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December 23, 2024
 

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Simon Bartz
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 4, 2003
How to become a musical genius without trying
On the surface, you might think British techno animal Aphex Twin and Tokyo rock anarchists Bossston Cruising Mania have little in common. I mean, the one twiddles knobs while the other bunch plucks strings. But you'd be wrong. Take these four things off the top of my head: 1) they have no respect for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 16, 2003
Doctors of Madness/Sister Paul
'Walls of white noise and feedback laid over speed-fueled, dumb-ass rhythm. The harmonic equivalent of bare-knuckle fighting. Sonic Porn. We set ourselves in a circle in the studio, turned down the lights and attempted to blow each other off the face of the Earth." So said Richard Strange, singer and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 9, 2003
Compilation: "Spirit of the Blues"
The title "Spirit of the Blues" is not misleading, but it may be perceived as such. The key word here is "spirit" and so if you're a blues purist who insists on 12-bar progressions and what not, then forget it. This 17-track compilation album of Japanese artists is a chaotic mess and all the better for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 6, 2003
Rock with a nasty bite
"What the hell happened to the Cobra Chicks?" I say, slapping last year's "Loaded" album onto the cafe table. Four rock chicks stare up at me from the CD jacket pulling pouty poses so effortlessly steamy that only a eunuch or a nun could resist dashing off to snap up a ticket for the next show.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 2, 2003
Whatever you do, don't call them . . .
It's not every day that someone threatens to kill you. My mistake is to suggest to Asian Dub Foundation bassist Dr. Das that the new album, "Enemy of the Enemy," suggests ADF are moving in a more chilled-out eclectic direction.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 2, 2003
Getting a word in edgewise with Howling Guitar
"This is my 1958 Gibson LP-Jr. You know that Johnny Thunders played the same model. This guitar is my life and if it dies I would like to give it an honorable burial. But . . . I hope we get buried together."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 5, 2003
Rock 'n' roll that's as good as it gets
OK, the best album of 2002 goes to a bunch of teenage upstarts from Merseyside, England, but the place to be was underground in Japan. Veterans Shonen Knife and Guitar Wolf delivered their best albums to date, Salt Water Taffy and All Tomorrow's Party kick-started the indie-guitar revival with heart-melting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Dec 1, 2002
Drop-dead cool bands percolating in Tokyo's underground
The things I first heard about Marble Sheep really sounded baaad, and I don't mean BAD in an irreverently cool Iggy Pop or Keith Richards kind of way.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 20, 2002
"Captain Trip Records Sampler Vol. 1"
The fact that major record labels in Japan fail to tap the wealth of excellent underground bands undoubtedly irks a lot of these groups who -- with live, recording and practice schedules to keep -- cannot take up salaried jobs and instead have to work arubaito on a permanent basis. They carry on with...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 3, 2002
Joy and pain falling in love again
"We're girls too nasty/We're girls too hot/We're punky girls so you can't stop us.'' Complete lyrics to Anadorei's 40-second-long "Girls Anthem"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 30, 2002
Salt Water Taffy
"We don't really have any band that we're influenced by, but I guess we all like to listen to any bands that you can tell were inspired by The Beatles ..." OK, stop that quote right there! Iris, singer and guitarist with new Tokyo band Salt Water Taffy, has name-dropped The Beatles and, um, that's boring....
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 23, 2002
Deedees: "D.D.R.P."
It's not Ryo, it's Rio, and the name doesn't really suit him. It's sounds a little too exotic for a squat Japanese bloke covered with scary tattoos and sporting a skinhead haircut.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 6, 2002
Asagiri Jam keeps it real
"Are we all going to wake up dead tomorrow?" asks my pal Dave as our taxi crawls up a steep, winding road on a fog-drenched mountain.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Sep 1, 2002
Losers sometimes prosper
There are two grown men on my futon playing with dolls, and I'm standing above them taking photos. We're all dripping in sweat, and I'm hoping my girlfriend doesn't suddenly come home and catch us at it. She might get the wrong idea.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 25, 2002
When dinosaurs ruled Chiba
At Summer Sonic last weekend, you could be excused for thinking that you'd mistakenly wandered into the dinosaur exhibition taking place nearby rather than a music festival. The Jurassic Park of musical talent on display included Guns 'N Roses, Hanoi Rocks, Siouxsie & the Banshees and Morrissey, and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 24, 2002
The Parkinsons: 'A Long Way to Nowhere'
A bunch of drug-addled punk rockers kick down your front door, charge in flailing guitars above their heads, smash everything in sight and then run out onto the balcony screaming their heads off before jumping to their deaths eight floors below.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 7, 2002
And the beat goes on
After locking myself in the garage for ages, banging my head against the wall and screaming the merits of the latest Japanese band that sounds remotely like Stooges brawling with MC5 in a wind tunnel, it seems logical to kind of get away from it all -- open that door, stroll outside for some fresh air,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 5, 2002
Billy Childish: cool way before your time
Being dyslexic hasn't stopped Billy Childish from writing two novels and 30 volumes of poetry. Being tone-deaf hasn't stopped him from singing in a bunch of garage bands. And his determination to do things his own way without giving a damn about being ignored by the mainstream has made him into an icon...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 5, 2002
Raw power
The singer's name is Baba and he's the Japanese Iggy Pop -- when he was young and spritely. Baba's just smashed his head into a speaker, and blood from his nose splashes over the kids spilling onto the stage at a packed Shinjuku live house. In return, they offer him a similar rock 'n' roll sacrament...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 2, 2002
Still tastes like Shonen spirit
Raspberry rock? Pineapple pop? Just plain old vanilla? Osaka-based all-girl band Shonen Knife -- age 21 this year -- haven't been flavor of the month for many a moon.
Bankruptcies and suicides rise as Japanese struggle with mounting debt
Lawyers estimate that personal bankruptcies in Japan are on track to reach the highest since 2012 this year.
Honda and Nissan consider mutual production of vehicles, report says
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 at Tokyo Big Sight in October 2023.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

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