Cheers to an amazing Record Store Day 2023 and to a first LIVE version of “Top 5 Records” – record-loving homies coming together to spin wax and countdown our top five records on various themes.
For this first special episode of T5R, Season 2, Michael, Tatsuo (bemsha), and I commemorated Record Store Day by joining up at ヤキトリてっちゃん Talking Gorilla, INSIDE Shimokitazawa’s new(ish) station to play records and to continue comparing the ranks of our favorite records on the theme, “Music ABOUT Music!” It was a bit of a test run, a proof of concept if you will, but we did indeed prove that it could be done and that it was goooood fun, despite a few minor hiccups.
Bemsha’s Top 5
Michael Frant’s “Everyone Deserves Music”, Everyone Deserves Music (2003)
Fat Freddy’s Drop, “Hope” – Hope (2003)
Don McClean’s “American Pie” – American Pie (1971)
Yello Magic Orchestra’s “音楽” (Ongaku) – 浮気なぼくら (Naughty Boys) (1983)
Joe Jackson’s “A Slow Song” (1982)
Michael’s Top 5
Air’s “Ce matin-là” – Moon Safari (1998)
Los Straitjackets’ “Lately I’ve Let Things Slide” – What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Los Straitjackets (2017),
Khraungbin’s “Zionsville” The Universe Smiles upon You, (2015),
Skatalites’s “Ska-Boo-Da-Ba” – Ska-Boo-Da-Ba (1966)
Sven Wunder’s “Asterism Waltz” – Asterism Waltz (20210
Brian’s Top 5
Daft Punk’s “Giorgio by Moroder” – Random Access Memories (2013)
Jane’s Addiction’s “Rock&Roll” – XXX (1987) (V.U. Cover)
Leon Russell’s “A Song for You” – Leon Russell (1970)
The Mothers of Invention’s “My Gutiar Want to Kill Your Mama” – Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1969)
George Harrison’s “While my Guitar Gently Weeps” – Beatles’ White Album (1968)
Chuck Berry’s – “Johnny Be Goode” (1958) (released as a single)
With just a few words left, I want to send a very big thank you to Nor-san and Sangita-san and ヤキトリてっちゃん Talking Gorilla and to everybody who came out and had a listen or enjoyed from inside the station. Thank you to my music “Top 5 Record” Homies, Micheal and Bemsha for coming rallying! And thanks to our upcoming Season 2, Episode 2 special guest, James Banbury who hung the whole afternoon! More T5R and TRS, on the way!
PS: Of the session’s hiccups, which included forgetting the computer’s powerblock, spacing a mic wire-spitter, not having an extension cord, not to mention a tragically embarrassing 33rpm misfire of Leon Russell’s “A Song for You” single intended to be played at 45rpm (hanging head low, very low), I also managed to mangle bemsha’s very nice custom cartridge stylus dribbling it on the slip mat, OUCH! Sorry bemsha and thanks for being chill. C’est la vie – an expensive hiccup (Note to self: bring your own cartridges) …all good though. But while I was searching for my long lost technics-headshell-mounted Grado Cartridge so as to avoid breaking Murphy’s Law again, and, that I know is buried SOMEWHERE in some box in my stuff, a damn nice cartridge too, I came across a fun 10×12 print of me from 2006 (which is about when the last time I’ve seen this), holding my Nikon FE, photographing the streets of Shimokitazawa, standing right in front of the old old station, virtually in the EXACTLY spot where I was DJ’ing 17 years later! Still long-haired and scruffy, slightly tattered threads. Had this little cartridge hiccup not occurred, and had I not gone digging in back files for that Grado, I might not have seen this photo for another 10 or 15 years. I’m happy to still see that smile on my face every now and again, keeping at all the things I love.
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