As I got an email from Michael of the band called American Dog, I introduce his band for him. He said he released the album in Japan in 1990 with the band called Salty Dog from Geffin. Are there anybody who knows this band?
American Dog will tour in Japan in February, so if you are interested in their music, please check them out. See the tour dates in the poster above.
American Dog's official website]]>
I got the Whitesnake's tribute album, so I listened to it this morning. It was really great! The Led Zeppelin's tribute album I got before was great too. The singers on thie Snakebites album are all good, and somewhat similar to David Coverdale. I haven't heard Steve Grimmet's vocal for a long time. I liked his band called Lionsheart. It was a great band. It's 14 years ago that I went to the signing session of Lions heart ... time goes by very fast! The photo on the right side is the autographs of the band members from Lionsheart.
I bought the tribute album for Led Zeppelin's drummer, John Henry Bonham "24/7/365 The Tribute To Led Zeppelin". It was recorded by Frankie Banali and his friends. Frankie plays all drums and Tony Franklin plays bass. Different singers and guitarist play on each songs, so it's rich in variety. Singers there are Glenn Hughes, Don Dokken, Robin McCauley, Paul Shortino, Mark Boals, Jeff Scott Soto, etc. And the guitarists are Doug Aldrich, Reb Beach, Bruce Kulick, Gilby Clarke, Bill Leverty, etc.
On the first song "The Wanton Song", Doug Aldrich plays the guitar. Everytime I listen to his play, his guitar play is getting cooler. I love his plays. Don Dokken sings on "Kashmir". I remember that Burning Rain played this song at live in Japan in 1999 ... Keith's vocals fit this song. Don's vocal is a bit softer, so it sounds different. "The Immigrant Song" is cool! I copied this song a long time ago when I was playing the guitar.
All songs are cool, I think, because the original songs are great. I like Doug's play a lot, but Gilby Clarke is cool too. I heard Bill Leverty's play after a long time ... it's powerful. About the singer, I like Jeff most. Led Zeppelin's songs are rather simple, but great. I wonder why "Rock N' Roll" and "Stairway To..." are not featured on this album ... These 2 songs are ones of the best!]]>
Doug played for Sera Masanori's self cover album again. It was recorded in LA this summer and it's called "Jacaranda". It's the second album of Twist International following the first album released in 2003, "Sho". Most songs are Sera Masanori's old songs, but 2 new songs are included. And this time it's the acoustic album and sounds different.
"Anta No Ballad" is basically a heavy song, so it sounds different from the original one. It becomes warm and soft. Doug's slide guitar is cool on "Soppo" and Doug himself seems to like it most. The acoustic guitar is powerful on "Yadonashi" and "Hikigane". And the new song "Jacaranda" sounds relaxed and comfortable, and Sera Masanori's vocal is different from the other songs in the album. Both Doug and Sera Masanori's guitar is great.
The limited edition includes the DVD. It features the scenes from the recording and the interviews. Jacaranda flower looks very beautiful in LA. The studio looks a nice place filled with nature. The recording session has very good atmosphere. I can feel they really enjoy playing together. Sera Masanori has a longer career than Doug, and Doug says in the interview that he keeps learning from Sera Masanori's playing everytime. Twist International played in Japan with "Sho" album in 2003. I hope they will play some acoustic shows with this album.
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I found the old movie on YouTube. It's the show of Kuni Special Band in 1988, and it's the one which I saw then. I was in the center of the second row at this show. I used to copy "Strangers In The Night" with my guitar ... How time flies!
Kuni doesn't seem to play the guitar recently. This show was the first time when I saw Jeff Scott Soto live. He looked great and his singing was awesome. They did the signing session at the instruments stores, so I went there too. Doug Baker, the bassist, had well-balanced body and looked warm and kind, and he was shooting the video around. The drummer was Mike Terrana. He played with Doug in the band, Beau Nasty, after this band. They seemed to break up. Mike played with Yngwie Malmsteen after, and I sometimes see his name in some bands recently. Jeff was around 20 years old when he was singing in the Kuni band ... I was young too at that time.
My favorite song in the "Looking For Action" album "Strangers Of The Night" And the title song of this album "Looking For Action"
]]>I remember Zakk Wylde got it recently. The ceremony will be held on November 19, and they will be there. Japanese fans are very proud of it, I think.
B'z Official WebsiteI didn't feel well in the first 2 days after arriving in Nagasaki. I felt better after that, but I seem to be a bit sick mentally. This time I went to see my father in a hospital and visited my family's grave as usual. The country side is slow and easy, so I can be relaxed. My mother looks older everytime I see her. I stayed at my aunt's house, because it was closer to the hospital where my father was. There is a street car around my aunt's house from the Nagasaki station, and there is the Matsuyama station where was the center area of the atomic bomb dropped. I got off the train at the Urakami station, and I found the memorial monument of the victims by the atomic bomb. When the atomic bomb was dropping in Nagasaki, my parents were not in Nagasaki city, so they were not bombed. But my grandfather was. He is already dead, but he attended at the ceremony for the victims by the atomic bomb every year. I watched this ceremony on TV and prayed silently every summer when I visited Nagasaki in my childhood.
While I was staying in Nagasaki, the typhoon hit Kanto area including my place. There seemed to be a heavy rain and wind around my place. I was watching about it on TV news in Nagasaki. When I returned home, the weather was fine. It was so hot in Nagasaki. The summer becomes hotter every year ... scary.
Another photos from Nagasaki
* On May 23, Ozzy Osbourne will release the new album called "Black Rain". I listened to "I Don't Wanna stop", and it's great. Zakk's powerful guitar is always great. Zakk rules!
Ozzy MySpace Page ]]>
On March 16, I went to see the Flametal show at the live house called Y2K in Roppongi. This band, Flametal was formed by the Whitesnake's bass player, Uriah Duffy and the flamenco guitarist, Ben Woods, and their music is the mixture of flamenco and metal. This band features 5 members including 2 bass players, but this time only Uriah and Ben came to Japan for the promotion of the album released in Japan on March 7. At the show, the flamenco dancers danced on some songs and they played the famous Japanese animation song "Yamato", but it was too heavy for me. Ben's flamenco guitar was great, but I think his death metal vocal breaks the mood. But maybe his vocals make the sound like metal ... ?
After the show, they had a aftershow party in Shinjuku, so I went there too. I had already met Uriah on the Whitesnake's Japan tour last year, but I met Ben for the first time. Both of them were nice and very friendly. Uriah was drinking until early morning on the next day, and looked funny. Uriah has some bands, and he said he like all of them. Ben and Uriah are the roommates. They look good friends. I talked with Uriah for a while, and I felt he was young. Actually he's younger than I ... he was surprised to know that, though. He said he wanted to come to Japan again with the whole band. I hope they are going well.
You can hear the Flametal songs on MySpace.
Flametal MySpace
This is the new single of Hikaru Utada released on February 28.
This is the theme song for the TV drama "Hana Yori Dango 2 - Returns".
I've been watching this drama since the part 1. This is a kind of funny love story, but in the part 2, it becomes the sad and painful love story.
Hikaru's vocal fits this story so well and it's great.
Hikki's WEBSITE]]>