author

 
Menu
Search
 
May 04, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Shaun Curran
For Shaun Curran's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2013
After breakthrough covers, James Blake proud that 'Overgrown' belongs to him
For most, the passage from underground dubstep sensation to critically acclaimed, Bon Iver-collaborating, Kanye West-endorsed artist is the kind of career path you can only dream of.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2013
Bugg scores with working-class familiarities
"I hadn't been anywhere before last year, I'd hardly left England. And now I'm going to Japan. I never thought I'd be going to a place like that. I think it is going to blow my mind."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2013
Nicolas Jaar: My job is to make music that hasn't been heard
Nicolas Jaar, the precociously talented American-Chilean underground electronic artist, makes music that defies conventional description. Of course, that is exactly what the 23-year-old Ivy League graduate aspires to. "For me, it would be boring if you could say to me 'you make this type of music'. I would feel like I'm not doing my job. My job is to, and this is my own goal, without an audience in mind, try to make a type of music that hasn't been heard before. Obviously, that is the hardest thing in the world. I'm not saying I do that, I don't think that I do. But I try really hard to do that."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2013
Alabama Shakes tap the roots of Southern blues-rock
Here's a question: what do Russell Crowe, Robert Plant, Jack White and David Byrne all have in common?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 17, 2013
Patti Smith hopes 2013 is about rebuilding
By the time you read this, Patti Smith will have been in Japan for nearly a week. The iconic poet, author, painter and "Godmother of Punk" hasn't yet played a gig with her band; that will come later. First, Smith is reconnecting with a country with which her affinity runs deep.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2012
Hot Chip 'embrace fun' on new album
"I like Zapp, not Zappa" goes "Night and Day," the lead single from London electro-pop quintet Hot Chip, and in one small yet significant statement the five-piece's attitude to music is shouted loud and proud.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 17, 2012
Maccabees rise above indie's fall
So indie-guitar music in Britain is in the doldrums, is it? Try telling that to The Maccabees.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 16, 2012
Spiritualized forgets the past and moves on with 'Sweet Heart Sweet Light'
It is just four days before Christmas but Jason Pierce seems oblivious to festive cheer. The leader of influential space-rockers Spiritualized, sitting in the home studio where he has spent the last two years creating the band's forthcoming seventh album "Sweet Heart Sweet Light," has issues on his mind.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 16, 2012
Zulu Winter brings brains to their beats
"That sounds very English, doesn't it?" says Zulu Winter frontman Will Daunt of his refusal to get carried away by the fact his band has spent the start of 2012 as many critic's tip for the top. "I don't want to sound like a miserable git, but we really haven't done much yet."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 16, 2012
Calvi sings out in a big way
Endorsed by Brian Eno, asked on tour by Nick Cave and doused with critical acclaim, Anna Calvi is the little woman with the big voice winning admirers at her every turn.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 25, 2011
Friendly Fires to indulge pop pleasures on tour
Friendly Fires are happy to finally be back on home turf. It's no wonder, the year has been predominantly spent living out the tale of their song "Hawaiian Air," the highlight of second album "Pala" that typifies the trio's dance-pop vision while bemoaning the monotony of tour travel. Consequently, drummer Jack Savidge is content to be sat backstage at a Bristol Academy concert in Western England "with someone else other than the band to talk to."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 25, 2011
Chad Valley's summer project
Extra incentive, as if any was needed, to get down to the Friendly Fires shows in Osaka and Tokyo comes in the form of opening act Chad Valley, the moniker of British solo artist Hugo Manuel.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 12, 2011
Andy Bell glad to finally bring Beady Eye to Japan
Andy Bell may be in Stockholm but his thoughts remain focused on Japan. The guitarist's new band, Beady Eye, consists of the former members of Oasis who were left standing following Noel Gallagher's acrimonious departure two years ago. The quartet were in the process of launching their fledgling outfit when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 28, 2011
Vaccines bring shot of rock to Fuji
Even before the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake caused concert cancellations en masse, The Vaccines had to start pulling out of overseas tour commitments due to singer Justin Young's throat operation. Now "100 percent better," the band will show the audience at this year's Fuji Rock Festival what has made them Britain's most talked-about indie-pop band since Arctic Monkeys.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 21, 2011
Years in the making, Warpaint to hit Fuji
Even when enjoying some downtime in her Los Angeles home, Jenny Lee Lindberg still feels as if she is "whirlwinding around." But then, it has been that sort of year for the bassist in Warpaint: her band has spent 12 months carrying the "next big thing" tag.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 11, 2011
The National break past indie's borders
Formed in Brooklyn, New York, via Cincinnati, Ohio, The National have taken an equally oblique route to success. Twelve years into a career where every strand of recognition has been painstakingly hard-earned, The National's exquisite melancholy has resonated long enough to transform any cult-status concerns into credible chart contentions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 24, 2010
Sleigh Bells
Few bands defined 2010 like New York girl/boy noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells. Residing in uber-trendy Brooklyn, championed by both the blogosphere and M.I.A. (who signed the pair to her NEET label), and oozing the sort of elegantly wasted glamour they would sell by the truckload if they could bottle it, Sleigh Bells have been one of the year's underground sensations.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 12, 2010
Preaching to the converted
Nicky Wire is reminiscing. For the self-professed "nerdy historian" of Manic Street Preachers, the wistfulness is not misplaced. New album "Postcards From a Young Man" is Manic Street Preachers' 10th: a landmark under any criterion, but Wire is keen to accentuate what a milestone it is for a group of childhood friends from a deeply unfashionable mining town in South Wales.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 22, 2010
Here be Vampires
V ampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio exudes a happy demeanor, albeit a slightly weary one. Weary thanks to an unyielding touring schedule that finds him traveling to San Diego midway through an extensive tour of the United States; happy because there can be no reservation that his band have dominated 2010 from its very first month, when second album "Contra," an eccentric, multicultural pop adventure, hit the top of the U.S. Billboard chart.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 27, 2010
Klaxons
Klaxons divide opinion like few others. Emerging in 2006 to a crescendo of hype, they were held up as leaders of the nu-rave movement even before their debut album "Myths of the Near Future" was busy thrilling and irritating in equal measure.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
Yen swings stir talk that Japan is in the FX market once again
An electronic screen in Tokyo displays the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the graph showing its recent swings, on Thursday.
Harajuku strives to reclaim its former glory — and surpass it
Laforet Harajuku, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, has been a witness to the district's evolution over the years.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
By Stephen Mansfield

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass
Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER