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December 22, 2024
 

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Simon Bartz
CULTURE / Music
Jun 13, 2008
Lee "Scratch" Perry "The Mighty Upsetter"
British dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood says in the press release for "The Mighty Upsetter" that it is Lee "Scratch" Perry's best album in decades — and it's hard to disagree with him. They key factor in its success is that notorious nutcase Perry (playing at Fuji Rock Festival this year, as is Adrian...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 6, 2008
Monster mash
Explosion, the livehouse in Kagurazaka, central Tokyo, must have been named with nights like this in mind. Billy Trash, who's covered in blood, has discarded his double bass and stripped to his tiny, gonad-garroting Batman underpants. He charges into the crowd, pouring water over his head, then smothers...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
May 16, 2008
Into the Land of the Dead
Second of two parts
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
May 9, 2008
Green and to the heart of the matter
First of two parts
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 25, 2008
Set the controls to quirk factor 10
After listening to Tokyo Pinsalocks' brilliant new minialbum "Planet Rita," it's frightening to think that the trio — bassist Hisayo, singer Naoko and drummer Reiko — almost sold their soul to the devil, and not the rock 'n' roll one at that, which would be cool. No, in a bid to get famous they almost...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Apr 18, 2008
Salvation sought in Sendai
Second of two parts
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008
Dreams of the 'One-Eyed Dragon'
As usual, I check into the Sendai City Hotel on Bansui Dori, one of the best deals in town: It sits on the edge of the Kokubuncho entertainment district, has a Christian church opposite for easy penance if things get out of hand, and newly-refurbished single rooms start from a comfortable ¥3,500. The...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 30, 2007
Gallows "Orchestra of Wolves"
"Mayday, Mayday/The captain lost control again/The f***ing ship is breaking up/We're going down in flames" is from Gallows' "Abandon Ship.' The catchy, brain- gnawing melody is catapulted into hardcore heaven by Frank Carter's ferocious vocal assault. Maybe he's shouting about the ailing U.K. music scene,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 16, 2007
Kyoto's Ultra-man in bedroom revolution
"Shotgun Blues" is the latest track off Hidenori Fujiwara's turbo-charged musical conveyor-belt of rock 'n' roll madness, and it's a blast of bluesy punk that sounds like Kings of Leon being chain-whipped by Iggy Pop in a dark alley.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 14, 2007
Got the Biwa blues
This is the second part of a two-part story on a trip to Lake Biwa and its environs in Shiga Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 31, 2007
A great escape to Biwako
Jasmine, a writer who hails from Hiroshima and is much older than me but has a refined magnetizing beauty that cannot be ignored, pours me a cup of green tea on my first ever junket. It's just before the world turns blue; just before I'm dropped into a Marc Chagall painting by an invisible but all-seeing...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 24, 2007
Peter Doherty "The Books of Albion"
"When she wakes up in the morning she writes down all her dreams/Reads like the Book of Revelations or the Beano or the unabridged Ulysses." Lyrics from "What a Waster" by The Libertines — the most original and vital British band since The Smiths. "The Books of Albion" is a fascinating joyride through...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 27, 2007
Nokemono "Nokemono"
Kyoto four-piece Nokemono are more rock 'n' roll than having Pete Doherty slipping a needle into your eyeball while you're tied naked to a lamppost in Shinjuku's Golden Gai district and painted pink by a supermodel.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007
Soundtrack of the summer: Muse
Muse are regularly regaled as one of the best live acts in Britain. They put on flabbergasting shows — including fireworks with more explosive power than a battery of North Korean ballistic missiles, space-pod drum risers straight out of "Star Wars," stuff like that — and all of the theatrics are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 1, 2007
On the lamb in Amsterdam
The band plays. And they rock. They've got two guitarists — that's not new. And two drummers, which is pretty cool.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 27, 2007
Melt-Banana take aim again
'It was my first time to kill so it affected me a lot," says Melt-Banana's vocalist Yako, before breaking into a cackle befitting a Shakespearean witch. "But it wasn't a cute bambi. It was a big deer. You told us about (the Sex Pistols song) 'Who Killed Bambi.' It's you who made us keep thinking about...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 5, 2007
Planet of the apes
The hottest band of the moment tells The Japan Times about their new album, shunning the file-sharing trend that shot them to fame -- and drawing an ordinary paycheck to keep their heads straight
MULTIMEDIA
Feb 2, 2007
This one's for Billy
"Rock 'n' roll is scary. Rock 'n' roll can make a person die. Rock 'n' roll may kill," says Seiji, aka Guitar Wolf, last Sunday. And he knows all about that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 19, 2007
Interview with some vampires
Thwack! Fists are flying. Is Faris "Rotter" Badwan about to take another one on the chin? The Horrors' singer has been punched on a London street by a thuggish chav who took offense at his Victorian dandy look and he's also been attacked on stage at a Halloween gig in New York. And now the eminently...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2006
Noel Gallagher plays MySpace Japan show
Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer of Oasis played a semi-acoustic show at Ebisu Liquid Room Wednesday night as part of the launch of MySpace Japan, a Japanese-language version of the popular social-networking Web site. The two guitarists ran through Oasis classics including "Talk Tonight" and "Wonderwall"...
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
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.
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.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
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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