Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama

Check the size of the coffee mug being wielded by Mr. Fripp - it’s bigger than his book! I could sure use a mug that size most mornings…

(Photos borrowed from here.)

…to all the mothers everywhere… especially these two new Morning MILFs:

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And to paraphrase Brother Ray, it wouldn’t be Stuck In A Pagoda without throwing in a different set of Mothers for good measure:
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As I begin to type this entry out, I have my Numark TTUSB Turntable out and a 200-gram pressing by Classic Records of the enduring Miles Davis album Kind Of Blue – one of the greatest albums ever made in any genre – playing; specifically, side two in the middle of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley’s alto sax solo on “All Blues”. I seem to be playing this album in this particular format at least once a week – I have owned Kind Of Blue in a couple of its different CD issues (the early 80’s release with its unnecessary digital remix of the album’s tracks and a totally different cover photo, and the remastered edition released in 1997 that is the version readily available, the master of which the vinyl pressing I am presently playing is based on) and I must say, even through the Logitech iPod speakers that my turntable is presently plugged directly into, the record sounds absolutely incredible. Just mentioning this particular pressing of the album on my LiveJournal led my colleague Vee to remark, “Holy crap, CJ, I got chills just reading that sentence”’ – which makes me wonder how she would react if she had been in the room with me to hear the actual record.

Vinyl has been making a rather unique resurgence over the past few years, notable enough for Time magazine to recently write an article about the phenomenon. The format has never disappeared – punk rock, alternative/indie rock, hip-hop, and electronic dance music have all kept the format alive, but most chain music stores do not stock them (unless they’re as big as Virgin Megastore’s Times Square, New York location).

Ironically, one national chain that is carrying some vinyl is Hot Topic. Don’t laugh. It’s not a wide or even a large selection – the selection is limited to some punk, alternative and metal releases (not surprising given Hot Topic’s sales demographic), but if you wanted to grab Paramore’s Riot! or No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom on colored vinyl, or a picture disc of Fall Out Boy’s Infinity on High or Slayer’s South Of Heaven (not Reign In Blood, American Recordings?), you’d be set.
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The reaction so far to my previous post about Radicalquisling has been, save for one sole dissenter, absolutely positive. Thank you, everyone that has commented so far.

And in a further rocking of my whole f’n sock drawer, the lovely Vee chose tonight to surprise me with a new version of the Reina Tanaka/Robert Fripp banner for this blog. Thank you, Vee, you are a true friend.

5. Alvin & The Chipmunks “Christmas Don’t Be Late”. Original, OLD-SCHOOL Alvin and company. No CGI or ProTools involved.

4. Joey Ramone & Friends “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight)”. A live rendition from the last show Joey ever performed (12.11.01).

3. Reina Tanaka “Kira Kira Fuyu No Shiny G” . Not really a Christmas song, but it was on Morning Musume’s 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu EP that came out right beforehand, and what Tanakachiii fanatic wouldn’t want The Wonkylicious Sex Bomb under their tree?

2. PetitMoni “Pittari Shirari Xmas”. A live version. This one’s for Vee, who adores Hitomi as much as I adore Reina.

1. Spinal Tap “Christmas With The Devil”. From their appearance on Saturday Night Live… in May of 1984, complete with the interview that preceded. At least there wasn’t an 18-inch Stonehenge this time around.

And finally… one of my short stories, “The Man In The Hummer”, was accepted for publication by Jaded Silence Press for their horror anthology Deliver Us From Evil, to be released in early 2008. More on a release date when I get it. I found out Saturday afternoon and sent them the corrected final draft yesterday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

News flash: Led Zeppelin have given the green light to allow their entire back catalog, along with a new anthology and a remixed The Song Remains The Same soundtrack, to be on all legal digital download services, including iTunes. Just in time for their (alleged) one-off reunion show, too, and a smart move on Jimmy Page’s part.

Meanwhile, my mother was complaining to me the other night that Bob Seger’s few digital offerings (Night Moves and his most recent album) disappeared from iTunes entirely. Seger allegedly doesn’t want people to download individual songs anymore, just his full albums, and I am presuming that Apple balked. Any artist that doesn’t allow their music to be available as legal downloads should just have their CDs and vinyl taken out of print. Seger doesn’t seem to grasp the reality that not everybody wants to have to pay for an entire album just to get one or two songs - iTunes’s “Complete My Album” policy for those wanting to take the rest of the plunge be damned.

The mix CD that inspired the graphic of MotokoAoyama.com v2.0… or is it the other way around?

In actuality, I had the concept for the graphic first, but while I was thinking about it, I fooled around with a track listing in iTunes (one of the great things about iTunes and iPods – I can fool around with mix CD track listings before committing a final sequence to a CD-R) and this was the result, which probably spurred my making the final graphic for the site in the first place.

Doing mixes like this is second nature to me. There’s a Black Flag vs. TLC mix that I posted at ArtOfTheMix.org in 2002 (and was well received there, mostly for its sheer ballsyness), and back in the days of cassettes I used to put two albums that had nothing in common with each other outside of my liking them both on each side (Somewhere in my house there is a Maxell C-90 with Debbie Gibson’s first album on one side and Soul Asylum’s Hang Time on the other.)

Anyway, I might as well take everyone through this mix, track by track:
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I had no advance notice of it, but I was not surprised to see nine albums from George Harrison’s solo back catalog added to iTunes yesterday. It’s not the complete catalog (yet) - Dark Horse and Extra Texture are missing, as are his two Beatles-era side project albums Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound - but it’s nice to have the nine remaining albums, including his landmark All Things Must Pass and his final statement Brainwashed there. It was only a matter of time, since Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr had already made their iTunes debuts in the three previous months.

George’s widow Olivia told the Associated Press that she hopes that the Beatles’ group back catalog appears on iTunes in 2008. She’s not the only one.

Coincidentally, George’s tracks went up on iTunes on October 9, which was John Lennon’s birthday. Appropriately, one of the tracks I downloaded yesterday was this pre-Anthology reunion of the surviving Beatles that memorialized John.

Tsunku, the man behind the mixing desk and the pen for Morning Musume and Hello! Project, has been called a lot of things. One of the most complimentary was the word “genius” when ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman mentioned him in a 2004 Guitar World piece. He’s produced every Morning Musume recording except their “demo” single “Ai No Tane”, and most of Hello! Project’s recordings over the past ten years, and I have no fault with his productions. However, I thought it would be interesting if Tsunku decided to take a temporary secondary role if the opportunity came for a superstar producer to sit behind the board for a Morning Musume session. He’d still be in the writing chair, but be more of a witness than a primary director to the session while someone with a long track record and a set of fresh ears worked with our heroines.

5. Howard Benson - For one of MoMusu’s modern guitar rock excursions, he’d be perfect. On one hand, he’s worked with Motorhead, Ice-T’s Body Count, Flyleaf, and Three Days Grace, On the other hand, he also worked with American Idle also-ran Daughtry. Umm, maybe we’d better rethink that one…

4. Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds – Responsible for some of TLC’s best tracks that didn’t have Dallas Austin’s name in the production credits. Given that he has “Red Light Special” amongst his credits, imagine what he could do with the increasingly sexual Viyuden.

3. Jeff Lynne – The man knows how to work with great vocalists, and multiple vocalists, and get great chorus vocal sounds. Anyone that could get such multiple personalities as Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison on the same track (not to mention get the surviving three Beatles to cooperate with each other for “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love”) could have a field day – hell, a virtual cakewalk – with our girls. Can anyone also say Tsunku/Jeff Lynne songwriting collaboration?

2. Rick Rubin – The man’s production credits (Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash, LL Cool J, Slayer, Donovan, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Diamond, Dixie Chicks, The Cult, Mick Jagger, Danzig, Tom Petty, System Of A Down, Slipknot, Issac Hayes, U2, Weezer, Justin Timberlake, Bob Dylan, Shakira) and roster of his American Recordings label (most of the above plus Geto Boys, Flipper, Jesus And Mary Chain, Black Crowes, Frank Black, MC 900 Ft. Jesus, Julian Cope, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Wesley Willis) are just as wonderfully diverse musically as Morning Musume’s back catalog. They’d probably be a perfect fit. The only problem is, Rubin has been known to go in and out of many different sessions, leaving the artists and engineer to fend for themselves (a tendency that had Velvet Revolver dismiss Rubin from the helm of their second album, and had Weezer put a rather obvious co-production credit on their Rubin-helmed album), or tell artists to keep writing songs until Rubin felt they were ready (a tactic that did result in one of Neil Diamond’s better albums, 12 Songs). Methinks that neither MoMusu nor Tsunku would put up with that shit. I don’t even want to fathom the possibility of having Morning Musume live and record in same haunted Hollywood mansion that the Chili Peppers lived and recorded in for BloodSugarSexMagik…

1. Brian Eno – Some people might know the man for his ambient and instrumental albums like Music For Airports, Music For Films, and Discreet Music, his collaborations with Robert Fripp (No Pussyfooting, which was the first recorded instance of the “Frippertronics” tape-loop playback system) and David Byrne (My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, said to be the favorite album of Public Enemy’s right hand man Hank Shocklee), or just for being the weirdo that was in Roxy Music for their first two albums. But the man knows his way around the producer’s chair (Talking Heads’ Fear Of Music and Remain In Light, David Bowie’s ‘Berlin trilogy’, and U2’s The Joshua Tree, anyone?) and around pop songs (ever hear Eno’s 1979 album Before and After Science? “Backwater” and “King’s Lead Hat” will stick to your brain just as long as “Egao YES Nude” and “Kanahshimi Twilight”!). Besides, I’d like to see Eno hand Tsunku a deck of his Oblique Strategies cards just to see what kind of songs Tsunku comes up with for an Eno-helmed MoMusu album.