Simon Bartz - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Sep 1, 2006

Looking at all the music festivals this summer, Rock In Japan is a trip to detox heaven. It arrives in early August, a week after my favorite fest -- Fuji Rock -- but, unlike the mud, mountains and madness of Fuji, it's a place where you can take your kids, your mum and grandad, too. Everybody laps up the sun, the good vibes and the music.

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Jun 29, 2006

Shonen Knife cuts the cake

I recently caught up with guitarist/vocalist Naoko from Shonen Knife, arguably the most famous Japanese band in the world, as they celebrate their 25th anniversary this year.

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Jun 23, 2006

Beasts of burden

Seems like a sennin is in town. This mythical Japanese being has supernatural powers -- he can fly, ride clouds and make the winds blow. And he's certainly whipping up a storm in Kyoto. A gale is battering the city and there's something of a musical hurricane blowing in the small rock bar Uh-La-La in the Saiin district.

CULTURE / Music

May 26, 2006

Dirty Pretty Things "Waterloo to Anywhere"

Ex-Libertines Pete Doherty and Carl Barat may have gone their own ways, but the soap opera continues. While Doherty chose drug-fueled insanity and the release of a self-indulgent album with Babyshambles, Barat formed Dirty Pretty Things -- and on the basis of their debut, "Waterloo to Anywhere," they are The Libertines Mark II.

CULTURE / Music

Apr 7, 2006

Karin "Bright"

"I first started listening to music when I was about 7 or 8. Then, when I was 10, I started performing, just like all the other kids -- standing in front of my mirror using the TV remote control as a microphone singing 'Bad' and 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson. But that wasn't good enough for me. I always wanted the real thing, a career in music," said Karin last week.

CULTURE / Music

Mar 17, 2006

Anadorei "This is the Beginning of the End"

Anadorei's eardrum-puncturing screamfest of a farewell album, "This is the Beginning of the End," is little different from 2002's debut "Pussy Cannibal Holocaust." A compilation featuring new material, the brutally short tracks are tossed out of the stereo like hand grenades of feedback-smeared noise.

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Mar 10, 2006

Romancing, not stoned

I've got four High Teens in my apartment, one of them is unconscious on my futon, and "romance" will ultimately be on the agenda. But please hesitate from rushing to the nearest koban and filing a report because, I promise you, this story does not involve drugs and underage sex. (I'm saving that for a later column.)

CULTURE / Music

Dec 30, 2005

On and off the charts

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 others with Orange County-inflected whines); and, like any year, there was R&B-influenced J-pop (Kumi Koda and Namie Amuro). No surprises there, then.

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Dec 9, 2005

Drumming up an apocalypse

Afrirampo are a whacked-out crackpot girl duo just out of their teens from Osaka, which is famous for its out-there noise-rock scene.

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Sep 11, 2005

Here comes the naughty and the nice

Antony and the Johnsons (who?, I hear you say) may have won the Mercury Music Prize last Tuesday, but when the far more prestigious Fuzzy Logic awards are announced at the end of this year then the two bands profiled here are going to be in the running to get at least a gong apiece. Falsies on Heat must be hot favorites for Best New Band of 2005, while veterans The Pebbles -- who formed in 1992 -- seem to have taken on a new supercharged lease on life over the last 12 months and could easily take first prize in the Most Improved Band category.

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Jul 24, 2005

We call it 'metal,' they call it 'rock'

Detroit7's new release is the sound of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Kiyoshiro Imawano being shackled in a shower room together and sprayed with sulfuric acid until they dissolve into a messy pile of punk-rock metal gunk -- and the detritus we get on their new five-track "EP Vol. 1" is "bad" in a very good way.

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Jun 12, 2005

A stage-dive back into the mayhem

Illnesses. Broken bones. Arrests. Bereavements. Just a few reasons why Fuzzy Logic has been on a six-month sabbatical. You don't need to know the details. So here's a rather straightforward comeback column in which I round up a few things and then, in future columns, I'll get back to introducing you to Japanese bands that you should know about.

CULTURE / Music

Apr 6, 2005

Getting an eyeful at Goggle Central

The HQ of Japan's current '60s revival is a small office above a Chinese restaurant next to Koenji Station in Tokyo. That's the office of Sazanami Label, a record company started in 2003 by the band Goggle-A. Having formed in 1994 and with four studio albums behind them, they are veterans of this burgeoning '60s scene.

CULTURE / Music

Apr 6, 2005

Group Sounds A-Go-Go

After The Beatles played Budokan in 1966, hordes of Japanese kids descended on their local barber shops bearing a photo of their favorite member of the band and demanding a moptop. Then they'd buy a guitar, form a band in their bedroom and mimic the sound of their British Invasion heroes, be they the Fab Four, The Rolling Stones or The Yardbirds, while -- of course -- annoying the hell out of their parents.

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Dec 26, 2004

Rip, burn, play: crucial tunes in 2004

Here is the definitive list -- albeit a bit fuzzy (it's been a tough few weeks of pre-Christmas partying) -- of the best albums of 2004. I wish there were more Japanese bands here, but in 2004 most of my favorite bands -- The Gimmies, The Saturns, Melt-Banana, Thee '50s High Teens, Watusi Zombie, etc. -- didn't release new stuff and instead concentrated on burning down live houses with their incendiary stage shows. But, anyway, here goes . . .

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Nov 21, 2004

Toilet humor in the Tokyo underground

"Tell Franck he's an asshole," barks David Pallash down the phone to me. "And that he is just tooooo French."

CULTURE / Music

Sep 15, 2004

In the company of wolves

The worst (read best) rock 'n' roll animals never grow up. They act like idiots and we let them get away with it because they make great music. In rock 'n' roll it's always better to burn out than fade away into "maturity" -- i.e. making tame and crappy music.

CULTURE / Music

Sep 12, 2004

The Libertines: "The Libertines"

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Aug 22, 2004

Rockin' on ... and on

Friday Aug. 6

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Jul 4, 2004

Vitamins, chill pills and indie rock

Everyone goes home, seeks out some sympathetic tunes, and cries now and then. I know hardened punkers with Belle & Sebastian albums hidden under their futon. Let's face it, every rock 'n' roller needs a metaphorical teddy-bear to cuddle at times even if they'd never admit it -- hence the enduring spirit of indie rock. And thank Buddha for this often-ridiculed genre. A few weeks back it probably saved my life.

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