Jeff Lang . Tokyo 2012

As I highlighted in my Djan Djan  post, Jeff has been a long time favorite of mine. After hearing him play 'Elvis is Dead' three years ago on the internet I fell in love with both his music and the Weissenborn style lap slide. I now thankfully own an entry level model and have been naively plucking away for own amusement for a year or so and always listening to Jeff's wonderfully disturbed folk for enlightenment. Nonetheless, I have never been able to see him live. Alas, as Japan's long-time guitar culture is alive and well, it comes as no surprise that the relatively commercially unknown Lang (even in Australia) is highly regarded as a fretboard aficionado in Japan. Deservedly, he held down a prime Friday night slot at Daikanyama's  UNIT for people willing to dig deep. And many where. The packed house were recipients of truly profound musicianship from both Jeff and drummer Danny McKenna, for a tick over two hours. I was seriously in awe, and along with everyone else I didn't hold back on letting out a couple of howls when Jeff was in full flight.

After the show I got to meet both of them, and the two local Victorians where refreshed by my Australian accent. I had thanked them sincerely and chatted about my own living and studying status in Tokyo. After they singed my new CD's, one of which is a live recording from Melbourne, Jeff said "Seeya Ryan!" as I walked out of the room smiling from ear to ear. I also yanked a gig poster off the wall on the way out of which is highly taboo in Japan. So that's about as rebellious as I get. Below is a clip of him a few years back.

Vivek & Swaroop

Back in June on my first few days in Mumbai, Phil and I decided to hit up a local club called Blue Frog . Tabla and Hindi scat master Vivek Rajagopalan and his quartet teamed up with Indian Idol star Swaroop Khan. Here is some footage of both that night and Kahn exercising his well oiled Rajasthani pipes. The Total Recall like fit-out and the simple fact I was hitting the Mumbai night scene for the first time was just straight-up extraordinary.

A Social Thursday

I had a really great day today sharing Tokyo with new and old friends from back home. I had recently met R through my recent Melbourne visitor L and I offered to show her around Shimokitazawa today. As we archi kids from Melbourne town are into thrift stores and nostalgic repertoires, Shimokitazawa can be a dangerous place for the precious Japanese yen. I met up with R around midday at Shibuya crossing and we then head onto the Inokashira line bound for 'Shimokit' (as we and C like to refer). For the next two hours or so R and I wandered around a few shops admiring the plethora of interesting things. We had a pleasant drink at The Darwin Room, possibly one of the quaintest shops in the area and it is as it suggests full of botanic books, bugs and bits and bobs in the theme of Charles Darwin. The inbuilt benches against the large front windows made an ideal people watching setting. As I was due to meet B down the road at three, I showed R only the location of other great shops and left her to engange in come solid retail therapy. Reports are a few garments, shoes and collectable records are on their way back to Melbourne.

I then made my way down to Komaba-Todaimae station to meet up with my passionate Portugese maninho, B. The purpose of our exchange was that he is doing me huge favor and lending me his snowboard gear for my upcoming Hokkaido and Niseko adventure. As I waited on the platform  rekindling my love affair with Battles (see video) - some serious head bobbing occured - I was then amused to see B running down the street in a rage of energy with the gear on his back. We greeted like lost brothers and then B, a friend of his and myself boarded the train back to Shibuya. B and I discussed his upcoming Australia adventure with great excitement and then parted ways at Shibuya station.

Later that evening, a friend of mine Richard Stampton from Melbourne whom I used to both study under and work for organised to catch up for dinner.  http://richardstampton.com/

We decided to meet at a particular 'Starbucks above the concourse' in Shinjuku around 6:30. I arrived at a Starbucks above a concourse however after 20 minutes or so I began to think we had different Starbucks in mind (there are a total of 22 in Shinjuku). It was a wrong doing on my part as my past experience with L at a Shinjuku meet up point didn't go so well either. I ran around checking other Starbucks until I gladly found Richard still waiting for me at...a Starbucks above a concourse. We happily greeted and set off to find a place to eat. I had read up on a few places to eat before-hand however I wasn't keen on engaging in a needle in a haystack activity after my subsequent Starbucks "cluster fuck" (J.K Simmons, Burn After Reading). However amongst our healthy chatter and aimless wandering we incredibly stumbled across Touch of Spice a Thai place that I read up on so we headed to the third floor and were seated immediately. We chatted about his wonderfully hectic trip around Japan and the many oddities of Japanese culture. After our delicious meals, we decided to head to a gig at the Pit Inn live house which was not far. I had checked to see what was on beforehand and was intrigued by the combination of instruments on the bill. 

Michiyo Yagi Double Trio
Michiyo Yagi(20 strings&17 strings Koto,Vocals)

Todd Nicholson(Contrabass)

Takashi Sugawa(Contrabass,Cello,Electric Bass)

Tamaya Honda(Drums)

Yasunori Tanaka(Drums)

Michiyo Yagi, an innovative Koto player who has been overturning the conventional sense of Koto instrument, combined two leading rhythm sections in Japanese jazz scene into this unique group. Performing mainly Yagi’s original pieces that incorporated Japanese music, free jazz and progressive rock, the double trio played a range of pieces including the theme music from Seijun Suzuki’s monstrous film ’Branded to Kill’ (Koroshi no rakuin) and Nick Drake’s ’River Man’ with Yagi’s radical arrangements. As Richard pointed out, there were also epic moments that chanelled the Dirty Three. It was by far my most favorite gig in Japan. Here is some footage of Yagi's skills from the evening that I recorded.