Unkie and Tokie related info:
as I mentioned above, Unkie's 3rd "Devil's ride" (2011) is basically unavailable. They only made 9,000 copies and were all sold out through pre-order. Its upsetting to me, because the album seemed pretty awesome:
official video/samples
http://youtu.be/FjLTisTDmzw
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Their second album "Too Many Secrets" was recorded in Chicago and produced by Steve Albini of Nirvana Fame. Its an ok album. In my opinion, its the worst production of all their albums and many of the songs don't seem as
complete or fleshed out as usual.
Single/music video for that album:
"blink"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzACyIzTeU8
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Unkie's first album is called "The Price of Fame". It is very good and widely available for import. I also think there are some domestic U.S. sellers on Amazon that carry it.
The band initially was meant to be a one-off, having only planned a single live performance, after friendly jamming. They were encouraged to stay together and this album is the result:
here is the single/music video "Tecaba":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IBwZvUqqi8
FYI, Unkie tends to pick their least complex songs for their singles.
here are two more songs from that album:
"Love Addict":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxXHy1o-20c
"Butterfly" (I have posted this song on TB in the past):
https://soundcloud.com/toptube/09-butterfly
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Unkie has two songs released individually, some time after their second album. They are pretty good songs. Though I'm not sure how someone who isn't a big fan already, would react to them. They are however, available digitally on Amazon and I assume iTunes, as well.
But Still Beginning
http://www.amazon.com/But-Still-Begi...till+beginning
Save It
http://www.amazon.com/Save-It-unkie/...=unkie+save+it
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A little bit more info about Tokie and her gear
For electric Bass, Tokie currently prefers Jazz basses. She has a genuine '63 Jazz bass in some variation of Red. I'm pretty sure she used it exclusively, for the electric bass work on their first album.
She also has another Fender Jazz, the model/year of which I do not know. Its a darker blue color, has blocks. I know for sure it was used during the recording of Unkie's third album. It was also used with her previous band "Losalios" (another super group).
Tokie also has a Sadowsky jazz bass, the model of which I am unsure. Its some kind of red. I'm pretty sure it was used for song or two, during the recording of Unkie's third album.
And her most recent addition is a Surf Green Lakland, which debuted in their new music video.
I asked her on twitter what her favorite strings are for an electric Jazz bass and she said she prefers Elixirs.
For electric bass amplification, she used to use an Eden WT550 amp head. I cannot remember the cabs she paired with it (they weren't Eden cabs).
After that she was some kind of large ampeg setup.
She now uses one of the new Fender Bassman pro series. Its a big one. Here's a pic of her first testing it out, with a loaner bass from the Fender Custom shop:
http://www.fender.jp/blog/artist/001107.php
Tokie also plays double bass. Her official site doesn't seem to have a link to her gear anymore and I cannot remember what her own double bass is. She doesn't use it so often. She has also borrowed many, for recording and performance purposes.
She also uses some kind of electric upright bass. Again, I cannot remember what it is, but here are a couple of pics of it:
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/53486111.jpg http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/clammbon0...0/4044858e.jpg
For rock type music, she usually uses this thing live and in recording, for double bass/upright tones.
For amplification of the electric upright, she uses some kind of "AER" brand combo amp
http://ameblo.jp/tokie4strings/entry-11515032152.html
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Tokie's previous band "Losalios" was another supergroup that would probably be well liked, here. For now, I'm not going to do a big post on them. But:
The two key members were Drummer Tatsuya Nakamura and Bassist Tokie. Guitarist Takashi Kato was also a staple member. Losalios also had musicians of other instruments at various times.
here are two live clips I put on facebook a long time ago:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...54504905144564 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...67553431252297
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here is a song from experimental hip-hop group "Uhnellys", in which Tokie plays upright (she also produced the album to which this song belongs):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4I9wR4DNwg
Glad, there are people here that like her.
