For the inaugural episode of the new and improved Headbangers Book Club, we decided to go big with not one, but two books on Led Zeppelin: four entitled manbabies and borderline sociopaths who just so happened to write (or, in some cases, steal) some of the greatest rock music of all time. Join us as we discuss the Great Dane incident, shitting incidents (plural), and all the other depravities in this 120 Days of Sodom for the hesher set. Please share your thoughts with us on Twitter, Instagram, or drop us an email; and remember to join us for our next book, 18 and Life on Skid Row by Sebastian Bach! We’ll be reading the first half of the book by Friday, March 11.
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Jheri Curl June: Hitomi Tohyama’s “Wanna Kiss”
Every year for Jheri Curl June, we go a little further out into the roots and branches of the genre. This year, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the more far-flung examples of Jheri Curl Music from around the world: International Jheri Curl, if you will. One such example is “City Pop,” a loosely-defined subgenre of Western-influenced pop music that came to prominence during Japan’s economic boom of the 1970s and ’80s. Not all City Pop is Jheri Curl Music; the Japanese genre covers a wide swathe of styles, from AOR and soft rock to smooth jazz, synthpop, and disco. But some of it is so funky, you’d swear you were listening to an obscure New York boogie group.
That’s certainly the case for 1983’s “Wanna Kiss” by Hitomi Tohyama. Opening with a bassline “borrowed” from Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” and a chanted vocal hook straight out of the Chic playbook, it’s as funky as music for upwardly mobile Tokyoites gets; and Tohyama’s mannered J-pop vocals add a hint of umami to those sweet, juicy JCM keyboards. And yes, before you ask, the song’s B-side “Sexy Robot” also slaps.
We have some more International JCM lined up in the coming weeks; in the meantime, enjoy our ever-diversifying YouTube and Spotify playlists below!
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Dystopian Art Party Podcast: Happy Birthday, Yoko Ono
Last Saturday, Yoko Ono turned 84 years old; so we’ve decided to take the opportunity to shout out one of our favorite visual and musical artists, who has been fucking shit up for five decades and is still going strong in 2017. If you’re a Yoko neophyte and want to know what the fuss is about, here’s our (deeply personal, 100% subjective) primer on why she matters and where to start. No hate allowed–Callie will ether your ass. We’re taking next month off the podcast, but we’ll be back in April with another KISS memoir. The sublime and the ridiculous, folks!
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