Half Japanese
Hello (Alternative Tentacles)
Starting off with sweet, melodic opener “All the Angels Said Go to Her” and a lyric like, “This is a love that will endure, and the kitten said purr. Purr-fect,” Half Japanese’s new LP Hello proceeds to jump all over the musical map. Alternating edgy Pixies-like guitar thrash (“Patty,” “Best of the Best”) with everything from the post-spoken-word lament of “The Good Side” and grilled noise of “Whatever the Outcome,” which sounds exactly like an outtake from the Butthole Surfers session that produced “Cherub” or “Concubine,” Hello bounces around just as main Japan-man Jad Fair continues to do so himself; he’s already moved away from his “new” home in Manor, Texas. And yet despite the stylistic twists and turns, that it all holds together as an LP is largely due to Fair’s familiar nasal, wide-eyed vocals. After a quarter century, most people who’d be interested in the quirky indie stalwarts have probably heard them by now, but still … Dare I say it? Okay, I will — Hello is an excellent introduction to Half Japanese. (Friday, March 16, Room 710, midnight)
This article appears in March 16 • 2001.