Half Japanese

I might have just screwed up, but I can't actually find a dedicated thread on Half Japanese here, which is insane.

They put out a new album in January? I just found it via Tidal (Spotify: your algorithms seem to have failed, though thanks for all the Blake Babies suggestions. I too now want to marry Juliana, and I completely hate my sister.).

Both of the Half Jap comeback albums are fairly great. No pun intended. I was kinda shocked that they have such a low profile around here.

there are some but only the lyric one had some traction
Half Japanese song ID pleeez
In Appreciation Of...Half Japanese "Heaven Sent"
Half Japanese live
greatest half japanese lyric

I was surprised. There are also four Big Country threads. Weird.

wtf how are there so few half japanese threads here????????

i agree the record they put out last year(?) was great

kurt cobain killed himself in a half japanese t-shirt

There's 3 box sets of the lps. I got the 2nd one which is pretty decent. Got it reduced in the HMV sale a couple months back.
Meant to pick up 1/2 Gentlemen Not Beasts.

Saw the band live with Moe Tucker in the late 80s.

How to Play Guitar, by David Fair

David (who's a total sweetheart) puts on a small, free music festival every year called Shakemore. Half Japanese always headlines. Been a few years since I've attended, but it was always a really neat experience. Basically like a bunch of grown up kids (most of whom now have their own kids running around) putting on a backyard show for their friends.

Is there even a Half Jap poll? Half Jap vs. The Fall? Half Jap vs. The Beatles? I'm kind of weirded out by their absence here.

There are more Shaggs threads than Half Japanese threads. Did Daniel Ek have a fight with Jad Fair at some point or something?

that shortened form of "Japanese" you keep using is v "interesting".

but i must thank you for directing me to look at the big country threads, found an interesting long blog post by Marcello about Steeltown.

I wish I could claim that I coined it...but I didn't.

When I was looking for a wedding band, I was informed in no uncertain terms that everyone in NY was available for a price, with two exceptions: Sonic Youth and Half Japanese.

so many great songs this band deserves to be in any conversation about great american groups

The only band to issue a three album set as their debut.

David rip

just saw the news :( RIP

Oh no . I like that video of him saying how to play guitar

RIP! I rewatched The Band That Would Be King last night, what a great band, what a couple of weird dudes

is it streaming at all?

I found a VHS copy up on youtube

Ah, good.

Jad has a page on wikip. Always assumed David was his older brother for some reason.

David was indeed his older brother.

I rewatched The Band That Would Be King last night as well, some of the talking heads in there were really on a tear lol.

It is hard to believe that Coley and Cosloy aren't in the same room the way each one seems to be trying to out-riff the other, haha

Just hit me that I have their first EP from 1977, with "Calling All Girls"--believe I traded a friend for it (giving up ?).

The director of The Band That Would Be King has the film up on Vimeo. Playback is password protected and the pw is callingallgirls. He posted the pw on FB recently to make the film available to HJ fans.

Trying everything for a search term on Vimeo...can't find it.

Found the same YouTube clip mentioned above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohLnRHFQ38Y

I was taking my pre-work nap…I’ll post the link in a bit

I found it by googling - https://vimeo.com/82474274

it's age protected though so I can't watch it in the UK without a VPN, so I just downloaded it off TPB instead. quality probably isn't as good but w/e

Thanks CP

I need to watch that too. I was just remembering how me and some university pals of mine got Half Japanese booked at the University of Maryland in 1981 and their set scared some folks.

It is hard to believe that Coley and Cosloy aren't in the same room the way each one seems to be trying to out-riff the other, haha

its so funny, watching it the other night, they sort of unwittingly create a kind of parallel film-within-a-film thats just a portrait of a very specific type of 80s zine guy. It felt like visiting colonial williamsburg or something - delightful to see them preserved like that but also simultaneously makes me so thankful that we’ve moved on from those types of guys dominating underground music