Welcome to Season 2 to “Top 5 Records” where music-loving pals and DJs “AMFM2030” (Michael Warren), “bemsha” (Tatsuo Fukutomi), and “Zebrio” (Brian Scott Peterson), invite their friends to an afternoon and evening of playing records and counting down their Top 5 Records on various themes!
The Season 2 – Episode 2 theme is “Heroes …Just for one Day” – songs and albums that are about Heroes. It will be up to our DJ’s to share how they interpret Heroes, whether that be “Hometown Heroes”, “Guitar Heroes”, “Unsung Heroes”, “Anti-Heroes” and so on. This will be our 2nd LIVE and IN-PERSON version of Top 5 Records, and we are happy to announce that we’ll be joined by special guest DJ and musician extraordinaire, James Banbury (Blood Wine or Honey, The Magnus Project). Welcome James!
Join us Saturday, June 17the, 4pm-9pm at Talking Gorilla in Shimokitazawa Station and celebrate our musical heroes!!
Our Talk Show broadcast countdown will be sandwiched by 4 sets of music!
Brian’s Top 5 (Songs)
- “Nobody Loves the Hulk” – Single, Queens City Records (1969) – The Traits
- “Believe It or Not” – Theme from “Greatest American Hero”, Elektra Records (1981) – Joey Scarbury
- “Flash” – Theme from “Flash Gordon”, Elektra Records (1981) – Queen
- “Bat Dance” – Single, Warner Bros. Records (1989) – Prince
- “Waiting for Superman” – The Soft Bulletin, Warner Bros. Records (1999) – The Flaming Lips
- “Magneto and Titanium Man” – Venus and Mars, Capitol Records (1975) – Wings
Bemsha’s Top 5 (Artists, and assorted works)
- Thelonious Monk – “Brilliant Corners” (1957), “Thelonious Monk Trio (1956)“
- Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Self-Titled (1981), “Signs of Life” (1987)
- Paul Pena – Self Titled (1972), “Genghis Blues”, Documentary Film, by Roko Belic (1999)
- Patti Smith – “M Train” (2015), “People Have the Power” (1988), “A Book of Dates” (2022), “Banga” (2021)
- Hosono Haruomi – “Bon Voyage” (1976), Y.M.O. – 浮気なぼくら/Naughty Boys (1983)
James’s Top 5: (Songs/Albums)
- “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of” – Dare (1981) – The Human League
- “Fight the Power” – Fear of a Black Planet (1990) – Public Enemy
- “Black Man” – Songs In The Key of Life (1976) – Stevie Wonder
- “Free” – Untitled (Rise) (2020) – Sault
- “Trans-Europe Express” – Trans-Europe Express (1977) – Kraftwerk
Michael’s Top 5 (Albums)
- “Rendezvous” (2004) – Luna, Jetset Records
- “Lookaftering” (2005) – Vashti Bunyan, Fat Cat Records
- “Team Rock” (2001) – Quruli, Speedster Records
- “2 Steg Från Paradise” (2010) – Håkan Hellström, Stranded Rekords
- “Emergency Ward” (1972) – Nina Simone, RCA Victor
Event page: https://fb.me/e/195NShVh2
Recap:
One week ago my music-loving pals and I hosted a 12th episode of our Top 5 Records, which has evolved into a Live Podcast, DJ Event, and Talk Show. The event pays homage to Nick Hornby’s novel “High Fidelity” and the cult classic movie by the same name, in which the 3 music aficionados anti-heroes, the clan of misfit record store clerks from “Championship Vinyl”, list their “Top 5” records on various themes throughout the book and movie.
Not unlike the three protagonists, my pals Michael Warren, Tatsuo Fukutomi (bemsha), and myself pick an agreed topic of interest, and essentially interpret that topic in any manner, whether it be by songs, albums, artists, or other, and create lists of 5 works to spotlight in a short show-and-tell presentation, shared online or in person. Past topics have included, “Heart of Saturday Night” (Best Records for any given Saturday Night), “Fly on the Wall” (Records that we would have liked to watch being made), and “Autobiographical” (Songs or albums that marked significant milestones in our lives.) Last week’s theme was “Heroes, Just for One Day” (albums, songs, or artists representing any aspect of the notion of “Hero” to us.) Check the comments for our Top 5 Heroes lists.
Until our 11th episode, we had only hosted the event online, which made adding an actual music-listening element a challenge. Now that we are able to meet in person, we have evolved the event to include several sets of us spinning our favorite records for you, that sandwich this Live-talkshow/podcast, but we have also added a guest DJ/presenter for each Top 5 Episode, with the first being acclaimed composer, producer, and cellist, James Banbury of Magus Project, Blood Wine Or Honey, and more (Thank you, James!)
We hosted the last two LIVE editions of Top 5 Records at Talking Gorilla (THANK YOU!) inside Shimokitazawa Station and welcomed a fantastic crew of both familiar friends and newly-made music-loving homies. Deep thanks to all who joined – you made the event so much more fun, truly one of, if not THE best edition of Top 5 Records yet. Next “T5R” coming up later this summer so stay tuned!
Until then… More Tokyo Record Style on the way!
