Strange Days

9-22-09 Strange Days, October ’09 issue

Got my new issue of Strange Days magazine from Japan last weekend. This is easily my favorite magazine in the world, despite the fact that I cannot read it (it’s in Japanese). The cover this month is The Beatles, to coincide with Toshiba re-releasing all the Beatles titles on CD again.

There’s also a great article about the anniversary of the Woodstock festival – telling you what album was out at the time by every artist who played there. There is also an excellent English-language detailing of what’s on the recent DVD re-issues. And some super color photographs. I only have 1 x of the Woodstock sets that have been issued here recently, the Johnny Winter one – with his ’69 debut solo album and a 2^nd CD of his Woodstock set.

This issue also has a big article on the Porcupine Tree, detailing all of their albums (again, in English) – so now I know what order they came out in! Also featured is a full English-language detailing of the LP/CD discography of Gentle Giant, who appear to be performing again (in England).

Looks like Chicago are touring Japan soon – as there is a full detailing of their discography (in English). I have the first two albums on re-mastered CD’s, and the first 5 albums on vinyl. Gotta love their 4LP Live box (#4), so much talking and screwing around between tracks!

One of my favorite parts of this magazine is their monthly column “Time Machine” – which is focused on 1969 this year. Each month, they tell you what notable albums came out that month in 1969 – our October issue details August, 1969 – Blind Faith “s/t”, Miles Davis “In A Silent Way”, The Nice “s/t”, Elvis Presley “From Elvis In Memphis”, Ten Years After “Sssh” and Canned Heat “Halelujah”. I’m good with the Blind Faith, The Nice, and TYA. I heard the Canned Heat back then, but these days, I confess I have a 2CD collection that seems to suffice all my Canned Heat requirements.

Some other curious stuff – I see a review of a CD called “Around Robert Wyatt” by the Orchestre National De Jazz / Daniel Yvinec. Guess it’s a French 2CD, just being released in Japan.

In the advertisements, looks like all sorts of SHM-CD’s are being released, and the kami sleeve craze seems to be progressing unabated. All the Vertigo Gentle Giant CD’s, all the Parliament (Universal) CD’s (George Clinton is touring Japan soon, apparently), a bunch of Jackson 5 CD’s, the Goblin CD’s are being done again – if you missed “Suspiria” as a kami sleeve…and I see that record store Disk Union (which I dearly love) is offering a Yes / Roger Dean “Fragile” wrist-watch – presumably if you get enough stamps onto a stamp card for the recent purchase of Yes re-issue SHM-CD kami sleeve CD’s.

And the Strange Days label is re-doing some Italian progressive rock, as SHM-CD kami sleeves – Uno, Citta Frontale, Triade and others (those are the three I already have as CD issues, even have a Triade kami sleeve, but my Uno and Citta Frontale CD’s are just regular editions).