The Okay Idea live at the Ruby Room..

Friday night's Ruby show kicked off with The Okay Idea powering through their set of electro rock/pop gems. It was the debut performance for our buddy Russell and the set also included some new material, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing these guys some more as the Summer goes on..

Open mic at the Ruby..

Every Tuesday night for as long as I can remember, the Ruby Room in Shibuya has held Tokyo's premier Open Mic night. When I started going it was still around the corner, at the old Sugar High building, and while it has gone through various mutations throughout the years, essentially it's still basically the same: a great place for both wanna-be and established artists to go and develop their craft in a smoke filled room full of drinking music lovers.

I don't hit it so much these days, but whenever I do I find it difficult to leave. Here's a selection of what was going on Tuesday night..

A cool little Quartet (that didn't play any WSQ):



Dan sitting in with some of the guys from Sunset Drive:





Pat, who had more pedals than I've seen anyone slinging since Magic Dirt at Meredith in '96:



And finally, Dan and me doing some songs, both of the old and new variety, just for the hell of it:









Thanks to Tosh from Sunset Drive for taking this last set of pics..

ABCD @ VRP 5

ABCD totally rocked the house at VRP 5 last week. A clever blend of jarring chords and punchy beats, both polished and rock at the same time, brought everyone together for a great final act. Reminiscent of a garage Sonic Youth, these guys are definitely a band to behold as they prepare for world domination..

Monitor @ VRP 5

Shambolic.. That was probably the most honest reaction I heard after the Monitor set last week. It's not unusual for things to go wrong during a show, and there are a myriad of possibilities: leads losing contact, strings breaking, dodgy mixes with no-one looking out, unpaid stage dancers having cat fights.. This time lots of things went west, but luckily none of them dampened spirits or took away from the energy as the band ripped through their up-tempo set of electro-pop loveliness..

Come to my Party @ VRP 5

Valentine Records presents vol. 5 was a rockin little shindig to say the least. Lots of people drunk, dancing, picking up, putting down, and the lines of acceptable behavior being blurred a little around the edges, or recreated if you must as all the bands rocked another great Ruby show! Come to my Party opened up the evening with their sweet bass driven electro-pop swirliness.

Valentine Records Presents vol. 5

Valentine Records is presenting yet another extravaganza of amazing talent on Friday May 23rd at everyones favorite Ruby Room. Kohei from Come to my Party made this super cool cm for the event.

We hopes you like it!