Tag - punk

 
 

PUNK

Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 30, 2022
Vivienne Westwood, icon of provocative fashion, dead at 81
Vivienne Westwood was synonymous with 1970s punk rock, a rebelliousness that remained the hallmark of one of British fashion's biggest names.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 30, 2022
'Rip It Up': Enter the kaleidoscopic world of Ko Machida
Daniel Joseph's translation of the punk rock artist turned author's novella, "Rip It Up," opens the door to a more avant-garde, experimental kind of Japanese literature for English readers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2021
From Elton John to national identity, Rina Sawayama chooses her family carefully
Japanese British singer Rina Sawayama recently partnered with Elton John on u201cChosen Family,u201d a song from Sawayamau2019s debut album that delves deeply into her family history and identity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2020
Phew alternates between jagged noise and soft vocal elements at a dizzying pace on 'Vertigo KO'
Phew takes inspiration from the pandemic and her punk roots on "Vertical KO."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 30, 2020
Stiff Little Fingers' 'Inflammable Material' is still the definitive political punk album 40 years later
Stiff Little Fingers bring "Inflammable Material" to Tokyo for two shows, letting fans hear the album, which deals with Northern Ireland's 'troubles,' in its entirety.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 15, 2019
A boy no longer, 'Kid' Reid has come of age
Duncan Reid, formerly of British punk group The Boys, brings his latest band to Japan for a series of high-energy live shows
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2019
The Outcasts: Forty years after their debut, Japan finally beckons
For a small country, Northern Ireland has produced a lot of punk.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 28, 2019
Gang of Four's fluctuating degrees of animosity, 40 years on
British post-punk pioneers Gang of Four didn't come to Japan until 2005, nearly 30 years after the band formed. If guitarist Andy Gill had his way, it would have happened a lot sooner. "I clearly remember a conversation in the '80s about going to Japan," Gill says, sitting among an array of equipment in the basement of his home studio in central London. "The agent told us to go to Australia as well to make it pay. And Jon King (original vocalist) said, 'I don't want to go to Australia.' So that was it. ... Why the f—- he said that, I don't know."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 13, 2019
Chai's 'Punk' is an irrepressibly upbeat victory lap
For a band that made its name by bucking kawaii conventions, Chai can be awfully cute. On its second album, misleadingly titled "Punk," the quartet takes the giddy sugar-rush of 2017's "Pink" and distills it into a mixture so potent, it should probably come with a health warning attached. They ought to have called it "Pinker."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jul 21, 2018
Punk Drunkers: When it's cool to be uncool
Chikayoshi Satomi, the man behind cult brand Punk Drunkers says, for him, the line between work and play is always blurred.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2018
'Punk Samurai Slash Down': An audacious adaptation that may look better on paper
One of the frequent complaints lodged against the Japanese film industry is that producers are reluctant to bankroll anything that isn't based on an existing novel, manga or TV series. There's a lot of truth in the criticism, but not every screen adaptation of an existing property is a product of bet-hedging.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 10, 2018
'I can only speak my own truth': Otoboke Beaver rocks tunes not politics
More than 100,000 people are expected to attend this month's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the Southern California desert. While heavyweight North American pop stars such as Beyonce and The Weeknd are grabbing the most attention, the lineup also features dozens of noteworthy names — including two Japanese ones.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2018
The films and the fury of punk moviemaker Gakuryu Ishii
Last year's release of "Blade Runner 2049" and this year's Netflix series "Altered Carbon" have rekindled interest in the futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic, though those works were decidedly more "cyber" and less "punk."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 17, 2017
Nuclear issues aren't a problem for Hiroshima's punk acts — politics are
"Adults are stupid," says Shinji Okoda, who is better known in Hiroshima as "Guy," the vocalist for hardcore punk band Origin of M and owner of Disk Shop Misery and Bloodsucker Records. At 52, he certainly appears to have some authority in the matter.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Apr 22, 2017
Tsubasa Watanabe: Model mixes punk with fashion on the runways of New York
At her first test shoot in Los Angeles, Tsubasa Watanabe was surprised by the outfit the photographer was asking her to wear: Hanging from the fingers of his outstretched hand was a pair of thong underwear.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2017
Leiji Matsumoto surfs the floating world
The work of manga artist Leiji Matsumoto mixes historical periods, themes and technologies, often in a science-fiction setting: His signature comics involve steam locomotives and reborn World War II battleships sailing among the stars. These grand flights of fancy, which have found fans around the world, become even more magical when transposed into a traditional Japanese art form, such as ukiyo-e, the "pictures of the floating world" from Japan's Edo Period (1603-1868).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2017
Punk: How cinema ignored something so loud
Once upon a time, Hollywood was good at co-opting and selling youth culture. When rock 'n' roll and biker gangs came along in the 1950s, the studios came up with generational totems like "Blackboard Jungle" and "The Wild Ones." Beatlemania spawned "A Hard Days Night" and "Yellow Submarine," while the hippies flocked to films like "The Graduate" and "Easy Rider." Disco fueled "Saturday Night Fever" and hip-hop "Boyz n the Hood."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 5, 2017
Never Again celebrates 20 years with a punk round robin
In the shadow of Hiroshima's Atomic Bomb Dome, where dimly-lit music venues sit atop the ashes of a former atomic wasteland, the spirit of punk clings like stale smoke after a bar show.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 4, 2016
Beijing rock dies before it gets old with latest club closure
Mao Live House, a legendary live rock music venue in Beijing, shut its doors on the weekend, the latest closure to hit China's music scene.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2016
'The Decline of Western Civilization' is a punk masterpiece
The Sex Pistols played their final gig at San Francisco's Winterland in January 1978. About a year later, Sid Vicious died from an overdose, and so did punk rock — according to the music magazines. The Pistols' chaotic tour of America, however, had dropped like a stone in a still pond, and the ripples were still spreading.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world