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February 25, 2005
A Fun Night Follows A Huge Nike Presentation
Today I worked about 11 hours. It wasn’t so bad until around 5, when there was massive pressure to finish the large presentation document we were to take to Nike. So we took it there, Eric had me present, and there was some debate afterwards. I could go on...
When we finally left Nike we went to catch the end of Gino’s set at Sign café Daikanyama. He was pretty much done already, but at least we got to drink some much-needed beer. Morita, director of Kakurenbo was there. It seems Kenji has taken quite a liking to him and I can see why. He, Kenji, Eric and I walked toward Ebisu when Sign closed after 11. We went to eat at Monsoon. Kenji and I took the last train out of Ebisu to Shibuya, and the last train from there to Shimokitazawa, to attend a show where Tatsuya (Mas) was playing, as his solo project, Tyme. Unfortunately we had already missed his set. I did get to meet him however, and he’s a really nice guy. It seems we will attend the Aichi 2005 World’s Expo together, as well as meet this crazy guy whose name I don’t remember, whose work I have just learned about, and who Tatsuya is working with. More on this later. I will try to find some links, his work is really amazing (a bit on the Meiwa Denki side of things, but completely different thematically)
We also met to the founder of Flyrec tonight, who thanked me for the business, but didn’t seem interested in talking to us beyond that. There were two great performances, made even greater by the fact that I was completely exhausted, and wasn’t expecting anything other than to get a few drinks, and sit around until trains started running again.
First was a live performance by some guy with a turntable, sampler, and maybe a digital delay pedal or something. It wasn’t necessarily anything I hadn’t heard before, (some of that late-nineties IDM / hip-hop crossover stuff a-la Gescom, or Push Button Objects). But imagine something like that Gescom remix from PBO’s Unauthorized EP, but being assembled completely live from hand-triggered samples, digital delay, and record scratches. In terms of live performance style, this guy was kind of a heady version of Hifana.
The next kid to perform was probably the best DJ I’ve ever seen. And when I say DJ, I mean pop-culture performance artist. He played an eclectic mix of J-indies (I heard some Guitar Vader in there), hip-hop, and then out of nowhere you hear the muffled drum-mahcine+guitar riff from the beginning of Michael Jackson’s Black or White. Yes, thats right, that nostalgic, gimmicky cut featuring Macaulay Culkin, who has a rap solo in it. This kid, performed the rap solo. What’s more, he performed over his entire set yelling YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH! into a mic, and dancing and singing his ass off to everything he played as if he was performing the music himself. During the intro to Black or White, he gave a bit of a japanese plot summary overtop. You remember that part, where a kid (Macaulay) argues with his dad about having music on too loud, before the song actually starts...
It’s wonderful when a pop-parody rockets itself into genius territory far beyond anything you would have imagined could have been created based on the original material. His performance was at once a ridiculous parody, and a ritualistic act of worship; something from a junior high talent show, gone completely off the hook. Except it was performed by a skinny, twenty-something japanese guy, in a club in Shimokitazawa for about 15 people. I guess that’s what made it so good. That, and the fact that you would have never expected to hear that song in the context of that night at that club. I was practically rolling on the floor through the whole track.
When we were leaving the club, someone asked me where I was from, to which I replied “California,” to which he replied “Duuuude,” to which I replied “Duuuuuuuuuude!!” “But you live in Japan now?” I tell him I live in Toritsudai, and he just laughs. I thought it might have been that DJ who I enjoyed so much, but I’m not sure.
Posted by shane at February 25, 2005 09:45 PM