Musicwhore.org

Back in August, I ran across the Hawaii 70s-80s Punk Museum curated by Dave Carr. I’ve been listening to a few of the albums posted on the site, and there’s a lot more to explore in the future.

I can’t say I fondly remember those bands because I was too young to be going to clubs at the time. Listening to this music later in life, I almost wish I could have seen these bands live or bought those albums back then. (Maybe I can fish them out the next time I visit Honolulu.)

Of course, all of these albums wear their Mainland influences on their sleeves, and there’s little really local about them. Their sense of Hawaii is primarily geographic. But that would have suited me fine as a young kid. I never liked Hawaiian music much, and I don’t anticipate developing a taste for it any time in the near nor distant future.

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Leo Imai follows up with his second album, titled Laser Rain, on April 22, reports Bounce.com. Guest musicians on this album include Ishiwatari Junji (SUPERCAR), TOKIE (unkie, AJICO), Rie Fu, Shirane Kenichi (Great3) and Fujii Naoyuki (Checkers). Bounce describes the concept of the album as "Music for the ’10s", and it continues the ’80s electro rock of the previous album. Imai embarks on a tour to support the album in June.

I recently relaunched all my sites — including this one — with a new web framework (as evidenced by a new URL structure.) So I missed out on the following news items from Bounce.com:

• Zoobombs’ mastermind Don Matsuo is releasing a second solo album, titled New Stone Age, on March 11. The album consists of 10 songs and is described by Bounce as being energetic and funky. Matsuo’s first solo album was released three years ago.

• MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS singer Miyamoto Natsuko was diagnosed with chronic chorditis, thus forcing the sudden cancellation of the duo’s tour. Doctors have ordered Miyamoto to give her vocals a rest. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery.
• ZAZEN BOYS are heading to New York for a few quick performances before embarking on a nationwide tour of Japan. The three-date tour from March 6 to 8 includes stops at Cake Shop, The Saint and Pianos. The band played some gigs in New York last year while recording ZAZEN BOYS 4 with Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios. (I actually learned about those gigs first from the Keikaku message boards.)

I wasn’t inclined to go to the music festival this year on account that I need to save cash for a trip in November, but now that I’ve looked over the full schedule, I can’t say I’m missing much.

If I were to go to the festival, I’d probably catch just the Friday Japan Nite, then spend the rest of the festival going to shows of gay interest. The Cliks and Jay Brannan aren’t listed, but Mirah is. So are the Indigo Girls, but I was never a fan.

Tokumaru Shugo is also no longer listed, but Flower Travellin’ Band and Natchuu have been added.

I might make it out to the Explosions in the Sky show at Auditorium Shores, since that’s free to the public. And if Grizzly Bear is doing a day show somewhere free, I might make an effort.

At least now I don’t have to worry about taking vacation time for that part of the week. But my friend Ryan is going to be in town for the Interactive festival. Hmmm …

Billboard.com reports Sony will reissue a remastered version of Terry Riley’s In C on March 24 to commemorate the piece’s 45th anniversary.

Riley recorded In C in 1964 for what was then Columbia Masterworks, now Sony Classical. The reissue includes new liner notes featuring interviews with Riley and some of the original players on the recording. Riley and some of those participants perform the work on April 24 at Carnegie Hall.

Still busy as all get out, but I thought I should mention I’m over at Blip.fm, which is essentially Twitter for music. I don’t post often, but when I do, I try to make it interesting. Not much on the Japanese content because my gimmick is to quote a line from the lyrics in my "blips", which are then cross-posted to Twitter, which then subsequently cross-posts to Facebook.

EMI Japan announced details of two books to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Utada Hikaru’s debut, reports Bounce.com. The label will publish two books, Ten and Sen, on March 10.

Ten contains writings by Utada herself and includes an official interview with the singer. Sen collects the various messages Utada has posted on her website from her debut to the present. Photographs by Kuge Yasuhide round out the books’ offerings. A limited edition pressing also includes a USB memory stick.

Utada is also set to release a new English-language album in March, which includes production by Stargate and Tricky Stewart.