yuki’s Neighborhood

2 DVDs!!!!..22 performances!!!....156 minutes!!!! It's Mr.Children!!!! my most favorite♥ band in the world's recently released concert DVD "Tour 2009 Shumatsu no confidence songs"~!!!! To say that I was *gushing*** with excitement on its arrival may still be an understatement~ ヽ(。´▽`。)ノ。。！！as this is already my most favorite♥ concert release of the year~ ＼(^o^)／☆！！！I think they're the most *wonderful*..*amazing*..*catchy*..band in the world~♥......oh and there's also The Beatles~♥!…(^q^)!

For a bit of a memory lane~ look into Mr.Children, please click~ here ＾　＾。

Mr.Children's "Shumatsu no confidence songs" concert DVD can be ordered here at Cdjapan.

Mr.Children's "Shumatsu no confidence songs" concert DVD can be ordered here at YesAsia.

Mr.Children's "Shumatsu no confidence songs" concert DVD can be ordered here at HMV Japan.

Mr.Children has often presented us with some of the most unique album art designs っo(*´∀｀)o!。。and this DVD has a really really imaginative vision of a musical♪ island paradise...just take a look and find all of the ordinary and not so ordinary components which comprise the cover artwork~ which comes complete with guitar bridge, koi oasis, microphone tower, keyboard stairs, speaker buildings, mushroom slide, coffee mug/ disco ball tower, volcano, deer and the details go on and on......oh~ and if you look a bit closer "Mr.Children" is also spelled out ingeniously in all of the island commotion across the lower half of the island~!

It's so *cool~y* detailed and intricate that found myself gazing at it for quite awhile....until okay~! it's time to watch the concert already~! (人∀`*)

In addition to the most *awesome* cover artwork~ there's also a large fold out style poster which doubles as the concert's liner notes on its reverse side~ ＾　＾。

This concert was filmed at Japan's legendary Budoukan~!...and what really makes Mr.Children's♥ lives so so *special~* aside from their of course most awesome songs♪～ is how much they improvise and re~arrange so many of their songs o(*´∀｀)o゛！And with a full arsenal of most amazing and talented musicians they're able to re~create and often times re~invent Sakurai~san's musical♪♪～ masterpieces which can take twists and major turns from what you're used to hearing on their albums~..truly so many surprise improvisations and entirely new intros/interludes within their songs....always so refreshing~ always so breathtaking just being able to witness how much they put into all of their live appearances~!

Before heading into six favorite♥ performances which I've included below and speaking of amazing intros into songs, here's one of my most favorite♥ special intros which appears on Mr.Children's "Home Tour 2007-in the field-"...which I still like to call it their "turtle♥bunny" DVD~ o(*´∀｀)o゛♥

Just below ↓↓↓ Mr.Children's performance of their beautiful ballad "Shirushi" begins with an acoustic intro.....so amazingly~amazingly~!! *sweet~!!! (*´∀｀*)♥♥♥

~Just love how Sakurai'~san's acoustic solo blends seamlessly into the group's live performance as the video with Sakurai~san sitting under a tree heads straight into the heart of the song~♥ ………(゜∀゜)………。

I so needed to begin with "HANABI!!!" It's my favorite♥ song from Mr.Children's 2007 album release.."Supermarket Fantasy" (which is heavily supported here on this concert DVD~ (*´∀｀*) ) after some inner debate & struggle ( `_)乂(_' )。。。(・o・)！as at first I couldn't decide between "HANABI" or "Esora"..both such *awesome* songs~!!!! ~♥~!!!!


Here's just a tiny bit of those special intros which I earlier mentioned~...and here Sakurai~san sooooo genki♥ and *energetic~*!!!! The original pv~ for "Esora" is so so *cute* too~!...I'm sad that YouTube ate it...(;´□｀)


~Just imagine.......the *feeling* of having written a song♪..selling over 1.9 million copies..winning the prestigious song of the year award~!!..and having your song♪ then serenaded by an entire audience filling Nippon Budoukan~ ＾　＾。For Mr.Children that most beloved song♪ and fan favorite♥ is "innocent world" and it's now a long time running tradition for Sakurai~san to ask the audience to sing entire verses & chorus parts and as they've resonated throughout arenas across Japan~ so it's also heard here~.......gives me goosebumps~!!!! just listening (人∀`*)♥♥♥

~Simply, one of Mr.Children's *cutest* songs♪ (*´∀｀*)♥ The style here is very reminiscent of early Mr.Children releases~...especially the *tinkering* of what I think is a xylophone?...the bars you tap with a tiny mallet..＾　＾。


~*Warm* and mesmerizing~ melody♪......and listen for the sweet* lead in from the middle interlude back to the chorus~ (*´∀｀*)♥♥♥


~Extremely cool guitar riffs~!....and Tahara Kenichi~san's guitar *tone* here is ………(゜∀゜)………。♥！！The build~up to the chorus too....one of Mr.Children's best~ ＾　＾。

Athlete: Four piece out of London, England. You’re probably familiar with their 2005 single Wires, which saw them being becoming household names in the UK and even saw them make it to Australia. Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t their first release (Vehicles and Animals was their first full-length album) and hasn’t been their last.

Following the release of Tourist (the album that contained Wires) was the release of the 2007 album Beyond the Neighbourhood. I must admit, this release didn’t make a big impact in Australia and as it seems, didn’t make it into the collection of many, claimed to be considered “a disappointment” by some.

Much like Coldplay, Athlete has been critically acclaimed for their songwriting efforts picking up a Mercury Music Prize nomination and winning an Ivor Novello award for Wires. The band has additional similarities to Coldplay, in that their music it quite mellow and mature; appealing to a slightly older audience than your general indie-pop/rock. If you hate Coldplay though, never fear their music is not quite in that same realm of “ya mum probably likes it”. That is, I don’t think mums would dig Athlete. They still retain that slight edge which will appeal to the kids, but maybe not the ones that think dressing like they stepped out of the 80’s is cool.

To celebrate the upcoming February 2010 US release of the bands fourth full-length album Black Swan (the album was released in the UK in August), the band have recently released an EP entitled, The Getaway.

Black Swan, is not, as you may have thought, a tribute to the state emblem of Western Australia, but apparently, encompasses the events and emotions that the boys from Athlete have gone through. Based around the tale that saw the Black Swan being seen as a mythical animal for hundreds of years, until someone went to Western Australia (obviously) and the metaphor that life is made of up significant events, some of which can be shocking, both good and bad.

Don’t worry, it’s not all sadness and gloom. The first single from Black Swan, Superhuman Touch (which is also on the EP), is quite upbeat and lyrically uplifting. Whereas the EP title track, The Getaway, is less uplifting, but just as heartwarming and emotive lyrically.

To mark the EP's release, Athlete is offering a free download, which is a deal well worth jumping on. So, to get your grubby hands on this freebie you just need to pop along and join the mailing list at http://www.originalsignalrecordings.com/Athlete/us/

You can also download the EP from iTunes at http://bit.ly/10Dcg3

http://www.athlete.mu/

Sally

sally@weheartmusic.com

JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS
We've been receiving a ton of Christmas/Holiday recordings lately. It's really hard to pick and choose what I'll be writing about in the upcoming week. I might as well get on top of some of these recording. Today we have Kill It Kid (killitkid.com / myspace.com) If they sound familiar to you, that's because we've previously mentioned them before.

Their song, "Just Like Christmas" is a cover of Minnesota's own Low. Since we're from Minnesota, this is worth checking out. You can download your own copy in a variety of formats (including flac) over at www.killitkidchristmas.com.

Low's ‘Just Like Christmas’ is a great tune, with an understated lyric and tender sentiment that we felt - with all our festive strength - we could break into a duet and still compliment the narrative. So we put it in front of the fire, filled it with cinnamon, brandy, and cranberry sauce and put some spurs on it!

-- singer Chris Turpin

The band is finishing up their 2009 tour:

12 Dec Play It By Ear @ The Monarch London
15 Dec The Glee Club* Cardiff
16 Dec The Duchess* York
17 Dec Jericho Tavern* Oxford

* with Foy Vance

Speaking killing...

MYSPACE MUST DIE!!
As you know, it's the nature of the business, but I have to use myspace because of its deep roots in music. Anyway, by choice, I am using Firefox 2.0. I tried 3.5, I don't like the way it handles scripts ... and there are some themes and extensions that does not work in the latest version, so yes, I'm still clinging on 2.0.

About a few weeks ago, myspace made this boneheaded decision that it wouldn't let you in if you're using old browsers. It's okay, it's not like I actively use myspace, but as the weeks went on, I realized I had to stop ignoring this problem.

So here is the solution for those of you suffering from the same problem (such as all Mac firefox users, apparently): get User Agent Switcher 0.7.2.

This little extension tells myspace, "I'm Internet Explorer 8, let me in!!". If you want to fool it into thinking you're running Firefox 3.0, add the following in "new":

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; ; rv:1.9.0.14) Gecko/2009082707 Firefox/3.0.14

That should do the trick.

PS, User Agent Switch is also useful when you stumble upon a "members only" forum. You simply change your agent to "Googlebot 2.1".