Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Noodles | 15 Albums + EPs

NOODLES


15 albums and EPs, nearly 8 hours of Noodles, reupped again on June 17, 2015, by reader request, here.

[Originally published on April 13, 2012.] I'm in an incredibly good mood this evening. Not only did I finish three ridiculously complicated projects this week at work, but I got the final confirmation (date, time and location) of a reading I'll be giving one week from tonight in Washington, D.C., with one of my all-time favorite poets, p. inman.

Although it's the first reading I've given in a year (and you can listen to that previous reading, here, if you scroll down to April 23, 2011), I'm frankly more excited about getting to hear and watch inman than I am about reading any of my own stuff. Inman may not be the most famous poet associated with the Language Writing movement that came into prominence in the 1970s & 80s, but he is certainly the most radical. And, as far as I'm concerned, the finest. He is the Melt Banana of poets. Check out, for instance, this comic I drew in 2009 using his words (and Sugiura Shigeru's images):


Which brings me to tonight's musical offering. As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of Japanese pop and rock (including, yes, Melt Banana). Most of what's on my computer, and thus on my iPhone, is J-pop and J-rock that I either found while on vacation in the archipelago, or downloaded from one of the many Japan-focused music blogs I've been scouring over the last several years.

Without question, my favorite still-active J-rock band would have to be the all-female trio, Noodles. Formed in 1991 in Yokohama, Noodles has clearly drawn the bulk of its inspiration from American bands of the same period, especially post-punk and grunge acts like Nirvana and the Breeders. But they are, IM (not so) HO, more satisfying than either.

Blasphemy? Perhaps. But consider this: Whereas Nirvana collapsed after only a few albums with Cobain's suicide and the Breeders never managed to put together that many more albums, despite none of its members actually having died, Noodles, like the Energizer Bunny before them, keep on going and going ... and going. And, inexplicably, getting better and better ...

No matter what sort of mood I'm in--from "Pretty Okay" to "Utterly Defeated"--it doesn't take more than two or three Noodles tracks to push me up to "Ecstatic," or, at the very least, "Hey! Wow!" I love, love, love, love, love this band, with its Stolen From College Rock Radio hooks and structures and its macaronic lyrics and its obsessively alt-rock-referential titles ("Slits," "New Wave," "Velvet Underground," "Runaways," "Splash," "Lemon Grass Foo Foo").

810 MBs is, admittedly, an almost egregious commitment to ask of you. But, then, ask yourself: Has the Bodega Pop proprietor ever steered you seriously wrong, yet? If you have any love for J-Rock, if the 90s were over far too early for your liking ... give this one a try. You won't regret it.





18 comments:

Anonymous said...

These samples are fantastic! Downloading! I don't know why I'm only finding out about them now, but I'm VERY happy I did. If goodwill was money, you'd be a millionaire, friend. Thanks.

Siphonophoros said...

Great posts! Thank you for sharing. Something to consider: putting the different albums into separate folders. Right now I have this big soup of 135 tracks that i need to sort out! (Plus fishing out missing art work)For your asakawa maki post that also included some 15 albums I spent a good hour doing the same thing. Although it is well worth the effort I'm sure there must be an easier way..

Jennifer said...

I want these CD:s so bad, but the download link isn't working! :( Will you be able to fix it?

Gary said...

Hi Jennifer, I think it should be working now ... I just checked. Let me know if you're still having trouble!

Tyler Hewitt said...

I love Noodles! I think I got these from you when you previously posted them. Are these higher quality files?

Do you like The Pillows? Mid period Pillows (the Happy Bivouac album, etc.) sounds like a male version of Noodles. Noodles also records for a label owned by one of The Pillows.

Andre G said...

Can't seem to download, new fan here of the band. Caught them recently and they were magnificent !

Gary said...

Hi Andre,

I just checked the link and it downloads fine. It's a VERY big file, so that might be an issue.

But it is still there, still DLs, and the files all open and have the albums in them.

Try again!

Carlos Torres said...

gracias!! i lost them long time ago and couldn't find them again ^^

oesoterika said...

Thanks for all your hard work! Wondering... I don't have enough space on my hard drive to download all of this. Would it be possible for you to post one or two albums separately?
Thank you again for everything you do!

Michael said...

Is it too late to re-up? their albums are really hard to get in ths US. I wish they'd put the tracks on itunes or bandcamp.

Carlos Torres said...

I'm the guy who wrote 1 year ago saying he lost the cds, and i lost them again XD
and seems u just uploaded them again yesterday, thank u again!

pantufo said...

Hello
Is a re-up possible?? Would be fantastic!! Thanks in advance and relaxed days

Aemos said...

Was hoping for another re-upload, lost my albums years ago and it's just so tough to find them in the US.

Aemos said...

Was hoping for another re-upload, it's so tough to find noodles stuff stateside and I lost what I had when my old pc died.

meemo said...

"The public file you are trying to download is associated with a non-valid account.

Please contact the owner for further assistance."
is the message i get from the link. i hope it's not too much to ask for a re-up!

Unknown said...

if it isn't hurt, would you like to re-upload??

Unknown said...

im gonna need a reupload fam

wonnyj said...

Please reupload! They are amazing!