J-Rockism

The finale of possibly the greatest live show I've ever attended...

Okay, having survived the PRoC, I felt it valuable to pause and reflect on some of the marvelous music produced by Nippon, my adopted domicile of the past few years. Lord only knows I've spent hundreds of hours talking (and only slightly less time writing) about Japanese music, but I still got so big jet rag right now, so I'll spare the speech for later. In the meantime, here are some of the most enjoyable and/or inventive acts I listened to during my tenure in Tokyo. A few notes on the mix (click on the title to download) follow the tracklist. Osusume!

J-Rockism

1. Ging Nang Boyz - "Nipponjin" (00:00)
2. Number Girl - "Transparent Girl" (01:31)
3. bloodthirsty butchers - "Sanzan" (04:47)
4. Toddle - "Hesitate To See" (09:16)
5. Oshiri Penpens - "Ah! Hell" (12:57)
6. Afrirampo - "Afrirampo" (15:53)
7. 小杉太一郎 - "Big Boss? Keri-O-Tsukero" (19:00)
8. Friction - "Cool Fool" (21:20)
9. Mainliner - "Imaginative Plain" (25:24)
10. ACIDEater - "Shadows" (29:41)
11. Ground Zero - "Movie - 1" (31:46)
12. Kaji Meiko - "Bet On Tomorrow" (37:23)
13. Aburadako - "Greenback" (39:01)
14. Who The Bitch - "Tomorrow's Not Later" (43:45)
15. Mo'some Tonebender - "Come" (45:37)
16. INU - "305" (49:06)
17. Acid Mother's Temple - "What Do I Want To Know (Like Heavenly Kisses Pt2)" (52:21)

::The common link between (in chronological order) Number Girl, bloodthirsty butchers, and Toddle is guitarist Hisako Tabuchi, a diminuative elvin lass who can rip the shit out of a Jaguar.

::Oshiri Penpens somehow managed to land a label and recently released their first studio LP. Get on this bandwagon to Interzone now. And check out this clip of their Tower Records in-store; it's more fun than the last show you saw, guaranteed.

::Rek, bassist and bandleader of long-lived postpunkers Friction, earned his cred in the New York No-Wave scene, playing with the likes of Teenage Jesus & the Jerks.

::Mainliner, led by High Rise mayor domo Nanjo Asahito, features the six-string pyrotechnics of Acid Mother superior Kawabata Makoto. The only record I've heard that's mastered louder is the Psychic Paramount's Gamelan Into the Pink Supernatural.

::ACIDEater is the garage side-project of J-noizenik Masonna. They are far, far superior live.

::A song by Meiko Kaji, my personal favourite Enka songstress, scored the death scene of Lucy Liu/Oren Ishii in the first Kill Bill movie.

::INU's frontman, Machida, went on to a scattershot solo career that ran the gambit from brilliantly art-damaged electropunk, to ersatz sub-Blues Brothers pub rock. Through it all, he never really learned how to sing.

::Acid Mother's Temple save all their best material for Western audiences; they know on which side their bread is buttered. Every time I saw them in Japan, no matter which configuration, they completely half-assed it. As a result, I can't take them as seriously as people who think that the Japanese are inherently weirder than Occidentals.

...And should you have any queries regarding the above artists, lemme know. I'll see what I can do to help you out.