Tag - strange-boutique

 
Menu
Search
 
May 04, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

STRANGE BOUTIQUE

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Aug 28, 2013
Twenty years ago, Cornelius releases the track that defined Shibuya-kei
The song "The Sun is My Enemy," released 20 years ago on Sept. 1, 1993, may have only reached No. 15 on the Japanese singles charts, but its importance lingers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jul 24, 2013
Piña coladas on the beach? Your soundtrack has already been written
Writing a summer pop tune is easy. Just take an uptempo rhythm, add a catchy chorus, stir in some breezy lyrics and you have the soundtrack to a thousand summer romances and several lifetimes' worth of wistful reminiscences.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jun 27, 2013
Summer's best festivals are off the beaten path
For the past 10-15 years, Japan's festival season has been dominated by four main events: Fuji Rock, Summer Sonic, Rock in Japan and Rising Sun.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 30, 2013
Linguistic choices can be an artistic or cultural statement for Japanese musicians
On May 14, singer-songwriter Satoru Ono released a vinyl single titled "All My Colours." Anyone who knows Ono's work would have found themselves on familiar ground with the two tracks, in their mix of 1980s U.K. indie and '90s Japanese neo-acoustic pop, delivered with a classic pop craftsman's hand.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 25, 2013
A postmortem on how promoters let a Blur gig in Japan slip away
The Tokyo Rocks festival, which had been scheduled for May 11 and 12, was an ambitious attempt to bring big-name overseas artists such as Blur, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine together with a range of Japanese acts. On March 31, it was announced it had been canceled.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 28, 2013
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find out what it means to indie's new talent
It's 6 a.m. and the tiny studio is crammed full of people and reeks of sweat. An ear-splitting punk trio do their best to blast the ceiling off and a woman wrapped in nothing but a bit of Duct tape careers around the room, shrieking into a microphone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 28, 2013
MBV inspires Japan to keep staring at its feet
In February 2013, there were three events that shook the world: the resignation of the pope, North Korea's successful test of a nuclear bomb, and the release of Irish/British rock band My Bloody Valentine's first new album in 22 years. Dispatched with less frequency than popes and comparable volume to nuclear bombs, My Bloody Valentine albums are rare and dangerous beasts, with venues on the band's recent tour handing out complimentary earplugs to the audience on the way in.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 1, 2013
AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture
The image of a young girl in front of a camera, her head recently shaved, sobbing into the lens is one that's guaranteed to shock. But when that girl is a key member of idol group AKB48, the reaction is bound to be stronger.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 31, 2013
Diamond cries 'murder' on the dancefloor
In its Jan. 12 edition, the Japanese business magazine Diamond Weekly decided to ring in the new year with a 10-page feature titled, "Who's Killing Music?" It was the topic of much discussion and reaction in the music business, and the article even made the agenda during a meeting of the Japanese music industry's trade group the Recording Industry Association of Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 27, 2012
Pop embraced conservatism in 2012
The 2012 general election might not seem to have any bearing on the state of pop music in Japan, but there was an eerie similarity in the way both the electorate and the pop world turned back the clock and wrapped conservatism in a neurotic embrace.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 29, 2012
The coming influx of an idol workforce
Much has been made in the media over the problem of Japan's aging population and shrinking workforce. But there is another demographic time bomb, at the heart of Japan's most militantly youthful sector of society, just waiting to explode.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Oct 25, 2012
Western stereotypes may explain Japan's Psy-lence
Amid all the excitement, analysis and general horse-dancing hoo-haa over Korean musician Psy's smash hit "Gangnam Style," one story that has provoked a certain amount of head-scratching among fans is the song's relative lack of success in Japan.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Aug 30, 2012
The customer is always right, but that's what's wrong in Japan's live-house scene
The roundly despised pay-to-play system in place throughout most of Tokyo's live-music scene, and to a slightly lesser extent in many other cities, is something I've written about in this column before.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jul 26, 2012
Fuji's Rookie A Go-Go stage holds an antidote for the same-old rockers
The Fuji Rock Festival kicks off tomorrow with its dependable mixture of ageing rockers from abroad, a handful of predictably chosen Japanese acts, and just a smattering of blogged-about buzz bands. This year in particular, the joy I felt upon the demise of Oasis has been replaced with the dread of the hydralike horror of two separate Gallagher-fronted bands as headlining acts on two successive days.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jun 28, 2012
Japanese acts still find wonder in Can's 'Lost Tapes'
It's rare that a band whose most celebrated recordings were originally released almost 40 years ago can generate excitement among classic-rock fans, prog-hating punks and musicians whose parents were still in elementary school at the time — but then Can were no ordinary band.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 31, 2012
Perfume needs to walk a fine line on its path overseas
As Japanese pop culture is increasingly dominated by insular subcultural groups with little interest in what's happening outside Akihabara's otaku haven or Shibuya's gyaru mecca, the news that electro-pop trio Perfume had moved to major label Universal and made its music available online to overseas audiences was a breath of fresh air that gave even the most cynical hacks at JT Towers a glimpse of hope for a long overdue international J-pop success story.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 29, 2012
A tale of two paths to indie success
Tokyo postpunk quartet Otori is an archetypal product of the city's underground live-music scene. The band's sets feature a machine-gun rattle of drums, slashes of guitar that explode in fierce climaxes, and bursts of scattershot vocals that teeter on the brink of hysteria — the kind of music that gouges tortured metaphors out of music writers like jagged shrapnel as they struggle to describe it. In the end, though ... you just had to be there.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 23, 2012
The not-so-odd coupling between noise acts and J-pop
From mod rockers The Who covering the "Batman" theme, through punk pranksters The Dickies taking on The Banana Splits, to former Megadeth shredder-in-chief Marty Friedman's transformation into J-pop svengali, there has always been a flirtation between the fiercer and heavier outposts of music and its trashy, bubble-gum fringes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 26, 2012
Shibuya style with an Akihabara twist?
Shibuya-kei was one of the defining features of the music and fashion scenes of the 1990s, and it helped spawn the idea of "Cool Japan."
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 24, 2011
Late-night dancing should not be a crime in Japan
Imagine a town where playing rock music is under a curfew and police crack down on unlicensed late-night dancing. Are you thinking of the town from the film "Footloose"? Or are you thinking of Fukuoka? Kumamoto? Yokohama?
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

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Cultural properties:A Fujiya Hotel insider’s view
Cultural properties:A Fujiya Hotel insider’s view

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER