Visual Kei is a big money making scheme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did I put enough exclamation points in there? Here's some more:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As someone who was a fan in her teens, dj'd and wrote academically on it for a while and is every now and then now one of the (non prostitutes) invited to industry parties, the most disappointing thing to me is that there's simply not enough pissed off little weeaboos crying on the Tokyo Damage Report post (link). Dude Schultz, obviously you had to be a bit more obvious in your accusations about Kozi to pull the crazies in.

From my perspective, about half the interview rings fairly true (esp. all the stuff about the finances, the batshit fans, the host boy like rigors of the job, and the control over these bands) and half are a bit farfetched (I really don't believe Yoshiki, someone who until very recently did everything he could to distance himself from visual, is the kingpin of the visual labels. Not the first time I've heard the Yoshiki-is-yakuza rumour, though).

The livehouse situation was probably the most odd one for me. It sounded about twenty years out of date for what I knew of the vis-kei livehouse scene from exes in vis-kei bands. Not to say I'm an authority on it, but visual bands have to pay to play like nearly everyone else in Japan. The audition system was from a time way back when there were actually livehouses valuable to be playing at (aka: LOFT). While I'd say there are obviously venues visual bands almost exclusively play at, there are no visual bands that play at just one venue, "signed" to a "label" or not.

Now, I WOULD believe that record labels and livehouses trying to push out newly competitive venues would use their artists to muscle competing clubs out. If whatever bands of the moment are putting together a damn sweet bandlist every weekend over at club A, club B really doesn't stand a chance. That doesn't require a contract with the venue not to go to the other venue -- that just requires that club A throw shit/young bands a bone every once and a while and put them on as the first act for all the "amazing" popular label acts (which they do) and refuse them those favours if they head over to club B.

Probably the most concise and interesting thing, for me, was this comment from anon which sums up a lot of things pretty well:

I'm a journalist who's covered several VK bands (hey, I get paid for, and it is an interesting phenomenon to watch the scene replicate itself almost exactly in another country, complete with the exact same wierd fan dynamics), and this all sounds spot on to me. Seriously, at no other point in my career have I EVER encountered any part of the music industry as rigidly controlled as VK. American boy bands and teeny-pop singers like Britney have more freedom and control over their careers. It's fucking ridiculous, and a huge pain in the ass to deal with.

I interviewed a person who shall remain anonymous from a very big VK band who shall also remain anonymous, mainly because I don't want the poor guy to get kneecapped either, and they actually had a minder watch him the whole interview and monitor everything he said. I'm not kidding – Mr Creepy Yakuza-looking guy actually interrupted Mr Rock Star to instruct him in Japanese not to say certain things (which wouldn't even be considered particularly controversial in any part of the music industry less batshit insane). Mr Creepy Minder also looked shocked – shocked, I tell you! – when he tried telling me what to do too and it didn't work. I think they're so used to the sytem being a closed loop that it's unfathomable to them that not everyone will go along with their attemps to control everything.

If any VK fans are wondering why their bands get so little coverage and can't seem to make any impact overseas outside of their fan ghetto – this is why. They're a huge pain in the ass to deal with, and the system is so rigid that it only works when it's a closed loop.

Well, also most of the bands suck. That doesn't help either.

imawano spotting

Shibuya's Tower Records has an Imawano museum event on now through the end of the month in honour of his new post-humous release. Which I bought、 sucker that I am.

Rosie

I had a right angry rant on crazy girls in media, why I hated Haruki Murakami, and onward... and then I saw Antichrist which, as well as forcing me to sleep with the lights on, kind of blew my rant out of the water with how spectacularly Lars von Trier played with the crazy girl as a trope and utilized it for some pretty intsene psychological wtfery. There's so much to say about this, IMO, misunderstood film but it's not really for this blog. So why I hate Haruki Murakami and the madonna/whore/crazy girl concept will wait for another time.

I do need to introduce Rosie, though, perhaps one of Japanese punk's most well known and prototypical crazy girls. She is the Sheena of the scene, and her song was the first single of the Roosters, who would go on to release several albums and inspire the likes of Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, SADS, and Blankey Jet City. Rosie's story has been repeated ad nauseum in scores of other bands foreign-girl-named songs, about the one who parties too hard and is too lost to dig her way out and thereby makes her mysterious, pathetic and utterly unforgettable.

My dear friend Klara has painstakingly poured through various versions of Rosie to translate it, if you want to take a look it's available at her and Ms. Lola's wonderful translation site Nopperabou. Klara is quick to point out that the album and single versions of the song are censored and in live performances Shinya Ohe obviously intends to paint Rosie as a junkie more than a kid lost in rock and roll.

Apparently the original pressing of the Rosie single is one of the rarer of the mainstream Japanese punk singles to find. When I heard that I expected a thousand dollar price quote like so many other ridiculous holy grails of my boyfriend's, but it sounds like if you can find it (and that's a big 'if') it should run around $200.

pure rock drunks

If you didn't already see it, Patrick Macias uploaded some great Katsumi Watanabe photos here. If you ever wanted to get a good look at what Shinjuku was like before all the high rises Katsumi Watanabe is well recommended. I remember the first time I ever saw his work at the SF MOMA and wasted half the day just pouring through all the books they had of his. Well, that and trying to sneak a photo of porcelain Michael Jackson.

Gangs of Kabukicho

yazawa for never

new issue of champs road. god i love this mag!

tokyo is dead

the chuo(!!) at ten at night(!!!). happy fuckingnew year!!

[reader mail] DIY/house shows??

Since this question has hit my inbox no less than three times this week I thought I would paraphrase it for a post. And since my life is in boxes with a move and no photos are needed, it's much easier than recapping the events of the past few weeks.

The question from you lovely, crazy kids: Does Japan have house parties/DIY events/basement shows?

Answer: yyyeah, but most likely not in Tokyo.

Technically, ALL these events are DIY as livehouses rarely are the stomping ground of record labels and bands with party planners and they are largely in basements, but the core of the question of course related to the punk experience as most of US know it from the States or wherever: low budget shows at punk houses, abandoned buildings or even in the further reaches raves.

I'm going to put this theory out there as far as one reason you don't see punks taking over abandoned buildings (anymore): the scene here is composed of a lot of ex-yankee, ex-chinpira guys very mired down in the politics and objectives of alternative standards of masculinity that are very strict and as a result the scene can be quite conformist and hidebound. I'm sure if some big band started a trend of DIY shows then other bands would follow right along just like with a lot of silly conformities that you can witness but until they do (which they won't) your better bet to see any guerilla concert would be to look toward the noise and arthouse scenes or even the garage rock scenes as they're less bound up in tradition and masculinity. I can also tell you if the cops were to get involved the punk show would end up a lot uglier than any of the others on account of these same gender-subcultural negotiations.

Japanese kids on their own also tend to live in tiny apartments that are thoroughly unsuited for a show of any kind and even the dirtiest punk here hold more stringent cleanliness rules. Every now and then a punk will have a bit more cash or some old lady will try to fit in and allow for some kind of party at their place but the idea of holding a SHOW isn't really the norm for these kind of things, rather a fairly controlled drinking party. People who can afford the space who want to host an event are more likely to rent a livehouse out for the night and it's not unusual to get invited birthday parties or weddings at livehouses.

For Tokyo, the closest you get to a house party is something like:
- A studio gig. DOM in Koenji is pretty common for this as it has an upstairs area and roof access, so it's a frequent-enough sort of thing to be invited in to pay 500yen to go see some bands play in their little studios and have some drinks on the roof. That's how I saw Crucial Section the first time, actually.
- A hanami party. I've actually been at a few strange midnight hanami parties where bands set up and played, once at Inokashira Park and the other was down near Asagaya. Hanami breaks the normal cultural rules and allows for a socially acceptable liminal zone for being loud and drunk, so you'll see a lot of different groups play this up.
- At the station. You'll see acoustic groups set up a lot at the station and every now and then you'll see a band playing. This kind of hit it's high in the early 90's where hokoten created more free space to do it, but even today you might find some moments. There's a guy in Koenji who runs an awesome second hand shop and is involved in some of the more fascinating political movements around here who used to run every year for city office as an excuse to have a party at Koenji station.
- Not so much anymore, but at universities. A lot of the big shows from the hey-day of punk were performed at uni's and every now and then a punk festival gets organized at one. This is of course with permission from the uni and free and can be a bit of a fun change of pace.

Outside of Tokyo, however, options start to open up as houses get larger and the proximity between houses widens. I've been to all of one bonifide house party in Japan and it was a noise show in the middle of nowhere near Osaka. Like, farmland inaka and the house was decrepit and probably abandoned.

So yes, possibilites abound. The way we're used to in the states? No, but that's yet another reason for the gross overabundance of livehouses.