Japanese Music

For some reason, I have seen more Japanese music in the last 2 weeks than I did in the last year, LIVING in Japan!
I suppose the exposure and finding out about schedules is much easier when you can navigate the websites in English or whatever (and not living in the Japanese countryside helps), but anyway...

So a couple weeks ago, Paul and I went to the New York-Tokyo Music Festival in Central Park. The festival represent two extremes, as in New York & Tokyo, East & West, underground & mainstream, cool & cute, futurism & traditionalism.... Upper East riches & downtown rugrats?

The Upper East was oddly milling with skateboarders and hip hop fans, and the normally quiet park was throbbing from the deep booming reverberations emanating from the park...

It was a great lineup, with the impressive Kenny Muhammed (The Human Orchestra) as MC/performer- it was freaking amazing to watch all those sounds only coming out of his mouth! Yes, indeed, he is the human beatbox!!!


Also playing were DJ Red Alert, Pharoahe Monche, Collie Buddz from New York, and from Japan.... the surprisingly awesome and fun TERIYAKI BOYZ & DJ Uppercut. Teriyaki Boyz were like young cute colorful versions of the Beastie Boys- they had such fresh raw energy... What a shame they didn't seem to get the support that they deserved from the (young-ish) crowd...


As the excitement was building up, Kenny Muhammed announced that headlining MF Doom was not going to make it because he was in the hospital. The audience booed (and were immediately admonished for "disrespectin'"), but with Doom's mysterious personality, most of us were just trying to figure out whether we were getting tricked or not.

When his equally respectable last-minute replacement, Rakim, showed up onstage, Paul practically fainted from excitement!! Again, unfortunately, there was only a small percentage of the crowd who really could appreciate his talent, which was a shame. For him, it was like me getting to watch The Beatles live, so I could imagine what a treat it was for him...


Then, last night, we rocked out to DJ Krush on his first stop of his American DVD Release tour. We picked up a copy of the DVD along with an autographed photo! The Highline Ballroom is a fantastic intimate venue! As usual, watching Krush was an amazing experience. I think I was still smiling this morning when I woke up!