The logical side of me that also took an advertising class in college understood perfectly why OGRE YOU ASSHOLE headlined over Sunset Rubdown – 95 percent of the people crammed into Osaka’s Unagidani Sunsui venue came out to see OGRE and probably never heard of Sunset Rubdown. The geek in me who also absolutely loathed…
Hideki Kaji came closest to an international breakthrough after he got mugged while dressed as a pineapple this past Spring. While filming the music video for “Passion Fruits” in Sweden, three guys attacked the fruit-costume-clad Kaji and stole $2500 worth of camera. The story worked it’s way to various “News of the Weird” features and…
Former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman once said that Perfume were “the group which had the biggest influence on the Japanese music industry in 2008.” A year later and the former thrash metal man’s words still ring true – Perfume’s hyper-electro pop still looms large in 2009 thanks to the release of the well-selling Triangle, a…
The most exciting aspect of Two Sunsets is that it’s indie-pop legends The Pastels first recorded material since a 2003 soundtrack. That’s not a stab at the album in question – Two Sunsets, a collaborative effort with Japan’s Tenniscoats, comes off as a deliberately laid back effort at times bordering on the ambient. It’s a…
Some upfront honesty: Lullatone are my favorite Japanese band going and new releases from them make me giddy to a point where objectivity completely melts away. I’m smitten with their self-described “pajama pop,” a child-like sound melding the conventional (guitar, keyboard) with the imaginative (drumming on bath water, snores). In a decade featuring scores of…