Razor Ramon HG

Kurohi-gei Kiki Ippatsu, Razor Ramon HG Tomy Sales rank : See details at Amazon.co.jp

...For example, TBS's personality Razor Ramon HG (Hard Gay), is a straight man pretending to be gay by wearing leather bondage and cruising around thrusting hips all over the place. And last month, toy company Tomy released "Kurohi-gei Kiki Ippatsu," a game where Razor Ramon hides in a barrel in which the player stabs plastic swords until he pops out of the top. Some believe if there is ever a hope of gaining same-sex legal rights in Japan, Razor Ramon isn't the best image to portray the gay community.

"We're correcting the false stereotypes like Razor Ramon that show a lack of respect and understanding and we are trying to educate Japanese people about the advances in gay rights around the world," says Hiroshi Mochizuki, editor in chief of Gay Japan News, an online media service established about a year ago that currently gets about 50,000 hits per day.

"The lack of knowledge is the biggest problem. At this point we're bringing people together."...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20060117zg.htm

Basically, Japanese people don't have the concept of "Politically Correctness" in their minds. So, offensive statements of a racist or chauvinistic character are almost routine among Japanese skinheads and CD's of White Power bands are being offered on Yahoo Japan Corp's auction site. What a shame.

Rollings

BRIGHT LIGHTS ROLLINGS Sony Music Entertainment 2004-06-23 Sales rank : 50,468 See details at Amazon.co.jp

Here's one of the well-known Japanese Ska bands called Rollings under the influence of 2 Tone. It's a typically broken English by a Japanese though.

In 1996 summer, the story had began.We started by 4 guys.Then,the line-up were Ace-K(Gt.Vo.),Suzie(Ba.),Takeshi(Dr.)&Com(Pianica).The imagination style was sounds like the 2TONE& the 3rd Wave SKA.But,we couldn't be active enough by each one's working.....

In 1999 we were lined up on the same starting line.
We got the power to play gigs as well.Rollings got to be the big band by 9 guys.Ace-K(Vo.Gt.),Hanaken(Ba.Cho.),Amb(Dr.Cho.)Ivy(Key.Vo.),Atsuko(A-sax),Usako(T-sax),Ryo(Tp)&Scotch(Tp)

In 2000 Our first recording "Gone with the smell/SKANON" was released by own label "RCF records".The format was 7inches vinyl. The second recording "Action"offered to NOCO label(Fred/SKARFACE).You can listen on V.A./SKAMIKAZE.This year, we supported the BAD MANNERS& SKARFACE in Tokyo.And We offered 2 tunes to the PORKPIE RECORDS(V.A./United colors of SKA vol.3)& FILE RECORDS(V.A./Mo'down beat)

In 2001 we released first mini album "Can't stay rude without skank..." from Gem-tone records on March.We digested 50 gigs. Ryo& Scotch left from Rollings to make a new band. So, we were 6 guys.

In 2002 Maska(Tb)& Masaki(Staging man = Skanker) joined in us. We made new album " I got no reason" from same the Gem-tone records. We offered old one "Action" to the MAD BUTCHER RECORDS(V.A./SKANNIBAL PARTY vol.2)

In 2003 We had the first Europe tour on January.(England-Holland-Belgium-France-Italy-Germany)There were really great experiences to play with the Busters, L.Aitken, the Braces, Ngobo Ngobo, the Ruffians, SKA-GAL, OOT...

We digested 27 gigs in 32 days on this tour. These days are much experience for people who came from far east place Japan.Much beer, Much Pasta, etc : )

Japan ska festival called "2 TONE TIME " was produced by the ROLLINGS.1000 people came to the show on Nov.2003. It should be big SKA scene, we thought.

"I GOT NO REASON"[EURO Vir.] was re:release from Volume 11(Germany).And we had 2nd Europe-tour between 19th Dec, and 17th Jan, 2004.26 gigs in 30 days in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands and France we had.Throughing the year (2003-2004) was very exciting with fireworks!!

Soon will be out next album named "BRIGHT LIGHTS" !!(12 songs w/2 live tracks)

Biography:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/MusicStar-Keyboard/5030/biography.html

DISCOGRAPHY:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/MusicStar-Keyboard/5030/disc.html

MP3:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/MusicStar-Keyboard/5030/download.html

V/A "ONLY IN CANADA, EH 77-81 - volume one" CD

While many consider England and parts of the U.S., most notably London and New York City, as the core of the punk movement, Canadian youth quickly became embroiled in this new breed of sound. From coast to coast bands spung up, some short lived, others around even today. The one thing in common with all these bands is that they left a mark on the Canadian punk scene for years to come.

With Canada being such a large nation, the interpretations, influences and the geographical diversity, lead the bands to create a unique and distinctly Canadian version of punk. While many of them went relatively unnoticed on the international scene and to an extent Canada due to the distances between cities, the bands left their mark on their fans. To this day, some of the bands appearing on this CD are highly sought after by collectors of punk music.

When we, Punk History Canada, decided to put this project together, we wanted a fair representation of bands from across Canada. Even though some of the bands appearing on this CD are decidedly not punk sounding in today's terms, they were integral parts in their local music scenes. These bands were groundbreakers that inspired their fans to pick up an instrument and say "I can play in a band". They were part of a musical birth where the directive was "Let's have fun and make noise", instead of sitting back, smoking a joint and being bored by aging rock giants.

This CD is a tribute to the early punk bands and their fans who persevered through verbal abuse and beatings to spawn the second generation of punks to follow in their footsteps; It is also a tribute to the band members and their following who have died along the way without hearing their songs released.

So sit back, enjoy and take in a bit of Canadian punk history. Hopefully this is only the first installment in a series of CD's that we are planning on releasing. The next one will focus on the years of 1982-1984 and the subsequent one covering 1985-1987 and then we will repeat the process all over again with volume 2, 3, 4 etc. After all, there were a lot of punk bands in Canada, eh?

Steve Cowell
Nicole McCreary
Tony van Lieberg
www.punkhistorycanada.ca

The only band I know on that CD is D.O.A. They're a typical/stereotyped Canadian punk band. But there have been a lot of unknown other bands in Canada since the dawn of the punk rock era! Amazing.

You can buy this CD at their online store.

Last year's Mod scene in Japan

There sounds like much of a mod scene in tokyo these days. Last year, they tried every possible means to persuade us to buy these things under the pretext of the 25th anniversary of the Japanese Mod event called "MODS MAYDAY" since 1981.

Tokyo Mods Graffiti 1981-2005 Kuroda Manabu Poizun Editors 2005-05 Sales rank : See details at Amazon.co.jp

MODS MAYDAY 25th Various Artists Columbia Music Entertainment 2005-07-20 Sales Rank : 4,419 See details at Amazon.co.jp

Modern World Japanese Mod & Freakbeat Showcase Various Artists Diw Records 2005-04-22 Sales rank : 53,699 See details at Amazon.co.jp

However, as Yamashita of a Japanese band called Sandiest described them as "a competitive show for puppies", I'm not so much interested in them. I believe they're just a weakness for big-name brands like Fred Perry, Lonsdale, Ben Sherman or Merc.