6 ° of Separation
I havent had a lot of time to do much of anything but its been a long long long while since I made a jrock review post so yup here goes.
DIG DAG - RUSH
Random ref#1:: MORRISSEY: CAMINO --> (Too many other bands to mention so we'll skip ahead to the ones you are familiar with) --> FAKE? <--> DIG DAG
Picked up RUSH a while back and just like the mini album FREEDOM, its packed full of energy from track 1 to 12. I think my favorite or the one that hooked me was Willie Willie which is the first track. This one I really like because TAMA reminds me of beaker from the Muppet Babies in it and this is what you really get when you leave Zay and Mo in a room together with hilarity and booze. For some reason I enjoy listening to TAMA sound like he had a bit too much sugar though and throwing out random curse words while he sings 'XXX'. No seriously, those are the lyrics.
....lol kinda. If you catch the actual meaning of the song.
Moving on, I like most about this album is you can hear Morrissey's influence all throughout; the hyper spastic drum beats and the low thrum of his bass. Two of his fave instruments clashing together in a mix of parties and beer time that go on in his head. He did do the music for a couple of the songs on the album like Willie Willie, picture OF, ~Veronika~, and wrote the lyrics for FULL TEN and you can really tell too. Anyway right from Willie Willie, picture OF almost sounds like a continuance of the first track like its telling you 'No! The energy didn't stop yet!' and starts off with that wonderful bass line to pull you in. Alot of the songs almost kind of sound like they're about to go into some random seizure at any moment but keep themselves together by the rhythm of the instruments. I don't know how to explain it really, but I like it. The third track Stella is okay but I really like to get into Blank Life. It's one of the semi-mellow rock songs on there, good grind of the guitars during the hook. I think it would make a good intro song for an emo teenage sitcom and TAMA can be the lead character. I really wish he would smile or...show emotion....or...be human...like but Blank Life is a really nice song.
Kaban Jacket sounds like something out of a 1980's car commercial. I feel like I should have on some neon yellow hot pants while rolling around on roller skates and washing my car or something. Oh. With pigtails. Can't forget the pigtails. I don't know, something like that I guess. It's catchy but it makes me laugh everytime I play it. Hey! Maybe I'll go to the con as TAMA! I can walk around in a bright orange sweater to my knees with brown shorts down to my ankles and glare blankly at random people. Impostor I like a lot. It's their instrumental track on the album but I've always been partial to instrumental tracks thrown onto an album to soothe you down. (HeelllOOOOOO INORAN enthusiast here?) it's the kind of sound that I either want to blast in my car so people can look and go WTF!? or workout to (yea, work out not dance. I'm weird like that). Either way, both are fun and amusing to do to the song. And eventhough TAMA already sounds six, I think he sounds really cute in other side. Another fun song I could see as the intro to an anime this time. I always end up characterizing them in some way but its the best way to describe them on time restraints right? Anyway, MANNEQUIN is a good song too, nice and catchy then comes Chelucy's Girl that Eric Zay wrote the words for. Yeah, this one really sounds like a Zay song to me. (HEY HEY HEY I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING THIS TIME YOU KNOW WHO SO SHOOSH!) but I like ~Veronika~ the next track. Its the second song that really confirmed it for me that I was going to get the album. They have a music video for it and a live dubbed version on their MySpace but I think the live version is a bit better then the regular PV. Yeah, ~Veronika~ is my third fave on the album, its one of the "saner" songs which they seem to have the further you get into the album but it works really well and I like the electric and the acoustic guitars a lot as they blend really well with the strings in the end.
Annnnnnd then right when you thought it was safe to turn the volume up, Mo's song FULL TEN comes on and you go right back into the THERE MUST BE A KID WITH ADHD INFLUENCING THIS TRACK oh wait, THAT'S MO! moment lol. Its not too bad but that weird Electric Company slash 3 2 1 Contact slash Reading Rainbow sound going through it fucks with my head @_@; but at least the guitars sound damn good in it though. Pop, the last song starts out pretty cool but then my brain loses interest about two minutes in. Maybe I need to listen to it a little more instead of skipping back to Willie Willie.
All in all, to me RUSH is like an album you would listen to when you're up to causing trouble in a good way so yesh, me likes it indeed.
*EDIT* btw, Shibuya Airwaves is love for having DIG DAG's songs come up as soon as I went to listen to their show.
AND
LUNA SEA - Complete Best
Random ref#2:: INORAN --> LS --> FAKE? -->TOURBILLON <--> Solo
And because I'm tired as #!&$ a nice pretty pic of the LUNA SEA Complete Best from a
website:
The next album I picked up was the LUNA SEA Complete Best. All LS peoples, this dual CD album is a must. The remastered tracks are so divine. INORAN's, J's, SUGIZO's, and Shinya's instruments are very even and well balanced with each other, you can really hear each one individually as they play together and Ryuichi's voice (as it sounded at the LS OND) is beyond wonderful. And hearing Mother so clearly makes me wanna just bawl even more so most of the time I have to skip it ^^;;
If you could never really hear what the woman was saying in End of Sorrow, you can hear every single word she says now in slightly articulated Engrish. ^^ But Ryu's voice in Jesus you can hear every word 'specially the JESUS.....DON'T YOU LOVE ME? that's all dramatic like of course. I really cant describe how amazing it all sounds. OH! And is anyone elses windows media player categorizing CD 2 as their Memorial Rebirth CD and titling all the songs wrong? Because it's HARDLY comparable to that album. I think my media player is on crack for that one. Well, not much more to say about this one other then it's another LS great buy if you can withstand the value of the US $1 on imports ^^