Thursday, September 28, 2006

Lemon Drop Kick






Hey, just a quick update and message about the band 'Lemon Drop Kick'. I first heard them on the 'JDM Insider' dvd series produced by 360vm.com and Toshi Hayama! Justin (drummer) is also an Autmotive writer and photographer, and asked me to work with him on http://uk.cars.ign.com of course i said Yes, so watch this space! This is a little about the band, as quoted by themselves on http://www.myspace.com/lemondropkick ...Enjoy!

LDK

Q: So what the hell is Lemon Drop Kick?

A: Lemon Drop Kick is a Los Angeles-based, female-fronted Japanese pop-punk band. In other words, Lemon Drop Kick is your new favorite band.

Q: You guys live in the U.S. and you have 2 Americans in the band. Why do you call yourselves a Japanese band?

A: Because we can... and also because three of us were born and raised in Japan.

Q: So what does Lemon Drop Kick mean?

A: We have no idea. It was a better name than Blueberry Uppercut.

Q: Oh, Lemon Drop Kick. Your music is like candy for my ears! I swear I have heard your music before. Was I in a blissful dream, or did I really hear 11:40 in a Steven Segal movie?

A: That wasnt a blissful dream, you really did hear 11:40 in the soon-to-be-classic Segal flick, Into the Sun. You may have also heard our songs in the DVDs Go! Go! Anime, Chasing the Touge or JDM Insider: Kansai Battle. Car stereos were blessed with LDKs songs when XM Satellite Radio and various L.A.-based radio stations played our stuff. Were you one of the privileged few to make it to Destination Playstation in Flordia? Then you may have heard a Lemon Drop Kick song or two in one of your favorite games

Q: LDK! You guys rock my socks off! Will you play my show/event/gig/prom/bar-mitzvah/insert-your-own-event-here?

A: If youre lucky Seriously though, if you want LDK to come play, leave us a detailed message about when/where you want us to play. We love to play live, and were all about getting out and playing as much as possible, so feel free to ask!!!

Q: How can we get a copy of Excuse, 11:40 and other LDK songs?

A: We dont have any CDs publicly available just yet. We do give out CDs at our shows, so its worthwhile for you guys to come check us out live. If you cant make it to one of our gigs, you can download our tunes from that music box at the top of the page. Dont see Excuse or another one of your favorite LDK songs? Be patient, we change the songs every few weeks, so be sure to check back.

Q: Okay last question, we promise!! Do you have any parting words for all your fans?

A: Of course, in the words of our original bassist, Mr. Yusuke Hisamitsu KEEP ROCK!!!!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Shibuya






Here is quick update of some photos from trip to Shibuya! For those who don't know, this is the heart of Tokyo, with LOTS of crossings, people, bright lights, shopping! I couldn't believe i was really in Tokyo to i visited here! Amazing. It never sleeps, is buzzing all the time, definetly a great experience. If you are ever in Japan you MUST visit Shibuya! Spend the day there!

Monday, September 25, 2006

more photos...






More Japan...








Hey everyone, im still sorting through 100s of photos from Japan, so i will keep updating. Here are some cool, random shots of the trip. Enjoy...more soon!

Smokey Nagata


Here's a quick photo of me, with my personal hero (haha), Smokey Nagata from Top Secret, Chiba, Japan! Smokey is usually a VERY shy and quiet man, but when he seen us at D1GP, he talked alot, and we were remembering our first encounter 2 years ago in the UK. He is still mad, and getting ready for another 'wangan' style run, and also building a new car, but he had time to personally invite us to the shop. Check out the photos below in the 'Top Secret' section!

Daijiro


Here's a photo of the crew, with Inada 'Go Go' Daijiro - founder of Option! We were on the way to Suzuka Circuit for D1GP, and got to the station, i felt a tap on my shoulder, turned round and seen Daijiro San - 'Option ne', he said, WOW, i was in shock and said, 'hey Dai, so great to meet you, on the way to D1!' Turns out even VIPs get the trains to D1GP, and he was very impressed we made the trip to Japan and were big fans of his work! Talk soon...

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Kyoto






No trip to Japan is complete without seeing Kyoto, beautiful, check it out...

AE86 Land




Next on the list of places to go was AE86 land, near Kyoto! We made the trip here to Kyoto main station then 5minutes in Taxi, it was surprising the amount of people knew about hachi roku, but its great! we knew why once we got to ae86 land, Soooo many AE86's all lined up, including Initial D movie cars. This company built 3 of them for the movie, See the photos...

Trial Tuning






Weekend was here and it was onto Shinkansen Bullet train again to Osaka, then more trains to TRIAL tuning in Osaka, Japan! This has to be one of the best made and biggest names of tuning! I knew Trial was great, but even i was speechless when we got here. We got off the train, and the taxi man knew right away, 'Trial tuning ne? hai, ok' thats always a good sign, I met up with Yuichi there, and we had a great day! check out the photos from Trial above...^^

Yokohama





Friday we went to Yokohama's Minato Mirai area, to check out some of the sites, and have some fun! Japanese food is sooo good, the best, so we had dinner looking out onto the bay, with huge wheel, landmark tower, it was great, only pics can explain - im still lost for words on Yokohama! Amazing!

Top Secret





Its a Thursday morning, you are in Japan, its 6am, what do you do? Visit Top Secret of course! haha! We jumped onto a train and made our way to Chiba! Top Secret is surprisingly VERY easy to find, and once we got there, WOW - its just like a dream! 350z, Skylines, Supras, all lined up under the famous Top Secret 2001 gold sign on blue building! Perfect! We got a look around, and luckily enough we met Roo from Top Secret USA, which was great! He showed us around all of the cars, show room etc, and we got some official goodies. I still can't describe this shop - AMAZING! pictures explain it better i guess!

Kazama Auto





Wednesday was through Tokyo and onto Saitama to visit Kazama Auto and Power Vehicles. This was going to be a fun day meeting up with some friends here, and checking out some of Japan's best cars built by Kazama Auto. Kazama San was very friendly, and let us go whereever we want, look at any car, check out engines, interior etc, which was great. Its this kindness of people that makes Japan so good! The line up of cars was UNREAL, silvias, 180sx's, ae86's,Supras, Skylines, everything you could imagine, all modified within an inch of their lives! One car that stood out most though was the Kazama 'Street Legal' Toyota MkII. This was basically full spec drift car, but is drove on the roads, as we seen this day - and Kazama San is CRAZY!! haha,but we love it!

Super Autobacs...








Next day we went to Super Autobacs, in Yokohama Bay area. It was only a short train journey from our hotel, so it would be a shame not to check it out! This place was HUGE, with lots of cool parts, wheels, kits, audio, accessories. Everything you could imagine for your car was here. Also the Pit area they had was very professional, with fitting area, window tint booth, Paint Booth and bodyshop. Its no wonder Japan has so many great cars with companies like this right on the doorstep. Maybe in future we can see places like this in Europe!