church of misery – filth bitch boogie

heavy stuff out of tokyo. voted top 20 for the year by the great japanese music blog j-rawk.

the birthday – stupid (live)

the great yosuke chiba and his band the birthday. a great driving, semi-haunting tune. who said style and substance can’t have a good time together?

molice – ms. panic

i would feel remiss to not post this. i love the heavy pixies influence/tribute in this tune. go, go, go…

abe futoshi dies at age 43

one of my favorite bands of all time from japan is thee machine gun elephant. although they disbanded years ago, they were one of japan’s premier rock acts throughout the 90′s. they were hot enough to garner a 3 star review in rolling stone for their 2000 release “gear blues”.  a big part of their sound was guitarist abe futoshi, who died about a week and a half ago of an acute hematoma at the young age of 43. luckily for abe (pronounced ah-bay), he left a solid collection of music with TMGE and a host of solo material as well, so we can take a safe guess he lived a life doing what he liked, the way he liked to do it. the clip below is “世界の終わり” (end of the world),  from the album “cult grass stars” and illustrates why the band went on to be as big as they were and why abe gained legions of fans along his journey with us.

molice – チャイナチョップ

molice hail from tokyo. they seem to have effectively distilled every cool cool thing that’s happened in indie music over the past 25 years into their act. amazing stuff. discover more about them @ their myspace page.

惑星改革 (wakusei kaikaku) – aces high

yes, that aces high by iron maiden. wakusei kaikaku is a japanese iron maiden tribute band in the tokyo area and i think they fucking rock!

the bands name roughly means planet reform. i don’t know what that’s all about.

here’s a cool link with photos of them live. it’s all in japanese but it’s fun to look at.

marty friedman vs paul gilbert

this is a really funny clip.

marty friedman got a degree in japanese and has been living over there for some time now. he’s become a bit of a television personality. this is from some show where he and paul gilbert square off and have to play a heavy metal riff based on a draw from the alphabet.

and for those in disbelief that friedman is fluent in japanese this is a clip of him on a popular morning show.

thee machine gun elephant – deadman’s galaxy days

long since broken up “thee machine gun elephant” were one of the top notch rock acts in japan. frontman yusuke chiba continues to make great music with ongoing projects. this one’s a classic. fatalism has never looked so cool.

Punk, Japanese Style

Found out about these guys via Shugga Shugga Shug, a great site dedicated to Japanese music. Stance Punks is driving punk … modern, slick, yet the sound sticks to an English influence. Check them out with the song “No Boy No Cry.”

morning musume heavified

this is an odd bit. morning musume is an institution of sugar pop in japan. think menudo with girls (if that helps). someone threw a heavy metal wrench in the uber pop machine and came out with this. i don’t know what song it is or what, but it’s funny to me.