Stamped: July 7th, 2007 | Related Posts
Tagged: Jmusic, Jrock, Nana, Olivia Lufkin.

As promised, here is a post devoted to Olivia Lufkin and her pop/rock/experimental rock music.
And it’s a perfect timing since yesterday was the unique French Parisian concert of Olivia in a small venue named La Locomotive (La loco).

Here is the Europe 2tv commercial:

The concert was announced to be started at 8:30 pm. But does a concert always start at the time announced, I ask you? No, of course. So I arrived at 8:30 pm, just on time to buy some goodies before the concert starts.

But I was terribly wrong this time, I should have expected it from a Japanese concert. As I set foot in the venue, I heard the people screaming. I could only shove myself in the crowd just in time to get a nice spot behind a pole. But it eventually went ok when the girl in front of me leant on the railing.

Then appeared the ever shy and sweet Olivia. Barefoot, dancing like a devil and singing with all her guts. Here is the first part medley from the concert:

She earned many “Aishiteru”, “Je t’aime” and “I love yous” during the gig. She was so sweet to speak in French, English and Japanese. It was a spontaneous show, not the over-prepared one that leaves no room to improvisation. She even made a grand total of 3 mistakes. 2 in the same songs where she omitted to sing. Problem of synchro I guess.

Anyway here is a video of “Real Love”, she announced it as her probable next single. But here, she had to stop the whole song. It was really funny, she giggled and kept on apologizing:

Here she introduces the band after the curtain call and tells us a funny story about their adventure at Pigalle, in a strip club:(long to download, be patient)

Here are some songs before the curtain call (ending with “Wish”), and the curtain call itself, starting with “A little pain”, but I run out of memory card. I had to change the video size and erase some others to take one last song: (long to download, be patient)

Finally the concert was over, but I decided to hang out there, waiting for to crowd to disperse in order to buy some goodies in peace. Later on, a timid Olivia popped in the stage to ask the people remaining if she could take a picture of her with us for a Japanese newspaper.
Of course, everybody happily complied. It was quick to be wrapped up. And Olivia went back backstage.

But few many later, she reappeared again, all confused and asked us again to strike the pose for the photo as there wasn’t enough light.

It was a great concert, spontaneous, fun with a sweet and maybe too shy Olivia. Who could have thought a petite woman like her could sing her guts out?

Here are the goodies I got, one t-shirt designed by Olivia I presume (she does clothes design), specially made for the one Paris show:

Were given away a photo and a little cute leaflet:

Now back to the post finally!

Before listening to my favorite of her discography, let me introduce that talented and beautiful singer for the ones who are not familiar with her yet.

Olivia Lufkin was born on December 9th 1979, on the tiny island of Okinawa (located south west of mainland Japan). She is half American, half Japanese.
Olivia is the oldest of three children. Her sister Caroline is also an singer (She released her first album “Murmurs” in 2006, but she’s into a different style, more electro-ambient-which I like-), and her brother Jeffrey (15) is the leader of his own band.
This is undoubtedly a musical family.

Her father, an American, was a former Marines (but now a teacher) so they regularly changed school. She was moved back and forth from Okinawa to live 4 years in California, 7 years in Okinawa and then 2 years in North Carolina before returning back home.

She was part of a eurobeat band called D&D in 1996 before going solo in 2000.

Olivia also has talents in drawing (clothes, jewelry, video design as well), isn’t she perfect?:

If you want to know more about Olivia, go to that website http://www.olivialufkinonline.com/ or the official website “http://www.avexnet.or.jp/olivia/

So far, Olivia only released two albums (in 2000 and 2004) if we don’t count her recent Nana projects. That’s why it was more interesting for me to focus today’s post on her 5 mini albums that were almost all released on 2003 except for the last on “The cloudy Dreamer” dated 2007.
You can five some of the songs selected below in those two albums “Synchrocity” and “Lost Lolli”.
I totally LOVE the rock and experimental rock sides of those mini albums, the styles are various, some songs even have a neo-metal sound and some rap features, some others are trip hop, ambient vibe, punkish, upbeat/pop…

My favorite mini album is “Merry & Hell go round”, I was too tempted to put all of the 5 songs in this playlist but my reason won over.

Internal Bleeding Strawberry (02/2003) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

1. Solarhalfbreed:This song deals with her mix culture. I love the melody and the guitars arrangement. Very rock, really awesome.

2. Dress me up: Dress me up is a “Synchronicity” single. Catchy song again. All the tracks from the “Internal Bleeding Strawberry” mini album (and the two following) are sung in English.

3. Internal Bleeding Strawberry: Great experimental rock track. I love it. Exactly the rage I love when I listen to NIN.

Merry & Hell go round (06/2003)…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

4. Sugarbloodsuckers: Experimental rock with indus-electro beats. It reminds me of Björk’s crazyness… I totally love love it.

5. Cupid: Sorry to make comparisons, but this one reminds me of Tori Amos. But It’s just me… I really love Olivia’s work. She totally fits with my music style. This track is slower, and has a darker side than the two previous ones that were full of rage.

6. Spider Spins: Tadadam, Tadadadam ….. Love the intro, catchy rock songs, you just want to jump. The guitars are awesome, especially when they sound Metal-like.

Comatose Bunny Butcher (09/2003)………………………………………………………………………………………

7. Bliss Forest: Very soothing compared to the previous tracks.

The return of the chlorophyll bunny (12/2003) ……………………………………………………………………………………………….

8. Dreamcamp: I love this melody. It’s really beautiful, soothing, it really calms me down.

9. Stars shining out: Check the video below. Catchy song. I love when she sings high pitch.

The cloudy dreamer (2007) ……………………………………………………………………………………..

10. Wish (English version): The famouse Nana theme song. If you want to hear the Japanese version, just check the “Nana” post.

11. Space Halo: Beautiful ballad.

Thank you for supporting that artist.
A little bonus for the pleasure of your eyes, the music video for “Stars shining out”:

She also looks gorgeous as a blond: