I went to the post office in Tokyo yesterday with two packages to mail. Our new release came out lately. The orders are coming in, and they need to be shipped. This is the life of a drummer in a two-piece punk band.

JP Post has an app where you fill out the shipping and customs info. You receive a QR Code and use it to make a label in the lobby of the post office. Once I got a system set up, this process is fast and easy.

I got the labels ready for the package to the US and brought my two packages to the counter. The post office worker had an "oh no...here we go" look on their face.

They proceeded to tell me that the post office has suspended all commercial package shipping to the US for the time being due to current US policies. They handed me back the first package with apologies. I hadn't read the official news yet, which left me in a position of not knowing what to respond.

The second package was going to West Tokyo. They were relieved they could get that one sent out for me.

Now I am in a spot of trying to figure out how to get orders for our cassettes to my home country. There are other delivery services, but we would need to raise the cost of shipping a lot. Contrary to what the current US President thinks, we aren't going to pay the extra shipping costs. That extra cost gets added to the bill of the person in the US that ordered it.

In a fun "battle" with the service that distributes music to music stores like Apple Music or Spotify right now. The band I am in has songs that are about 75% Japanese and 25% English on our new release. When I submitted the release, I needed to choose a language for the release. 75 is more than 25, so I selected Japanese. Then, with each song, I set the language to what language it is in. I clicked send and waited to hear from them.

I got a form email saying due to some issue, one of the stores can't accept it. I wrote back asking what the issue is and got a response saying due to some language issue, they couldn't submit it.

As a test, I resubmitted the album and set the release language to English and set the tracks to their language. I am waiting to see if English is okay for whatever store is blocking submission.

I don’t really get why I need to set the language at all for our music though.

Just got the proofs back from the factory for our new cassette. Everything seems okay, so they can start making them. Hopefully, we'll have them for our shows coming up in Ibaraki and Nagano.

Excited to see them when they are done and excited to get this album out into the world. It is a lot more raw and live-sounding than previous releases. We wanted to bash it out quickly and in as few takes as possible.

We left a bunch of little glitches in the recording because so much old punk music I love has glitches too. They make the recordings sound human, which is a valuable thing lately.

It has been a while since I posted anything here. It was an intense two weeks, and some areas got put on the back burner to simmer.

My friend's band, Flavor Crystals, had a short tour booked and needed a temporary drummer. I haven't been back to the US in five years, so it was a nice way to get me to travel back. I have made that trip so many times, but I needed a push to go this time.

Their real drummer, John Menke, is so good, so it made learning the songs and getting the shows a breeze. It was good times focusing in on just the drum parts on their songs. I'd put on headphones, take an urban hike, and sort out the vibe of each drum part.

My plan wasn't to copy each song note for note but to get the feel down. I figured that for the other members, if it felt right, then they could not worry about me so much. It seemed to work.

I went to a punk show last weekend. During a song, a cymbal stand collapsed. Someone ran on stage and fixed it, and no one blinked an eye. The person got a few glass raises in their direction.

Each type of music has its things that make the genre a genre. Someone from the audience going on stage to fix the drum kit is one of punk’s things.

The albums that I can remember what they sound like by just reading the title from last week. I really need to go back and relisten to that Jon Appleton album. It was interesting listening to all the snippets of sound back then.

• Jon Appleton Appleton Syntonic Menagerie #electronic
• Jo Ann Campbell I'm Nobody's Baby #rock
• Bennie Maupin The Jewel In the Lotus #jazz
• Booker Little Booker Little 4 & Max Roach #jazz

Other big news is I am thinking about changing the font for the blog. I really want to get the font sizes dialed in and I want it to feel more like a book. Research time.

I have a long list of albums I am slowly getting through. They come from all over the place. People tell me suggestions, find suggestions in blog posts, find lists of albums, hear things when I am out and about using Shazam, etc.

I love the list, but sometimes current me and past me get out of phase with what I want to hear. There is stuff from a couple of years ago that is kind of head-scratching to me right now. It's got me ruminating on how to handle the list.

Currently, it's being sorted from oldest to newest. While that is clearing out the albums I added from earlier, there is a lot of "huh" happening. If I reverse the sort to recently added to oldest, then stuff is going to be buried under the sediment of newly added albums. A brainstorm is in order.

Brainstorm

• One new, one old: evenly chips away at both ends of the list
• One new, two old: a little bit of me now and clears out the past quicker
• Two new, one old: a lot of now but slowly moves the old end of the list along
• MWF: listen to recently added on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
• M = old: have one day be the oldest albums
• Sun = recent Moon = old: this one is kind of tidal
• Decade = start with current decade and go backwards with each album

Half of me thinks either "two recent one old" or "MWF" would be fun. The second one is probably less thinking in the long run. The main point of all of this is having fun listening to music your own way.

Last weeks music I can remember by reading the name

• Pere Ubu Dub Housing #punk
• Mal Waldron Mal 2    #jazz

When iPods and iTunes were first released, playing music on shuffle was my default. I can't remember the last time I have done that. I seem to remember there was a point around 8-10 years ago where I would push shuffle and eventually I would hear a song I heard the day before. I got frustrated so I switched to listening to full albums and haven't looked back.

Then by not pushing shuffle, albums I wanted to hear started piling up and I haven't been able to catch up since. Not bashing on shuffle. Just noticing a change. 

This last week's music that stuck out. I seem to keep going back to Eric Dolphy a lot lately. I don't know how that Dave Brock album got on my list but that one stood out for sure.

• Raskovich Varie Atmosfere Da Interni #soundtrack   
• Eric Dolphy Far Cry #jazz
• Dave Brock Earthed To The Ground #electronic
• The Bar-Kays Soul Finger #Soul
• Eric Dolphy At the Five Spot, Vol. 1 #jazz

Listened to a lot of top notch albums last week but these four stood out. I think the common thread between the four is the production. All four just sound really good. The music is great of course. When you listen to one of these albums, you can tell they cared more than just recording the songs.

• Augustus Pablo Original Rockers #reggae
• Yura Yura Teikoku Kudo Desu #indie
• Happy End Kazemachi Roman #rock
• Immersion & SUSS Nanocluster, Vol. 3 #indie

A quick review of last week's music and these three clearly stood out in my mind. I don't know how that Swamp Dogg album got in my list but thanks to past me for somehow finding that. Tranzmitors and Fire Engines too. Totally happy those got on my list somehow too.

If I was smart, I would make a note on how I come across music. A good idea but giving future me even more tasks maybe not such a good idea.

- Tranzmitors Busy Singles #punk
- Swamp Dogg Total Destruction To Your Mind #soul
- Fire Engines The Hungry Beat #post-punk