website? samples? BTW wasnt the Roland box you refer to the 303? Wasnt the 909 a drum machine?

in paris, these days, the trend is focussing on fake punk kiddy bands playing bad buzzcocks rip offs (some of them played with iggy pop at a festival)
guess what? they're all under 14 and way younger than us. 80s metal being all hip these days is much more frightening.

Metalchicks - the new band from Sugar Yoshinaga (Buffalo Daughter) and Yoshimura Yuka (DMBQ/OOIOO)

The new band? Marxy, I saw them live back in 2002! Back then, Yuka actually played drums and they by far outrocked The White Stripes, for whom the "guitar/drums only" formula never worked. They still lose to Blonde Redhead of course.

Well, I think this their first album coming out, no?

I'd be relieved ifJapanese 14 years-olds had any inclination to make punk rock that wasn't based on the Blue Hearts.

The TR-909 is the classic house drum machine. The MC-909 Groovebox is the really big groovebox.

I can't help but think, however, that the old generation continuing to be much cooler than us new kids is essentially the end of culture.

That's because your brain has been infected with the Termial virus. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

See, Momus, this is a generational thing. All of us born from the late 70s experience time a lot faster than you more patient older types. To us, the middle-term feels like an eternity. If I expect to lose interest in current hipster rock music by my 40s, "terminal decline" doesn't actually need a particularly long timespan.

Speaking of the end of culture, have you read Michel Houellebecq's _Elementary Particles_? If not, check it out. I just finished it, and liked it a lot.

oh my

houellebecq is damn awful

All of us born from the late 70s experience time a lot faster than you more patient older types. To us, the middle-term feels like an eternity. If I expect to lose interest in current hipster rock music by my 40s, "terminal decline" doesn't actually need a particularly long timespan.

I have no idea what this means. Why can't you young whippersnappers speak English instead of street slang like "the middle-term" and "in aggregate"?

If I expect to lose interest in current hipster rock music by my 40s, "terminal decline" doesn't actually need a particularly long timespan.

...

Like Momus, I find this statement to be confusing.

The pleasures of theorizing aside, I think the use of phrases like "essentially the end of culture" is what causes the hairs on the back of one's neck to stand up.

There's something simultaneously shoe gazingly gloomy and vainglorious about it. Barring species death caused by any one of a laundry list of factors, we can be reasonably certain there's more to come. So declaring -- non ironically it seems -- "...the end of culture" sounds a bit over the top.

.d.

i think this has a lot to do with folks spending their teens either pre or post internet.

Well, I kind of threw the "end of culture" part in to be provocative, and I don't think that "culture" is something that will ever end. But I do think that the Internet seems to be killing off "higher-order consumer culture" or "mass purchase of sophisticated cultural products" or whatever you want to call it when people who don't understand something still go out and purchase it on the advice/authority of their media. In the West, the Internet is just changing cultural foci and this transitional period is mildly interesting. In Japan, it's transitional as well, but I still can't help but feel that cultural output has been organized solely on the basis of consumerism and the inherent organizational decision making of the cultural production firms (eat that sentence, Momus.) That's to say: the whole society has decided - if it doesn't sell, it's not worth making - and nothing sells anymore.

this is shaping like an album title by megadeath: nothing sells, but whose buying?

That's to say: the whole society has decided - if it doesn't sell, it's not worth making - and nothing sells anymore.

........

Ah, but isn't this a condition of captialism (without, of course, the Internet enhancement) described long ago by Marx? "All that is solid melts into air..." he advised us. Everything can be commodified and the process of commodification creates social instability, a loss, ironically, of the sense of 'value' and ennui.

So even this situation you describe, which seems so new in all its aspects, is not entirely novel.

.d.

I've outlined before that Japan chucked out all its traditional values to fully mobilize for modernity and state-based capitalism, and when capitalism stalled, there was no longer an obvious answer for what everyone's working towards. And without the "creative destruction" of free-market Western capitalism, the powerholders hang on to the traditional structure as long as possible.

I'm not I'm ready to say that the current Japan is a perfect realization of Marx's predictions, but certainly, he may help in the analysis in the breakdown of capitalism.

Western pop culture is assisted by residual delusions of Romanticism that have invaded consumerism. As long as people think they are geniuses above and beyond their own market sales and the press recognizes this fact, at least you have some personal impedance to innovate artistically. All pop culture everywhere is made to sell, but sometimes we get fooled into thinking the products are art. Japan doesn't have this luxury.

All pop culture everywhere is made to sell, but sometimes we get fooled into thinking the products are art. Japan doesn't have this luxury.

Since you yourself say "fooled", why don't you end with the conclusion "Japan doesn't have this delusion"?

It is a delusion, but it's a motivating one.

For an interesting take on the state of the world -capitalist system and where we are today, ie: transitional state or terminal decline, you may want to check out Immanuel Wallerstein.

That's certainly a bleak premise

Interesting.

I know you'll be moving on to new topics so I don't want to belabor the point. I will say though that the thing you're describing -- what Momus often calls your 'Japan is in terminal decline' mantra -- is not particular to Japan at all but can be seen quite clearly in the U.S. where I'm now sitting putting fingers to keyboard.

I mention this because I get the impression you view Japanese capitalism/culture as uniquely stalled and, in general Western but more specifically American capitalism/culture as still vibrant -- if only by comparison.

"Creative destruction" is the meme we're being sold but I see far more 'destruction' than creativity and companies sitting on hordes of profits, unsure what to do with this surplus (robust investment in R&D or increasing worker's pay packets are apparently off the table for most) because no one seems to know what the goal -- besides naked profit -- is anymore.

I don't mention this idly or merely from a theoretical point of view. I've worked for 13 years as a consultant at Fortune 500s and have witnessed close hand the unravellings of purpose.

So, it seems to me that if there's decline in evidence it isn't merely Japan's but the world capitalist system (indeed, if Japan, a major engine, is experiencing trouble how can it be otherwise?...if it wasn't for China's expansion, we'd be in even deeper doldrums). Of course, we must be cautious in our use of words; "decline" implies that something is coming to an end soon which surely isn't the case.

Nevertheless, I believe your analysis applies more widely than you appear to think.

Mckibillo mentioned Immanuel Wallerstein's work and I think that does apply nicely. You needn't agree with everything Mr. Wallerstein asserts to recognize the seriousness of his analysis, which matches, in some important aspects, the words I'm starting to read from the more thoughtful members of the financial profession (for example, Goldman Sachs).

.d.

I know you'll be moving on to new topics so I don't want to belabor the point. I will say though that the thing you're describing is not particular to Japan at all but can be seen quite clearly in the U.S.

Oh, I agree that it's also happening in the U.S., and while I don't have the time at the moment to get into where exactly it's all coming from, I have felt, however, that there is a unique Japanese market/cultural response to this crisis. First of all, the Japanese markets have slumped way harder than the U.S. ones - mainly because pop culture in Japan was sold traditionally to "kids" only, whereas in other places, there are all spectrums of children's and adult pop culture. I'm overly simplifying here, but there's no structural place for a hit show like "The Sopranos" in Japan.

And while others may disagree, I think that the Internet is not particuarly invigorating Japanese culture - mostly because the old-economy companies don't want to give up the reigns.

Back to the Metalchicks, what's good about them and their cohorts is that they've all tasted a bit of international or maket success and now are content to basically do what they want - which is inherently more interesting than trying to please the Lowest Common Denominator. Younger kids on the other hand are preoccupied with selling big numbers as the only possible way of legitimization. If all the current hipster "stars" sold x0,000 or more records in their prime, then kids today are trying like hell to break into that zone - an impossible task, unfortunately, since the max is now about 3,000.

First of all, I want to say I love this site.
But for this particular entry....

Well, I admit that I've never listened to Metalchicks and thus have no idea what they sound like.

But how come I got this impression that anyone from the indie scene picking up (parody) metal can be cool whereas REAL metal bands are doomed to be ignored?

I just wonder, have any of you guys checked into metal AFTER the 80's? There have been a lot of interesting things happening in the metal underground up to now. Even in Japan, which is years behind in terms of metal to the rest of the world.

Pardon my poor English.

for the doomsayers of Western Capitalism, lets take this up a few years. I'll bet the Fortune 500 have figured out something to do with the cash piles while The Nikkei 1000 are mostly still sitting around with thumbs inserted in posteriors.

I'll bet the Fortune 500 have figured out something to do with the cash piles while The Nikkei 1000 are mostly still sitting around with thumbs inserted in posteriors.

=====

What an odd thing to say...

It seems like only the twinkling of an eye ago it was fashionable to were declare the indefatigability of "Japan Inc" -- now apparently, re-energized Western bravado (a curious thing really, when you consider our dependency upon Asian capital...a sort of gargantuan credit card account) leads you to describe these same people as, more or less, thumb-in-bottom numbskulls...surely not the equal of their competitors in the West whose innovations include...well, that's difficult to say once you get beyond shell games with money, new flavors of toothpaste and legal battles to extend the use of patent filing and copyright enforcement as revenue enhancement mechanisms.

But we'll see. Perhaps events will prove you right.

In a few years, we may be living in a corporate crafted paradise a la Dubai.

i'm with Grishnackh on this one. why is metal cool, if none metal people do it? it may be a lifestyle thing. but, music doesn't have to be lifestyle. i don't much like metal. so i couldn't imagine myself liking the metal chicks. if i wanted slayer type riffs. shouldn't i just get some slayer? or isn't there someone out there doing even newer, more ripping slayer esk riffs?

It's "give up the reins", not "give up the reigns". The metaphor is equine in origin.

If you're worried that the younger generation isn't up to much, then you're just not looking very hard. Give a listen to Afrirampo and then tell me what you think about the younger generation.

Real metal is bad enough, but ironic metal is just a fun way to insult the proles, like mullet-bashing. But maybe metal lacks that class dimension in Japan...

Are there similar modes of entertainment in Japan by which the bourgeoisie mimics and ridicules the tastes of the lower classes?

Afrirampo is allright. I think what they do has been done before, but they are one of the more energetic things on a major label these day.

But maybe metal lacks that class dimension in Japan...

Anything of foreign origin is pretty much already a middle-class venture in Japan. The real prole subcultures are all very uniquely Japanese, even if they've borrowed from abroad (like ko-gyaru). Although I do get the sense that hip hop is mixing with yankii culture and building a working-class wing.

Are there similar modes of entertainment in Japan by which the bourgeoisie mimics and ridicules the tastes of the lower classes?

Kishidan and all the other yankii parodies. But they are glorifying it as well as exploiting it.

It's "give up the reins", not "give up the reigns". The metaphor is equine in origin.

I even google searched my spelling to make sure I wrote the right "rein" but apparently the guy I copied made the same mistake as I did. C'est l'Internet!

when you consider our dependency upon Asian capital..

Well, at least Japan is also in major debt, so it's not such a clean issue. Also, China and Japan would not find it in their interests to cash out their dollars seeing that the US economy would crash and they'd lose a huge market for exports.

But how come I got this impression that anyone from the indie scene picking up (parody) metal can be cool whereas REAL metal bands are doomed to be ignored?

Them's the breaks.

China and Japan would not find it in their interests to cash out their dollars seeing that the US economy would crash and they'd lose a huge market for exports.

====

Yup.

So, no room for mouthing off on either side of the Pacific as I see it. The dependency is mutual, through and through...time we just accepted that and managed our macro financial affairs accordingly.

And yet, here in the US, everyone from Congressional committees to your average Maximillian on the street seems to feel confident to puff out their chest to make bold statements about "teaching China a lesson", trade wars and so on (or, make unflattering comparisons between Western and Asian Capital...with the Asians portrayed -- if only by not so subtle implication -- as inept and the Enron-esque CEOs of the moment towering geniuses.

Imposing tariffs on Chinese goods -- as some have demanded -- will only make DVDs, Microwaves, cell phones, t-shirts, etc. at Wal Mart and nearly every other American retailer increase in price, without increasing worker's buying power...not a smart strategy for American apparatchiks to pursue.

Yet hubris often wins the day, facts notwithstanding.

Carl Crack's dead?!

Real metal is bad enough, but ironic metal is just a fun way to insult the proles, like mullet-bashing. But maybe metal lacks that class dimension in Japan...

I'm sorry that you obviously don't know anything about contemporary metal. If you only look at commercialized metal of course it's all craps. But the real stuff is always in the underground.

And I assume that Metalchicks play to an indie/alternative audience, so who's there to be insulted? They would be laughed off if thrown into a real metal gig, I bet. (Uh, maybe the Japanese are too polite to do so...)

Metal people themselves have done brilliant self-parodies. Think of the finnish band Blackthrone. I have yet to see the same thing happening in the indie/alternative scene. Maybe metal people just got more sense of humor, eh?

And the class dimension of metal is only a legacy. Even the most dangerous early black metallers come mainly from a middle-class background.

Them's the breaks.

Breaks from what?

Grish...[something] say: ...the class dimension of metal is only a legacy...

r. say: what about south america?

Grishnackh, my dig at metal was indeed unwarranted, but it was not born entirely of ignorance. Yes, you guessed it: Some of my best friends are metalheads! I'll second the motion that they have an excellent sense of humor, and I respect them for continuing to like metal even though snobs like myself hate it (crucially different from the ironic Vice magazine metal-hipsters, who like metal specifically because snobs hate it).

People have tried to turn me on to metal since junior high school, but I just can't get into it musically. The chords, timbres, etc just don't don't do anything for me, even more unusual stuff like Sepultura, Zeni Geva, Neurosis, Earth...

So metal is not my bag, to each their own. But I am genuinely insulted by ironic metal lampooning the great unwashed from on high. The fact that ironic metallers are effectively insulated from the people they ridicule only speaks to the emptiness and cowardice of the whole game.

System of a Down is an excellent metal band.

Full on Left politics and sound a bit like Frank Zappa meets MegaDeath. Also possibly the only pop (as in popular) group to have an anti-war video on MTV during the buildup to the Iraq war. Not obliquely anti-war, but explicitly so, including footage of protests.

Monroe: I looked over your link farm, but couldnt really figure out where you are or what you are involved in, approximate age/employment/etc, so I cant really address you very directly. Generally though, protectionist populism is not limited to the US and is not just the flavor of the month.

You may already know this, but China and Japan have their share of it as well. My previous assertion regarding where the money piles will go has more to do with the nature of Western business cycles vs Japanese ones. For a variety of reasons, the top name Nikkei companies are more prone to hold on to cash than to:

Expand production in the face of impending demand since that means hiring more staff which are very hard to lay off later
Expand R&D for the reasons above and also because excepting Toyota/Sony and avery few otheres, there just isnt alot of R&D here. Our pharmaco companies for example file darn few patents for new product. Whereas you may decry patents as a tool of evil or some such, they are a good measure of R&D expenditures.
Develop new service busineses/lines of business because of:
-regulatory requirements (if the beurocrats don't say you can, its pretty well assumed you cant
-staffing requirements for the planning departments (see above)

It goes on and on and on. Developing a new gizmo or enhancing last years widget is OK, but only goes so far. Whereas Japan did (according to folk wistom) invent the futures market in Osaka in the 1500s or 1600s (memory fails me here), there has not been a single financial product developed here since then. You can discount this as "shell games with money" but the financial sector is a major source of employment and revenue generator (of sorts) here. To be glib about global finance doesnt add to your credibility.

To get back to my comparison of business cycles, there is some thought that Japan has yet to develop anything like a cycle since the post war command & control model took hold.

Metal: well its not everyones cup of tea, and not my main one to be sure, but at least I know there are some flavors I can enjoy. I'd still like a link to this band or some samples. Google produced far too many results for "Metalchicks" even in katakana. A little help here?

Chris_B:

I understand why you'd visit my links -- out of curiosity and so on -- but I'm confused about why you'd think doing so (and gathering biographical info) would be a necessary prerequisite for debate since I presented several discussion points right here.

But onward.

You wrote:

"Whereas you may decry patents as a tool of evil or some such, they are a good measure of R&D expenditures."

Yes, that's right; but only some of the time.

If I create a new method for delivering medicine to the bloodstream, or a new sort of fixed wing design for aircraft those are things every reasonable person can agree are worth patenting (i.e. actual innovations). If, on the other hand, I claim to have invented "a method for selecting screen elements with a left mouse click" we're entering very sketchy waters. That's the dicey, revenue enhancement without innovation sort of patent we're seeing more and more here in the US and probably elsewhere. Not very sporting and not helpful in the long run.

Regarding the Japan/US biz cycle comparisons...

I'm sure what you say is true. In fact, I'm very sure because it more or less echoes the very kinds of stagnation I'm witnessing here -- with the local structural impediment details changed. In short, I think what you're describing is a global situation....excess profits, relatively little re-investment (when compared to the volume of accumulated capital).

You wrote:

"the financial sector is a major source of employment and revenue generator (of sorts) here. To be glib about global finance doesnt add to your credibility."

Not sure what you mean by "credibility". Actually, now that I think of it I don't have any "credibility" to defend since I'm merely offering up opinions for discussion based upon my observations, not presenting myself as a teevee style talking head or Professor of Something or the Other.

Yes, the financial sector is very large, powerful and important. Indeed, at this stage, it is in the veritable driver's seat. What I'm glib about (and what I meant by "shell games with money") are the games companies like Enron, Worlcom, etc. played to appear healthier, larger and more profitable than in fact they were. The unmasking, so to speak, of the elaborate schemes of these firms has revealed that many of our mid-to-late 90's dreams about the US economy's super productiveness and the genius of various CEOs were just that...dreams.

We should remember this as we compare Japanese and American biz cycles and practices.

Monroe: Software patents (submarine or not) are of course very new, too new to count for the sorts of comparisons I mentioned. Whereas IBM and Sun both own alot of software patents, IBM's "hard" patents far outnumber the "soft" ones. Hitachi (for example) does file a good number of patents, but overall, Japanese companies dont file as many. If you know of a better indicator to use when discussing "innovation" I'd be happy to avoid this one.

Perhaps "credibility" was a poor word choice. Maybe "qualifications" would have been better. Not to be personally rude, but it helps me if I know if I'm discussing a topic with someone who has first hand experience in the matter. In any case, cooking the books is as old as the hills. Enron did it in some new ways, but its also worth remembering that they did make a number of innovations in their industry over the years. Worldcom is an interesting case; besides the fact that they were pretty much the worst of the worst in terms of a hurt industry trying to trick investors, Ebbers is now facing real jail time. Over here we recently had a large scandal with the Seibu Group where the CEO was found to be up to pretty much the same tricks as Ebbers, but I'll bet a fist full of gold Krugerands that he never sees jail time. That however is an entirely different discusion.

I'd also be cautious comparing the transition of the US 90s stock bubble to the current situation to the Japanese economy. The BOJ has had alot less freedom historically than the Fed to do anything with monetary policy. Its hard to talk about an economy that has technically been in recession for over a decade but still maintains an unemployment rate that should be the envy of any modern nation in comparison to the clear business cycles and regular highs and lows of the US economy.

I'm not a blind cheerleader of "Western Capitalism" but having experienced that and comparing it to my experiences with Japanese Capitalism, I do clearly hold the opinion that the Western variety is FAR more dynamic and I believe that "free" markets will always "win" in comparison to command and control markets.

Chris_B:

Thanks for the reply. I do understand your points even if I don't share your (relative and measured, I think) faith in the comparative long-term strength or dynamism of the American model over the Japanese.

A little bio info to explain why...

I've worked for 13 years as an IT consultant on large-scale (or "enterprise" as the jargon has it) projects at 10 Fortune 500s covering pharma, manufacturing, chemicals, energy and so on.

As you probably know, IT, at the 'enterprise' level, is the nervous system of any business so in the course of these often multi-year projects I became quite intimately familiar with the biz practices, strategies, portfolios and general habits of these firms.

Inadvertently, this provided me with a wealth of detailed, real-life information about the workings of American corporate capitalism at its most exalted level.

I must say, the experience has not left me impressed.

I could (and one day, probably will) tell story after story about strategic ineptitude, waste on an astounding scale, 'creative' (though not precisely illegal) book keeping and general stagnation masked by bravado about 'innovation' and so on -- my pharma experiences alone could fill volumes.

So I do understand your points but my direct experience in the whale's belly, so to speak, makes me less sanguine than you appear to be about the energy of American firms -- at least at the big dog level -- compared to their Japanese counterparts.

But...Marxy's moved on and I guess we should as well.

Hey, I was at the show, too. I was searching for cover art for the album, which I got yesterday at HMV, and your site came up. Anyhow, the site is pretty cool.

My own two bits on Japanese culture is that after the Meiji Era, the Middle Class (=Salaryman Class) became so huge that it flattened everything out culturally. "Super Flat" as the artists say. Of course, even in the old days, Japanese pop culture was doing cool stuff, like cranking out Ukiyo-e's for the price of a Pam Anderson poster, but the elite paid no mind. These days, Japanese people still don't really connect fashion and lifestyle quite the same way that we do in the West, so the result is a Shibuya-kei-esque melange of styles, misappropriated from wherever the artists want, without regard to high and low.

As a result, I would say that Metalchicks is neither a parody of Metal nor an embrace of the Metal lifestyle, but merely the adopting of Metal for the sake of Metal-music, and not for the sake of Metal-culture, as is usually done in the West.

Or as SuGar says, man, Onna datte, Metal!

Also, if anyone wants to hear a sample, now that the CD is out, it's possible to cut up the tracks in fair-use sized MP3 clips.

My own two bits on Japanese culture is that after the Meiji Era, the Middle Class (=Salaryman Class) became so huge that it flattened everything out culturall

I don't think the word "salaryman" can really be used to describe anything until the emergence of the New Middle Class in the Postwar period. Before the war, Japan had great income inequality and could be hardly described as "superflat." There was a great cultural boom from the urban middle-classes in the Edo period, but I doubt this extended all the way to the countryside, even in the Meiji period. (This is not my particular field, however, so don't quote me.)

I've written about this before, but I think the "superflat" tag is just made up garbage trying to make the culture of urban upper-middle classes stand for all of Japan. The Shibuya-kei guys were all rich kids, and their "art" was more an extention of high-level consumer culture than some kind of "average" Japanese artistic experience.

hmmm not here to debate just wondering...any link found yet??? I heard some crazy Drum and Bass stuff from these ladies around 96 so interested in seeing their progression......

Eh Carl, where can we find these samples? Are there any english or Russian reviews of the album yet?