Lo-Fi Blog

Live updates 19th Nov and 20th Nov

2010-11-17T11:53:00.002+09:00

2010.November.19 (Friday) "Groove Alchemist"

When we were on tour in Nagoya we did a show with SPEAKER SGT.
On the 19th they'll be organizing a jazzy music event in Kichijoji.
Lo-Fi will be playing at 20:30-21:00!

Where: MANDALA (KICHIJOJI) http://www.mandala.gr.jp/man1.html
〒180-0003 Minamimachi 1-5-2 Kichijoji, Musashino-shi, Tokyo
TEL：0422-48-5003

2 minute walk from Kichijoji station

Entrance: ¥2000 + 1drink order, Door ¥2200 +1 drink order

Time Table:1.Sifaka 19:00-19:30　http://www.myspace.com/sifakafis
2.SNATCH 19:45-20:15　http://www.myspace.com/snatchinfo
3.Lo-Fi 20:30-21:00
4.Speaker Sgt. 21:15-21:45 http://www.myspace.com/speakersgt
DJ Ryohei http://www.myspace.com/djryoheiart

for questions and reservations: news@lofi-net.com

2010.11.20(Sat) "Forest Jam Grande 2010"

The last outdoor music festival in Japan this year... Forest Jam
It's a two day event from the 20th to the 21st at the Nakadai Art Village!

Where: NAKADAI ART VILLAGE (Chiba prefecture)

Entrance: 5,500yen (Door 7,000yen)

Online ticket sales: e++ http://eplus.jp/sys/T1U14P0010163P0108P002047337P0050001P006001P0030001

For English assistance in purchases please contact news@lofi-net.com

Artists:
The Sunpaulo
Spina B-ill
Kingdom☆Afrocks
cro-magnon
Hypesessions
Majestic Circus
Hale Bale
Dachambo
UCOCA
DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite.jp
Lo-Fi

Official HP: http://grande.forestjam.net/

Live updates 19th Nov and 20th Nov

2010-11-17T11:51:00.000+09:00

2010.November.19 (Friday) "Groove Alchemist"

When we were on tour in Nagoya we did a show with SPEAKER SGT.
On the 19th they'll be organizing a jazzy music event in Kichijoji.
Lo-Fi will be playing at 20:30-21:00!

Where: MANDALA (KICHIJOJI) http://www.mandala.gr.jp/man1.html
〒180-0003 Minamimachi 1-5-2 Kichijoji, Musashino-shi, Tokyo
TEL：0422-48-5003

2 minute walk from Kichijoji station

Entrance: ¥2000 + 1drink order, Door ¥2200 +1 drink order

Time Table:1.Sifaka 19:00-19:30　http://www.myspace.com/sifakafis
2.SNATCH 19:45-20:15　http://www.myspace.com/snatchinfo
3.Lo-Fi 20:30-21:00
4.Speaker Sgt. 21:15-21:45 http://www.myspace.com/speakersgt
DJ Ryohei http://www.myspace.com/djryoheiart

for questions and reservations: news@lofi-net.com

2010.11.20(Sat) "Forest Jam Grande 2010"

The last outdoor music festival in Japan this year... Forest Jam
It's a two day event from the 20th to the 21st at the Nakadai Art Village!

Where: NAKADAI ART VILLAGE (Chiba prefecture)

Entrance: 5,500yen (Door 7,000yen)

Online ticket sales: e++ http://eplus.jp/sys/T1U14P0010163P0108P002047337P0050001P006001P0030001

For English assistance in purchases please contact news@lofi-net.com

Artists:
The Sunpaulo
Spina B-ill
Kingdom☆Afrocks
cro-magnon
Hypesessions
Majestic Circus
Hale Bale
Dachambo
UCOCA
DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite.jp
Lo-Fi

Official HP: http://grande.forestjam.net/

NEXT SHOW @ Mandara!

2010-11-01T17:09:00.000+09:00

Wow... the Halloween party was really great.
It's always great performing with all these different artists.

It was also my first time seeing SATO TAIJI do his solo thing.
Really cool rock'n roll stuff.

Lo-Fi will be doing our next show in KICHIJOJI.

1.Sifaka 19:00-19:30　ttp://www.myspace.com/sifakafis
2.SNATCH 19:45-20:15　http://www.myspace.com/snatchinfo
3.Lo-Fi 20:30-21:00　http://www.lofi-net.com/
4.Speaker Sgt. 21:15-21:45 http://www.myspace.com/speakersgt
DJ Ryohei
http://www.myspace.com/djryoheiart

Open18時半Start19時
料金前売り2000円、当日2200円ドリンク別
http://www.mandala.gr.jp/man1.html

詳細： http://events.myspace.com/Event/8140590/Speaker-Sgt-Presnts-groove-alchemist#ixzz1413eOpK9

We met the band SPEAKER SGT. a while back in Nagoya when we were out there on tour.
It's great to have them invite us this time to their show.
We've got some great bands lined up so look forward to the show

RENO ANNIVERSARY "Halloween Party"

2010-10-21T23:18:00.000+09:00

The Halloween party/ RENO ANNIVERSARY party at the end of this month is an event you don't wanna miss! Lo-Fi will be doing a full show (with new songs!) and we've even got some of the members from the TSUNAGU EVENT and coliberation event's Lo-Fi has hosted in the past!

This time we weren't able to get deeply involved in the planning of the event but the musical and paint content will be awesome so don't miss out!!!

RENO EVENT LINK

Lo-Fi on iflyer:
http://iflyer.tv/5/

Darker Than Blue 2010

2010-10-17T12:46:00.000+09:00

The "Darker Than Blue 2010" event this weekend was great! it isn't over yet though. today is the is the last day of the event.

We've played on the beach and in the forest before, but never SO deep in the wilderness. We started playing at dusk and by the time we were into our second song it was dark enough to see the stars.

between songs you could hear the crickets singing too.
it was a really great experience. I must say that aside from the incredible beauty of the forest and autumn atmosphere, the speaker system that was being used for the main band stage was the best system we've ever played through!!!

It was a monitor test for Meyer Sound labs and even the stage monitors were top class. we were actually able to do a rehearsal next to the DJ stage blasting away at full volume...

Next next week we've got the Halloween party coming up on the 31st. The sound design for Darker Than Blue is coming for this show too, so look forward to the sound as well as the mixture of art!

5

Today is Nori's solo show

2010-10-05T19:32:00.001+09:00

Tonight Nori is doing a solo show at Tsukimiru near Gaienmae.

she's done shows here in the past with Lo-Fi too, but tonight they have a grand piano on stage for her show. I'm really looking forward to her special guest Asazaki-San, who is going to do a song with her tonight.

I've attached some photos of what the stage looks like tonight.

will update info from the show when her stage ends!

5

Tested out Agro and Tone Hammer

2010-09-14T20:25:00.000+09:00

Last week I spent some time in Nagoya and took two days off to spend with my family. I decided to drive, even though it's not actually cheap to do that as part of my trip. Long drives for me are strangely a way to get away from my daily life, where I am unfortunately driving to many of my gigs.. the difference is the traffic though!

Last time we went to play in Nagoya we visited the Phil Jones Bass gear importer in Japan cause their office was close to where we were staying. this time I didn't have the time to visit their office but did check out some gear since I had some extra time while I was there.

I've always been unhappy with many distortion pedals for the bass, maybe because distorted bass is just not so widely used in music... but anyway I tried out the Aguilar Agro stompbox and it was one pedal I actually liked a lot.

It kept the lows intact even when the drive was high, and it was really versatile letting me dial in lots of drive to amp crunch with different mid frequencies and attack.

Also wanted to compare so tried out the level of drive on their DI pre-amp the Tone Hammer. it was a great sounding DI and pre-amp complete with boost and lots of tone shaping capability, but didn't satisfy my want for a drive pedal.

My style of playing.. especially live, requires all kinds of sound variations to be the right lead instrument and bass depending on the situation.

I've updated my board so plan to upload that on my blog soon too

5

The Lo-Fi sound

2010-09-11T19:07:00.000+09:00

Back when I started this band I had this concept of creating a sound that mixed both analog and digital sounds not in the digital music direction but in a live band context.

I've seen some really cool digital rock bands and then also some good live hiphop bands as well and I felt that just replicating digital music live was not enough.

What made live music really "live" for me was not just the way it was performed but what the live environment influenced you to create in the live performance.

That's how Lo-Fi's sound became more about the jamming and live interaction, instead of trying to just replicate programmed beats. (Not that we were really successful at doing that...!)

The concert we did the other day at the Duo Music Exchange was a great opportunity to reflect on the show itself too. usually we are so centered on getting the sound and playing right we never cared so much for the stage costumes or lighting arrangements unless it was a painting or multi-genre art show. But I think especially in Japan, the way you dress is an important part of the show and changes how the audience receives the sound your emitting.

We were lucky enough to have the support of a very cool designer from IZREEL to help out for this show. it was really eyeopening for me especially because it was a lot like arranging stage props for a play, how he styled our costumes for the show. this is a shot we had our manager take backstage on Yosh's phone before the show.

I have to admit it takes many people and a good team of sound lighting styling and of course performers to put together a larger scale show. it's really great though, after all is finished to look back and hear some surprising feedback from our fans!
I didn't even now people were paying attention to what we were wearing.. shows how much I know :p

5

Lo-Fi at the Duo Music Exchange

2010-09-08T00:23:00.001+09:00

Thanks for coming out to see the show at Duo Music Exchange!
Also a very special thanks to our stylist Takakura-san from IZREEL.
It was a really great to have him help us out with creating an awesome atmosphere on the stage with his selection of styles from his collection.

Our setlist for this night was:
Make That Change
Higher
Angel
What We Fight For
Realize

We didn't get too many songs into our setlist, but we did get to do a lot of jamming! It was great to hear some great comments about the jams too.

We'll be doing some more concerts next month too, so look forward to our updates on http://www.lofi-net.com/

- Posted by 5

Cafe Vacation was great!

2010-09-04T00:33:00.001+09:00

Great show at the new "Cafe Vacation"!!!

This was a great photo that was tweeted by @motoji24 !!
It's great when we can get nice photos posted by the people at the show.

The new cafe was great. The place has got a really big bar counter and pretty good sound with our sound system! Most likely the best sounding bar/cafe style place we've played at.

But what made the concert great, was the fans that were enjoying the show!
really really great crowd!!
Thanks for making the concert awesome!

for those of you in Chiba, we'll be playing at the Surf Jam tomorrow!
Surf Jam HP

- Posted by 5

Nori at Blue Moon

2010-08-31T17:42:00.000+09:00

The other day I went to see Nori play keys for the one and only Asazaki-san at Blue Moon in Hayama Japan.

To be honest it was kinda hard to find the venue itself, but I gotta say that it's a beautiful place to play. I guess it depends what kind of music that your playing, but when you hear those waves in-between the songs in the set, it's just perfect.

they did two sets that night and not to my surprise they didn't play any songs that I would know. But it seemed like they did play some cover songs that the crowd knew.

It was awesome that she got everyone dancing and singing along to the Amami music!

Nori was playing the Nord keyboard that she always uses at the Lo-Fi concerts, but it sounded totally different this night!

Here's Asazaki-san's info if your into the Amami-traditional music.
http://www.asazakiikue.com/

5

Message from III's Itta!

2010-08-26T10:42:00.001+09:00

Lo-Fi is going to be playing for an end of the summer party hosted by a good friend of the band, Itta Tsunoda.

Here's a message from him to our fans too.

------message start-----
Dear Frinends

I hope all is well,
For me, I felt like I hadn’t really done anything to enjoy the summer this year yet...
So together with my good friends, I planned a party called “DEL AZUL” at my new place in Odaiba on the rooftop... THIS SATURDAY!!!

It will sort of be a party featuring lots of music with a live band and something like10 DJs playing all on the rooftop!
I wanted people to enjoy the atmosphere and the environment fully so that party starts at 2PM soaking up the sun, till we then, watch the sun go down closing the party (at least the first half of it... : ) at 9PM.

I have already 200 people confirming to come but I can use a couple hundred more considering the spacious venue. Bring your friends too and enjoy what the last days of summer has to offer!

Admission (sorry we needed to collect some to put this event together...)
3000yen for guys (w/ one drink)
2000yen for ladies (w/one drink)

Place
2-7-4 Aomi The SOHO 1126 Koutou-ku
Tokyo, 135-0064 Japan
http://www.aomi-project.com/index.html

Best,
Itta

------message end-----

I hope you guys didn't miss that typo he put in the beginning of his email!
Anyway, Lo-Fi is planned to perform around five PM. We're gonna play a full set and maybe more....

Hope to see everyone there!

- Posted by 5

Live report "Surfer's" Zushi beach

2010-08-25T18:03:00.001+09:00

Yesterday was a good day.
I was finally granted one of my wishes of being able to play with Hank live.

He's been one of my favorite guitarists for a long time now, one of my influences that made me realize that maybe bass was my thing.

Everything was great until we got cut a few songs short... Well to be honest mid-show... Because people who live across the street from the beach said the concert was too loud and basically called the cops on us.

Well aside from the negativity of the mostly non-local people who live in the expensive beach-side apartments, I'm sure many of the local people and non-local people at our show enjoyed the show for as long as it lasted!
Thanks to everyone that came to the show and kept it happy and lively despite the angry beach security!

Nishiyama Fumio "Hankoya" is a great guitarist that's played with many great musicians worldwide. It'd be great if you guys could check out some of his solo work too! It's great stuff. Can't beat the feel he has "live" though!

- Posted by 5

Surf Jam in Chiba Sep 4th Sat

2010-08-22T13:22:00.001+09:00

Lo-Fi is gonna play the Surf Jam event in Chiba on the 4th of September.
We've played at their last event they did that was situated on the beach, but due to many reasons they've moved the party on shore.

This was a photo at the same stage Surf Jam is going to use from another event. It's basically outside and when it's colder at night they used to light the camp fire in front of the stage.

We're doing a fairly long set for this concert so please drop by if you can!

http://www.surfjam.net/

- Posted by 5

Live at Wasted Time

2010-08-18T10:51:00.000+09:00

We played the Shibuya bar on Saturday August 14th.
Like usual we brought in our set and keyboards.

Setting up the drums is a burden, but when it comes to sound, you don't want to sacrifice.

We played with a more old school sound band called Acid Bloom that night, and also with a jam band called Egg.

Wasted Time has a special DJ event on Mondays. sometimes they do a movie night on that day too.

It's a bit unfortunate that lately live event spaces can't seem to fill the floors everyday, but at least they're being creative about it!

Next week we're going to be playing a show at the beach house in Zushi Kanagawa Japan.

The event space is called Surfer's and it's a venue known for having lots of great artists playing there the whole summer while it's opened.

We have the privilege of getting to open for the venue when it opened it's doors this summer. We won't be able to make the closing party, so we've arranged to play a special even with the most soulful guitarist I know!

We'll be posting more about this gig on our site soon!

- Posted by 5

The FenderRhodes and stuff

2010-08-14T13:06:00.000+09:00

Here's a shot of Nori playin the Rhodes we use for our concerts in Takanawa.

It's a little road worn but still sounds great.
Lo-Fi loves the way the instrument sounds. Unlike many modern. Keyboards, it really sounds different depending on which one you play

Check out this photo of the insides of the Rhodes.
I never really had a chance to look at it, and never had a chance to look into the history of it either.

But one look into the construction and the mystery of why fender was making keyboards was obvious.

If you look to the left side of the photo you can see the copper color of the coils for the magnetic pick-ups

We want to take this one on the road with us, but considering the weight and the fragility of this instrument, we haven't found the right opportunity just yet.

We are definitely going to use it for our next album though.
Hopefully a good amp will be available for us to get the right tone out of it!

For tonight's concert we'll be using a two keyboard setup, with the Nord and the Yamaha. Not enough channels though at tonights bar to do our full setup with the samplers though.

See y'all tonight!

- Posted by 5

Recording the new album

2010-08-13T02:50:00.001+09:00

Lo-Fi is a doing well as a band since we finally settled with the three members we are now. We've released our album at the end of last year, and hopefully if things move on as scheduled we'll be releasing our next album around the same time this year too.

Then it will mean that we really have something available for our fans when we finally reach them live where-ever they are. I especially miss being in the US to perform. I haven't been there before with my band, and I think it'd be a great environment to play our sound.

Japan has an interesting musical environment, but it seems as though the neo-soul kind of sound hasn't really hit main-stream here yet, and it seems like a very underground movement compared to other genres like punk-rock and ofcourse the Japanese traditional J-POP / Kayo-kyoku sound.

I love the old Japanese music, that was J-POP once, but now categorized as Kayo-kyoku. The sound is a blend of traditional Japanese music melody mixed with influences from western music. Maybe the trend shifts are moving too fast for the public to follow, but just like anywhere else in the world, CD sales are plummeting and digital sales are the main source of income for many artists.

http://www.riaj.or.jp/data/quantity/index.html

Just check out the shift toward the end of the chart (at the bottom) where CD sales are down but there is trend for more movement on video media.

Here's some information they also researched about the consumer trends for music.
http://www.riaj.or.jp/report/mediauser/pdf/softuser2009.pdf

It's easy to tell that the television media is very dominant in controlling what people buy.
http://www.riaj.or.jp/data/cd_all/cd_all_q.html

It's no surprise that international artists have very limited sales in Japan. Then again I don't this is the whole picture, because the Japan Record association only has access to those who have registered and filed their reports into their database.

So even though we are in rough waters doing music here in Japan as an indie artist, we are getting really good feedback from our audience, and they are helping to keep our band going. We are incredibly grateful for the love and support of our music. We sell the most records at our shows, even though our CDs are physically available all over, I guess when they see a live performance it's more convincing for them that they will get what they paid for when they buy the CD.

Right now we were successful in getting about 1000 CDs sold and that got us enough support to help start making our second full album. We've gotten almost all the songs written and now we're starting the recording process all over again.

The new album should have even more live sound and jamming, can't wait to get it all together for people waiting on our new music.

Higher Video

2010-08-12T14:06:00.002+09:00

Here's a new video clip from a concert that was performed in Nagoya. At the Apollo Theater there.
It was strange that a venue would use such a famous name with no regard to it's origin!
Anyway, they have a great sound system and the crowd was really great there.

Photos from recent shows

2010-08-11T10:24:00.000+09:00

We did a show at a really special place in July called "On The Rocks"
The bar owner George is a big fan of our band and we're grateful he organized this very personal night just devoted to hours of our music and some nostalgic DJing by George.

BTW that mirror ball was handmade by George...!

We played right in front of George's huge record collection that fills two walls of the bar...

This is another small show we did at Ayumi and Yoheyy's exhibition in Nakameguro. We did the show at a cool cafe there called Didn't play with a drum set but used my Mac to give us some beats.

In the end we just ended up playing as an acoustic guitar and piano duo, cause the drum rhythm wasn't really getting too interesting. Live human played music has the most punch I think.

Anyway they have the kind of "living room" -like atmosphere there so it was really different compared to some of the other intense shows we've done with them in the past.

Ayumi is one of my favorite painters and here are some of her paintings behind us.

Reno, Yoheyy, Ayumi, 5, Nori

A close up of the live painting that night

- Posted by 5

Live at Oasis in Hayama

2010-08-08T22:50:00.001+09:00

The gig at Hayama beach house Oasis was really great!
We played there in July but now it's almost halfway into August and it's too bad I haven't been updating my blog yet.

We played two sets that night and both were very different. We started out the concert with some slow jams and covers. After we got people listening we did a bunch of Lo-Fi songs for the second set.

I didn't know that the beach there in Hayama was so cool.
I lived in the Fujisawa area for a few years as a student here but never got a chance to visit the beaches I was so busy studying Japanese and music.

This month we've got gigs planed on the 18th Saturday in Shibuya at a venue called Wasted Time. it's right near Tokyu Hands.
we start after eight and play till quarter before nine.

The next week on the 24th Thursday we'll be playing a gig back on the beach in Zushi. We plan to play with Hank and maybe a special guest we are still arranging.

The venue is called Surfers.
It's really close to the other music venue there called Otodama.

Hope to see everyone there.
Time flies!

- Posted by 5

Live at beach house Surfer's

2010-06-26T12:21:00.001+09:00

Yesterday we had a gig at beach house "Surfer's" on Zushi Beach in Kanagawa Japan.

I lived in the area as a student almost 8 years ago, but never got the chance to hang out on the beaches there before. I must admit I was missing out on a lot!

Last night we performed with Kat, Yutaka, and Aaron-san. Was mostly acoustic style performances, (except for Lo-Fi) and great atmosphere.

I love playing outside, but the beach is really tough on the gear I must say.
We played Surfer's last year in the summer too, and all my stomp boxes were covered in sand. my Amp and cabinet also had to be disassembled for me to clean out the dust and sand from the beach.
The salty moisture really does no good for the instrument finishes or strings either. It's always a blast to play out there, but so much hard work to get the gear back in shape.

Today we're going to play at and event to promote a movie hosted by Moet.
Really the opposite atmosphere of what we did last night!
In the middle of the city / restaurant style... Its our first time playing in the Roppongi Event indoor event space. We'll be doing two sets tonite hope to have fun!

- Posted by 5

Beach Party Photos!

2010-06-06T19:22:00.001+09:00

6/5 Beach Party in Sendagaya

- Posted by 5

Beach party rehearsal

2010-06-04T23:33:00.001+09:00

great weather today in Tokyo!
We took a small break from the studio last week so it was great
playing with the band again today!

Today we were rehearsing with a great singer Lisa Halim who'll be playing with us tomorrow at the Beach Party in Sendagaya at the Good Morning Cafe

Lisa and her crew

Yosh & Nori at the rehearsal...

We should be playing from around three tomorrow... It should be a hot day so if all goes well we'll be playing outside!

- Posted by 5

Sight seeing in Kamakura

2010-05-27T10:49:00.000+09:00

Very cool place to check out!

I didn't know that they kept the temple area open even pretty late.

I'm a bit dissapponted that we missed the chance to see one of the famous gift stores in that area...!

5

Surfing Life

2010-05-11T15:13:00.000+09:00

Lo-Fi is featured in the DVD of Surfing Life released in Japan on 10th of May!

This is a photo of the DVD that comes with the magazine.
The waves on this DVD are pretty wild... to be honest I didn't know Japan had giant waves like some you can see in the DVD. Anyway this DVD brought the summer a little closer to me than the weather right now in Tokyo.

This is a shot from our gig yesterday!
We had my friend from the Netherlands be our VJ for the night.It was a mix of some abstract photos paintings and lyrics!Check his site out:http://massoudhassani.squarespace.com/
Hope to see everyone on Friday!

Live tonight at Tsukimiru-Kimiomou!!!

2010-05-10T12:52:00.000+09:00

Tonight we've got a special Hip-hop gig at the Tsukimiru-Kimiomou in Gaienmae - Aoyama area of Tokyo.
The details for the venue are here:

大きな地図で見る

We start at 19:25!! Please say "Lo-Fi" at the door to get the special discount

Finally got my stiches out

2010-04-27T10:28:00.000+09:00

Last week I got my wisdom teeth taken out so Lo-Fi has some time off from playing live.

We're planning out next show on the 10th of May, so I still got a lotta time to recover.

Now to be honest I had no idea that taking these teeth out were going to be so hard for me. The modern Asian has less jaw space so this makes less room for the teeth when they grow in. People say that this was caused by a shift to more western food and because there is less chewing...

I have this feeling of being very sick when I'm in that hospital room.
Probably because the last two times I was in the hospital I was very sick.
I hope I recover quickly from this stay in the hospital.
I had a lot of thinking time, and I think I was able to work on some
New themes that I wanted to try out with the band.

Can't wait to get back into the studio again.

5

Lo-Fi will be on INTER-FM 76.1

2010-04-24T21:08:00.000+09:00

Inter FM in Japan 76.1 FM has a show in the morning about organic foods, healthy living, pets and music!

Lo-Fi will be on the show tomorrow morning from 6:00 AM (JPN) on 76.1 FM.

http://www.interfm.co.jp/asa1/index.php?mode=sun&id=161
This is the link to the show's page (sorry only in Japanese)

The interviews will also be in Japanese so I guess we'll have to report about what we talked about so we can share it with our English speaking fans out there!

Live at Tsukimiru-Kimiomou & Club Asia and new Promo-vid!

2010-04-07T00:38:00.000+09:00

I haven't worked on a Lo-Fi video for a long time,
here's a post of our latest video that we made for a magazine DVD special.

We are doing two performances this week one at the Tsukimiru-kimiomou
in Aoyama - Gaienmae area of Tokyo Japan.
This venue has great sound and a nice feel to the place.
The stage is backed by a giant moon!
April 7th from 18:45
Entrance is ¥2000 yen + 1 drink (500 yen)
Here's a link to the venue and map
http://www.moonromantic.com/
(click on "access" to see the map)

The next day on the 8th we are doing a performance at CLUB ASIA in Shibuya Japan.
We start playing from 20:00! Entrance is also ¥2000 yen plus one drink.
http://asia.iflyer.jp/venue/

I hope to see ya'll there!
We are planning to have some special discounts for people who contact us ahead of time.

March 19th at the O-East Shibuya

2010-03-11T10:42:00.000+09:00

http://mag.vibirth.com/2010/03/exchange-0319.php

This month we we're booked for a large scale music event that's going to be held in the O-East stage in Shibuya. This concert hall has a capacity around a thousand so I'm interested to see how large the party is going to turn out.

The artists that are participating are bands and musicians affiliated with the TBS TV show in collaboration with viBirth music distribution on myspace.

The show features an indie artist and other alleged "pros" give them advice about how to shape up their act. For better or for worse Lo-Fi hasn't been privaleged to the honor of taking part in this show.

Many people tell us how it's kind of difficult to push our music/band, 'cause we don't fit snug into the J-Pop scene. Well personally I don't understand how sounding like someone else or sound stereotypically jpop is going to help my music or our listeners but I guess I'll just have to weather this type of common expectation in the music industry now.

We are getting lots of positive feedback from directors or producers event organizers that want to take their projects overseas as well. This is great becaus we think music international and just sound by itself has no borders.
And slowely I guess international-English is becoming the common language in a large part of the world.

Which reminds me I wish I had the ability to sing in more languages. Until then I'll do my best to reach out with the sound.

Well on March 19th we were fortunate enough to have our supporters push us into this event. So if your in town please drop by to catch the music.

5

Duo live

2010-02-28T10:51:00.000+09:00

We played at the bar "Wasted Time" last night as a duo for the first time! I really enjoy playing at this small bar because it's really laid back and the atmosphere is nice. Unfortunately these type of live music venues are dying out in Tokyo now.

Since they can't really attract a large audience anymore, they've started to generate their main income not from the customers that come there for the music, but from the bands that perform there.

Of course the bar "Wasted Time" runs on a different circuit for better or for worse. I can really feel how they are having a hard time booking the place too. The location is really good, but I guess there aren't enough people who just randomly go out to listen to live music.

It's the general rule that most gigging places dint advertise for the bands so you need to do the publicity part on your own. Also they usually have a minimum drink charge rule, and with normal booking procedures, it's likely that you'll be playing with a band that doesn't really balance out well with your band and audience. I guess it's more important to fill the dates with performances than to make every single one count. I believe this can lead to distancing potential fans though... I guess I just haven't found that great venue that always has great music almost everytime you go.

The only exception would be the Superdeluxe in Roppongi/West Azabu area, which is a multi-purpose hall / club / gallery! It's got great atmosphere and very inspirational interesting artist there from around the globe. That's where Lo-Fi did their release party and also opened for a band from Norway the other day. It's got some really fun monthly events too like Pechkucha night and Testtone.

Anyway the duo gig last night was with Nori and me, the keys and bass only. I've never seen an duo with a bass vocal, and especially not with the styles that we play. So I had nothing really to go on when we made the arrangements to our songs. I guess it's kind of awkward at first to be doing rap-style rhythm over no beat but only keys and bass. But I guess you gotta create your own beat. It took some gettin used to but I guess there is a freedom of no drum track tying you down.

We had comments from our fans that have been to many of our shows, that it was really interesting to hear this different side of Lo-Fi, but I dunno if we're ever gonna do this again! Maybe a seperate sub-project in this style, but I think Lo-Fi is not Lo-Fi when one of us is missing from the stage.

Now we are getting ready for two concerts coming up next weekend. One at the JICA hall and another at Thumbs Up in Yokohama, Japan.

5
Goh Hirose
Vocalist/bassist/guitarist

Zanussi 5 on 2/23

2010-02-25T08:56:00.000+09:00

Lo-Fi opened for Zanussi 5 on the 23rd and it was great!
They were a great band and so it was too bad that they only got one night in Tokyo.

We did a few so songs to warm up the crowd for Zanussi 5, but it was a really different crowd than what we were used to! Everyone was listening so intently... I felt like I was at and audition... Not to say that that was bad! It was fun for us though, considering that it's a good chance to concentrate on subtle expressions when people are sitting down and listening.

Here's a shot of Zanussi 5

5
Goh Hirose
Vocalist/bassist/guitarist

Alicia Saldenha and Lo-Fi

2010-02-13T03:09:00.000+09:00

Alicia Saldenha from Trinidad lives in Osaka and is a very soulful singer we met when we toured there.

She came to Tokyo to play for two nights and Lo-Fi was there to be her band!

This is a photo of her second night in Tokyo with 5 & Nori of Lo-Fi, Yuki of Hypesessions and David Whitaker who helped organize the event on our second night!

5
Goh Hirose
Vocalist/bassist/guitarist

1/29 @ Superdeluxe.. Thank You!

2010-01-31T15:23:00.000+09:00

I can't express how much it meant to us for so many people showing to see our show in Tokyo.

This was actually our first CD release party and to be honest it was nerve racking due to so much trouble that happened on the day and days leading up to the event. BUT with everyone's support the party turned out great. It was heartwarming and inspirational and I was grateful to have so many fans out there along with my favorite artists that came to participate in our event.

I really think that we had so many challenges that would have made the event impossible if it were not for everyone there who pushed us along!

Also for those of you who were truly worried and come up to us to give us advice on the accident,

Yosh got the hospital after the show and had a full scan and there are no complications other than

some neck pain (he got a brace for that).

I'd like to introduce once again the artists that helped make the event happen!

Art/Paint:

Ayumi http://www.a-live-ayumi.com/

Yaberay http://ameblo.jp/ray-yabe/

Art/VJ:

Fukuhara　http://www.fukuhara.org/

Bruce Osborn http://www.bruceosborn.com/

Sound:

AO http://homepage.mac.com/aopina/Menu3.html

Live Music:

  Julee Karan http://juleekaran.net/

  Libstems　http://www.myspace.com/yosukewada

  Choke SP http://ameblo.jp/chokebeatbox/

Every artist was on a really tight schedule so I'm so glad we were able to get them together for this show!

Just for those of you in Tokyo,

Julee Karan was nominated as the best Jazz vocalist of the year and will be appearing at the

Billboard show today in midtown!

http://www.billboard-japan.com/

I don't think I was actually able to say thank you to everyone of you, but from the bottom of my heart

I love you guys! Thanks for showing up and making the party a party!

Special gig on 1/26 in Aoyama/Gaienmae "TSUKIMIRU"

2010-01-24T12:27:00.000+09:00

We have a special gig coming up this Tuesday at the TSUKIMIRU!

You've seen great artists play there like Tony Allen , you've seen great VJs like MURO and dancers perform here too.

Lo-Fi will be attending a music event there on the 26th of JAN (TUE) with some great bands:

BIANCA -jazz band unit

CHATTERBOX  -Japanese Rap/Rock/Funk
Yasei Collective  -free style jamband style
North Carolina South Beach  -Japanese Funky Soul/Folk Rock Music

■open/18:00 start/18:30　■ADV ¥2,000 / DOOR￥2,500（+1 order）
■for reservations and information please contact: news@lofi-net.com

Totally irrelevant... but I decided to post an old photo of our poster outside the Fringe in HK!

Please donate to help support relief efforts in Haiti

2010-01-21T08:10:00.000+09:00

Haven't been updating my blog for a while now, but after making my own donation
I thought it would be meaningful to spread the word and help out in anyway we can.

Personally I've had bad experiences being badgered by suspicious people asking for donations who take the money nowhere. I've also felt that just donating wasn't enough. That maybe it was just another way to get off feeling guilty or something. But after getting older I've realized that I was being a bit childish.

Now that I have more opportunities to reach out to more people at my concerts or parties etc., I felt the duty of helping people become aware of being more involved in one's community. That community must be very different for many people considering their social background or perspective, but eventually I think everybody will realize that everything is connected and that we are all part of one community.

I feel kinda depressed sometimes when I see the news here in Japan, and have the news caster say in relief "No Japanese were involved in the accident.". I honestly didn't understand what that comment was for. That doesn't change anything. That shouldn't be a relief to anyone when global communities need to support each other to overcome humanities new problems.

Anyway, I'm sure most people have considered donating some money to the relief efforts in Haiti.
It's easy. Holding back on a few movies or nights out, you could probably help save lives.

UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/

American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/

Lo-Fi in Osaka

2009-12-09T00:41:00.000+09:00

It's pretty late now in Osaka, no trains anymore.
The floor was flows with people when we played but I guess the all-nighter crowd
isn't so big since it's a weekday.

We've been booked in clubs but not for a while in a Hip-Hop event! So I'm pretty much enjoying myself
chillin with fellow musicians listening to the DJ play some nostalgic Hip-Hop.

Today we did a short set and extensively jammed on Realize! Kinda mixed and mashed Live in parts of the song too.

The club we played in Shinsaibashi Osaka is called Onzieme

Here's a shot of the live painting corner!

Medium sized and a decent system. Great staff!
Now I'm waiting for the beatboxer Choke to rock the stage.

We'll be back in Osaka on Saturday too at the Cafe Absinthe opening party.

Drop by if your in town!

New Photo Gallery for Lo-Fi

2009-11-22T17:31:00.000+09:00

http://fotologue.jp/Lo-Fi

I decided to upload more of the Lo-Fi photos on the web since we don't have that much up so far...

The link above will take you to an online gallery that has great presentation,
but may be a little frustrating for people who don't like flash type CGI.
Anyway everything is great about this service except for the fact that it restricts your uploads to
20MB per month and that there are no iPhone apps or linking with iPhoto or other applications.

Also, the interface is a bit strange if you try and use it in English since it's made in Japan.
I had to switch the interface to Japanese sometimes to figure out what the menus meant.
I hope as more users start using the system they get all the problems worked out!

We've currently uploaded photos from Hong Kong and some gigs that we have done recently.
We hope to do another gig in the Tokyo area soon!

CDs are in stores...!

2009-11-19T01:22:00.000+09:00

Today is the release date for Lo-Fi's new album "Stereo Soul"

The CDs are in the listening machines and I hope word gets out where to get the CDs!

We're still hearing that there's discussion going on about where to display Stereo Soul,

but currently it's in the Japanese Indie band section of Tower Records and HMV.

If your in Shibuya that would be the second floor of the store, next to the information counter

in the far end of the floor. The CDs there are facing the center of the room so I think people will

see the little card we have introducing our album (in Japanese)

The album cover for this CD was created by a combination of textures and some photoshop

to make the Lo-Fi / Stereo Soul letters look like they were stamped into the hemp cloth.

Like the sound of the songs on the album, we really wanted to go for an organic feel

while still being a bit modern. It was really hard deciding what cover would be the best!

We wanted people to have more information about us, but at the same time didn't want

an album cover that was cluttered with face-shots and text.

We've heard some people tell us that the approach we're taking isn't standard in the Japanese

market, but we will see how things turn out. I guess it's best if people get a chance to hear us

live! So we're planning to have even more shows than ever! Look forward to them!

Lo-Fi is back in Tokyo!

2009-11-15T18:48:00.001+09:00

Just a quick update...! Lo-Fi is back in Tokyo after doing the three nights in Hong Kong.

We ha two days of live music and painting at the Fringe Club in Central and then one night of jamming and some jazz standards at the Peel Fresco!

We had so much fun in Hong Kong that we really didn't want to leave! But fortunately we have a gig again today in Omotesando Tokyo Japan to bring us back! Anywhere they need our music we want to be there!

Here's a photo I took on my iPhone that I'd like to share!

5
Goh Hirose
Vocalist/bassist/guitarist

iTunes News!

2009-11-06T00:57:00.000+09:00

Lo-Fi is up 8th in the Jazz Album Charts in iTunes Japan!
Thanks for all the support and love to get our music to more people!
I hope people are enjoying the music as much as we are.
After our release our next goal is to get as many live performances as we can, in as many places as possible! If you want us to play in your town let us know, we want to be there!

I guess our new album release has really helped our first album as well!

It's great to see it being downloaded and listened to.

We've just been notified that we are going to play at the BAY QUARTER stage next to Yokohama station on the 19th of December! It's going to be cold, but we'll do our best to keep everybody moving and hot!

Please let your friends know about our band too....!

Here's a link to the iTunes Japan store "Stereo Soul" where you can listen to the sample tracks!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=335147651&s=143462

Here's a link to the iTunes store "Stereo Soul" album in the US!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=337601272&s=143441

CD JOUNAL (Japanese Music Magazine) news

2009-10-27T22:07:00.001+09:00

The Japanese music magazine CD JOURNAL has introduced Lo-Fi's new album release
"Stereo Soul" on their official web page!

http://www.cdjournal.com/main/news/-/27022

The article introduces the Lo-Fi album as "...an album filled with thrilling swing grooves"!
-CD JOURNAL.COM