ひとりの夜もそばにいようぜ　君と僕の歌を歌う

So yesterday, I told Lillien i wanted to like choose pics of Yoshitaro that I liked the most... and she asked... "which one is it? All?"

haha..

so yeah. it's abit of a hard task ne? ANYWAY! So i was trying to choose some today, but it felt damn obsessive ok!!!! So instead of choosing just odaka, i decided to choose the pics I liked best of each member of Lunkhead.

I had in mind for Sou and Satoru but Ryou was abit hard coz he is always enthusiastic in pics... seems like every pic of him is representative of who he is anyway...

BUT ANYWAY... So i went to Ryou's blog to look for his pics... THEN I CAME ACROSS A SERIES OF PICS.... They were really cute and funny but I wasn't sure if it was YOSHITARO!!!!! (sorryla... really... it's sad to say but sometimes, i really CANNOT recognize him... seems like he change faces according to haircut or something =_=)...

SO I CONSULTED the expert opinion of Jarod!! For his artistic comparison of known Yoshitaro pictures with the unknown subject picture.

And here is he results:



AND I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONE OBSESSED.

WTH.

I just asked for opinion and he gave like a FACIAL analysis!!! WTHHHHHHHHH =________=

ANYWAY! SO! It's Yoshitaro!!!!! wuahahahahhaha.

Anyway, here are the pics:

Yamashita Sou. Sou has some funny pics but I really like this picture of Sou. I thought he's so cool in this pic =)




Gouda Satoru. Here's Satoru!!!! It's a screencap from Sakura Biyori PV... Satoru is actually damn funny in the band...!!




Ishikawa Ryou!! Here's typical Ryou!! He's really enthusiastic and looks really happy all the time!! ^^




Here's Yoshitaro!! hehehehe.... Actually, seems like Yoshitaro doesn't take many pictures like on the blogs and stuff, actually... He usually takes pic of others, so it's really hard to find pics of him on the blogs sometimes... But anyway! If Jarod's analysis is correct... This is Odaka-kun~!

The things I miss about Boss... hehehehhe ;)

WOW...

So i was downloading songs with my brother's Napster's account today... I thought I go get all the albums i wanted to get... SO i was checking out all the bands that I used to listen to alot... a.l.a. BN, TBS, STD, etc... those lot and follow the trail from there from Brand New, to Moneen to Midtown, to Hey Mercedes, to Recover, to the June Song, to dude like basically the WHOLE SCENE....(and yeah it's true ONE band will lead to EVERY OTHER band!! hahaha)

Man..... shit.... all the songs really sound back to 2002/2003/2004.... I really wish i had checked some of the bands back then like the June Song back in 2002 when i was listening to those type of sounds.... But dude, the whole lot really brings back memories of nights out at Troubador and MOST OF ALL of LUIS... Dude it was like EVERY band that he had ever recommended to me back in 2003 and some that we saw together like Moneen, Hot Rod Circuit, etc... Dude, all i can think of is Luis dancing away in the mosh pit...

Dude that said... I think.... I can't go back to those sounds again.. Not that this point... I suppose, our taste do evolve, as much as I am still playing songs from very old playlists... there are, sadly, songs and sounds that you DO outgrow, no matter how much those songs and sounds are tied to cherished moments and memories...


Kinda sad though, that that's over now...

It's so surreal to hear my 13 year old cousin say, "MCR is my favourite band"

You know, everytime someone mentions MCR and how they love Black Parade, it just brings me back to that night back in 2003 in Santa Monica after a show and we were with Luis and his friends... And there was this girl there, I forgot her name... And that night I remember under the yellow glow of streetlights, she showed us her MCR tattoo with lyrics on her wrist... I remember how she talked about how she went over to the east coast to see MCR and they just thought that she was so crazy to go all the way to see them coz they were practically unknown at that time... And she showed them their tattoo and they thought that was just so crazy that someone loved them so much to do something like that... I remember her eyes and how she showed and shied her tattoo away, with that silent consuming adoration in her eyes and the quiet of her voice as she smoothen the surface of that burning obession for her band.

So, everytime someone mentions how much they love MCR, the image of her tattoo underneath that yellow glow comes to my mind...

And it's even more surreal to hear my 13 year old cousin utter the words:

"I love emo."

WTH.

right.

that's the way life goes.

5 years ago no one wanted to listen to ANY of these bands... then suddenly, 6 years flash forward, every kid in college likes emo suddenly (just coz of MCR)... HELL, who'd have thought even my 13-year-old cousin! You could have knocked me down with a feather--- and here i was trying to force people to listen to the songs 6 years ago... NOW even my 13-year-old cousin...

and guess what... damn, now i don't even listen to the songs anymore!!!

Such a tragedy really...

DUDE.

SO TODAY.

I SUDDENLY thought I SOULSEEK search for Lunkhead songs and

SUDDENLY, there was this dude, with ZERO queues with a bunch of Lunkhead songs... But they were in all those weird symbols so I didn't know what it was... I tried to guess the album so, I checked the folder and it had like 9 songs which i thought weird coz Lunkhead didn't have any albums with 9 songs... So i decided to download it and.........

LO AND BEHOLD!!!! IT TURNED OUT TO BE ONE OF THEIR DEMO ALBUM!!!!!!

In fact I think it was the one that was on japan yahoo auction the other day that went up to like 130USD bid! It's one of those albums that they sold only at live shows years ago.... Or I think it might have been a demo itself...

It had HITORIGOTO!!!!!!!, YUGURE NO, HAISORA!!!!! and most of the their first mini album songs in it!!!!!!!!!!!

DUDEEE I AM SOOOO HAPPY!!! WHAT A FIND!!!!

So anyway... I realized that exactly today I've been back from the States for a year... how depressing, and how completely wasted that year has been!

I don't want to talk about how that feels because it's probably gonna make me depress. So i suppose, it's better to just sweep it under the rug and live abit in denial.

I put the ipod on shuffle again yesterday, I've not done that for almost a month... and I realize that I've not heard any English songs for a month... =_=.... But seems like in that 1 month, the songs all sound so fresh again! haha...

So anyway, I promised some friends I'd send them some Lunkhead songs... But i ended up making a mix of songs from bands I loved while I was in the States, namely Taking Back Sunday..... hahaha.... with throw-ins from Saves The Day, Brand New, hellogoodbye, blink 182, +44, Zolof and the Rock Destroyer, Thursday, Days Away, Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, Northstar, Finch.

I know I missed out alot alot alot alot of other bands like NFG, TSL, Senses Fail, Straylight Run, Mae, watashi wa, endor, Fall Out Boy, MOVIELIFE!!!!!!!!, The Used.... who else... that meant alot of me too....

And I also left out ALL the japanese bands and jpop singers I listened to alot while I was there.....

I guess, besides semesters painting the periods of my life in America, music marked alot of those phases too... In fact I think most of my memories of America would probably be tied to a song, a playlist of songs, a band or show.

So... music can't be extracted from my memories of America and what it was at that time...

Taking Back Sunday in the whole first year with puncutations from Northstar in the Summer of 03, and then Thursday in the Fall of 03 around August when mom came to visit. Saves the Day and Brand New came around November 03... Then I fell in love with Japan hahaha... damn.

So i guess my memories of America can't be extracted from the likes of The Pillows, Asian Kung Fu Generation (Spring 05), SPITZ (Fall - Winter 05), Plastic Tree (Spring - Fall 06)... I guess even right NOW when Hotaru by SPITZ is playing on my iPod, I still can remember the passing scene from the train from Back Bay in Boston to Framingham...

So that's that... One year.... Not one year back in Malaysia, but more, really, one year gone from America... quite a.... terrible.. feeling... really.

Here's The MIX.


Despair could ravage you if yo turn your head around
to look down the path that's lead you here, cause what can you change?
You're a vessel now floating down the waterways.
You can take your rudder and aim your ship,
just don't bother with the things left in your wake.
Just sail belly up to the clouds, the rocks scraping your back.
To breathe in the air will be the only thing that you have
and your love will be warm nights with pockets of moonlight
spotlighting you as you drift, the actor in this play.
You walk across the stage, take a bow, hear the applause,
and as the curtain falls, just know you did it all
the best that you knew how and you can hear them cheering now.
So let a smile out and show your teeth cause you know you lived it well.

Elaine
-This is Not an Exit-

Perhaps this is an attempt to justify something that I don't need to justify...



I know in a sense I am obsessed with Lunkhead-- but in another sense, for them, and for whenever I did like a band, it's not always without a reason.

Sure i'd love to marry Yoshitaro and wish to bear his kids but... that's just the obsessive nature talking... In my heart of hearts, it's not because how Yoshitaro looks that I am in love with Lunkhead, I love them because of their songs.


I'm sure some essense of it was lost in translation in the letter that actually reached him but This is part of the original letter in English that I sent to Yoshitaro... But I wrote this letter LOOOONG before I loved them as much.. this was the very first translation i gave to Tsuyoshi back in July 06 when i first got to know Lunkhead, and when I knew only 4 of their songs, and the feelings that I felt for them then back in July 06 are feelings that were still true (and added much more) in April 07 when i sent the letter... and still holds true right now... This is the reason why I loved Lunkhead, and why I love them still...


Hello.

I think that you are an amazing band. Your songs are awesome. I cannot really understand Japanese but your songs and the parts of the lyrics that I can understand really capture my heart.

I cannot stop listening to the songs!!! Truly addicted!! EVERYDAY!

Although I cannot understand Japanese very much (it is sad), I think that your songs are very beautiful yet sad, but always very amazing. Breathtaking.

The vocals is perfect (haha), the lyrics are phenomenally good, the guitars are amazingly beautiful, the bass is gorgeous and the drums is awesome.Every element just dances with each other to produce a wonderful masterpiece. THANK YOU FOR THE SONGS!!!!

Actually, the lyrics of 月と手のひら reminds me of an English song I love very much “Stay With Me” by the band Finch (I included a CD with the song with this letter)… But… I like月と手のひら very much because the lyrics is so beautiful. The vocals is very passionate and sad! Also, the music in that song is just absolutely beautiful. Very touching and inspiring!

木漏れ日　is also another song that I think the music is very beautiful. But the part I love the most is the first chorus “世界はどれだけの事を。。。”
I cannot understand Komorebi’s lyrics at all but I really love this part because it gives the feeling of a person growing wings to fly above in the sky, but it is not freedom that makes him take flight, it’s the feeling of wanting to fly because he is trying to escape a sadness inside him. Does that make sense??

So, even though I don't understand the lyrics much, the music and voice and atmosphere of the songs convery very meaningful feelings to me... Thank you.



This is something I wrote just last week when i was listening to Tsuki to Tenohira in the Staff Room:



Lunkhead is not the first band I've been crazily in love with, and they won't be the last... I will probably get over this and forget how it feels to feel these feelings when I listen to their songs like Tsuki to Tenohira and Komorebi...

But while it's now, I may scream and yell and proclaim my love for Yoshitaro daily like a deranged lover swooned off her feet everyday.... But that's far from the reason why I love Yoshitaro, and far from the reason why I love Lunkhead...

I like Yoshitaro like the reasons why I loved the likes of Noel Gallagher, Tim Wheeler, Nate Barcalow-- It is their brilliance, these quiet geniuses, crafting such amazing music, writing such breathtaking lines, loving to do their God-given talent with such passion and true happiness for their music, like it was a divine calling...

"It is not me who chose music, but it was music that chose me."

"Still I want to sing. Please let me sing."

This is the voice of someone who love what he does, and love with it with a passion that many of us lack for what we do... And I admire and love Yoshitaro for that.

It is reasons like these that is why I love Yoshitaro... for the music he makes, for the lyrics he writes about their dreams and how far they've come, for his genuine love and passion for what he does...

It's my flaw perhaps, that I am attracted to people who are brilliant and passionate about what they do.

Discredit him all you want for writing songs like Sakana no Uta and Semi haha, discredit him all you want to say that his song sucks, discredit him all you want if you want to argue that Lunkhead doesn't play rock songs, discredit him all you want if you say he looks like a girl, and discredit him all you want when I say "I love Yoshitaro!!!".... But you can't discredit him when you read what he wrote in Hitorigoto and Tsuki to Tenohira... That is brilliance.

I'm not saying that he's the only one, I've loved many writers in my life, but you can't deny he's not one.


So those are my reasons, sane or not, but that's why I love Lunkhead and its brainchild Yoshitaro.

Yeah their drummer is a girl, how cool is that!

Been meaning to post this up for awhile but never got round to it.

Tsubaki is the band I saw with LUNKHEAD during Tsubaki's Portrait+ Tour in June. Actually, Tsubaki was the headlining band.

They were a pretty cool band but for some reason, during their live, their songs sounded very very English... except it was in Japanese. Do you get what i mean? Like the feel of it, and the sounds. I guess it had to do with the chords and progressions they use in their songs.

But anyway, actually, I've been listening to their songs ALOT lately. Sometimes more than I listen to Lunkhead. There are a few of their songs that I really like and i've posted it for download. The songs I like the most are: Akai Tobira, Yume, Hanabi, Ame Oto, Kuru Asa Moeru Mirai, Mabataki.

I think they're a pretty awesome band. Very solid sounds and great music! Some great gems to be had there... And I think, actually, their songs are more radio friendly and... dare I say? mainstream... Especially their latest album Portrait... I suppose it must be coz they DID go major with this album. So I think most people would be favourable towards their songs... Especially Hanabi!!


Actually, one of the best moments, if not the defining moment for me during the first Live (28/06, it's the first of the two Lunkhead shows i went for) was actually during Tsubaki's set.. The singer guy announced the name of the song, Yume (Dream!), and I remember that during the bridge part, he like let the crowd hum and sing the "la la la la la la" part in the bridge and all of us were united in one voice just singing along while he sang the part "ひとりの夜もそばにいようぜ 君と僕の歌を歌おう" (Alongside one night, let's sing yours and my song ..??)... It was really really beautiful and was really truly in that moment, like being there living in a dream come true...

Well you gotta listen to the song, and see what I mean by that part there when we were all singing together in one voice... me this totally dunno any japanese fella in this completely japanese crowd but it was really amazing to stand there and get to hum la la la hahaha with all these other fans and really being together as one in a very special moment on a very special night...


Here are some of their PV.... They have the PV for few of the songs I like... Hanabi (of course), Mabataki, Brown Sugar Hair, Ame Oto and Kuru Asa Moeru Mirai....

But of all, actually, I like Hanabi and Brown Sugar Hair alot...! Actually i was kinda sick of listening to Hanabi at one time, but after watching the PV, I really liked it again... Brown Sugar Hair was not one of my favourite songs but after the PV i really liked it. Mabataki, on the other hand, is a GREAT song! But i really don't like the PV....







Anyway I encourage everyone to go check them out!!! Download these songs hahahaha... eeeeee.... SORRY TSUBAKI!! and MOST OF ALL, BUY THE ALBUM IF U LIKE THEM! PLEASE!

GET THE SONGS HERE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elaine Loh <elaineloh@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 8, 2007 2:09 PM
Subject: in the general area of things
To: melissawall@earthlink.net

i've been meaning to write but everytime i do, when i sit down at the computer, i don't feel like doing it anymore.

there goes, that explains the lack of update.

what else is there to say?

nothing.