Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King
Posted by martinteller on August 9, 2003
This movie made me think a lot about music, which is why I’m giving it a high rating. I don’t know much about Half Japanese, although I have enjoyed a lot of music similar to theirs (and in some cases, still do). Hell, I’ve made music like this. It would be easy to pigeonhole them in a genre that I call “Incompetent Rock”… think Wesley Willis, Daniel Johnston, The Shaggs. People whose naive attempts to make “normal” music are sabotaged by either lack of talent or some kind of mental dysfunction, and yet manage to make something that resonates with a certain audience. But I think that Half Japanese are neither incompetent nor attempting to be normal. There is a touch of Shaggs or Johnston there, but it’s closer in spirit to Captain Beefheart. 7 or 8 years ago I probably would have eaten this up with a spoon, now my tastes are a bit more pedestrian. But I’m glad they exist and have fans. As for the movie, it’s helped greatly by thoughtful remarks and hilarious stories from Penn Gillette, Moe Tucker, and Gerard Cosloy. The participation of Jad Fair himself, however, is minimal, and raises more questions than it answers (most importantly, what exactly is wrong with Jad Fair?). The only bad parts of the film are a few boneheaded comments from Forced Exposure editor Byron Coley – exactly the kind of pompous, pretentious, narcissistic, smug hipster that gives hipsters a bad name. Rating: 8
