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Sydney Ska and Deathrock this weekend

November 5, 2010 by

Just a quickie as my mum-in-law is in town and staying with us, and Candice aka SuperkawaiiMama is in town and I’m meeting up with her tonight. Argh – so much going on! Not to forget the Nuffnang Sydney Bloggers Christmas Party at the Bavarian beer Cafe next Wednesday.

So, for now, just a poster of the gig Candice and I are heading to tonight – a touch of ska! Actually, more than that – it’s MAXIMUM SKA!! Any Sydneysiders at a loose end – you know where to come 🙂

There are a number of ska events, notable at the Annandale Hotel this weekend..but a person only has so much room in their social calender!!

Tomorrow night is one of my fave laid back clubs-in-a-pub – Ascension at the Sly Fox. Especially as one of our fave deathrock DJ’s from the Cobweb Club will be playing – Anorexic Dead! Again, if you’re in the vicinity and like a bit of old-school – you know where to come. And now, back to re-dyeing my new head of red hair, and preparing for meet-ups.

Have a great weekend!! Have you got anything planned?

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Japanese punk and ska music. Cherry Cokes, Junior

December 24, 2009 by
When you think of music in japan, what comes to mind? Sickly sweet pop? J-rock? Visual kei with boys dressed as beautiful dolls? Rockabilly Elvises?

How about Irish Punk?

The best fun I had outside of the goth clubs in Tokyo was the Saturday we went to Shibuya to an all day Paddy punk gig.

Held the week after St Patricks Day, it featured artists playing in the Irish (or Boston Irish) punk genre – bands sounding like the Pogues, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. No bad thing right?

Yeah. Dead right 🙂

I’d researched before I hit Tokyo back in March to acquaint myself with the scene. And boy, did I get a shock! There are sooo many bands playing punk and ska that you could pretty much go to a gig any night of the week.

The bands that first prompted my interest were the Cherry Cokes, and Royal Shamrock, and ska band Oi Skall Mates, which I’d found on MySpace. I liked what I heard, and lucky for me, they had gigs when I was going to be in Tokyo – woohoo!

And so it was that, on little sleep and hungover to hell from goth club Theatic Alamode the night before, we trained it to Shibuya on 22nd March for the Wild Rover 5th Anniversary paddy punk festival day.


We weren’t really sure where we were going, and hadn’t been to club Asia before. Deciding to eat before we hit the bottle again, we stopped off at a 7-11, hoping to also get directions. We were just ingesting our sushi outside when a couple of western guys started talking to us, one Irish, one English.

They’d been to the gig and had seen the first band, but had come back to the 7-11 to eat and grab a few cheap beers. It just so happened they were friends with the organisers, and volunteered to not only show us the way, but get us in for half price! Wahey!!

We didn’t get half-price, but a good solid discount, and as soon as we got in, they introduced us around to their Japanese friends. Before long, one new mate was plying us with booze from a bottle he’d smuggled in his coat, and we were forgetting that we felt like shite. Just as well, cos the list of bands was as long as yer arm, and they were playing til late that night.


The vibe when we went into the first gig was out of this world.

Being amongst kids going nuts brought our energy levels right up, and the quality of the bands well surpassed expectations. We were told to watch a band called Junior – and they were a fantastic old school punk band. Others we saw ranged from irish folk, through to ska and the paddy punk we’d expected.

Junior


There were numerous bands playing bagpipes like native celts, and Japanese Irish dancers. They really embraced all aspects of the culture. There were even covers in punk or ska style of English songs we knew, so we could sing along. Like Junior before them, The Cherry Cokes were absolutely superb (and cute to boot!)


We did stay til the end, and it turned out to be the best day we had. I highly recommend getting yourself to a gig or if you can, an all day festival. I know I’ll be going back for more.

A fab article on this music genre is on the blog Shite n onions, here.

Bands to check out:

Punk
The Cherry Cokes
Junior
Radiots – Hiro from Cherry Cokes is guitarist
Sorry For a Frog
Stompin Bird

Ska/punk/new wave
The Autocratics
Dallax
Doberman
The Fatness (and band website)
The Japonicans
Moody Rudy
Plastic Gangsters
Redemption 97
Skaff-links
The Skabays
The Spyzz
Spiderz – psychobilly

Other useful sites:

Time Bomb Records
Tokyo Skazine – this has a huge lists of bands and venues where you can catch cool music
Punk Rock Confidential Japan – lists upcoming gigs
Punkafoolic – regular festival – upcoming gigs
Japan Live blog – alternative music generally in Tokyo
Rock of Japan blog

There are also heaps of bands within the psychobilly, deathrock, electro, indie, metal and other genres – just google search and look in MySpace to find bands you might like.

If you’re visiting Japan soon and love punk and ska, don’t just visit temples – discover the heart of the people by getting on down where they do! Go to a live gig and I guarantee you’ll have a amaaaaazing time.

(For those who need a fashi
on fix, some punk looks from Tokyo New Tribe are here and here.)

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