Primo and Promo! Mega score by Massimo from Italy is pictured here (and in my behind-the-scenes photos from the previous post). I connected with Massimo and his pal Mack outside of Disk Union in Shinjuku last weekend when I was hanging out with my buddy Michael. Massimo and Mack had just scored a huge haul of premium copies of some great titles, and ALL PROMO copies, i.e. early pressings intended for Radio DJs, Promoters, Record Stores and so, copies meant to promote the album.} For those who don’t know, a very over-simplified version of the record creation process. Artists record […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tokyo Record Style Behind the Scenes
Last weekend I rendezvous’d with my good pal and fellow Top 5 Records co-host, Michael Warren for some record digging at Shinjuku’s main Disk Union Shop (among the 4 (or is it 5) other Disk Unions within a stone-throw away, each one dedicated entirely to specific genres). Anyway the main shop, also known as “Vinyl Union” is the almighty of them with, believe it or not, 8 floors of music and that’s where we met Having blown through my record store budget at Coconuts while waiting to meet Michael (on an uncharacteristically cheap copy of Beastie Boys Ill Communication, which […]
Tokyo Record Style
Brian and Michael at Coffee L’ambre
My buddy Michael and I rendezvoused Saturday for a short record store hang. Afterwards, we had a couple of iced Vienna Lattes at a Shinjuku institution, Coffee L’ambre 新宿 らんぶる which I have been looking for ever since I had been taken there once about 19 years ago. My brain had remembered it being in a completely nother corner of Shinjuku and I thought must have closed down not long after my one visit. So great to see it’s still there! Will be back now that I’ve rediscovered it! Yes! Thanks for the hang and the photo, @themichaelwarren. Now I’m […]
Tokyo Record Style
Kazuyoshi Yajima
Record shops come in every shape, size, specialty, scale, sort, stock selection, spaciousness, sophistication, sound system, staff service standard, scene, style, and spirit. The “Seventeen S’s”, as I call them. Naw, I just made that up. But it’s kinda true. Sometimes you just choose a record shop based on one of these, or maybe just the one that’s closest, sometimes you choose one cuz you’re looking for something specific. Sometimes, any records store will do, and other times, you’re in the mood for a particular flavor. Record stores are a little like pizza, they’re always good, but some are better […]
Tokyo Record Style
TOP 5 RECORDS – Heroes Just for One Day
Announcement: 1 Week Countdown to “TOP 5 RECORDS – Heroes Just for One Day” – Live DJ Event and Talkshow. Music-loving pals and DJs Michael Warren, “bemsha” (Tatsuo Fukutomi), and yours truly invite our friends to an afternoon and evening of playing records and counting down our Top 5 Records on various themes! JOIN US on Saturday, June 17the, 4pm-9pm at Talking Gorilla in Shimokitazawa Station! Link here! TOP 5 RECORDS – Heroes Just for One Dayhttps://fb.me/e/RxRbYLKl On Instagram
Tokyo Record Style
Tanno
I’m truly a massive forever-fan of Slacker-Style and have been for as long as I can remember. Now I’m not gonna waste this whole post talking about the iconoclastic nature of a Kurt Cobain cardigan or the sheer fun and fuck-you-ness of some Dee-Lite sunglasses, nor will I talk about the perfect level of sneaker tattered-ness that provides a Sk8-Hi wearer with credibility, nor any discussion of Dickies or Carhartts, nor the irony of a trucker hat or oversized glasses from 2 or 3 decades ago, nor talk of any the countless nuances of a vintage flannel, self-shredded denim, or […]
Tokyo Record Style
Nana
I met friendly Nana (and Tanno who will be featured in the next post) on the streets of Shibuya last week. Both carrying records, I presumed they were a couple, but turns out they’re colleagues in a small creative company making 3-D Computer Graphics, working in commercials, advertising, events, concerts, and more. When I commented on Nana’s cool Lunar Lander T-shirt, she informed me it was, in fact, her own design and shared her online store @neko_kayo where I could get one! Cool! Not immediately recognizing the pink vinyl record bag that Nana carried, I assumed it was from a […]
Tokyo Record Style
Saqip
With the pandemic having more-or-less ended, and travelers having postponed their Japan trips for a couple of years now , Tokyo is brimming with tourists. “Over-tourism” is a buzzword being floated around on TV and in conversations, which comes with a plethora of contradictions and complexities. On one hand, it’s great to see business booming, and restaurants and bars full, record stores too, but on the other hand, the streets and train stations are crowded with lost people standing in your way, and every once in a while, you yourself get slightly overwhelmed with a bit of that entitled New […]
Tokyo Record Style
Nobuhiko
In this project, as you’d expect, you often catch people off guard. Well, technically I guess nobody is ever really expecting such an interaction like this after a recent purchase, to be approached by a random foreigner and to be asked to pose for a portrait. As I’ve often described in these posts, the overwhelming majority of people are initially slightly suspicious but willing to hear my pitch. Once they grasp the nature of the project, they essentially come around in this gradual way: “Ok, Ok… I get it… I see what you’re doing. It’s actually kinda cool. Yeah, I’ll […]
Tokyo Record Style
Sophia
I’ve read that there are over 100 record shops in the 23 wards of Tokyo. If you add all the recycle and books shops that have decent record offerings, add another 100 shops. If you add in record stores and recyclable shops of the surrounding sprawl of Tokyo Megalopolis, in which 37 million people live, there are another 100 shops. That’s about 300 in total. Pretty insane, huh? Count Uptown Records in Koenji among them, and one that certainly stands out among the others. Located right in the middle of Koeji’s famous Koshin-dori Shotengai shopping street, its cool DIY-made sandwich-board […]
Tokyo Record Style
Kerry and Yuki
Meet lovely Kerry and (and Yuki) whom I caught up with on the streets of Shibuya for a friendly chat and some Tokyo Record Style. As is always the case, they were a little suspicious at first, just as I would be on the chaotic streets of Shibuya, but a genuine shared interest in music broke the ice and we got a off to smashing start. Kerry had just scored some records from Tower Records down the road. (Side note: In case you don’t know, a few months back Tower moved its giant ~7th-floor vinyl section in Shinjuku all over […]
Tokyo Record Style
Okubo
“This album got me through a difficult time in my life.” Thank you to Okubo san, pictured here, for sharing those personal sentiments with me as he showed me his recent score of independent singer-songwriter and poet, Satoko Shibata’s highly awaited re-release debut album from 2012, “しばたさとこ島 [Shibata Satako Island]” I was unfamiliar with Shibata’s work, and even her name, however, I have seen this album’s cover and others by her, including her 2022 release “Bochi Bochi Galaxy” appearing over and over as featured recent scores by music lovers of a certain age, becoming beloved lost treasures in their collections. […]
Tokyo Record Style
Nolan
I’m not sure how comfortable I am comparing Nolan, pictured here, to… a… well, a french fry, but… the comedian Jim Gaffigan has a bit about how good McDonald’s fries are, and how there are never quite enough of them, and that moment you realize that you’ve nearly eaten them all, followed by the sad reality they’re all gone. He says in that moment that sometimes the universe smiles upon you, and that gods in heaven recognize your accumulated good deeds, and graciously grant you, at the bottom of the paper sack, one more bonus fry. Simply the best. And […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tatsuo Fukutomi (bemsha)
One can never really have enough of our good pal TRS and TRSD repeater, Top 5 Co-Host, resident PK toaster, photographyphile, devourer of books, “Delinquent” (a person who displays anti-social behavior or challenges authority as a result of listening to Bob Dylan) and DJ extraordinaire, Tatsuo Fukutomi AKA “bemsha” in our lives. Bemsha makes his 3rd or 4th (or 5th?) appearance on the stream, but always a welcomed guest (…truth be told, I started Tokyo Record Style Day just to hang out more with him.) What more can I write about the ol’ bemshmeister that I haven’t written already? I’ve […]
Tokyo Record Style
Morgan Fisher
The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner lived her days in Switzerland. The Queen of Queen, Freddie Mercury, lived his early days in Zanzibar. The Dude of All the Young Dudes, Morgan Fisher, lives in Japan and has since 1984! Keyboard wizard and maestro composer, Morgan is a bit of a Tokyo institution, and an actual living urban legend, having a long-lasting music career that has spanned the decades. He started with The Soul Survivors, who became Love Affair for their 1968 number-one hit single “Everlasting Love”. Soon thereafter he founded his own prog-rock outfit Morgan with members of […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tokyo Record Style Day Volume 3 – Hatagaya – Thank You!
Hatagaya has a special place in my heart. It was the first place I lived in Tokyo, two stops from Shinjuku on the microscopic 2-station Keio-Shinsen Line. Little did I know when my pal Taku and I traded places, him leaving Japan on a sojourn of a lifetime, and me ending mine, that when he handed me the keys to his little apartment in Yashiro Mansion, and the keys to his motorcycle, that I would become forever rooted to Japan and that Shimokita/Shibuya/Shinjuku triangle would more-or-less remain my stomping grounds all these nearly 20 years later. Back then Hatagaya was […]
Tokyo Record Style
Shinkawa san and Meika
I met my old pals Jim and Shana early Saturday Morning in Ginza where there were staying. Because our old weekend-coffee-beers-photography-brunch haunt around the corner, “Aux Bacchanales” didn’t open till 11, the three of us landed on some really lovely Eggs Benedict at METoa Cafe and Kitchen around the corner (which I can highly recommend), and right in eyesight of Leica Ginza. After brunch and having some time still to kill before needing to get back to weekend Dad duties, we took a leisurely stroll over to always-impressive Tokyo Kokusai International Forum, where we snapped a few nice shots before […]
Tokyo Record Style
Jim O’Connell
Somebody with many interests and creative pursuits is called a “Multipotentialite”. Somebody with knowledge that spans a substantial number of subjects is called a “Polymath”. Somebody who has wide interests and is an expert in several areas is called a “Renaissance Man.” Somebody who is competent in many endeavors, but excels in none of them is called a “Pantologist” or a “Jack of All Trades.” Jim is all of these things but also more than all of them. I’ve been searching for a way to describe one of my oldest, dearest, closest friends, the godfather of my first kid, my […]
Tokyo Record Style
Temuge
They say Shibuya Scramble is the busiest intersection in the world. Is it true? Could be. Two things are for sure. 1.) It still manages to impress, no matter how many hundreds (or thousands) of times you’ve crossed it, and 2.) It’s where I spotted Temuge crossing in the sea of people with his pal, both with ice-pops on a Saturday Night. I chatted Temuge there on the corner in a mix of Japanese and English and I began to wonder if Japanese was both our second languages. I asked Temugu where he was from and I thought I heard […]
Tokyo Record Style
Michael
Making an official second appearance on Tokyo Record Style is my dear homie, fellow vinyl junkie, daily Dog-Logger, Top 5 Records co-host, and musician extraordinaire, Michael Warren. Michael’s paths and my own had intersected a couple of times over both our long tenures in Japan but we weren’t really connected in earnest until one unsuspectingly auspicious post I had made about the band Phish. I happen to own a very rare copy of their 2nd release “Lawnboy” which I just serendipitously found in the “P’s” at Amoeba Records in San Franciscos’s Haight-Ashbury about 25 years ago. (Sidenote/Tangent Warning: I happen […]
Tokyo Record Style
Johnny and Bora
I just keep meeting the absolutely coolest and nicest people in the world on this project. What a brilliant little way to interact with the world that I seem to have just stumbled into. Though every person I meet is unique with totally different taste in music, it kinda feels like I keep meeting members of a sorta Secret Society, “The Illuminadio”, “Knights of the Turntable”, “Order of the Black Circle”, “The Fellowship of the Ringwear”, the “Fraternal Order of Record Collectors” and these two knew the secret handshake. As soon as I started speaking Japanese, I could sense that […]
Tokyo Record Style
Euna
t bears worth mentioning again, the word “Style” in “Tokyo Record Style (TRS)” has significance. Like in my pal John Sypal’s project “Tokyo Camera Style (TCS)” on which TRS is based, this feed is not just about music in the same way that TCS is not just about cameras, but it’s also about expressing individuality, attitudes, and fashion sense through music taste (like with cameras in TCS). Now you needn’t at all be “fashionable” to catch my eye, you simply need to be holding a record store bag. HAVING SAID THAT, I know you’re not supposed to judge a book […]
Tokyo Record Style
Milan
I’m on a boat. I guess you gotta call this one “Hiroshima Bay Record Style”. During the Golden Week Holiday in Japan, after Osaka, we took the family down to Hiroshima and the Seto Island Sea area, with a stop at Itsukushima Island to visit the famous Miyajima Shrine with the giant red Torii gate in the middle of the shallow sea, that when the tide is out, you could walk through, and when is in, you can boat through. I’d visited once before in my very early Japan days but the family had never been. So we took the […]
Tokyo Record Style
Icksun
I’m hijacking this post, after spotlighting Icksun, pictured here, who I met on the backstreets of Ame-Mura in Ōsaka, nearly equidistant from my home in Tokyo, and his home in Seoul, Korea. Icksun was carrying a decent-sized stack of recently-scored 12”s down the street, while I was drinking a “0-Beer” (is what I like to call them), on the curb watching people pass by, while my son chewed on some gummies sitting next to me. The three of us had a friendly chat, Apollo dropped an “Annyeonghaseyo” and 1: 일 (il), 2: 이 (i), 3: 삼 (sam), 4: 사 (sa), […]
Tokyo Record Style
Kenji
The second stop on the short Ōsaka record shop whirlwind was Timebomb Records, recommended by Yasushi from the previous post, where, after I explained being mostly a Roc&Roll head, he promised I’d find endless records to fiend over. He was right. A short walk from Groovenut, I found Timebomb in a downtown underground passage of sorts, and was getting a sense just from the shop signage, which mentioned “R&R, Oldies, R&B, Soul, Beatles, Stones, Garage, Psych, Punk New Wave, Alt., Indie/Pop” (in a seemingly perfect sequential order), and all the concert posters, a few pin-up girls, a font that reminded […]
Tokyo Record Style
DJ Yasushi (Sushi)
“I can’t believe I just signed an original pressing of 3 Feet High and Rising… History” – Vincent Lamont Mason Jr., AKA Maseo, P.A. Pasemaster Mase, and Plug Three, of the one and only, you guessed it, De La Soul “White Label Test Pressing bought for $2.99 from a random bookstore in Pennsylvania decades ago”, according to whom the signature is addressed, DJ Yasushi of Groovenut Records in Ame-Mura (American Village) in Ōsaka. Good grief! Test Press of one of the most important and influential albums in Hip Hop history, personally signed no less. Talk about treasure… …For the Golden […]
Tokyo Record Style
Maj
As the sun was setting on my crosstown traffic home, serendipity shone one last beam upon me, illuminating this crazy diamond, whose name I’d eventually learn was “Mai”, but spelled “Maj”, wandering back streets of Shimokita far, far away from her home in The Hauge. Her crimson clothes and fair hair starkly contrasted the muted neighbor tones of Tokyo, and the evident inquisitiveness of her stride and gaze, and the proximity of the encounter to curiously-curated Pianola Records, all of which I was synthesizing in a matter of seconds, gave me no doubt that she was very likely a little […]
Tokyo Record Style
Ryodai
Having been a photographer for nearly 3 decades, I’ve come in and out of hundreds of spells of inspiration or slumps of creative blocks, too many episodes to count. Sometimes I’ll go weeks without even picking up a camera, and other times I won’t dare make a 10-minute run to the supermarket without. Inasmuch, I juggle several other Instagram accounts that are in various states of activeness or hibernation, I have @BrianScottPeterson which I’d say is my main feed, which has inadvertently also become the default catchall feed for another project, Photohoku, but I try to make it about me […]
Tokyo Record Style
Sachie
Sachie and her friend were at the edge of Shibuya when I spotted that distinctive yellow-orange Tower Records bag from the corner of my eye. As I got closer, I could see that, although it was a 12” records-style bag, it seemed to be filled with something other than records. Tower Records is a popular place to buy not just records, but CDs, books, posters, and all manner of music goods, and judging by the blocky shape of the contents in her bag, I guessed it wasn’t a poster or a book, but perhaps a CD box-set of sorts. Despite […]
Tokyo Record Style
Taiki
Hey, Taiki! Nice to meet you! You’re Tokyo Record Style’s 100th post! Thanks so much for chatting me up and being such a friendly face. And thanks for sharing your time and your M.O.P. score with me. I was totally unfamiliar with M.O.P. (Mash Out Posse), American hip-hop duo comprised of rappers Billy Danze and Lil’ Fame but after listening to a few tracks off the Warriors record, I’m taken back to a time in my life, a couple summers in the mid to late 80’s where I listened to nothing but gangsta rap, hardcore hip-hop, the artists that found […]
Tokyo Record Style
Hideaki
Just as I was about to turn the last corner out of Shimokitazawa, right at the end of Ichibangai, I saw Hideaki rounding the corner carrying a Disk Union bag and I flipped on the Tokyo Record Style switch again. “Hi there! (Huge smile/non-threatenings stance) Are those records?” “Ummm, yeah?…” (slight suspicion) “Niiice, I collect records too! I’m also a cameraman” (point to camera bag) ”I do this project called Tokyo Record Style” (bust out on-the-ready phone) “where I make photos of people with their recently scored records” (scroll past a couple dozen portraits) “and your record bag caught my […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tokyo Record Style Day – Volume 3 – Hatagaya
Record collecting friends! Brian here, representing Tokyo Record Style!! Announcing “Tokyo Record Style Day – Volume 3 – Hatagaya!!” Join us for another Sunday afternoon of crate-digging with homies in local Tokyo neighborhoods, where gems and grails await us in clusters of awesome record shops! Score LPs, EPs, 10”s or CDs! Tapes? Reel-to-reels? 8-Tracks? We don’t judge! Just come celebrate your love for physical media and good ‘ol record shop culture! Pose for a photograph in your styley-est digs and with your Record Store scores, and make your mark on Tokyo Record Style!! The Hatagya area has a couple of […]
Tokyo Record Style
Mikuna
Never has the style of the person so perfectly matched the records scored. This is Mikuna who I spotted with Takumi in Shimokitazawa. These two were nothing but smiles, and when I asked their ages, they confirmed what I keep suspecting, and that is that for every middle-aged collector who never stopped collecting records (I guess me, am I middle-aged?) or every made-of-money Boomer now re-collecting, for ridiculous prices at that, all the records from their youth, there are twice as many 20-something gen Zer’s out there buying vinyl. “Why?” I keep asking them? None of their answers are wrong […]
Tokyo Record Style
aCYy
Disk Union in Kichijoji’s Parco opens at 10am. I think it might be the earliest-opening record store in Tokyo where shops typically open at Noon, 1pm, or even 3pm. If I had a record shop, I’d try to be open 24 hours. I love the idea of visiting records shops super early in the morning, or really late at night. Because it’s the Golden Week Holiday in Japan, I because I had one extra special free day off, where everybody was at school or at work, I wanted to make the most of the day and get an early start, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Chaz
Zig-Zagging home through the streets of Shibuya, Chaz’s Supreme Jersey, White Polo bucket hat and record bag caught my eye. Then I noticed that the tote bag his wife, Nana, was carrying was one of those heavy canvas incognito Disk Union bags. “Sumimasen? Disuku Yunion no baggu desu ka? Naka ni rekōdo haitemasu ka? Watashi mo rekōdo daisuki. Rekōdo o katta bakari no hito-tachi no shashin wo toru kameraman desu. `Tokyo Record Style’ to iu boku no insutaguramu desu. Shashin totte mo īdesu ka?” “We’re Korean.” “Annyeonghaseyo!” (Laughter) “…that’s about all the Korean I know …and Gamsahabnida (Thank You). Is […]
Tokyo Record Style
Keesh
I met Keesh and crew in Shinjuku outside of Disk Union. His lovely wife Tama was waiting outside with a trolly full of vinyl while he and the scratch brothers, Haruto and Keito (stay tuned for the next post) were inside the shop. Right as I approached Tama, who easily looked the DJ part, for the Tokyo Record Style pitch, out came the Keesh with half an eyebrow ever-so-slightly raised in natural suspicion about this strange foreigner chatting up his wife who has been guarding a crate-full of records. (Japan IS as safe as a society can be, but this […]
Tokyo Record Style
Haruto
Believe it or not, DJ Haruto pictured here is 13 years old. He was hanging out with DJ Keesh when I met them in front of Disk Union in Shinjuku. Despite being just 13 years old and never having lived overseas, Haruto was speaking English with me. When I asked him how he learned English, he answered with cool confidence, “I’m just trying” …man, that alone made quite an impression on me. But Haruto would end up making an even bigger impression on me when he told me that he is a scratch DJ and that he has been scratch […]
Tokyo Record Style
Sho
In front of Coconuts, as I was talking and making photos of Ayato and Kumpei from the last two posts, out walks Sho with a record in his hand which I caught in the corner of my eye. I turned to glance to wonder if I could catch him too for Tokyo Record Style, but busy already photographing these gents, I turned my focus back to them as Sho walked off. Then Kumpei mentioned in passing, “That’s my buddy, Sho” Surprised, I said, “I think he’s about to walk off without you.” “Oh, he’s not with us today. Just a […]
Tokyo Record Style
Kumpei (Ricca)
So Kumpei was standing with Ayato in the Coconuts cul-de-sac when I approached Ayato about his Mamiya RB67. As soon as Ayato told me his name, I jotted it down in my note app, but it kept auto-correcting as Ayata, which is the name of one of my twin nephew pals. And then Kumpei told me his name, but before also jotting it down, I lit up – PEI – KumPEI! You see, “P” while IN the name “Ja’P’an”, or the Japanese pronunciation “Ni’PP’on” is an ever-so-slightly rare sound in Japanese, certain in names. This is just a personal observation, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Ayato
I live in a quiet, little-known, neighborhoodly pocket of Tokyo, surrounded by parks, schools, libraries, market streets, and a couple of quite winding little rivers. I’m less than 10 minutes to Shimokitazawa in one direction on the Inokashira line, and the same to Kichijoji in the opposite direction. Shimokita is one of those neighborhoods that is increasingly being ranked as one of “The World’s Coolest Neighborhoods,” and for a lot of reasons, it’s a deserving title. It’s honestly one of the reasons I moved to Tokyo in the first place, I wanted to live IN Shimokita, and I did for […]
Tokyo Record Style
Takumi, Seia, and Tetsu
How can you see a character like Takumi (not to mention his two cohorts Saia and Tetsu) in a record shop and not want to make his portrait! Talk about photogenic! I spotted these three inside Coconuts and wanted to make each their portraits, not realizing they were pals until they walked out together. Takumi &Co were instantly receptive to the Tokyo Record Style pitch, and as we got to talking, I learned that while Takumi is Japanese, Saie and Tetsu are from Mainland China and living in Japan, which sparked a conversation about Chinese and Taiwanese Pop, Indie and […]
Tokyo Record Style
Nana
The more people I photograph for Tokyo Record Style, the more I realize how worthwhile this project is, maybe not necessarily for you, the viewer (but I hope so too), but certainly for me, the conduit for which all this information is flowing. With each person that I photograph with their records, whether I know the person or the music, I ask myself, “What is about this music that compelled this person to seek it out, find it amongst so many others, and take it home?” This question almost always leads me to the same answer which comes after listening […]
Tokyo Record Style
Record Store Day 2023
Cheers to an amazing Record Store Day 2023 and to a first LIVE version of “Top 5 Records” – record-loving homies coming together to spin wax and countdown our top five records on various themes. For this first special episode of T5R, Season 2, Michael, Tatsuo (bemsha), and I commemorated Record Store Day by joining up at ヤキトリてっちゃん Talking Gorilla, INSIDE Shimokitazawa’s new(ish) station to play records and to continue comparing the ranks of our favorite records on the theme, “Music ABOUT Music!” It was a bit of a test run, a proof of concept if you will, but we […]
Tokyo Record Style
Oscar
Hello, Oscar from New Jersey and Spain, visiting his buds in Tokyo, and who got slightly off the beaten path and made his way to Coconuts in Tokyo’s juuuuust-far-enough-away-neighborhood-to-be-isolated-from-Tokyo’s-bustle-but-juuuuust-barely-close-enough-not-to-be-too-inconvenient-to-call-home, bohemian and family-friendly (yeah, we have Inokashira Park …our own zoo) chilled-out oldschool hipster enclave that, those-who-know, know, forever lovely Kichijoji. Oscar was stoked to have scored Casiopea’s Eye’s of the Mind, which, I know you’re not supposed to do, that is, judge a record by its cover, but if I do just that, judge away, this record has GOT to be interesting. Looks like a GEM and in great nick! Well […]
Tokyo Record Style
Sara and Tyler
Slammed on the breaks on my way home from work, and made a hard left to catch these two standing in front of Tower Records, carrying that signature Yellow-red-orange bag. From quickly chatting Sarah and Tyler up from atop my bike, they gladly agreed to a photo, and told me they were cousins traveling together to Japan, from their home in Vancouver, on a trip they’d been planning for years, adding that after a few more days in Tokyo, they’d be heading to Kyoto to rendezvous with yet more family! Well, done team! From their vinyl Tower Records bag, they […]
Tokyo Record Style
Sean Ellis
Nice haul by Sean Ellis who I met at Face Records in Miyashita Park recently. Soundtracks, some Kayōkyoku, and the motherload of Video Game Records! Face was hoarding a treasure trove of them apparently, waiting to be discovered by Sean. It was my first time meeting Sean, though it turns out we have heaps of mutual friends. After comparing notes, I was quick to recognize that our shared contacts are friends who tend to be deep into at least two but usually more of the following subcultures: Comics, Anime, Tokusatsu, Kaiju, Soft Vinyl Toys, Thrash Metal, Idol bands, Noise Music, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Top 5 Records – Season 2 DEBUT
Music Homies! Next Saturday, 4/22 is World Record Store Day! To celebrate, my “Top 5 Record” pals, @bemsha_swing (Tatsuo Fukutomi) and AMFM2030 (@themichaelwarren) and yours truly are not only spinning 3 sets of music in Shimokitazawa at ヤキトリてっちゃん Talking Gorilla, we’re also hosting a LIVE version of our podcast, Top 5 Records, where we countdown our favorite tunes and albums on various themes, inspired by the Nick Hornby novel and cult-classic movie, High Fidelity! Season 2 kickoff theme is “Music ABOUT Music!” Join us 4/22 in Shimokita from 16:00~“TOP 5 RECORDS” – SEASON 2 DEBUT – LIVE!!! Try Best Offer […]
Tokyo Record Style
Juan and Yvette
What a supremely cool couple! Meet Juan and Yvette from Los Angeles on a trip they’ve been planning to Tokyo for ages, spotted on the streets of Shibuya. Carrying that unmistakable yellow Tower Records bag, Yvette caught my attention and I approached her for a photo. Immediately friendly, she was warm to the idea of a photo, and asked if she could pose with her boyfriend. “Of course!,” I said, looking over her shoulder to meet the slightly suspicious (read: potentially menacing) glare of Juan who seemed to be carefully, stoically, understandably sussing the situation of some stranger in a […]
Tokyo Record Style
Guilherme Muchon
Spotted Guilherm on the streets of Shibuya carrying a Disk Union bag and rawking a pretty interesting sweater. I chatted him up about TRS and in no time he warmed up to the idea of being added to the archive. His ever-so-unfamiliar accent left me guessing where he was from and as soon as I asked, he offered that he was visiting from Brazil, I lit up with excitement! “DOOD! I LOVE Brazillian music! I’m dying to go to Brazil! My old posse are samba drummers! And I love Brazilian Rock, Psychedelia, MPB, Tropicalismo, Bossa! Jobim, Astrud, Gilberto, Nascimento, Caetano, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Jeremy Freeman
After catching a social post that Ella Records had gotten in a Taj Mahal record that I had been looking for for a while, I stopped over with the intention to just pop-in and pop-out with the one record. In the short matter of time that it took me to dig through the New Arrivals section to find it, there was an even faster whirlwind of a fellow gaijin that blazed in, rawking a felt beret, an oversized neckerchief that my bandana-discerning eye suspected might actually be some sorta middle eastern kufiyya, and a heavyweight long-sleeve t-shirt shirt that was, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Bemsha
Pictured here is Tokyo Record Style repeater, and encyclopedically knowledgeable music homie, Tatsuo Fukutomi, AKA “bemsha” who is one of the main impetuses of Tokyo Record Style Day. Bemsha and I got on like a house on fire when we first met a number of years back and found out that we are both big music heads. Initially, we traded jabs with Beatle or Stones trivia or excerpts from Bob Marley biographies or obscure Dylan references, but it quickly became evident that bemsha is far, faaar, more adept at retaining musical knowledge than me, on all genres and all manners […]
Tokyo Record Style
Koyo
This cool cat is Koyo who I met through my friend Paramitha (Hi Mitha chan!) who I met through Photohoku and the other photography community projects I host. Paramitha is an Indonesian fashion designer whose most recent collection I photographed a few weeks back, during which Koyo was one of the models (notice Koyo’s striking good looks!) During the shoot, Mitha, being the bubbly spirit that is, talked up Tokyo Record Style quite a lot, and mentioned TRS Day, so here we are! The circle of friends grows bigger! The community photo projects I organizing (outside of this particular one) […]
Tokyo Record Style
Ren and Yukina
I’m so thrilled that getting to commemorate moments like these is part of Tokyo Record Style. It’s capturing a rite of passage …but what makes the dive into the world of records a rite of passage? Well, it’s kind of a personal declaration to one’s self, that music is more to us than just something you hear on the radio, more than just the background sound of a moment, more than something that just fills your ears with even song. It’s deciding that music is for listening, not just for hearing. It’s putting one’s self into the role of active, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Miho Jonishi
This is one of those individuals whose mere presence makes any and all molecules in her immediate vicinity, I suspect everywhere she goes, begin to vibrate with excitement, whose high-voltage smile on the street demands a double-take, whose coolness, if you’re lucky enough to be acquainted, makes YOU feel cool, who not only has aura, but who IS aura – the incredibly talented and supremely hep Jazz vocalist from Sapporo/Sydney/NewYork/Tokyo, Miho Jonishi. Beyond this firecrackin’ bang of character and charisma I mention, she is also a most soulful vocalist, with a deeply nuanced and signature voice that I highly recommend […]
Tokyo Record Style
Takeshi Shimizu
Making a 2nd appearance (of I hope many more) DJ Takeshi Shimizu joined for another Tokyo Record Style Day. I was delighted that he managed to recruit a partner in crime for the occasion, 70’s UK Punk aficionado Kae san who somehow managed to evade my camera excepting the “grouphies” we took. Well, Shimizu san’s Smiths’ The Queen is Dead score and Marlene’s Just a Woman album (a version I couldn’t find on Discogs) didn’t meet the same fate, nor did Shimizu’s beaming smile, which I have to say, it quite contagious. We all might have that one friend that […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tokyo Record Style Day Volume 2 – Shibuya – Thank You!
It’s indisputable! Record stores, record shopping, and general geeking out on music are more fun with friends! Thank you to all the homies who came out for a 2nd Volume of Tokyo Record Style Day, this time in Shibuya! 11 of us in total (NOICE!) joined up for some good ol’ crate-digging, treasure-hunting, wandering the back streets in style, and as Stevie puts it, “Livin’ just enough for the city…” Thank you for all the music camaraderie and record shop fellowship …and for all the great smiles you shared for my camera with your scores! Can’t wait for next time… […]
Tokyo Record Style
Nao and Ryu
I spotted Nao and Ryu, two young buds and college classmates, coming out of HMV in Shibuya with their first records and a turntable in their hands! WOW! “How old are you guys?” “I’m 21 and he’s 22” I think I remember one of them saying. “When you can stream everything, why are you guys suddenly buying records?” I asked. “Well, I tend to listen to playlists on streaming platforms, and that’s fine, but if I listen on a record, then I’ll be forced to listen to the whole album and in the sequence the artists intended. It will be […]
Tokyo Record Style
Ed
Photographed here is Ed, who accompanied DJ Laura Lopez from the last post, on what seems to be another trip (of many) from D.C. to Tokyo, replete with lots of record shop exploring, and with whom I shared a lively conversation on all things music. Ed might be as big of a vinyl junkie as Laura is, having scored two records Japanese pressings by Taipei Jazz/Synth-Pop 5-piece, Sunset Rollercoaster, who, myself never having heard, is just a perfect example of new interesting music that I am discovering (and I hope you are too) by way of this project. I’ve mentioned […]
Tokyo Record Style
Laura
I met globe-trotting, vinyl-raiding, sound-selector, DJ Laura Lopez outside of HMW in Shibuya after she had just scored a smattering of City Pop 45s to add to what I might guess is a rather large collection of wax with which she regularly DJs sets of Soul, Funk, Boogie, and Disc (see her Instagram). Hailing from D.C. and having visited Tokyo (with her record-collecting partner-in-crime Ed – see next post) so many times that she’s lost count, she knew the Tokyo Wax Trax as well as anybody and had the vinyl to prove it. I loved her white jacket on all-black […]
Tokyo Record Style
Riku
If you don’t know Tokyo Camera Style, on which Tokyo Record Style is based, run by my pal Sypal, I highly recommend again that you check it out. It’s a celebration of old-school film photography love, where when John spots you on the streets of Tokyo, rawking your film camera, he snaps a shot and adds you to the stream. As I’ve said before, in one light, it could be considered quick to dismiss as material camera porn but it is really anything but. Culture is what it is, Street fashion is what it is, individuality and expression is what […]
Tokyo Record Style
Akira and Noa
A Tokyo Record Style FIRST! The album photographed here, Argentinian in origin, Las Grandes Creacions de Antonio Tormo, scored by this cute couple that I met outside Tower Records in Shibuya, has no Discogs listing and is nowhere to be streamed – a record that is officially off the grid, proving yet again, that if you want access (and knowledge of existence) to the full breadth of music available, record stores are still your best bet. And the fact that I can’t listen to this album, except directly from Akira and Noa’s copy pictured here, makes me want to listen […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tokyo Record Style Day – Vol. 2 – Shibuya
Record collecting friends! Brian here, representing Tokyo Record Style!! Announcing “Tokyo Record Style Day – Volume 2 – Shibuya!!” Join us for another Sunday afternoon of crate-digging with homies in local Tokyo neighborhoods, where gems and grails await us in clusters of awesome record shops! Score LPs, EPs, 10”s or CDs! Tapes? Reel-to-reels? 8-Tracks? We don’t judge! Just come celebrate your love for physical media and good ‘ol record shop culture! Pose for a photograph in your styley-est digs and with your Record Store scores, and make your mark on Tokyo Record Style!! Shibuya has over dozen record stores and […]
Tokyo Record Style
Erika
Needing a current photo of Hachiko (Japan’s famous faithful dog) for an upcoming project, I zipped down to Shibuya with my camera to snap the landmark statue. After I got the shot of the beloved pup, and with a little time to kill before an engagement at Mac Jacob’s “Bookmarc” where one of Tokyo’s most enigmatic street photographers and my dear photohomie, John Sypal (also of TokyoCameraStyle fame, read: this project’s inspiration) would be signing his sublime new book, Nebraska, I decided to stake out the intersection of… “Inokashira Street and Organ Slope.” Now, if the intersection of “Inokashira Street […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tatsuya
On my way home from work in Ebisu, depending on which way I take, all basically en route, I can pass 15 record stores in Shibuya, 4 in Harajuku, 18 in Shinjuku, another 15 in Shimokitazawa, and 3 or 4 more scattered along the way. These are just along my 30 min drive home, alone! The city is littered with dozens and dozens more, probably easily exceeding 100 shops, and maybe multiple hundreds if you add in all the Book Offs, and recycle shops that also sell records among their goods. It’s nuts, I know. So I only choose a […]
Tokyo Record Style
Kelsey and Joseph
I was born in 1976. Not long after I bought my very first few LPs to play on the family turntable, I probably got the dream birthday or Christmas present of every MTV-watching pre-teen adolescent in ‘86 or ‘87 suburbia America, a Ghetto Blaster Boom Box, replete with double tape-deck for dubbing, am/fm radio and antennae, and probably a button for “Turbo Bass”. The Boom Box did several things for me. It gave me the ability to listen to music by myself, to tune into and to record to cassette Casey Kasem’s Top 40 every Sunday morning, listening to which […]
Tokyo Record Style
Hiro
While killing some time to pick up my son from cram school, I spotted Hiro, pictured here, wearing a cool bandana-pattern jacked and carrying a Disk Union bag, that 12” size that is all too easily recognizable for holding recently scored records. With little time before needing to dash off on Dad-duty, I chatted up Hiro san who upon my explanation of Tokyo Record Style, shared with me a big friendly smile and the record he just scored – Todd Rundgren, T. Rex, and The Three Degrees. Like most who people I ask, Hiro was eager to have a chat […]
Tokyo Record Style
Kieron
I spotted Kieron in the corner of my eye digging around the 90’s Alternative/Grunge/Shoegazer at Coconuts in Kichijoji. I noticed he had some interesting range-finder form-factor camera slung around his neck which should have been more than enough reason to chat him up, but I must have been too preoccupied with the concentration required to dig through 7” singles while looking for a perfect, within-budget ¥300 score. Regrettably, I didn’t say hello or approach him for a photo. But about half an hour later, he caught my eye when I spotted him AGAIN at Disk Union in Parco, packing a […]
Tokyo Record Style
Unknown Treasure Music
I recently heard a story told by Dave Grohl, of him as a kid, driving around with his mom in the 70’s listening to the radio, singing along to Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. He shared how his mom was singing Carly’s high melody, and how he stumbled into singing Mick Jagger’s lower backing vocal, and how the combination of his voice and his mother’s together made harmony, and it blowing his young impressionable mind, and how it was from then that he started listening to all the parts of music, the symphony of instruments and voices, all the colors […]
Tokyo Record Style
Shin, Hatsu, XiaoXiao
As I was walking out of Rare Records this weekend with a George Harrison “What is Life” / Apple Scruffs” 7”, walking in were three of the most colorful record shoppers I’ve ever seen. I immediately called my 3:30 rendezvous and said I’d be late, and that three fur-coated, kinky-booted, and Vivienne Westwood-ed, could-be-models had just walked into Rare, and if they wanted to come to potentially see some Tokyo Record Style in action, to rush my way. Then, admittedly, I waited outside the shop, spying to see if these three attention-arresting-fashioned women would walk out with any records. One […]
Tokyo Record Style
Mariko Lilly / DJ Lily
Perhaps the most charming record store in all of Tokyo, Ella is home to some very carefully curated vinyl. It’s not because all the wax is premium, rare, or obscure records, it’s just that it’s all solidly selected, all killer, no filler. Located in a quaint and quiet little pocket surrounded by busy Tokyo, it’s situated ever so slightly just off in the buzzing shadow and neon glow of Shinjuku. It’s actually the neighborhood where I spent my first 5 years in Tokyo, called Hatagaya, so its backstreets are my old familiar stomping grounds. Ella opened in 2016 at the […]
Tokyo Record Style
Keiichiro Fukuzumi, Akitake Yamato, and Kosuke Awane
I had 20 minutes to kill last weekend while waiting for my son’s backflip class (yes, backflip class) to end and spotted a record store on the map just a stone-throw away, one I had never been to before, called “OM Physical Store” (OM for Organic Music). DEEP in the backstreets of Shimoigusa, far off the beaten path, I did NOT expect to find such an extremely hip store, just recently opened last September by author of the holy grail guide, “Obscure Sound”, Mr. Chee Shimizu, known for compiling the comprehensive discography of some of the best rare records from […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tokyo Record Style Day Vol. 1 – Shimokitazawa – Thank You!
Record shop-hopping with fellow music-lovers/makers/appreciators = new friends and new music! Thanks, homies for coming to the first edition of Tokyo Record Style Day – Vol. 1 – Shimokitazawa! Try Best Offer Score On Instagram
Tokyo Record Style
Tatsuo Fukutomi (bemsha)
Bemsha (AKA Tatsuo Fukutomi) left me with less than 100 characters. So I’ll just say, “One Love, Jah Rastafari!” Tat: “Here’s my answer to your question, ‘Why do you love records when you can stream it all?’” “I guess it’s because vinyl records appeal not only to our sense of sound, but to three others as well. One of my favourite genres of music is ambient. It’s supposed to be played at a volume so low that you can hear it only when you want to. It is music that becomes part of the environment – as a matter of […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yusya
I just listened to “Patto”, the album pictured here, and I have to say, never have I better understood the smile of one of the people I’ve photographed with their recent record-shop score. This album just melted my face right off my head. Dare I say that I probably looked a lot like the illustrated face on the cover here, while listening to the whole album as amazing guitar heavy guitar, wild changing chord progressions, and some outer-space avant-guarde free jazz interludes washed over me. What an absolutely killer album! Where has this been my whole life? Jeez, I’m a […]
Tokyo Record Style
Takeshi Shimizu
The artists that compel me the most are the ones who, themselves, are compelled to create. It’s often the compulsion that is more interesting and admirable to me than whatever art they create. My favorite artist John Baldessari said great art cannot be willed into creation, the artist must be possessed to make it. All the time, I so badly WISH that I was possessed to create, that I couldn’t help but make art, a need to create like a need to breathe, like my photographer friend John Sypal, whose project Tokyo Camera Style inspired this one, seems to be […]
Tokyo Record Style
Daniel
I met Daniel for the first time at Tokyo Record Style Day. A certain aura about him caught my attention. It could have been his blueish-gradient tinted shades, or the hypnotizing patterns on his sweater or pants. It might also have been the statement kicks, the faux-fur hooded-mink (that I admittedly wanted to touch), or even the fingerless gloves, but more likely than not, it was the polka-dotted mask, which would, ironically as it were, later reveal something about Daniel the more I got to know him. In the first record shop we hit, a mutual pal, pointed out to […]
Tokyo Record Style
James Banbury
Little did I know when I met James Banbury that I was speaking to a renowned music arranger, writer, and musician. We met at an exhibition opening through mutual friends a couple weeks back and I found out then that he had only recently moved to Tokyo after a decade+ in Hong Kong. Our mutual friend had mentioned he was a musician, and we talked about tons of music, shared interest in artists, rapped about club music and DJ days, beloved but now defunct record labels, and about how he was making a spontaneous trip back to Hong Kong for […]
Tokyo Record Style
Jason Garcia
There are two sports that, despite being a student of neither, command my respect more than any others: Boxing and Skateboarding. Both demand enduring enormous physical pain, psychological distress, and emotional failure. No athletes get knocked down harder than these two. Yet, in the instances when defeat can be overcome when punches and landings are stuck square, it’s never the adrenaline, the force, the strategy, or the athleticism that impresses me, but rather the dogged determination, the unwillingness to fail, even if outmatched, the mental fortitude of facing fear. There’s a virtue, grace, and majesty to that that captivates me […]
Tokyo Record Style
Mijonu
As the years have gone by, Mijonju has become one of my oldest pals in Tokyo. We’ve been bouncing around and crossing paths in this city for well over a decade and probably soon a decade and a half! In a city that sheds its sometimes transient residents as frequently as it sheds its own skin, it’s just nice to have some familiar faces, and Mijo is certainly that. He famously “loves cameras like a fat boy loves chocolate cake” (the jingle from his legendary Mijonju Show on YouTube) and for that reason, we’ve always been close buds, but he’s […]
Tokyo Record Style
Shouu Tanaka
I met the artist Shouu Tanaka on the streets of Mitaka yesterday. I spotted her and a friend (who turns out to be the bass player of Fuji Rockers, Neconemuru) shopping at Parada Records. After she purchased this cool-looking CD-LongBox Set of “The Ultimate Sparks Collection” (and after I picked up a Mamas and Papas single), I dashed out of Parade to see if I could catch up with her, and lucky for me, I did. Shouu san agreed to join this Tokyo Record Style project after I introduced myself. She told me her real name (not mentioned here), and […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yuto
I met 22-year-old Yuto outside Coconuts as I was rolling up on the motorcycle and he was heading out, holding in his hand a recent score. I killed the engine and grabbed his attention before he could dash away. As I began to explain to him that I was a photographer and wanted to make his portrait, rather than initial suspicion, he was nothing but good vibes and warm smiles. A can badge on his jean jacket caught my eye – “Have you hugged a mutant today?” Then I noticed one untied Chuck Taylor, then a flannel layer, a sorta […]
Tokyo Record Style
Asa and Hitomi
“Who are these two interesting and colorful characters browsing around in Shimokita’s Disk Union? Are they together? They must be. Oh, look! Dare I say he’s going to buy that record, wait, another! Maybe if I just look a little longer in the 45s, keep an eye on them, and then time the purchase of these outer sleeves right as they’re walking to the register, then I can conveniently walk out at the same time as them. Oh, good, Auld Lang Syne has been queued for the shop’s closing. Just wait a little longer, Brian. Wait a sec… could this […]
Tokyo Record Style
Jeff Sato
Goodness, gracious. Jeff Sato is one of the coolest, most friendly, and interesting characters you can meet in the Tokyo Record shop scene. He’s a veteran rock&roller, with his own records, CD’s, and books, dozens of producer credits, pals and A&R guy for Jeff Beck, David Lindley, Ry Cooder, Jackson Brown, X Japan, and a bunch of others. He has heaps of stories, like the time he interviewed Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, or seeing Clapton 100 times, or the very first time he heard the Stones or Dylan on FEN, Far East Network AM Radio, the American armed forces […]
Tokyo Record Style
Aurelien
For those who might not know, I have a volunteer photography project called “Photohoku” where I gift photographs to people in need. It would take a while to share all about it, but I just encourage you to check it out. But one of technical the aspects of it, not completely unlike Tokyo Record Style, is approaching (read: accosting) strangers, trying to diffuse their immediate apprehension with some welcoming, unthreatening charm and an honest smile (which, in a world filled with nefariously-intended people requires a certain finesse), and in a very, very short amount of time, seconds really, sell them […]
Tokyo Record Style
Naoki
Jet Set Records in Shimokitazawa is known for stocking a pretty eclectic, alternative selection in music (They’re also known for this easily recognizable borrowed Pan-Am logo on their bags that somehow always spots my eye, and which I just found out was called “The Blue Meatball” back in the day.) Apparently Jet Set has a bigger shop in Kyoto, maybe the original, I’m not sure. I spotted the Jet Set logo the other night on a smaller-sized bag being carried by the fella pictured here. Initially, I couldn’t tell if it was a CD that he had purchased or a […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tokyo Record Style Day Vol. 1 – Shimokitazawa
Record collecting friends!!! I’m starting a new project called “Tokyo Record Style Day” where I am going to try to gather some pals together on a Sunday afternoon once a month and hit a small cluster of record stores in one local neighborhood of Tokyo, and photograph you all with your records, starting with a dig through Shimokitazawa! Shimokita has over dozen record stores and I can suggest a path to visit a few of my favorites, or we can choose our own. Let’s meet at the legendary Flash Disk Ranch, and end at Disk Union, and maybe hit General, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Taketora
I spotted Taketora san coming out of Record Union in Shinjuku in full head-to-toe punk regalia, holding not only a black and red Union bag but also a bright yellow Record Store Base bag. Such an intriguing character, I had to chat him up and see if he’d pose for a Tokyo Record Style portrait. He instantly obliged me and showed me the records he scored, two hardcore records I was seeing and hearing of for the first time. I’ve since gone home and looked both of them up, finding neither of the albums nor artists on Spotify, proving the […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yamazaki
A Tokyo Record Style First! Traversing central Tokyo with just a bit more of Sunday morning to kill, and with a Disk Union that I rarely visit right on my route, how could I not at least pop by and see if anybody was walking around the adjacent plaza with recently purchased records? So I took the right Yushima Seido, the black 17th century Confucian Temple, crossed Kanda River, spotted the green copper roof of the Holy Resurrection Cathedral, and there coming down the stairs of the 2nd floor Disk Union was Yamazaki san carrying a 12×12” vinyl record store […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tetsuya Hoki
A late Sunday morning with kids off tied up in a school activity afforded me a visit to RECOfan, a record shop in Akihabara with a rather huge inventory. Despite digging through nearly everything there, nothing quite jumped out of the crates at me, so I left empty-handed, even without a ¥100 7inch. With a ride clear across Tokyo to get back home, a “Records shops around me” Google search lead me to Tohto Records & Books in Yushima where I discovered a quaint shop run by the friendly Tetsuya san, who as it turns out, prior to opening Tohto, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Miyu
This is Miyu. She was one of the very first people born in the new millennium, and she just turned 23 in the year 2023, and for her birthday, her sister gave her a record player. Here, on the sad day of the passing of one of the most influential music innovators of our lifetime, Yukihiro Takahashi of legendary YMO and Sadistic Mika band, Miyu buys her 10th record, YMO’s seminal Soul State Survior. I can’t help but think about how YMO music was one of the first things to pique a deeper interest in me about potentially staying longer […]