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Howdy folks. Here’s a brand new song from “The Ottomen” with Jim Campbell and George Garcia called “Centipede, Human.”

It’s a lovely song about “things that happen to people sometimes, in movies.”  

click here to listen to > Centipede, Human< right click download 

Jurstday Thursday on ottomen.com !!! I’ve been busy, so I haven’t done a new Jurstday post in awhile.  I wrote this album between 2010 and 2011.  I finished the music around the middle of 2011 with the intent to release it under Justin DiCenzo, but soon decided that the group name should be SLEEPY TOKYO because as you can see in the image, everyone is SLEEPY all the time in this city.  The theme is yes, a little cynical, but aren’t we all in the big cities???

Skip the PayPal thing if you don’t wanna pay, there’s a free link to download it!

Sleepy Tokyo’s first release “Dark Circles” is finished and free for download!

“Dark Circles” is a musical journey through the long evening and tough morning of the average Tokyo business man.

or

Download the music free!

The album opens with dark circles

which form under your eyes as your superiors aimlessly extend each work hour into the night, then eventually drag you and the other younger employees out to drink until you can barely stand up.

You get yourself into your own taxi and sit back to witness the 2am taxi ride windows

reflect neon lights in the windows as you dart through the taxi lined streets.

The taxi is extremely comfortable and very easy to fall asleep in with a heavy head fallen

to the side or back against the plush seat.

Once the taxi goes as far into the side streets as possible, you’re on your own left to perform the slow plover stumble

or in Japanese 千鳥足 (chidori ashi) to reach your apartment door.

The elevator ride to your floor seems impossibly long as time slows

You make it in the door and almost automatically begin your night routine. Like a computer, your subroutines take over

and you find yourself passed out on and hopefully in your futon.

Without effort, you quickly fall asleep and proceed to enjoy a short dreamless sleep

Around 430am, the sky changes to a light navy color and with each passing minute dawn creeps

and causes you to toss and turn as you fear the 7am alarm. The rising sun beams in and the solar warmth

lets you know that another day has begun. You rise and prepare to return to the race.

The race to make more money, have more financial stability, have more things, meet your future spouse, raise kids and take an occasional 3-5 day holiday to another country.

Another old song with a new video!

as seen on justindicenzo.com

This song is called AUGUST NEEDS! I wrote it back in 2004 while living by myself in Osaka.

The bass part was originally written as an example for a bass lesson I was teaching.  It then turned into a song!

Get the song here from iTunes!

I wrote this with lots of electric bass loops and a mic. This is from my album made in japan 2005.
The video is Tokyo at night.

This song seems to be my most popular.
I wrote this in Sonar in 2006 using a drum sample loop, guitar, shamisen, bass and my voice.

I have always been a big fan of Weezer.  I got a lot of ridicule for liking this band, but whatever.  Good songs!

So, after a discussion with David Misung Stevenson, I decided to try and cover one of their songs.

Not too bad.  I decided I would force myself to do it in ABLETON LIVE so I could learn not only how to record, but also how to build a song in the layout section.

There are still a number of flubs here and there.  I have no idea where the drums get their random cymbals from, but I will figure this software OUT!

It blows my mind how intuitive Ableton Live is…just the learning curve is as flat as Mount Fuji!  IRONY! betch!

Without further ado

Justin DiCenzo – Weezer’s Only in Dreams

Here’s my disastrous attempt at covering Weezer’s ONLY IN DREAMS…a very short ONLY IN DREAMS

It’s my time – by me, played on trombone, synths, guitar and sung.

This is from my 2009 release: Good morning, goodbye

This video was shot on my iPhone 3g in 2010 around Shinjuku, at the school I’ve been teaching at for the last 2 years.

This song is called GAMEPLAN!

A song I wrote with Misung aka Dave Stevenson.
I emailed him the instrumental rough heard below and he sang over it.

Here is the demo

Then I re-recorded everything and sang it in a more exciting key.  Here is a rough mix by me:

Misung and I have been friends since I was about 14. The first time we sat down together and wrote something was a very strange experience to me at that age. He got out a tape recorder and a guitar and said, come on lets write a song. No paper, no pen, just make!

He is one of the most prolific people I know. Thanks Dave for writing this with me! More to come!

I know I have posted this in the past, but I’m really excited about this video. It was made by my friend Carl Stella. He’s a film maker living in Japan. I’m making music for his upcoming short, so he agreed to make a music video for me. The guy has a great eye and is really professional. Of course, working with me and my haphazardness, I didn’t want him to make a storyboard or real plan, but just go out and shoot. Anyway, enjoy the video and song from my 2009 release “Good morning, goodbye” on cdbaby and iTunes.