LIVE SCHEDULE: February 28th @ The Blarney Stone March 28th @ The Blarney Stone
|
Copyright 2007. ttj. All rights reserved.
|
"We kick our own asses!"
For all generations of Rock
LIVE SCHEDULE: New dates to be announced “soon”
|
Okay, so the summer is over and what did we accomplish? Well, Brian got married and we made some progress toward our next
album! As for Brian, he is already considering divorce because his wife wacked her hair too much...and he liked it long and shaggy.
(See how shallow singers are? That's why we're gonna give him a Hairdresser Barbie Doll for Christmas.) As for the recording, we
feel it is our best to date. Yep you can expect a four-song mini-album to poison your ears in November with another addictive,
four-song mini album to be out in April. Stay tuned!
We're a little bit excited about November as we are finally returning to
Tokyo and Narita after a 2 1\2 year hiatus from that area. We'll be playing
at What The Dickens in Ebisu on the 14th, followed by The Barge Inn in
Narita the following evening. We have no idea when we'll return to the
area next, so make sure that we don't miss you. No matter how fat or ugly
you've become, we want to party in Tokyo like it's 1999!
The last time we were in Tokyo, we were dumb enough to tell people where
we were staying. As a result, so many people came over we couldn't sleep!
And man, NONE of us want to have a room next to YUGI'S...he'll be having his
usual private parties, so we guess that we'll post the hotel and his room
number on here anyway. Sorry, but it's exclusively for ladies for ladies over the
age of 65.
Many people have been asking about our next trip to Australia. Well...there is no solid plan yet. Our wives are still punishing us for the
last trip, so we're gonna see if we can hold out until next Spring when our second mini-album comes out. We'll keep ya posted!
Meanwhile, we'll see you at the shows in Osaka, Tokyo, and Narita! Until then, don't catch cold, don't answer emails from Nigeria,
don't flirt with underage people, don't fart in elevators, and never, ever take candy from strangers!
More to come...
Brrr! It has gotten cold here in Osaka, but the good thing is that Brian and Yugi don't sweat as much when we play these days. It
makes the stage smell better and keeps our inter-band bickering down. We don't say "We kick our own asses" for nothing, you know!
We're happy to say that we are releasing four songs that are going on our full album due to come out around April. Some people just
couldn't wait for more acid in their ears, so that's why we're putting out some of our material a bit early. For now, the CDs are
available by request or by visiting one of our slam-bang shows. Due to high demand we are already putting out our second printing!
Our recent trip to Tokyo was bitter-sweet. First the sweet part. It has been 2 1/2 years since we visited Tokyo and were so happy to
see that a lot of people were still there for us. It warmed our hearts to play in Tokyo with a lot of old friends. In addition, we were able
to attract quite a few new people as well. If you're one of those new friends we made, give us a holler. We'd love to hear from you
again!
We had a lot of problems with the sound system on the first night, so our sound was not up to par...but thanks to a good crowd we
were able to make up for that in butt-kicking energy, lust and love. We all made our fair share of mistakes, but the first prize goes to
Brian. We played a big, instrumental intro where we suddenly stop to let the vocals come in alone. The effect is great, but when we
stopped, there was our blanked-out singer...with the "deer in the headlights" look. He looks around...puts his mike to his
mouth...looks back at the drums...and, uhhhhhhhh, after a few seconds realizes what he's supposed to do. It was easy to recover,
but maaaan, that got a lot of laughs! We didn't care one bit, though - that's typical TTJ!
The bitter part was playing at the Barge Inn on the following night. The manager there is usually on top of things and has always
done a great job promoting us. There was no reason to doubt that he wouldn't do the same this time around. Unfortunately, he's
been drinking since January 2006 and hasn't stopped. He completely forgot we were even coming. That meant that we played to a
very small group of people. It also meant however, that we could play what EVER we wanted. We had our sound, were in the
groove...so we played tons of heavy TTJ originals and added about 5 Metallica songs just to get our own rocks off. That also pleased
the Mexican and Brazilian guys there big-time. Rock on dudes! Still, it was kind of a drag going all that way for such a disappointing
turnout. The manager's wife ended up dragging his sorry, drunk butt home long before we even started playing...heh, loser. But we
still love him.

What's on the agenda now? Wellllll, in addition to playing a few small shows at The Blarney Stone and the Kobe Club, we're gonna
finish that full album and make it the best we can. We are closing on 9 years together as a band and we want to do something
special in the new year. Right now we're trying to think of what we can do...hmm...shave our heads and get matching tattoos? ...go
back and play at the old hole-in-wall bars where we started out for old-times sake? Go back to Australia? Get plastic surgery? A new
drummer? Send us your ideas!
Meanwhile, check out our new CD and send us a line when you get the chance! Keep rocking- TTJ
Happy New Year! As 2009 is ushered in TTJ is pumped! Yep, we're going into our 10th year as a band and you what? Being together
never gets old. Everything feels as fresh as when we first started...only we're a bit better than we were back then! And oh yeah...some
things never change. Yugi still pursues hot women, Jun still looks like a teenager, Gordy still has brainfarts, and Brian still stinks...but
not as bad as before.
Anyway, our immediate plan is to finish the album by May at the latest. Following that, we have A LOT to do...including considering
what venues to play and where to tour. If you would like us to play in a town near you, no matter where you are, let's see if we can
make it happen!
On those lines, we've been invited back to Australia. GULP. You Aussies might find our sorry butts back in the Land of Oz sooner than
you think! We'll see...that would be great! Some of our other goals are to hit America and well, even China if the opportunity arises!
Gordy wants to see what would happen if over a billion people in China jumped at the same time.
For now, just make sure that you check out our live schedule and come on out for a guaranteed great time! If you're Canadian and
happen to be in the Kansai area, be sure not to miss our show at the Kobe Club for the Kansai Canadian Association! There's going
to be a fun show, great food, all you can drink, a raffle for big prizes, and a good dose of nice folk from back home getting corrupted by
a rogue band like us!
See you at the show or on line! Cheers, Brain, Jun, Yugi and Gordy
Here we are in October already! The bad news is that our album is not yet complete. The good news is that what we have sounds
great! We can't wait to share it with you all - hopefully before the end of the year! We're slow, but hey, we deliver!
We are both happy and sad to announce that TTJ will no longer be playing at The Blarney Stone on Saturday nights. From this point
on we will focus only on our original material instead of playing both covers and originals to please a mixed crowd of people. It's time
to concentrate fully on our own material and come out bigger and more powerful as a result. We'll keep you posted for any shows that
do pop up, though. You can expect them to be 100% TTJ with full power! It'll be bigger and waaaay better!
It was fun to play our last Saturday show with guest bass player Tim Miller. He came on stage to play three songs with us while Yugi
enjoyed being part of the crazy crowd and downed nine beers in 14 minutes. Playing with Tim was like going to Disneyland...pure
fun... He rocks and we played a bit better because of him! Check out the pics we've posted.
Brian: He and his beautiful sugar mommy are expecting a baby in January. So far the pregnancy is going well, and Brian couldn't be
more excited. There has been some controversy over who the real father of the child is, but as long as the baby is healthy everyone
will be happy. When Brian got married he came with only a 3-month warranty, so we hope that the baby doesn't break him!
Here's what's up with us!
Jun: This guy is getting busier by the minute. Other bands are using him for his great guitar playing and he's helping out a lot of
people. At the same time his law practice is growing, keeping him up late and showing up for our rehearsals too dang late!
Yugi: For unknown reasons he wants to beef up his English and is studying for the TOEIC test. Gordy has tried to tell him that the
test is meaningless, but nevertheless, Yugi is determined to do it! His goal is to write these stupid updates himself and be able to hit
on more foreign women.
Gordy: Still braindead after his accident with a banana peel. Rehabilitation is going okay, but it will take some time before he's fully
back!
Happy 2010! This year is a milestone for us because it marks the 10th anniversary for TTJ! When we started this band we were all
young, dumb, and full of.....uh.....what rhymes with "dumb?" ANYway, now we're all old dudes, married with 7 kids between us. How
did THAT happen? Well, for Jun and Yugi it happened from drinking too much. For Brian it was love. As for Gordy, he was forced at
gunpoint since his wife wanted to get married a few days before her 30th birthday. Still, we're all going strong and we've come a long
way since our first crappy demo, recorded in Studio You, way back when. Who would have known it would have lasted this long? Not
us!! But here we are...still pretty-much adolescents...still fitting into the same-size clothes (tights for Brian, hats for Gordy)...and
getting ready to release our next album. FINALLY!
We've been promising fans a new album for three years now. The length of time had nothing to
do with a lack of motivation, creativity or screwing around. It was all due to a lack of time and
money as we've had so many other growing responsibilities. Yet, we've kept the dream alive
and are excited to share what we've created with you. For us it has been worth the wait, and we
feel that we can truly keep our trademark catch-phrase of "we kick our own asses!"
"Hey, Gordy. Why do you always point at the camera for every
picture?" "Hey, Yugi. Why do you look so ugly in every picture?"
At this point we have laid down all the tracks for the album and have mastered half of it. Before we
put it into shrink-wrap, however, we have a few more songs to mix and master. In addition to that
we are thinking of performing a few songs live in the studio to slap on as bonus tracks.
In other news! If you're looking for a chance to dress up and find a place where you can
blow a wad of cash, just drive on up to the Kobe Club on January 30th! We'll be playing
for the Canadian Club's annual New Years Party for about $75 a head. Although we will
not be allowed to partake of the food or be part of the raffles going on, we will be
performing your favorite cheezy songs for entertainment. It's a bit pricey, and you have to
wear your best Sunday clothes, but we'll muddy up the party plenty.
We'll send you home in a cab or a box if you like! If you want any more info on this, just send us a quick email and we'll be able to get
back to you.Well, that's a wrap! Keep checking back with us for more info on what looks to be an exciting year! We love hearing from
you, so keep the letters coming.
Cheers! Brian, Yugi, Jun, Gordy
Will there be a karaoke track of our ballad? Well, you'll just have to wait and see! At any
rate, we hope to have this released within the first quarter of 2010. Keep your finders
crossed. It's been a while since we've done this!

Thanks for chilling on TTJ's web site today! A lot of people have been asking what happened to us, but we can say that we are alive
and still working on making happy little faces all over the world. We've had a slow year due to life's circumstances, but can boast that
we are getting closer to releasing an album and that we are getting geared up to play shows again. (Yeah, we've been saying that
forever, but it's true!) Yep, we'll be warming up at The Blarney Stone on SEPTEMBER 19th. Just get there as early so you
can and get a good place to watch us. You can expect lots of new songs in addition to our old classics. Thirty-four songs to be exact!
(Uh...you might expect us to be a little loose after so much time...) As for the album, we just have three more songs to mix before we
package it and become world famous.
The best news of all is that our guitar player, Jun, had a baby boy on August 18th. Jun is now the
proud father of Atuki Sugimoto. Jun is thrilled to have a son, yet a little bewildered as he has been
given the sole duty of diaper changing. It's amazing...when we started this band we were all single
with no thoughts of changing diapers. Now we have eight children between us all. Just one more kid
and we'll have a baseball team...and we're still together doing our thing.
Welp, that's it for now. Please, please check out the mini gig on the 12th and stay tuned for more to
come - especially if you live in Nagoya, Tokyo, or Fukuoka! Cheers!
Heeeey! TTJ is on the up! Both Jun and Gordy have mostly recovered from their surgeries, and Brian has been able to walk again
after throwing out his hip. Heh, that's part of being a band that's now old enough to start replacing body parts!
In case you missed it, TTJ ear-poisoned a packed-out house at Akaso Hall on October 16th. It was a contest for geezer bands, and
since one of us qualified as a geezer, we were able to enter! Anyway, we played among some very seasoned people who ranged
from ages 30 to 70. Some bands made you cringe, but for the most part it was awesome! The organizers spared no expense as the
event was sponsored by Coca Cola, McDonald's, ANA, Yamha, Sky Perfect TV, and more.
Still, we had a total blast playing. We're a bunch of guys who just love playing together, and that alone made it a good night.
However, the after show party was actually a bit more memorable... Yugi blindly lead us to a gay izakaya restaurant, where we were
surprised to get hit on a bit. Gordy was given free beer and stuff, but didn't know what to do with it...so Yugi obliged to consume it.
Anyway, a couple of idiots in our group got off on making some gay jokes which the staff overheard. The staff got reallly pissed off,
so we had to get out of the place before we got smashed with knives and kitchen pots. Seriously, it was looking a bit dangerous, so
we paid our bill and literally fled the joint. Man, leave it to TTJ to run into these kinds of experiences...

Heh, we've made it to the finals of every single contest that we have ever entered, but
have never actually won any of them. We didn't expect to win anything at this show, either.
Both the audience and judges were almost twice our age, and they looked as if they had
bitten into a big, saggy diaper when we came on stage with our bombastic sound.
(After all, we went on right after a violin quintet!) Yet, it was amazing to see people much
older than us playing with passion, still holding on to the dream of making it big. In fact,
the winning band (a cover band playing a Japanese country song) got a record deal for
their efforts. Pretty cool! Anyway, you've got to respect these folk. Some of the groups
obviously spent jillions for their outfits - especially the jazz bands. In such an
environment, you can hardly expect a poor rock band wearing the exact same clothes
we wore ten years ago to win!
In other news, we are indeed scheduled to complete the mix down of our album in November. If we can get the CDs printed and
coded by January, we will have our release party at The Blarney Stone on January 9th! Whether the album is packaged by then or
not, we'll play anyway, so break your dates for that night and mark this down. Unless one of us falls over from a heart attack, you can
expect a great show! We're not near finished yet, so come and help us make a memorable evening. Meanwhile, we'll post other
shows and updates between now and January 9th!
More to come, TTJ
Trouble Tribe Japan, New CD out Now.. Supersonic Stare
|
Hi all! We here in Toontown, Japan want to wish you the very best ending for 2010 and a great beginning for 2011! 2010 was a
challenging year for TTJ. Between us we had two babies, two major surgeries, several injuries, and a couple of disaster gigs! In
spite of that, we are very near the end of finishing our long-promised album that will be called "Supersonic Stare". It's amazing that
we've been able to keep anything together during 2010, however, we are proud to have done what we have! Hopefully 2011 won't
bring any more disaster gigs or brain transplants.

2011 is going to be bright as we look forward to releasing "Supersonic Stare". We have a ton of fresh ideas for our second decade
as a band, so be prepared to see some positive changes and a whole new make-over! We love doing what we do, and feel so
fortunate to share it with you. We also want to do a better job of reaching out to those of you who have supported us and our music
through all this time. Send us a line any day, and we promise that we will correspond with you. No hate mail, please. We get
enough grief just from putting up with each other!
Thanks for putting up with us. We owe you big-time!
Bye, bye 2010 and HAPPY 2011!! It's gonna ro~ck! That's a promise we can deliver!
After we debuted with Onkyo in 2004, we realized that we were not quite going in the direction that we wanted musically. It was hard to
be enthusiastic about an album that took only a couple of weeks to write and record. The song, "Broken Promises", however, helped
us define the true sound of what TTJ is. Going on that vibe and going independent was the answer, and we started recording Sunny
California in 2006 at KISS studio in Osaka. We stuck with KISS and our engineer, Mr. Kimura, stuck with us on the long road to where
we are now. The path was narrow and uphill for sure, but we stuck to some basic principals to stay on track, which are merely the
following:
We invite you to take a listen at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/troubletribejapan We'd love for you to buy a track or two, but we'd still be if
you were only able to stream some of the songs to get familiar with us...and then come see us play. Let us back up what we do on
the album by playing it right back in your face! That way we can get truly connected as we feed off you and you feed on us in return.
Meanwhile, your feedback on the album is also welcome at troubletribe@japan.com .
THANKS! We've made it!
More later! TTJ

It's FINALLY HERE! Yes, after years of pushing against all that was bearing down on us - time, finances, surgeries, tsunamis,
nuclear disasters, and more - we are happy to say that the new TTJ album, Supersonic Stare, is here! We never thought for a
moment, however, that it wouldn't be complete. We just kept going...even though it sometimes seemed to be at a snail's pace. What
really matters is that we finally have a product that we love. We're not interested in becoming international rock stars as much as we
just love playing together...and this is the album that shows it! This is what we are.
*Stay true to our sound
*Don't be predictable and do what everyone else would do
*Don't sacrifice groove for technique
*And don't take ourselves too seriously. Laugh!
*Do what makes us happy
Thus, Supersonic Stare is born.
Heeey! Thanks for checking us out today! We can say that although it's been a quiet period for TTJ, it only means that we are going to
come out bigger and louder than ever! We are currently redoing our set list and coming up with ideas for the next TTJ album. This
means that we are alive and well!
Our biggest news is a secret that hasn't been kept very well. As some of you have heard,
our vocalist, Brian, has left TTJ and is now using his talents, great sense of Irish humor,
and his famous purple pants to pursue a solo career. We wish him the best and will be in
the front row of any gig he might play. We miss his weird personality, but the show goes on!
We are currently working with a talented young guy named Drew Miller! Hailing from Florida,
he brings not only a good-looking face, but a fresh prospective on things. He brings a softer,
less-gravelly sound to us, but you can expect to hear more rhythm and soul than ever. You
can check out this guy by dropping by a rehearsal or seeing him play in a number of gigs
around town. You're gonna like this guy in time, but more on him later!
In other less-important news, Gordy recently finished up an interview with Italy's Hard 'N' Heavy Radio this week. We would be really
happy if you listened to the podcast and posted a comment or two. You can hear three songs as well as Gordy trying to be half-way
interesting as he conducts the interview all by his lonely self! He really needed the other guys there, but...oh, well!