Half Japanese
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Half Japanese is a lo-fi indie rock band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in their Uniontown, Maryland bedroom around 1975 - 1977. Like The Shaggs, the Fair brothers were self-taught and thoroughly unconventional musicians; their early raw, unvarnished sound careened between naïvely amateurish-sounding canoodling and avant-garde experimentation.
Their quirky song lyrics often deal with monsters and the supernatural (especially as influenced by campy "creature feature" and scifi movies), in addition to more conventional themes, such as the visceral thrills of crushes and infatuations.
Fans of Half Japanese include Penn Jillette, who helped the band release some of their albums on his ad hoc 50 Skidillion Watts label, and the late Kurt Cobain, who had them open for Nirvana's 1993 tour. Over time David Fair became less involved and Jad brought in more outside musicians who have contributed to an increasingly coherent and organized sound.
They have worked with Moe Tucker and John Zorn, among others.
The band's history and influence was chronicled in the 1993 fan documentary Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0107071/) by Jeff Feuerzeig.
External Links
- Half Japanese page (http://home.earthlink.net/~exmouse/hj/) including
- How to Play Guitar (http://home.earthlink.net/~exmouse/hj/guitar.html) by David Fair
- Half Japanese entry at the Trouser Press website (http://trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=half_japanese)
- Half Japanese band page at Alternative Tentacles label website (http://www.alternativetentacles.com/bandinfo.php?band=halfjapanese)
- Jad Fair's official website (http://www.jadfair.com)
Listening
- Epitonic.com: Half Japanese (http://www.epitonic.com/artists/halfjapanese.html) featuring tracks from "Hello"