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Archive for the ‘Fujiya and Miyagi’ Category

Michael Chabon–“My Journey to the Outer Limits of Funk” (Rolling Stone, September 13, 2012)

Posted in Books about music, Fujiya and Miyagi, History, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, Rolling Stone on September 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FUJIYA & MIYAGI-Live at Gibson Showroom, New York (2008).

This set is available for Download from KEXP.  I don’t know Fujiya & Miyagi all that well, but I really enjoy everything I’ve heard from them.  They place a keyboard-heavy, almost-dance music, but they use a lot of guitars to propel their songs further.

The most noteworthy thing about the band is the vocals–they are whispered (and often nonsensical–“Vanilla, strawberry, knickerbocker glory”) but the whisper seems to make the song move faster somehow–adding an almost sinister edge to the tracks (although sometimes it can feel sensual as well–it’s a neat trick).

This show has five songs from the album Lightbulbs–and it’s their first tour with a live drummer, which adds a nice complexity to their set.  One of these days I’m going to have to check out  their studio releases.

[READ: September 8, 2012] “My Journey to the Outer Limits of Funk”

Here’s another author I admire writing a short piece in Rolling Stone.  This one, unlike Lethem’s recent contribution, is about something he himself has done.  This article is a kind of music-based background explanation of his new book, Telegraph Avenue.

The premise of one of the plotlines is that two guys work in a record store, Brokeland Records, and are aficionados of jazz.  But he felt that was kind of dull, so Chabon delves into how he was able to get his characters to feel more interesting.  He didn’t wan them to just be “into jazz”–blah–he needed to add even more details so that they were more than just jazzies.  So he talks a bit about what he learned from Wax Poetics a magazine that refracted black popular culture through hip hop.   (more…)

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Austin Clarke–“Where Are the Men?” (The Walrus, June 2008)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Austin Clarke, Canadian Content, Culture Shock, Death, Fujiya and Miyagi, Short Story, The Walrus, Threats, Violence, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on June 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FUJIYA AND MIYAGI-Live at the 9:30 Club, Washington, DC April 30, 2007 (2007).

I was turned onto Fujiya & Miyagi through a sampler CD from WXPN (the song “Ankle Injuries” was included).  “Ankle Injuries” has such a simple template.  It’s an electronic song, full of washes and beats–nothing too high or low–with the repeated lyrics (sort of whispered) “Fujiya, Miyagi.”  I kind of forget that there are other lyrics, since that “chorus” is repeated some seventy times during the song.  The rest of the lyrics are also whispered (but mixed loud so they are audible) and are sort of weird, rambling nonsense.

It’s slick and catchy and with the simple lyrics, it’s really easy to sing (or whisper) along.  The problem is that pretty much all of their songs (in this live NPR show, anyhow) sound like this.  That’s dismissive and not entirely true, but they all tend to follow this similar template: smooth, catchy keyboard melodies and whispered vocals.

The thing is that it works quite well, and the show is kind of fun.  And yet, it’s also rather repetitive.  This seems to be the kind of show that I need to be in the mood to enjoy.  It also makes me glad I didn’t buy the album.  I think little doses are enough for me.

This concert (available from )

[READ: April 1, 2011] “Where Are the Men”

This is  another story that, once I was about halfway through, I remembered reading the first time.  This one in particular was quite memorable because of the middle section.  But let’s go back to the beginning.

As the story opens, a woman is talking, out loud, to herself.  Her name is Eye-Dora; she’s in a dark basement and sees searchlights flooding into her room.  But she herself is dark: her skin is dark, her house is dark so she feels safe.

She is from Barbados, a single mother (her husband left many years ago and is now dead) with a son who wears a robe and now goes by a muslim name.  Eye-Dora is pissed.  She is pissed at the state of black men in Toronto.   She is pissed that a black man is going through her garbage and leaving it strewn all around.  She is pissed that a black man was killed for wandering down the street claiming to be Jesus.  She is pissed. (more…)

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