Les Hazlewood » Music

Americans should get out more

admin — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 03:31:32 +0000

I’m so amazingly fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to travel out of this country a few times. To experience other cultures first hand is just a great life experience, and I can say that it definitely changed my life. I’m far more interested in international affairs and cultures than I would ever be if I hadn’t visted overseas. The MASSIVE amount of excellent quality music overseas blew my mind away. There are so many artists that I really enjoy now only because I’ve travelled and lived overseas for a little bit, just long enough to be introduced to these things.

I lived in Spain (Barcelona) for a semester in college. Now that was an amazing experience. I had taken Spanish for 2 years in college prior to going, and Georgia Tech College of Computing was offering a study abroad experience at UPC, so I jumped on the opportunity. I enjoyed it so much, and I was fairly fluent by the end of that trip, that I tried to find a job in Spain so I could further foster my love for Spanish culture. Anyway, the job market over there for Computer Science sucked at the time, so I couldn’t do it, but that’s neither here nor there. Back to my discussion…

While in Barcelona, I discovered an abundance of really good music. And when I say really good, I mean _really_ good – stuff that made you want to dance, but still had sophisticated melodies and rhythms, as if talent was still required to create it. This is in contrast to most American pop music where the major purpose is to propagate a business model – to make money via a marketing machine. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like some 50 cent now and again, but I think the core function of music is to invoke feeling through genuine empathy, using sound as the medium. American pop music is more about the money than empathy (well, unless one considers sexual tension as the empathetic goal). This is often through no fault of the artists themselves, but instead because of the mega mogul music labels (kiss my ass RIAA).

Now, I’m not some self-proclaimed nutso musical elitist. I like the ‘down ‘n dirty dirty Southern hip-hop as much as the Strauss Liebesleider waltz. I like the Beastie Boys as much as I like chamber music. I really like Cassie’s new single “Me and U” at the moment. I’m pumped with energy by Reggaeton’s primordial overtones. I’m utterly blown away by Yo Yo Ma and his $3 million dollar Siren of a cello in the Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack. I absolutely love anti-nihlistic Japanese Pop (JPop). My musical interests span a rediculous repertoire – I’m weird like that.

This interest is in part due to my exposure to European culture. Barcelona was a great gateway in this regard. Barcelona (and nearby neighbor Ibiza) is like ground zero for Europeans under the age of 30. So many people from all over Europe in one place, with the Catalunyan and Castillian background, make for a recipe of lots of partying, fantastic food, and a blend of all styles of music. When I was in Port Olympíc (seaside Barcelona), there were no less than 20 small music/dance clubs lining a 1/4 mile strip, all of which played different styles of music – Salsa, Brazilian beats, Trance, House, Hip-Hop, 80′s Rock, etc, etc, etc. You name it. Ahhh, the memories…..

Anyway, it was in Spain that I found a first love for Spanish acoustic guitar – from the classical Baroque style to the raw but sophisticated Gipsy Kings and more. I was introduced to my first dose of European Trance (Ibiza), which later became a big part of my regular music-listening routine. I heard and saw Spanish Flamenco for the first time. And, because Barcelona is so close to the French border, I heard a wild array of French pop and rock, all of which was pretty cool. This melting pot really opened up my eyes (and ears) to music on a global scale. Now I’m really into JPop and my future wife Tomiko Van (yeah, I wish. Ok, no otaku tension there….yeah, right.)

Now there is NO WAY that I would be listening to Tomiko Van, Utada Hikaru, and Teriyaki Boyz today if it wasn’t for me getting out of this country to see the world a bit. I recommend to all my fellow countrymen to take a trip and learn a little. At least your musical life will be far more interesting.

To finish off this post, here are some groups that I was listening to today. I was on what I call a “Euro-chill” trip today, and these two groups fit that description nicely:

Royksopp (Norwegian group):

Only This Moment:

Epple (won MTV award for best video of the year):

Phoenix (French group):
If I Ever Feel Better (_really_ popular when I was in Spain):

Too Young:

かわいい (Cute) to Death

admin — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 15:22:35 +0000

So, I started taking Japanese classes a couple of weeks ago, and I really like what I’m learning. The language is actually very easy once you get the patterns down. Much easier than say, Latin or Spanish.

Anyway, as I’ve alluded to before, I like to immerse myself as much as I can when learning new things. So, I started watching a lot of Japanese films with English subtitles to sort of pick up on the tone and general “feel” of the language, even if I don’t know what the actors are saying. The subtitles do help a lot though – I occasionally see things I’ve learned in class and correlate them to the dialog, and it does help reinforce what I’ve learned. Most of the films so far have been from the obligatory Akira Kurosawa collection, and they’ve been incredible. If you’re not familiar with Akira Kurosawa, he’s like Spielberg, Hitchcock, and Kubrick all rolled into one – a national (and now global) icon. His stuff is studied meticulously in film schools worldwide and he was a genius.

Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is to say that I’m having a lot of fun learning about the culture in addition to the language, and I’ve seem some amazing things (Kurosawa’s movies), but I’ve also seen a lot of very weird things.

For example, Japan is freaking nuts about anything cute. The cuter the better. If its disgustingly cute by American standards, its just near perfect for Japanese folks. The word for cute, as the title of this post metions is ‘kawaii’, spelled with 4 hiragana symbols: ka wa i i -> かわいい.

Everything in Japan is かわいい. The tv shows, the toys, the video games (Nintendo anyone? games saturated with cuteness…), clothing, etc. I think I read somewhere there are 10,000 to 15,000 individually licensed Hello Kitty products alone (look at the link, you’ll see what I’m talking about).

There’s even a かわいい-ラジオ (kawaii-radio). And I have to say I’m hooked (on the station, not the ‘cuteness’). I like J-Pop, and I’ve been listening to that station for acouple of days. So sue me

So, when listening to that station, you’ll usually hear a lot of good stuff, but occasionally some over-the-top cutesy songs. I heard one and then found its video – its really…weird:

See what I mean? Bizarre….

Anyway, I guess its not that bad – just a little much. I could even suppose its better than American pop culture – American music glorifies violence, sex, drugs, frivolous spending, lack of responsibility, etc – lord knows what influence that has on our youth and makes us all the more screwed up because of it. Perhaps we Americans can take notes – its better to be too ‘cute’ than too negative. Maybe playing more Nintendo games is a start (something I’ll have to work on – still a little hard for me to swallow just yet)

Addicted to Utada Hikaru

admin — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 02:44:17 +0000

Ok, so I’m a little ashamed to be writing this post. But, whats the point of a blog if you can’t spill your guts every now and then?

I’m currently feeding a juvenile addiction by being absolutely hooked on a Japanese Pop artist named Utada Hikaru.
I look at that sentence and think to myself “How the heck did I ever even hear about that chick”?

Well, since I lived in Europe (Barcelona) for a semester back in my college days, I was introduced and really opened up to international music. It was there that I found a love for certain forms of guitar as well as techno (vocal trance) and other forms of ‘electronica’. Barcelona had a great following, with Ibiza so close by – ground zero for enthusiasts worldwide.
Anyway, when I came back to the States with my new found love, I started listening to more and more of it via ShoutCast streams. My favorite one is the Digitally Imported Vocal Trance station.

So, I’m listening to Digitally Imported one day, and I heard this techno remix of some Japanese song. It was freaking awesome – a nice blend of vocals over a killer beat track touching on the minor scale while resolving cleanly to the major. It was awesome. As the song came to a close, I quickly jotted the name down and noticed it was a remix of a song by some artist named Utada Hikaru.

Although I can’t remember the name of the song now (It was probably a mix of ‘Simple and Clean’, which is the most popular for dance mixes), that song led me to good ‘ol Google.

So, I googled away and found some of her stuff. I listened to it. I was then sucked in. I now feed my addiction with songs and videos.

Here are my favorites so far (watch out, you might get sucked in too!):

#1. Keep Tryin’:

#2. Passion – a really great song for a potential trance mix, beautiful imagery in the video:

#3. Passion (Live performance, but watch #2 first)

There’s an abstractly seductive yet elegant quality about her; I can’t really put my finger on it.

Maybe introducing you to these songs will broaden your musical horizon just like it did mine, even if you don’t agree with my juvenile addiction Enjoy!