Tag - high-notes

 
Menu
Search
 
July 16, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

HIGH NOTES

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 10, 2002
The Music
Critical acclaim can be a fickle creature, with up-and-coming bands often drowning in their own hype. Whether because of fate, arrogance or the nature of the music industry itself, countless artists have been swatted off their pedestals by the very same writers and fans that helped place them there.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 10, 2002
Weezer
Though it's probably not their fault, Weezer are generally credited with creating rock's now passe nerd-slacker ethic: The band's catchy Ric Ocasek-produced 1993 debut album could have been titled "Songs About Beer and Masturbation." Led by rock's most reluctant star, Rivers Cuomo ("Anything real is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 10, 2002
Helicoid 0222MB
Helicoid 0222MB is a robot created and operated by three chicks from Osaka. Their ultimate goal is not to make this fantasy robot rid Japan of evil bands like Snail Ramp and Bump of Chicken, but simply to make it dance. Ho-hum.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 10, 2002
Steve Coleman: 'Resistance Is Futile'
As the leader of M-Base, a movement of young jazz players in New York City, Steve Coleman has framed all of his releases, since his first in 1985, in intriguing, if spaced-out, concepts. But he never quite painted in all the details.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 3, 2002
Reverend Horton Heat: 'Lucky 7'
Honky-tonks, hot rods and a half-dozen bottles of bourbon. Welcome to the wild and woolly world of the Reverend Horton Heat. It's been 10 years, four record labels and endless gallons of booze and premium unleaded since the good Reverend (aka Chris Heath) first introduced us to his blistering brand of...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 3, 2002
Jimi Tenor
If there's enough temporal distance between your music and that music's source influence, you may be mistaken for an original. Better yet, if you strip that influence to its basics, you can be labeled a purist. Sometimes this strategy backfires, and you get people like Tiny Tim, a minimalist throwback...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 27, 2002
Stanton Moore: 'Flyin' the Koop'
Stanton Moore has been the drummer for New Orleans' favorite funky jam band, Galactic, since the early '90s. That band earned its following the old-fashioned way, by playing hard and heavy music to make audiences groove. Moore's solo projects, however, lean more toward jazz, but without ever leaving...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 27, 2002
Pet Shop Boys: 'Release'
...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 27, 2002
O-Ne: '2624'
I ask Tokyo duo O-Ne why their long-awaited debut album is called "2624." Is that a combination of the ages of the two chicks in the band? Is that when the world's gonna finally end? Or is that the black-market price in pounds sterling for a ticket to see England whip the ass of Argentina in the upcoming...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 27, 2002
Macha: 'The Ride'
After the disbanding of their Gainesville, Fla.-based prog-rock group Emperor Moth, multi-instrumentalist brothers Joshua and Mishco Makay moved to Athens, Ga., where they formed Macha. The shift from one thriving college town to another -- and a backpacking trip through Southeast Asia -- changed their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 20, 2002
Boards of Canada: 'Geogaddi'
Electronic music isn't known for its sentimentality. However, when critics wrote about Boards of Canada's 1998 release, "Music Has the Right to Children," the word "nostalgia" was kicked around more than once. The amalgam of Vangelis-like keyboards and loops of school kids at play unearthed subconscious...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 20, 2002
Lee 'Scratch' Perry: 'Jamaican e.t.'
Lee "Scratch" Perry has been stumbling along the very fine line between eccentricity and insanity for more than 30 years, and his latest album, "Jamaican e.t.," is one of his most mind-scrambling yet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 20, 2002
Francis Lockwood: 'Jimi's Colors'
Re-thinking Jimi Hendrix in terms of an acoustic jazz piano trio would seem to be a bit of a stretch. It comes as a surprise, then, that Francis Lockwood's new release, "Jimi's Colors" -- which does just that -- works so well. On listening, however, unexpected similarities reveal themselves.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 20, 2002
Kasey Chambers: 'Barricades & Brickwalls'
Home may be where the heart is, but sometimes the voice comes from somewhere else. Whether it's Mick Jagger's Mississippi drawl or Billy Joe Armstrong's cockney pretensions, pop singers adopt accents because that's the way they imagine one sings a particular style of music. It doesn't matter that Jagger...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 13, 2002
Jad Fair: 'Words of Wisdom and Hope'
Though many consider it a dubious distinction, Jad Fair has fashioned a lasting career out of what is essentially a negative musical talent. Willfully ignorant of theory and mostly tone-deaf, Fair, first with his groundbreaking group Half Japanese and more recently as a kind of plug-in solo artist, creates...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 13, 2002
Trail of Dead: 'Source Tags & Codes'
At last year's Summersonic festival, Texas four-piece . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead gave us the best, and most incendiary, live performance Japan saw all year. They ended a phenomenal show by trashing every piece of equipment on stage -- even the drum kit was hurled into the mosh pit...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 6, 2002
The Cooper Temple Clause: 'See This Through and Leave'
Every year at the Fuji Rock Festival there comes a time when you've reached the point of sonic overload. You're searching for a place for a quiet lie-down when you stumble into a field and are aurally ambushed by a band you've never heard of that blows your head off. Last year, the psychedelic punk-rock...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 6, 2002
Ali Hassan Kuban: 'Real Nubian'
Sadly, this third international release from the godfather of Nubian soul, Ali Hassan Kuban, will be his last. Kuban died in June of last year, having spent his life singing and playing his particular brand of raw, earthy, energetic music. Fortunately, "Real Nubian" catches Kuban at the height of his...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 6, 2002
Clinic: 'Walking With Thee'
Despite the surgical masks and scrubs that the members don for publicity photos, the Liverpool art-punk quartet Clinic is fairly gimmick-free. Their up-to-the-minute DIY aesthetic -- built around melodicas rather than guitars, drum kits rather than drum machines -- places familiar musical ideas in a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 27, 2002
Soulive: 'Next'
Soulive have dug back into the '60s hard-bop era to resurrect the Hammond B-3 organ-guitar-drum trio combo. Far from being retro, though, they refurbish this jazz staple into a gleaming, hot-burning sound. They can definitely be called a "jam band," with their CDs fitting as comfortably in record stores'...
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
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.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
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.
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.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality
Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER