Rapid Review.. Japanese Voyeurs - B-Sides and Rarities

The other day, I said that I'd most likely write a review of the Japanese Voyuers' 'B-Sides and Rarities' limited CD that I purchased, however since then my computer pretty much exploded whilst it was ripping the CD to iTunes, so that prevented me from listening to it as much as I'd have liked, I've had to dig out my rather old portable CD player. I'm writing this on the family laptop. Anyway, here it is, along with some nice photographs of the content!

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Japanese Voyeurs are a British grunge band, combining screechy schoolgirl vocals - courtesy of frontwoman, Romily Alice, with aggressively heavy guitars; quite a juxtaposition - but it works nicely. Unfortunately, the band, decided to split earlier this year, but have released a limited (250 copies) B-Sides and Rarities CD due to fan demand. 

There are a few songs on the disc which stand out. The opening track, 'Godzilla', for example, is a short, angsty burst of energy and would have been at home on their 2011 debut album, 'Yolk' and is probably the best and most immediate track found here. It's successor, a demo version of  'The Heart is a First' is perhaps the best of the demos, made interesting due to it being quicker and livelier than the album version and I far prefer it to the original. These 2 songs - along with the cover of Nine Inch Nails classic, 'Closer', taking what Japanese Voyeurs does best and applying so well to the song that it sounds like it could be one of their own - are the CD's highlights. 

                                     

The rest of the demos aren't quite as thrilling - 'Double Cheese (Demo)' is without vocals for example - and 'Milk Teeth' does not vary that much from its 'Yolk' album counterpart in anything but quality. The other B-Sides - 'Ah Ah Shame', 'Hand Me Down' and 'Scare Bear' are very enjoyable - though not quite as brilliant as 'Godzilla' in my opinion, though the 'Cry Baby (Remix)' is far too clumsily edited to be good and better off skipped. The album closes with further classic Voyeurs affair in the shape of 'Live Doom'.

For fans (yes, I'm quite the fan!) of the band, this album is well enough received simply for the desire to have more songs from the band. However, naturally,  it's not quite a showcase of what the band can do.

If you've never listened to the band before, I suggest you check out the vids below and their debut album, 'Yolk'.

3.5/5

http://www.japanesevoyeurs.com/
http://www.facebook.com/japanesevoyeursofficial

'Dumb'

'Cry Baby'

'Milk Teeth'

Just one of those days..

That's what yesterday was.

I woke up in an epic mood. Got invited for a day trip to Birmingham with the guys from the band and mutual friend's of ours but turned it down because I wanted to write up a contribution to The Guardian. They advertised a link via Twitter asking for thoughts on the legacy of iconic British punk band, the Sex Pistols to commemorate the Jubilee (35 years ago they unleashed 'God Save the Queen' on a coinciding and infamous jubilee boat trip ).

But first, I wanted music on my iPod.

I left my Japanese Voyeurs B-Sides CD ripping onto iTunes whilst I took a shower and came back to find that my computer had entirely crashed and would now not even turn on, with the CD stuck inside. Now that requires fixing.

Left the house to buy the 2:54 self-titled album only to find nowhere stocking it (I resorted to good ol' reliable Amazon), when I my aunt rang me whilst up town to say there were job vacancies at TK Maxx. I enquired, and the woman that I was speaking to had absolutely no idea what I was going on about. So I got on the bus home when my aunt txt me to say that the jobs were for their distribution centre so I'd have to go there to get a form -_-

I then attempted to write the article at my Nan's (I could write many a detailed page on this topic but was contested with a pretty short word count), and accidentally deleted more than half of what I'd actually written because I was looking at the wrong count.

It was just one of those days and I was close to pulling my hair out!

Luckily, I was due to see a group of my friends up town for our weekly get together and, I won't lie, got intentionally rat-arsed just for the hell of it. It was a good night even though we just ended up doing frequenting our regular haunts - Varsity (a pub where the band played), Babylon (cheesy '80's/ '90's music with 1 playlist), Planet (charmingly dingy rock/metal nightclub), along with a bar called Numa.

A sucky day turned into a great night (from what I remember)!

My Mom has the Jubilee weekend off so we may be venturing out to do something interesting.

Also, not sure if you'll see that Voyeurs review any time soon, given that the disc is stuck in my desktop. If they can't salvage the disc, I'll cry (it was a limited run, number 231 out of 250). Ah wells.

Nothing better than a good idea!

So, in the midst of Britain's yearly heatwave, I spent the day indoors flitting about and sorting my student finance application (finally finished!) and printed some tab to learn on bass, 'R U Mine' by Arctic Monkeys next for me, I think. Also trying to teach myself guitar on my old acoustic that I first bought in age 11, saved all my pocket money for that! I quickly remembered what it was about attempting to teach myself that made me give up last time - struggling to hold down the chords. For someone with long, bendy fingers, you'd think that I'd have a much easier time achieving this than I actually am! However, I have a better concept of how to play the instrument this time around, after teaching myself bass; when I tried about 8 years ago, my brain genuinely couldn't comprehend strumming and timing!

Anyway, whilst filling in my student finance I was quickly reminded that I could really do with finding a job. Even if I only earned enough to have a bit of spending money as well as give my folks some board, it would be better than getting in more debt. Money left untouched is money that can be repaid quicker, after all. It was whilst browsing through some of my favourite blogs that I was struck by an idea. I was on LLYMLRS BigCartel, JWLRY, when I realised that she was, essentially, purchasing, bundling and re-selling rings in order to make a profit. After seeing all of the reconstructed and customised clothes at vintage store, COW in Birmingham last week, I realised that this was something that I and two of my friends whom take an interest in fashion could easily do ourselves, buying cheaply from places such as eBay and in sales and even raiding our own wardrobes for unwanted clothes which we could bleach, shred, stud and patch in order to make something one-off and unique. 'Vintage' has been really embraced in the past few years, especially so within the youth market who have a lot of disposable income, so this is something we could really capitalise on! Customising to order is another idea that I also had, for example taking a denim item and buying patches specifically and halving price costs between us and the seller. Retailing the actual denim higher than what we paid for it could still result in profit, as would purchasing the customising materials such as studs and the like in bulk. 

The three of us have pretty different styles of dress - I prefer dark colours, plaid and tartan, prints and loose fitting tops, whilst my (girl) best friend is far more feminine and prefers dresses, skirts and bright colours, whilst my (male) best friend prefers retro shirts, painfully skinny jeans and gaudy prints. Between the three of us, I really think we could come up with something that could appeal to a lot of people! Hopefully, the financial and business side of this can work out as efficiently as what I think the creative aspect will :)

In other news, the Japanese Voyeurs B-Side and Rarities CD that I ordered last week arrived today. It's a limited edition of 250 (mine was numbered 231) and I knew it was something that I had to own, as they were set to be my new favourite band (after the demise of Alexisonfire D':) before they too, decided to split a few months ago. The disc has some really good songs on it and was a snatch at £7 including postage, and I'll probably do a review on it in the next few days!

If you've never heard of Japanese Voyeurs, I'll leave you with a taster below, enjoy :)