THE BAND THAT WOULD BE KING REUNITES!
AT THE END OF 2007 THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF 1/2 JAPANESE GATHERED
FOR THE "MONTREAL POP MUSIC FEST" AND AGAIN NOW FOR THIS
WEEKEND'S FESTIVAL IN AUSTIN, TEXAS.
MISC. MUSIC BRINGS YOU THE WORLDS FIRST "BEDROOM BAND" OR HOME-
MADE PUNK ROCK PROGENITORS" HALF JAPANESE!
By Joe Gross | Saturday, March 15, 2008
Jad Fair, the Michigan-native-now-Manor-based musician, is the sole
constant member of the band Half Japanese. But the band started back
in the mid-’70s as a collaboration between Jad and his brother David
Fair. Their earliest material — the “Calling All Girls” 7-inch EP, the
chaotic double LP debut “Half Gentlemen/Not Beasts” and the album
“Loud” made with an expanded line-up — are considered stone
classics of outsider rock art, possessing of a two dorks against the
world quality that noise-nicks have been trying to chase ever since.
David Fair has been absent from the band for years.
A good percentage of the classic Half Japanese lineup — the Brothers
Fair, bassist Mark Jickling, saxophonist John Dreyfuss, drummer Rick
Dreyfuss and guitarist John Moremen — played at 11 p.m. at Spiro’s
Amphitheater Friday night. There’s always been a childlike quality to
Half Japanese’s music, a mix of naive art and skilled musicians who
really like naive art.
Jad played a tiny, toy-like electric guitar and David Fair (aging
astoundingly well) jumped around like a little kid while the band
cranked like the old pros they are (Yo La Tengo guitarist Ira Kaplan sat
in on saxophone). The large crowd was, naturally, mighty nerd-heavy
— not too many hipsters there to hear the next big thing. Attendees
were there to hear the old thing than gave rise to a whole lot of the new
things or inspired the band that then gave rise to the old things. It was
surreal to hear these songs by these people in 2008….but it was
certainly welcome.
Austin American Statesman
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