Japan Live

On a side-street in Shibuya surrounded by love hotels is the small club Shichimencho, Japanese for 'turkey'. I asked the manager why...

Every year on November 26, advantage Lucy and Vasallo Crab 75 get together for a very touching event to remember their former guitarist, T...

Walking to Shibuya listening to Asakusa Jinta on my iPod, I had one of those moments when I suddenly remember I'm living in a strange l...

Grand Old Shinjuku Loft . That legendary Tokyo live house where Southern All Stars and Judy and Mary once played. I always get lost gettin...

I have trouble with big concert venues. A phobia of sorts. Ax, Zepp, Tokyo International Forum...I'm not a fan of any of them. Visions o...

I wrote before about the Udon Rock of Asakusa Jinta. On Saturday night, I listened to Soba Pop. The venue was Azuma Soba Sake House in Asa...

Many of the musicians friendly with the group Three Berry Icecream live in that rectangular zone in Tokyo west of Shibuya, surrounding Shim...

Luminous Orange , Rie Takeuchi's shoe-gazing, My Bloody Valentine- and Sonic Youth-influenced band, is my one of my favorite Japanese in...

The ballads of advantage Lucy ! Japanese musical national treasures! Songs like 'Koko de Oyasumi (Rest Here)' from their Memai EP; ...

I went to Seoul, after a too-long absence of six years. In 2004 I traveled to Korea together with Japanese bands like advantage Lucy , Swing...

Tokyo's biggest fireworks festival was happening, and the explosions could be heard even inside the theater where I sat. Big crowds were...

Things I love about Japanese indie music: * That after all these years, I still sometimes discover brilliant bands like Risette . They forme...

Congrats to Vasallo Crab 75 , now 10 years old. They celebrated with two other great bands, Plectrum and Condor44 . A quick one for now, be...

One of my favorite albums so far this year is Merry Go Round Jailhouse , the first work in five years by the unit Serani Poji (it went into...

Time-traveling back to the not-too-distant past again, I went to a great event organized by Mr. Henachoko at a venue called Bar Coredo in No...

Traveling back in time a bit, I went to the Asakusa Jinta event on April 3 at the Maru-ai Bldg, the venue right above a noodle joint called...

Whatever happened to Shibuya-kei? I believe I saw its remnants at the Club 440 last month. The band was Little Lounge Little Twinkle . The t...

It's a common belief in Japan that when the weather warms up in spring, the weirdos come out of the woodwork, emerging from their shelte...

Sunday was girl band night at the Club Que, but the three featured groups had little in common other than that they were all girls. First up...

I remember a few years back a Korean all-girl band played in Tokyo, and even though their show was excellent, they looked unhappy later, bec...