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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2008
Taico Club
Whether it's Bjork honing her vocal chops on the cliffs of Iceland or the Belleville Three birthing techno in the mean streets of 1980s Detroit, there's a certain romance to seeing music in terms of the environment in which it was created. So when Nathan Fake released his debut album "Drowning in a Sea...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 16, 2008
Jackie-O Motherfu**er
With a name like that, Jackie-O Motherf**ker is never going to be the kind of band you could take home to meet your parents.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2008
Doudou N'Diaye Rose Percussion Orchestra
To look at him, you wouldn't guess that Doudou N'Diaye Rose is pushing 80. The Senegalese master percussionist stomps and dances around the stage with an energy befitting someone a quarter his age as he conducts drum ensembles of up to 100 members.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 2, 2008
Asia
When AOR supergroup Asia came to Japan in March last year, all seven dates of their tour sold out. The excitement was, perhaps, forgivable: It had taken the band's original lineup more than 25 years to get here.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 25, 2008
Portishead "Third"
Portishead's "Dummy" was one of the defining albums of the 1990s — and one of its most ubiquitous. The band's producer, Geoff Barrow, made little attempt to conceal his disgust when the record was reduced to providing a soundtrack to fashionable dinner parties and coffee shops throughout the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2008
Asian Dub Foundation's cracked reflection shifts the agenda
"Most world leaders have been on drugs," says Steve Chandra Savale, aka Chandrasonic, guitarist for ragga-breakbeat-punk collective Asian Dub Foundation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2008
Shake Forward! 2008
Hip-hop may have lost its way in the United States, stuck in a cul-de-sac of bling and booty cliches, but in other parts of the world it's grown legs and started popping. No more so than among minority communities, who've seized the music and used it to give themselves the voice they never previously...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 7, 2008
Hewar
Forget the iffy politics: Syria has got some great music. It is the country of legendary oud (lute) maestro Farid Al-Atrash as well as Sabah Fakhri, an iron-larynxed singer who for many years held the world record for the longest uninterrupted vocal performance (10 hours). More recently, the likes of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 29, 2008
Shomyo no Kai
Shomyo got off to a good start in Japan. The first documented performance of this form of Buddhist sutra chanting, originally from India, was before an audience of 10,000 monks and priests at Nara's Todaiji Temple in 752.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 15, 2008
Yasunao Tone, Sachiko M and Yoshihide Otomo
Yasunao Tone makes the kind of music that hi-fi buffs have nightmares about. The septuagenarian composer and sound artist has spent the past two decades pushing digital audio equipment to its limit and reveling in the wonky results.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2008
Arcade Fire: 'a goofy bunch of people'
They're a funny bunch, Arcade Fire. Last year saw the Montreal-based band graduate from indie darlings to arena stars touring North America and sharing a stage with Bruce Springsteen and U2. Their second album, "Neon Bible," entered the Billboard chart at No. 2 last March and has since sold upward of...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 18, 2008
Boredoms "Live at Sun Flancisco"
Boredoms (or V ∞ redoms, as they're confusingly billed in their home country) preside over a haphazard patchwork of a discography. For every official album, there's a slew of EPs, remixes and side projects, chronicling in detail the Osaka group's evolution from schizoid noise punks to ecstatic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 17, 2008
Gilberto wavers from the family script
Her albums of sultry, sunny bossa nova and pop have beguiled and seduced millions of listeners. But, woken by The Japan Times after a meager few hours' sleep, Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto is struggling to put on a brave face.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 16, 2007
A one-time hardcore polemicist changes his tune
Alec Empire has never been the kind of guy you'd take home to meet your mother. While other musicians played at being scary, he was the real deal: dour, fiercely political and forever unwilling to let a good time get in the way of some antifascist polemic and white noise.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 15, 2007
A big noise about what?
'I think the best pop is always subversive in its nature," says James Righton over the phone from London a few days after his band Klaxons beat the bookies' odds to win the Mercury Music Prize, a major award that gives $40,000 to the "best" British or Irish album of the year. "Even things like Abba...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 8, 2007
Underworld outside their comfort zone
Call it a midlife crisis. Five years ago, Underworld's Karl Hyde and Rick Smith — then aged 45 and 43, respectively — took stock of their careers and realized a change was due.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 8, 2007
Dub and dope: Weatherall's weird science
He's been a key mover in every dance genre from acid house to techno and indie disco. But if you really want to know what gets DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall out of bed in the morning, it's a rather different type of music.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2007
Sherwood: 'Ari Up is a genuine one-off'
Joining The Slits on their Japan tour will be producer Adrian Sherwood. One of the key figures on the British reggae scene for the last 30 years, Sherwood has most recently been working on new Primal Scream and Lee "Scratch" Perry material, while some of his past credits include New Age Steppers (who...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2007
Devendra Banhart "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon"
Much like 2005's "Cripple Crow," Devendra Banhart's latest album is probably best tackled in small doses. With 16 tracks spread over 70 minutes, it's an unfocused affair that finds the shaggy troubadour moving ever further from the acoustic folk of his breakout record, "Rejoicing in the Hands."
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2007
PJ Harvey "White Chalk"
From blues punk to Brechtian chanteuse, FM-friendly femme- rocker to feral screecher: Polly Jean Harvey has been many things during her career. All the same, "White Chalk" is a real curveball.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
Amid same-sex marriage ban, LGBTQ couples opt for 'photo weddings'
A lesbian couple, consisting of a 35-year-old woman (left) and 40-year-old woman, cover their faces with bouquets as they pose for wedding photos in Yokohama on Nov. 1.
China and Russia conduct joint Pacific military patrol
The Russian corvette Gromkiy enters the Chinese port of Zhanjiang as part of a joint China-Russia naval exercise on Saturday.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.
How to tweak your diet when temperatures spike
Most people think of hydration as a strictly liquid-based concept, but eating foods with high water content is an essential part of making it through a Japanese summer unscathed.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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