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May 04, 2024
 

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Shaun Curran
For Shaun Curran's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 20, 2010
Philip Selway
Over the years, rock-star side projects have not fared particularly well. More often than not they are a self-indulgent mess or an ill-advised ego-trip, having little worth to anyone other than devoted disciples. So what to make of the news that Philip Selway, the unassuming Radiohead drummer, is to release his first solo album nearly 20 years into the band's celebrated career?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 30, 2010
LCD Soundsystem bring some edge to Fuji Rock Fest
Share your experience at Fuji Rock with The Japan Times Be sure to check out our live online coverage of the 2010 Fuji Rock Festival at tokyo.japantimes.co.jp. We'll feature interviews with some of the acts, reviews of all the major performances and lots of visuals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 25, 2010
Caribou asserts latest album is 'uniquely mine'
Daniel Snaith is a remarkable individual. Not just because of his astounding, cerebral, diacritic music that, nearly a decade and five albums later, is seeping into the minds of people searching for, as one recent reviewer put it, "electronics for grownups."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 11, 2010
The Drums
Leading the way for a generation of American groups that are more indebted to the sounds of the U.K. than anything on their own doorstep, The Drums arrive for their first Japanese tour riding on a wave of incessant hype.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 2010
Mika
Even in an age where Lady Gaga's flamboyant extravagance has made all her contemporaries seem dull and plaid, it is fair to say Michael "Mika" Penniman is not your average pop star.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2010
Sober approach pays dividends for these puritans
Jack Barnett, the scrawny, intense singer/songwriter with English post-art rockers These New Puritans, is stood on a rest area off a German autobahn on his way to Freiburg. This can be an unedifying business at the best of times, but the banality of the situation seems a world away from the sonic sorcery of his band's music, as well as his continued enthusiastic prognosis of Japanese culture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 7, 2010
Julian's stroke of genius
Fresh off the stage in Denver, Colorado, Julian Casablancas is contemplating the cyclical nature of his forthcoming Japanese shows. The release of his solo album "Phrazes for the Young," subsequent tour and news of The Strokes' recent reconciliation have ensured that the next six months will be busy. But it was actually in Tokyo that Casablancas ended several years of solitude and returned to the fray, unveiling his solo material for the first time last August.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 7, 2010
Isolation brings The xx out to the world
LIVERPOOL, England — Every so often a band arrives, seemingly from nowhere, out of left field and fully-formed, with a sound, image and narrative so flawlessly off-kilter that once discovered, you wonder how you ever did without them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 26, 2010
Delphic
famous Tony Wilson inspired Hacienda, Delphic are the latest off the conveyor belt of Manchester groups.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 12, 2010
Phoenix fired up for Japan
"If I knew the answer to that, I would have done it earlier," jokes Thomas Mars, singer with French electro- poppers Phoenix, when asked how his band of perennially stylish underachievers has been transformed into a mainstream, gloriously out-of-place Grammy winning act of the moment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 29, 2010
Florence and the Machine
If 2009 was billed as the year of the girls, then Florence Welch was undoubtedly the eccentric, free-spirit-made-good.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2009
Arctic Monkeys "Humbug"
Hard to believe, but it is nearly four years since Arctic Monkeys were a precociously talented teenage quartet on the cusp of releasing the fastest selling U.K. debut album in history, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2009
Franz Ferdinand ready for Fuji to rock
Barely a minute into our conversation, and without prompt Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson begins talking up the virtues of Japan
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

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