Writer and indie music scene person, based in Tokyo. Author of Quit Your Band! Musical Notes from the Japanese Underground (Awai Books, 2016) / バンドやめようぜ！ (Ele-king books, 2017) and owner of Call And Response Records.
Three days in a row DJing at Koenji Uptown Records this past weekend. Just went with all party bangers from the years 1978-1983 for my short set on Sunday night. No more gigs for a while now and kind of looking forward to the break.
Second DJ gig of the weekend last night. The theme was for each DJ to only play music by one artist (including solo and side projects). I chose Stereolab and, since it was only 30 minutes, leaned on the pop side rather than going hard into all the Nurse With Wound stuff (much as I'd have liked to):
A friend had a "Who Killed Brian Jones?" murder mystery birthday party tonight, so in my swinging London criminal guise of DJ Ronnie Cray Cray I played two sets about murder, death, cops and crimes to keep her vibe up on this special day. (My hip-hop game was too weak to even touch that rich seam).
For the release party of her album "Fake California Forcefield" last night, Tokyo DIY pop singer Cyber Cherry projected Chunking Express on a loop and asked the DJs to incorporate some of their own phantasms of the imaginary land of California into their sets. Naturally I went hard on the theme.
DJ set from Higashi-Koenji UFO Club last night, loosely on the theme of "town or city" in tribute to headliners Waikiki Champions and their album 街〜MACHI
Heading back from Gifu, Nagoya and Hamamatsu with treasure. Feel honestly a little violated for the prices I paid for these, but I guess someone somewhere knows how much they can squeeze me for with the right product.
Just had the first edition of a new occasional event at Koenji Uptown Records, where each DJ gets 30 minutes to play music by or connected with only one artist. For my first one, I went with Wire:
He was arrested for spraying "Free Gaza, Fuck Zionists & Tory" on government buildings. The latter part has confused some people here in Japan, but it does mean that even if you remain somehow indifferent to the genocide in Gaza, you can still support Kazehito if you simply hate the Tories.
I helped organise this small show on April 5th at Koenji Substore. I'm not sure what else our crew are up to, but on April 6th there's a show I'll miss but wish I could see at the Basement Bar with WBSBFK from Nagoya (with Anisakis, who I guess you might know, and Sugar House, who aren't bad).
A friend asked me to help out with background music at her bar night on Friday and I ended up playing an unbroken 7-hour DJ set (off my iPad DJ app - I didn't schlep 100+ records over to the venue). Was a longer work day than most at my actual job, but a rewarding exercise in extended improvisation.
My copy of this terrific Can live document arrived this morning. I had the privilege of writing additional liner notes for this Japanese edition (rather intimidatingly alongside Wyndham Wallace’s original English notes).
DJ sets from the two events I played yesterday. The first one was done digitally because I never know how long I'll have to play when there's live acts on either side of me. The second one was vinyl, which I schlepped around Tokyo in a way that reminds my why I don't like DJing vinyl outside Koenji.
Party tunes for the Sendai kids, from last night’s Waikiki Champions release party. The dirty Stranglers track jumped in there because a DJ before me played The Presidents of the United States of America’s “Peaches” and I wanted to comment on that choice. All the MC5 references for obvious reasons.
