It used to be that a band had to be dead and buried for a good decade before popping up in interviews and liner notes as an "influence." Not anymore. Though Kurt Cobain has been dead less than 10 years, the reverberations of the Seattle sound are beginning to be felt in Tokyo's live houses, most especially with newcomers Milk Crown.

Like Nirvana and their Seattle brethren, Milk Crown pump up the volume with hooky, shrieking guitars and a driving rhythm section that invokes the call of the mosh pit. Singer Kunihiro Osuga evinces a deep appreciation for pop metal, sounding on the first cut of their new maxi single, "Ba Ba Ra," like a Japanese Axl Rose. And like Cobain, the band's lyrics evoke a world-weariness at odds with their casual, shaggy-headed, jeans-and-T-shirt pose.

Though together in Yokohama since 1996, the group has only just recently begun to leave their mark on Tokyo. Their recent graffiti campaign in Shibuya has made this a literal one. Anyone staring at their feet while strolling through Hachiko or up Dogenzaka in the last few weeks was bound to step on a Milk Crown stencil.

Guerilla tactics aside, the group has pulled some advocates, with A's management taking them under their wing. Meanwhile they have become a virtual house band in Shimokitazawa where their raucous charms are on display nearly every weekend.

Milk Crown with Feed and others, April 12, 7 p.m. at Shimokitazawa Garage; 2,000 yen plus drink. For more information, call Garage at (03) 5454-7272. April 16, 7 p.m. at Shimokitazawa Club Que; 2,300 yen. Call Que at (03) 3412-9979. May 13 at Rockin' Communication, Shinjuku Loft with Time Slip Rendezvous and others, 7 p.m., 2,000 yen. Call the Loft at (03) 3365-0698.

A small apartment in Harajuku has become the command center for an ape fashion and music takeover. Curated by alpha male Nigo, Ape Sounds seems set to repeat the street buzz of its parent fashion label, A Bathing Ape. Despite the life-size "Star Wars" stormtrooper that greets visitors at the door, it is the talking chimpanzee Cornelius, the brands' spiritual ancestor, whose spirit infuses A Bathing Ape and Nigo's recent musical endeavors.

Befitting a fashion brand and musical endeavor that takes its cue from "Planet of the Apes," Keigo Oyamada, a k a Cornelius, is a Nigo pal and A Bathing Ape fashion aficionado. Money Mark, James Lavelle from Uncle and Ben Lee are among the other cutting-edge pop personalities that sport the Ape logo. Nigo's musical taste has been on display with A Bathing Ape's annual BAPEheads music extravaganzas, and he and Lavelle released a Japan-only collaboration; a label seemed like the logical next step.

Nigo prefers to call himself "an editor" rather than a designer; A Bathing Ape's products tend to be wittily interpreted street fashion given a simian twist. Packaging is key. T-shirts are vacuum-packed into the shape of a peering primate or stuffed into a faux ape-spray paint can that pops open when shaken.

The first two Ape Sounds releases, Nigo's "Ape Sounds" and a maxi-single, "Kung Fu Fighting," also espouse a fanatical eye for design and a nifty ear for mixing karate soundtracks, orchestrated traditional Chinese music laid over hip-hop beats. There is more than a touch of film score grandiosity (this guy spends a lot of time watching sf dramas). Recorded with both Lavelle (who is also working A&R for the label) and Kudo of hip-hop production legends Major Force, "Ape Sounds" proves that there is no stopping primate evolution.

Uplink Factory is best known for its advocacy of edgy, avant-garde movies. More recently it has turned the same sort of eye to music of the same variety with the "Electric Tribal Shanti Shanti Music Show" series of events.

Sai Baba could be this event's patron saint. As the name implies, the slate of performers plays at the intersection of ethnic music, especially Indian, techno and improvisation. Chief among the proponents of this sort of experimentation have been the various Boredoms members and not surprisingly, there seems to be at least one Boredoms spinoff scheduled for each night. Expect lots of digiridoo, tabla and spun-out, wide-eyed Goa wannabes in tie-dye.

"Electric Tribal Shanti Shanti Music Show," 10 p.m. every second and fourth Saturday at Uplink Factory in Shibuya. April 8, Mana and AeOnS from Kansai plus DJ Why Sheep?; April 22, 1RS, ATR (from the Boredoms) and DJ Miya (from AOA); May 13, Psycho-Baba featuring Yoshimi from the Boredoms and DJ Tomy; May 27, Natural Calamity.

If the Boredoms and their ilk are exploring the subcontinental, psychedelic byways of ethnic instruments, then Double Famous is like their Cuban cousin: lighter and brighter though no less creative. The 10-piece ensemble of both more and less traditional instruments also plays at the edges of ethnic music, but with a swinging, poppier touch, sounding at turns like a lilting juju group, a klezmer band, or even a Buena Vista-inspired Latin outfit.