The Bagging Area- 27 Leggies game of Japanese psyche blog tennis has had a pause since Ernie posted Kikagaku Moyo two weeks ago (here) but fear not, I'm knocking the ball back over the net and into Ernie's half of the court today with The Boredoms.
Boredoms are psyche- they're also experimental punk, jazz, noise (Japanoise if you please), space rock, ambient and probably stray into other areas too. From Osaka, Boredoms formed in 1986, and are named after the legendary Buzzcocks single that was one of UK punk's origin stories. Over the years sixteen members, maybe more, have passed through the ranks of Boredoms with Yamantaka Eye at the core.
Their status and renown outside Japan was boosted by Eye's friendship with Thurston Moore, forged when Sonic Youth toured Japan in 1989, and then further in 1994 when were invited to play at Lollapalooza. The band had just released Chocolate Synthesiser in the USA and they reached thousands of young Americans who were not necessarily well acquainted with experimental Japanese noise psyche rock. Recent incarnations of Boredoms in the 2010s saw them play gigs with eleven drummers and a hundred cymbal players and, as at All Tomorrow's Parties, fourteen guitarists and six drummers and motion sensor activated ambient soundscapes. More power to Boredoms.
Free is a cover of a song by Phish, the American prog/ psyche/ jazz fusion band- wait come back- from a double CD compilation from 2001 called Sharin' In The Groove which had covers by The Wailers, Tom Tom Club, Preston School Of Industry and Arlo Guthrie among the line up. On Free Boredoms are in ambient/ psychedelic/ spaced out mode with distant, far out vocals. Think The Flaming Lips on a blissed out trip from Osaka.
