Ongakuyōbi: Shugo Tokumaru
This album actually hit the top 40 in Japan – which is great, but it would be unfathomable in the US for a record this weird to compete with Justin Bieber and 50 Cent. Tokumaru plays over 100...
View ArticleOngakuyōbi: Nobukazu Takemura
I can’t lie, Nobukazu Takemura is pretty hit or miss with me. A lot of his career is basically straight acid jazz, which isn’t my thing, but his roots are in hip hop, and his first performances were as...
View ArticleOngakuyōbi: Broken Little Sister
I’ve dealt with a lot of bands from the 1990′s, so I wanted to shift gears into more recent Japanese bands. Broken Little Sister got started in Yokohama in 2005, mixing a kind of My Bloody Valentine...
View ArticleOngakuyōbi: NikaSaya
NikaSaya is a side project from the Tennis Coats’ singer, Saya, and songwriter Nikaido Kazumi. One Summerheim is a gorgeous rainy-day record. The Tennis Coats also teamed up with the Pastels a while...
View ArticleElvis in Nakasu
So this year I went back to catch a night of the Nakasu Festival. The festival is held in Fukuoka’s red-light district, full of host and hostess clubs and worse. During the festival, women from the...
View ArticleOngakuyōbi: Guitar Wolf
This video is terrible sound quality, but it really doesn’t matter with Guitar Wolf. Trashy Rockabilly with more blow-out on their guitars than any Stooges Record, Guitar Wolf is kind of a Japanese Jon...
View ArticleOn Being a Teenage Punk in Japan
I never really had a normal idea of what punk was. Neither does Japan. The Scene After cramming five shows and three venues into a single festival ticket, I feel like I’ve had an Anthro 101 course on...
View ArticleOn Record Shopping in Hong Kong
The streets are covered in computer parts and curious Chinese lozenges. Chinese Reggae It’s 2 p.m. in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong. A man in a Mister Softee truck peddles soft serve beneath a landscape of...
View ArticleOn Getting Arrested for Dancing in Japan
There’s a fever sweeping Japan, inspiring city officials and police to crack down on the shady black market for a highly regulated industry linked to the sex industry, gambling, and even human...
View ArticleOn Law (and Order) in Japan
When I look at the Japanese justice system, I see it through the eyes of Law and Order. I imagine a Law and Order: Kabukicho edition, with one episode focusing on a university student who downloads an...
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