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Apryl Fool
was a Japanese folk rock band active from 1969 to 1972. Composed of Haruomi Hosono, Takashi Matsumoto, Eiichi Ohtaki and Shigeru Suzuki, the band's pioneering sound was regarded as avant-garde to most Japanese at the time. They are considered to be among the most influential artists in Japanese music. MTV described Happy End's music as "rock with psych smudges around the edges." History Career When his band Burns needed a bass player, drummer Takashi Matsumoto reached out to Haruomi Hosono, a Rikkyo University student whom he heard was quite skilled. After playing shows together, Hosono eventually invited Matsumoto to join the psychedelic rock band Apryl Fool, which the drummer described as being influenced by bands like Vanilla Fudge, "really progressive sounds for the time." When their keyboardist, Hiro Yanagida, started getting more into music like Buffalo Springfield and the West Coast sound that was becoming popular, Matsumoto said Hosono got into it too, and "we started ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eiichi Ohtaki
Eiichi Ohtaki (July 28, 1948 – December 30, 2013) was a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He first became known as a member of the rock band Happy End, but was better known for his solo work which began in 1972. In 2003, Ohtaki was ranked by HMV Japan at number 9 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts. Patrick Macias referred to Ohtaki as Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, George Martin and Joe Meek "synthesized into a single human being," and called his work "an encyclopedia of everything that was great about pop music in the 20th century." Biography Ohtaki was born in Esashi District, in what is now part of Ōshū. Before joining Happy End, Ohtaki was guitarist in a group called Taboo with future Blues Creation singer Fumio Nunoya. Happy End produced three albums, '' Happy End'' (1970), ''Kazemachi Roman'' (1971) and '' Happy End'' (1973), before officially disbanding on New Year's Eve 1972. Ohtaki had already released his first s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanilla Fudge
Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band known predominantly for their slow extended heavy rock arrangements of contemporary hit songs, such as their hit cover of The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On". The band's original line–up—vocalist and organist Mark Stein, bassist and vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer and vocalist Carmine Appice—recorded five albums during the years 1967–69, before disbanding in 1970. The band has toured as recently as 2022 with three of the four original members: Stein, Martell, and Appice, with Pete Bremy on bass. Bogert retired in 2009 and died in 2021. The band has been cited as "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal." History Stein and Bogert had played in a local band called Rick Martin & The Showmen. The pair were so impressed by the swinging, organ-heavy sound of The Rascals they decided to form their own band in 1965 with Martell and Rick Martin's drumm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin Alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the other modern European languages. With modifications, it is also used for other alphabets, such as the Vietnamese alphabet. Its modern repertoire is standardised as the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Etymology The term ''Latin alphabet'' may refer to either the alphabet used to write Latin (as described in this article) or other alphabets based on the Latin script, which is the basic set of letters common to the various alphabets descended from the classical Latin alphabet, such as the English alphabet. These Latin-script alphabets may discard letters, like the Rotokas alphabet, or add new letters, like the Danish and Norwegian alphabets. Letter shapes have evolved over the centuries, including the development in Medieval Latin of lower-case, fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Happy End (1973 Album)
''Happy End'' is the third and final album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End. It was recorded in Los Angeles, produced by Van Dyke Parks and features several American session musicians such as Lowell George and Bill Payne of the band Little Feat. Background and recording The album was recorded at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles in late 1972. Van Dyke Parks, known for his collaborations with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, produced the album. In 2013, Parks stated that the band walked in unannounced while he and Lowell George were working on "Sailin' Shoes" and asked him to give them the " California Sound". He initially refused saying he was busy with sessions for his own album '' Discover America'', but accepted when George noticed a suitcase full of new one hundred-dollar bills with Happy End's manager. Although Haruomi Hosono later described the work with Parks as "productive," the album sessions were tenuous, and the members of Happy End were disenchanted with their v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kazemachi Roman
is the second album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End, released on URC Records in 1971. In this concept album, Happy End attempted to paint a musical picture of Tokyo before the 1964 Summer Olympics, through which sweeping changes transformed the city forever. “The band’s 1971 album ‘Kazemachi Roman,’ a classic of the genre, describes with a shrug how the Tokyo of their childhood was being swept away and replaced by a high-tech metropolis.“ Background and release OK Music's Naoto Kawasaki notes how Eiichi Ohtaki and Shigeru Suzuki did not contribute to "Kaze wo Atsumete", with Haruomi Hosono playing the bass, guitar and organ and providing its vocals while Takashi Matsumoto plays the drums. Suzuki is also absent from "Kurayamizaka Musasabi Henge", which Kawasaki felt was inspired by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Bannai Tarao, a fictional detective who has appeared in many Japanese crime thrillers, is credited on several of the album's songs. Ohtaki even opens "Haikar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yūya Uchida (singer/actor)
was a Japanese singer, record producer, and actor. With a career spanning six decades, he was a major figure in Japanese popular music. He appeared in numerous films, such as Nagisa Ōshima's ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'', and won two best acting awards. He also starred in the American film '' Black Rain''. Career Uchida was born in Nishinomiya. He dropped out of high school at age 17 and began his music career in 1957. He became friends with John Lennon after opening for The Beatles on their 1966 tour of Japan. Shocked after seeing Jimi Hendrix perform in London in 1967, Uchida returned home and wanted to introduce a similar sound to Japan. He formed Yuya Uchida & The Flowers who released the album '' Challenge!'' in 1969, which is composed almost entirely of covers of Western psychedelic rock acts. After replacing all but one member and reverting to a producer/manager role himself, the group changed their name to Flower Travellin' Band and released another cover album, 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Rock
, sometimes abbreviated to , is rock music from Japan. Influenced by American and British rock of the 1960s, the first rock bands in Japan performed what is called Group Sounds, with lyrics almost exclusively in English. Folk rock band Happy End in the early 1970s are credited as the first to sing rock music in the Japanese language. Punk rock bands Boøwy and The Blue Hearts and hard rock/ heavy metal groups X Japan and B'z led Japanese rock in the late 1980s and early 1990s by achieving major mainstream success. Rock bands such as B'z and Mr. Children are among the best selling music acts in Japan. Rock festivals like the Fuji Rock Festival were introduced in the late 90s with attendances reaching a peak of 200,000 people per festival making it the largest outdoor music event in the country. History 1960s: Western music adaptation Rockabilly had a brief surge in popularity in Japan during the late 1950s. Suppressed by authorities, elements of it nevertheless managed to r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japrocksampler
''Japrocksampler: How the Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock 'n' Roll'' is a book written by author and musician Julian Cope and published by Bloomsbury on 3 September 2007. Overview The 304-page hardcover book is a companion piece to Cope's 1995 book on Krautrock, ''Krautrocksampler'', and covers in extensive detail the post-war democratizing and westernizing of Japan, plus a detailed 28-page analysis of the experimental music scene from 1951-69. The first part, about the 1960s, was described by Simon Reynolds as a "prequel to the book proper". The unusual relationship between Japanese experimental theatre and rock music is carefully explained in the 14-page essay 'J.A. Caesar and the Radical Theatre Music of Japan'. There are also detailed biographies of the bands Taj Mahal Travellers, Flower Travellin' Band, Les Rallizes Denudes, Far East Family Band and Speed, Glue & Shinki. Reception Simon Reynolds found ''Japrocksampler'' to contain some extraneous material and w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Happy End (1970 Album)
is the self-titled debut album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End. Because their third album is also self-titled, although written in English, this first album is also known by the name after the sign depicted in the cover art. Five bonus tracks were added when the album was included in the March 31, 2004 ''Happy End Box'' set. Lyrics All the album's lyrics were written by Takashi Matsumoto, with the exception of "Tobenai Sora" (Haruomi Hosono) and "Ira Ira" (Eiichi Ohtaki). Michael K. Bourdaghs wrote that the first track "Haruyo Koi" ("Come, Spring!") is about "ordinary daily life in the city. Specifically, they take up the boredom of one who faces the New Year holiday alone, sitting by himself at his ''kotatsu'' after having abandoned his rural family home for a new life in the city." Reception This album marked an important turning point in Japanese music history, as it sparked what would be known as the . There were highly publicized debates held between prominent figu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel music, gospel, reggae, world music, and psychedelic music, psychedelia; for Concert, live performances of lengthy jam session, instrumental jams that typically incorporated mode (music), modal and tonality, tonal musical improvisation, improvisation; and for its devoted fan base, known as "Deadheads". "Their music", writes Lenny Kaye, "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." These various influences were distilled into a diverse and psychedelic whole that made the Grateful Dead "the pioneering Godfathers of the jam band world". The band was ranked 57th by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in its "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, The Greatest Artists of All Time" issue. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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