Shiina Ringo is great - was really happy when they finally decided to reissue Heisei Fuuzoku on vinyl a couple of years ago, since i could finally get a copy without going bankrupt.
She was the soundtrack of my life for a year around 2008.
She regularly occupies my playlists to this day. I'm glad she continues to release music. When I'm in Japan I'm going to try to find her two most recent concert videos.
What model was that Lincoln of his? Of course it must have originally been about an old hot rod (it's in the title!), but nowadays I'd like to imagine a V-10 powered Continental: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbmMwnPqbno
With all respect to your knowledge on this topic, and with the possibility that I misunderstand what "primer" means ... this seems like a deep, detailed dive into a kaleidoscopic world that I do not understand. With that said, I appreciate the depth and direction on things to try and reasons why to do so.
I thought I was doing well with Shonen Knife and Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media, and I know how any band of any sort is an gateway into other worlds.
And as long as we're here, I don't think it's good form for Japanese Breakfast not to be a Japanese band.
I am reminded that this is part 1, and I look forward to future parts.
Agreed. Delightful is exactly the right word. I also like "Ah Singapore" and "Strawberry Cream Puff", the latter of which demonstrates the Japanese obsession with food is real.
I knew about the "Creep" cover, and there are several other pretty raw live videos from her early days out there, but what I went with was already overwhelming...
MD, my previous knowledge of Japanese music began and ended with Loudness' Crazy Nights, barring some experience of Yoko Kanno and Seatbelts. In other words, English language only. There's a lot to look into and that's much appreciated, sir!
This was a super dense, intimidating read. My awareness of the music of Japan is sort of limited to the more extreme edges. Yamatsuka Eye's work on Naked City's 'Torture Garden' comes to mind. He is also in a band called The Boredoms. He did a few oddball solo works on John Zorn's old label (not sure if it's still around). I think a Japanese band called Ground Zero released some stuff on it too. There's also this really obscure prog band called P.O.N. that I don't know anything about but they made a crazy heavy record in the '90s. There's also a drums/bass duo from there called The Ruins that made up their own languages IIRC. I think Ghost was another decent prog/metal band from there. All of the above would be described as challenging listening.
And 1,000 years ago I saw Cibo Matto open up for the Butthole Surfers.
I love Cibo Matto. One of the two members was dating John Lennon's son. I'm not sure they're still together. They released an album.... sometime in the last ten years that was pretty solid after a long hiatus.
You requested it a few months ago, so I figured at some point I should honor it. My original intent was a single article, but I kept writing and writing and... now I have 10. If our host is game I'll keep submitting them.
I understood almost nothing of that, but could observe almost immediately that this was written by somebody with a deep understanding of the subject matter and a gift for explaining himself with the written word.
this article is so much funnier if you read it as a script for patrick bateman explaining the intricacies of japanese music to paul allen instead of huey lewis and the news
great post anyway heres the only japanese music i know
The delicate green hue of Jack's substack does indeed rankle me in comparison to the bland off-white of my own, but I swear I did not murder him and claim he fled to London.
OT but about female vocalists. Do you think Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift or any of today's female vocalists even know who Janis Joplin was? Do any of them expose themselves emotionally on Joplin's level? Could any of them pull off the soliloquy in this?
I've only accidentally heard one or two songs by Tay Tay or Eilish, so I couldn't comment on their abilities. I'm planning on never listening to either of them ever again, so I may never have the answer to your questions.
It's certainly confusing to me how you enjoy this Shiina's voice. You note she's distinctive, but then admit she's hard to listen to. The few I clicked on definitely fall into that category. Maybe I'm mostly listening to Japanese music because I don't understand the language, so the voice falls in to the sound as just another instrument, with a unique timbre. Shiina's voice is a bit too much for background listening. But so is Fear, and Loathing's screaming. Maybe she'd grow on me.
I hadn't heard of the Ulfuls, but they seem to have fun like Polysics (the answer to: What if Devo hadn't changed from 1984 and were also Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSNywJ3ZjWM). Thanks for the rec!
I know exactly one Nujabes song (covered by Minmi) and Osawa/MONDO GROSSO is someone I'll get to in another article.
There are A LOT of musicians I've never heard of for two reasons: first, the Japanese music scene is so big it would be impossible to hear everyone. There are always street musicians who are suddenly popular, or indie musicians and musicians who are popular in a specific niche I am unaware of. There is so much more anime than anyone can possibly watch and still be able to hold down a job, so hearing every anime opening/closing theme is an impossible task as well (plus, well, I hate most of it). Second, my listening habits tend towards rock/alternative and my knowledge peters out beyond those genres. I can't promise I'll be able to get to, or do justice to everyone you've mentioned. We all have our blind spots and biases.
So far as Shiina Ringo's voice, I make no apologies for enjoying it. I know she's not for everyone. But her impact in Japan is MASSIVE, so even if I didn't like her work she would still be a good starting point artist for anyone curious about J-pop/J-rock.
Also, have you heard this song from our boy Erlend Oye's DJ Kicks mix? He and Eirik remixed Drop and sang NORWEGIAN. NORWEGIAN!! A Norwegian arrangement of a Japanese song by the guy who brought us Flipper's Guitar!! Eirik's delicate keys are the perfect bridge from I'd Rather Dance With You to cornelius's experimental sounds. If you ever wondered what the Kings of Convenience would sound like singing in their native tongue, we got the answer on this obscure cut.
The music sounds good coming out of my new Paradigm Premier 200B's, Shiina Ringo sounds like Gwen Stefani on top of jazz or rock. The language barrier might be a problem for me sticking with this, I have a hard time even with Meshuggah or Tool where they're singing in English. Google Translate refuses everything I throw at it, but something called deepl.com works.
Edit Alright Marunouchi Sadistic is a certified banger, similar to Skater Boy.
Edit The song immediately after is ear rape.
It's tough clicking around Genius to copy paste the lyrics when you can't read the song titles.
I came across someone maybe 15 years ago who made a pretty serious attempt at translating Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen lyrics accounting for the poetic nature of their work, but the website was lost to the sands of time.
Thank you for writing this! I'm in love with Shiina RIngo now, her voice does carry a lot of emotion and it's impressive how many different musical genres she'll cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSyCFWS5bvA
Great music and album cover!
Don't even get me started on these ladies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K8dNctci1Y
Shiina Ringo is great - was really happy when they finally decided to reissue Heisei Fuuzoku on vinyl a couple of years ago, since i could finally get a copy without going bankrupt.
She was the soundtrack of my life for a year around 2008.
She regularly occupies my playlists to this day. I'm glad she continues to release music. When I'm in Japan I'm going to try to find her two most recent concert videos.
This is pretty much the only song I can credibly karaoke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9BupglHdtM
well, this and "Hot Rod Lincoln."
"Hot Rod Lincoln" is a classic.
Bill Kirchin’s version is epic:
https://youtu.be/gsLdufJePz0?si=yImaBy8eDlh9sXln
That was delightful!
What model was that Lincoln of his? Of course it must have originally been about an old hot rod (it's in the title!), but nowadays I'd like to imagine a V-10 powered Continental: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbmMwnPqbno
With all respect to your knowledge on this topic, and with the possibility that I misunderstand what "primer" means ... this seems like a deep, detailed dive into a kaleidoscopic world that I do not understand. With that said, I appreciate the depth and direction on things to try and reasons why to do so.
I thought I was doing well with Shonen Knife and Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media, and I know how any band of any sort is an gateway into other worlds.
And as long as we're here, I don't think it's good form for Japanese Breakfast not to be a Japanese band.
I am reminded that this is part 1, and I look forward to future parts.
Hey, those are the CONCRETE ANIMALS girls. I have them on cassette!
+1 for Shonen Knife. Their cover of Top of the World is delightful.
Agreed. Delightful is exactly the right word. I also like "Ah Singapore" and "Strawberry Cream Puff", the latter of which demonstrates the Japanese obsession with food is real.
Japanese Breakfast disappointed me when I saw the membership.
This was excellent! I have a lot of links to explore. Thank you.
MD, this looks like a worthy event to take the family to and it’s not that far from you. https://soranews24.com/2026/02/05/naruto-jerseys-coming-to-major-leage-baseball-theme-nights-hello-kitty-to-take-over-a-field/
Check out “Sheena” Ringo covering Radiohead’s Creep! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uMN-WdPi3W8
I knew about the "Creep" cover, and there are several other pretty raw live videos from her early days out there, but what I went with was already overwhelming...
MD, my previous knowledge of Japanese music began and ended with Loudness' Crazy Nights, barring some experience of Yoko Kanno and Seatbelts. In other words, English language only. There's a lot to look into and that's much appreciated, sir!
Yoko Kano/Seatbelts are really what made Cowboy Bebop so much better as a series.
hell yeah cowboy bebop
I have an article half-written about Kanno Yoko and Seat Belts already. What a fantastic soundtrack.
This was a super dense, intimidating read. My awareness of the music of Japan is sort of limited to the more extreme edges. Yamatsuka Eye's work on Naked City's 'Torture Garden' comes to mind. He is also in a band called The Boredoms. He did a few oddball solo works on John Zorn's old label (not sure if it's still around). I think a Japanese band called Ground Zero released some stuff on it too. There's also this really obscure prog band called P.O.N. that I don't know anything about but they made a crazy heavy record in the '90s. There's also a drums/bass duo from there called The Ruins that made up their own languages IIRC. I think Ghost was another decent prog/metal band from there. All of the above would be described as challenging listening.
And 1,000 years ago I saw Cibo Matto open up for the Butthole Surfers.
I love Cibo Matto. One of the two members was dating John Lennon's son. I'm not sure they're still together. They released an album.... sometime in the last ten years that was pretty solid after a long hiatus.
This was a fantastic, fantastic track with Sean Lennon singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYqPaPm60TI
It was on cornelius's website, then disappeared from the internet for a short eon and I couldn't find it anywhere. But it's back, MD! It's back!!
I forgot about Cornelius, he's done some solid stuff. Also, honorable mention to Melt Banana.
Hey!! I know that one with Eye. I play that John Zorn set with Eye screeching on Shock Corridor to disturb people.
Weirdly, Eye also produced a DJ mix of the E2-E4 homage that was heavily borrowed for Ping Pong's soundtrack: https://www.discogs.com/release/1963353-Various-E2-E4-2001-Inspiration-From-E2-E4
E.D.E.N. and Just Be There are chef's kiss wonderful. This was a highlight of the Japanese indie music scene for me.
Oh man. I remember seeing John Zorn and Eye at the Knitting Factory. I have to admit, too much for me, even back then.
Tremendous!
You requested it a few months ago, so I figured at some point I should honor it. My original intent was a single article, but I kept writing and writing and... now I have 10. If our host is game I'll keep submitting them.
Amazing. There is just so much to explore.
ten
TEN
hell yeah
I understood almost nothing of that, but could observe almost immediately that this was written by somebody with a deep understanding of the subject matter and a gift for explaining himself with the written word.
Exceedingly well done.
this article is so much funnier if you read it as a script for patrick bateman explaining the intricacies of japanese music to paul allen instead of huey lewis and the news
great post anyway heres the only japanese music i know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srnyVw-OR0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJ_E1nnIoo&list=RDGMJ_E1nnIoo&start_radio=1&t=1937s
The delicate green hue of Jack's substack does indeed rankle me in comparison to the bland off-white of my own, but I swear I did not murder him and claim he fled to London.
OT but about female vocalists. Do you think Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift or any of today's female vocalists even know who Janis Joplin was? Do any of them expose themselves emotionally on Joplin's level? Could any of them pull off the soliloquy in this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd1qtirT3MU
Shiina Ringo could!
I've only accidentally heard one or two songs by Tay Tay or Eilish, so I couldn't comment on their abilities. I'm planning on never listening to either of them ever again, so I may never have the answer to your questions.
Probably Sierra Ferrell.
https://youtu.be/MekiBNW142Y?si=KK8ToLguYArePcWn
I missed the "Part One" and was therefore upset yesterday upon reading it and you never mentioned:
1. Koji Nakamura (Supercar > Lama > ill/Koji Nakamura > weird noodlings as Nyantora)
2. Yasutaka Nakata (capsule > perfume > Kyary)
3. Shinichi Osawa / Mondo Grosso
4. Boom Boom Satellites
5. Ken Ishii
6. School Food Punishment / La La Larks
7. Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas
8. Spangle Call Lili Line
9. Ryukyudisko
10. Nujabes
11. Qypthone
12. Suemitsu & The Suemith
13. Susumu Hirasawa
14. Dub Squad
15. Shin-Ski
16. Polysics!!
I'd forgive you for omitting my Japanese chiptune musicians and video game composers:
0. Yoko Kanno and her endless aliases (Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop)
1. USK [GB]
2. Daiki Kasho (F-Zero / Gran Turismo)
3. Prof.Sakamoto [NES]
4. Snail's House [kawaii future bass]
5. Hideki Naganuma (Jet Set Radio, Sonic DS, Ollie King)
6. Takeharu Ishimoto (The World Ends With You)
7. Takayuki Nakamura (Custom Robo, Lumines)
8. Sato Naoyuki (Elebits)
9. Keiichi Suzuki (Mother)
10. Nobuyoshi Sano (GitS: Standalone Complex PS2 D'nB)
It's certainly confusing to me how you enjoy this Shiina's voice. You note she's distinctive, but then admit she's hard to listen to. The few I clicked on definitely fall into that category. Maybe I'm mostly listening to Japanese music because I don't understand the language, so the voice falls in to the sound as just another instrument, with a unique timbre. Shiina's voice is a bit too much for background listening. But so is Fear, and Loathing's screaming. Maybe she'd grow on me.
I hadn't heard of the Ulfuls, but they seem to have fun like Polysics (the answer to: What if Devo hadn't changed from 1984 and were also Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSNywJ3ZjWM). Thanks for the rec!
I know exactly one Nujabes song (covered by Minmi) and Osawa/MONDO GROSSO is someone I'll get to in another article.
There are A LOT of musicians I've never heard of for two reasons: first, the Japanese music scene is so big it would be impossible to hear everyone. There are always street musicians who are suddenly popular, or indie musicians and musicians who are popular in a specific niche I am unaware of. There is so much more anime than anyone can possibly watch and still be able to hold down a job, so hearing every anime opening/closing theme is an impossible task as well (plus, well, I hate most of it). Second, my listening habits tend towards rock/alternative and my knowledge peters out beyond those genres. I can't promise I'll be able to get to, or do justice to everyone you've mentioned. We all have our blind spots and biases.
So far as Shiina Ringo's voice, I make no apologies for enjoying it. I know she's not for everyone. But her impact in Japan is MASSIVE, so even if I didn't like her work she would still be a good starting point artist for anyone curious about J-pop/J-rock.
Also, have you heard this song from our boy Erlend Oye's DJ Kicks mix? He and Eirik remixed Drop and sang NORWEGIAN. NORWEGIAN!! A Norwegian arrangement of a Japanese song by the guy who brought us Flipper's Guitar!! Eirik's delicate keys are the perfect bridge from I'd Rather Dance With You to cornelius's experimental sounds. If you ever wondered what the Kings of Convenience would sound like singing in their native tongue, we got the answer on this obscure cut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gx9sQFLvTc
Amazing write-up. Thanks for doing this!
The music sounds good coming out of my new Paradigm Premier 200B's, Shiina Ringo sounds like Gwen Stefani on top of jazz or rock. The language barrier might be a problem for me sticking with this, I have a hard time even with Meshuggah or Tool where they're singing in English. Google Translate refuses everything I throw at it, but something called deepl.com works.
Edit Alright Marunouchi Sadistic is a certified banger, similar to Skater Boy.
Edit The song immediately after is ear rape.
It's tough clicking around Genius to copy paste the lyrics when you can't read the song titles.
That must sound amazing.
I came across someone maybe 15 years ago who made a pretty serious attempt at translating Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen lyrics accounting for the poetic nature of their work, but the website was lost to the sands of time.
Thank you for writing this! I'm in love with Shiina RIngo now, her voice does carry a lot of emotion and it's impressive how many different musical genres she'll cover.
Killer-Tune is another great hit from Tokyo Incidents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC8la4l4RhQ&list=PLLPiFQO9mYWGICMFdlUHbdBQnVrvcc3WW