"The difference between art and design" :: Interview with Travis

I'm pleased to have another entry this evening in our awesome guest-post series, an encore interview conducted by my roving reporter Brian London in California (who did the Superdrag piece in October).

This time I sent Brian off down the coast to the land of sunshine, traffic, and Disneyland to catch up with the guys from the literate and lovely Scottish megaband Travis about their new album, their songwriting philosophies and influences. Plus, he got some exclusive news about how the band is in talks to work with producer Steve Lillywhite again for their next album, a return to rock form. Read on -- and if you've never listened to Travis before, Brian ably handpicked a fine little mix at the end of the post, just to start you off solidly in the right direction.


INTERVIEW WITH TRAVIS
by Brian London

As I was led through the empty House of Blues in Anaheim, Travis’ manager looked back and offered the caveat that "the boys have just woken up and are waiting in the car park, hope you don’t mind doing this outside -- all very peace and love." I emerged outside into the cool southern California evening, and was greeted by one half of the group that Chris Martin of Coldplay recently claimed “invented his band.”

Fran Healy [lead vocals, songwriting and rhythm guitar] and Dougie Payne [backing vocals and bass] of Travis leaned up against the cement load-in ramp --looking just like the scene where William meets Stillwater for the first time in Almost Famous-- and greeted me warmly through their mild, yet present, Scottish brogue.

Yes, the wee music geek inside nearly had a coronary at the situation I found myself in.

In the twilight of the afternoon, I sat on the ground and chatted with one-half of the band have been rocking and rolling around the world for the last sixteen years, selling millions of albums, but more importantly staying true to what people gravitated toward Travis for in the first place; a band that is all about the songs and, as their first single announced to the world, just wants to rock.

THE NEW ALBUM
Brian: First, I want to congratulate you on a really great new record (The Boy With No Name, 2007). Fran, I heard that you gave up smoking. Did you do that before or after you had recorded the vocals for the album?

Fran: Before.

Your voice has always had a real clarity to it, but some of the vocals on this new record I think really come across as some of your best.

F: Thanks man. I’ve got to say for the vocals, maybe one or two of the songs I’m really proud of singing-wise, but most of the time I still have that feeling when you hear your own voice that you just can’t believe that’s what you sound like. But I do agree that it’s gotten better without cigarettes.

Like on which songs specifically?

F: Well, “Battleships” and “Under the Moonlight” I think are really good vocals. But the Under The Moonlight is a bit jiggery-pokery, lots of clever editing going on there. When I think about it, I’m probably more proud of the editing [laughs], but no matter.

I heard you guys wrote around 40 songs for this new record?

Dougie: Yeah, about that. I mean, we were recording for a long time, around two years. We would record sporadically and we ended up with around forty songs. But it wasn’t like we had forty songs written before we went into the studio.

So you guys would do a session, take some time, and then next time bring in another two or three tunes?

D: Exactly, so we ended up with about forty but we only mixed around twenty of them and then we picked the album from those twenty.

And regarding those other twenty, are there any plans to revisit them in the future?

D: There were a couple that were left unfinished, but you know, everything that’s usable I think was pretty much used. It’s strange now because with the way music is distributed you need three extra tracks for Japan, three different extra tracks for Europe and then b-sides! So I think it’s all pretty much used up.


"FLOWERS IN THE WINDOW"
That leads me into a question I had about your band's method for sequencing records in the past. Your song “Flowers In The Window” on The Invisible Band record wasn’t going to be included until the last minute, right?

F: With that song, we had recorded the album and that was a song we had never got better than the demo which was me, Dougie and Andy sitting around in France just playing it live in a room with a piano and 12-string guitar and us all singing. It just had is really cool vibe with we could never get better. But the song was strong so we tried to record it umpteenth times after that.

D: Had to been about six times right?

F: Yeah, so then we went to do this album The Invisible Band. And Nigel [Godrich, uber-producer behind Radiohead, Beck, Paul McCartney, Air] always hated that song. Really, really didn’t like it.

D: He really had a real problem with it.

F: And when Nigel doesn’t like something, you really know. So we just didn’t go near it. But it was really bugging me, so on the last day I phoned him at 7am, woke him up and naturally that pissed him off.

A great start to any persuasion.

F: A very good start. So I told him I really think we need to record Flowers and, I mean, he got really upset, what with that being the reason for me waking him. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up in the studio arguing like cats and dogs over this, but we put it down and I think the version we got it okay. But the version we do live is much more true how it was meant to be [as they did that night, the band crowds around Healy, who is playing guitar, with arms around each others’ shoulders singing into the same mic]. The demo still really is the best version and it never saw the light of day.

Any chance of putting that out as a b-side?

D: That’s a good idea.

F: Well, actually, it is on the DVD as an extra. It’s video of us making the demo and it’s lovely.


B-SIDES
Your band has always been really reliable for putting out quality extra tracks. “Just The Faces Change” to “Village Man,” there are a lot of great gems. Have you ever considered packaging them up for fans outside the areas where they are readily available?

D: Yeah, I think at some point we will put out some kind of compilation. There have been some ideas floating around. Like you said, there are a lot of places like America, South America, that can’t get hold of this or that track so it would be nice. Eventually we’ll get around to it.

Have you guys ever consciously tried to write a b-side, or do you just sequence the album and pull from what’s left over and hope it’s enough to satisfy the different bundles of extra tracks?

F: You can’t try to write a b-side or a-side, you just try to write a song and if enough people think ‘oh, that’s amazing’ then it’s obvious it’s an album track, or a single.

Was it that way with “Coming Around”? (A stand-alone single that came out in 2000 and was not featured on any album)

D: That was going to be a b-side wasn’t it?

F Yeah, we had a bunch of extra songs that we were recording and the record company guy said ‘that’s not a b-side that’s an a-side!’. I still don’t think it is. I mean it’s good but…

If not a single, do you think it might have been an album track?

F: I still feel it’s a b-side [laughs]. A really good b-side. But it just didn’t have that certain….I can’t put my finger on it.

D: You want to make sure you are happy with everything you put out. Sometimes we have to go into the studio and record b-sides just to be able to put out a single, but we still try to do the best songs we have at that point.

Is there a sense of freedom with b-sides, like, we’re going to try some experimenting and if it doesn’t work out we can always just relegate them to extra tracks?

F: Well, lately it’s been hard because when you’re headed towards an album you really want it to be great so you’re kind of restrained under the pressure of that. Kind of your own pressure I guess of trying to make a record you can listen to from being to end. And not only that, but a record you can take out and play live as well. I think it’s really hard to write really good up-tempo songs. It’s really easy to write a slow, mid-tempo burner of a tune.

I totally agree. It does seem that everyone I know who has tried to write songs, their first ones are always slow and sad.

F: It’s always going to be hard restrained to some degree and I think that does hurt the chances of cool, random things happening.


THE RECORDING PROCESS
Do you guys jam out the songs before recording to make sure they work live?

D: Not really because we record live pretty much, and especially with this record because we were doing it to tape most of the time, so if it didn’t work there we generally wouldn’t bother with it.

Do those backing tracks usually come fast?

D: We get the takes pretty quick. I mean, everyone gets an idea for a part and the song falls together pretty quickly.

And if the song isn’t falling together quickly, it’s a sign.

F: Yeah, totally. We just go and work on something else.

The band did a great studio blog while recording this album, and it always sounded like you’d come in, start a song around midday with a few takes, have a listen back and from that be able to pick the best and be done.

D: It’s funny, but more often than not it was the first one after dinner that we’d keep. Something to do with having a full stomach or whatever. I think time away from the takes really let the parts settle. It’s a weird thing, but true.


INFLUENCES
Are there any bands or sounds that you guys are big fans of, and you’ve tried to write songs or simply incorporate into what Travis does -- and it just hasn’t worked?

F: No, I’ve never felt the need to because I feel even if someone writes a song and you’re like ‘oh, that’s a great tune’ you can only express yourself. You can’t express anyone else. I think what happens a lot of the time.

For example, the song “As You Are” was born completely listening to a song by Grant Lee Buffalo called “Fuzzy,” and “Across The Universe” by The Beatles. I think it’s Across The Universe . . . [hums a little bit, Dougie chimes in and then they both nod to each other in agreement that it is, in fact, Across the Universe]. But it’s not done consciously. Things come into your little world and your brain starts connecting the pieces without even your conscious control over it. And then you record it and that’s what it becomes.

D: I think sometimes bands consciously will take that bit from this song and this bit from that song and string it together to get a result, but that’s not why we’re doing it. It really comes down to the difference between art and design. I think people will design songs for whatever reason, to fill stadiums or to try and have hits, but there has to be a distinction between that and the art of songwriting.

And I wonder if those artists look back years later and listen to the record and reminisce about the time when they put A and B together? Since you guys are in it for the process, you can lean back and remember sitting in a room in France with two of your friends having a cool moment actually creating something out of nothing.

F: Yeah, but we don’t listen to it two years later! [Both Fran and Dougie break into laughter]. We play them every night live so there is no need. I mean, sometimes I do and think ‘that’s nice’ or ‘that sounds great.’ I don’t think there are any songs where I’m like ‘oh God’.

Any that you would pluck off of an album if you could go back?

F: Yeah, maybe. I think “She’s So Strange” from The Man Who, “Safe” off The Invisible Band might have gone, to make more lean albums. Maybe…..I don’t know, there are a couple of songs.

D: But it’s not really worth thinking about. It is what it is, and I believed in it at the time and still do. By the time you’re finished making it, you’ve literally heard it hundreds and hundreds of times, and then you’re going to go out and play it for the following however-many years, so there really isn’t a need to go back and listen to it.


GOOD FEELING & LILLYWHITE
Here’s a question I’ve always wondered about the making of your first album Good Feeling -- your Scottish band worked with English Producer Steve Lillywhite in a studio in upstate New York. How did that string of events come together?

F: Steve had recorded The Dave Matthews Band at this studio in Bearsville that The Band set up and he really liked the assistants and the sounds and wanted to do it there, so we went.

D: We kind of thought, brand new band recording their first album, Steve Lillywhite is asking us to go to New York, it was just [laughs] well, alright! ‘Oh, we’re going to stay in Robbie Robertsons’ house? Where’s the ticket?!’ It was great.

The sound on that first record is a bit more rough around the edges and really seems to capture the energy of a young band who is excited to be in a real studio, see how loud the amps go and just having a blast. Not to say that you would want to repeat yourself, but would you ever think about maybe letting yourself return to that version of Travis?

F: Yeah. Definitely. I think the next record you’ll probably see that happen. We’re planning on that anyway. We’re going to go write for eight weeks, and then go record the album in a week just like we did with Good Feeling. I think the band is good enough to go and do that, you know. If we spend too long on the album it will end up sounding too slick and polished and there’s really nothing to hold onto.

And those cracks in the marble are usually what make a record interesting.

F: Interestingly we’ve been talking to Steve about producing again.

Is there anything written, or have you just been gathering up sketches?

F: There are a couple of ideas.

D: And a few of those unfinished ideas from the last record so we’ll see what happens.

F: I’m really excited, man. It should be really cool.

Where are you guys planning to go away and write this rock record?

D: Just going to head back home to London because we’ve been away for a lot of the year. So we’re going to get back and find a little cubbyhole.

Are you all located in London, or do any of you still live in Scotland?

D: Pretty much yeah. If not full time, we all have places there. Only Neil [Primrose, the drummer] lives up north.

F: But I think he can, because generally me, Dougie and Andy are the ones who are hands-on twiddling with ideas.

D: Neil will come in and nail his part in, like, never more than three takes. He gets really impatient with us fucking up our parts all the time!

Well, thanks a lot guys, and I’m looking forward to the show and the next record.

F & D: Thank you.


. . . And then Travis were off to soundcheck. The next time I saw them was their grand entrance to the stage. To the sound of the Rocky Theme, they entered from the back and moved through the crowd wearing silky boxer uniforms. They made it onto the stage and began with the fantastic new single “Selfish Jean.”

They rolled through the set of crowd-friendly singalongs, but kept it interesting by introducing tricks that only seasoned bands who know exactly how to control a crowd can pull off. One part that we all loved was when Fran asked the crowd for total silence while he showed what truly unplugged performance is. He unplugged his acoustic guitar, stepped back from the mic and belted out a beautiful version of the hymn-like extra track from The Man Who album called “Twenty.”

Travis is a band that upholds and respects the qualities which every band would value in an ideal world; pride in the craftsmanship of their art, giving the audience a show that embraces, amuses and entertains on every level. They also preserve that quality which seems to be the most difficult to maintain; the ability to be a complete success on every level while remaining as approachable and decent as they undoubtedly were when playing pubs in Scotland.

So raise your pints up high to another five albums worth of tunes that celebrate what can happen if you start a band for all the right reasons.


THE ‘WHO ARE TRAVIS?’ MIX
All I Want To Do Is Rock
Selfish Jean
Driftwood
Coming Around
Village Man (b-side)
The Connection (b-side)
Re-Offender
As You Are
Just The Faces Change (b-side)
High As A Kite (b-side)
Twenty (bonus track)
Flowers In The Window (live in Santiago)

TRAVIS MIX ZIPPED

[photo above from Santiago, Chile show. Band pics from TravisOnline.com]

Related link: Check out Kevin at So Much Silence's review of the recent Arizona show

Guest post: Chris from North Carolina, redux

In August, I wrote about the fabulous reader Chris from NC who took the time to send me five mix CDs and liner notes, and I posted some of the tracks off the first rock-themed collection.

There were four more discs full of goodness that were left shivering outside the blog love, so I wanted to move on to the next offering for your distinct enjoyment.

On this Friday afternoon, I'll share a little mini-mix of five excellent selections from mix disc #2, along with his comments, on today's guest blog. Let me repeat how much I enjoy hearing songs through other people's ears, filtered through their own experience. Dig these fresh tunes:


DO NOT MIX WITH ALCOHOL:
Lots of humble opinions, sad songs, and covers

We Will Become Silhouettes - The Shins
Love the Postal Service, but this one's better

Brilliant Disguise - Elvis Costello
Not so much a fan of Bruce's version, but I love the lyrics and EC's delivery. In easily the most surreal conversation of my life, Westerberg once told me you can call him E, but never Declan (his real name). You've been warned.

I Figured You Out - Mary Lou Lord
An Elliott Smith song that I could never find him doing. I think I really like this song in no small part because I can hear him singing it in my head.

Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne
Imaginative re-working of the old Neil Young song

More Than I Can Do - Steve Earle
Stalker song sometimes mistaken for a love song, along the lines of "Every Breath You Take." Only less played out.

Guest post: Chris from North Carolina is a mixmaster across the miles

It's kinda Guest Post Central around here lately with a few fine folks taking my place for a day. This is a very good thing for you, the reader, because all my friends have excellent musical taste. Obviously.

A few weeks ago I got a package from Chris out in North Carolina who made me not just one or two but SIX CDs full of genuine marvelousness that I am still digesting. Chris sends me some humid North Carolina greetings, and writes the following; "I often (morbidly) tell my wife Janet that if anything ever happens to me, she must check out your site to update her musical stylings."

Due to flattery like that (ha!) and the sheer enjoyment I derived from his mixes, today I am going to share five of Chris' picks with you off his first themed mix, along with his comments. There's probably several other posts in the coming months from the stuff he sent me; honorary guest residency status out of this batch. I never tire of hearing the world through someone else's ears.

ROCK OF AGES MIX
(sort of a loose collective of Rolling-Stones-disciple tunes)

The Figures of Art - Spoon
I saw Spoon open for a friend's (kinda crappy) band in a tiny Mexican restaurant in Chapel Hills 10 yrs ago when they still wanted to be the Pixies. Love the Stonesy-intro riff here, and I'm thrilled they decided they'd just rather be Spoon.

Too Bad - Faces
Speaking of The Stones, I really don't get how FM radio in the Midwest played the hell out of the Stones, but missed out on everything by these guys except "Stay With Me." I cannot think of anyone in modern history who has had access to more good, clean, hedonistic fun than Rod and he sings like it.

Bohemian Like You - The Dandy Warhols
If you have not caught DiG, it is a must-see ["A documentary on the once-promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, and the friendship/rivalry between their respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor"]. Brian Jonestown Massacre is such a compelling story of a band and they obviously loved the Stones too, but they'd think it was beneath them to play quite so accessibly. I don't care if it is a ripoff with at-times insipid lyrics, it rocks anyway.

Don't Look Back Into The Sun - The Libertines
Much like my favorite band The Replacements, I do not see how the Libertines decided which songs to leave off their albums. This b-side is by far my favorite of their tunes.

Ca Plane Pour Moi - Plastic Bertrand
European Vacation featured this song way back in the day and I've always thought of it, perhaps unfairly, as a French Ramones song.


BONUS, as I love the mixery technique of sandwiching in a little dialogue snippet or something cool between the songs; Chris used this as track 8:
"Do You Feel Your Music Is Racist?" - This Is Spinal Tap

Guest post: George Harrison demos

Since I'm on vacation, it's a fine time to let someone else take the wheel for a bit, as one of you recently commented. So today we've got a special treat to the Fuel/Friends blog with a guest blog on a nice little set of demos from Beatle George Harrison. I'd been entirely unfamiliar with any of Harrison's solo work before I was recently tasked to try and unearth this set of demos from Harrison's All Things Must Pass album (1970). I was surprised at the gentle and warm acoustic loveliness, not being at all familiar with Harrison's work aside from The Beatles.

This particular pal (I call him MasterCairo) is responsible for introducing me to a massive amount of good music, and possesses an encyclopedic library of musical minutae in his head. Not kidding, it's like world-record material. This is his first attempt at blogging: for years now he's just had to try and unload his vast musical knowledge on disinterested friends and poor passersby. Finally, he has a willing audience. He writes:

"Not only are these sessions amazingly historic, but they're just beautiful -- like the George Harrison cafe sessions! Art of Dying was written in 1966 and fuck me does it sound like it totally could have been on Revolver -- which it would have been considered for?! But I think it probably sounded too much like Eleanor Rigby, and since it was Paul vs. George...ta da.

George sat down on solo guitar with Phil Spector in Abbey Road Studio 2, and ran through the cache of songs he had built up over the repressive last years of the Beatles. Sit back, get a coffee, put on a turtleneck if you feel pretentious enough, make like it's the end of the '60s, and let George play you some of the tunes he's been collecting over the past few years."

GEORGE HARRISON DEMOS
w/ Phil Spector ("Beware of ABKCO" sessions)
1970

Run of the Mill
Art of Dying
Everybody, Nobody
Wah-Wah
(sounds to me like a variation of the riff from I've Got A Feelin')
Window, Window
Beautiful Girl
Beware of Darkness
Let It Down
Tell Me What Happened To You
Hear Me Lord
Nowhere to Go (a Harrison/Dylan collaboration)
Cosmic Empire
Mother Divine
I Don't Want To Do It (Dylan)
If Not For You (Dylan)

ZIP: HARRISON DEMOS

Note: the title of this boot comes from a changed lyric on the song "Beware of Darkness" to "Beware of ABKCO" (Allan B Klein Company).

Guest post: My little brother defends his musical honor, schools us on Japanese music

Last weekend I posted something that my little brother out in San Diego had recommended to me, and I made a tiny dig at his past musical interests (who am I to talk, I liked NKOTB). Brian graciously called me on it, told me he actually still likes Japanese music, and suggested he write a little something about it to school all of us. An excellent idea, fitting in with the World Music Wednesday feature that I can't seem to find enough time to maintain these days, but am still very interested in.

In addition to trying to teach me the fine points of guitar playing (pictured above, harder than it looks), he also loves to talk music just like his big sis. So it's a pleasure: take it away, dude.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
GUEST POST
I am Brian, and you are Heather's friends. My whole family, it seems, has this deep love for music in one form or another, and I could probably fill Heather's entire daily blog with music of my own tastes, because like her, music is my life. I love studying music, learning new types of music, spending hours listening to it, and constantly growing my library from which I can draw the beautiful sensations which music always delivers. Music is my fuel, which would, in some strange reorganization of words, making my sister my drive in life - but I guarantee you that is not the case. Since I breathe, eat, sleep, and drink music day in and day out, I thought I would share some of my tastes with you, Heather's faithful readers.

I have learned something as I've aged [editor's note: he's all of 25, folks], and that is that if someone who claims to love music cannot listen to music they don't understand, or music belonging to a culture with which they do not associate, they are lacking in something. I want to open the doors to what is in my opinion wonderful music, that like a fine wine may take time getting used to and learning, but will grow on you if you give it time. Sit back, relax, and take a second to try to enjoy music that you might not normally listen to.

A note about Japanese music before we start: One thing that you should remember is that English is very popular in Japan - having song titles in English, using English in the chorus line, or as the background vocals - is very popular, widely accepted, and almost standard across the Japanese music industry. I understand that (to the best of my knowledge,) there is no English-speaking country where another language is so prevalent in its music as it is in Japan, but try to keep that in mind as you listen. It is not out of the norm - rather, it is the norm.

Pizzicato Five
Busting onto the scene in 1985, and calling it quits later in 2001, Pizzicato Five have been one of the longer running bands to have fame in Japan. They are one of the most individualistic, non-conforming, "we're going to play whatever the hell we want to play" bands I have ever heard. Their poppy, sometimes odd music is something that takes a little getting used to. The band's two members, Yasuharu Konishi and K-Taro Takanami, take turns singing and playing the instruments in the songs, so each song is a good reflection of both of them. Their best CD in my opinion is Playboy & Playgirl (on Matador in the U.S., 1998).

La Depression - Pizzicato 5
I Hear a Symphony - Pizzicato 5
Such A Beautiful Girl Like You - Pizzicato 5

[Heather's addition:]
Twiggy Twiggy - Pizzicato 5 (I never get tired of this one)


Utada Hikaru
Well shoot. How do I even write about Utada Hikaru and NOT take up like fifteen pages? Ahhh, bullet points. So - tell me, how many of these things have you accomplished in your life:

• Released 7 studio albums totaling over 40,000,000 in sales


• Become pretty much THE most popular musical icon in all of Japan, following the release of your first CD, at age 16 (and if you're thinking, "oh, it's the Japanese Britney Spears.... no. No no no.)


• Had the most number one songs of any artist ever in Japan, including 12 Golden Disk awards (like our Grammy award)


• Released full albums in both English and Japanese


• Fricken. Rock.


• Be born in New York, have a massive international audience, be popular all over the world, and.... still have no one in America know who you are, save Asian people.

That pretty much sums it up. I got into Utada Hikaru during my junior year in high school, 1999, when her first album, First Love, came out. She was 16, pretty much the same as all the girls putting out poppy little bubblegum CDs here in America, like Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, Christina Aguilera, and all the other crap that was popular at the time, but my high school, being around 65-70% Asian, had a slightly different tilt to it, and so naturally, I was sucked in.

I believe Hikaru is one of the only artists in the world who can claim the number 1 spot on the charts for seven straight albums. Hit after hit after hit - and they never stop coming. She has diversified herself from electronic-y late '90s music to beautiful ballads, albums in full English, and almost every type of music you can think of. She is more than just an icon to Japanese listeners, she carries with her so much talent, with such a great voice, creative sounds and lyrics, and it will be so hard to give you just four songs of hers. You really need to check her out. Now.

Automatic - Utada Hikaru (off her first CD)
First Love- Utada Hikaru (title track to first CD, at age 16)
Simple and Clean - Utada Hikaru (all in English)
Colors - Utada Hikaru (off her latest CD)



Kiss Destination
To be honest - I don't know a lot about this artist. To my knowledge, she only has one real album (and a host of singles) but her one disc, released in 1999, didn't really go anywhere, and she's not around anymore. If I were so lucky to have someone reading this that actually owns this CD, I will buy it off you. I can't find it anywhere, but the five or six tracks I have from the CD are all amazing.

Kiss Destination was the project of a band we're going to cover later, Globe --one of the biggest Japanese rock/electronica bands in the last 20 years-- and singer Asami Yoshida (featured to the left). Asami's voice is melodic, and she mixes her flavor of pop in with a little bit of rap and very memorable melodies.

Over and Over - Kiss Destination
Long and Winding Road - Kiss Destination


Ketsumeishi
Finally! I've been waiting to write about Ketsumeishi since I started this post last night, because they are absolutely amazing. Ketsumeishi is an awesome blend of pop music, amazingly talented rappers, great voices, and awesome beats. I don't want to lay down some blanket statement about an entire genre of music, but when most people think of rap, it has the impression of American popular rap. "oh. that." This is NOT what you're thinking. Japanese rappers are incredible -- the way that Ketsumeishi can flow is unlike anything I've ever hear out of American rap, so I highly encourage you to listen to these two tracks of theirs.

This is where I REALLY need you to put on your culture hat, and try to get past the fact that you do not understand this, and that the style of rap is totally not what you're used to. Please, do it for yourself. You will be a better person for liking Ketsumeishi. They consist of four members, Ryo, Ryoji, 大蔵, and DJ Kohno, they have released 4 albums and are working on a new release for 2007. To date, they have sold more than 4,000,000 copies. Call me crazy, but try to watch the Sakura music video without crying... I'm just a sucker for love stories.

Yorukaze - Ketsumeishi
Sakura - Ketsumeishi

Watch:




m-flo
m-flo is a Japanese hip-hop group consisting of two guys that I would just love to go out and drink with, DJ Taku Takahashi and VERBAL. Apparently the original name for the group was meteorite flow, but their producer said that it was too long, so they shortened it to the now famous m-flo. Formed also in 1999, (seems like a popular year in Japan musical history!) with their third member, Lisa, they released 5 albums and had amazing success before she decided to leave the group in 2002, citing artistic differences.

For the first several years, m-flo put out several awesome CDs and singles, and were more the type of group to have a killer CD over a ton of number one hits, but for the last few years m-flo has made their largest impact on the music scene by working with other famous artists to produce "m-flo" remixes of popular songs. Produced under the name "m-flo loves [artist] - [title]" their work has become internationally known and recognized as some of the best hiphop and remixing work in the world. I love m-flo, so again, it's going to be hard to just choose a few tracks for you to listen to, especially since both members speak perfect English and often-times interweave English and Japanese in the same sentence, or have English in the left channel and Japanese in the right - it's pretty awesome to listen to. I wonder if it would give you a headache if you were fluent in both...

m-flo loves yoshika - Let Go
m-flo loves chemistry - Astrosexy
m-flo loves ketsumeishi & Lisa - Tegami


Every Little Thing
Last, but definitely not least, is the band that is probably most responsible for my love of Japanese music, other than Utada Hikaru. I learned about Every Little Thing around 2000 - 2001, and instantly fell in love with them. They sound a lot like an '80s rock band full of power chords, distorted guitars, synthesizers, and killer guitar solos. Some of their music has a softer quality to it, like many of the late '80s bands who would put crazy soft ballads in the middle of two hard songs.

There isn't anything that I can say that would explain why I love ELT so much -- they don't do anything better than any other group in this list, they don't have the best vocals, the most catchy sounds, or the most difficult guitar parts, but something about the sound just . . . captivates me. They have released so many CDs over the years that they were able to release 4 CDs of greatest hits, entitled Every Best Single, Every Best Single 2, Every Best Single 3, and Every Best Ballad.

So needless to say, they have a huge history of fame on the island to the west. They are semi-impervious to time, it seems, as they have not been caught up in much of Japanese pop culture (much like Pizzicato 5) and have really just done their own things, sticking to their deep rock roots regardless of what time period it is now.

Every Little Thing - Dear My Friend
Every Little Thing - Shapes of Love
Every Little Thing - Jump
Every Little Thing - Futari De Jidai Wo Kaetemitai


So . . . I hope this was a nice venture into the land of Japan for all of you who read Heather's blog. I might just come back and do more international music sometime in the future. Feel free to email me about any of the bands listed here, if you just have any questions in general, or if you just want to be my friend and talk about music. I'm way cooler than Heather. You can reach me at powel033@csusm.edu

Guest blogger redux: Chris from England

Around this time last year, I featured a "guest blogger" post by my pal/faithful reader Chris in England, who regularly takes the time to make me fabulous and varied mix CDs which arrive in the mail at random intervals and never fail to brighten my day. I am a firm believer in the power of good music in your mailbox when you least expect it to make any day immeasurably better.

Chris and I have remarkably similar musical tastes (meaning his are also superb, obviously). In addition to the old-goodies he throws in, his mixes also serve as a much-appreciated barometer of what is new and interesting over in the UK and the Manchester area (often before it fully hits over here). It's really one of the best things going in my mailbox.

Chris always sends along commentary with his mixes; he is a closet music blogger dying to get out. It would be criminal not to share all this goodness with you folks, so enjoy.


CHRIS FROM ENGLAND GUEST-BLOGS AGAIN
his comments in italics

Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis
I am in love with the glorious stick-in-your-head nature of this song. I'd listened to The Fratellis before and wanted to write something, but nothing sums them up better than what Chris writes: "Watch out for the track from The Fratellis - a bit like Supergrass playing '70s glam rock." That is exactly spot-on what I hear when I listen to this -the most apt description I've heard yet for these boys from Glasgow- but could never articulate it so perfectly. So I'm just gonna let him introduce you to this infectiously fab tune.

No Matter What - Badfinger
"A very old song (one of the first songs I bought as a very very young child), Badfinger was signed by Paul McCartney to Apple and responsible for one of the saddest stories in rock history (two members of the group killed themselves in later life, etc). Anyway I think the song was 'power pop' well ahead of its time. You can feel the Beatles influence in the production."

Silent Sigh - Badly Drawn Boy
Part of the three-song sequence of Manchester artists, Chris calls this "a wonderful singalong -- the best Badly Drawn Boy song ever." I find it surprisingly Prince-like (not a bad thing).

Emily - Stephen Fretwell
"Scarborough-born Fretwell: name-checked by Ryan Adams and a bit like Damien Rice." Lovely and wistful and wonderful.


Dear readers, Chris and his services are available for rental if you need a great long-distance musical correspondent. Oh wait, actually he's not -- but I'll pass along the goodness if he keeps sending me the goods.

Guest blogger: Chris from England

Being a music blogger is especially nifty when someone from your readership takes the time, after reading your post on mix tapes, to send you three mix CDs, full of aural delights.

Chris is from Tottington, England, which is in the Northwest and near Manchester (as Chris says, world famous for his beloved Manchester United soccer team, The Smiths, and Oasis).

Today (unbeknownst to him) I am letting him guest blog, with just a few of the many tracks he sent me, plus comments from the letter which accompanied the discs. I think he has a future as a music blogger!

* * * * *
SOME SONGS AND COMMENTS FROM CHRIS

Six O'Clock On A Tube Stop - A
This sounds a little like Sting (when he was in The Police) fronting Green Day. I kid you not.

Back For Good - McAlmont & Butler
They are a guy who sounds like a girl and the former guitarist from Suede doing a version of a hit by an embarassing British boy band (Take That). On paper this does not sound promising. How come it's fantastic?

Wires - Athlete
This was written about the singer's experience of his son being born prematurely. If you know the background (as with 'Elizabeth, You Were Born To Play That Part') I think it adds to the song - "first night of your life, curled up on your own."

Oh No The Radio - Owsley
A friend said, "You like Weezer? Try this." I did and I liked it a lot. The line about 'singing in a hairbrush and giving Donny and Marie the bum's rush' cracks me up.

Mermaid Blues - Tom McRae
Critically acclaimed, zero sales, great song.

* * * * *
There's lots of other great stuff from Chris that will surely find its way into the Fuel blog in future posts. Thank you sincerely Chris.

Chris also included a song from 'Manchester's finest' (Oasis) on the mix ("The Importance of Being Idle"), and ends with a comment that he went to school with the original Oasis guitarist Paul Arthurs, known as 'Bonehead.'

Now, I am no Oasis expert, or even a very huge fan, but of the handful of their songs that I like, one of my favorites is an extra vinyl track that a friend gave me called 'Bonehead's Bank Holiday.' I love the drunken riff and sloppy singalong style. It's just fun.

In your honor, Chris, here is that track about your former schoolmate chum.

Bonehead's Bank Holiday (extra vinyl track) - Oasis