Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Green Milk from Planet Orange -Birth of the Neo Trip,CD,2002,Japan

The Story has begun at the breakup of the Grindcore/Alternative Rock band called "no rest for the dead" which dead k and A joined once. nrftd broke up in November 2000, then A formed a new band called "Cliff 14" with the vocalist. And also, dead k could only make songs and record experimentally in his room for himself because of the term of his musical changing though he started to look for new members. At first, he was into the ambient project called "dk_and_art", however his aim was changed to the Indie Rock soon, he made a plan of "Green Milk from the Planet Orange" around March 2001, then he made and recorded "Switch On" and made a demo CDR which included only it just a song. At that time, A's Cliff 14 had already come to a deadlock though they had made their own demo tape. So, dead k talked with A about a band, then they had a jam session with the current bassist called T, they made sure of each feelings and were in congenial spirits again, and they decided to move GMFTPO forward. They had a jam session again with the bassist called benjian who was dead k's school mate, the first time was not good, but the second was amazing and they were satisfied with it, they decided to begin the band with these 3 guys. And in the beginning of July 2001, this was the grand curtain rise of Green Milk from the Planet Orange.
They were into jam sessions and composition in a while - Their sound style was Space Rock and Jazz/Jazz Rock at that time, but they played the 1st gig in September, also started to make "The Shape of Rock to Come". This work which included re-arranged "Switch On" by them all and the first song called "In the Space, Far Away from This Planet" by them all was spoken well among English/American web-zines and Fanzines.
They played some gigs in Tokyo after that, but they were into the studio for searching their musical aim for a long time. Then, they released "Birth of the Neo Trip" in October 2002 as the answer. This work was also spoken well among zines, so they succeeded to show their evolution.
They kept playing gigs in Tokyo from the end of 2002, but when the year changed to 2003, the problem happened among the members. The bassist changed from benjian to T because of that. And the band visited Milwaukee, USA to record full-length album from the Portland based Experimental record label called Beta-lactam Ring that the band kept talked with. They recorded in Sound-Sound studio with the engineer called Bob Friedman and Tony Scholl (ex-Murder in the Red Barn, now playing with Violent Femmes and the member of Pele), but the work was not finished, so they kept recording for themselves after going back to Tokyo, finally it was all finished at the end of June.
They didn't act much in the latter half of 2003, just making the artwork for the full-length.
They started to play again from the beginning of 2004. They played shows again and again in Tokyo, they shared the stage with Hella(from Sacramento, USA), Melt Banana, Damo Suzuki's Network, Nisennenmondai, Function(from Australia), etc. The full-length CD/Double LP called 'He's crying "Look"' was released from Beta-lactam Ring Records in March - GMFTPO had the release party for this stuff at the club called ERA in Tokyo. And they visited the USA and Canada to tour around the West Coast and Ontario in June and November. It was Just 8 shows in June and 2 shows + 5 shows mini tour with Continental from San Francisco in November. But many people got excited at their playing and had interviews with some medias.
In March 2005, GMFTPO visited Brooklyn, NY to record their new full-length. Paul Mahajan (who recorded Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Liars, etc.) produced and recorded all tracks at Headgear studio and Steve Fallone (Strokes, TV on the Radio, Ida, etc.) did the mastering at Sterling Sound, NYC. Paul Mahajan grasped exactly what GMFTPO wanted to express on this full-length - This new stuff became the 1st coming of the NEW WAVE OF PROGRESSIVE ROCK.
GMFTPO played some shows in Brooklyn and Portland, OR, then went back to Tokyo to prepare their 1st long US tour with their new CD - they got the booking agent in the US called Panache Booking. They played some shows around Tokyo in May, then when their new CD called "CITY CALLS REVOLUTION" was released from Beta-lactam Ring Records in the end of May, they went back to the US again. That "CITY CALLS REVOLUTION" tour was started at San Francisco and GMFTPO went down to the south, went to the east, north east, then went back to the west coast. They did the 36 shows in June and July. So many people were excited about their playing. GMFTPO shared the stage with Death Sentence: PANDA!, Silver Daggers, Tender Buttons, Deerhunter, Federation X, Bunnybrains, Bill Horist, Friday Group, etc. on that tour.
The Japanese label called Lift got the license from BLR and released "CITY CALLS REVOLUTION" CD in September here in Japan. Now GMFTPO is preparing their next long US tour in October and November. GMFTPO will tell to people there "PROGRESSIVE ROCK IS NOT DEAD"!!

get it here

1 comment:

ajf said...

Amazing band, don't think I have this one, thanks!