From Japan comes Clams with “Sundae Bird.” The first 48 seconds are space music drone, but after that the catchy dreampop tune kicks in.
Posts Tagged ‘Japan’
Shoegazer Sunday: Clams’ “Sundae Bird”
Sunday, April 7th, 2013Shoegazer Sunday: Pastel Blue’s “Ariel”
Sunday, March 31st, 2013Another Sunday, another obscure Japanese Shoegaze band. This time it’s Pastel Blue with “Ariel.”
A lot of people compare them to Slowdive, and this songs tells you way.
Shoegazer Sunday: Lemon’s Chair’s “What You Want”
Sunday, December 30th, 2012For your Sunday dose of Shoegaze, here’s Japan’s Lemon’s Chair covering My Bloody Valentine’s “What You Want.” I actually prefer it to the original, mainly because the tonalities are more pleasing to my ear.
This is evidently off a Japanese compilation of My Bloody Valentine covers called Yellow Loveless.
Godzilla Christmas Tree
Tuesday, December 25th, 2012The search for the coolest Christmas tree is officially over. You’re never going to beat the giant, fire-breathing Godzilla Christmas tree of Aqua City Odaiba shopping mall in Tokyo.
Merry Christmas!
Shoegazer Sunday: Lemon’s Chair’s “Swallowtail”
Sunday, October 28th, 2012Here’s another beautiful song from Japan’s Lemon’s Chair. However, “Swallowtail,” unlike most of their songs, is available in the U.S. on iTunes, and I think it’s my favorite of their work.
This is the fourth Lemon’s Chair song I’ve put up, and yes, I like them a lot.
Halloween Scares: Self-Mummifying Japanese Monks
Wednesday, October 10th, 2012Next on our Halloween tour of scary and/or creepy phenomena: Mummies.
Yawn. Bad Universal monster movies. How banal.
OK. How about Japanese mummies?
Meh. Maybe worthy of a slightly-arched eyebrow.
OK. How about Japanese monks who mummified themselves while they were still alive?
!!!
I thought that would get your attention.
Meet the Sokushinbutsu:
Let’s go to Wikipedia, the source of all vaguely-accurate knowledge, for the grisly details of how a monk would voluntarily turn himself into a Sokushinbutsu:
For 1,000 days the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls.
This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive.
When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed. After the tomb was sealed, the other monks in the temple would wait another 1,000 days, and open the tomb to see if the mummification was successful.
If the monk had been successfully mummified, he or she was immediately seen as a Buddha and put in the temple for viewing. Usually, though, there was just a decomposed body. Although they were not viewed as a true Buddha if they were not mummified, they were still admired and revered for their dedication and spirit.
There are reportedly some 24 “successful” examples of monks turning themselves into mummies in northern Japan, which suggests that they were probably hundreds of unsuccessful attempts. So just imagine a starving monk, entombing himself alive, wasting away toward his inevitable demise.
That would be one hell of a time to discover you have claustrophobia…
Shoegazer Sunday: Lemon Chair’s “Halcyon”
Sunday, September 2nd, 2012I’m really digging Japan’s Lemon Chair. Plus it’s after 1 AM Sunday morning and I’m feeling lazy.
Previous Lemon’s Chair offerings here.
Shoegazer Sunday: Tokyo Shoegazer’s “Back to My Place”
Sunday, August 12th, 2012A while back I put up Tokyo Shoegazer’s “Bright.” Here’s “Back to My Place,” another long song, that starts off all ethereal but just after 2:30 in turns back into a soaring, reverb-drenched wall of shoegazer guitar goodness.
Off their debut album 「crystallize」, which is available through iTunes.
Shoegazer Sunday: Lemon Chair’s “Vividness”
Sunday, August 5th, 2012I thought the previous dose of Japan’s Lemon’s Chair worked pretty well, so here they are with “Vividness.” The beginning and end are soft and noodly, but the center is jam-packed with magisterial sludge of rich, gooey Shoegaze goodness.
Shoegazer Sunday: Lily of the Valley’s “IOK-1”
Sunday, July 29th, 2012Here’s another obscure Japanese Shooegaze band, Lily of the Valley, with “IOK-1” performed live at the Apple store in Shibuya. I think the echoey acoustics of the place actually adds to the song’s charm.
They hail from Sendai, which was the region hardest hit during the earthquake/tsunami. This tune, and some others from them, are available on iTunes.