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August 15, 2024
 

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Jason Jenkins

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Jason Jenkins
Jason spent 13 years in Tokyo writing about cameras, parenting and the arts. In 2013 he left to travel, homeschooling his kids in Spain, Mexico and Southeast Asia before moving back to Japan in 2019.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2005
The lights, guitars, action of Go! Team
Film commonly relies on music to add emotional impact. However, with The Go! Team, who hail from Brighton, England, it works the other way around. Early singles were flush with action and near-cinematic thrills, all guitar squalls and percussive thrust, with soaring horn lines that burst through your...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 26, 2005
Art Brut: "Bang Bang Rock & Roll"
Vocalist Eddie Argos can't sing. His band, Art Brut, prove more tuneful, but none of this matters on "Bang Bang Rock & Roll,' the London quintet's fantastic debut album. Instead of singing, Argos simply raises his voice, rambling with the articulate, impulse-driven zeal of someone who planned to use...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 5, 2005
Yo La Tengo: the band next door
Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley are a nice, mellow couple in their mid-40s from Hobokken, N.J. They like homemade peach pie, watching TV and going to the occasional baseball game. Oh, and they also founded one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the last decade, Yo La Tengo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 24, 2005
Canadian indie scene keeps it together
...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2005
Out Hud: "Let us Never Speak of it Again"
A trillion watts. They mention it more than once, so I'm guessing that's what electro-rock collective, Out Hud, wants to get their hands on. They could certainly put it to use. Their nearly indescribable 2002 LP, "S.T.R.E.E.T.D.A.D.," was a gargantuan, Frankenstein-like creature composed of punk, post-rock,...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2005
LCD Soundsystem
James Murphy wants it both ways. A walking encyclopedia of the underground scene, he loathes the narcissism and one-upmanship common among record-shop insiders. His NYC label, DFA, produced some of the most infectious dance singles of the decade thus far, yet Murphy turns down remixing work from Duran...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 16, 2005
Sisters gonna work it out
There was a time when radio in the United States was full of surprises -- a time when catchy, clever tunes were just a turn of the dial away. Pop music carried less baggage then, before marketing and demographics moved in and warped station programming into socio-economic formulas.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 6, 2005
Death From Above 1979
An elephant in your living room. Ask rhythm and metal duo Death From Above 1979 to describe their music, and that's a common response. Indeed, the massive sound of their debut LP, "You're a Woman, I'm a Machine" is sure to scrape the walls and shatter furniture -- that is, if you can fit it through the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2005
Interpol well suited for success after all
Image isn't everything. If it was, then the New York four-piece known as Interpol would have already become one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. While their tailored suits and runway-ready haircuts have brought them plenty of press, the band is actually earning recognition the old-fashioned way,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 16, 2005
Diplo throws funky DIY marketing into the mix
"The goal is to expose the artist." Wesley Pentz is on the phone from Hawaii, explaining how he publicizes up-and-coming hip-hop talent. "It's basically putting promotion and marketing in your own hands," he explains. Contrary to what you may think, Pentz is not a record executive; he's a DJ with a passion...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 9, 2005
The Faint
Todd Baechle needs help. Ever since his band, The Faint, ditched lo-fi guitars for synths and strobes, his lyrics have spiraled into misanthropic tales of paranoia and sexual frustration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2004
Rock 'n' roll that survived the trip
By the time the term "cover song" entered the English lexicon in the mid-1960s, the practice of one artist playing the work of another was as ubiquitous on the pop charts as it was onstage. Some covers were respectful tributes, others opportunistic rip-offs. Another category could be called language...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2004
Kodo
Taiko ensemble, Kodo, know how to take the show on the road: according to their newsletter, the troupe has performed over 2,600 concerts in 42 countries since their 1981 debut (do the math). A wellspring of fresh ideas and aspiring young talent help explain why they grow stronger, year after year, but...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2004
You put a spell on us
"Earnest, to me, is a bad word." Dean Wareham is reclining on a cream-colored couch in the offices of P-Vine, his Japanese record label, looking over a list of adjectives a popular Web site uses to describe his band, Luna. Curious, amused and slightly wary, he skims the list, eyebrows raised, quickly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004
Howl of Los Lobos stronger than ever
For 30 years, East L.A.'s Los Lobos has made a habit of crossing borders. One look through their discography reveals the Latin rock quintet's frequent movement between Mexican folk and American R&B, with regular stops along the Mississippi for funk and blues. Recent albums have even showed a moody, experimental...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 1, 2004
Shaking it up on Sado
SADO ISLAND, Niigata Pref. -- Step one: right leg forward, left leg back.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2004
Think of One
Music and travel may be hobbies for most folks, but Belgian world-rock fusionists, Think of One, consider the two more than mere avocation. More mobile, multilingual and gregarious than a carnival sideshow, To1 have turned globetrotting into a full-time gig. Their journeys in Morroco resulted in three...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 15, 2004
Recorded: Rogue Wave: "Out of the Shadow"
Rogue Wave"Out of the Shadow" (Subpop) Indie-pop outfit, Rogue Wave, should consider themselves lucky. Ever since the Subpop label re-released their overlooked debut, Out of the Shadow, the gushing reviews keep pouring forth. Critics compare them to everyone from the Beach Boys to Elliot Smith. That's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2004
Gerling: "Bad Blood!!!"
Aussie electro-punks Gerling want it both ways: hardcore's caustic snarl with the insistent thump of disco and house. Fans of dance-punk darlings The Rapture and !!! may consider this opportunistic, but the Sydney trio have crossbred both genres for years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 21, 2004
Shake it, baby, shake it
It's not just about mosh pits and busted lips: Both Summer Sonic and Fuji Rock have plenty of rump-bouncing beats on offer. In fact, the dance-oriented acts in this year's lineups are as diverse as ever. Here are a few of the best places to shake your thang.
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.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

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