HALF JAPANESE

Half Japanese is yet another legendary band I've never heard of, until recently with a little help from my friends. If I wanna go for the record I'll just have to start pretending I don't know who Ron Mael or Aaron Freeman are, either. I mean, why not go all the way? Pfffff, of course I can't know everything. I may look and act like I do - and I know that's very annoying and I'm doing it on purpose - but don't let that fool you. I have a t-shirt which every cool, brooding music guru must have, it says "I LISTEN TO BANDS THAT DON'T EVEN EXIST YET". Yeah, well, mine was a gift, I'll bet you had to buy yours, you pretentious little smug fuck. Anyway, point is, those are the only bands I listen to nowadays. I hardly try anything new and when I do, I run for cover imemediatly, what with all these I Set My Friends On Fire and The Darkness and...reaggae. God knows, there's tons of shit out there....

Oh, I must mention The Killers, don't I? I try to mention them everytime I need a synonym for Evil Diarrhoea from Hell and Beyond. I hate hipsters. I think everybody hates hipsters now, don't they? I think even hipsters hate hipsters, or is that not IN yet?

But enough about me.

Now. No, of course I haven't had time to absorb this band properly yet, there's quite a lot to digest. But I'm bored stiff at work and I need to do something. So I'll just pretend I've known this band since I was a baby and you'll gasp in awe of my obvious infinite wisdom and knowledge. So here we go.

Half Japanese are so cool. They remind me of a truckload of other bands such as Pixies, Ween, Legendary Pink Dots, Nirvana, Can, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Velvet Underground, Violent Femmes, Captain Beefheart, The Residents and more, all of which I have listeened to, so at least I know that. You know the story: two guys wake up one day, say "Hey, we should start a band". It doesn't matter that neither of them can't play any instrument. It doesn't matter, you see? I really doesn't. They've teamed up with Daniel Johnston at some point and it really doesn't surprise me: he can't play the guitar to save his life, either. And yet, another legend.

Speaking of legends: legend has it that Kurt Cobain blew his brains out all over his Half Japanese t-shirt. Funny, ha ha, yeah, I know Kurt is dead.

Jad Fair, the more persistent and neurotic half of the Half (does that make him a quarter?) says that the only chord he needs is the one that connects the guitar to the amp. I, among and along with other cultural figures of this century such as Moe Tucker, admire that. The balls, the dream! He never tried to learn. The band changed line-ups like I change socks, so on some albums you can hear actual music, and actually good music. I mean, it's rocky, it's jammy, it's funny, it's cocky, it's nervous, it's honest, it's heartfelt, it's ..it's...YEAH! They only write songs about love and alien monsters: that just has to be a niche.

Of course, there's a lot more to listen to and a movie to be seen (tonight!), but so far I am...well, not impressed, but I do feel sort of pleasantly disturbed from my slumber.

Oh, and check this out: if your girlfriend's birthday's coming up, if she has any sort of sense of humor, if she's into weird shit like you and if you have 300$ to spare, then Jad's your man! He will write a song just for you! How cool and warm and sort of desperate is that!? Yay!

Anyway, I don't know which song to choose. I suppose I'll go with "C'mon Baby" because I've listened to it more than once. There are many other good and better songs here, but you'll just have to dig for yourself.

P.S. the picture above is art made by Jad. He's such a renaissance man. I like it. Why can't I think simple thoughts and come up with something like that? Gosh darn, I mean by Jove, FUCK!

Half Japanese - C'mon Baby


Changed my mind, here's another one. Here's the perfect proof these guys have the same weed dealer as Ween. Although it seems that they don't even need to smoke to come up with this stuff...oh boy.

Half Japanese - School of Love