JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Who would ever believe that the day has come when Mick and the rest of the Stones would have to interrupt one of thier great concerts because the rest of the world is getting more outrageous than they!!!

As they say, “Music soothes the savage beast.” In this case, it may even be the beast within. There are many uses for music and the surgical DJ may have found one way to take sounds to another level.

If you were planning on updating your mobile phone you may want to hold off just a little while longer. It looks like the next “new technology” for music lovers is on the way. So you may want to start making room in your collection not only for feeling groovy but for hearing gruvi.

As we drove into work last night, I took a quick glance at the destruction phase of Music Town. All that remains of the one block area that is to house the new facility is a couple buildings on the Gate 2 Street end of the project. Soon the construction phase will begin. And if all goes according to schedule, the new complex will be completed within the next two years.

Here it is September 23rd, Autumn Eqinox, the first day of Fall for 2005. When one thinks of autumn, images of multi-colored trees, cooling temperatures, and the upcoming holiday season quikly come to mind. But this year the main thought on most people’s minds is where is Hurricane Rita going to make landfall and how much destruction will she create.

Hard hit New Orleans is already beginning to experience more unneeded rainfall as a result of two monster storm systems within three weeks. But if what I have viewed in the past three weeks is an example of the hearts and spirits of those natives, they will overcome this additional challenge. Somehow through all of the nonsense and show of Mom Nature’s powers, the people of New Orleans continue to demonstrate an overpowering love of and belief in the music utopia and the unique culture of that city which can only be claimed as thier own.

I feel that both knowledge and imagination are important in life. While doing some research I ran across this quote that could be the mantra for artists all over:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, Imagination encircles the world.” Albert Einstein

Imagination is what seems to have taken on a life of its own with the new JET CD. This project is a first time collaboration of various people whose imaginations are being set free. With that being said, I have been informed that the CD is still going to take a bit longer before its release. We thank those of you who are hanging in there and being patient with us on this.

For those of you who are into the mellower side of things every once in a while, such as tunes like “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, a new CD by a young Japanese duo (Nude Voice) will be coming out around the 21st of this month. The CD features the musical talents of various local artists including JET guitarist, Appin, and bassist, Taki.

When someone says “Hard Rock”, “Classic Rock”, etc., do you really know what music they are talking about? When someone says Hard Rock in Japan, all that means is rock music with a loud electric guitar. When someone says Classic Rock, do they mean older than 25 years ago? Basically, the music scene has spread out and crossed-over so much that it’s not always easy to decipher exactly what “genre” or “category” is being discussed. Recently I read of a new (at least to me) rock category called “rap-rock”! So to provide some guidance to what I’m talking about when I mention certain terms, here is a basic guideline:

Oldies but Goldies: the stuff where it all began, you know when rhythm and blues had its baby – rock ‘n’ roll!!!

Vintage Classic Rock: the rock sound that most of us who were around grew up within the mid’60s to the mid’70s, with a few sounds from the late ’70s

Classic Rock: this has gotten a little blurrier, but generally early’80’s to mid ’90s

J-Rock: any rock music sang mainly in the Japanese language

J-pop Rock: any rock music mixed with the boy group sound and sang mainly in Japanese

Hard Rock: to me this is screaming vocals and head-banger music (the louder and rougher the better seems to be the theme and direction taken by this sound)

As for Rap-Rock, the only real rock song that I have personally heard that fits into this category is the Aerosmith/Run DMC classic “Walk This Way”! Of course there are several lesser known songs that have come out recently that could almost be classified as Rock-Rap!

Well if what’s in the grapevine over the past couple of days is true, the island can expect to be hit by a sudden wave of new releases in various “genres” of local rock this fall.