No New Music This Week

I know this is usually when I do a new Music of the Week post, but as it is, I'll be leaving for a SoCal vacation. Unfortunately, I'm so caught up with packing that I'm unable to do an artist highlight. But don't worry; I'll be back in two weeks with not only a new highlight, but the newest JSRevolution album, "Street Soul Mix." Be sure to check it out!

Well, I'll be signing off for two weeks now. Make sure you guys keep up the spirit of our group and Shape The Future With Music!

Music of the Week

Just like Marty McFly playing "Johnny B. Goode", we're ready to bring you something that really cooks! Strap in and hold on, because we're getting ready to travel to a new time... the time of JET SET RADIO, where the JSRevolution is leading the way of the future! And trust me, when we get this journey going, you're going to see some serious shit!

This week, we bring you a duo who's really starting to heat up the Japanese music scene. They're winners of the Japan Gold Disc Award, recent guests of Anime Central 2008, and special guests from this year's Japan Day Festival. Known for their work on Naruto Shippuuden and Demashitta! Powerpuff Girls Z, from Meguro, Japan, I present HALCALI!



Yucali and Halca first met in classes at their dance and talent school when they were ten years old. Both girls only intended to train in dance and wanted to eventually become back up dancers for other musicians. Eventually they were encouraged to take singing lessons as well, although it remained a secondary interest.

In 2002, Halca and Yucali spotted the poster that would lead them to the RIP SLYME audition to form a new rap group. Although they both enjoyed rap music, they originally were only interested in the audition because the poster was pink and adorable. In fact, they were so young that they couldn’t even read the kanji on the poster well enough to fully understand it. Halca and Yucali decided to give the audition a shot with a group of their friends. Originally there were five of them, all friends from their talent school, but the group quickly thinned out to the two of them.

HALCALI began a regular schedule of single releases and promotions and had a whirlwind of a first year, leading up to the release of their first album, HALCALI Bacon. Although mostly produced by O.T.F. it also began to bring in other hip hop musicians, such as the Fantastic Plastic Machine and Kohei Japan, to help with some of the tracks. The album was popular and ended up making it to number five on the Oricon album ranking. This made it the first album by a female hip-hop artist to make it into the top ten.

HALCALI has always been a completely unique Japanese musical group. Although they are just two young girls, they have proven to be a rallying point for many of the greatest minds in Japanese hip-hop today including m-flo, RHYMSTER, O.T.F., Supercar, Schadara parr, Halfby, POLYSICS, and Fantastic Plastic Machine. Even HALCALI themselves can’t really explain all the attention that they draw from the major names in the business.

For more on HALCALI, visit their website (in Japanese) or the HALCALI Fansite.

Well, that's it for this week! Make sure to punch in the time circuits and can generate the 1.21 Gigawatts of electricity to power the Flux Capacitor to make it to next week's post! No matter what time period you're in, the JSRevolution will be there to help you Shape The Future With Music!

Music of the Week

With a brave new future on the horizon, the people will raise up and call out for a new musical revolution. And we're standing at the forefront, to Shape The Future With Music. We are your leaders of this new future known as JET SET RADIO! And we will lead the way with the JSRevolution!

First and foremost, we here at JSRevolution would like to give a big congrats to the winner of the 2008 Presidental Election, Barack Obama. Let's hope, just like the rest of you, he will Shape The Future.

Now, on to business. This week, we have a band that's been around for quite a while, with a sound that just sends chills down your spine! From Thousand Oaks, CA, let's hear it for Halifax!


Halifax was just another in a myriad of unsigned but resolute indie outfits rolling the highways and byways of North America. Sharing van space, shitty hotel rooms, bodily aromas, Old Milwaukee and a collective dream in between crappy jobs in chain restaurants and landscaping, the group recorded and supported its initial EP, A Writer’s Reference. Within a year’s time, Halifax found itself among the lower echelon of the 2004 Warped Tour, but its reputation continued to grow. By early 2005, after establishing friendships with Drive-Thru founders Richard Reines and Stefanie Reines – and bowling them over during a New Jersey gig with The Early November – the label tweaked and reissued Reference. Appending an acoustic version of the band’s beloved “Sydney,” a track Hunau scribed in tribute to his late grandfather, Halifax continued touring and building its fanbase while concocting what would become The Inevitability of a Strange World.

When Mike, Chris, Adam, and Tommy landed in Austin, Texas for the renowned South By Southwest Music Festival last year, little did they know how a routine night in the world of rock & roll coupled with a few television cameras might sensationalize their image. “A lot of people who only know us from the TV will come to our shows and think we’re drunk off our asses or something,” Hunau chuckles. “But we didn’t do anything on the show that we don’t do normally. Bands go out drinking and get drunk and have fun and hang out with friends and chicks. It’s not like we’ll play with other bands and they’ll say, ‘Oh my god! Halifax is out of control.’ Yet anyone with an objective ear might garner such a notion in a positive sense by turning to The Inevitability of a Strange World. Take the contagious, exhilarating motion of “Better Than Sex,” for instance. Here, Brandt and Charles’ machine gun riffing escalates amid Hunau’s memorable, melodic intonations. Catapulted by the rhythmic drive of Peyton and Guindon, it’s evident that Halifax deserves the attention they’ve yielded so far.

If their intentions seem simple, they also seem pure. “No matter how shitty we’re feeling, there’s redemption when we go out and rock a crowd,” the singer acknowledges. “We definitely don’t just get up there and play our songs. We have a blast every night on stage.” Like we said, Halifax can party. Listen and live in the Strange World.

For more on Halifax, visit their official website and their MySpace.

Well, that's it for this week! Until next time, this is the JSRevolution, and we're Shaping The Future With Music!