I Missed My J-Rock

I spent most of last night engaged in a large scale digi-enema.
That is to say, moving a mass of files from laptops into external hard drive storage, so that the laptops are less sluggish and congested.

An awful lot of data gets into my laptops, as it is necessary for it to store the raw footage from our radio shows (roughly just under 2gb per show and we've been going since November 09) and all the video footage from our sketches, which takes up a gargantuan amount of space. When you factor in the music, podcasts and videos that also find their way from iTunes then the laptops become a bloated mess.

Having a good clear out, even in purely digital terms, can be a very satisfying process. It's the same sort of feeling I got from clearing the back garden of nettles, albeit with significantly reduced chance of getting a farmer's tan.

I decided to also rejig my iPod a bit, since mine doesn't have a huge amount of space on it it is necessary to operate a squad rotation system with the songs, and it has been awhile since I've changed it. I realised if I left it much longer then I'd run the risk of really hating some of my favourite music.

I've been meaning to cobble together a playlist of Japanese music for the radio for a number of weeks now, so I took the opportunity to embark on that effort. Several hours later I realised I managed to fill my iPod almost exclusively with Japanese music, which is a fairly drastic, nostalgic change. It is an odd process where you can listen to music you probably haven't heard for a number of years, and still know all the lyrics. Made even more strange if they are in Japanese (and you aren't in Japanese).

One of the most interesting tracks I rediscovered was 'Nothing Can Be Explained' by Mike Wyzgowski. I warmed to the track a lot more than I had previously, it is strange, hypnotic and faintly sinister. What really hooked me about it, however, was how little information is available on Mike Wyzgowski. He is not to be confused with Mike Wazowski, who is the green thing from off've the Monsters, Inc. After a bit of digging it appears that he is a UK-based artist, who used to be in a band called Garlic. The vague nature of the name makes it very hard to find anything out about them, with the only site that mentions them being their own official website, which is out of date and desolate. There is no mention of them on iTunes or Wikipedia (which these days means they didn't happen) and the only sight of them on Amazon is of old and used albums.

More digging led to the discovery that he was more recently in an outfit called Stations of the West, which is another band name which is almost impossible to search. The only mention of them is on their own myspace. I found them on iTunes, and, having enjoyed the previews, took a chance. I am enjoying them so far, the album is called 'You Missed Yourself'. The standout track for me so far is 'Silly Cow', though the amusing title is surely playing a part in that.

It is strange, and exciting, to have found bands who seem to be mysterious non-entities, at least in terms of the internet's coverage of them. The band searching I did does flag up a more costly habit, however. Having invested an amount of time researching Mike Wyzgowski, when I then found an opportunity to buy an album, I instantly took it, and received it minutes later, thanks to the wonder/danger of the internet. This goes for a number of other things aswell. In the last week I have interpulse purchased two pairs of shoes (a new pair for work and trainers for exersize - they are practical purchases at least) a t-shirt, that album and the newest Football Manager game. I am an idiot.

The purchase of the Football Manager game also informed my data-clearing, as for the game to run smoothly, which it needs to if it is to have the best chance of devastating my life and mind, it'll need a system in good shape. FM is D&D for football nerds, and if the game and the time is right it is like a stat-based black hole which consumes weeks of your life in a blink of an eye.

My reacquainting with football is, as will be obvious, informed by the World Cup, which has sucked me in like a wily Bret Hart playing possum ready to drag me into a small package. I'm just glad some interesting matches have happened now. Switzerland 1, Spain 0 was enjoyable, and Argentina 4, South Korea 1 was similarly great.
　
Also, this is a special one for you fans of lookalike athletes that were at their best in the late-80s through the mid-90s; Jürgen Klinsmann is the doppelganger of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.