Brilliant Irony Or Brilliant Idiocy?: Vanilla Beans “100mankai no SMK”

ByPatrick St. Michel

Ask any foreigner in Japan who operates a blog where he/she pretends to be a junior Japan sociologist (I do this!) about humor in Japan. I’m willing to wager a large chunk of them will note how slapstick and situational comedy in this country is opposed to the place they hail from where, for the…

Controlled Karaoke: Chillwave Has Landed In Japan

ByPatrick St. Michel

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrS4etrxb7s&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Two separate articles about 2009’s favorite stoner genre chillwave appeared in the Japanese media this past weekend, all but guaranteeing a new crop of Japan-based artists staying inside and sampling Italian disco records. English publication The Japan Times ran a primer about the genre, featuring interviews with Ducktails and Memory Tapes. It’s a solid…