Joe Kern - The Japan Times

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Joe Kern

For Joe Kern's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 31, 2007

Jack Peñate wants to inject human feeling into pop music again. And not just in the vocals — he wants it in every last note played. He and his crack band, Joel Porter (bass) and Alex Robins (drums), play a lively, sometimes frenetic mix of rockabilly, country, rock 'n' roll, Latin, lounge jazz and probably 10 other genres, demonstrating a mastery of not just the broad strokes of the idioms, but of the subtleties that make them soar and your booty move. It's pure throwback music, the 1980s version of the '50s.

CULTURE / Music

Jun 29, 2007

Malajube "Trompe L'oeil"

If the first you hear of Malajube is the single "Montreal -40 C," you may dismiss them as an undistinguished, shiny-happy Euro-pop rock act thrown together in homage to The Cardigans. This would be a tragic, but understandable, error, since it's not until the fourth track of "Trompe L'oeil" that the depth and darkness of the frozen North American tundra comes through. Call it their "Broken Social Scene-ness."

CULTURE / Music

May 4, 2007

Feist "The Reminder"

Leslie Feist traipses the map for inspiration, literally and figuratively. Indie rock and its melange of alternatively low- and hi-fi sounds comes through in the Canadian's music and in her moonlighting gig with Broken Social Scene, one of that aesthetic's most convincing purveyors. But Feist spent most of the first half of the 2000s in Paris, and 2004's "Let It Die" shows the influence with much of the album given over to cafe-style acoustic jazz and other sounds many Anglophones only experience in French movies (although there is more than a passing nod to slick 1970s pop).

CULTURE / Music

Apr 27, 2007

Maximo Park "Our Earthly Pleasures"

This year marks about the fifth birthday of the post-punk revival that has seen tightly dressed lads in Europe and cosmopolitan hipsters in America playing danceable rock. Of this clique, Maximo Park are the eccentric artsy and intellectual guys from northeast England who come across as not giving a damn what London and New York is doing. In lyrics and looks, the feeling this five-piece give off is that if they invite too many other people to the party, it might ruin the vibe.

CULTURE / Music

Nov 24, 2006

Joanna Newsom "Ys"

Joanna Newsom possesses genius on a ridiculous number of levels. She plays pixie folk music on a harp, but doesn't rest on the mere novelty of the idea. Her lyrics are stream-of-consciousness, but she has two things that run counter to this type of songwriting: an unimpeachable sincerity and a complex composition style that never forgets the primal force of a good melody.

CULTURE / Music

Aug 25, 2006

Be Your Own Pet "Be Your Own Pet"

Fast-playing BYOP sparked an indie buzz in 2005 as a raw, late-teens rock band from Nashville with an archetypal post-punk hellcat in lead singer/yelper Jemina Pearl Abegg. The buzz built up further after they launched a string of three hot singles without releasing an album. By then their mystique ensured that the rock press had bestowed on them the title of "potential saviors of rock" (which is only trotted out for, oh, 10 or 20 bands a year), and so expectations were high for this, their first full-length album.

CULTURE / Music

May 12, 2006

Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook, is the DJ everyone can love: drunken college meatheads, glow-stick-toting ravers, classic rock lovers and parents of small children alike. His popularity has gone beyond mere love for his music; it has crept into the arena of institutional adoration.

CULTURE / Music

Mar 10, 2006

Kings of Convenience

In 2001, when Kings of Convenience's first album was released (the near-perfect "Quiet is the New Loud"), it was almost an antidote to the humorless introspection of their contemporaries: the teen angst of Dashboard Confessional, the poetic depression of Elliot Smith, and politely existential Britpop groups like Travis.

CULTURE / Music

Feb 24, 2006

Beth Orton "Comfort of Strangers"

British singer/songwriter Beth Orton's fourth album, "Comfort of Strangers," does little that is new, but that's not to say it's a disappointment. The 14 tracks are among her best, and are far more concise and instantly likable than those on 2002's "Daybreaker." Famed experimental musician Jim O'Rourke, last seen trading jazz chords with Sonic Youth, produces, adding often surprising flourishes to the arrangements, such as the strange bounce in the otherwise straightforward "Countenance."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 21, 2005

Sufjan Stevens: "Illinois"

Sounding at times like The Moody Blues' "Days of Future Past" as interpreted by a roomful of high-school band geeks, "Illinois" is a 22-track concept album loosely based on the U.S. state of Illinois.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jun 19, 2005

Maximo Park: "A Certain Trigger"

It is rare for a band to successfully drive a pop song without great hooks -- those musical bits that sometimes joyously, sometimes maddeningly refuse to leave your head -- but on pure energy alone. Yet this is precisely what Newcastle's Maximo Park do. As dance rock goes, their tunes are ordinary, but their sound is turbo-charged by both singer Paul Smith's howls of an average Geordie bloke's exasperation and the band's bouncy, booty-shaking grooves.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jun 5, 2005

Weezer "Make Believe"

Four years ago, Weezer songwriter Rivers Cuomo decided that the meticulously documented angst beloved by his die-hard fans wasn't impressing enough people, so he stocked his next two albums with somewhat catchy yet largely meaningless pop songs instead. On their new effort, "Make Believe," he has returned -- for the most part -- to writing lyrics that matter. Unfortunately, he appears to have acquired social skills and the ability to care about the feelings of other people.

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

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.

For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on

By Lance Henderstein

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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