Music

Maki Miura of Shizuka, ex-Fushitsusha now has a myspace page. He's just posted a pretty killing piece of video from the latest band incarnation of Shizuka, recorded at Showboat in Tokyo on December 30th last year.
It sounds as good as I've heard them playing in about a decade.

Not too sure about some of the audio he has posted though...
http://www.myspace.com/miuramaki 

Did anyone get the recent-ish live album on PSF (albeit recorded in 1995)? Is it as good as the label's description suggests?

I have the "Live Shizuka" album on Persona Non Grata which is from the same time, and I remember enjoying that, though it's been a while since I listened to it.

Not too sure about some of the audio he has posted though...
http://www.myspace.com/miuramaki 

No, I guess the Waterloo-tracks wouldn't fit much into the PSF-world. If I'm not totally amiss that Shizuka show will sooner or (rather) later be released on the Five Minute Association-label out of Ireland.

If I'm not totally amiss that Shizuka show will sooner or (rather) later be released on the Five Minute Association-label out of Ireland.

I've never heard of that label before, but it's quite some line up of prospective releases it has (Richard Youngs, Boduf Songs, Loren Connors, Kan Mikami, Suishou no Fune, Shizuka & Six Organs of Admittance): www.myspace.com/5minute_association

I hadn't heard of it either and then I looked and saw that these releases to be are lathe cuts. No thanks!

Not too sure about some of the audio he has posted though...

That cover of Mother Sky is pretty solid. I especially like it since I think Miura sounds a lot like Michael Karoli. However, that chorus effect that he has on his guitar has to go...

and apparently Shizuka passed away within the past couple days. I am not sure of the details.

True, unfortunately. She died on February 2nd - suicide apparently.

True, unfortunately. She died on February 2nd - suicide apparently.

That's terrible.... was just playing the first album for someone for the first time like a week ago and they loved it... it's one of my favorite albums ever...

Wow... horrible news...

Oh no, that's horrible.

Please do let us know as & when any further news or details come through.

that's really terrible and very very sad. How can it get to this?

Ouch...I hadn't heard that news about Shizuka yet. She and Maki have had a hard time of it over the years, unfortunately, but they're both very sweet people. Not everybody knows about her notoriety among Japanese doll artists and enthusiasts -- she studied under one of the masters, Katan Amano. Their apartment was filled with her dolls when my wife and I visited a number of years ago. My wife was writing about Japanese dolls and Shizuka kindly talked to her about them and gave us a number of photos. And of course the band was wonderful. I have recordings somewhere of their shows here in SF. Very sad news...