day twenty´-six:
my camera mysteriously broke in Gothenburg, so this shit is going to be a little more texty and lot less interesting from here on out.
after Japan we flew to Oslo, Norway, where fools dropped the ball big time and our show never came through. basically I tried really hard not to repeatedly sneeze all over a kind elderly Japanese lady on a 12 hour flight to Vienna, hung out in the super lame Vienna airport for 4 hours, flew to Oslo and then paid a million kroners to take a bus to central station, walk to a hostel (complete with stereotypical stoned 20 something graveyard shift receptionist and a brutally overpriced shared room with 7 dudes snoring simultaneously), then took a bus to Sweden in the morning. I hope you use our financial contributions well, Oslo, though I am sure it was a drop in the bucket of your smug economy and fashionably clean-line sense of aesthetics.
Sweden was so fucking awesome. Charlie and I spent 4 nights in Gothenburg with Dan 'Tötal Violator Style' Johansson and did some recording at UTMARKEN (one of my favorite places ever), took trams all over to record stores etc. Total CML overload. I did a show with Greg Malcom from Christchurch, NZ and Cave from Chicago, pretty weird mix but really pleasant show. Greg plays three guitars at once and plays really multi-layered but completely live semi improvised music (no loop or delay pedals etc). Definitely one of the top performances as far as experimental guitar music goes, dude had a Felix level bag of tricks and covered one of my favorite Ornette Coleman songs wonderfully.
The next night we met up with my brother, who is doing a simultaneous european tour that crossed paths for one night. It was really awesome to see him and we did a show together at Utmarken with Charlie, and Heinz Hopf (Dan and Mathias collab). We had some scotch and rubarb soda (not together) and watched East Bound and Down late into the night. It was a good one.
We said bye to Owen in the morning at central station (under a coincidental bomb threat) and took a train to Malmö (coincidental serial sniper shootings in recent events). We had a totally enjoyable show at Sing Sang and in classic euro style, someone DJ'd and everyone danced until realllly late. Now we're going to Copenhagen where we'll do two shows and post up for 4 straight days.
happy halloween,
-gordon
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
day nineteen
day nineteen:
sorry for taking so long, we`ve been busy and this takes some time.
after Sapporo, we went back to Kyoto. Takahiro-san scored us some bikes and we rode around Kyoto, almost got nailed a few times and witnessed an unbelievably pleasing Autumn ceremony. There were 500 candles flickering in the garden of a Zen temple.
We then got some beers and went to Yokai street (Ghost street) and surprisingly came up on another, and much louder festival. There were awesome Yokai statues and kids eating fried stuff on sticks and playing games. I recognized some Yokai`s from a kind of encyclopedia by Toriyama Sekien I have at home. I was a little disappointed that they didn`t have a statue of the Splinter style Rat-man, or the Frog-kid that creeps up on your home and licks your stuff when you`re at work or whatever.
The next day we met up with some rad American friends whom we spent the next week touring with. Word up to Liz Harris, Zach Wallace, Ben Vida and Greg Davis. Taka took us to the Eiunin Temple where we were lucky enough to perform. Playing and listening to music in a temple overlooking a gorgeous garden was a completely surreal and enjoyable experience. Thanks, guys. (The above photo of Grouper was taken by Takahiro Yorifuji).
The next day we rolled to Tokushima on the Shikoku island. We crossed a big bridge and passed some sweet islands and Orange-Town. We met Yamano Hiroyuki, Shimba, and their crew in Tokushima and played a show in a basement bar. After the gig, we went to his homeboy`s grandparent`s house, which was a mega special treat. They made us tons of food and the dear grandma totally looked out for us until 3 am. Thanks, Grandma, you warmed all of our hearts in a major way. The next morning we grabbed some bangin Tokushima-renowned udon noodles and rode trains to Osaka.
The Osaka show was at a bar/live-house called Nu-Things and is located in Shinsaibashi, which is a bustling, highly fashionable and frankly hideous part of the city. Lots of weird American clothing worship but I had some pretty good pizza and enjoyed the show. Garden of Ghosts performed one of my favorite sets of the tour using a fan and two acoustic guitars.
Charlie, Nobuto and Taka bailed to catch the last train to Kyoto where we again stayed at Nobuto`s rad house. In the morning, we had some killer eggplant curry and took some trains to Nagoya, where we met up with Zach, Liz, Greg and Ben. The show was at K.D. Japon, a really nice, well-worn venue with a high ceiling, balcony, and lots of wood. It was beneath the subway tracks and everyone`s performance had some extra-sensory bassy subway flavor. Thanks to Yasuhiro Usui! After the show we stayed at this mega cute hostel with a three story bunk bed and drank beers and talked about death by sharks, airplane flash-freezing and bear attacks by the river. The hostel folks were gutting a huge salmon when we came back at 2 am.
In the morning we went to Ikebukuro, Tokyo for our show at Ringoya. Ringoya is a really nice, no-shoes-allowed, aesthetically-psychedelic venue complete with random tablas hanging out and stuff with Indian elephant prints. Apparently the show was sold out and it was really tricky walking around in there once it filled up. Ryo Nakata came down from Sapporo and performed a nice set and brought us white-chocolate-in-cat`s-tongues, which is apparently a special French-by-way-of-Hokkaido treat. I think everyone`s best performance was that night and I really enjoyed the night. Thanks for the great times, guys. Parting ways the next morning was a bit sad for me.
Charlie and I wandered around Tokyo with our heavy fucking bags and tried really hard to find the Loving Hut (vegan) restaurant and Ned`s record shop but failed at both. We ended up posting up like gutter punks and eating more convenience store garbage and crappy whiskey outside of Shibuya station, while seemingly MILLIONS of people commuted all around us during rush hour.. I can`t even begin to fathom where all these people live, how there is enough food, electricity, air. We then met up with Benjamin, an old friend of Charlie`s who used to live in Portland and now lives a suburb of Tokyo. He took us to a nice vegan restaurant (`6889` I think it was called, what`s up Ripon???), Soft On Demand, and the Thrift Mall. He broke down some crucial Japanisms, including the origin of the word `arigato,` which comes from something that roughly translates to `life is difficult.` So basically, when you say `thank you` after buying a rice ball or whatever in Japan, you`re literally saying `thank you for sharing this fleeting moment of painful human existence with me, we have commiserated and will now continue on our paths of difficulty.` So fucking heavy.
The next day we took some trains and met up with Kenny for our epic harsh noise show at SOUP in Tokyo. SOUP is a former speakeasy-turned venue/bar located in the basement of a laundromat (most cult/obscure venue ever). My friend Kelly actually took me there when I was in Japan in 2007, when it was a super mellow, illegal bar, and I was trying to find out if it was still around since returning. So it turns out our second-to-last show was at the same place, which is now a legit venue. What. The. Fuck. We met up with my old friends Kotomi-chan and Takashi-san, who organized my last tour of Japan and are really great folks. We had some delicious soba noodles and inari and then a really amazing noise show happened. Cracksteel and Mo*te collaborated (total 90`s Japanoise legends!), and Kazumo Kubota, Facialmess, Unexamine and ASTRO all gave exceptionally excellent performances. I cut my hands on a beer-can-microphone and left some gaijin blood on the SOUP wall during my performance. Kind of gross, sorry SOUP. I asked Kazuma if I should wash it off and he said `no.` Sure thing. Shortly after I saw a tanuki running down the street. I swear to god, no one believes me but I saw a fucking tanuki running down the street and I will never, ever forget it.
p.s. Alina Pichowski, if you`re reading this, I`m thinking of you.
alright, so it`s Sunday, tonight Charlie and I have a Backpatch performance in Shinjuku with Teenage Desires and a band called TASTE (??) and then tomorrow morning we`re flying to Oslo, Norway. Charlie`s getting sick and I think now I`m getting sick also. Great timing. Thanks for everything, Nippon.
peace and noise,
-gordon
sorry for taking so long, we`ve been busy and this takes some time.
We then got some beers and went to Yokai street (Ghost street) and surprisingly came up on another, and much louder festival. There were awesome Yokai statues and kids eating fried stuff on sticks and playing games. I recognized some Yokai`s from a kind of encyclopedia by Toriyama Sekien I have at home. I was a little disappointed that they didn`t have a statue of the Splinter style Rat-man, or the Frog-kid that creeps up on your home and licks your stuff when you`re at work or whatever.
The next day we met up with some rad American friends whom we spent the next week touring with. Word up to Liz Harris, Zach Wallace, Ben Vida and Greg Davis. Taka took us to the Eiunin Temple where we were lucky enough to perform. Playing and listening to music in a temple overlooking a gorgeous garden was a completely surreal and enjoyable experience. Thanks, guys. (The above photo of Grouper was taken by Takahiro Yorifuji).
Oh shit, this happened also:
In the morning we went to Ikebukuro, Tokyo for our show at Ringoya. Ringoya is a really nice, no-shoes-allowed, aesthetically-psychedelic venue complete with random tablas hanging out and stuff with Indian elephant prints. Apparently the show was sold out and it was really tricky walking around in there once it filled up. Ryo Nakata came down from Sapporo and performed a nice set and brought us white-chocolate-in-cat`s-tongues, which is apparently a special French-by-way-of-Hokkaido treat. I think everyone`s best performance was that night and I really enjoyed the night. Thanks for the great times, guys. Parting ways the next morning was a bit sad for me.
p.s. Alina Pichowski, if you`re reading this, I`m thinking of you.
alright, so it`s Sunday, tonight Charlie and I have a Backpatch performance in Shinjuku with Teenage Desires and a band called TASTE (??) and then tomorrow morning we`re flying to Oslo, Norway. Charlie`s getting sick and I think now I`m getting sick also. Great timing. Thanks for everything, Nippon.
peace and noise,
-gordon
Friday, October 15, 2010
day nine
day nine: note: now updated with photos.
we are in a weird cubicle style internet cafe in Sapporo, Hokkaido, waiting for some overnight trains back to Kyoto.
on Tuesday we had a really nice show at Super Deluxe. it was the first Concern show of the tour and I feel it went well. Roppongi is a mega fancy area, we asked where we could get some inexpensive vegetarian food and we were directed to a brutal mega-mall brimming with gross fancy Luis Vitton euro/US garbage, fur shops, etc. Embarrassingly the most english friendly place we`ve encountered over here, but a totally funny and innocent suggestion. We had more inari and peanuts at the convenience store.
Rod Cooper from Melbourne performed at the show, super nice guy who plays a crazy homemade instrument called the Membra-gurdy (like a banjo/hurdy gurdy with metal tines played with a bow). Totally otherworldly and beautiful performance. Shintaro Miyzaki did a really interesting performance using cell phone, wristwatch(??) and computer feedback/signal interference, and Itaru Yasuda did some wacky computery noise thing. We stayed with Cal and Jamie, who were both very kind hosts who cooked an amazing meal for us. Thanks a ton, guys, you`re awesome and we`re very grateful.
On Wednesday we wandered around Okubo, which is a mellow and diverse neighborhood bordering the Shinjuku metropolis. We ate a FRESHNESS BURGER twice. Kind of embarrassing but they have proper bean and tofu burgers. Killer break from AM/PM rice balls. We then missed the night train to Hokkaido because it was full and we`re dumb Americans. Cal and Jamie kindly let us stay with them again and we left early in the morning for Sapporo.
Most beautiful train(s) ride ever. Coming into Hokkaido from the south looks like the most idyllic Japan meets Santa Cruz meets New Zealand wonderland. Too much. Lots of pictures on the way up.
We arrived at Sapporo in the evening and Ryo Nakata met us and took us to OYOYO. It was a very nice show on the 7th floor of a building. I enjoyed all the performances and I think I had a pretty good one myself. Then our crew of awesome Sapporo folks went to a rad Singaporean bar after the show and basically listed off hardcore bands for a few hours and ate noodles and beer. So fun. You guys are all great. Ryo is the most generous organizer and friend we`ve met up here. Totally above and beyond treatment from that fine man. Ryo, if you read this, you are an Emperor among men. Thank you so much. Today he took us to the VIKING BUFFET were we probably ate too much and walked around Sapporo before we said our goodbyes and he headed to work.
All for now... peace and noise.
-Gordog.
we are in a weird cubicle style internet cafe in Sapporo, Hokkaido, waiting for some overnight trains back to Kyoto.
on Tuesday we had a really nice show at Super Deluxe. it was the first Concern show of the tour and I feel it went well. Roppongi is a mega fancy area, we asked where we could get some inexpensive vegetarian food and we were directed to a brutal mega-mall brimming with gross fancy Luis Vitton euro/US garbage, fur shops, etc. Embarrassingly the most english friendly place we`ve encountered over here, but a totally funny and innocent suggestion. We had more inari and peanuts at the convenience store.
Rod Cooper from Melbourne performed at the show, super nice guy who plays a crazy homemade instrument called the Membra-gurdy (like a banjo/hurdy gurdy with metal tines played with a bow). Totally otherworldly and beautiful performance. Shintaro Miyzaki did a really interesting performance using cell phone, wristwatch(??) and computer feedback/signal interference, and Itaru Yasuda did some wacky computery noise thing. We stayed with Cal and Jamie, who were both very kind hosts who cooked an amazing meal for us. Thanks a ton, guys, you`re awesome and we`re very grateful.
On Wednesday we wandered around Okubo, which is a mellow and diverse neighborhood bordering the Shinjuku metropolis. We ate a FRESHNESS BURGER twice. Kind of embarrassing but they have proper bean and tofu burgers. Killer break from AM/PM rice balls. We then missed the night train to Hokkaido because it was full and we`re dumb Americans. Cal and Jamie kindly let us stay with them again and we left early in the morning for Sapporo.
We arrived at Sapporo in the evening and Ryo Nakata met us and took us to OYOYO. It was a very nice show on the 7th floor of a building. I enjoyed all the performances and I think I had a pretty good one myself. Then our crew of awesome Sapporo folks went to a rad Singaporean bar after the show and basically listed off hardcore bands for a few hours and ate noodles and beer. So fun. You guys are all great. Ryo is the most generous organizer and friend we`ve met up here. Totally above and beyond treatment from that fine man. Ryo, if you read this, you are an Emperor among men. Thank you so much. Today he took us to the VIKING BUFFET were we probably ate too much and walked around Sapporo before we said our goodbyes and he headed to work.
All for now... peace and noise.
-Gordog.
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