Nice to meet you Kotaro, who I caught up with at Organic Music as our Tokyo Record Style Day Volume 9 event wound down and as the main affair (OM’s 5th Anniversary) began. Kotaro was among the line-up of DJs who would be spinning records from 5pm and onwards and likely late into the evening. His unique, funky, and cool look caught attention and we had a nice chat outside the shop before his set, where I began to notice a few more details of his ensemble, including his gold wire rimmed Lennon glasses, matching gold ring and watch, an […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yusya
Despite only brandishing a sticker from the event that Tokyo Record Style Day Vol. 9 piggy-backed on, Physical Store (Organic Music + Planet Baby)’s 5th Anniversary and neighbor Bar Otonari’s 1st Anniversary, it’s great to see long-time support friend of Tokyo Record Style (and other related photography projects), ex Disk Union staff, and reggae music aficionado Yusya (AKA bangsadali) from Indonesia and Illinois back on the on the stream! As much as we’d all like to, we can’t score record EVERY time we go to the record store; sometimes you strike out. But considering everybody CAME out, proving that Tokyo […]
Tokyo Record Style
Shimizu
Shimizu san is making his 3rd or 4th appearance on TRS and he’s become quite a good friend over the course of this project and I feel really grateful that connections like this have been made through Tokyo Record Style. As a real connoisseur of all kinds and music, and with a wide spectrum of taste, I wasn’t surprised he turned up for Tokyo Record Style Day Volume 9 at Organic Music, known for an especially eclectic selection of music, curated by the knowledgeable Chee Shimizu (coincidentally ALSO a Shimizu san, perhaps a distant cousin.) On this particular day, Shimizu […]
Tokyo Record Style
Christoper
Author recognizes Author! Not sure how much I am allowed to disclose on this one cuz I know my pal, Professor Christopher Bondy, pictured here, is a fairly private fellow. He always pulls a “Home Improvement’s Wilson” on me in past Tokyo Record Style appearances, just poking his head up behind his featured purchase, though I’ve been lucky to capture his handsome mug more than once. Whether I’m allowed to disclose his own literary credits (see comments), we’ll find out together, if I end up eating my words and begging for his forgiveness after writing this. About Christopher: Besides being […]
Tokyo Record Style
Amy
Hey Record-loving homies! I finally get to introduce you to lovely Amy with whom I shared a long and friendly conversation in the shelter of The Suzunari’s Yokocho where we hid out from the sudden downpour, chatting about her music, fashion, traveling, rock climbing, and an architecture internship that brought her to Tokyo for an extended stay from Singapore where she lives and studies. Sidenote: I tend to keep Tokyo Record Style completely free from work-related talk only so as to have a place to focus completely on play, freedom, and fun. Having said that, I have blessings to count […]
Tokyo Record Style
Chris
More slacker style on TRS. Love it! Here’s the thing about slacker style – the whole point of it is two-fold: First to convey a sense of indifference, disaffectedness, unconcerned nonchalance. Two: to actually HAVE indifference, disaffectedness, unconcerned nonchalance, cuz really, who CAN be bothered. But you see, it is a bit a paradox, cuz on one hand it requires much thoughtful consideration, such as how holey or stained can jeans be before they’re trying to hard, how tattered or ironic can a graphic t-shirt or trucker hat be before it’s makes fun of itself, at one time of day […]
Tokyo Record Style
Yoichi
You’ve seen the memes of Gen X’ers telling both Boomers and Millennials to get over themselves and get on with it, and about them being the generation who despite being raised by the TV are more resourceful, educated, balanced, and indifferent to the momentary wanes of society, which has perhaps developed within them a type of insolence and insubordination that only fellow members of their generation find distinctive, familiar, and well, charming. Unfocused intellectual slacker recognizes unfocused intellectual slacker. So during my last visit to Like a Fool Records, it was this familiarity apparent when I met Yoichi, pictured here, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tomo – Like a Fool Records
Being blind-sided by a new artist, by a new band, by a new landscape of sound …what a truly great feeling. Like a baptism of sonic rhapsody, purifying your attention, distilling your conscience, the sensation can wash over you like a shamanic wave, transfixing all your senses, illuminating your perceptions, calming your spirit, and soothing your soul. Ah, you’ve arrived at a new place of musical appreciation! Congratulations! A new band just found its way to your heart, planting a seed of curiosity for more, an interest to go immediately deeper, a smile on your face, a surprised widening of […]
Tokyo Record Style
Freddy
Good grief, where do I start with this one. Freddy is my oldest record-loving homie, my blow-our-paycheck-at-the-record-store-ON-payday partner-in-crime, the guy to whom I left my entire collection to when I moved to Japan and who every-few-of-those-early-years-of-living-here, I would return to and expatriate some of my records little-by-little until I had rudely raided virtually all I could (Sorry Fred). Because he was from Chicago and tapped into the underground scene, and because he had about 10 years on me, he knew 5-10 psych, garage, punk, post-punk, new-wave, and no-wave artists for every Top 40 or Classic Rock artist I knew. Some […]
Tokyo Record Style
Mehran and Jasmine
Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is hands down one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s a powerful and beautiful story about coming of age, poetically and whimsically told, a journey simultaneously through adolescence and a mythical world, stunningly animated in vivid and imaginative Ghibli fashion, that somehow all makes perfect sense while making no sense at all. The protagonist Chihiro finds herself passing through a gate into the magical world of the “kami” (the gods) and loses both her parents and nearly her own identity in the process. She must overcome the challenges she faces while working in a bath […]
Tokyo Record Style
Miya
Venturing into some potentially dangerous territory here: Women and Vinyl. This is not a topic that particularly interests me but I heard something in passing that had me scratching my head and won’t seem to leave my thoughts. It was the question of whether men buy records to impress women, and if a record collection ever got a guy laid. It was posed by a sassy young lass, clumsily but endearingly unaware of how to wield her newly discovered insouciance, addressing a bunch of middle aged men old enough to have been around the block a few times. She got […]
Tokyo Record Style
Saeka
If you’re not subscribed to my YouTube channel, please check out Tokyo Record Style! I’ve just been documenting random record musings, including the occasional visit to cool record shops in Tokyo (Link here). Before recording anything in a shop, I like to make sure it’s ok with owners and clerks and set up a situation where I can pitch what I want to do, give them a chance to review it, then come back at a later date to record so nobody feels they are being put on-the-spot. …So I pass Jet Set Records in Shimokitazawa nearly every day on […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tabo
Before my kids came along, I admit I spent far too many late nights in Shimokitazawa back alley tachinomi bars, one in particular called Namazu, or Catfish, which was a little community of artists, poets, musicians, dancers and performers of all varieties. Every night about 20-30 people would gather in a space that could hold about 6 and we would drink $3 beers, stumble through barely understandable conversations, laugh and cackle, play guitar and sing til the wee hours of the night. Every now and again, we would impress ourselves with a little camping outing, a mini-festival, or even a […]
