Tokyo indie part 1

I'm all fired up about Praha Depart, this truly amazing band from Tokyo coming to Slovenia this week. They're playing two shows here, one in Ljubljana on October 20th and one in Maribor on the 22nd. Then they're off for a European tour together with N'toko. If you have time, please check them out. Irresistible gipsy punk? A Japanese band with Eastern European aesthetics? It's even better than it sounds:)

All this excitement about them playing in Slovenia makes me a bit nostalgic about Tokyo indie scene. I saw so many great bands when I was there, bands that will probably never be heard outside of Japan (with a few exceptions).  So, thinking about them, listening to their music over and over again, watching my poor quality videos from the gigs, I decided to make a blog entry with some videos of my favorite bands that I've seen play in the live venues of Koenji, Shimo- Kitazawa, Shinjuku and other cool parts of Tokyo. Not much words, just videos. In three parts. And there will be nothing objective in the post, just a tribute to the bands that I like.  If you want to read more about these bands and the gigs we've been to, please visit N'toko's old blog on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ntoko/blog

First: Praha Depart and my favorite song by them, it always gives me the chills.

Andersens are the band I think I've listen to the most of all bands in the last few years. Their music reminds me of Koenji, probably my favorite place in the world (besides Varanasi an Sentjernej, of course).  Small bizarre venues in Koenji where they played... My house in Koenji where I played their records on repeat every morning... My friend Ian said Onozaki-san (the leader of the band) is the best song writer in Japan. Well, I think so too:)

Melt Banana are not just a local band, they're world famous and we even had a chance to see them in Ljubljana about a year ago. They are AWESOME, the singer is so charismatic and the shows are pure punk!

Acid mothers temple were the first Japanese gig that I've seen in my life, that was in Ljubljana in 2004. Well, apparently it changed my life:) I went to their concert a few month ago (Enban summer Jamboree in Shibuya) and it was crazy. The gig turned into a bizarre hippy black magic freak out: Kawabata-san burned his guitar and destroyed it into pieces, the guitar's neck flew directly into my head, yes, rock'n'roll can be dangerous:) But I still keep that piece of guitar, it's one of my favorite souvenirs from Japan:) (oh, just a note- they're not from Tokyo, but from Nagoya)

Boris is another band that is more famous out side of Japan than at home. But they had a great crowd at the gig that I've been to. Doom/stone/grunge/rock/pop/metal something. Unique. Dark and fascinating.

That's it for this post, there's more to come soon!