Tokyo’s Haight-Ashbury
09/15/2007 @ 4:00 am
While we’re waxing nostalgic about Japanese music, crazed rocker Julian Cope has recently published his Japrocksampler (to compliment his earlier but now out of print Krautrocksampler), which, according to the British New Statesman, details the time when:
Tokyo, 1969. The Spiders, the Mops and myriad other identically suited “Group Sound” beat combos making post-Beatles guitar pop are on the decline, as politicised foku geira (folk guerrilla) figures such as the camouflage-clad Dr Acid Seven gain popularity. The city’s Shinjuku district becomes Tokyo’s Haight-Ashbury, filled with young people following the futen ideal - a uniquely Japanese take on the west’s drop-outs, hippies and psychedelic wanderers.
Blah. Damned hippy muzic!!
I still prefer The Carnabeats and this has been playing in on my iPod when I need to get happy for a while:
http://www.amazon.com/GS-Love-You-Japanese-Garage/dp/samples/B0000004EU/ref=dp_tracks_all_1/104-7836901-5931922#disc_1 .
Anyway, Cope’s always been kinda nutty. Think ‘Paul Weller with less talent and wackier brain cells’… .
I remember him going on and on about Scott Walker in the mid-80s in the musical papers. On the other hand, his sidelines have been fun, generally.
And here’s something *really* eerie; he was in a band with Ian McColloch (who I thought was sexy as all get-out when I was young(er):::cough:::) called ‘The Crucial Three’ and followed that by being in a one-off band called ‘The Nova Band’ with Budgie (of eventual ‘Siouxsie and the Banshees’ fame)who went off to be in ‘Big in Japan’. ‘BIG IN JAPAN’!! Hello? Scarey-weird, non?
Also… the bassist for ‘Flock of Seagulls’ was a hairdresser who use to cut Ian McColluch’s hair in Liverpool.
OK. Maybe Julian’s not as strange as I thought… .
September 15th, 2007 at 6:23 amhardcore bands Ramones/Guitar Wolf..plus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Wolf
http://theblueshounds.com/band.php
(double plus) the Gunma Society & Blues Club (google that).
*vale Big Pav..your voice is much missed - None-shall-Weep*
remora.
(*)
September 15th, 2007 at 9:10 amas i read back over the GeezerWoolf (wIkiPedo-Yer link)
i stumbled over that wonderful new phrase “neo-renaissance”
“Since their inception, Guitar Wolf have influenced a neo-renaissance..”
Huh?..nani?
(*_*)
September 15th, 2007 at 9:27 amJapan, only you can improvise and imitate so well…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Zero
remora.
September 15th, 2007 at 9:34 amplease everyone on Japundit (fingers crossed).
http://www.guitarwolf.net/e-main.html
“To all GUITAR WOLF fans,
Today, we inform you that Seiji (Guitarwolf) will undergo surgery in this coming October, as a damaged part has been found on his hip joint due to his intense performance history over the years.
We regrettably announce that the band will temporarily stop live performance for a while; please note that the final of the “Jet Night Tour” in September 24, 2007 at Ebisu Liquid Room will be the last stage before surgery…”
(I’m sorry to hog the comments section guys, but Arden and I really like this band - thank you for your patience.)
remora
September 15th, 2007 at 9:54 amNo surprise there were hippies in Japan - it just goes to show how in so many respects Japan is closer to the West than its Asian neighbors. Here in Taiwan, the imposition of martial law from 1947 to the late 1980s meant the country was closed to anything sounding remotely radical or revolutionary, and thus the Sixties passed it by. Even the Beatles are recognized by their name only, and not by any of their songs.
September 15th, 2007 at 2:20 pmI can’t recall the days when the Beatles came to Japan in 1966. But I remember I listened to the single record of ” Let it be ” with a very small record player for the first time when I was about 8 years old. And at that time several bands came in as ” Group Sound ” and many low teens boys were playing guitars with long hairs. As kaminoge says there were many Western influences already in 60s in Japan.
I am surprised Betty Woo knows much more about Japanese Garage Bands of the 60s than me. I checked some of them on the link but I don’t think I’ve heard them. Of course I knew some popular songs by the Spiders, the Tigers or The Mops.
For many years I was a classical music lover, but I remember I was listening to Aerosmith or U2, after the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Also I liked Japanese girls rock band like Princess Princess or SHOW-YA before Puffy AmiYumi.
September 15th, 2007 at 10:06 pmI am, at this moment, downloading from a friend of mine, “Love Peace and Poetry Vol.4: Japanese Psychedelic Rock” just… because. The Mops are on that one. Either I’ll like it or not. I can’t imagine Japanese Psychedelic, though. I’m imagining it’ll all sound a lot more fun and produced than the Western psychedelic 20-minute-guitar-solo-soaked-in-drugs-and-booze-maaaaan stuff I usually associate with that musical term.
Growing up, stuck in the suburbs, I was stuck with awful AM radio. I’d be constantly playing with the buttons trying to get Motown or anything black. Instead? Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Olivia Newton John, Genesis, Charlebois. René Simard and even extremely young Celine Dion and other bleeeeek. Is it any wonder I swung right into punk and then found a footing in mod and soul and jazz and French music hall (Charles Trenet, Edith Piaf stuff)?
Now? Um… yeah. Last few years have been internet radio stations with songs that are melodic and sampled and there’s no need to remember the name of the band because they don’t have ‘lead singers’ anyway and every song is different (and on techno/ambiant/chill jazz compilation CD somewhere). I classify it as ‘cool music for the chilly disaffected’.
OK. I bought the last Arcade Fire and Stars (just a coincidence they’re continuing a long tradition of mine of actually liking hometown bands). I was just thrilled to death a couple of days ago when I tracked down someone selling a 12″ vinyl record by a Montreal dance group that released only that one record in 1981 and convinced the seller that, you know… I’m not interested $73-worth he wanted but I’d trade him some other stuff for an .mp3-ized version.
Pizzicato Five - saw them ten years ago in a small club. Pure pop (and a lot of costume changes) but bouncy and a hell of a lot of fun. But JPop. No. No. No.
I’m still searching for some interesting Japanese internet radio stations with a weird and wonderful music playlist, if anyone knows of any.
September 20th, 2007 at 1:39 pmShow-Ya performed Rock’n Roll (Cover of Led Zeppelin) in Los Angels 90.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTPTOAdhx6Y&mode=related&search
Show-Ya is back ! LIVE 2006 ( Geikai Lovers ) Still so hot !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg4X5ZdnHEY&mode=related&search
By the way ” PUFFY TOUR 2007 honeysweeper ” is announced.
September 20th, 2007 at 8:30 pmhttp://puffyamiyumiworld.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=217965a6b7890e901132265610bed2db&topic=24.0