Viva La Revolution.

Viva La Revolution by Dragon Ash is probably my all-time favorite album. I'm tempted to call it the best I've ever heard, but there are so many others that I could say the same about, so I'll just stick with it being my favorite. After the little introduction to how I got the album, I started playing it so I can remember exactly how I felt hearing everything for the first time, track by track. This is a pretty long entry, since I typed it over the span of about an hour. So unless you've never heard about Dragon Ash, but are interested, I can't recommend reading this because it'll get boring.

I first got the album after a then-girlfriend of mine and I were talking about who we listened to. She brought up Dragon Ash since she had moved here from Japan, and they had just hit it big over there. Like most guys who try to impress those they like, I lied and said I did. She got excited and asked if I had their newest album, Viva La Revolution. I said "sure!" and she bugged me about borrowing it for the rest of the day. I told her she could borrow it the following weekend, which gave me a week to find the damn thing. Luckily, this was 2000 and there were still record stores around. I hit up Tower Records in Beaverton since they had an import section, and low and behold, there it was: Viva La Revolution. It was 40 bucks! Holy shit! The most I ever paid for a cd at that point was $20 for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness! But this cd was going to get me bonus points, so I bit and bought it. 'couldn't back out at that point.

On the way home, I checked out the cd's booklet and saw that about half of the songs were in English. At this point in time, my Japanese language skills were ok, but not great, so this was good news. But it doesn't matter if you know what a foreign band is saying if the music's good, of course. Anyway, looking over the band members, I thought that these were going to be the baddest dudes around. All 4 members were in sharp suits, and two of them had sunglasses. The other had a nice chain and the last member had braids and a fake mustache. I had no idea what I was getting into, especially looking over some of the lyrics. What were these guys going to sound like? It said on the last page that there was a singer/guitarist, a bassist, a drummer and a DJ. Remember that this was 2000 and there were many bands that had that line-up. Most of which were yucky rap/rock. Was I going to like any of these tracks? Did I just waste $40?

I got home and put the cd in my stereo, and just laid on my bed with headphones on. Back then, whenever I got a new album, I'd have to be alone and with no distractions so I could fully appreciate the music without interruptions in order to make a verdict. I hit |>.

HORNS!

The cd started out with horns blaring and a viking-like drum beat. It was called "Intro". Ok, gotcha. Maybe these guys have some classical music sampled by the DJ and...whatthehell, hip hop beats? The DJ started scratching. I was confused.

Then someone said something. "EVERYBODY SING ALONG, NOW COME ON NOW". After the sampled intro to the next track, Communication, this simple bass riff kicked in: dun, dun-dun. Dun, dun-dun. A few guys were singing the chrous, and then a rap started while a hip hop drum beat played. Ok, so these guys are rap? Alright. I hadn't started to like rap much back then, but I didn't hate it. So I went with everything. The track had a really scratchy sound to it for the most part, and a bunch of English words were in the mostly Japanese rap. Weird. What had I gotten myself into? In the middle of a track, there was another sample, but it was a soothing little bit, then it went back to the main track. What the hell was going on? I hadn't heard anything like this before, and this was after listening to tons of BucketHead albums for the last 2 years.

The next track, Rock The Beat, started with more samples of people talking before a flute started playing over the rest of the track that was mostly drums and scratching. Kenji, the singer/rapper, started up sounding a little less angry than he did on the previous track. This one really reminded me of the Beastie Boys, and I wondered if they were one of Dragon Ash's influences.

Being impatient back then, I couldn't take much more rapping and skipped over to the next track, Humanity (Album Version). More samples and scratching. Great. All of a sudden, this slap and pop bass line started. Where'd that come from? I had just heard 2 simple riffs on the last 2 tracks, and now the bassist started to do cool things? I skipped to the next track, Attention.

Attention along is what got me to like the album, and give the first few songs another chance. This track is such a party/night track that it's ridiculous. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please" is the first thing you hear and then this incredibly rad slap bass riff plays. That riff right there is responsible for making me lose interest in guitar and switching over to bass. Ikuzo Baba had tricked me on those first few tracks! Now he's playing a line over and over that would've worn out my thumb in no time if I tried to play it back then. But the rest of the track kicked ass too. Kenji delivered a smooth rap that I can recite word-for-word, even if I only know what the first verse means. A sample plays in the back for the majority of the track: "Kick that gangsta shit, come on! We gotta kick that gangsta shit, come on!". It could've gotten annoying if I hadn't given in and started liking these guys right then, but I was soon singing along to that line. When the track ended, I actually got sad because this is the kind of track that could go on for a few more minutes and I'd be happy.

Following that is Let Yourself Go, Let Myself Go. It was another basic rap like the first 2 songs, but had some soft singing thrown in too, as well as an acoustic guitar. What was with these guys? It's like they knew how to blend instruments with turntables or something! I hadn't heard that done before. Eventhough Attention got me to keep listening, I started to really listen to the tracks, and stopped worrying about figuring out what they were about or trying to do. These guys were musicians. No, they were artists.

When LYG, LMG stopped, the album did a complete turn. Dark Cherries, a song about snowboarding, went along with a simple acoustic riff and drum samples. There was bass and regular drums too, as on -every- track on here, but they took a back seat to let the song go more softly. It's weird, only typing this up right now do I notice that the album makes an extra transition. I knew it went from rap to rock, but it went from rap to lighter hip hop to rock, like it didn't just suddenly change completely. I never noticed that LYG, LMG served as another transition. Kenji's singing voice sounds a lot different than he did while rapping. But Dark Cherries was the first all-English song, and I can admit to this day that it may sound a bit Engrish-y to some people, but it's still a nice song. Someone really needs to play this song over some nice, slow snowboard footage.

At this point, I didn't know what to expect. What were these guys going to do next? They had already done a nice orchastrated intro, a rap opening number, rough hip hop, a bad-ass party song, a softer paced rap, acoustic and...

OH HOLY SHIT WHERE DID THIS COME FROM??????

Drugs Can't Kill Teens begins with a sample voice saying "Who this?" (I think), then a soft, high-note bass line. Maybe this was going to be a love song, or at least a softer track than Dark Cherries was? NOPE. Rock guitar, rock bass and rock drums come like a bat out of Guantanamo Bay. I had to turn the sound down after I recovered from the surprise. These guys could play -loud-! I think this is the track that really shows how well each guy can play their instrument without overshadowing the others. Kenji on guitar shreds while Baba can be heard perfectly without any overlap. Makoto, the drummer, is right there with them, and DJ Bots plays cool background voice samples. Dude, this track...I think anyone who likes rock could get into this. Kenji isn't screaming the lyrics, but singing loud while still being gentle. It's great.

I love it when a band plays through to the next song on an album, like there's no break between them. Once they finish one track and the instruments are still ringing, they start the next one. That's exactly what Dragon Ash did after Drugs and into Just I'll Say, one of my favorite songs of theirs. It's a softer track, but again, all instruments blend flawlessly. I LOVE Baba's bass riff that plays through the whole track and only finally figured out how to play it last year. He goes simple again, after playing that fast paced line on the last track, but it still rules. And Kenji's guitar work goes a little Ska. Yet it works. This is a love song that, while upbeat, has some kinda sad lyrics if you look them up. After listening to this, I made it my goal to play this at a talent show or something. That never happend, but hey, maybe when my brother's in highschool I could get him to see about it. I call bass!

Fool Around is a bit more punk, I guess. I don't listen to any punk music aside from Bad Religion because it doesn't interest me, but this sounds like a few ponk (pop/punk) songs I'd heard on the radio back then. I sound like a broken record, but just like the last 2 songs, everything blends. This was such breath of fresh air for me, since most of my friends who'd lent me albums of bands they liked...you could barely tell if they had a bassist, or what the drummer was doing, or if they had 2 guitarists or 1. Fool Around is nice because it reminds me of something you could see playing during footage from the X-Games or something. I love Makoto's drumming during the chorus. It still amazes me that he usually does most of the backing vocals while playing. The only other band I'd known at that point to do that was 3 Doors Down, but even then, their drummer was the lead singer I think.

Now we got a bit slower- Freedom Of Expression. It starts out gentle and stays that way, but after the opening verse, we go from single string playing to full rock chords. This is a pretty inspiring track, even if it isn't exactly deep. Kenji says it simple- he loves hip hop and rock 'n' roll. So what if he's Japanese? No matter what happens, he'll be playing music. When in love, if things go bad, if he's successful and set, anything. Side note- this is the first song (by a band or singer) I ever sang to Kairi when she was a baby. I think it was when she was 4 or 5 months, and when I sang the chorus, she started laughing. It was so cute!

Nouvelle Vague #2 is kind of a break track. It's bass, drums and samples. Most people skip over these kind of tracks, but by this point, anything the band did was fine with me, and it still is. Years later, it's good to see that DA still does tracks like this on their albums. This one's slow, and I picture a dark, empty city or an alley while it's raining.

Viva La Revolution, the title track, is probably my least listened to track on the album. Back then I didn't care for it after all those rockin' songs, and now I think it could've been placed higher on the play list, but it's ok. I'll say it now- I tend to listen to the full cd in its entirety whenever I can, but if I'm short on time, I do skip this one. This goes back to the rapping and samples, but is much different than the others. It's hard to explain this number. It begins with a sample I've heard so many times before (and after), most notably in Jet Grind Radio for Dreamcast. The little voice saying "VIVA! VIVA! LA REVOLUTION!" over and over. Is that from a movie or something? Kenji raps and sings at the asme time here, and sounds good doing so.

Grateful Days though, wow. This is the band's main hit that made them icons in Japan, and if you've seen clips of them playing this live, you'll see why. Everyone in the crowd goes NUTS when it starts. This track features Japanese hip hop legend Zeebra, so that just cements why this song is a big deal. DJ Bots samples The Smashing Pumpkins' dainty guitar work from Today, but the song by Kenji and Zeebra is the complete opposite of what Corgan sang on the original. This song made me feel different than all the others, even if it's not one of my favorites on here (don't get me wrong, I still love it). Some of the lines are just genuinely sad.

Finally is the Outro, another bass/drums/DJ track but with nice moans from a woman playing over and over. But after many many minutes of nothing once it ends, there's a hidden track- Hot Cake! This sounds like something Weezer would play, only better. It's pure mid-90s rock, and remains one of my favorite songs they've done. I just want to know why they didn't make it a "real" track! I actually went and edited the mp3 of this for iTunes so there's just a few seconds between the Outro and Hot Cake, because I can't stand waiting to hear this cool song. This was another one I vowed to play at a talent show, but never did.

After the album was over, I listened to it again, and liked the first couple of songs before Attention. Then I listened to everything again. This was my album. No other since then has bumped it out of my #1 spot for top favorite. Others have come close, like Deltron 3030, Aphex Twin's Richard D. James Album, another by Dragon Ash- Independiente, and even Tom Waits' Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards couldn't do the job. Viva La Revolution, while not a perfect showcase of music by any means, is perfect for me. I still stand by my initial impression and think it may be weird for people who've never heard Dragon Ash to use this as their first alubum because it starts out with rap, and most people I know these days in-person suck when it comes to having an open mind with music. But over the years, I've gotten many people to buy this cd. Former friends, friends I don't talk to much any more, I can get most people to like Dragon Ash because of Viva La Revolution, then move on to their other work. This is one of the only bands I'd be genuinely heart broken about if they broke up or something happened to one of them. These guys are just so cool and do what they do well, that I can't ever turn on them.

Viva La Revolution really opened me up to other kinds of music. BucketHead did tons of that when I first got into his stuff, but that was 90% instrumental and weirdness. Dragon Ash opened me up to more rap and DJ work, and even got me wanting to play bass. To this day, Viva La Revolution is one of those few purchases that I'm glad I made.

Oh, and I did eventually let my ex borrow the album, but it took a month before I could trust her with it, haha. I didn't want anything to happen to this cd. When it got its first scratch, I freaked out and considered buying back up copies, even at $40 a disc. Of course, over time it just got worse until I imported the whole thing to my computer and didn't have to worry about it any more. I think if it weren't for that, I would've worn out the cd ages ago.

There aren't many cds I've listened to where I can say that I listen to every single track. Even Deltron 3030 isn't one of those. Viva La Revolution though, is. Even if I was trapped on a desert island with a freakin' gramophone and there was only a record with Viva's Intro, I'd be fine. Yes, even a quick opening fanfare would be enough for me. Anything from this album. But I'd prefer all the tracks.

Tracks I recommend for a good first impression:

-Attention
-Drugs Can't Kill Teens
-Just I'll Say
-Grateful Days
-...all the others, but those ones first!

And you know what? If you buy the album and don't like it, I'll buy it from you. I promise.