Asobi Seksu

Last night I saw Asobi Seksu at the Troubador. 

 

Admittedly, I’ve only heard their tracks on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic, the late Indie 103’s ethereal dream pop show, and recently on MPR (Montana public radio) song of the day which you can download as a podcast. 

 

To my great surprise, Asobi Seksu is  a lot more poppy and percussion driven  than I had anticipated.  This gives a lot more dance-ability and life to the music while played live.  However, LA crowds are too cool to dance.  It was also very crowded to our credit, so dancing may have been a slight impossibility. 

 

As a technical matter, I kinda felt that the sound was miscalibrated and the drums were too heavy and the vocals were too quiet.  My friends were complaining about not being able to hear. 

 

I say, it’s not the vocals substance that are important with shoegaze.  

Noone is really focusing on Lush’s Rupert the Bear’s lyrical content.  It’s really 

the nostalgic and contemplative feeling that you get

 while listening to shoegaze that you come to know and love- and that you come to the rock show for.   To add to the ethereal dreamy pop-ness, some of the songs are in Japanese, a language which lends itself to be romantic and avant garde.  

 

There are a number of good tracks on the new album entitled Hush.  Some of my favorites include “New Years” a song evoking an important Japanese holiday where you eat special osechi foods and celebrate new beginnings.  My language proficiency is not that great, but what I picked up was a nostalgic feeling that fills one’s heart with memories of childhood or being small- and thinking of them and listening for your memories now. 

I also enjoyed Me& Mary, the single released from the new album entitled "Hush."  

 

Having just thrown a shin nen kai, or new years celebration, man I have some good memories.    

 

 

http://www.myspace.com/asobiseksu  (Check out the CSS remix of "Thursday")  My favorite!

 

 

New Years

“chisai toki no koto
omoi dashite goran
sono me o sotto ake
natsukashii futari ga mieteta
candy says
chisai omoide mo
wasurenai de ite kureta
kokoro no oku kara
tsukuri dashita kino no memory
setsunai to sakende temo
anata wa kiete iku
dakedo, kakete iku
itsumade mo
omoide no ato o”