Natty Nation

[editor's note: Jim, or J2the, is our live soundman, studio engineer, luthier, computer tech, keyboard tech, all other gear tech, ebay hound, and resident audiophile. He despises dairy products, MP3s, & Kanye West.  He has more Pink Floyd Bootleg concerts than he could listen to if that's all he did until he died. If you're into the technical side of recording music--what Jim calls a "sound geek"--you're the target audience for his entries. If not, you probably won't have any idea what he's talking about, and that's okay. We usually don't either.-AK]

Well we are already at destination #2. Seems I’m a bit late to post something - this will be a pattern. Small islands with every square inch in use. Last time we did this in the Mideast we had to put on shows with far too little equipment and tiny shitty little speakers. Things actually went well on that tour. There are even recordings. You may even get to hear some of them one day….

So imagine my surprise to show up at Foster Fest and see a pro PA company with a big Yamaha M7 at FOH [front of house- where the soundboard is]. The PA company was the most pro I’ve ever encountered. The stage techs were spot on and the FOH engineer, Mamoru Kinjo, was a real pro. He didn’t speak any English but new all the technical terms, so we communicated quite well. He seemed happy with me and just let me take over. I was impressed with the initial scene he dialed up before we got there - like, pretty much what I would have done. Yamaha digital boards do not have direct outs - so no multitrack. There WILL be something posted in mp3 (real quality will be available later) from this tour if successfully recorded. Probably not either of these stereo board recordings unless I get lucky though. I’m running Logic Audio Hell [music recording software] with stock plugins and mastering a board tape with this is next to impossible. But who knows. The sound quality needs to resemble what the audience heard so that you can actually hear how well these guys really tore it up on stage.

Oh, if you’re thinking you’re going to be hearing about Shurijo castle or some flowers we saw or some shit, you’re reading the wrong blog. This would be the sound geek report here.

The band seemed really happy to be on stage and played a great set each night.

Here are the set lists that you can look at but not listen to:

10-17-09
Shepherd
Black Hebrew
Journey
Reincarnation
Live & Know
Earth Wind & Fire
Cool & Proper

10-18-09
Reggae all through the Night
Arise
Save I
Save the Children
Here There

mmmm coffee…
Well, time to open up Logic again and work on my profanity.

Day 2 I find myself amazed at how beautiful this place is.

A group of us (Jermel, AK, Jim, Ron, & myself) meet for breakfast and crack jokes on each other about different views on music and food choices.

Later on I took a walk around and did a little shopping… picked up a Japanese sword for my wife. Later I tried to convince AK (Keys) to put it in his suitcase to travel back home with. (He wasn’t having it…. worth a try).

On the walk back to the hotel we ran into several people who gave us a lot of love for our performance the night before. The troops and the native people here are really warm and welcoming.

For some reason I can’t get the Karate kid 2 movie out of my head… oh yeah, we’re in Okinawa.

Boy do I wish I knew how to speak Japanese!

Later that night we played a high energy set of music for the people. It was a crowd of what seemed like mostly locals, but when we did our meet and greet after the show we meet all kinds of folks: Africans, Americans, Latinos.

We did an interview with the military radio station and found out one of the guys was from my home town: Racine WI in the house! small world.

One of the highlights for me was meeting and seeing Club Nouveau, an old school R&B group (they remade “Lean on Me”) who played a set right after us. They watched our set from backstage and said they were really impressed by us. That’s crazy… I grew up listening to their music, so that was quite humbling. They’ve been sampled by some of my favorite hip hop groups like Public enemy and The Loonies (I got 5 on it).

Then Neo-Soul singer Dwele (The McCafe cat) ended the show with a dope set as well. I ended the night cracking jokes and laughing with the rest of the NATTY crew and ichatting on my MAC with my family….

Pretty dope day over all!

Tonight (Sunday) we got to share the stage with Club Nouveau (“Lean on Me”, “Why You Treat Me So Bad”) & Dwele, a soul singer & multi-instrumentalist (he sings the hook on Kanye’s “Flashing Lights”, & he did one of the coolest Michael Jackson Tributes I’ve seen yet!). More about all that tomorrow….

DAMN! Spent too much time working on that video & now we’re a day behind schedule for the blog. It’s all good though, we’ll catch up soon. Stay tuned for some interesting contributions from the rest of the crew….

Aaron Konkol, Reporting for Natty Nation & iNatty Records

P.S. Dude, we’re in Japan!

Jermel AKA Mr. Freeze on stage at Know Boundaries' last show

(disclaimer: Jermel AKA Deken Frost AKA Cloak AKA Mr. Freeze is our friend, and the chosen 7th person to accompany us on this journey to help out with carrying stuff & whatever else we tell him to do. He is a close friend of the band’s, is on the second verse of “Greed” on our latest album, Reincarnation, the emcee from Know Boundaries & Star Persons, & this is his rant…)

The day was Saturday, October something or another possibly the 17th. I woke up about 9 o’ clock and met Jim in the hallway of my hotel room. Jim said he knocked on people’s door to see if they wanted breakfast and most declined since they were still tired except for Frank and we took off for none other than the Macaroni grill. It turns out Boogie never got the door knock and ended up missing a much needed breakfast, which by the way I take some of the blame for but most of the blame I transferred to Jim. Breakfast was delicious, I had the breakfast Americana which consists of you; guessed it Bacon, Taters, Eggie Weggies and Toast. After Breakfast we took a little stroll around the base by our Hotel and then soon after we off the Festival grounds for a sound check. The Festival was just being set up when we got there. The grounds looked like some sort of strange hybrid fair; a mixture of Japanese and American culture. The games were all familiar carnival style games with crazy Japanese prizes. The food was a mix of local fast food fair ie. Yaki soba, edamame, various stir fry,BBQ pork ribs, beef and chicken on stick  and greasy Americana ie. hot dogs, pizza, burgers, BBQ, funnel cakes, Snow cones, cotton candy and things of that nature. Natty did their sound check, Jim got them dialed in nicely and then we were off the old Globe and Anchor for a much needed lunch for some people. Lunch was average at best but food is food and you have to eat what you can in this situation. We headed back to our hotels and rested up before the first show. When we returned to the fair ground it was full of locals and the community seemed to really be enjoying themselves. The Japanese people are a very respectful people and them seem to have an uncanny appreciation for life, which I loved to absorb. They watched the show and payed close attention to the music but seemed to be in awe of the fact that it was foreign to them. Most of the people watching the show sat on the ground in front of the stage as far back as the sound booth which was about 100 feet from the stage. They really seemed to enjoy American junk food which they all politely ate with knives and forks. It was the first time I ever saw a person eating a hot dog or hamburger with a fork, it was a beautiful sight. The night was full of peace and love. All the children and teenagers walked around laughing, talking and dancing while the parents Marines, and security  guards kept a watchful eye on the festivities. Natty played a wonderful energy filled show and I walked around a got video and pictures for the video blog and photo album. I’m sure the was show was difficult with the lack of sleep and energy but there’s no businesss like show business. That was just a warm up with a  dash of culture shock, once they break the seal everything will flow naturally.Once the show was over we headed back to our Hotel to freshen up and drop some things off then we went to a restaurant off the base called Sam’s Cafe. Sam’s cafe was a semi smokey,Halloween costume waitress wearing, terrible 50’s music mess that served up the best steak I’ve had in awhile. Once again I felt sorry for the vegans and veggies on this tour beacuse the Ameircana influence has spread throughout Okinawa especially near the Marine Base. Ron and I both agreed that these beer fed massaged cows were indeed the cat’s meow. After dinner we walked backed to the base, some of happy some of us not so happy but tomorrow is another day.

On stage in Okinawa at the Foster Festival

We just finished the first show. It was pretty nice although we are all very tired and out of time zone. We are used to adapting, so we’re all good, but 3 of us are vegetarians and we have not found a dope veggie meal yet… at least I have not. That’s pretty much because we haven’t left the base yet, so I assume that will change soon.  The band after us were a 80s style rap/R&B group. All Japanese… very interesting. I have to get use to people not understanding what we say and visa versa. We each have our own hotel rooms and internet access so we’re able to stretch out after the 28 hour travel day. The weather feels like summer to me. Tomorrow’s mission is to find good veggie meal and get a work out in… we’ll see. We ate at this interesting place tonight where the waitress staff were wearing halloween witch hats. They were also playing old music like “Monster Mash” and “Strangers in the night”. Okinawa is an interesting place… I will try to get better with this blogging thing as I go.

JAH Boogie

Greetings Natty Family!

I’m happy to report that after an arduous 28 hours of traveling, we have arrived in Okinawa! I’m typing this while traveling in a refreshingly un-cramped private bus that’s taking us from the airport to our hotel about 30 miles away at Camp Foster. After all 3 of the planes we took today were of the pack-em-in-like-sardines variety, the extra leg space is being appreciated to the fullest!

We’re a bit beat up, but the adrenaline is keeping us going… at least until our food hits our stomachs at the hotey (JAH Boogie slang for “hotel”).

Speaking of Boogie, check out a very tired man trying to break down what’s transpired so far:

read more…