Sunset Drive- Carry Me
Fact- Stretch My Arms
Lillies And Remains- Grind
Electric Eel Shock- Sugoi Indeed
Natccu- Crescent Moon
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- EVER
Skunkrice- Blue
Riddim Saunter- Bad Is...
80 Kidz- Miss Mars
DE DE MOUSE- 555 Is In Your Heart
Tokyo Pinsalocks- Antenna
Tucker- Jump Around
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Beard's Asian Tour 20/10/10
BoA- Eat You Up (South Korea)
Carsick Cars- Volunteer (China)
Bottlesmoker- Before Circus Over (Indonesia)
Outsider ft MC Sniper and Horan- Heart Disease (South Korea)
Yoko Ishida- At Your Own Speed (Japan)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Flower (Japan)
TM Network- GET WILD (Japan)
Misono- VS (Japan)
Trilogy Of Tracks- East Meets West
Koda Kumi feat Fergie- That Ain't Cool (Japan/USA)
G Dragon feat Flo Rida- Heartbreaker (South Korea/USA)
Bonnie Pink feat Craig David- Fed Up (Japan/UK)
The TRAX- Blaze Away (South Korea)
Vanilla Unity- Tomorrow (South Korea)
An Cafe- Nyappy In The World 4 (Japan)
Carsick Cars- Volunteer (China)
Bottlesmoker- Before Circus Over (Indonesia)
Outsider ft MC Sniper and Horan- Heart Disease (South Korea)
Yoko Ishida- At Your Own Speed (Japan)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Flower (Japan)
TM Network- GET WILD (Japan)
Misono- VS (Japan)
Trilogy Of Tracks- East Meets West
Koda Kumi feat Fergie- That Ain't Cool (Japan/USA)
G Dragon feat Flo Rida- Heartbreaker (South Korea/USA)
Bonnie Pink feat Craig David- Fed Up (Japan/UK)
The TRAX- Blaze Away (South Korea)
Vanilla Unity- Tomorrow (South Korea)
An Cafe- Nyappy In The World 4 (Japan)
Beard's Asian Tour 13/10/10
Abingdon Boys School- Kimi No Uta (Japan)
Job 2 Do- No War (Thailand)
Brown Eyed Girls- Abracadabra (South Korea)
Kyosuke Himuro- Calling (Japan)
Nell- Memories of Walking Through Time (South Korea)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Journey Through The Decade (Japan)
Kara- Lupin (South Korea)
Aikawa Nanase- Yume Miru Shoujo Ja Irarenai (Japan)
Trilogy Of Tracks- The Number One
Epik High feat Jisun- One (South Korea)
Ayumi Hamasaki- 1 Love (Japan)
Sniper Sound- One Nation (South Korea)
Bump Of Chicken- Karma (Japan)
Jackie Chan- Drunken Master (China)
Job 2 Do- No War (Thailand)
Brown Eyed Girls- Abracadabra (South Korea)
Kyosuke Himuro- Calling (Japan)
Nell- Memories of Walking Through Time (South Korea)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Journey Through The Decade (Japan)
Kara- Lupin (South Korea)
Aikawa Nanase- Yume Miru Shoujo Ja Irarenai (Japan)
Trilogy Of Tracks- The Number One
Epik High feat Jisun- One (South Korea)
Ayumi Hamasaki- 1 Love (Japan)
Sniper Sound- One Nation (South Korea)
Bump Of Chicken- Karma (Japan)
Jackie Chan- Drunken Master (China)
Beard's Asian Tour 6/10/10
Puffy AmiYumi- Tokyo Night (Japan)
Untouchable feat Hwa-young- Driving Me Crazy (South Korea)
Nami Tamaki- Reason (Japan)
Omodaka- Yosawya San (Japan)
JJ Lin- Cao Cao (Singapore)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Returner (Japan)
Prozack- Listen To My Story (South Korea)
The TRAX- Over The Rainbow (South Korea)
Trilogy of Tracks- Primary Colours
HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR- Red (Japan)
Polysics- Life In Yellow (Japan)
My Aunt Mary- Night Blue (South Korea)
Dirt Star- Hole In The Universe (China)
Tucker- Black Pit Breaks (Japan)
Baechigi- 140 (South Korea)
Stephanie- Friends (Japan)
Untouchable feat Hwa-young- Driving Me Crazy (South Korea)
Nami Tamaki- Reason (Japan)
Omodaka- Yosawya San (Japan)
JJ Lin- Cao Cao (Singapore)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Returner (Japan)
Prozack- Listen To My Story (South Korea)
The TRAX- Over The Rainbow (South Korea)
Trilogy of Tracks- Primary Colours
HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR- Red (Japan)
Polysics- Life In Yellow (Japan)
My Aunt Mary- Night Blue (South Korea)
Dirt Star- Hole In The Universe (China)
Tucker- Black Pit Breaks (Japan)
Baechigi- 140 (South Korea)
Stephanie- Friends (Japan)
Monday, 25 October 2010
Beard's Asian Tour 29/9/10
Leon Lai- Sugar In The Marmalade (China)
MC Mong- Circus (South Korea)
Jaurim- Carnival Amour (South Korea)
Hikaru Utada- Beautiful World PLanit B Acoustica Mix (Japan)
Kou Chou Ching- Black Heart (Taiwan)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Redemption (Japan)
Chihiro Onitsuka- Beautiful Fighter (Japan)
Trilogy Of Tracks- Visual Kei
exist†trace- ROUGE (Japan)
Luna Sea- Rosier (Japan)
X Japan- Jade (Japan)
el Ethnic Legist- Druga (Japan)
Rip Slyme- Speed King (Japan)
MC Mong- Circus (South Korea)
Jaurim- Carnival Amour (South Korea)
Hikaru Utada- Beautiful World PLanit B Acoustica Mix (Japan)
Kou Chou Ching- Black Heart (Taiwan)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Redemption (Japan)
Chihiro Onitsuka- Beautiful Fighter (Japan)
Trilogy Of Tracks- Visual Kei
exist†trace- ROUGE (Japan)
Luna Sea- Rosier (Japan)
X Japan- Jade (Japan)
el Ethnic Legist- Druga (Japan)
Rip Slyme- Speed King (Japan)
Beard's Asian Tour 22/09/10
Electric Eel Shock- Scream For Me (Japan)
Lillies and Remains-- Moralist S.S (Japan)
Riddm Saunter- Fresh (Acoustic) (Japan)
Outsider- Like A Man (South Korea)
Kotoko- Lament (Japan)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Vanilla (Sixth Day Version) (Japan)
Afterschool- Bad Guy (South Korea)
Skunkrice- One (Japan)
Trilogy Of Tracks- Music inspired by K-League
Sugar Donut- We (South Korea)
Go! Go! Star- Champion Parade (South Korea)
Lunatic- Let's Go (South Korea)
Tokyo Pinsalocks- Circle (Japan)
L'arc~En~Ciel- I Love Rock n Roll (Japan)
Polysics- Rocket (Japan)
Lillies and Remains-- Moralist S.S (Japan)
Riddm Saunter- Fresh (Acoustic) (Japan)
Outsider- Like A Man (South Korea)
Kotoko- Lament (Japan)
Artist Spotlight: Gackt
Gackt- Vanilla (Sixth Day Version) (Japan)
Afterschool- Bad Guy (South Korea)
Skunkrice- One (Japan)
Trilogy Of Tracks- Music inspired by K-League
Sugar Donut- We (South Korea)
Go! Go! Star- Champion Parade (South Korea)
Lunatic- Let's Go (South Korea)
Tokyo Pinsalocks- Circle (Japan)
L'arc~En~Ciel- I Love Rock n Roll (Japan)
Polysics- Rocket (Japan)
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
The evolving tastes of Too Many Fandoms aka Blog 100
I've found that in the past year or so my tastes have changed, evolved however you want to call it. At one time I would horde comics and CD's in order to maintain and complete my collection but now I'm pickier, I've chosen necessity over obsessive compulsive buying.
Comics
With comics I have found that I am looking at titles with a more serious eye for the details I dropped Marvel's Avengers (which was one of my favourite team books) because I dislike the current writer's style of decompression where only a few pages of the story are relevant the rest is filled with clunky dialogue which just repeats itself and/or sounds completely out of character. This has made it rather difficult to enjoy other Marvel titles because other books were being influenced by the revelations that were being spun from the Avengers though not in a way that I would be completely lost (Wikipedia helps to fill the gaps).
There are some like Spider-Man which I've dropped because of editorial mandates which I didn't agree with (the of marriage between Peter and Mary Jane being wiped from everyone's mind including theirs) I felt that they could have done the more mature thing of having them divorce though it was argued that it ages the characters, even though they've aged pretty well over the last 48 years or so.
In fact my appreciation of Marvel Comics has wavered after their constant summer events crossover storylines which altered the status quo of the Marvel Universe for 12 months or so before the next event, during which time those titles affected by it would tell about three stories because nowadays comic stories are more often than not written for the trade paperback audience.
While my appreciation of Marvel Comics has wavered it has meant that my appreciation of DC has strengthened. At one time I wasn't too fussed on the two Trinity characters that weren't Batman but now I've come to like Superman and Wonder Woman because I can see them as really deep characters. Superman is more than just a survivor of Krypton who is practically invincible until faced with Kryptonite, he is an analogy of an immigrant who is paying back the society which took him in and accepted him by protecting it. Wonder Woman on the other hand is a character who is a walking contradiction as an ambassador of peace who will take up a sword to defend those who need protecting.
The stories in the DC Universe are all fairly self contained so you don't have to read JLA to understand what's happening in Batman or in The Flash, it's a story archetype that has worked for years and as the saying goes, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'.
I've also started to read comics outside of the superhero genre, reading titles such as Fables, Joe The Barbarian and Y The Last Man to name but a few. It's a good change of pace to read comics where no one is running around in their underwear. It also makes me appreciate the superhero comics that I do read as well.
I admit that I am a trade waiter now because it’s easier to keep track of where the issues are in my collection though I have only recently begun cataloguing and properly storing the hundreds of comics I have amassed over the years. It's a great gauge as to whether I'm interested in a story or if I was just buying into the hype surrounding it at the time.
Music
My music collecting has changed a lot more than my comic collecting, for one thing I'm going to fewer gigs, having only been to five gigs this year where previous years I would have been to at least double that by now. I used to grab whatever E.P the support bands would be selling if I thought they were good but I found myself not even bothering to watch the support band at the last gig I went to (Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) preferring instead to listen to the music on my MP3 player.
As I mentioned, I'm something of a hoarder, I tend to try and get a bands discography even though I may have only liked a few tracks from their previous album so with the aid of sites like Youtube I'm cutting the crap as it were and I'm not just buying on impulse only to regret it at a later date.
I've also gotten out of the habit of listening to mainstream western music because of my Asian Tour show, having become immersed in that side of music, though there are a few bands whom I'll still listen to on occasion. I think he main reason I chose to immerse myself into Japanese and Korean music in particular has been the fact that I like the mystery of not knowing what a song is about and coming up with my own interpretations that turn out to be completely opposite to what the artist or group intended.
However I feel that the western music industry has become too reliant on these 'design your own pop star' shows like X Factor or American Idol and while its good that the public get to choose the 'next big thing' it's kind of a cheat on those artists and bands who struggle to get a record deal when its handed out so readily if your prepared to subject yourself to the ritual humiliation of being on the TV for a few months before you debut with the finished product.
Now I realise that what I've written sounds like I have turned my back on the struggling artists who rely on people to buy their E.P's at venues where they are supporting a headline act and yes it's true, but I feel that in order for music to not start sounding stale I need to distance myself from it until such a time when my music taste changes again.
I know that the factor that changed my taste in music has been working at a radio station where you're constantly exposed to the top 40 and other tracks on a daily basis. I've experimented with so many different types of shows from rock shows to new music shows to chart shows to the drive time, lunch time and even breakfast slots and doing that variety of shows has expanded my musical pallet, it's certainly made me more appreciative of different tastes and I think it's made me a slightly more informed person
I think it's impossible for a person's taste in whatever they love to remain a constant, and with multimedia offering so much choice now it has become easier to experiment with new things.
Comics
With comics I have found that I am looking at titles with a more serious eye for the details I dropped Marvel's Avengers (which was one of my favourite team books) because I dislike the current writer's style of decompression where only a few pages of the story are relevant the rest is filled with clunky dialogue which just repeats itself and/or sounds completely out of character. This has made it rather difficult to enjoy other Marvel titles because other books were being influenced by the revelations that were being spun from the Avengers though not in a way that I would be completely lost (Wikipedia helps to fill the gaps).
There are some like Spider-Man which I've dropped because of editorial mandates which I didn't agree with (the of marriage between Peter and Mary Jane being wiped from everyone's mind including theirs) I felt that they could have done the more mature thing of having them divorce though it was argued that it ages the characters, even though they've aged pretty well over the last 48 years or so.
In fact my appreciation of Marvel Comics has wavered after their constant summer events crossover storylines which altered the status quo of the Marvel Universe for 12 months or so before the next event, during which time those titles affected by it would tell about three stories because nowadays comic stories are more often than not written for the trade paperback audience.
While my appreciation of Marvel Comics has wavered it has meant that my appreciation of DC has strengthened. At one time I wasn't too fussed on the two Trinity characters that weren't Batman but now I've come to like Superman and Wonder Woman because I can see them as really deep characters. Superman is more than just a survivor of Krypton who is practically invincible until faced with Kryptonite, he is an analogy of an immigrant who is paying back the society which took him in and accepted him by protecting it. Wonder Woman on the other hand is a character who is a walking contradiction as an ambassador of peace who will take up a sword to defend those who need protecting.
The stories in the DC Universe are all fairly self contained so you don't have to read JLA to understand what's happening in Batman or in The Flash, it's a story archetype that has worked for years and as the saying goes, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'.
I've also started to read comics outside of the superhero genre, reading titles such as Fables, Joe The Barbarian and Y The Last Man to name but a few. It's a good change of pace to read comics where no one is running around in their underwear. It also makes me appreciate the superhero comics that I do read as well.
I admit that I am a trade waiter now because it’s easier to keep track of where the issues are in my collection though I have only recently begun cataloguing and properly storing the hundreds of comics I have amassed over the years. It's a great gauge as to whether I'm interested in a story or if I was just buying into the hype surrounding it at the time.
Music
My music collecting has changed a lot more than my comic collecting, for one thing I'm going to fewer gigs, having only been to five gigs this year where previous years I would have been to at least double that by now. I used to grab whatever E.P the support bands would be selling if I thought they were good but I found myself not even bothering to watch the support band at the last gig I went to (Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) preferring instead to listen to the music on my MP3 player.
As I mentioned, I'm something of a hoarder, I tend to try and get a bands discography even though I may have only liked a few tracks from their previous album so with the aid of sites like Youtube I'm cutting the crap as it were and I'm not just buying on impulse only to regret it at a later date.
I've also gotten out of the habit of listening to mainstream western music because of my Asian Tour show, having become immersed in that side of music, though there are a few bands whom I'll still listen to on occasion. I think he main reason I chose to immerse myself into Japanese and Korean music in particular has been the fact that I like the mystery of not knowing what a song is about and coming up with my own interpretations that turn out to be completely opposite to what the artist or group intended.
However I feel that the western music industry has become too reliant on these 'design your own pop star' shows like X Factor or American Idol and while its good that the public get to choose the 'next big thing' it's kind of a cheat on those artists and bands who struggle to get a record deal when its handed out so readily if your prepared to subject yourself to the ritual humiliation of being on the TV for a few months before you debut with the finished product.
Now I realise that what I've written sounds like I have turned my back on the struggling artists who rely on people to buy their E.P's at venues where they are supporting a headline act and yes it's true, but I feel that in order for music to not start sounding stale I need to distance myself from it until such a time when my music taste changes again.
I know that the factor that changed my taste in music has been working at a radio station where you're constantly exposed to the top 40 and other tracks on a daily basis. I've experimented with so many different types of shows from rock shows to new music shows to chart shows to the drive time, lunch time and even breakfast slots and doing that variety of shows has expanded my musical pallet, it's certainly made me more appreciative of different tastes and I think it's made me a slightly more informed person
I think it's impossible for a person's taste in whatever they love to remain a constant, and with multimedia offering so much choice now it has become easier to experiment with new things.
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