Akemashite omedetou! Happy New Year! We hope you have a happy and safe 2010.

RADIO TOKYO hopes to be back in action later this year once semester starts again at Swinburne university. The new timetable and schedule will be published as soon as we know it.

In the meantime, enjoy the unofficial anthem for the year: “2010″ by Cornelius!

This fantastic bit of animation was directed by Kousuke Sugimoto with music by Takayuki Manabe. It seems to be a joint collaboration project, with the music and animation being created for each other, rather than a typical PV where the animation may be made for the song.

Either way, it’s a lot of fun – enjoy!

Hi all,

As mentioned in this week’s show, RADIO TOKYO won’t be on the air for the next two weeks because I’ll be in Tokyo itself!

I’m attending the pillows’ 20th anniversary gig at Nippon Budokan, but I’ll also be trying to catch some other live shows and definitely doing a lot of CD shopping!

To celebrate 20th anniversary gig, I’ll also be creating a playlist of the pillows’ songs-for-the-day. Listen to the playlist here.

In the meantime, I leave you in the capable hands of the 3SSR team to fill in while I’m in Japan. I’ll see you all in 2 weeks!

Ohisashiburi!

Back again after nearly 10 months on hiatus! Swinburne’s Student Radio station 3SSR received an upgrade so we’re back on the air! Did you miss us?

the pillows – Tokyo Bambi
Rie Fu – 2cm
Cornelius – Fit Song
Orange Range – Asterisk
Yasushi Ishii – LOGOS naki WORLD (A world without logos)
The 5.6.7.8s – Mr. Lee
cow’p – Small speaker smell
YMCK – Synchronicity
NICO Touches the Walls – Doronko Dobby
STANCE PUNKS – Cockney Night
noodles – The balloon is above my head
sowelu – Shine
GARLIC BOYS – Mushroom Cat to Duffle Coat
onanie machine – Boku wa stalker
Sambomaster – Seishun Kyousokyoku
Plus Tech Squeeze Box – Uncle Chicken’s Drag Rag
TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA – Guts for saxophone
Asian Kung-Fu Generation – Loop & Loop
Lizard! – Robot Love
Belle Ame – Lost Melody
Hayashi Hideo – Hey Polar
Hoover’s Ooover – Timer
Makoto Kawamoto – 1/2

SOUR / 日々の音色 (Hibi no Neiro) MV from Magico Nakamura on Vimeo.

What an awesomely choreographed video clip! This was done entirely with web cameras and was directed by Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura and Masayoshi Nakamura.

Found via Jean Snow.

Melbourne’s favourite busker (in fact, Australia’s favourite busker!), the “Japanese Blues Cowboy” George Kamikawa, was featured this week in The Age’s entertainment section!

Kamikawa is a regular feature of Bourke Street Mall where he plays some kick-ass blues music on a beaten up old guitar. He’s originally from the Nagoya area of Japan, and is now married and settled in Australia. If you can, try to get a copy of his CD while he’s busking!

Hiza:ki – “lamp”
Faye Wong (composed by Nobuo Uematsu) – “Eyes on Me”
SOUTH BLOW – “Contrast”
the pillows – “Runners High” (karaoke version)
Yasushi Ishii – “LOGOS NAKI WORLD”
Southern All Stars – “TSUNAMI”
Asakusa Jinta – “Ride & Bent”
paro no JAPAN – “paro no dancing all night”
The Seatbelts – “Fantasie Sign” (Ian Pooley remix)
The Canastas – “NENAI NENAI NENAI”
w-inds – “Shiki”
OGRE YOU ASSHOLE – “Mata Ashita”
The Predators – “BAKUON DROP”
STANCE PUNKS – “ikareta BOOGIE”
ghostnote – “love song”
The 50 Kaitenz – “Saturday Night”
POLYSICS – “BUGGY TECHNICA”
THE BREAKERS – “I FOUGHT THE LAW”
Chieco Kawabe – “Sakura Kiss”
Ni Hao! – “MISS FUJIKO”
LANCER>>Bee – “mamagoto”
PISTOL VALVE – “Sit at Cow Char Nall”
Ai Otsuka – “U-Botto”
L’arc~en~Ciel – “Niji”

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION – “Rewrite”
The Emeralds – “All My Love For You”
Swing Girls OST – “COMIN THROUGH THE RYE”
Zunou Keisatsu – “Comic zasshi nanka iranai”
ORANGE RANGE – “~*Asterisk~”
the pillows – “Lorelai”
cow’p – “small smell’s speaker”
Ai Otsuka – “Tokyo Midnight”
AKAKAGE – “THEME FROM LUPIN THE 3RD 3 – AKAKAGE’S Happy Set-”
Yoko Kanno – “Hodo”
PLUS-TECH SQUEEZE BOX – “milk tea”
pirokalpin – “Kyoto”
BEAT CRUSADERS – “Firestarter”
The Seatbelts – “What Planet Is This?!”
YMCK – “Magical 8bit Tour”
Analog Fish – “Speed”
doburoku – “Don’t Remember Me”
LAST ALLIANCE – “Shissou”
Okino Shuntaro – “Cloud Age Symphony”

HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY TO the pillows! Can’t wait til the big 2 – 0!

the pillows – “Tokyo Bambi”
NICO touches the walls – “Broken Youth”
minxzone – “Vinyl Umbrella”
Hoover’s ooover – “Timer”
The Emeralds – “Love is Rolling”
The Emeralds – “Talk About Love”
Doberman – “shasho wa nekoronda mama”
the pillows – “ROCK’N'ROLL SINNERS”
THE BEACHES – “POLICE & BOYS & GIRLS”
Minmi – “love song”

cow’p – “small speaker’s smell”
GO!GO!7188 – “Ska”
HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR – “Rain”
the pillows – “Little Busters” (live)
LANCER>>bee – “mamagoto”
Ni Hao! – “MISS FUJIKO”
noodles – “Cover Me Shakespeare”
little by little – “kimi monogatari”
Galneryus – “Struggle for the Freedom Flag”
the pillows – “BOAT HOUSE”

Japan has this strange talent for taking things from the rest of the world and making them better. Making them their own. Look at ramen, kanji, beer, the automotive industry… Music is no exception. The Japanese music industry is the second largest in the world and full of every genre imaginable, many of which were adopted from the West.

Like Rock & Roll.

One of my new favourite bands are THE EMERALDS. The trio started in 2002 in my second home-town, Yokohama.

L-R: Osuke (B.), Kazuya (G. & Vo.) and Akio (D.)

Their fun riffs and energetic performances make you want to bounce off the walls and wonder whether Rock & Roll was in fact invented by the Japanese!

The band had only released a number of singles and mini-albums but this year saw the arrival of their first full-length studio album ‘LOVE IS ROLLING’.

Already, THE EMERALDS have quite a following overseas, particularly in America, where they have performed at the famous SXSW festival in Texas every year since 2004. They’ve also appeared at a number of anime conventions, where the crowds loved them, despite not understanding their lyrics or recognising any of their songs from famous anime soundtracks.

This ability to engage the crowd seems to be an EMERALDS specialty. Stories abound of how they can get a crowd who’ve never heard them before stamping their feet and cheering within a minute of playing. They’re now known as the “Samurai R&R Trio” with performances as cutting-edge as a samurai sword.

Their fans aren’t just in the U.S. though. They’re getting radio airplay in Europe and Central America. In Korea, they performed at the country’s largest music festival: Ssamzie Sound Festival” to a crowd of over 10,000. In their native Japan, they tour and get media grabs constantly.

Now, we’re giving them some airplay in Australia! Hopefully they can tour here one day.

Check out THE EMERALDS on the internet:
Official Site
MySpace