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Underground > Radio & Music >

Melt Banana + Bands From Asia

02:28 / 17.08.02

For anyone who's interested, Melt Banana are doing a big tour in the US. Nicked from the Giant Robot board:

here are the confirmed/tba dates from Dave Witte (who is playing drums for MB on this tour):

1.Oct New York, NY Knitting Factory confirmed
2.Oct Boston, MA TT The Bears on hold
3.Oct Medford, MA Tufts confirmed
4.Oct Montreal, PQ La Salla Rossa confirmed
5.Oct Toronto, ONT Tequila Lounge confirmed
6.Oct Pittsburgh, PA Manny on hold
7.Oct Cleveland, OH Grog Shop confirmed
8.Oct Columbus, OH Little Bros on hold
9.Oct Detroit, MI Magic Stick on hold
10.Oct Chicago, IL Abbey confirmed
11.Oct Madison, WI Uof W confirmed
12.Oct Minneapolis, MN Entry on hold
13.Oct Off Day
14.Oct Kansas City, KS El Torreon confirmed
15.Oct Denver, CO 15th Street confirmed
16.Oct Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court on hold
17.Oct Drive Day
18.Oct Seattle, WA Graceland confirmed
19.Oct Vancouver, BC Pic Pub on hold
102-20 Portland, OR Ash Street confirmed
21.Oct Eugene, OR WOW Hall confirmed
22.Oct Reno, NV tba
23.Oct San Francisco, CA Slims confirmed
24.Oct Bakersfield, CA tba
25.Oct Los Angeles, CA Troubadour confirmed
26.Oct San Diego, CA Casbah on hold
27.Oct Tucson, AZ Club Congreee confirmed
28.Oct Phoenix, AZ Hollywood Alley on hold
29.Oct Albuquerque, NM Launchpad on hold
30.Oct Drive Day
31.Oct Oklahoma City, OK Green Door confirmed
1.Nov Denton, TX Rubber Gloves confirmed
2.Nov Austin, TX Emo's
3.Nov Houston, TX Mary Janes on hold
4.Nov Off Day
5.Nov New Orleans, LA Shim Sham Club confirmed
6.Nov Tallahassee, FL Cow Haus/Beta Lounge on hold
7.Nov Orlando, FL The Social on hold
8.Nov Miami, FL Revolver confirmed
9.Nov Tampa, FL Orpheum on hold
10.Nov Off Day
11.Nov Atlanta, GA Echo Lounge confirmed
12.Nov Charleston, SC Trey on hold
13.Nov Columbia, SC New Brookland Tavern on hold
14.Nov Chapel Hill, NC Go Lounge
15.Nov Richmond, VA Alley Katz
16.Nov Baltimore, MD Ottobar on hold
17.Nov Off Day
18.Nov Philadelphia, PA Sean on hold
19.Nov New York, NY

Any other bands from Asia y'all dig?

08:38 / 17.08.02

It goes without saying that I fanatically encourage anyone who is possibly able to to see Melt Banana on this here tour.

As for other fine beat combos from Japan or thereabouts, how about for starters;

The Boredoms
eX-Girl
Cornelius
Mika Bomb

And I was gonna tell you about this absolutely insane Japanese (possibly) orchestra I heard on the radio last month - they were absolutely fantastic and sounded a bit like the Ventures, the Bordeoms and Glen Miller's band on a rollercoaster to hell, but annoyingly I've lost the paper I wrote their name down on, so I'll probably never hear of them ever again..

11:22 / 17.08.02

Doubleplus-good thumbs up for the Boredoms. They used to be a fun unlistenable guitar racket, they're now a four-piece consisting of three drummers (and we're talking kit players, not percussionists) and someone who could loosely be described as a keyboard player, but actually makes a lot of psychedelic squiggly/droning/beautiful noises and triggers a few samples. He's also their conductor. Live they're amazing - the only reasonable response to the noise they make is to dance your power animal.

I'm going to have to invest in some Cornelius next - I loved the song that Flux did for me on his compilation.

Locust No longer

20:14 / 18.08.02

Keiji Haino is amazing, his solo stuff ranges from distorted one man guitar storms coupled with howled vocals to bizarre wave drum and hurdy gurdy explorations. His band Fushitsusha is also worth checking out.

Mainliner, High Rise, and Musica Transonic are also bands from Japan that rock the mother fucker. Distortion the key, and pychedelia is the vehicle.

I love a ton of fast punk bands from Japan, too. Fuck on the Beach, More Noise For Life, DxIxEx, Curtainrail, Majestic Four, Lip Cream, Confuse-all great stuff if you can find it.

Of course, there's also the noise core like Otomo Yoshihide, MSBR, Merzbow, and Molten Salt Breeder. Yoshihide is a personal favorite of mine.

21:28 / 18.08.02

Seconding Yoshihide and Merzbow.

Have never been able to get into Keiji Haino. Saw him play and thought it was terrible wanky crap. So many people love him that I've checked a few CDs and my impression from the live show has stuck. Any particular recommendations from his catalogue?

Expressionless: did the Boredoms lose their bass and guitar? They had them last year, so I'm curious to know if they've left that behind.

23:07 / 18.08.02

Yep, we only saw three drumers and the synth dude in Brighton (oh, and some cute little kid I nearly trod on the next day in my gushing praise of the talented bastards), and by reports we can establish that they were only a four piece at All Tomorrow's Parties in, um... early this year or something.

When was that?!

08:25 / 19.08.02

April.

I think I should check out this Haino guy.

The Natural Way

11:23 / 19.08.02

Cornelius's cover of 'Brazil' gives me the shivers. Mmmmm.

Point!

Sirhan Sirhan Solo

23:23 / 29.08.02

According to a reliable source, Melt Banana will in fact be playing TT the Bear's in Boston on the 2nd of October.
Personally, I also enjoy Merzbow, as well as Power of Idea, Gauze, Teengenerate, Fuck on the Beach, and Guitar Wolf.
And I would strongly urge all Japanese Thrash fans to check out the "Thrash Ahoy!" EP compilations.

00:59 / 30.08.02

Ah, TT's. A club the size of your computer monitor. Now that I've left Cambridge, it's someone's responsibility to go see Melt Banana there...

Sirhan Sirhan Solo

03:06 / 30.08.02

I know I'll be there. Even if it means walking back to Downtown at 2 a.m.

03:19 / 30.08.02

Eh, that's no big deal. Done that many, many times before, though usually it was going from downtown back to Cambridge at 2am...

[/threadrot]

09:47 / 30.08.02

The mad band I was going on about earlier in this thread, incidentally, were (and still are) the Shibu Sashi Razu Orchestra.
Absolutely amazing stuff.

16:10 / 07.09.02

Have been looking through the Boredoms Yahoo Group (here) and it seems that the ATP and UK shows this year were not technically Boredoms, but rather an alter-group led by eYe that he is referring to as Voordoms. So that's why there was no guitar, etc...

People are under the impression that Voordoms have recorded a disc that WB Japan is sitting on. Would be nice to hear it. Meanwhile, it seems that the Boredoms minus eYe created the music to Takashi Miike's Ichi The Killer. Forced Exposure and Aquarius (in the states) both have the disc, but it's expensive...