Having spent the last few years researching various different counterculture movements from the sixties for a university project, I realised recently that one area I haven't looked at is Japan. As such, I'm more interested in the music as a way in to finding out more about that scene than anything else.

Mate, Erm........

good luck researching japanese 60s counterculture in english

Get japanese flatmates. Mine hate music, so weird, they are from japan.

i//.//&./in the '80s there was Guernica, Denki-ane, Hananojoe, Daisyblue, Eyescream I././/O&that singer on 'It's No Game' on Scary Monsters, Michi Hirota.

I don't really need to go into much detail about it. More a case of simply demonstrating that I know it existed, if you know what I mean. Anything beyond that is more just a case of satisfying my own curiosity.

Just read the piece on Les Rallizes Denudes on that Noise site. They seem really interesting but it would appear that their records are a total bastard to find.

not a bastard, just really expensive.

by the way, that noise.as site is the one i was talking about earlier.

A good point. Methinks the Japanese often make things that are good rather than weird, more so than a lot of countries. I can't, off the top of my head, think of any country that produces genuinely 'weird' music, but I think pretty much any of the so-called 'outsider' musicians are joined in their mutual weirdness (The Shaggs, Arcesia, Jandek... others, no doubt).

The same can be said of the current popularity of Japanese horror films and anime. They satisfy a need for the exotic, usually amongst people whose taste is typically quite conservative. They too find it hard to get beyond the whole 'those Japanese nutcases/perverts/whatevers' syndrome.

That said, anyone whose seen the goings on at Yoyogi Park on a Sunday would have to admit that the Japanese treat Western popular culture in much the same way.

I was going to mention Julian Cope's "Japrocksampler" book, but someone's beaten me to it.

Until that's available, try seeking out a copy of issue 186 of The Wire (Scanner on the cover), which includes a beginners guide to Japanese Psychedelia.

congenital haemmoroids... japanese yeah?

I've been drawn to the 'weirdenss' of it as a young grungy kid and then progressively understood more the motivation of japanese rock, which make perfect sense. The best of it shifts the rock formulas into their hands and give it an ultra-real sheen that has simply gone missing from westerners' hands.A Boredoms interview on The Wire where they say that good food and health make it all possible, sums it up for me.

There's something quite interesting in that. If, and this is a TOTAL generalisation by the way, if the Western Underground sees excess largely through notions of self-abuse, dirt, etc, then the idea that the Japanese see it via looking after their body, cleanliness, etc, makes for a definite contrast.

Fascinating stuff.

Creativity comes from other dishes. I take it that if i won't sort out my diet, then i won't achieve anything with my addictions to cigarettes and alcohol, and i'll never be at my full potential. It's either that or death. If i ever had kids, they wouldn't be eating rubbish.

+1 on that. Absolutely!

I suppose that's why, when push comes to shove, I always relate more to stuff like Eyehategod, Royal Trux, GG Allin, Action Swingers, Lydia Lunch, Swans, etc. Makes me feel slightly better about my own failings. Like a drinking partner that sits opposite you in the pub and just agrees with all of your petty prejudices. Quite pathetic really.

Let's have a creative barbeque, sometime in the summer. Our own Woodstock.

SO LONG AS SOMEONE INVITES HER:

Hang on, that sound a bit like, in fact that sounds very much like m....:mad:..eee...

i think somebody should make an effort to translate akita's book from the japenese.
i think a huge element of japenese counter culture in the 60s musically would involve fluxux/improv collectives such as East Bionic Symphonia, Taj Mahal Travellers, Les Razilles Denudes etc etc.