Head Phones President

Something very unusal happened at work today. Nothing every seems to happen at Radical Records, at least recently, but on Friday we had guests form Japan. My boss's friend Frank Wood who is a booking agent for a host of NY bands asked to stop by with Head Phones President kind of a spiritual hard rock group from Tokyo with a wild fairy like lead singer.

The next day I stopped by the Pass Out Record Shop and coincidentally they were the opening band for a day long rock event. It was amusing trying to talk to the band with my very limited Japanese ability and only my photocopied text book notes to work from, but I felt like I made some new friends I could meet up with when I get to Japan.

While talking with Head Phones President, there was another Japanese cat hanging around the store front. I found out he's in a band called Das Boot... one of the original Back from the Grave Tokyo garage bands! While I'm not familiar with Das Boot, they were on one of the Hodge, Podge, Barrage comps and are from the same background as bands like Guitar Wolf, Ginnyvamps, Great Mongoose, Jackie and the Cedrics and the 5678's!

TV Party!

So I was on public access TV in Port Jervis, NY last Thursday nite playing Mandolin with Rich Murphy and the Barn Boys! Rich Murphy is a 79 year old WWII vet who started playing guitar and yodelling when he was a kid. He played real country rock n' roll in bars all throughout the 30's, 40's and 50's and after putting down the guitar for 20 years, he stepped in to VFW open mic hosted by my father's friend GT and blew the crowd away with his classics.

After a year and a half of backing up Rich in my father's barn, we got invited to play a public access TV show called Keepin' Country Strong (kind of a Hee Haw type showcase of local country and rock acts). We played some classics like Blue Moon of Kentucky, Wabash Cannonball, Okie from Muscogee and Pictures of Life's Otherside. It was a lot of fun and I'll try to get some of the show on Youtube one of these days!

Boo!

So I spent my Halloween weekend in New Paltz, my old college town. I saw a host of old friends like Matty Pants who I went up to Cabaloosa with to see an female-fronted Misfits cover band and Pitchfork Militia. Some girl dressed as snot remember me from jumping off the roof at a party a year ago and I was flattered. And at the end of the nite Joker and Harley Quinn waltzed in. Fantastic!

Halloween in New Paltz is always cool. I wore my usually Chinese ghost mask which always creeps a lot of people out. I went up to the haunted house with some new friends and then actually went Trick or Treating for the first time in 10 years!

Suicide Girls vs. Benten Girls!

Two weeks ago I saw Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re open for the Suicide Girls burlesque show. I hung out at the merch table before they went on and I met Paul Wheeler, the wiz behind the Rock of Japan website. I had just had business cards printed up, and made some Taiwan indie sampler to pass out. I had previously corresponded with Paul via email, but was happy to finally meet in person. As a hobby, he goes out to any Japanese rock events around NYC and writes show and CD reviews to give exposure to these otherwise under-the-radar bands. When I first found his site I noticed it was that it's goals where similar to my own site for the Taiwan underground music scene, Island of Sound. Look for a Pacifiction Records banner add on Rock of Japan sometime soon!

Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re played a great fun set, with my favorite songs Ebiharu Shinji and Tea Time Ska! I love watching Yayoi dance like a maniac! Benten bands are so cool and I can't wait to see groups like Lolita No.18 and Mummy the Peepshow when I go to Japan. After the show, I hung out at the merch table with Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re. As the Suicide Girls did bare-breasted tricks on stage with little black X's on their nips, I thought to myself, Suicide Girls?.. I prefer Benten Girls!

Pacifiction News!

Ok, I'm not the greatest blogger, cause a lot has happened in the past couple weeks and I haven't taken the time to post anything.

First off, I met with Freckles Studio almost a week and a half ago. The site is looking great and should be well into the programming phase right now. I hope to meet with the designers this week to see what's up. The next step is to create a PayPay account and get that integrated.

As for stocking CDs, I've been talking to 7 Inch Vinyl about getting Varo, Tin Pan Alley and SMOL. And I will be carrying Dolly's Pillbox's new EP as well as the new 8mm Sky full length from Silent Agreement. Also on the way is the Chasing Sparrow/ Fall of this Corner split and the Australian band Baseball's EP. Once I figure out how to pay these labels and bands and get them available on my site, we'll really be rolling!

All CDs so far will be shipped direct from Taiwan by my friend Once. He's acting as kind of a manager for me and helping me out in a very big way.

I'll write more about Pacifiction Records after my next meeting with Freckles Studio.