Halcali on the radio

Do you live in Tokyo? Do you listen to BUZZ FM every Wednesday night from 8pm? Then you've been listening to Halcali's regular spot then havn't you, you scamp. Although i'm never in town to tune in, the website has seen fit to bombast us with pictures, H and Y's set lists for the show, a strange hockey game and a reguarly updated diary! All of which makes the official site seem terribly neglected in comparison. No time now, but i'm looking forward to shifting through the smilies and the "radio's a blast!" stuff in the diary entries next week. For now though take a look at those polaroid snaps on the site. Don't they look so, y'know, grown up now?

New song...sort of

Did you know about this? H and Y feature on the Godzilla 50th anniversary tribute album G.LAST, released last December (2004/12/03). It's not a Halcali song as such, they only feature on Godzilla is Coming to Town by Bank$. It's enough to warrant further investigation, which i'll do as soon as i'm back down south. There's certainly an odd bunch on the rest of the LP though- Stereolab, Felix da Housecat and boring pop pricks Sum41 amongst others. Here's the blurb from CDJapan

A compilation album dedicted to the "Godzilla" series will be released on
December 3rd in conjunction with the theatical release of "Godzilla Final Wars."
Including SUM41, ZEBRAHEAD, 10-FEET, and more, various big artists took part in.
Remixes and covers of "Godzilla Theme" (music by Akira Ifukube) included.

Soul Groove Party

What mysterious forces lie beyond our control? This is the question I asked myself after learning that Halcali are hitting the stage again this coming Tuesday (that's the 16th of August) at the rather awkwardly titled Soul Groove Party at Zepp in Nagoya. Alas, cruel fate conspires against me seeing my favourite Japanese band yet again (well, Halcali became my favourites since Harvard released a terrible second album), as I picked this week to head up north to Iwate-ken. It's troubling to see them at the bottom of the set again though. It doesn't take a member of Orange Range to work out that no new material = commercial death.

AFTERTHOUGHT-
That's two gigs in a row i've missed out on now. If anyone else is lucky enough to get to see them, i'm all ears on how it went.

GIRLPOP FACTORY SETLIST

...although after reading the site, i'm not feeling quite as much regret anymore. Looks like Halcali were given a bit of an elbowing down in the set, although perhaps it is a bit much to expect them to rank higher than the likes of Puffy and Tommy Heavenly 6. Here's their 6 song set

Marching March
Giri Giri Surf Rider
Strawberry Chips (Remix (?!))
BABY BLUE!
Wakakusa Dance (feat. Utamaru (so he was there?))
Ai

To anyone who's able to watch cable, the gig will be broadcast on CS Fuji TV 721 on the 4th of September, from 11pm until 1am. It'll also be on terrestrial, although as to when, the only information the site offers is a rather unhelpful "2005".