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August 15, 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.
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.

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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mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality
mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

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