Yuu / Joshua Inmate No. 069

I'm going to take a break today from the entries about my trip back home. Today I went to a Los Angeles recording studio *laugh* to record some guitar and background vocals and memories.
I broke out a secret weapon that there are only 1000 of in the whole world, and did a lot of experimenting too. Look forward to hearing the recording to find out how that went.
...As for what it was like, all I can say for sure is that there were parts where the engineer said it was good but we decided to redo it because there wasn't enough feeling, faces were made while putting in that extra feeling that were so weird I wouldn't want to show them to anyone, stuff like "First of all I need some beer!" was blurted out, and various little wise saying and legends of that sort that were born.

Yeah, yeah, the "Mr. destroy the bicycle Yuu Get-you" that the red one was talking about found a shark and is home now, yo. [1]
I went back to the shop where I bought my first real guitar ages ago. It hadn't changed a bit. The guy who owns it is really stubborn and only sells instruments that he likes. And he gave me all kinds of harsh orders about music making, like "Don't use effectors!" and "Turn up the mid-range!" It was definitely a very individualistic music shop.

Becky's notes: [1] First of all, "the red one" is Mst, and this opener came from a line in one of Mst's blog entries from around this time. Apparently Yuu broke his bike and got so mad he wrote a song about it. :P I have no idea what the shark thing is all about, though...

I'm going to visit my old hometown while I run some errands. I think I'd like to reintroduce my hometown again a little at a time.

It's Kurt Cobain. There's been talk recently about the movie called Last Days that takes places in the two days before his suicide, right? But I haven't seen it.
His stuff is the closest to my current musical style. I learned a lot from Kurt Cobain. Not just musically, but about how to break guitars during lives, abandoning lives, diving into drum sets, and even how to be aggressive with compact effectors *laugh*. A while ago there was a real comeback live, but thinking back now, it was a really mixed up live. He was only really popular among men, but his success seemed lacking among women. Maybe his lives were too hard in style. There was a time in the past when all bands that took part in band contests sounded like Nirvana.

Big bro! It's Zakk Wylde. I guess I learned the simple hard rock approach from him. His image with Les Paul is very strong, but I was really impressed when he used the polka-dot Randy V. To think that the guitar Zakk plays is a replacement for a deceased model... I think tonight I'll try falling asleep to Ozzy Osbourne again.

I watched my Randy Rhoads DVD for the first time in ages. I think in all my life I will never find another guitar hero like him. Some say the more you listen to his music the less competent his guitar sounds, but I don't believe that at all (if you listen to something enough, surely there must be a cutoff point...). A lot of other artists have covered his songs, but they can never top the original. I guess there's really no one else who can mimic Randy's musical atmosphere and unique phrases? I think today I'll try falling asleep to some Ozzy Osbourne.

Even more to look forward to. On 7/14 we finally take our first real step out of the starting block.

Today I'm going to go play a little guitar at Brand New. By the way, that's Budoukan in the photo, but Brand New is in Osaka. [1]

Becky's note: [1] I believe he means Nippon Budoukan, an arena in Toyko.

Got a cartilage piercing! From the top these are 16g, 8g, and 00g.
I pierced this one right after watching a Yakuza movie, so I took it like a man with "It hurts less than taking a bullet with anesthetic! Right? Bro! Pops!!" echoing in my head. I plan to put in one more cartilage piercing, so when that time comes I'll watch another Yakuza movie.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't have much strength or suddenly developed the guts. I just believe that "To train the body is to train the spirit." My gym teacher probably said that to me ages ago. I just want to build up enough so I can look like I'm battling a dragon when I play guitar, like --mstein. [1] But I'm not trying to be macho or anything so I'm keeping it in moderation.

Becky's note: [1] There's that ○ censoring device again... and I may have spelled that name wrong. I don't know enough about famous guitarists to know whose name ends with -mstein or -msteen or etc.