Philip Brasor - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Apr 2, 2003

The first thing people notice about any record is its title. "Summer Sun," the latest offering by Yo La Tengo, might appear to be a collection of bright pop singles. Indeed, the band has covered the Beach Boys in the past and always includes original pop songs on their records amid the ambient experimentation...

CULTURE / Music

Mar 30, 2003

Setting music free on the open road

While major record labels battle Internet file-sharing to preserve the sanctity of music delivery media (CDs and whatever the hell will take their place), major artists challenge their contracts and less-than-major artists avoid the "entertainment industry" altogether. The consequence of technological...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Mar 30, 2003

War in Iraq puts Ishihara on the defensive

When Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara finally announced March 7 his intention to run for re-election, some people in the media speculated that it was the end of the colorful politician-novelist's aspirations for national office.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Mar 26, 2003

Libertines

Many rock bands want you to think they work and live outside normal society. London's Libertines are no different, but in their case it's as if they've never been in normal society in the first place. Last June, they cracked the British Top 40 with "What a Waster," a short, crass song that treats drug...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Mar 23, 2003

Japan's dumb leaders fail to exercise tongues

In the weeks leading up to the invasion of Iraq, it was common for reporters throughout the world to sample public opinion about it. As journalism, man-on-the-street interviews are more or less a sideshow, since, depending on the country, they offer little of substance in terms of information. Americans,...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Mar 19, 2003

Radio 4: "Gotham"

The new dance-punk that's been coming out of Brooklyn the past year or so has mostly been produced by out-of-towners. As one of the few affordable bohemian enclaves left in New York City, the borough attracts a sizable number of fledgling rock bands looking to make names for themselves.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Mar 16, 2003

'Bogus' theme parks becoming the last resort

On Jan. 23, Tokyo Disneyland held a preview event for the media in anticipation of the park's 20th anniversary, which will be celebrated April 15. About 1,400 celebrity guests showed up trailed by 50 camera crews, all from domestic television stations, which means that most of them were from outside...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Mar 12, 2003

Califone's "Quicksand/Cradlesnakes"

'Don't give it a name," Tim Rutili croaks on "Michigan Girls," the third cut on the new album by Califone. Rutili could be talking about the band's sound, which is like the blues but isn't; which feels like the kind of country rock that the Stones and Fleetwood Mac dabbled in in the '70s, but not exactly....

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Mar 9, 2003

Yayori Matsui's legacy lives on -- as intended

Last weekend, a memorial gathering was held in Waseda for Yayori Matsui, the former Asahi Shimbun reporter and women's rights advocate, who died in December from liver cancer at the age of 68. A proper funeral service had been held two months earlier at the Shibuya church founded by Matsui's minister...

CULTURE / Music

Mar 5, 2003

Not just another pretty spaz

Singer-songwriter Rhett Miller, who is in Tokyo for a few days plugging his album "The Instigator" is feeing encouraged. "I told my manager I wanted to come back in May with a band," he says between sips of green tea at the offices of Warner Music Japan. During a solo acoustic showcase the night before...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Mar 5, 2003

Definitive Jux

When Rawkus Records and Quannum Projects were sucked into Universal's corporate black hole last year, the breadth of so-called underground hip-hop shrank considerably. Whatever such a grab means for music in general, it inadvertently boosted the street cred of the scene's most aggressively indie label,...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Mar 2, 2003

In pursuit of 'reality,' TV sinks to new depths

Last week, a judge ruled in favor of NHK in the public broadcaster's libel suit against Kodansha. The publisher's monthly magazine Gendai ran an article in Oct. 2000 that said NHK persuaded fishermen in Indonesia to re-create a method for catching fish involving explosives for a news report. The court...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Feb 26, 2003

The Go-Betweens: "Bright Yellow Bright Orange"

At a time and in a place where the jangly iconoclasm of The Smiths held sway, the off-center pop songs of the Go-Betweens should have been chart contenders, but the group's popularity never grew beyond a cult. Some attribute the cool response to the fact that they were strangers in a strange land; Aussies...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Feb 23, 2003

You can be yourself, but not be understood

Identity has as much to do with socialization as it does with the circumstances surrounding one's birth. But since gender is considered an absolute, it has become the test of a society's willingness to allow its members to identify themselves. Except for hermaphrodites, humans are either male or female,...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Feb 19, 2003

Liars: "They Threw Us In a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top"

It takes more talent than guts to defy categorization, but Liars, an art-punk quartet based in Brooklyn, has done so seemingly through sheer force of will. Out of the band's blend of angular beats, grating effects, compressed vocals, and nonlinear song structures comes a recognizable sonic manifesto...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Feb 16, 2003

Don't be too quick to jump on the bondwagon

Two weeks ago, post offices and financial institutions began taking orders for new Japanese government bonds targeted exclusively at individuals and set to go on sale March 10. Post offices immediately booked sales for all 50 billion yen worth of bonds they were entrusted with, and the remaining 280...

CULTURE / Music

Feb 16, 2003

Songs of the sorta rich and famous

Daniel Johnston is apparently napping. His father, Bill, who answers the phone, says to someone, "Tell Dan it's his interview from Japan."

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Feb 12, 2003

Kathleen Edwards: Failer

Singer-songwriters who take the confessional route run the risk of alienating listeners when they invite them into their psyches. Personality problems and moral inconsistencies are bound to be noticed. That's why so many artists hide their nakedness behind self-deprecation.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Feb 9, 2003

Yasukuni issue going to the dogs in Japan

When Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was in Moscow last month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he found he had a little time on his hands. According to reports in several weeklies, Koizumi originally planned to spend one day in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk talking to North Korean leader...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Feb 5, 2003

Fennesz

The Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz has made a name for himself in the rarefied worlds of ambient and avant-garde electronica with what could be called acoustic music, a preference that prompted one Japanese writer to describe his art as "laptop folk." Fennesz retains the clarity of his acoustic...

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