Japanese Rock

[Fookums]

I used to be into the whole VK thing back in the early years of HS. Got out of that though a while back, but all that's stuck with me is like, Boris, X Japan, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, Guitar Wolf, and Michio Kurihara.

I've been meaning to check out a couple others, like Acid Mothers Temple, and Boredoms, etc.

[ruach]

if I love Maher shalal.. what should I check out? anything with similar vibe?

Yumbo (current bass player's band), ma-on (Maher's bassoon player's band), Che Shizu (Tori was an original member of the band and still often plays with Chie Mukai)... Perhaps a lot of the stuff on Majikick, too. Many Majikick people were playing in Maher around 2001-2003, including Saya and Ueno from Tenniscoats/Puka Puka Brians.

or, for more Tori in general, you could start tracking down bootlegs and such. There is definitely enough out there...

Tori has recently been, surprisingly, reforming some of his old bands for live dates, including Worst Noise Dance to Death and Guys and Dolls. Worst Noise was reformed for the Jutoku Kaneko memorial gig and Guys and Dolls for.. who knows what. Worst Noise Dance to Death was the first real "punk" band he played in in the late 70s, which was formed by Genet (later Auto-Mod) and Gaku Torii (famous music journalist who organized Johnny Thunders's Japan tours and did so so so much more.) Guys and Dolls is scheduled to play on October 1st at Shinjuku Jam; about twenty-six years since the last time they played. It will be Tori, Mitani Masashi, and Ikuro Takahashi (ex-Che-Shizu, LSD-March, etc.) I wish I was in Japan right now.

edit: also, I recently uploaded to YouTube some Maher videos from their last US tour. I also have some videos of other Japanese underground acts: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=epignosis