“Adult kappa often live solitary lives, although it is common for them to befriend other yōkai and even humans. Younger kappa are frequently found in family groups. They will eat almost anything, but they are particularly fond of raw innards - particularly human anuses - and cucumbers. They love mischief, martial arts like sumo wrestling, and games of skill like shogi. Kappa are proud and stubborn, but also fiercely honorable; they never break any promises that they make. Kappa possess keen intelligence and they are one of the few yōkai able to learn human languages. They are also highly knowledgeable about medicine and the art of setting bones; according to legend, these skills were first taught to humans by friendly kappa.”
Album Review by Bradley Christensen
Red Sky Mary – River Child
Record Label: Carved Records
Release Date: May 12 2015
Rock fans are some of the most annoying fans I’ve ever seen. One way they annoy me, and not just the “entitled fan” type of way, is that a lot of rock fans love to shit on hip-hop, R&B, and pop music for not being “deep enough.” They will poke every hole in the logic and meaning of the lyrics, and always get offended with how bad and stupid the lyrics are. There are two things wrong with that. One, rock music can be stupid and/or terrible (I mean, look “Pornstar Dancing” by My Darkest Days, or “Crazy Bitch” by Buckcherry for reference and good examples), and two, not everything needs to be deep, meaningful, or philosophical. Some styles of music are meant to have more focus on the instrumentation. Funk music is a good example of that. The genre has an emphasis on groove, versus melody and lyrics, but some of the best music of all time has been from funk music. Rock music has had its fair share of awful stuff, and stupid lyrics, but sometimes a band, album, or song can sound awesome for the sake of it. It doesn’t need to have a groundbreaking sound or message. It just needs to be awesome. That’s where the rock band Red Sky Mary comes into play. I love this band, as well as their latest LP, 2015’s River Child, mainly because it’s awesome. That’s it. It’s just awesome. This is a good example of an album that just sounds cool. They’re not deep, philosophical, experimental, or anything close to that, but they’re awesome. I randomly found these guys, as well as this LP, on Amazon, and it was only $5.98, or something ridiculous like that, so I had to pick it up. I gave a clip of a song a quick listen, since the digital copy was down there, too, and I really liked what I heard, so I listened to the album. This album is amazing in every way, shape, and form. It’s such a fun album. River Child is great, front to back, and I’ve been coming back to it constantly. This album has everything that a great rock album should. There are times when “guitars and stuff” is totally fine, just as long as it’s not lazy or haphazard, and it’s neither of those here.
Part of what makes this band so great is that they look to the past for inspiration. This band reminds me a lot of 70s hard-rock bands. AC/DC and Van Halen are the two that come to mind, for sure, because those bands weren’t the more intelligent, experimental, or deep, but they were fun. They were a ton of fun to listen to, whether it was for how catchy their songs were, or how riff-heavy they were. This band is the same way, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re influenced by those bands. Red Sky Mary puts more of an emphasis on “guitars and stuff,” but they have the musical chops to make it work. The songwriting is very, very good, including very catchy and slick hooks, complete with gnarly guitar solos, and their vocalist is absolutely stellar. He’s got one hell of a voice, and he pulls off the hooks with ease. The album slows down a couple of times, too, and they have more of a soulful feel to them, but they work wonders. Both of those songs are around seven minutes each, so they take up a quarter of the album, as River Child is around 42 minutes, but they work well. One of them is the title track, and it’s the closing track, but it sounds great. That one goes a bit more in the southern-rock vein, but it still has a sense of soul to it, but I really enjoy that song. A lot of the album, however, is very standard hard-rock / blues-rock, such as “Gone,” All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose,” “Too Much,” “South Of The City,” and tons more songs, but the thing is, they’re awesome. One thing I love about this album is that the songs sound pretty similar, and they’re all in the same vein, but they’re all different and memorable on their own. I know what song is which, and they don’t bleed together, which I absolutely love. I love when bands / albums do that. At the end of the day, though, this LP is pretty basic 1970s-inspired blues-rock / hard-rock, but I can see any fan of rock getting behind this, especially with how kickass the vocals and guitarwork are on this record.
I have I ever told you guys how much I love Kappa? No? Well I love them and alot of Japanese folklore and legends. Kappa is my favorite, I wish I could find a good way to draw them though.
