]

NEW POSTS: http://www.onetimeforyamind.com/

[Mr Q]

http://qthetrainsofthought.wordpress.com/

[manuel]

www.sos-music.co.uk/

Having a last push for some new followers. Starting to get noticed by a lot of bands/record labels/PR sending me stuff but still dont have many followers so I guess quite a lot of people don't get in touch thinking my blog isnt that popular.

Would really appreciate anyone with a Google, Twitter, Yahoo, AIM, Netlog or Open ID account to click follow on the right hand side

Got a blog and Ill return the favour.

[Guest FA23]

any of you bloggers wanna contribute to the http://vip2.tumblr.com ?

holla.

[Guest Supreme Allah]

http://crazyniggershit.wordpress.com/

[Guest Esquilax]

Piece I did for a magazine, feedback appreciated

Will post in spoilers cuz it's 800+ words (not that long to read though)

Indie.

What does it mean to you? What images, or sounds, are conjured in your head when you hear that word? Does your memory hark back to the days when indie meant indie, something unknown, independent, something on the very sharpest edge of the music of the day? Or, rather, an egregious cavalcade of middle-of-the-road, teen-friendly, ubiquitous and dreadfully samey bands, churning out the next pop-rock hit du jour before falling down the bottomless chasm of obscurity?

Indie is different in Japan, inherently. Their culture is vastly different to ours in the West, and this doesn’t end with the music. The more incredulous side of it, like the 56-membered all girl pop group AKB48, or perhaps Versailles, the power metal band who dress like 18th century French dandies. But the more serious side, where the ‘real’ music is, has always been a shining beacon of great musicianship and consistent quality. The reason for this is Japan’s fixation, its obsession, with Jazz music.

When the mainstream popularity of Jazz music became more prevalent in the 1920’s, the most popular musicians would tour the world, and introduce them to the new sound. The artists were mainly American, but there was some Filipino influence also (they’d in turn been influenced by the heavy military presence in the Philippines at the time). As popularity gained, with places like Osaka having plenty of venues to accommodate the new craze, Japans own home-grown standout musicians began to emerge, the first of which was trumpeter Fumio Nanri, his name later becoming the title of a Japanese Jazz award. Nanri was admired in all corners of the Jazz world, which was still in its relative infancy. Legendary American trumpeter Louis Armstrong dubbed him the ‘Satchmo of Japan’.

Concurrent with their history of imperialistic control, the elite among the Japanese social and political ranks were wary of this new music, scared even. This culminated in the Osaka municipal officials issuing ordinances that forced closure on their many dance clubs. Perhaps as a result of this, many young Jazz fans turned on to the burgeoning Tokyo Jazz scene, some getting work at record labels, others joining Jazz orchestras themselves.

The scene faced difficulty during the Second World War, as Jazz was dubbed a music of ‘the enemy’ (even though efforts were made by artists to easternise the music by adding a Japanese folk element) and subsequently banned. But the love for the music was too strong, and proved impossible to completely eradicate, so it continued under a new name, ‘light music’.

Naturally, when the allied forces occupied Japan after the Second World War ended, their yearning to hear music from home gave Japanese Jazz a new spark, almost a new lease of life.

So what of its influence in contemporary times? And what place does it have in the supposed new indie sound of today?

Jazz is one of those genres. It’s something that most people will avoid, because it is at its roots a complex and difficult music. The instrumentation is furiously complicated, and the length, and, usually, the depth of the music is too much for today’s welter weight listener, without sounding too conceited of course.

So, again, where is its place? It lives on exactly where it began, in a way. Newer bands are harnessing the complicated grooves, melodies, harmonies etcetera, but transforming them into modern sounding music, a more aggressive and punctual style, usually played by a four-piece band.

Intricacy and technical prowess has been an ever-present goal for Japanese musicians, sometimes, undoubtedly, at the expense of the soul. But these new bands holding the torch achieve that without sacrificing the emotion. Taking influence from prominent fusion bands like Casiopea, the modern sound is very much that of traditional Jazz put through a grinder. Bands like LITE, a four piece instrumental math rock group from Tokyo, use Jazz as a backdrop behind heavy resonant drums and mind bending bass licks. In contrast, artists like Mouse On The Keys adopt the Jazz style more fervently, their song Completed Nihilism incorporating pretty piano sections, but losing none of the freneticism that made Jazz such an appealing thing in the first place.

Its revival lies in its compromise. It draws not only from jazz but also the wealth of material that has been released since Jazz’ heyday in the 20’s- 50’s. Toe and Nenem for instance retain the loungey, jazzy chord progressions, but with a mountain of other influences picked up, giving it a fairly avant garde sound.

And the crowd are young. Teenagers going to Jazz gigs, dancing madly and enjoying the music. It’s popularity a blend of the easily accessible and the appreciation of depth.

Tokyo buzzes constantly, like a hornet trapped in a jar. It is a city of opportunity for music, with music bars lining many streets, encouraging you to go in and try your hand at it – when was the last time you saw that in London? The brightness is encouraging, and the people are friendly and accommodating. Is there anywhere else, then, that such a warm music could have struck such a chord with the people? I can think of nowhere more appropriate, and I challenge you to do the same.

Also no need to point out grammar errors I already know about those

[Trilliam]

I liked it, interesting angle and well written. You're a good writer and maybe it shows too much in that first paragraph, bit of a word salad, but you showed more restraint as the piece progresses, which works in it's favour.

Would take these out.

Concurrent with their history of imperialistic control

without sounding too conceited of course

Good job.

[Mr Q]

It is well written. Do agree with Trill, on the first paragraph. But perhaps that is exactly how you wanted to begin it.

I didn't know any of that, so it was a nice little read.

Not sure why, but ending it on, 'I challenge you to do the same', feels a bit...odd. As if you're closing a debate or something. It could just be because I'm tired, but yeah.

But otherwise, good stuff once again Joseph.

[Guest Esquilax]

Cheers lads

Will be changing the 'conceited' line cuz it's sh*t

The challenge bit is just to emphasise my point, not to spark debate/ be up front, but I could see how you could see it like that

Opening para will stay the same I think, it's a bit wordy but all the words I used are necessary IMO

[Nola D]

www.sos-music.co.uk/

Having a last push for some new followers. Starting to get noticed by a lot of bands/record labels/PR sending me stuff but still dont have many followers so I guess quite a lot of people don't get in touch thinking my blog isnt that popular.

Would really appreciate anyone with a Google, Twitter, Yahoo, AIM, Netlog or Open ID account to click follow on. the right hand side

Got a blog and Ill return the favour.

Yh tbh i want some more followers, the blog needs a change up tho * back to the drawing board*

[Flojo]

New blog post http://bit.ly/jXNItB - Vinyl nostalgia inspired design 'Vinyl Crackle'

[Trilliam]

ohseen.tumblr.com

alright this is my actual blog blog.

IRL

[Guest Esquilax]

How you gonna name drop Becky Liu though

f*ck*ng hard partying slagbucket

[Trilliam]

lmfao, maya jane coles was baitly a scene girl, her and becky have pictures in that quintessential pose.

[Guest Esquilax]

Disgusting

Did she go to Plumstead Manor like all the other wronguns? Can't even remember

[Trilliam]

nah she was in my school

[JGGB]

http://lookdwn.blogspot.com

[Guest Esquilax]

http://thethemehospital.blogspot.com/2011/07/lil-b-im-gay.html

[JGGB]

http://alishyne.blogspot.com/

http://truetosound.net/

http://diamondgeyser.blogspot.com

http://nicksayswhat.co.uk

[Captain Planet]

I'm going to post all my work in this site so hopefully I don't spam the forum with topics that nobody even goes into

I've been covering the US Debt crisis of late, here are a couple articles, please take a second share among your friends on FB and Twitter if you found anything interesting.

http://www.nupemag.com/red-white-and-bankrupt

The other day whilst curiously scrolling through the ‘Recent Updates’ section on my Blackberry Messenger (as you do) I happened across a crude question ‘does money even exist any more?’

At first you would think of it as a silly question ‘of course it does’ you ping, waiting for the reply which cues your chance to play the faux-teacher and flaunt all your economic authority until all you see is a tick and an R above it as your student has had enough of being patronized.

http://www.nupemag.com/us-debt-dissected

As we speak the Republicans and the Democrats are undoubtedly jousting with each other in Washington as they attempt to forge a deal that would prevent the default of the United States, global markets are down in light of the recent uncertainty and

.

Thanks to the kind folks at the White House we have a rough map of what the vast majority of the US debt is made up and to whom it may be attributed to, lets take a look.

[Esquilax]

Wanna read about me getting parred by girls again?

http://rapandbullshit.tumblr.com/

New blog, new stylez, keeping it fresh yasimme?

[Trilliam]

Rap?

[Esquilax]

...?

[Dubby]

lol, the size of that post shits on everything tumblr resembles

[Trilliam]

whatchu know about rap u slag, nice post