kekkyouku, dare wo damashiteiru?
You!
Did you know that L'arc~en~Ciel makes some terribly wonderful music? I blame them almost as much as I do Toriyama for this fascination with Japan that has stunted my growth and tractor-beamed my ass across the ocean. The first song of theirs that I ever heard was Shinshoku: Lose Control, and I associated the rapid, unconventional time-changes with the independent unknown genius of Creedle. "A Japanese Creedle!" I deemed them, and though this was very wrong, they are in a different dimension as Creedle, but their music is at least as stimulating. Maybe it's like comparing a Klingon masterpiece with a Trandoshan masterpiece. Maybe you gotta be a huge nerd. I really don't know anything except that I am mesmerized and my resistance is low. I learned that by finding out song-by-song what L'arc is REALly all about: It's orchestration. At least that's what makes their songs so good. I could give a shit and a squirt about the lyrics and relentless romanticism that L'arc~en~Ciel puts into their image. I really believe that the Japanese have a wonderful sense of melody, in spite of their relentless emphasis on harmony. If you're not sure what orchestration really means to a band's output, try to imagine The Beatles without George Martin. And if you can't imagine that, imagine your high school's band without a conductor. Failing that, eat a dick sandwich cut by a drunken butcher equipped but a golf club. No wait -- don't do that. My analysis falls into ruin and admiration...I can't help it. Just listen -- listen to all the shit going on at the same time. Orchestration, effort, and a meticulous sense of compatibility between one sound and another. Try to follow one instrument all the way through, then go back and listen to a different one. A single song. For a group that tops the charts and fills up the largest venue in any town they bless, there is mad integrity behind every note. Aw fuck, there I go. I can't go on like this, so I'm going to ask anyone with unblunted nerve endings in their soul to find some L'arc~en~Ciel and apply some of the wonder of the world you may have shrugged off on your journey through it. Listen to it on your way to work. Take a drive across the country. Wait until everyone's asleep and put it on headphones in a lonely corner. Smoke a cigarette and think about what someone else is doing at this very moment. Someone you've never met, perhaps.
The second part of this rave has to do with Japanese celebrity. We're all so discriminating and critical back home that we successfully create barriers between the people known to many, and the people who we happily consider unknown. In japan, there is celebrity status to be sure, but Japanese celebrities really don't hang out on an elevated platform above the clouds. That would be too embarrassing. As humans, they never forget that their place is among other people. Sure, we clamor for their glory and humiliation when we can -- that aspect of fame is virtually universal, but we never mistake them for anything supernatural. God I love how human Japanese celebrities are. They expose themselves all over the place, as if inviting an attack on their character in the exact opposite way celebrities in the States shroud themselves in this iron-clad aura of mystery that they use to invite unwarranted curiosity and admiration. SMAP, as I said before, are whores, but they are hard-working whores who do their very best to make sure everyone gets a ride. They have sacrificed themselves to the entertainment of the masses, and besides making shitty and stupid songs, I can not call them out on anything lame that they couldn't justify with honesty. Do you see what I'm saying? They want to co-exist with us! We are permitted as much or as little as we want of them! You can write off SMAP as some boy-band pop-act that gets more attention than it deserves if you want to. You wouldn't be entirely incorrect, either. But they'll rap with you and never claim to be anything greater than what they really are: entertainers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5XcGq2URMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoZ-IZUmY1Q
Did you know that L'arc~en~Ciel makes some terribly wonderful music? I blame them almost as much as I do Toriyama for this fascination with Japan that has stunted my growth and tractor-beamed my ass across the ocean. The first song of theirs that I ever heard was Shinshoku: Lose Control, and I associated the rapid, unconventional time-changes with the independent unknown genius of Creedle. "A Japanese Creedle!" I deemed them, and though this was very wrong, they are in a different dimension as Creedle, but their music is at least as stimulating. Maybe it's like comparing a Klingon masterpiece with a Trandoshan masterpiece. Maybe you gotta be a huge nerd. I really don't know anything except that I am mesmerized and my resistance is low. I learned that by finding out song-by-song what L'arc is REALly all about: It's orchestration. At least that's what makes their songs so good. I could give a shit and a squirt about the lyrics and relentless romanticism that L'arc~en~Ciel puts into their image. I really believe that the Japanese have a wonderful sense of melody, in spite of their relentless emphasis on harmony. If you're not sure what orchestration really means to a band's output, try to imagine The Beatles without George Martin. And if you can't imagine that, imagine your high school's band without a conductor. Failing that, eat a dick sandwich cut by a drunken butcher equipped but a golf club. No wait -- don't do that. My analysis falls into ruin and admiration...I can't help it. Just listen -- listen to all the shit going on at the same time. Orchestration, effort, and a meticulous sense of compatibility between one sound and another. Try to follow one instrument all the way through, then go back and listen to a different one. A single song. For a group that tops the charts and fills up the largest venue in any town they bless, there is mad integrity behind every note. Aw fuck, there I go. I can't go on like this, so I'm going to ask anyone with unblunted nerve endings in their soul to find some L'arc~en~Ciel and apply some of the wonder of the world you may have shrugged off on your journey through it. Listen to it on your way to work. Take a drive across the country. Wait until everyone's asleep and put it on headphones in a lonely corner. Smoke a cigarette and think about what someone else is doing at this very moment. Someone you've never met, perhaps.
The second part of this rave has to do with Japanese celebrity. We're all so discriminating and critical back home that we successfully create barriers between the people known to many, and the people who we happily consider unknown. In japan, there is celebrity status to be sure, but Japanese celebrities really don't hang out on an elevated platform above the clouds. That would be too embarrassing. As humans, they never forget that their place is among other people. Sure, we clamor for their glory and humiliation when we can -- that aspect of fame is virtually universal, but we never mistake them for anything supernatural. God I love how human Japanese celebrities are. They expose themselves all over the place, as if inviting an attack on their character in the exact opposite way celebrities in the States shroud themselves in this iron-clad aura of mystery that they use to invite unwarranted curiosity and admiration. SMAP, as I said before, are whores, but they are hard-working whores who do their very best to make sure everyone gets a ride. They have sacrificed themselves to the entertainment of the masses, and besides making shitty and stupid songs, I can not call them out on anything lame that they couldn't justify with honesty. Do you see what I'm saying? They want to co-exist with us! We are permitted as much or as little as we want of them! You can write off SMAP as some boy-band pop-act that gets more attention than it deserves if you want to. You wouldn't be entirely incorrect, either. But they'll rap with you and never claim to be anything greater than what they really are: entertainers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5XcGq2URMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoZ-IZUmY1Q