* Boredoms: (heart) (10.5 mb) | (spiral) (9.5 mb)
From Vision Creation Newsun : Birdman Records
I’m so excited I’m about the pee my pants because the Boredoms (here and here) are coming! I can’t wait. In four short days I’m about the have my blown to smithereens…and I’m going to love it.
For those of you who have no clue as to what I’m talking about, the Boredoms are a band from Japan who’ve been through so many evolutionary changes that it’s almost impossible to catagorize them. Main dude Yamatsuka Eye first gained a reputation in Japan while performing in some of the most extreme musical acts. Hanatarash, one such act, gained notoriety when Eye hot wired a small mini-digger and began driving it around the concert hall and smashed holes into walls. Another concert had him, at one point in a concert filled with flung metal/concrete, sawing a dead cat that he had found in an alley.
Thankfully, Hanatarash burned itself out and Yamatsuka Eye quickly found new musical inspiration from the rock and the roll. After being in a number of different bands, he met some of the people who would be the core of the Boredoms. Maintaining a sense of humor, when they first started out, they tried to literally be the most boring band in the world. Tuning up would take longer than their songs and the gaps in between songs would get longer as the concert went on. Despite these inauspicious beginnings, the Boredoms would end up attracting key member Yoshimi P-We who would begin to inject some life into the band. This next incarnation of the band found them verging on noise/hardcore/genre-jumping/studio-shock insanity.
All the while they were mutilating noise/hardcore though, they were experimenting with other musical styles through their Super Roots series of EPs. These EPs started to show the general public that they weren’t just some one-trick wonder band. But instead that they were incredibly accomplished musicians with broad musical ideas and abilities. These EPs form the yellow brick road that their next incarnation would take, that of a trance/psychedelic drum based band musical behemoth. The group now consists of three drummers and Eye on various synths, mixers and electronic devices. In fact, the Boredoms now view themselves more as a turntable, even preferring to play in a circle all facing each other.
Elaborating his record player concept….”We’re the motor to the record player, and where our diagonals intersect is the hole in the record.” “But we do’t think about it when we’re playing,” interjects Yoshimi. “We try as hard as we can not to ‘try’. We believe that if you don’t play naturally then the record in the sky won’t revolve. We put too much energy into it. When we’re playing naturally and facing each other, it feels like the music flows really smootly.”
(Edwin Pouncey, Wire 223)
In addition to the Boredoms, the members are also involved with various side projects.
Another intriguing (or maddening) aspect of the band (and their various side projects) is their tendency to release incredibly limited edition releases or different versions of the same album. Vision Creation Newsun for instance, was released in four different versions. A limited two cd box set, an EP and a regular release (all Japanese), along with a US version. The most interesting one that I’ve heard about is a release by Eye, under the Hanatarash name. This album was released in an edition of one and was Eye and a bunch of friends singing two songs in a karaoke booth with CD buring features. The release was packaged in a discarded plastic toy box along with Yamatsuka Eye’s cavity laden tooth! Yup that’s right…his tooth. And apparently, the cavity keep getting bigger and bigger, so it’s an ever-changing piece of packaging that’ll always be totally unique.
So, these tracks are from the US version of Vision Creation Newsun and are magnifent slabs o’ psychedelic trance rock with thickly layered drums and synths floating over the top.
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I realize that this is already a pretty long post, but I just wanted to relate one review of a rare Hanatarash performance that was featured in Exile Osaka (RIP). This one really makes me laugh.
Here’s how the show went down. There was a loud droning sound that sounded like a warped version of the Emergency Broadcast System. The curtains opened and Eye was standing in the center of the stage motionless. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with “I Hate Music” written in white letters. In his right hand he held a megaphone wrapped in a plastic bag from a duty-free shop. In his left hand, he had a metal hook shaped like a question mark which he held across his chest. He was also wearing “glasses” made out of a bicycle wrench. The only other thing on stage was a plastic bust of Darth Vader which was placed on top of a speaker. The music did not stop and Eye did not move. After about two minutes he extended his left arm out sideways and held the hook in the air diagonally. Then he walked off the stage. The curtains closed and the music stopped. That was the end of his performance. The crowd went crazy.
*note* For those who don’t read the comments, Jeremy B. has also posted a track by the Boredoms in anticipation of their live performance over at raccoon: notes and scavengings. Check it!
