japrocksampler

been spending a fair amount of time today on brit writer-muso julian cope's head heritage site, 'cos that's where dan mcguire told me he found a lot of the obscure-but-ass-blistering bands over whose sounds he flowed his verse on the jamnation ceedee. cope's a perceptive writer-fan who always goes too far in his analysis (f'rinstance, he likens sleep's relationship to black sabbath with the doors' to the zombies' "she's not there" -- brilliant!), which makes him _right up my alley_.

i was impressed that dan's musical antennae are finely-tuned enough for him to be hip to fort worth outfits like blood of the sun and yeti as well as obscuro japanese bands like blues creation, white heaven, and fushitsusha. was even more impressed to see that cope's albums of the month have included recs by the tokyo kid brothers (whose rock musical golden bat i saw off broadway wa-a-ay back in 1970) and the flower travelin' band (yet another band that jon teague pulled my coat to). however, when i went to check out the articles on cope's site, i found that they'd been removed because cope's updating them for inclusion in his forthcoming book japrocksampler: how the postwar japanese blew their minds on rock 'n' roll (due to be pubbed in the u.k. in september). looks like essential reading.

here's a latter-day clip of flower travelin' band frontguy akira "joe" yamanaka performing a toon from their best-known alb, satori.