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August 15, 2024
 

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Simon Bartz
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Aug 5, 2001
We had joy, we had fun, our season in the sun
OK, I'm completely fugged after the Fuji Rock Festival. Fugged up, that is. Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Fuji was too much drugs, just about enough music and no sex at all. Everything in the wrong order. The usual insanity. So, I'm under a bush in the Niigata mountains, hold on, that's just a flashback,...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 25, 2001
Iggy Pop: 'Beat 'Em Up'
Iggy Pop would take two tabs of LSD before a show (to get him in "the mood") and then during a chaotic performance by his band, The Stooges, the stage would be bombarded with beer bottles from irate punters. As the acid majorly kicked in, Iggy, no longer able to stand up, would writhe on the floor screaming...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 18, 2001
The Beta Band: 'Hot Shots II'
The Beta Band is one of those cool artsy bands and if you like them then you must be pretty "cool" too. At gigs -- which are always attended by stacks of graphic designers, artists and French people -- home videos are played of band members doing really weird stuff like eating birthday cakes and falling...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 1, 2001
Underneath the sidewalk, it's anarchy
Tokyo's underground live houses are crawling with bands who refuse to play by the rules, who are willing to take musical experimentation to such extremes that they've given up all hope -- that's if they gave a toss in the first place -- of making money out of what they love most: making sounds.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 27, 2001
'Go Plastic': Squarepusher
Squarepusher is twentysomething Tom Jenkinson, a one-man band, who, armed with a bass guitar and a bunch of machines, gleefully spits in the face of musical categorization.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 20, 2001
Combat rock
At the Tokyo office of Bad Music Co., Ltd. the walls are covered in skulls and crossbones of various designs and a man in black is sitting at a table smoking strong cigarettes.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 13, 2001
O-ne
Devastating rhythm and irresistible groove are what O-ne is all about. You'd expect a band comprising of just a drummer, Akemi, and a bassist, Neita, to get back to tribal basics, but where so many have buried themselves in such raw experimentation, O-ne are shooting skyward.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 3, 2001
Bite into some music for thought
"You've got to come and see Gaji. They'll kill you," said the gig's promoter.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 23, 2001
'If You Happy With You Need Do Nothing': Alfie
In Britain, "slow-fi" (that's one of the terms being bandied about) is the new rock 'n' roll. It's a genre of music that is, yawn, perfect for dropping off to sleep to. That doesn't mean it's boring, it means it's slow acoustic guitar music made by people glued to stools who are probably majorly into...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 9, 2001
'Free All Angels': Ash
Rock music right now seems to be concentrated into two factions. On one side, you have the shouty angry Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, At The Drive In types and on the other there's Mogwai, Radiohead and a million other slow-fi bands drooling onto their fretboards. What's common to both camps is that neither...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 6, 2001
Zeni Geva, up from the earth's bowels
K.K. Null is a name that conjures up a wicked and cruel nihilistic super-villain that could kick Ultraman's butt before breakfast and polish off the X-Men before afternoon tea. It's the perfect name for a dark lord of the underground, which is exactly what he is.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 2, 2001
Low
Listening to Low's new album, "Things We Lost in the Fire," it's easy to imagine what next week's gig in Harajuku will be like: They'll be sitting on stools, wearing sensible gray sweaters and won't be smiling much.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 25, 2001
Nick Cave
Nick Cave has never been one to just "get on with life," to wander through it blind, intent on getting to the end with the least trouble. He needs to know why we are here and what happens to us when we've gone. And, like the rest of us, he'll never know, at least not in this life.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 18, 2001
Mogwai
I've made my ex-girlfriend cry a few times, but this is the first time I've been proud of it.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 11, 2001
Hang on the Box's 'Yellow Banana'
All-girl Beijing band Hang on the Box is one of the few punk rock bands right now who literally wear their credentials on their sleeves, dressing the part as well as playing the music. They wouldn't look out of place in 1976 London. It's all a bit naff, you might think. But remarkably, Hang on the Box's...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 8, 2001
Jesus Christ superstars
"We're Napalm Death and we're from Birmingham, England," vocalist Barney tells Shibuya's Club Quattro.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 1, 2001
Only rock 'n' roll, but I loathe it
If you are gagging in disgust at the thought of Fuzzy Logic from now on contaminating your Sunday with lurid tales of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll . . . fear not.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 20, 2001
Garage kings step on the gas
Gan is the chubbiest and cuddliest rock 'n' roll star around. Just look at him, almost passed out in a backstage corner with a huge cheesy grin across his fat chops like a big cartoon teddy bear, his paws clutching a jumbo bottle of beer, a reward after successfully pulling off another terrific live...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 6, 2001
High voltage rock 'n' roll
"I need oxygen," gasps singer Yuda, and there's little of that in Shimokitazawa's Yaneura live house tonight. One of the smallest venues in Tokyo is packed to the rafters to see Electric Summer, a band reaching for the stars and demonstrating they have the rocket fuel and never-say-die adventurous spirit...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 20, 2001
Tap in to Rammstein
There are Germans everywhere. You can spot them a mile off. The guys are tall with crap haircuts and the girls are blonde with long necks, and both sexes have finely chiseled features like they've just been cut out of marble. And I suddenly think of Hitler, who for all his love of Aryan perfection was...
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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