Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012 8:00 PM EST (7:30 PM Doors)
Marlin Room at Webster Hall
125 E. 11th Street
New York, NY 10003
MONKEY MAJIK is a Japanese-Canadian pop rock band formed in 2000 in Sendai, Japan. The band currently consists of Canadian brothers, Maynard Plant and Blaise Plant, each acting as lead vocalists and guitarists, as well as two Japanese members: tax on drums, and DICK on bass. Due to the natural blend of both Eastern and Western pop rock influences, MONKEY MAJIK has often been referred to as a “hybrid band”. The band rose to mainstream success after the 2006 success of their singles, “Fly”, and “Around the World” by binyl Records, a subsidiary of Avex Records, and collaborating with major Japanese sensations such as BENNIE K, m-flo, SEAMO and Yoshida brothers. They received much acclaim across Japan after their assisting hands-on with clean-up and rescue during the aftermath of the 2011 Thoku earthquake and tsunami. They also started up the project for reconstruction support which name is “SEND-AI(LOVE)” and still keep going to support activity now. They gave charity concerts at Osaka on July 3, and at Sendai on October 16, 2011. On October 26, 2011, they put out a new single “Headlight” has the theme of reconstruction support, and then they gave the first Taiwan concert “MONKEY MAJIK in Taiwan” with the tickets sold out with in 10 minutes. As “Goodwill(KIZUNA) Ambassadors”, the band often visits and tours throughout Canada, having performed a special acoustic session in Toronto and Ottawa under this title on February, 2012. They also started the tours titled “MONKEY MAJIK JAPAN TOUR 2012” with 25 shows in 19 cities from May, 2012. They are going to put out the first song for Christmas and Best album with completed lyrics in English on this November. And will give the tours in Hongkong, Taiwan, Canada, United States, then the 3rd charity concert “SEND-AI(LOVE)” in Tokyo on this December. Don’t take your eyes off their extended and continuous activity from now on.
Ryoichiro was born in 1977 and Kenichi in 1979. From Hokkaido,they both took up the shamisen at age five and in 1990 became students of the 1st
Takashi Sasaki. They subsequently won various prizes at Tsugaru shamisen competitions around the country. In 1999 they put out their debut album,
『Ibuki』. They followed up their debut with a series of albums,『Move』in 2000,『Soulful』in 2002,『Frontier』in 2003 and『Renaissance』in 2004,
『YOSHIDA BROTHERS』in 2005,『HISHOU』in 2006.They won the Album of the Year Award for traditional Japanese music at the 15th Japan Gold Disc Awards,and at the 17th Japan Gold Disc Awards they received a special prize commemorating the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China. The brothers tirelessly tour the country,having performed over 700 shows in the seven years since their debut. In 2003 they debuted in the U.S. with the album『Yoshida Brothers』,and they released『Yoshida BrothersⅡ』in 2004,『Yoshida BrothersⅢ』in 2006. They Released a new album in April 2007(Japan),in February 2007(U.S.) and launched a concert tour(U.S. & Japan). In Asia(Korea/Hong Kong) as well,the brothers put out an album in 2004/2006 and performed a concert. They also had concert in Barcelona and Madrid(Spain) In 2006. The brothers toured in the US and Canada, and had 15 shows in 10 cities in May 2008, and launched their first Oceania tour in New Zealand and Fiji in November 2008. Their new album “Prism” was released in Japan in January 2009,and toured the US and Canada in 2009 and 2010. In 2012, they released『Yoshida Brothers: Best』, their first best album in Japan.
For more info, please visit http://www.ticketweb.com/