time for me to teach you about J-Rock (pt.1)

Oh, Japan. I have a love-hate relationship with this country. The nation that gave us the ASIMO robot, sushi, and fucked up tentacle anime porn also puts out a lot of quality bands, but there's a lot of shit to dig through to get to it. Anyways, I've been on a big Japanese music kick lately. I'm going to divide this into three parts: the more metal and heavier stuff, the experimental and weird, and the more radio sensible J-rock.

Part 1: Heavy Rocks

Boris
I'm convinced this band can do no wrong, since they can pretty much do everything. From the loudest, slowest and thickest of drone and doom metal, to hard-hitting blues-driven stoner rock. For only 3 members, each one is incredible at their respective instruments. Boris has also collaborated with Japanese noise musician Merzbow, guitarist Michio Kurihara, and Keiji Haino. (These three could easily have their own sections, but I'll lump them in with Boris for the time being.)


I will not die contently until I see this band live.

Ai Aso
Wata, the female guitarist from Boris, can shred. That's a fact. A split 7" came out in 2007 featuring her and Ai Aso, another Japanese girl who can melt faces. Her work isn't quite as fast or as technical as Wata's, but she's still fucking loud.


Church of Misery
Ah, yes. More doom metal from glorious Nihon. All of their songs are about serial killers. That's fucking metal. They've put out records on the same labels as Boris, along with The Black Dahlia Murder. Riffs upon riffs upon riffs, they remind me of The Sword.


Flower Travellin' Band
Essentially Japan's answer to Black Sabbath. 70's psychedelic rock.


Envy
2 parts post-rock and 1 part screamo. Their albums range from atmospheric and quiet to crushing outbursts, usually all in the same song. They've done splits with Thursday and Jesu, where Envy's sound falls in between the two.


Mono
While Envy has a noticeable hardcore background, Mono is what you'd get if you took that away, along with the vocals. I hate having to name drop, but they're among the lines of Godspeed You! Black Emperor or This Will Destroy You. 5:19 kills it in this video.


Ryuichi Sakamoto
A classical composer popular in Japan. My host family in Osaka showed me some of his recordings, and explained to me that his music's appeared in video games, movies, tv shows, etc. (He did the film score for that Babel movie that came out a few years ago, it won an Oscar or something). Good for studying or sleeping.

nihon no ongaku (pt. 2)

Part 2: what the fuck?

Boredoms
I have no idea what the hell's going on here. I'm 100% positive this band is either from mars, or the future. Or both. One of the members has the side project OOIOO, which is kinda like an all girl version of Boredoms.


Ruins
While the bands in part 1 are all incredible, I feel like this band summarizes Japan pretty well: chaotic, loud and...weird.


Melt-Banana
Similar to Ruins, this sounds like Japan again.


Toe
Math-rock. Throw in some screams and yelps and you'd pretty much have a Jade Tree or a Polyvinyl band from the 90's.


Nissenmondai
It seems in Japan, there's always a version out there for girls. This would be the girls version of the above band. Free-jazz improv rock played by gorgeous Asian women? Why yes, thank you.


Guitar Wolf
Lo-fi, distorted as fuck and awesome. I can't even try to compare them to anyone.


Dir en Grey
I'm not really into these guys as much as I used to be a few years ago. Seeing as they're a Visual Kei band. They've got a few hits I can get into, like this one:

J-Rock (pt. 3)

Part 3: 人気がある音楽

Stance Punks
I never actually heard this band until about a month ago, but god damn are they awesome. They sound like Shook Ones. Straight up no-frills punk rock, hell yeah man.


Ogre You Asshole
With a ridiculous name like that I just had to check them out. I'm glad I did. I can't think of an American band to relate them to, but they've definitely got an indie rock/post-punk vibe.


Mongol 800
They sound like Guttermouth. fucking Guttermouth! One of the first J-Punk bands I ever heard. A great find to dig up after 5 years of forgetting about them. I even got my high school Japanese teacher to dig them.


L'arc~en~Ciel
Pretty generic seeing as J-rock goes. As far as I can tell, they're like Japan's Green Day. Their first couple albums are incredibly solid for their genre, but eventually evolved into a marketing ploy for 14 year old girls. Anyway, the band did the opening theme for Great Teacher Onizuka, so they're backed by me.


Bump of Chicken
Band rules. Their early stuff is borderline emo/post-hardcore, but unfortunately turned into some easy listening bullshit that sounds like The Fray. This is from their first EP:


Holstein
Here's a J-Emo band. I could see them playing a show with The Promise Ring or The Get Up Kids 10 years ago, easily. Dissapointingly, I couldn't find anything from them when I was in Japan last summer. This song showed up on Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania, blowing all of the other songs on that mix out of the water. Hands down.


and finally...
The Pillows
My favorite Japanese band, along with Boris. I first heard their music through FLCL (like most of their American fans) in about...2003? At the time I was really into Weezer, and this seemed like a perfect way to compliment that. The band's been around for 20 years now, they've only changed members twice, and they're still going strong.

Nice guys finish dead fucking last. Being fucking fucking nice will get you nowhere fast. You move too slow your gonna get passed. I've played the nice guy one too many times. No more mr. nice guy, It's such a fucking waste of time. Why did i waste my time? dead fucking last. I'm a grown ass man not a punk ass kid, So get the fuck out of my face. Fake smiles for miles, I've got no time to play. Get the fuck out of my way, This could be my last day. I've had enough, my mind ready to bust, Who can i trust? ashes to ash, Dust to dust. My mind decays from my sinful ways. It fades away in a smoke filled haze. I've had enough my mind is ready to bust. Who can i trust? ashes to ash, Dust to dust. dust to dust. dead fucking last.

today for lunch I made a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich (on whole wheat, with colby cheese and copious amounts of ranch) and ramen noodles (with a splash of soy sauce, crushed red pepper, oregano, lemon pepper, and a packet of taco bell fire sauce).

summer's gone

Summer 09 is over. First class in 9.5 hours. back to reality.

this week has been ridiculous. this week has been a blur. i was inebriated in some way, shape or form every night this week. and between the show, working and everything else, this week has come and gone.

has anything come out of it? no, not really.
was it an enjoyable way to start the end of the summer? yes.

this fall and remainder of the year are going to be very interesting. friends are moving away, friends are falling apart. i'm still trying to figure out what i want to do with myself.

find what matters most. expect the best. be prepared for the worst. fuck what others think and do your own thing.

i want to see inglorious basterds tomorrow. 10 days.