Koenji Calling

[Contest] Your Japanese Punk

2009-07-09T22:09:00.000+09:00

Want to win this book??

This is a fantastic collection of photos of the Stalin at the height of classic Japanese punk. These photos are gorgeous and I have shamelessly taken my copy and worn it to shit photocopying photos out of here and pasting them all over my apartment. I have a fresh copy donated by Psysalia Psysalis Psyche here to give away for Koenji Calling`s first contest.

This is a blog contest, and you will need a blog and five minutes to enter. A blog can be anything from an official looking thing to your myspace, a livejournal, a facebook, etc. To enter this contest, simply write about the topic with a link back to this entry. To make super sure I SEE the post feel free to post a link in the comments. :) I`ll read through the essays with my panel of judges (Skully and a 6 pack of Asahi) and we`ll make our awards based on essay strength. Essay strength is a combination of cool, creativity, passion and the ability to make beer shoot our our noses. Really, anything`s cool but it does have to have the link and it somehow has to relate.

Contest Theme

As Japanese punk becomes more well known both in Japan and abroad so too does the definition of Japanese punk change and evolve overtime. Japanese punk is not just a phenomena solely in Japan nor is it only experienced in clubs or by punks. For this contest I would like to know about your Japanese punk, whatever that means to you.

Contest Rules

- The contest is open now through August 5th, 2009.
- Contest is open to anyone, anywhere.
- Posts on the theme must be longer than 100 words.
- Post must have URL of this post to be viable entries.
- Photo essays, art, or other mediums also accepted provided the word minimum is met to explain the pieces.

Q`s to go to --> stalinfornever (at) yahoo.com please. God speed you kitties!

[report] Cro-Magnons at Shonan Matsuri

2009-07-08T06:27:00.000+09:00

So for this post... first can I say...

HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

That said, I guess I should backstep a little bit.

I love music, this is no lie, but I have learned long ago that I really had no interest in meeting my heroes. For a lot of reasons, but doing radio interviews and then later hanging out backstage has given me the general impression that the kind of awesome I impose on them is not what they really are. So actually, in fact, I don't have the desire for the most part to meet these guys, because my masturbatory fantasies of them as intellectual gods with excellent musical taste will shrivel and die and I'd rather keep the dream alive.

However, I have a few exceptions. The bummer is most of them (like hide or Kiyoshiro Imawano) have sadly left us. One of the exceptions though would definitely be Hiroto and Marcy of the Hi-Lows/Blue Hearts/Cro-magnons.

Well, let's say I got my wish:

I have been an adamant believer that this day would come because I have a great friend, Skully, and her make-a-wish program usually somehow lives up. Skully, among her many talents, has an uncanny luck for these things that I have never doubted. The ways and the hows are not what I expected, but that's what you get. ;)

So, Skully called me a few weeks ago to tell me that she might be able to get me backstage to the Shonan Festival, which the Cro-Magnons were playing at and would I like to go? I think I nearly screamed in her ear and tried very hard not to get my hopes up as nothing was set in stone and there is nothing worse than getting excited about something that doesn't happen. But, it did and I headed out to Enoshima to get to the show.

At Enoshima station a driver picked me up and we headed out to the festival, complaining about how creepy the building was. The festival is outdoors and for the backstage area they co-opted some sort of... cultural center? I was never really sure, but it looked like this mix between a hospital, a hotel and a museum. Each band had a separate room so we went in with our friend's band and hung out.

Well, when the Cro-magnons were set to go on we went down to the backstage area and drank a few beers and ... honestly, I don't remember. The next thing I do remember is seeing the Cro-magnons walking a few feet away from me into the waiting room and my jaw dropping and like, refusing to go up. Like such an idiot and then I realized, despite knowing so it was more than clear I was going to be a gaping moron for the entire time they were around.

Skully said it best -- the band looks stretched out. In person there is something just unreal about them. Larger than life, but that is a cliche that doesn't even begin to describe their impact. I've met rockstars before and I've met famous faces but seeing these guys up close just made everything else unimportant. My head spun and I got such a high from it I'm still like, shaking even thinking about it. So they went in and we were told to go up to the side of the stage.

Now, the side of the stage is a real honour to get to stand at for a band with a reputation like the Cro-magnons, and word had been dropped that I was a huge fan and I was kindly allowed to stand there. Walking up I could see down below behind the stage Hiroto bouncing around in his oversized boots getting pumped up for the show and it was amazing, because he really is in this incredible zone right before he performs where that bouncing, energetic idiot onstage really just is. He stands in the back with no one around jumping and dancing and making those stupid faces we love him for to get psyched to do his thing.

I stood a bit towards the back of the side of the stage and was pushed forward to the front to the greatest view I will ever have of this amazing band and my heart jumped in my throat and stayed there until they left. Lots of people started on the side of stage and gradually left but me and a few other hard core fans stayed around, transfixed and speechless and what we were seeing.

They played their usually festival line-up. I feel really thankful they didn't play Kanashimi no Rosie because I would've cried and that was unbecoming of someone in my position. They played Aruku Chibu, and Speed and Knife and Giri Giri Gan Gan Gan and a line-up I've seen them play before, but never so close. I could see every muscle twitch, every jump and silly face.

Towards they end they took a break and we were kind of ushered to stand back a bit as Hiroto walked like, 5 steps in front of me to gulp down some water, preen in front of a mirror and psyche himself up again.

I mean, really, the most incredible experience of my life. I can't imagine how it's going to be topped.

So afterward they walked away and me and my friends fangirled about how awesome they are. We also watched Dragon Ash and another band and then it was time for uchiage and bedtime.

I didn't meet them, I guess I should say. I had two goals -- to stand at the side of the stage and meet them, and I didn't do the latter because they didn't go to uchiage. I did talk an awful lot to Dragon Ash though.... but you know, I'm glad in my own way. Because I was being really stupid and all I think I would be able to do if I met Hiroto and Marcy would be to channel my inner 12 year old and say something very stupid.

But yes, seeing the Cro-Magnons like this has given me a high music has not given me in a very very long time and I nearly hugged Skully because of it, which we all know would be a very big mistake :D

Dynamo weekend

2009-07-07T17:56:00.005+09:00

So this weekend has been a trip... it lasted four days so I think I'll condense it into two separate entries. So let's tease with the first.

We spent two days at Dynamo, the new great enterprise of JJ and Julien. It was fantastic. A great bar, good atmosphere and lots of great people. Thanks everyone who came out! I hope to see you again sometime! And as always I didn't take nearly enough photos, but here are a few--

Our friend Beau was in town, back from New Zealand. Beau used to live in Koenji and came back as a part of a film crew but unfortunately the thing that stuck in my head most is how his new incarnation looked SO fucking much like Morrissey. To which I knew I must get a photo. Am I high or is the resemblance fairly awesome??

I was drunk Friday to the point, though, that I said this way too much and for that Beau, I do apologize. We ended up outside 7-11 late into the morning drinking and trying horribly to talk intelligently which like, you know will be a mistake but never know just how much a mistake it will be.

This weekend also reminded me of how perception is funny. I used to DJ and it was this sort of notorious thing that I only gave a shit about fast and loud stuff, and my friend only gave a shit about melodic and girly stuff and I played it as a joke but it's a joke that stuck. So several times this weekend I have shocked and amazed people by simple offhanded references about, like, the Blue Hearts making me cry. Because girls with sick boy tattoos apparently do not cry. ;)

Saturday night was more of the same, though the illusive Shion came out to play and Kin stopped in for a bit and I totally fell on my ass outside Dynamo. I hope you all took photos of that because it is definitely a rare thing for me, as freaked out as I get about falling.

I don't post so often about my weekends anymore and it's because (to me) they're always rather the same... we drink, we laugh, we listen to very loud music and we meet new people. I'm very happy that I can have these adventures in my life and I feel grateful for all the characters I've met along the way. So truly, thanks Dynamo and I hope to see you all there in the future :D

omg

2009-07-05T18:13:00.002+09:00

insane post to follow but holy shit!!

[reader mail] events

2009-07-05T11:33:00.004+09:00

Hey Emily,

I came across your blog and was wondering if you could recommend some local bands. My name's Marlene, from Los Angeles, I'm here for school and in Tokyo until the 31st. I don't know any Japanese so it's been kinda difficult asking the locals about shows. I don't know much about Japanese punk but would love to learn about and experience it firsthand. Okay, I know I like the Polysics, but that's about it. Are there any bands or upcoming shows you recommend? Thanks so much!!!

Hey,

Totally depends on what kind of punk you`re into, but if you browse the blog there`s a number of bands on here I recommend. There are two really good shows on the 19th, one at 20,000Volt and the other at Takadanobaba Area. Both gigs are hardcore, which I like of course. The Area gig is a Gauze event and the 20,000volts gig has the Vickers, Foresight and Firebirdgass. On the 12th Earthdom also has a nice gig for the more experimentally minded with Ruins alone, MeltBanana light and Kirihito.

Otherwise, the easiest way to find a good gig, IMO, is to do one of the following--

1) Find one band you like and go to all their gigs. Usually the people they play with will fall into a similar group. Or, if not, you can guarantee you will enjoy one band.

2) Go to a club known for punk. Places like 20,000volts and Gear, Club Doctor, Wall, Earthdom and the like almost exclusively have punk shows of one genre or another. You will definitely get some sort of Japanese punk experience, though if you want the more energetic shows try for one on a weekend.

Tokyo Gig Guide is also an excellent resource to find out about shows of all genres, especially shows that would have appeal to a western audience.

Anyone else have any recs for a gal who loves Polysics?

If you have a question remotely related to any of the themes of this blog that need some answers, feel free to post them or e-mail me at stalinfornever(at)yahoo.com I'm more than happy to answer.

I`m running out the door for the third time this weekend. So far things have been a nice drunk blur. I totally tripped on the sidewalk in my sweet girl heels and fall flat on my ass. nice! Now I remember why I wear Doc Martens out drinking.

[alert] police doing urine tests on foreigners

2009-07-01T18:19:00.005+09:00

Regardless of what you think of Debito, I think this is something people should be aware of and cautious of, so a heads up. The whole thing reeks of illegality to me but so does a lot of what the cops do here.

Debito.org has received a number of reports that police in Roppongi and Shibuya are rounding up Non-Japanese exiting bars, and bringing them in police wagons for drug testing.

They are demanding urine tests from their detainees.
This is an act of extremely questionable legality.

Debito link with more information

This is deplorable behaviour by the police and obvious racial profiling toward people who are often linguistically unable to defend themselves. If you are stopped by the police they cannot legally demand a urine sample without a warrant but as soon as you consent you have waived that right. Of course, we all know with any sort of cops refusal only gives them cause for suspicion and causes more problems, so please choose your battles wisely.

If you are stopped for a drug test please report it to the online community (whether at gaijinpot, debito, etc) so we can keep an eye on the situation as it develops. If you want to voice your concern to the police, you can contact the Azabu police department at 03-3479-0110.

Dynamo set to open Friday

2009-06-30T18:43:00.006+09:00

Heading to Koenji anytime soon? Then I'd like to recommend you hit Dynamo, which promises to be the new it spot for the kids of Koenji. I went to the pre-open party a few weeks back and the place was packed and hopping with punks, artists, skateboarders and Koenji hitmakers.

Dynamo is run by two of my buds, Justin and Julian, both amazing, established musicians in their own right and some of the friendliest old time Koenji kids you could hope to meet. The theme of the bar is equally rocking, displaying perhaps the greatest collection of vintage skateboards in Japan from one of the skate kings of Koenji and some great vintage guitars. I'm not going to give everything away but here's a few previews of the work in progress.

So yes, do come by for the grand opening if you can this Friday, July 3rd. Opens at6:30 'til probably 2am or whenever. I will probably stop by Friday or Saturday this weekend so if you do see me say hello.

The skinny:
What: DYNAMO, bar and daytime cafe
hours: 12:30-2am
food?: falafel and cafe specials
tele: 03-3336-0612

Access: From Koenji station, head to PAL and make a right under the train lines. Walk under the train lines (KFC will be on your left) and keep walking until you see a yellow guard rail in the middle of the path and a road. Make a right and Dynamo is the first shop on the right.

When Did Japan Stop Being the Future?

2009-06-24T16:24:00.004+09:00

io9 posed a really fascinating question with this article that they never really answered, or gave evidence for. In fact, I think by reading that article it sounds like Japan still is the future.

I`m jaded enough at this point to think I know better. Because in a Philip K. Dick-ian mindfuck of a conclusion I can say: Japan is really the past.

Hah. Did your world just pop there? Did 1970`s San Francisco suddenly superimpose itself on ancient Rome? [1] Well, actually, that sums up Japan pretty nicely. There is a paradox at work with the country that at times fascinates, perplexes and frustrates all who experience it. From some of the very first westerners to report about Japan to the cyberpunks who fantasized about it to the otaku of today who glorify it, there`s a phenomenal juxtaposition of old and new, Japanese and western, technological and luddite and that constant contradiction is part of the tension that comprises the whole Japanese experience. When you stand back from it and watch it from the outside it is perhaps the very definition of postmodernism. Frederic Jameson could have based his entire life`s work on just explaining Japan instead of Warhol and cinema.

And it`s what I loved about Japan, from a distance. The utter absurdity of it all, and I will probably continue to love that in my own way. However the reason I know that Japan is not the future is because the future that Japan projected -- the Shibuya skyline! Robots! -- is a facade. For the reality of living in Japan where most paperwork is still done by hand, most people are computer illiterate, and, well, let`s not get started with the insanity of Japanese house appliances. It`s a mess. A backwards mess.

Now, I can probably find some sort of Japanese-y way to validate this with tatemae and honne, omote and ura, but I don`t think I need to. You always put your best face forward and every country does it. Every place does it. Fuck, every person does it. Japan is just a bit more schizophrenically obsessed with it than I`m used to. The mass of tv screens and neon of Shibuya countered against the back streets that look like slums a few blocks away are just one example of this. Actually, it`s a great example of this and reminds me of a quote I have loved of late from Tokyo by Roman Cybriwsky --

The point of this is to caution that the true essence of Tokyo is rather deeply held in the landscape, and that what is on the surface, while also a valid insight to the city is just that -- the surface image only. Thus, many first impressions of Tokyo, I think, can be misleading. For example, one might conclude from the city`s famous landmarks, and from the hundreds and hundreds of business enterprises that use American and European themes in decor, that the city is truly international. However, as experience shows, it is much, much less this than it presents itself to be.

[...] we saw the great contrasts that exist between the big streets with exotic businesses and huge public commercial center, on the one hand, and the intimate back streets that are the domain of neighbors only, on the other. The former represents the easily evident surface of Tokyo that makes the city look thoroughly modern and even Western, while the latter shows that Tokyo remains profoundly traditional.

I think everyone`s neo-future, cyberpunk fantasies burst the day they can understand that to be true. Of course, a true postmodernist might argue that the surface is the truer nature, in which case it`s still smooth sailing. And a fascinating topic for another time.

Japan indulged in and encouraged the idea that they were the future just like they`re encouraging the idea that they think anime is an artform because it`s economically beneficial and image-ok. Can you blame them?

[1] You`re only gonna get that if you read VALIS. Sorry!

heads up -- Kawakami tribute t-shirt

2009-06-22T14:19:00.004+09:00

Just a heads up from Punk and Destroy, THE Osaka punk shop. They`re printing up another batch of the Kawakami (Disclose) tribute t`s they did and are taking pre-orders (and yes, they ship overseas). I`m copy-pasting the info below:

＊this KAWAKAMI FOREVER SHIRT made for kawakami tribute show on 6th/june/09, now we're taking orders for them, this shirt will available only for pre-ordering. the 12 bands logo on the back who played for this show, like Corrupted, Reality crisis, Defuse, D-Clone, Life, Zyanose, Contrast Attitude, Framtid, etc... designed by hiroshi/D-Clone, 2 colour, (BLACK & CHACOAL), XS/S/M/L/XL size are available. e-mail me which one/which size you need, the dead line is 10th/july, shirt will be here around 20th/july. the shirt on sale only at punk and destroy & k-club/kochi.

blog page with same info/contact and overseas buying instructions

[link] pop academy

2009-06-22T04:49:00.000+09:00

For the new wave babies out there, Pop Academy is an excellent resource. Pop Academy is a bilingual (Japanese-English) website with information, associations, discographies and rumours about hundreds of Japanese and overseas artists. link

the dark murky world of Japanese entertainment

2009-06-18T17:18:00.003+09:00

I've said it casually in passing several times, but it's an open secret that every aspect of the Japanese entertainment industry has some sort of connection to organized crime. It's quite an amazing phenomenon and is one of, in my mind, main reasons why Japanese entertainment is as shitty as it is.

NeoJaponisme posted a lovely article interviewing Honda Kei about one of the big names of the entertainment industry, Suho Ikuo, and allegations of his connections to organized crime.

H: I personally strengthened my criticism of him. When I did that, I received anonymous calls to my home. My wife picked up and the guy said, “I am a classmate’s of Suhō. Because the Anti-Organized Crime Law has made things complicated, I can’t say the name of my syndicate, but tell your husband to make nice with Suhō.” The substance of the call made it clear that it was a threat. I could not allow this intimidation of my wife, who is not involved in the industry. I eventually figured out who called, and it wasn’t his classmate, but a guy who was in one of the mob groups that he runs with. But even after that, I kept writing about scandals related to Burning. When I did that, I was finally sued for slander.

Honda Kei Interview in Cyzo

Westernization and cultural resistance in tattooing practices in contemporary Japan

2009-06-16T16:19:00.002+09:00

If you're so lucky to have a subscription (hint: any student with access to EBSCO does) the International Journal of Cultural Studies published a lovely article by Mieko Yamada on Japanese tattoo culture. The abstract reads:

This article examines the popular culture of tattooing in Japan and sheds light on attempts by traditional tattooists to retain a vital presence in the modern-to-postmodern transitional periods. Explaining the values, beliefs and practices associated with tattooing during the pre-modern period, it discusses how these are shaped and modified by modern cultural practices, and how they are being impacted by globalization. While drawing on historical and cross-cultural research on tattooing in Japan, this article incorporates three tattooists' experiences as examples of contemporary practices. By resisting the impact of globalization, traditional tattooists preserve their own practices and pass them on to the next generation.

From my perspective it is a lovely thought piece and gives some very good background information on traditional tattoo practices in Japan and the stigma therein. There's a lot of solid information in the piece, some amazing references for someone looking to do some more research and I'd recommend the read for anyone interested in the subject.

The piece is very heavily staged from a traditionalist (IE: horimono) perspective of the tattoo scene in Japan, and I've often argued that there are two very separate tattoo cultures in Japan -- the traditional horimono and the western tattoo, but instead Yamada seeks to reconcile the two very different traditions into one and weigh out their authenticity on a scale surreptitiously based on a unique Japanese identity for tattooing.

I come from a very different perspective on Japanese tattooing (the punk scene, duh) that is sadly left out entirely in Yamada's article. But I think with the discussion of one-point tattooing, undoubtedly the most popular of tattoo cultures at work in the modern Japanese economy versus the traditional role Japanese tattoos have played and the authenticity issues at work with horimono in a globalized culture it is a well written piece. Punk authenticity relies heavily on tattoos but in a very different cultural context.

Also, I was delighted with the brief descriptions of tattoo practices in the post-Meiji era. Did you know that at one point in the Taisho period tattooing was banned altogether in Japan? I simply had no idea. Fascinating really, and a lot of what she says on post-Meiji tattoo practices contribute more I would think to the stigma on tattoos than the whole yakuza thing.

RIP

2009-06-14T21:13:00.002+09:00

I kind of procrastinated on this post somehow in the hope that not posting it would make it less real, as odd as it sounds. My friend and wife of another dear friend, Tomoko, passed away last week. I like to think of Koenji as a kind of community where these tragedies don`t go unnoticed and we support each other. I certainly try my best, and if you were a friend of hers too my heart goes out to you.

I spent quite a bit of time with Tomoko recently just sitting around talking. About art, about culture, about boys. About Kiyoshiro Imawano and all the things we were going to do together once things calmed down. She was a rare kind of girl in my experience in Japan, someone as passionate about culture and as confused at the delicacies of the postmodern world as I feel sometimes and such a truly creative artist. These are the times when words fail me and all I can really say is I`ve been incredibly sad, worried and confused the past week and I`m wishing Tomoko is in a better place now and that my friends are okay.

5 names in Japanese punk you should be embarassed not to know (80's edition)

2009-06-05T09:00:00.002+09:00

I get it. It's hard to get into Japanese punk, what with the language barrier, the billions of websites on the internet trying to tell you Kuroyume is Japanese punk, etc. But the fact is that Japanese punk has been known to the western world going on 30 years now with a healthy culture exchange. These are some names that if you don't know them, you should get your google-fu on stat. Their names are the stuff of legend, here and abroad. You can watch the Youtube playlist below to see the countdown, or you can read on.`

1. Gauze

Gauze is a name synonymous with Japanese hardcore across the world. Their albums 'Fuckheads' (1984) and 'equalizing distort' (1986) are so legendary that they should be mandatory for kids serious about oldschool hardcore. They continue to play almost monthly to this day with a show as legendary for the band itself as it is for showcasing new talent. KFTH page on Gauze for more info.

2. GISM

GISM are as much known for the stage shenanigans of vocalist Sakevi as they ever were for their music. In fact, I would argue to some degree that it is the fury of Sakevi's antics, art and activism that really made this band legends, although the band's 1983 album "Detestation" made some significant musical contributions to the arena of Japanese hardcore. Sakevi was an original, psychotic, mad artist whose balance of violence, genius and anarchy is what gave the band the reputation it has today. G.I.S.M. Punks is Hippies

3. The Stalin

Okay, so if you've never heard of the Stalin I actually give you some slack. Despite the fact that several American punk 'zines have praised them, that they toured internationally a bit, and that a punk who knows what's up will have at least vaguely heard of them, I'd let you off the hook if you haven't. Actually, I hadn't heard of them until sometime in 2004 when I was probably too drunk to really put it all together. But you're on notice: this band is amazing and you need to know about them.

The Stalin wrote a lot of great music and contributed a lot of fucked up things to an already violent and bizarre scene. Michiro Endo took a few pages from the Iggy Pop school of antagonism that included onstage masturbation, self mutilation and violence. "Stop Jap" and "Trash" are amazing records in very different ways, with a sound powerful and raw and yet available enough to yield some degree of commercial success.

Beyond their incredible music and image, The Stalin also stand out for vocalist Michiro Endo's outspoken communist leanings during a time when it was decidedly out of favour to do so and which caused a rift in the punk community between anarchists, communists and those involved with the more heavily grounded rockabilly and right wing (yakuza) movements. That the Stalin got as far as they did in the Japanese music industry with such outspoken beliefs is a truly amazing feat. KFTH's The Stalin page

4. The Blue Hearts

After listening to the heavy, aggressive sounds of any of the previous three bands, the Blue Hearts might sound like pop. And indeed, in the Japanese punk world to this day there's a lot of heat on whether the Blue Hearts are actually "punk" enough. You'll likely know this debate as we have it in every crevice of the punk world: band has catchy sound, band gets signed, everyone says band "sells out."

The Blue Hearts are definitely not a hardcore band. Their sound is catchy and nostalgic more on the lines of the Clash or the Ramones than Discharge. The band won't get any points for political activism the way the Stalin does, or for sheer violence-for-violence sake the way GISM does. But the band does have its place in Japanese punk history, they did "keep it real" as it were, they did have their own political songs and causes and controversies and band members Hiroto and Marcy are still kicking up shit to this day, and one of the few bands of their kind that can garner TV coverage and top 10s while doing it. Hard as it may be for us to see, Hiroto's onstage antics where he spit on cameras, shook and jittered like he was retarded, and kicked cameramen were too risque at times for TV, leaving the group banned from channels like NHK during their prime.

The Blue Hearts were the best of the best to come from a very short lived period in Japanese music history where any punk band clean enough could score a record deal. "The Blue Hearts" and "Young and Pretty" are incredible albums both musically and lyrically and Hiroto is a true showman in every way. They released an album in the states (Meet the Blue Hearts), which you might be lucky enough to find, and toured the US in the early 90's. Wiki page

5. Hanatarash

Okay, honestly, the number 5 spot gave me some pause. Ultimately my original pick (below) lost out because the internet tells me this band has more buzz. Which rightly, I suppose it does.

So I suppose if you're coming in from a different scene where Boredoms is king, Hanatarash could be your first punk band. Right? That makes a lot of sense. And not without merit. Hanatarash is a good fucking band. I love them. This was the hardcore noise machine that launched Eye into the limelight as the crazy asshole he is. The music here is wonderful, and their stage antics are legendary. The most famous story, told every time I talk to some drunk guy trying to impress me at a show, is the famous Osaka live show where Eye took a bulldozer through part of the livehouse, of course.

I mean, let's be honest though here. Hanatarash would have fallen off the map into the realm of obscure yet awesome bands I will cover in another top five were it not for the superstardom Eye achieved with Boredoms. But I think Eye's star is enough that this band is probably the first Japanese punk band off the lips of Boredom's fanboys. Hanatarash wiki

Honorable Mention: GAI/The Swankys

Really guys??? They were definitely going to be #5 until I trolled around the internet and noticed these guys didn't have any sort of fan page, much less a wikipedia post. Oh my god! When I was growing up (in the much bragged about PDX) GAI was -the- name in Japanese hardcore. Kids who had no fucking clue about the band would nod along and pretend to save face then scurry off to Ozone record to rent one of their bootlegs.

I love the Swankys and GAI, so I assume they're essential and the buzz that I get generally is that everyone else thinks so too. But if Wikipedia is the standard for knowledge in this 2.0 age and they don't have anything, I can't hold you accountable for it. So you're off the hook, but really, you'll thank yourself for learning about them. 7INCH PUNK, an absolutely amazing site in its own right, has both the swankys and GAI
Someone tell me how common knowledge the Swankys are outside Japan, I don't totally know but every little punk boy on my block thought he was the shit when he could say "yeah, someone just taped me a GAI bootleg."

Being in Japan, I lose perspective on these things. What would your 5 must-be-known, top of the heap Japanese punk bands of the 80's be?

new values

2009-06-04T00:10:00.004+09:00

So this is a rather timely one, sitting as it has open in a window on my computer for a few days. But timely in that I had this rather bizarre dream involving Iggy Pop of all people.

I have a lot of very odd, very vivid dreams but I rarely dream about celebrities or, really I suppose, anyone I know. The characters in my dreams are re-occurring but for the most part they exist solely in my dream worlds. Anyway, so I had this dream about Iggy Pop where he was hanging out in Kabuki-cho which, I suppose, is a fitting enough place in Tokyo for Iggy Pop to be hanging out. But he wasn't hanging out anywhere special, but rather in the back of the 'cho, down past the love hotels and tranny park on a guard rail down by the train underpass that kind of divides Kabuki-cho from Okubo. And he's standing around and these kids are just shitting themselves over it and I go up and ask him, like, isn't this annoying as shit? And he smiles at me and says yeah, kinda, but he does it every now and then to give the kids something to smile about.

And it seemed fitting, somehow, to go along with this lovely article. He talks about the Stooges, his family, and whatnot and it's a nice read. I'm biased at this point, obviously, but I've always found Iggy Pop to be interesting in interviews. Depending on what drugs he's been up to on any given day he'll range from being inflammatory and obscene to deeply profound.

“You look at this country and it’s a theatre or battleground for the European idea of the Enlightenment. It filtered down to people like me through civics or social-studies lessons — the idea that you are a free individual and you have rights. None of these things are systematically true, it’s all bullshit. The only way you get rights is to shove your damned rights down everybody else’s throat.”

So you grabbed your rights?

His hand slams down on the table.

“Yes, yes, yes, I grabbed them! I grabbed them! Maybe I was a little blunt about it. But it was the only way I could be an American!”

Iggy Pop on his life's highs and lows

Any thoughts on his new Preliminaires album? Honestly, I love the single but was a bit underwhelmed by the rest. In a way reminiscent of disappointment with Morrissey albums, like the ideas were good but the music was subpar.

Do as I say not as I do.

2009-06-01T20:33:00.002+09:00

I got a great link from somewhere to a nice article on Hitler's record collection which is a fascinating enough title, both titillating and modern in its own way and I've been slowly skimming it over coffee on the way out the door this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't going the hardline "there were Jews in his collection, but he was a NAZI!" route but instead discussed the idea that ideologies get out of control and even the figureheads that spawn this rhetoric don't so clearly follow the insanity that follows.

It's fascinating to me as someone so obsessed with music, so totally engrossed and sensitive to what's in my collection. It's my most snobbish quality, honestly. Before I date someone I have to vet their record collection, and my dislike of someone often starts with "well, you know, it makes sense since she likes Linkin Park." When Henry Rollins talks about annoying women and kicking them out of cars on dates for their shitty taste in music (or literature), I laughed so hard because while, y'know, it's a joke but it's true.

So I wonder how I would feel about some of the greats of the world based on their record collections, you know? Is it possible that Hitler's record collection might somehow melt the heart of this Jewish girl? Would, upon learning David Bowie's record collection was full of Abba, vomit and burn all my records?

Music and popular culture is like that. I'm biased and believe music has this magical connection more than any other culture, but I'm biased undoubtedly. Music changed my opinion of the world at a very young age and is the catalyst for me abandoning my father's Plan to go to a good college and work very hard and get a good boring job like the serious student he wanted me to be.

Music also works well on the campaign trail, you know. Of course there's a laundry list of American politicians using popular songs as a part of their campaign, but in Japan where no one really gives two shits about politics I think it has a stronger influence. Junichiro Koizumi, one of the most popular prime ministers of the past twenty years knew this and used this to his advantage where he talked about how much be loved hair metal turned ballad factory X Japan, how he loved to karaoke their songs and how his favourite was the smash hit Forever Love. Millions of Japanese people, from every demographic, could relate to this and it connected this man closer to the general voting public of Japan than any other prime minister before him or since in recent history. Aso's kind of tried to do this with anime, but anime is still too much of a subculture to work in the same way as such a blithe love song.

Makes you wonder, really, who you'd vote for if they had the right soundtrack.

fuck rainy season

2009-05-28T17:11:00.003+09:00

My least favourite time in Japan is soon upon us. Rainy season (tsuyu) will lead to summer, AKA hell on earth shortly here and based on the weather of the past week I do believe rainy season has arrived.

Now, I still totally hate summer in Japan. Coming from the kind of warm dry Oregon summers into the muggy armpit of Tokyo, honestly, I do hate it. But as Skully once pointed out, summer is a wonderful time of year for street drinking, latenight/all night parties and a general camaraderie that intense deathly heat brings. As with Portland, too, summer is also the best chance you'll get in Tokyo of finding gutter punks sleeping outside the stations on cardboard.

But rainy season, I mean rainy season really has no forgivable silver lining. It drowns street drinking unmercifully and unpredictably and sends even the most webbed of feet to huddle under awnings soaked to the bone. I had a pretty strong Portlandian umbrellas-are-for-pussies feeling until I spent my first rainy season in Tokyo. Now I totally get it.

If you're the unfortunate sucker to travel here this time of year, some advice:

always carry an umbrella or be prepared to shell out 300yen for one (or for a coffee) when the rain jumps you. There's kind of a take-a-penny sort of thing that happens at the convenience stores this season with cheapee umbrellas, but you don't want to get caught out in this shit if there's no umbrellas around.

boots This rain will soak converse, trust me. Don't wear sandals, don't go all girly in your pumps, really, boots are your friends this time of year. If you're only carrying on pair of shoes, make them something either leather or rubber.

avoid grand outdoor plans Like weddings. Or climbing Mt. Fuji. idunno, I've hiked in the rain before but with tsuyu rain it would totally suck ass. I'm just saying, if you make outdoor plans always leave them flexible this time of year with an indoor back-up.

don't trust that fucking weatherman Rainy season rain goes like this:
totally normal, wonderful day... and BAM heavy horrible downpour for 10-20 minutes. Weathermen can predict the days with the heaviest rain, but they really can't account for all of it.

If you're in Tokyo, here's some fun that can be had on rainy horrible days:

- take advantage of the indoor horrors of Japanese malls like Sunshine City, Roppongi Hills, Omotesando Hills, and that one in Odaiba with the creepy fake sky. Really, I think being a mallrat for a day is always an easy back-up plan. especially with beer.

- drink in train stations. Okay, so this one gets dicey because they'll kick you out and/or hobos will tattle on you if they don't kick you out. But 'kicking out' in this case is like shooing flies, so it's not much of a worry.

- Tokyo Disneyland. Actually, I think either way it's going to suck but I'd bet money Tokyo Disneyland is less crowded during rainy season.

- Nakano Broadway. Entirely indoor shopping center with at least four of those floors filled with toy shops and weirdness.

- catch up on your sightseeing. There's an impressive amount of tourism in Tokyo, from the famous spots like the Parasite museum to lesser known commodities like the museum of modern art :P

- catch up on your fashion tourism with a trip through some department stores. The Shinjuku Marui-Young behemoth is a great place to start, if you haven't been, to laugh in horror at everything from lolita wtf-ery to fashion punk. Other giants like Isetan or Takashimaya have random weirdness lurking on every floor, from hidden galleries and traveling exhibits to $400 sake glasses.

- Karaoke. Actually, a rainy day is the perfect time to get drunk and karaoke for 8 hours. Lots of karaoke places have blackout specials after 10pm until the first train and if you get one with an all-you-can-drink thrown in you are on your way to a fantastically bad hangover to black out the rest of tsuyu.

What's your favourite way to dodge the rain?

best tshirt ever

2009-05-20T12:02:00.001+09:00

i'm sure a psychobilly would shit themselves over it. too fucking cool! AND from old navy! wtf!

Crazy fucking May

2009-05-17T06:00:00.002+09:00

You know, the past few weeks have been such that I could have sworn some scary old gypsy went and threw the Tower card down on a mystery candle-lit midnight tarot reading, it's been that fucked up.

Lots and lots of endings for lots of my friends (myself included) and hopefully some new beginnings. I've not been feeling up to my usual "high tension" shenanigans and have been watching a lot of serial killer documentaries, so it's sort of a black mood all around. This weekend, for the first time in a long while I made a conscious effort to not go out, and sat at home in the bath reading Philip k Dick and sipping champagne as in my head this appears more decadent than it probably is when Gauze is your background music.

I was profoundly filled with love, however, walking out to the grocery store past a few yakitori bars with their doors wide open to catch the cool of the evening to hear conversation drift by from total strangers, young and old, who happened to be sitting in the bar about Kiyoshiro Imawano, and how wonderful he was and the first time they ever heard of him how much he thrilled them. My readers must be sick to death of Imawano by now but he's obviously been on my mind a lot recently. I drank a few chu-hi's with a girlfriend Monday night and watched Imawano's last concert on NHK and the random nature of things sort of overwhelmed me. Watching him walk into the building, the very one I've been into countless times and into the same studio. Chatting with this friend of mine who I never knew liked Imawano until suddenly he was gone.

I don't know. While I'm terribly sad still, like I was with hide I am glad for Imawano because he seems to be a strange attractor in my universe and like with hide I feel like great things and great people will be discovered through him. Most of my best friends were given to me through mention of hide and most of our adventures happened in a roundabout way because of him, so I'm very greatful for it.

Anyway, on another random note, did you ever know I DJ'd the first North American show dedicated solely to Japanese rock music? Well, I did. On KPSU back in Portland. I tried to play a little bit of everything and it's actually through KPSU connections that I was able to learn about so many Japanese punk bands. Skully on her stints in Japan at the time would drop hints to the bands that she had a friend in radio stateside and suddenly her hands would be full of demos that I dutifully played on the show. It was also through this that I got to hear Skully and King Buzzo squawk on excitedly for 20 minutes about kaiju.

Anyway, back in the day a very cool show preceded mine named Kittenmouse. And in my head Andrea is still Kittenmouse and when she sent me some fiction recently she also sent me a copy of the horror edition of i-D magazine. And I totally want these outfits for my next foray with the Tokyo goth scene!!

Kiyoshiro's great rock 'n' roll show 5/9/09

2009-05-10T14:18:00.010+09:00

Yesterday Skully, myself and Kaytea and Kazu from the [A]narchy salon in Harajuku all went to go pay our last respects to our hero, Kiyoshiro Imawano. When someone like this dies it's a very different thing from when it happens in the US, as far as my memory goes. In Japan as well as a funeral for those who knew him (his friends, family, and associates) there is also a custom now of a separate memorial for fans. This memorial is sometimes on the same day and sometimes on a separate day and is used a variety of different ways. Basically, it offers fans the kind of closure a funeral service offers the loved ones of a deceased.

This is the first one that I've been to, and my only other recollection of them is of hide's memorial some 11 years ago. My recollection of hide's memorial was a mass of wailing, confused young people and a kind of chaos that I think is easily understood in comparison to the impact of Kurt Cobain's suicide in the American psyche.

Imawano's death was very different. Of course, it's a tragedy and there was a great deal of sadness but he had been sick for some time so there was not the shock of a sudden death that hide's had. And his fans, by and large, are older. We arrived in Aoyama maybe at around noon and spent three hours or so in one of many lines to pay respects that wound its way through the Aoyama cemetery, among mourners there to clean their loved ones graves and families having small picnics under the shade of the ebullient trees the cemetery is famous for. The last time I had been in this cemetery was a fluke some two odd years ago, having been invited to a midnight hanami party. The air was very different, I suppose, though there was still a profuse amount of alcohol.

The fans, I wanted to connect with them but there was never really a chance. Most of them were much older, a bit caught off guard by us and while curious obviously a bit intimidated. There were a few punks, far ahead in the line and a few people I was dying of curiosity to talk to but due to the structure of the line never had a chance. The media, however, had a field day with us and I think every channel took their chance to poke and prod the strange foreign girls and find out WHY exactly they were there. And it was hard, after all the sun and the standing and then the flood of emotions to exactly explain it -- in Japanese no less! Kaytea was our PR girl and did a fabulous job so when you see a smart sounding red headed cyclops on NHK talking about how Imawano was a champion of free speech, well, that's that!

I think in total we waited in line something like three hours. At probably the two and a half hour mark we actually entered the memorial area, which was a gated area with tighter lines winding around. We filled out message cards earlier with out names and addresses and upon entering the area we exchanged these for memorial postcards to commemorate the day, which I thought was a very kind gift.

Imawano's music blasted from speakers and immediately visible was a giant inflated rabbit of his design. The atmosphere was less of a memorial and more like a concert and staff had t-shirts printed to that effect saying something like "KIYOSHIRO'S GREAT ROCK'N'ROLL SHOW! 5/9/09" with matching laminated staff passes. We continued to wait in line and came slowly to the table to give our flowers and messages. Normally you pile the white chrysanthemums up on the table, but due to the heat they were being stored in a cool room in the back. And because this is the colourful Imawano the flowers were an assortment from fans of sunflowers, roses, exotic orchids and the biggest, most colourful bouquets you'd ever seen.

Eventually, the bunny got closer and closer and we could see the memorial plaque, awash in flowers hiding the speakers. And then everything started to move very quickly because we were finally in the memorial area.

The memorial area is lined with name planks from people who donated to the temple(?) in order to show they had paid their respects. Basically, for someone like Kiyoshiro this more than an expression of feelings is a kind of duty on the part of many of these companies, bands and industry heads due to the stature he held as such a popular performer. Of course many friends and true lovers of his work were represented as well. I noticed naturally that these guys contributed:

There's a Japanese rock garden in an alcove in the middle as the line winds through and you can see a large autographed photo of Imawano. As this photo gets closer you're actually up to the memorial area and then things really started to feel heavy.

Skully noted that it was because people started to cry. For me the reality had sunken in because this is the alter where he remained and the permanence of the situation was suddenly unavoidable. Up until that point while an understanding of sadness was there it was kind of pushed back by a happiness to celebrate such a wonderful and amazing person. In the memorial room however the fact that we were saying goodbye, and that this was our first and last meeting was unavoidable. The crying women heightened this to be sure. When the men, mostly older, started wailing and screaming his name in tribute I think we all kind of lost it.

In the memorial room a very victorian looking woman handed us each a brightly coloured rose as we approached. The wall was full of roses and candled and his memorial photos. Below the photo was a collection of some of his treasured things -- his guitars, his drum kit, his bicycle. A few of his costumes. In front of these things on an altar we each left our rose and said a small prayer and said our goodbyes and left. On our way out were some Imawano cosplayers... apparently official? but why they were there we still can't say. Skully thought it was a bit out of place. I thought perhaps it was to give us all one last laugh, but I really can't say.

When we exited the memorial area we were finished with lines and beneath the bunny. On the stand were posters from his career. The Timers ones are gorgeous and I will be hunting for them. There was a tent to take a moment and relax in with some cardboard cut-outs of Imawano and then we were done. It was over.

We're glad we went, though still quite sad he passed. He had such an amazing career and was such a fantastic man and all I seem to be repeating is that the Japan has really lost one of its best and brightest.

[edit] apparently 42,000 fans came to say goodbye! Quite amazing! Here are Hiroto's comments on Kiyoshiro... I'll try to paraphrase them later. link one link two.

Monday night...

2009-05-07T20:48:00.003+09:00

So Monday night we were extras for some future Miami Ink spinoff. So when we appear in five seconds worth of bar footage it will be legit and not just some sort of hallucination you had. Yeah, those Koenji girls were pretending to be buddy buddy with total strangers to make it appear like there was something happening going on in a bar I'd only previously been to with a bunch of lesbians.

I don't think this is a particularly funny story. Everyone was nice, there was no drama-llama crap going on, but it was not really the right environment to generate some sort of funny story, besides like, my general drunken assery. And I mean, I've done a lot of TV before, TV that I've been paid for so it's not like ZOMG TELEBISSION!!! However, this was awesome because... because... we were paid in beer.

Ever wanted to be paid in beer for something? I gotta say, it's pretty awesome.

I had pockets filled with drink tickets. Shit, I was so drunk I was dry heaving on the crawl home. And when I finally got to Koenji, to have yet some more beer on my way back some dude solicited me for naked photos. After sobering up long enough to figure out that no, he didn't just want some cute happy photo but actually wanted photos of the girls and rejecting him he screamed after me "BUT... BUT I'LL PAY 5,000YEN!"

HAHAHA Oh Japan <3

Fill in the blank

2009-05-04T00:10:00.002+09:00

Smart-assedly reading the Japanese while ignoring the bigger picture of LOL just ruins the fun for everyone, might I add.

Kiyoshiro Imawano is dead.

2009-05-03T00:06:00.003+09:00

0

Pretty horrible news from a pretty horrible week. Kiyoshiro Imawano died today (May 2nd) from a cancer he had been battling since 2006. He was an amazing man who believed in the power music had to sway popular opinion and to charge people with political outrage at the way the world has become. He risked his career to this end with the Timers.

Tokyo's a lot darker with Imawano gone. If you haven't yet taken the time to get to know this artist there's no time like the present.

bootleg baby

2009-04-30T19:28:00.001+09:00

this vintage Smiths bootleg bought today at Vinyl in Shinjuku is from a concert from the very year and month I was born. Morrissey being at his sexual prime when I was an infant kind of weirds me out...

American television still doesn't get Japan

2009-04-24T13:19:00.002+09:00

My mentor, friend, and second mother Grace Dillon has taught me a lot of lessons over the years. She's simply a fantastic human being, and if you are ever fortunate enough to take one of her classes by all means do so. She taught me when you're angry the best thing to do is to laugh, and that even the worst movie has valuable cultural clues if you torture yourself long enough to watch them.

Well, it was during the spring of my last year at university when she embarked on her first Native American film course. And for years I'd been slogging away at depictions of Japanese culture in American film and Orientalism and Occidentalism in popular culture and had been swimming in critical theory long enough that a profound feeling of perpetual fuzzy logic was par for the course when she said something very deceptively simple that caught my head on fire. Native Americans, she said, are always shamans or enemies in film. They're always either spiritual mystics who know the ebb and flow of the universe and mother nature or they're the enemies for cowboys to gun down.

It hit me because it's true, and the sentence can easily transmorph in a million different ways. When I watched the new episode of the Fox TV show Bones I was reminded yet again of this sentence. Japanese people, they're always shamans, candy coloured anime characters, or enemies. They're yakuza, samurai, ninja. Nowadays they're strange otaku and sexy pink hair nymphettes. But even though I just know that the Bones writers thought they were being so progressive with their construction of the post-modern Japanese, it was really... just painful.

I could list all the wank, from the painful Japanese flute music in the background to denote the serious cultural traditions these characters supposedly purvey, to the ridiculousness of a thriving "hara-jew-koo" subculture of entirely Japanese people thriving in Washington DC, to shit, I mean, an FBI officer knowing what a "sweet lolita" is, but I suppose my major complaint is that:

This was not a story about Japan, but a story about anime.

Each of the "Japanese characters" are not from any semblance of a real Japan, but are in fact characters one can find in anime or bad 80's yakuza movies. From the long haired cop with the mullet to the L-like androgynous scientist who is apparently a part of the "kei" subculture, it's very obvious the writing team got their ideas from popular culture and instead of in any way shrouding this in a story about Japan should have instead made it an anime culture thriller with plenty of painfully wapanese otaku pretending to be painfuly wapanese as they do.

The classic never-released-in-Japan Simpsons episode "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" is often cited in American popular culture studies classes as a prime example on how stories set in other cultures actually reflect more about our own cultural views than that of the culture being examined. What then, is such a strange clusterfuck of an episode praising all that thar Sheento and honour and har-a-jew-koo and endless bowing is Bones saying about the American psyche?

Really, what I'd like to say: there are literally hundreds of people who are published authors on the subject of modern Japanese culture. If this show takes such pride in firmly and accurately backing all the hard science it implements why is it skimping on hiring someone for basic cultural knowledge?