author

 
Menu
Search
 
December 23, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

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...
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER