Brian

Alright. Back to square one?

Let go letgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgoletgo

Today I shook Sinbad's hand.

So yeah, i'm just hanging out and kickin it here in SF until school starts.

I'm very excited though because I will be working at the Macworld Expo (annual trade show for everything related to Macintosh/Apple) at the Moscone Center donwtown all next week. My first real job!

I'm working for this company called Intego Software that does computer security products. I'll basically be demonstrating their products to people coming into the booth, and trying to sell them. I'm a bit nervous cause i've never done anything sales related, but it should be fun and a learning experience, plus a good thing to put on my resume to search for a more permanent job. Pay is pretty sweet too, $13/hour plus $10 for lunch everday and a $150 bonus if we meet our sales goal. One of the company guys even mentioned we might get to keep the imacs they are using for the booth if we meet our goal. Awesome! That's the good work of craigslist for ya!

Anyway, tonight looks to be a great night for trash tv debuts. "I Love New York" premiere at 9pm, and the new White Rapper show premiere right after. Can't wait!!

R.I.P =(



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061225/ap_on_en_mu/obit_brown


Aside from that, I hope all of you have a spectacular Christmas/Holiday/Break!!

One of the perks of pulling an all-nighter to do homework.

Architecture in Helsinki, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, and Takka Takka at The Warfield last night. It was a blast!

Takka Takka, from New York, opened the night with some decent, but mostly forgettable indie pop/rock. It was a shame that when Architecture In Helsinki came on that the balcony levels were only a little above half full with many people apparently waiting until Clap Your Hands Yeah came on.

It was their loss because Architecture were twee as fuck, playing some amazing renditions of their best songs from "In Case We Die", many times including extended instrumental outros that would segway seamlessly into the next song. They also played about 4 or 5 new songs, all of which sounded amazing; can't wait for the new album guys. What was great was that each of them looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Frontman Cameron Bird spastically danced around the stage, and every member had played at least 3 different instruments by the end of the set.

Towards the end, since it was friday the 13th, they dimmed the whole theater with red lights, played some ominous organ chords, and proceeded to break superstitions by smashing a mirror and opening an umbrella on stage. Adorable! Unfortunely they didn't get an encore since Clap Your Hands were the main headliner.

Took them forever to set up, but CYHSY finally started. By now the place was packed with surprisingly enthusiastic and rowdy CYHSY fans. I went to this concert mostly for AIH, but Clap Your Hands did put on a pretty good show including some really cool lighting effects that went along with the music. About halfway through the set they turned off the theater lights and *poof*, turns out all their amps and instruments are decorated with christmas lights. How cute.

On the first song of the encore all the members of AIH came out and danced around the stage while playing auxiliary percussion and about 4 people climbed up on the stage and joined in before being pulled away by security. Anyway, it was a really fun show despite being up in the balcony.

Don't you love those moments of music-induced nostalgia?

Right now i'm listening to Death Cab for the first time in months and just reveling in the memories i've attached to them from high school. I think for the first time since leaving I am homesick. It's not really a bad homesick though, it's more of an appreciation for an old part of my life passed, and a full realization that a new phase has begun.

I think a lot of times even the "bad" parts of life are great, given enough time has passed since a "bad" part that is. But I personally love them.

One thing I really really miss: playing music in a group. Sure I can practice drums by myself as much as I want, but it's obviuosly not the same as playing in a group or playing live. I've jammed with Angel (keyboard player in our building) a few times, but I think I will explode if I don't start having a more regular creative outlet other than just my practicing drums. What ever happened to Yeah Catullus? We were so good. Mark, get yo ass over here and let's make some tunes!

I think i'll also try my hand in songwriting. I'm sure I won't be very good at first, but the ideas in my head have slowly gotten better and better over the past few months, and i'm learning piano now (college class) so that will help.

Miss you guys <3

Yea... so who wants to go to Austria with me?



Possibly live there for a few months ever.

Check out more of the loveliness (from this guy's recent trip) here: http://kottke.org/photos/austria0906/index_1.html

So, went to "Bottom of the Hill" over in Potrero to see Tatsuya Yoshida from Ruins and Atsushi Tsuyama & Makoto Kawabta from Acid Mother's Temple perform as seven different ensembles. Hands down the best concert i've been to in my life, hands down! I think it was the best concert anyone has ever been to, anywhere.

We got there at about 9:20 only to find that it was sold out, which crushed me until I saw Tatsuya Yoshida (ruins drummer) walk RIGHT past me! So I walked up to him and he autographed my Acid Mother's Temple SWR CD. He seemed kind of stand-offish but I think he just wanted to chill for a bit outside. I decided to stay to see if I could at least hear from the outside. Waited there for about 40 minutes until someone asked if anyone needed an extra ticket. It came down to rock-paper-scissors match between me and another guy for who would get the ticket and I WON! Fuck yea.

First up was "SEIKAZOKU" featuring all three members and was basically a crazy psychedelic freakout session in which I had approximately 52 orgasms. At one point Makoto Kawabata was playing the violin with one hand (held in place by his neck) and guitar with the other hand and it didn't sound overdone at all, it sounded fucking amazing.

"AKATEN" was next with Tatsuya and Atsushi. They did all sorts of crazy shit like putting microphones hooked up to synthesizers on the zippers of their jackets and then playing them while messing with the effects, making it sound like two guitars. Other highlights include a cover of "Stairway to Heaven" in Mongolian chant style during "ZOFFY", some truly amazing a capella during "ZUBI ZAVA X", "RUINS ALONE" in which Tatsuya played along with the RUINS bass tracks to a perfect precision, and finally "Acid Mother's Temple SWR".



Basically throughout the whole thing your jaw is dropped to the floor and wondering how people could possibly be that good at their instruments. There really wasn't a dull moment. The other great thing is that they all had wonderful chemistry on stage and were just generally hilarious, especially during the more mellow acts.

Had a bit of trouble getting home and it took me at least 2 hours but it was a fun adventure and I stopped at a late night mexican place for a quesedilla.

So we went down to the Sleep Train Ampitheater in Marysville for the largest concentration of white trash and overly-tattoed people I have ever seen. It was worth it to see Dir en grey again though. Met up with Cameron and waited in the hot sun with him while some band called 10 Years played. Diru finally started getting set up so we moved up to the front of the lawn along with a surprising number of Dir en grey fans (guess all the people from the bay area came up).

Anyway, they played a pretty solid set including a great version of the new single "Ryoujoku no Ame" that sounded even better than on record, two other new songs I hadn't heard before, and most of the usual stage antics. Kaoru even busted out with some guitar heroics on one fo the songs from Vulgar. Really wasn't the same as seeing them up close at the Wiltern in LA earlier this year, as we basically needed binoculars to see much from all the way back in the lawn. The sound was pretty crappy as well since it's this huge ampitheater, so it made them sound really jumbled, muddy, and you couldn't hear many details. Basically Dir en grey's live set is really geared more towards smaller live venues and people who are already fans. If I hadn't heard them before today and was at the Family Values Tour I probably would have thought they were pretty mediocore, what with kyo's skipping verses and general live approach.

What was really cool was that if you bought a Dir en grey CD from the FYE booth you got a wristband that let you participate in the meet & greet after the concert. Holy shit! So of course I shelled the $18 for a single (yeah, fucking Japanese prices) and we rushed in line right after Diru's set. Die (guitar) and Shinya (drums) came out to the table looking like fucking rock gods and we got to shake their hands (they don't do signings) for about 1 sec. Even so, it was fucking awesome, Die had a big grin on his face throughout the whole thing and when he shook my hand he pointed to my shirt (an old Diru Blitz 5 Days shirt) and said something like "that's us" in english which made me happy. Die seems like he'd be really fun to hang out with. I don't remember much about shaking Shinya's hand except that he looked slightly akward, as if I were in front of him too long or something. It was a great moment though, him being one of my favorite drummers, an idol, and a huge inspiration. I told him "thank you" and that was it. We watched them walk back to their tour bus and cheered along with everyone else.

Didn't get a chance to take any good pics cause my camera was having lens trouble but here is a cool one from the Denver live.



And I have to post this one of Shinya too cause he rocks.



Leaving for San Francisco again tomorrow, this time for good, bye all.

"Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th Street
San Francisco, California 94107

Friday September 8
10:00 pm (doors at 8:30)
$10
(all ages)

Japanese New Music Festival
The Ruins and Acid Mothers Temple will play individually and together as 7 acts.

Ruins
Acid Mothers Temple
-ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE SWR (tsuyama/yoshida/kawabata)
-AKATEN (tsuyama/yoshida)
-RUINS ALONE (yoshida)
-ZOFFY (tsuyama/kawabata)
-ZUBI ZUVA X (tsuyama/yoshida/kawabata)
-SEIKAZOKU (tsuyama/yoshida/kawabata)
-SHRINP WARK (yoshida/kawabata)

ZUBI ZUVA X (Yoshida/Tsuyama/Kawabata)
Eccentric poly-rhythmic a cappella ensemble. It covers from Gregorian
chant to ethnic music, to do-wop to hardcore screaming, heavily using
irregular rhythms and polyrhythm. All sorts of ideas and aberrant
musicality overturn the image of a cappella. their totally
meaningless lyrics and desperate performances throw the audiences
into the abyss of the laughter and admiration. it makes the concept
of "singing ability"nonsense.

AKATEN (Tsuyama/Yoshida)
Formed in 1995 with the motto of "irresponsibleness" and
"perfunctoriness." They easily free themselves from the spell of the
traditional seriousness of the art. Using daily commodities like
scissors, toothbrush, zipper, camera, and plastic bottle as
percussions, and shouting their brand names over and over as the
"songs," the show is performed under the concept of low cost and
maximum sound effect. AKATEN is the experimental convenience store
punk band that provides the sound images of cheap and simple daily
lives.

RUINS ALONE (Yoshida)
RUINS is pioneer of Drum & Bass duo. Tunes are complicated and
mysterious, and songs are sung in the language of their own
invention. It's high-tension, wild, heavy, speedy, acute, and
powerful tremendous ensemble never sounds like they are only two
players. since last bassist left Yoshida still seeking a bassist and
currently he has been playing as RUINS ALONE. playing RUINS songs
with sampling bass. this time Yoshida will play songs from Koenji
Hyakkei and Korekyojinn too.

ZOFFY (Tsuyama/Kawabata)
Formed in 1998. Zoffy's music hints both at the members' deep musical
knowledge via their improvised performances of troubadour music and
European trad, and also at their deep love for rock via their
destructivist covers of classic rock songs, that
no longer sounds like anything but ZOFFY. The group believes
that humor is essential in music, and their unprecedented
performances stray far from the beaten track. Is this the Ultima
Thule that rock music has long been aiming for?

SHRINP WARK (Kawabata/Yoshida)
A new improvising duo consisting of Yoshida from Ruins and Kawabata
from AMT. group inspired by This Heat and band name taken from their
song "Shrink Wrap". Cosmic chemical reaction sound that embraces a
multidimensional chaos based upon the principles of minimalism, an
anarchistic warping of the time axis, and ultra-accelerated revolving
of time particles.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE SWR (Kawabata/Tsuyama/Yoshida)
Acid Mothers Temple have rapidly become acclaimed as the greatest,
most extreme trip psychedelic group in the world. Releases have
appeared on labels around the world at an amazing pace, and the
magnificence of their live performances is already being whispered of
as legendary. SWR is the AMT Family's most powerful battle-formation
yet. featuring Tsuyama and Kawabata from the original AMT and
Yoshida from Ruins. their crushingly acute freakout sound will
pulverize the world's legions of wannabe psych groups.

SEIKAZOKU (Kawabata/Tsuyama/Yoshida)
Formed in 1996. The expansive musicality of the group, which
nonchalantly references classic prog and rock, ethnic music, jazz and
contemporary composition, is backed up the three members' impressive
backgrounds and the depth of their musical knowledge. Improvised
music for holy trinity heresy that runs the full gamut of ethnic and
electric instruments, primitive stupidity, the suspicious stench of
medieval alchemy, the raw power of early rock music, all leavened
with a pinch of cosmic incoherency."



If that doesn't sound like a good time then I truly don't know what does (just read those descriptions!). For those of you that need a little re-fresher on your knowledge of the experimental music scene of Japan, Ruins (drum/bass duo) is basically the main project of Tatsuya Yoshida, one of the greatest and drummers alive, featuring highly calculated and intricate rhyhms mixed with spastic sections of vocals in a made up language and beatboxing. It's really one of the weirdest things you'll ever hear. Acid Mothers Temple are a Psychedelic/Experimental rock collective known to be mistaken for a religious cult, nuff said.

To combine the two, and break up into all the little groups (what a great idea!), makes this potentially the most amazing and unique show EVER (ok, well at least that I will have been to, cause ya know, i'm going). I mean, Tatsuya Yoshida playing with scissors! I'm IN!

Matmos October 8th and Xiu Xiu November 10th as well, so it's like, experimental season coming up for me. Woot!

I'm also done with that little thing called High School now. Today was my last day. Yup.

It was

1:02:03
04/05/06

Like.. two minutes ago..

Yesterday, was pretty cool. Yeah Catullus practiced and for some reason we really connected more so than usual and had what was probably our best practice yet. One of those practices where you're just like "damn, playing music is the best thing in the world." Who knows, maybe we were all inspired by the lives we went to thursday (me to Dir en grey, them to Death Cab/Franz), or maybe we are just becoming more comfortable with eachother. Whatever the case, it was awesome and I love being in YC.

I also found out that my friends valiantly defended an attack on my reputation while I was gone. Ok, well it's not quite as dramatic as it sounds. But really, it warms my heart to know that I have friends who will defend my like that. You guys rock, I love you guys <3 ^_^.

Lastly, everyone be sure to come out to the Yeah Catullus show this Friday, March 31st, at The Underground (2401 Olympus Drive, Roseville, CA 95661)! Cover charge is $8, and show starts at 8pm. We are headlining the show, so we will be playing last if you want to come a bit later. Also, it is the same day as my birthday so that should give you extra reason to come, xD.

3/23/06 - Dir en grey @ Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, CA

Phew, what an experience. Everything from complete excitement and esctaticness to complete exhaustion and sickness. And waiting, lots and lots of waiting. Anyway, on with the ( Live Report )

Was eating lunch peacefully today after I got home from school and all of the sudden I hear multiple sonic booms sounding REALLY close by. Ran outside to find two F/A-18 Hornets from the Blue Angels circling my house. What a pleasant surprise! They circled around twice and then headed south along the river, and were flying low and close enough to where I could clearly see the Blue Angels paint job.



They didn't do any manuevers or stunts or anything, but my little boy fascination with planes was awakened for a short while :D!

After some research it appears they are doing shows in Sacramento from the 18th-19th, so they must have just been practicing for that.

*EDIT* They just came back again!!! This time 4 of them. They literally flew RIGHT above my house, like I could see the writing on the plane and the pilot!!! So fucking cool!!! xD :D /dork

They circled and flew around for about 5 minutes then they left again, we'll see if they come back.

Chick Corea & Touchstone @ Mondavi Center, 3/14/06



Saw Jazz/Fusion great Chick Corea & Touchstone tonight at the Mondavi Center for a self-proclaimed "flamenco jazz" concert. Was worried at first but it turned out to be an amazing concert and one of the best i've seen at Mondavi.

The first few songs felt pretty uninspired and lacked a direction and climax that needed to be felt. Even Chick's solos throughout the concert felt somewhat rehearsed and uninspired. The band finally locked in to eachother after the first few, however, and it was uphill from there. The music ranged from atmospheric, Metheny-esque pieces that developed into a fusion groove, to full-on rhythm/percussion ensembles with interlocking latin beats featuring the excellent work of drummer Tom Brechtlein and percussionist Rubem Dantas.

Some highlights were a piano and Kalimba (thumb piano) duet between Corea and Dantas as well as a Corea/Dantas keyboard and weird random percussion (dunno the name of it) duet in which Dantas played a solo with notes on the drum and Corea responded on keyboard. The pinnacle was when an incredibly talented (and sessy) flamenco/tap dancer came onto the stage. The band played percussion and clapped in a tight groove while the unamed dancer went friggin crazy with the tap dancing and over-the-top flamenco dancing. Out of all the solos of the night I was most emotionally moved by hers, she was that good. The dancer would reappear throughout some of the songs, dancing in the background using variety of shawls and interpretive style flamenco dancing.

Chick Corea looked like he was having a blast as he moved with ease from playing piano & keyboard to playing a little percussion whenever he felt like it, and later getting the crowd involved with clapping as well as a little call and response (us singing vs. his keyboard). Bassist Carlos Benavent is one of the best i've seen, laying down a steady groove as well as filling it up with innovative, guitar-like playing at times. Jorge Pado displayed great versatility playing soprano sax, alto sax, and flute, all of them equally good.

Anyway, it was a great concert, saw lots of Rio kids there too, as well as some Rio alums. One thing I don't get is why so many people leave before it ends. Before the encore about 1/3 of the had audience left. This has happened at pretty much every Mondavi show i've been to, I guess they just don't have the patience?

<td align="center"> Brian --
[adjective]:

Visually addictive

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com</td>

I finally got a new cell phone! On the old one the antenna had to be all taped up or it would fall off and was just generally shitty. But this one has a camera with flash and all that fancy stuff so yay. New number as well, i'll give it to you guys when I see you.

The new Flaming Lips album was leaked so I grabbed it up and it is most excellent! I'll have more to say about it later, maybe even a review near when it actually gets released (April 4th), but it is on par with Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin and the usual Flaming Lips goodness.



Dir en grey are supposedly making a big announcement on wednesday regarding their "invasion" of America so i'm holding off on buying tickets to Death Cab and The New Pornographers until that. They'll probably announce a U.S. tour so i'll have to decide what to go to and all that, what with my limited funds. I just pray that the other shows don't sell out while i'm waiting.

Lastly, everyone should check out this: http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/~rdivecha/archives/2006/02/the_world_of_sm.html
Apple recently patented a bunch of touchscreen technology so will we see a touch screen Mac like this in the future? I sure hope so.

Let's see, on saturday I went to the Mingus Big Band concert at the Mondavi Center. Wasn't too impressed actually. They were all basically doing their own thing and I wouldn't consider it proper justice to Mingus. It was more about them showing off on their instruments (especially the drummer). Maybe I was just expecting the wrong thing. Anyhow, it did have its moments and I saw a lot of ex-rio and rio kids there.

Today I hung out with Drew, Robyn and Pam and we watched American Beauty and pigged out on bean dip + chips. Must say it was an excellent movie, and definetely one of my faves now.

Also, I might get a job at the Raley's on Fair Oaks/Walnut so woohoo.