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1960s Japanese garage band The Cougars: Trippy and beautiful B&W video
10.06.2010
01:50 pm
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Sixties Japanese garage band The Cougars perform “Aphrodite” in this beautiful black and white video. Go go heaven. This looks like it could have been directed by Seijun Suzuki.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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10.06.2010
01:50 pm
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Japanese concept cars from 1957-2009
09.29.2010
03:42 pm
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Toyota Proto, 1957

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Nissan Prince Sprint 1900 Prototype, 1963

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Toyota EX-II, 1969

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Mazda RX-500, 1970

Pink Tentacle currenlty has a great post on Japanese concept cars from 1957-2009. I’m not so sure about the Toyota EX-II from 1969, tho… Yikes!

See a few more concept cars after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.29.2010
03:42 pm
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Polysics: de-evolution Tokyo style
09.21.2010
05:18 pm
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Tokyo synth-pop band Polysics clearly take their cues from Devo, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Shonen Knife and Yellow Magic Orchestra, but they do it so well, who can argue with such inspired thievery.
 

 
More Polysics after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Marc Campbell
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09.21.2010
05:18 pm
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Female ninja magic: Vagina bubbles from Hell!
09.16.2010
10:51 pm
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This is exactly what the title says. From the movie Female Ninjas: The Magic Chronicles released in 1993.

Good night. 

(via TDW)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.16.2010
10:51 pm
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Dr. Phero, hit me with your best shot: Japanese sado nurses
08.29.2010
03:25 am
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Dr. Phero is a skit from the defunct Japanese variety show “Vermilion Pleasure Night.” The entire series is available on DVD from Amazon. It is totally weird fun.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.29.2010
03:25 am
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The Walker Brothers for Look Chocolate
08.26.2010
09:55 pm
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I just randomly stumbled upon and decided to share this late 60’s Japanese chocolate commercial featuring The Walker Brothers. So funny to see Scott Walker, eternally brooding quasi-operatic divo, happily hawking the chocolate here.
 

 
This of course made me want to hear The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore because it’s such a hauntingly beautiful song.
 
Hear/see that and more Walker Brothers after the jump…

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Posted by Brad Laner
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08.26.2010
09:55 pm
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Give new meaning to your life and watch this
08.26.2010
09:15 am
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You can’t look away, can you? Just try.

Thanks, Winslow B!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.26.2010
09:15 am
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Clap your tits for Bob Log III
08.23.2010
11:41 pm
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I’m new to Bob Log III but I’m catching up. Bob plays a mean slide guitar while singing dirty ass songs through a telephone receiver glued inside of a motorcycle helmet. He also accompanies himself on kick drum and hi-hat cymbals. His set list includes crowd pleasers like Big Ass Hard On, Wag Your Tail Like a Dog In The Back Of A Truck, Clap Your Tits, I Want Your Shit On My Leg and his big hit Boob Scotch. While a cult item in the States, Bob is huge in Japan… I’m not kidding.

Once you get past the shock appeal of his song titles and stage show, the fact is, Log is a mighty fine slide guitarist who’s earned the respect of other musicians, including Tom Waits who describes Mr. Log thusly:

And then there’s this guy named Bob Log, you ever heard of him? He’s this little kid — nobody ever knows how old he is — wears a motorcycle helmet and he has a microphone inside of it and he puts the glass over the front so you can’t see his face, and plays slide guitar. It’s just the loudest strangest stuff you’ve ever heard. You don’t understand one word he’s saying. I like people who glue macaroni on to a piece of cardboard and paint it gold. That’s what I aspire to basically.

With his foul-mouthed humor and grimy blues vibe, Log reminds me of a cross between The Fugs and Captain Beefheart with some R.L. Burnside thrown in.

Here’s a few clips of Bob Log III in action.
 

 
More filth, including the totally amazing Clap Your Tits and some wild footage from Japan, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.23.2010
11:41 pm
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Beloved Invaders: The Ventures in Japan
08.23.2010
06:21 pm
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During the early 60’s, The Ventures were one of the most popular bands in the USA. But their American success was soon overshadowed by the British Invasion. They went from being huge hitmakers to yesterday’s papers practically overnight. So they went to Japan where, for awhile, they were as big as The Beatles. The Japanese nicknamed the group ‘The Beloved Invaders’ and called their sound ‘teke teke’ music. They were the Godzillas of the surf guitar.

I have several theories as to why The Ventures were big in Japan, most of them having to do with the sound of Mosrite guitars, koto music, Zen and radioactive sea-dwelling monsters.

Don Wilson who formed The Ventures with Bob Bogle in 1958 recalls touring Japan:

We played in downtown Tokyo, in a big place that holds 3,500 people. They were lined up around the block, about five abreast. We played three shows, one after the other. People were still trying to get in. We played in Yokohama and Osaka, the big cities. Had I known we were that popular, I would’ve asked for more money!

Earlier this year The Ventures received the illustrious Order Of The Rising Sun Award from the Japanese government honoring their contribution to Japan’s musical culture.

Here’s footage from The Beloved Invaders documenting The Ventures first tour of Japan. After suffering through decrepit looking bootlegs of this film, it was a thrill to come upon some pristine looking footage. And the sound is awesome.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.23.2010
06:21 pm
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The Trippple Nippples
08.19.2010
02:09 pm
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Behold the perplexing multi-media underground electropop darlings of Tokyo, Trippple Nippple. Their stage show sounds like a J-Pop version of out-there 70s performance artists, The Kipper Kids, and features stuff like eggs, glitter, milk, blood and rotting food. From an interview posted today at the Dazed and Confused blog:

Dazed Digital: Is there symbolism behind your costumes and performances?

Qrea Nippple: Last time we were doing some guillotine things, and we cut so many heads off balloons. The helium goes to the ceiling. Yuka was crying like, “Oh I feel so guilty for killing so many balloon heads, so I drew some really wicked, bad faces on the balloons, so she wouldn’t feel guilty for cutting their heads off. ”

Dazed Digital: What were some of your most memorable performances?

Yuka Nippple: We have a lot of stories about making a mess. We played club Asia in Tokyo and our costumes were mud, just that. And we put on some blonde hair ponytails. We were just mud and blonde hair ponytail. That was our costume. It was a lot of fun as always. But in the morning when the lights turned on, the whole club was covered in dry mud. And everyone went mad, and everyone had to clean up until about 9am in the morning. We made a lot of people really upset. We didn’t mean to of course, but my bad, but I’d like to announce that we can do “Not dirty one” too! People sometimes misunderstand what we are, but we are musicians!

Dazed Digital: So where did you acquire all this mud?

Yuka Nippple: Amazing, amazing store called Tokyu Hands in Shibuya. It’s a department store with 21 floors of DIY stuff. We get everything from there. You can spend a day just looking for things. We found rice-field mud in a packet.
 

 
Read the entire article at Dazed Digital: TOKYO’S TRIPPPLE NIPPPLES: Insane electro popstresses hailing from the fine land of Tokyo talk fake tits and their milky alcohol

Posted by Richard Metzger
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08.19.2010
02:09 pm
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