Philip Brasor - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Feb 3, 2006

From their look and sound to their history and attitude, The Magic Numbers contradict most of the conventions that define the British obsession for next-big-thing-ism; at the moment, this is best exemplified by Arctic Monkeys, who have sold more than 100,000 copies of their debut album in two weeks with...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jan 29, 2006

Sifting through the geeks -- that's all of us -- to identify the perverts

Less than a week after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki on Jan. 17, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia had not only recorded the ruling in its entry on Miyazaki, but had added an incisive note. When the Miyazaki case was dominating the headlines in 1989, he...

CULTURE / Music

Jan 27, 2006

Minus the Bear

Striving to put the "alternative" back into rock, the Seattle five-piece Minus the Bear have fostered a substantial cult with only two albums and a handful of EPs over six years.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jan 22, 2006

Flag-makers aren't the only beneficiaries of patriotism in sport

Tabloids utilize a clever kind of shorthand for their headlines in order to fix the attention of people as they pass by news-stands. My favorite one recently was a Nikkan Gendai header announcing "Ichiro's abnormal enthusiasm for WBC."

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jan 15, 2006

NHK has a public duty so how about free streaming from its library?

Since last August the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB) has been running a nationwide TV ad campaign to promote television commercials.

CULTURE / Music

Jan 13, 2006

Fed up with chanson

At a performance early in December at Tokyo's L'Institut Francais, two French singers -- Francoiz Breut and Jeanne Cherhal -- demonstrated different approaches to French pop for the new millennium.

CULTURE / Music

Jan 13, 2006

The Gamban 5th Anniversary

Shibuya's finest and funnest import record store, Ganban, will celebrate five years of giving pop people exactly what they want with a special all-night party Jan. 13 at the Ageha complex at Studio Coast in Shin Kiba Tokyo. Given the amount of entertainment firepower that will be filling the three venues...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jan 8, 2006

The ups and downs and ins and outs of Japan's media in 2005

* Media persons of the year: Takafumi Horie and Taizo Sugimura.

CULTURE / Music

Jan 6, 2006

Mylo

Electronic dance musicians, especially those who work alone or in pairs, usually become distinctive by design, honing a certain habitual mood (Daft Punk's kiddie disco; The Orb's creepy sensuality) into a trademark sound.

CULTURE / Music

Dec 30, 2005

Pull of the people

My album of the year was M.I.A.'s "Arular," for a number of reasons. First, it's a party album whose energy and imagination never flag. Second, it's utterly distinctive: Maya Arulpragasam's nursery-rhyme rapping style doesn't sound like anybody else's. Third, it's a work of art whose local specificity,...

CULTURE / Music

Dec 23, 2005

Medeski Martin & Wood

Medeski Martin & Wood was one of the first pure jazz groups who crossed over big time with the nascent jam band crowd in the mid-1990s. All three members -- keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood -- were fixtures on the avant-garde downtown music scene in New York in the...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Dec 18, 2005

Robotic journalists do their 'job' covering tragic deaths of girls

In a period of less than three weeks, three elementary school-age girls were recently murdered in different areas of Japan. The nature of the crimes guaranteed extensive coverage, but their occurrence in quick succession stretched the resources of the news media beyond its normal capabilities.

CULTURE / Music

Dec 16, 2005

Dropping a line and seeing what hits

The Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini is sitting in the Tokyo office of her Japanese record company, talking about an izakaya where she spent an evening. Torrini has a special affection for eateries since she grew up in a restaurant run by her Italian immigrant father in a small town outside Reykjavik....

CULTURE / Film

Dec 15, 2005

Proving it to the people

While waiting for the news conference to begin for "Sayuri" at the Imperial Hotel on Nov. 28, two Japanese women were discussing Zhang Ziyi, the Chinese actress who plays the title role of a geisha during the years leading up to and immediately following World War II.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Dec 11, 2005

If you want to build a home for the future then do it outside of Japan

Shortly after the quake-proofing scandal broke, Shukan Bunshun referred to the "hairstyle" of architect Hidetsugu Aneha as being just as much a "fabrication" (gizo) as the structural calculations he drew up for all those doomed condominiums. The joke was a telling one. Publicly exposing wig-wearers is...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Dec 4, 2005

Japan's show-biz hacks fail to raise ante 24 / 7

Last Monday was a pretty busy day for Tokyo's entertainment reporters. At 11 a.m. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, fresh from spending Thanksgiving in Pakistan, held a press conference in Shinjuku to promote their movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"; and then at 2 p.m. across town at the Imperial Hotel in Hibiya,...

CULTURE / Music

Dec 2, 2005

Junior Senior

Since 1995, Danish dance-rockers Junior Senior have been shaking up Scandinavia with their humorous blend of Prince-like funk and indie garage rock, and for the last five years they've taken Britain and the rest of Europe by storm. The effective working relationship between Jesper Mortensen and Jeppe...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Nov 27, 2005

Yoko just can't keep her hands off her John

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the death of John Lennon, who was murdered in front of his apartment building in New York City on Dec. 8, 1980. In Japan, owing to the time difference, the anniversary is Dec. 9, a day after the anniversary of that other day that will live in infamy. Recently,...

CULTURE / Music

Nov 25, 2005

Adult: "Gimmie Trouble"

As empowering as it is for bedroom music-makers, the inexpensive analog synth/drum machine methodology doesn't offer much in the way of range, and as far as pop music goes it's rarely even made it to the living room. Adult., an electronica duo from Detroit, added a guitarist last year and though Sam...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Nov 20, 2005

Getting hitched and escaping from the Imperial self-preservation society

Ever since it was revealed more than a year ago that Princess Nori would marry civil servant Yoshiki Kuroda, the media have expressed mild concern about her future as a commoner, implying that it might be difficult for her to adjust to life in the real world.

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