Technically Speaking

Half Japanese, is not only a term for someone that is born with half Japanese parents and half something else, but also is a band that I never knew existed. So maybe I’ve been blinded by the capitalism of the recording industry that hid such bands that Penn Gilette and Kurt Cobain were huge fans of.

Fans of Half Japanese include Penn Jillette, who helped the band release some of their albums on his label, 50 Skidillion Watts, and Kurt Cobain, who had them open for Nirvana on the group’s 1993 tour. According to reports, Cobain was wearing a Half Japanese t-shirt when he died.

After all the guests left the house last evening for the Christmas gathering that is hosted here, I started watching some television and came across this show on the Documentary channel: Half Japanese : The Band That Would Be King
– and it left me digging for more about this band this morning.

By reading the above wiki article, you would think they are pretty much done, but think again. Here is a picture from that page that shows them playing SXSW 2008:

Jad Fair has his own page where you can actually get him to write a song for $300 upon request. There is a pretty active fan page, as well as a MySpace page.

Technically Speaking, Half Japanese are the poster children of everything that was wrong with the recording industry that now is finally falling on their own swords of greed and mis-management. I feel lucky to have stumbled across their documentary last night, and like I always say, it’s great to learn something each and every day.

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