2012/12/31＊Takuro
「The going year & the coming year」
Now that it’s ending, it does feel like this year went by in a flash, too. To everyone who came to our shows, bought our CD’s and to everyone who learned about us via TV, radio, magazines or hearsay, thank you very much.
It’ll be 2013 in just two hours. We’re hoping for your support next year as well. Take a look at the website once the year’s changed, yeah?
2012/12/26＊Takuro
ECLODEVICE, produced by me and dop of lessthan*. I don’t talk about it a lot on this blog (sweatdrop & bitter laugh), but we’ve made another two shirts together which came out quite nice, so I’ll upload some pictures.
The body’s an original design by dop. The fit’s a little bit narrow with a slightly open neckline. People who aren’t that into narrow fits should go for one size larger than usual. These would also fit girls well. I wanted to recommend these as Christmas presents but… (another sweatdrop & bitter drop). Looks like it wasn’t meant to be. (laughs)
The first T has a skeleton juggling maracases. This skeleton’s a bit silly though: it’s even juggling with its own head.
Two colors, white and mustard.
There’s a back print at the neck area as well.
The second T has a frog in a well. I was describing to dop a bunch of details about how I wanted the shirt to look and I don’t think I managed to convey them at all. Even so, the end product looks great. The illustration is nice! I guess it’s sort of cute? Have a look:
This one comes in white and a cool, blueish gray. The design in the back is different as well.
Here’s the white one:
To both the people who like clothes and to those who don’t — and everyone else who’s interested — look here: http://shop.eclodevice.com/
lessthan* website: http://lessthan.jp/
9mm has a show at Budokan tomorrow on the 27th. We’re happy about being invited and getting a chance to play with Rin Toshite Shigure for the first time in a while. We’ll talk about the upcoming year and make the demons laugh.¹
¹ Japanese proverb. Basically means “you can’t know what the future holds.” For more info, see here (Japanese).
2012/12/25＊Takuro
「The countdown of mystery…?」
Merry Christmas!
Only six days and four shows left in 2012!
It’s a yearly thing, but I’m always surprised by just how busy it gets in December…!
PS. I turned on the TV and Kazumasa Oda was singing Kirinji’s Aliens. It’s been a while since I last heard it, but man… this song is awesome…
2012/12/23＊Staff
「The countdown of mystery commences!」
A mysterious countdown has suddenly appeared on 9mm’s official site! Only 9 days left of the year… the countdown is one of 9 days as well… just what is going to happen? ☆ Look forward to it!!
※ Please note that the countdown at the top-right is not visible on the iPhone.
Also, the 2013 9mm lucky boxes are on sale!! These 2013 lucky boxes are our way of celebrating the band’s 9th anniversary and they include an original poster calendar. There are 5,000 yen and 10,000 versions of these lucky boxes, but the 10,000 yen version has the poster calendar actually signed by members of the band!! The poster calendar is already rare in itself… but a signed version even more so!
Do consider getting yours, everyone.
You won’t regret getting one of these lucky boxes. ☆
We’re hoping for your support!!
2012/12/21＊Takuro
「To Osaka (for the second to last time this year)」
It was around a week ago when I wrote “I wonder what kind of a Japan it’ll be next week?” and to be honest, I am disappointed in the results of the election. But like I wrote last time, the real battle starts here. More than anything, we all must must keep doing whatever it is that we do.
We’ve been practicing for our shows next year, and we’ve had loads of pre-production work, too. And then tomorrow is our first show in 20 days. It’s our first time meeting with Fear, and loathing in Las Vegas. They’ve invited us to perform at their tour finale. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of a show it turns out to be. It’s been raining in Tokyo so I wonder how Osaka is… really though, the streets and all the people walking about give off an end-of-the-year vibe.
2012/12/15＊Takuro
「The day before」
I feel worried. Worried about just who voted and who didn’t. Well, I’m sure everyone shares the sentiment.
But don’t you feel that there’s loads of people who are saying they voted in this election? I do. I wonder if everyone realized that we need to do something in order to make the situation even just a tiny bit better? Or, rather, maybe they were thinking that we can’t let it get any worse than this, that we have to put an end to it? That sounds terribly gloomy though.
I was saying how we should all go vote, but please realize that this world isn’t going to change for the better just like that. It won’t change in just a year or two. Even 10 years might not be enough. I might even still be saying the same things when I’m an old geezer. Healing something that was painful for many years is going to take even longer than the time it was actually hurt. The politicians — or us — might fail a number of times until then. But even then, all we can do is try to make things even a little bit less bad than they are now, make everything even a tiny bit better. It sounds stupid when I say it like this, but Japan is our country after all.
We might not always know it, but surely there are politicians out there somewhere who are deserving of our votes. I just hope everyone finds out about them one way or another, and I hope for things to improve even a little. Those are my two cents of the evening.
I might seem pessimistic, but I’m really not. There are good things to come, too. Right, like for example the continued songwriting of 9mm’s new songs that are getting high praise. That’s what I’ll be up to tomorrow! With that, I hope you all have a good day.
2012/12/13＊Takuro
「December 13th (Thu)」
It’s cold everyday. It seems to be an especially chilly winter this year. Let’s be careful not to catch colds, yeah?
9mm’s been super busy with songwriting this December. It’s been a constant back-and-forth between the recording room and the sound booth. We’re pretty focused and coming out with great results. We might play some of them at the end-of-the-year show, or we may not. We’ve got a good feel for the songs we’ve written and performed live this year, so we’re feeling pretty good about that. When you’re performing songs in front of an audience, your perception about them changes as well.
The elections are coming up this weekend. It’s nothing special, but I thought I’d just write down my thoughts on it.
My two grandmas are now going in their 80’s and 90’s. I never got to meet my grandpas as they both passed away before I was born. I got to hear stories about the war from my grandmas when I was little. Even though I thought I was listening properly, I can’t recall those stories very well anymore. Maybe they were too difficult for a child to understand, or maybe I was just listening to them halfheartedly for a homework assignment. When the time comes that our grandmas’ generation is no longer here, Japan will have no more people who know the war. There will be no one left speaking about it from personal experience.
North Korea have fired a missile. The countries next to them, we’re in disagreement with over territorial disputes. There are people who are saying that these are problems that should be settled by armed forces. However, I refuse to partake in war; to kill and be killed by people from foreign countries. I have friends in both South Korea and China. Someone might say: “So, what? You’re just going to let Japan be invaded if it comes to war? I’m going to fight. You won’t fight even to defend your own country, your family? You coward.” That’s exactly right. If it comes to down to war, I will definitely not surrender. But I will not partake in war. Is that the same as not wanting to protect?
Isn’t it too late to start thinking about protecting your family once a war has already broken out? If you really had something you want to protect, you’d begin much earlier by not letting it escalate into violence. It’s not about governing your country or about picking your politicians — it’s about doing your job as an adult. I’m against partaking in war, but partaking in fighting war is something I must do. I can not support someone who is proactively trying to expose people important to me to danger. There’s no such thing as a person who never makes mistakes, but I think you can try to figure out the sorts of mistakes they might make — if only you just look carefully.
“Say, can we not prevent war just like we could a common cold?“
I think I’ll drop by the polling place next to our studio. Let’s all go. I wonder what kind of a Japan it’ll be next week?
2012/12/01＊Takuro
「The end of EAST COAST TOUR 2012」
Our tour — spanning from our first visit to Minamisoma to the Zankyo Matsuri in Taiwan — ended with the finale at Mitoshi. Thanks to all of you who could come to the show. I knew beforehand that they’d have mince cutlets in Minamisoma, but unfortunately we didn’t get the chance to try them… I’ll look forward to it the next time we get to go there. Thanks to everyone who came even though it was raining. We’ll see you all again soon so stay healthy until then.
The time we spent in Taiwan was short but busy. I sang the first couple of lines of Atarashii Hikari in Taiwanese. On the release exclusive to Asia, the song is titled “新的光芒” (I think). The staff over there are eager to have us play our own show there, so I’m feeling pretty hopeful about that. Let’s definitely do that. Xie xie Taiwan, and see you soon.
For our show at Mitoshi, I wore a NO NUKES T-shirt I bought at Taipei THE WALL, the venue of our Taiwan show. Seems like it was an event held by the Taiwanese. The design’s nice, too. Also, I tried using a new guitar on one song at Mitoshi (it wasn’t anything huge, but Taki, Kazuhiko and Kamijo all experimented a little as well). Well, I said “new” but it’s actually my old EDWARDS Bricoleur that I’d just modded a little. It now has a really nice finish. The main points are that it’s now completely pitch black, as well as having an arm, aka “whammy bar”. The sound’s tighter than before, too. I think I’ll upload a picture later. Actually, we have to get right back to songwriting and I think I’ll use it there, too.
December is here. The year’s in the home stretch.
