November 28, 2004
News | A Very Petty Christmas |
Just got this note from Audrey at the Benten label:
Aloha & Konichiwa ~
Greeting from Tokyo. I hope you have lovely season.
The Ukulele duo, Petty & Booka are coming back to US soon!
Please come and see Petty Booka and tell all your friends you know in these area. This trip is mainly for Dan Hicks show opening act, they will come back to US (other states) next year again. I will update the schedule. Come to check our web site occasionally.
Read full entry for December West Coast tour dates...
READ FULL ENTRY...November 18, 2004
News | Indie Labels Crack the Majors' Hegemony | Japan
What a difference distribution makes. As any millennial indie band knows, recording and pressing your own CDs is a cinch, but getting them in the stores isn't. The Japan Times' Suzannah Tartan reports that indie labels in Japan have increasingly gained access to all-important domestic distribution. The surprising catalyst? Tower Records:
"Years ago it was difficult to find independently released records outside of a few shops in Shinjuku or Osaka's Americamura," explains Keith Cahoon, former president of Tower Records Asia and now president of music publisher Hotwire. Tower Japan was one of the first chain stores to stock independent labels, following the example of its American parent that had traditionally supported the indie scene.
November 13, 2004
Damn, Giant Robot is already ten years old! The California-based magazine started by Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura captured the zeitgeist of a new generation of skatebording, video game playing, indie rock listening, Asian-American hipsters while also serving up fascinating articles on the culture, sounds, flavors and gadgetry of East Asia. The latter gave the magazine instant appeal to slacker English teachers and backpackers of Asia (like me) who were thrilled to see colorful and often hilarious articles on our favorite found oddities. But I think another important reason GR has made the ten-year trip from zine to glossy is that it bursts at the seams with creativity and soul--always eye popping, but never pretentious.
November 11, 2004
The China Daily has a nice article on the attempt to preserve the musical form known as nanyin.
"Nanyin is a traditional opera sung in the Minnan (south Fujian) dialect. Closely tied with imperial and Buddhist music, poetic rhythm and drama tunes from Central China, Nanyin is accompanied by a band of erxian, a two-stringed vertical instrument, sanxian, a three-stringed plucked instrument, dongxiao, a vertical flute, nanpa (bent-neck pipa) and paiban (clappers)."
The form has migrated with the Minnan people to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Europe.
November 07, 2004
...At least for now. Due to an overwhelming amount of comment spam, I've had to turn off the interaction around here. I tried a couple of solutions, but to no avail--gambling and erections kept rearing their ugly heads in the comments area. I tried a couple of fixes, but them spammers are crafty, I tell ya. We'd still love to hear your comments, however. Email us at contact at far east audio dot com.