2010/06/04＊Takuro
「Revolutionary Tour 2010 in Sendai」
Ah, no good. Like in the words of the people who always lash out on us for this: we can’t let the page become just an ornament. Our bad, our bad. (“Sorry“… I think it’d make me sound like AERA if I said something like that, but I’m too afraid to try it out). “Japan sure is funny.“
Alright, time to pull myself together. Today we played in Sendai, the fourth stop of our tour. Looking from the window, we saw several buildings in ruins on the way. Water had gathered on the paddy fields and there were already seedlings growing. A lot of greenery. Japan’s this kind of a place, huh. That’s also what I thought after seeing the movie “Permanent Nobara” the other day. That was about a port city, though. It was a lovely movie. The women are all charming and the men all good-for-nothings. I thought it was kinda like “Volver” by Almodóvar. I guess that’d mean Miho Kanno was Penélope Cruz, ahaha. But I missed “Broken Embraces“, even though it’s sure to be wonderful. We were in the middle of the Zenmai tour, see.
Whoa. I seem to be constantly going off-topic. Right, I shouldn’t be getting sloppy like that even if our tour has begun. “I’ll take up arms for the show!“¹ is something you often hear people say, but just who are they actually going to fight with? There are no enemies of mine at the venue. I go there to do music. Even if you show me some examples of fights at shows, the fact of the matter is that if the band performs well, the audience’s hearts and bodies should react to it similarly. If they don’t, I’d guess the band isn’t in their best form. Possibly the audience, too. (laughs) We’ve had days like that as well. Several already. We’ve had a lot, nhahahaha. With that, later.
¹ 参戦 (sansen) is the word often used among fans, literally translating to “participation in a war“. Naturally it doesn’t mean they’re actually going to a show to fight or anything, the usage in the entry above (“ライブに参戦する”) really just translates to “I’ll be going to the show.”
2010/05/29＊Takuro
「I want to know the news」
I’m watching a lot of TV lately. I get curious about the news.
“We’re moving Futenma Base to Henoko. It’s been decided together with America.” That’s one weird news story. Isn’t this our chance to decrease our foreign bases by one? Our neighboring countries won’t even talk to us if we don’t forever keep relying on America? I don’t think so.
The Prime Minister should’ve just told America, “Japan doesn’t need your country’s base. But missiles are scary, so when the time comes, please protect us“. Like, “we want to make good use of your help～”. That way, I’d still remember the Prime Minister’s name 50 years from now. I don’t have trust in any of the other government officials of late, but I think what I will clearly remember is how they’re all quitting and making others quit whilst not coming up with any solutions to anything. And so that is my recommendation for you, Prime Minister! How about it? It’s not yet too late. You’ll surely be surrounded in a storm of bashing but as you know, there’s going to be people who complain no matter what you do. At least you’d become Japan’s hero. Besides, like, disobeying something is kinda rock’n’roll and cool, right? The young people would love it. Hmm? What’s that? “Rock” is of American culture? Then what about me? I am the vocalist of a rock band, you know. Ahahahaha.
I’m also curious about the food-and-mouth disease. The assortment journalizing problem… not so much. Not right now, anyway. I wonder how tomorrow’s weather is. With that, later.
2010/05/23＊Takuro
「One day as a shop assistant (including an hourly wage)」
The shows in both Osaka and Nagoya were really fun. Our performances are getting better as well. I’m looking forward to Tokyo the day after tomorrow, too. More than anything, I’m happy that the audience enjoyed themselves. I keep saying this over and over, but don’t get yourselves hurt. Well, it’s not like anyone attends our shows to fall over so this is a tough one. In any case, I hope you all have a good experience. It’s too bad it’s raining outside right now. I wonder if it won’t get sunny for the 26th? Well, it’s not like it matters during the show if it’s raining or not.
By the way, this afternoon I was at Laforet Harajuku. Not to shop, but to work as a shop assistant at a limited time shop called gslp*. It’s a shop by Lessthan, who make the clothing 9mm wears live. They also sell ECLODEVICE items (uhm, this is a little thing I’m doing together with dop. Lately, the sneakers have proven really popular! Amongst my family. (laughs)). They were also selling items made in collaboration with Sho Wada from TRICERATOPS and stuff. Even looking at just the items worn by 9mm, the print designs are really interesting and they feel good to wear. It seems we’ll also be doing this in Sendai. We should go there before our show! Advertisement, advertisement. Hey, we did get paid for it, you know!
We have another rehearsal tomorrow. With that, later.
The picture has Takuro’s paycheck of 999 yen.
2010/05/19＊Takuro
「The night before the tour」
As is obvious, I need to make preparations for the journey. It’s not long, but a tour’s a tour. We’re going to be immersed in touring for the next month. However, I’m not getting any of said preparations done. Even though tomorrow’s the first day of the tour and it’s midnight, Tokyo’s still getting wet in the rain. No good. I can’t even get something this simple done? I’ll just sleep! I’ll go to the toilet and then sleep! I’ll manage somehow, as long as I’m not late and get there on time as promised. Having become completely at a loss and dead serious, I noticed a phrase in the “Mitsuwo Aida daily rip-off-a-page calendar” on the wall in front of me. “You take care of things in order, one at a time, definitely“. I see! I understand, Mitsuwo-sensei! Come to think of it, the one some days ago had something like “you don’t have to do your best — just do something definite” written… I see. Mitsuwo-sensei was someone who lived pragmatically. That famous line of “you don’t have to do your best…” had a continuation to it. What this is basically saying is “stop talking about it — just do it“, isn’t it? If it was just the beginning part, you’d hear it and go “Oh I see, I don’t have to do my best. Alright, I’ll just put off doing everything then.“, causing our world to go out of order. It can’t be helped, I’m the kind of a person who can’t even get preparations done without advice from someone. Even if I do hope I could make the world a better place in one shot, there’s a limit to greed, too. You have to do things one by one. What is it that I can do, I wonder……
Oh, oops. I was talking about how I’m not getting preparations done. My recovery since then has been amazing. I got it all done in a flash and right now I’m just thinking about tomorrow. What kind of a show do you think it’ll be? To be honest, that’s something even I don’t know. There’s no way I could know. I know the songs we’re going to play, but that’s about it. I’d think we’ll have fun all the way through. We had a meeting about this tour just a while back. Once we did, it seems I’d become an idiot. Taki, Kazuhiko, Kamijo and the managers all told me: they said I’d turned into an over-thinking fool. I was saying stuff like “oh dear, don’t spill water on the stage” and “don’t get hurt“, even though it’s stuff they all know. Completely obvious stuff. I’m such a rude guy. And more than rude, a fool. Thus, I think I’ll continue saying it over and over again. It’s important to preface what you say with “I’ll only say this once“, and then keep saying it over and over. But be careful: there are times when I really do only say something once.
For me, once the show starts and the first song begins to resound, I don’t want to ever stop playing. Everyone’s the same way, I’d think. You know what I mean, right? We ought to think alike, see. Those who interfere with our performance, I’ll strike down. With our music, of course. But depending on the circumstances, I may strike — definitely. Just how I plan to do so, I won’t say. Fufufu. Ah, I’m excited. Everyone, make noise or don’t. Laugh or don’t laugh, if you feel like crying, cry, dance or don’t dance — there’s no need to be one with everyone else, more important than that is to keep yourself safe. Enjoy the show as you like. The atmosphere at the venue. Just, don’t stop the music. Because tomorrow, you’re going to be a part of it. That’s all I want to say. This ended up being much too long. Thank you for keeping me company. With that, later.
2010/05/14＊Takuro
「Arrival at Fukuoka」
Following the album’s release, there weren’t any news posted here aside from Kamijo’s sudden profession of love for “Onegai Ranking”, so this has been quite a long time coming.
The people who arrived here because of our new album or after seeing us on TV might be clueless after seeing the blog as it is now, so it’s time I finally updated. I’m Takuro Sugawara, vocalist and guitarist of 9mm. Please to make your acquaintance. (Oh, and the rest of us members are interested in Onegai Ranking as well. We’ll have Kamijo explain on the show.)
Now then. Our album Revolutionary seems to be quite well-received (I was happy to personally receive so many positive comments from other bands), and up until last week, it seems we were within the top 10 of the Oricon chart. This week, or rather on the charts for the 17th, we regrettably came in 11th (as to why they have the charts for the 17th on the 14th, I didn’t look into it so I don’t know. Maybe it’s like what they do at Shounen Jump?). Since we have one in our name, we seem to have a connection with the number “9“. The band has an overwhelming amount of activities planned, so I have a feeling we might be back on 9th place next week.
After our TV appearances, Arabaki as well as Golden Week, we’ve been doing nothing but rehearsing. It’s going really well. Everyone returned home for Golden Week and we were all saying that that was probably a good thing. We’re making plans as to what to do with this album as compared to the last one. Do look forward to a tour.
I’m in Fukuoka at the moment. Just now I arrived to Hakata City from the airport. After properly eating some ramen, I’ll now be rushing into interviews. Tomorrow it’s F-X! The day after that, JAPAN JAM! It’s just me, though. I’ll be getting onto Yoshii’s stage (there’s a funny story about when it was decided I’d be performing with him, but I’ll talk about that later. It’s about me receiving something from him). I’ll be on radio in a bit, so I’ll stop here. With that, later.
2010/04/22＊Takuro
「2 days: Revolutionary release and live broadcast」
The album has went on sale safely. Yesterday, the 9mm team celebrated the safe delivery of our new work upon society. I’d just like to say thank you to those who picked it up. Please enjoy the music we created.
Tonight we were greeted by a beautiful woman and her hermits on a live broadcast of Supesha, met up and exchanged albums with THE BAWDIES (same release date!) and clamored about a bit. Afterwards as we were thinking about getting back, we were told that we came first place on the program’s chart. That surprised us. We left Supesha whilst thinking “yep, the video for The Revolutionary was pretty good indeed“. For those of you who missed it, it seems it’s going to get re-aired. Next weekend we also have a V.I.P. special, so you ought to check that ought. And then, we have Music Station lined up tomorrow. I didn’t think we’d get a second appearance. When you appear on the show, you’re given these Music Station tissues (in a box). I’d carelessly used away all the ones I received last time, so I feel relieved to be able to get a refill. There won’t be a studio audience present tomorrow, but we’re still going to play just like always. Everyone, be in front of your TV’s at 8 tomorrow. See you then.
2010/04/19＊Takuro
「The album release is near」
The stormy HEEFEST ended safely and very soon, finally, “Revolutionary” will be released. We get to finally give it into people’s hands, have it reach their ears. We’re doing so many interviews this time around, I can’t even keep track (as to what media they’ll be published in, you’ll find all that info on the homepage, so for those of you with an idle curiosity and nothing better to do, please try counting how many there are. I think you’ll either get sleepy, or you’ll just want to stop halfway through. Which is basically how we always feel when doing intervie– the following has been omitted).
Leaving aside the fact that doing them will probably get the name “9mm Parabellum Bullet” across to many people, the good thing I get out of doing interviews is that I get asked about things that the interviewer perceived on the album that I wasn’t even aware of, and as we talk, I may realize things about it, too. To a certain extent, I get an objective point of view about myself at the time, and it’s only now that I understand lots of things. It’s pretty common for me to think “I don’t even know why I did it that way“. There are good things and then there are things that — from the very start — just aren’t. It’s tough when our personalities with the person I’m talking to don’t match at all. There are people with whom I don’t get along no matter how many times we talk (we just can’t hold a good conversation to begin with), and there are people with whom that happens on our very first meeting. There are people who you just know came to do the interview without having listened to the album at all. And most of all, if I continue talking about the same stuff for an entire day, my head gets all funny. Your brains start to boil, seriously.
But to tell you the truth, I did the same myself, too. This time, I just talked about similar stuff, or rather, I made a conscious effort to talk about the same things everywhere. We’re going to have our interviews on magazines, radio and free newspapers, but we’re basically talking about the same thing in all of them. It’s not because someone told us “it’s good“, it’s because we feel so ourselves and we want to convey those feelings: it’s a cool album. We made it with honest feelings, and thus we also talked about it honestly. Not having anything to depend on and calling something “good” is a very difficult thing to do. Taking responsibility for that statement, you know. Calling something “bad” would be even more difficult. But “Revolutionary” is good. It’s cool. We’re near its release. I mean, it’s tomorrow! Look forward to it! With that, later.
2010/04/09＊Takuro
「From the radio」
My Monday. Staring at the ceiling in my house, I was thinking “I wanna listen to something but I’m not in the mood for CD’s, let’s make it radio today” and as I turned on the component stereo, I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard my own voice. “Hmm?” It was then followed by Kazuhiko’s voice. “I see, our corner on RADIO DRAGON started broadcasting today.“
Like that, I went on listening to SCHOOL OF LOCK, reminiscing about my middle school days, and reading books. I haven’t gotten my hands on Koutarou Isaka’s new work yet. That reminds me, Book 3 of 1Q84 comes out this month. Lately I’ve been listening to The Beatles’ Mono Box and Nirvana’s In Utero. Also, Ken’s new record and, oh that’s right, the White Stripes live disc is awesome. Also, right now we’re in the middle of making a band score.
And then, next week we head for Hiroshima and right after that it’s Gifu. A little after that, it’s time for our new album. That’s our April. With that, later.
no title
「Jungyou over」
Just as we got that over with, we already performed at an event called “SOSISOAI” held at Akasaka BLITZ. I think you’ll get this if you read through this entire post, but it was something arranged by Junji Ishiwatari. With quite an unusual set of bands like moja, FLiP and LEO Imai performing with us, that was interesting.
Seeing LEO for the first time in a while, he was so cool I didn’t know what to do. But, 9mm had a good performance as well. It feels like the album tracks translated well, too. I had people telling me the same thing at the wrap-up party just now. That’s good, that’s good.
Now then. Just as I might’ve started thinking I get to take a breather, we have a show again on the 24th at Shinkiba with 65daysofstatic and Straightener. It’s tough, but performing is awesome, you know. I’m excited. So, I’ll see you at Shinkiba.
However. I didn’t get to drink with Junji enough so I’ll have to wait for another time to do that.
That’s all I was going to post, but I see now that the date just changed. So that brings me to my next point: 9mm was at Shinkiba COAST on the 22th, too. The secret SOUND SHOOTER vol.5 was a huge success. Ahh, that was fun. Thank you, Rui. We did it, huh. Nfufufu.
2010/03/18＊Takuro
「Concerning Hamamatsu Madowaku」
This’ll be the third time we’re playing a tour finale at Hamamatsu. I wonder how many times we’ve played in Madowaku. This may be the third time, if you count the time ELLE brought us along with them. Due to their move, Madowaku will be opening in a new location. Thank you to all the staff of the venue.
Looks like it’s going to be another hot finale. Inochi no Zenmai Daijungyou was another long one, but now there’s only one show left. Once you start playing, just thinking about how the show and the tour are going to end make you think it’s such a waste. Today, too, we’ll be having a lot of fun. Although there was also at times this feeling that this tour was a struggle, that’s nothing new. It’s always been that way. However, that feeling of standing up on stage and performing being fun, that it’s the best, that’s something that never changes. That’s what I always think.
Looks like the day’s breaking.
With that, see you at Madowaku.
