When Tori Kudo was a 13-year-old growing up in Matsuyama, Shikoku, he didn’t spend his evenings at cram school like classmates, but instead played cheesy piano in nightclubs as a member of a professional big band. “I didn’t analyze the chords or practice for ...

You might have heard of Boredoms, the anarchic noiseniks from Osaka who toured with Nirvana, signed to major label Warner’s and became the most written-about Japanese band in the West in the 1990s. You may also have heard of Rovo, who regularly play their ...

‘Agrand collision of two Japanese subcultures — anime and Japanese indie music,” was one blogger’s take on FanimeCon 2006, the biggest anime convention in the San Francisco Bay Area. The indie bands were there because this year, among the 24-hour anime screenings, gaming and ...

One place where language and cultural differences are barely an issue for Japanese artists is at the annual Barcelona electronica and multimedia event Sonar, which is part music industry showcase, part festival for ordinary music fans. Sonar 2006 took place last weekend in the ...

From the suburbs of Tokyo to downtown Toronto is hardly the most direct route to pop stardom — or one assured of success. But it was the path that blues-rock outfit Stone Deaf chose earlier this month in what was a bold move for ...

To the legions of impeccably attired ravers who will attend the Mods Mayday ’06 Weekender taking place this weekend in Tokyo, “mod” is about a whole lot more than renting a DVD of the 1979 mods and rockers classic “Quadrophenia” or throwing a beaten-up ...

They are playing like schoolgirls, bouncing a balloon-shaped teddy-bear off each other and gaily dancing about in front of the Kiddy Ferris Wheel (admission 100 yen) for the lone press camera. If Japanese folk duo Nika Soup and Saya Source look giddily excited, it ...

Cast an eye over those charts that list the top-selling Japanese pop albums of the year and three musical trends come out on top: There were loose-limbed hip-hop party grooves aplenty (Def Tech and Ketsumeishi); American-influenced punk pop (Ellegarden, Ken Yokoyama and scores of ...

Shugo Tokumaru is one of those unfairly talented types who seem to be able to turn their hand to anything. He wrote, played and sang every note on his two albums of “bedroom music” and produced them both too. The 25-year-old also finds time ...

She may only be 16 years old, but Massachusetts native Sonya Kitchell talks with the assurance of a musician twice her age. It’s a couple of days after Kitchell played a live showcase to a largely music-industry crowd in a tiny Shibuya jazz bar, ...

It’s the final day of this year’s Rock in Japan festival, which took place Aug. 5-7. Holding court in the HMV DJ booth is entertainer Yoshiaki Umegaki. He’s a late fortysomething transvestite sporting a tall blue wig and playing with his plastic breasts under ...