Marble Sheep - Silo 1 , Töging Am Inn 17 March 2006

Posting Gagakirise reminded me of these guys. Marble Sheep have been a prominent fixture on the Tokyo underground rock/psychadelic scene since their formation in the late 80's. This is a rare Live CDR recorded on their German tour back in 2006. (According to wikipedia Toging Am Inn being a tiny village of just 9,000 people in Bavaria. Interesting choice of venue for an international tour.) The bands usual 4 strong lineup is complimented on this recording with the addition of an extra drummer. Because you can never have too many drummers in a rock'n'roll band. The bands studio albums can be a little hit and miss but live is where their jam heavy, psychadelic rock'n'roll really shines. These guys tour the States and Europe fairly frequently so be sure to check them out if they're in your neck of the woods. You won't regret it.

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NISEUO cosmic-chang mothership progress - NISEUO cosmic-chang mothership progress

Niseuo are as mystical and strange as their name implies. I don't know a whole lot about the band besides the fact that they were conceived somewhere around 2002 from the darkest bowels of Kansai's underground. Their music is difficult to classify but is very reminscent of the junk town blues and sleazy off-kilter jazz of Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart. Or "Science-Fiction space opera" as the band like to describe their own music. The vocalist channels the spirit of Tom Waits/Beefheart by snearing jibberish in a rough, gruff gutterel grunt that wouldn't sound out of place as the voice track for some ugly alien race in a Star Wars movie. It's a wild and sometimes uncomfortable ride but one I'm sure you won't regret taking. So hop onboard the mothership Niseuo and take a journey into the dark, twisted recesses of someones freak show mind.

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Oorutaichi - Cosmic Coco, Singing For a Billion Imu's Hearty Pi

With an album name like "Cosmic Coco, Singing For a Billion Imu's Hearty Pi", song titles like "Merry Ether Party" and not to mention the epic twenty four sided, three meter long gatefold sleeve that it comes packaged in you know you're in for something special. And it's that proviso that I'm breaking my own rule on not uploading new releases. It's just simply too damn good not to share. Oorutaichi has been making music since 1999 and is also the founding member of the wonderful bizarre folk/pop band "Urichipangoon". Oorutaichi's music covers all sorts of musical spectrums and on his latest solo outing sounds something like if Animal Collective joined forces with Bjork and Four Tet to produce an album of floor stomping dance tunes. And yes it's every bit as wonderful and brilliant as that potentially sounds. The album features 2 bonus track remixes from Eye of the Boredoms and Daedelus. 2011 is off to a great start.

Oorutaichi is currently touring his album with various shows across Japan before he'll be heading overseas for some more shows so keep your eyes open. .

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Gezan - Warhol's Hole (下山 - ウォーホールの穴)

Something a bit special this time. This is a rip of a DVDR given away by the band at their most recent show. Gezan have been together for just under a year but are fast making a name for themselves thanks to stunts like this. Warhol's Hole sees the band unleashing their unholy, psychadelic musical vandalism on a terrorised and unsuspecting public in the middle of downtown Osaka. I've uploaded a WMV vesion of the video and an MP4 version of the video for Mac and ipod. Quite surprisingly no one actually got arrested duing the recording of this. Fans of Les Rallizes Denude (Hadaka No Raliizes) and LSD March should be into this.

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Shitappa Oyabun - Shitappa Oyabun (したっぱ親分)

Kyoto's Shitappa Oyabun are one of my favourite bands on the Osaka underground circuit. The trio have existed in various forms for almost 4 years now but have existed in their current lineup for about 2 years. Fans of Oshiri Pen Penz and Kyojin Yueni Dekai will definatey dig this band. They combine the skittery off beat guitar melodies of the Pen Penz with the more percussive heavy drive of Kyojin. This self released CDR contains 6 surprisingly good quality studio recordings but unfortunatley no track listing or info.

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LSD March - Live 2010

I'm sure LSD March needs little introduction but for the uninitiated LSD March is a band which revolves around core member Michishita Shunsuke. Michishita's music varies between stripped down acid-folk funeral dirges and face melting psychedelic freakouts. The line up of the band is constantly changing and quite often features guest musicians. But while LSD March has a bit of a cult following outside Japan his CDs are notoriously hard to get hold of. Fortunatley Michishita was giving out CDRs of live recordings at his most recent gig. Unfortunatley however there's no track listing and no info on exactly when or where the recording was made. What I can tell you though is that it features the wonderful Maruo Maruko on guest vocals and guitar and that most of the tracks are taken from his most recent album Under Milk Wood . This is also actually one of my favourite LSD recordings. The sound quality isn't great (You can hear the audience cracking open cans of beer.) but it's a good mix of LSD's more introverted folk leanings and his more extroverted guitar strangling. Not to mention Maruo's vocals add a certain warm sanctuary to Michishita's gloomy ballads. So enjoy this rare gem and may ye wallow in it's ice cold misery. T'is the season!

Music Trivia: Michishita Shunsuke is also Oshiri Pen Penz sound engineer.

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Kinoko Hotel - Marianne No Yuutsu (キノコホテル - マリアンヌの憂鬱)

Picture this if you will. 4 sexy, cute Japanese girls wearing matching sassy mini-skirt hotelier uniforms and kinoko (Mushroom) bob style wigs. The lead singer is straddling her keyboard between her slender thighs while the guitarist is on her knees at the front of the stage ripping a solo. Now it's easy to see how these Tokyo girls have been working up quite a reputation for themselves over the last year or 2. Thankfully there's also some substance to their style. Kinoko Hotel rock some fuzzed out retro Psychadelia-tinged garage rock with a dark and sultry edge. The lead singer and keyboardist "Marianne" takes her name from the classic Jacks track which earns the band an extra dollop of kudos in my book.

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Gezan - Ichijitekina Chou (下山- 一時的な腸)

The bassist is naked, the guitarist is wearing some some of sequined transparent leotard and the vocalist has set his mic stand in the middle of the crowd and is busy climbing and jumping off anything that's strapped down and throwing around anything that isn't. These guys just don't really give a fuck. The Osaka quintet spew feedback drenched psychedelia and noise that would make a hippy weep. No peace, love and happiness here. The band have to be seen live to be properly appreciated and it's not that their music is the greatest but their "Fuck you all!" approach to things has a definate charm to it. 

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