Author Archives: funkymonkey

Hachimitsu Pie はちみつぱい

Video – Boku no Shiawase Hachimitsu Pie is better known these days as the precursor to The Moonriders but their sole studio album pops up on a lot of top album lists in Japan. They started out as a backing … Continue reading

Posted in New Rock | Tagged , | Comments Off

Hideki Ishima 石間秀樹 Guest Appearances

Ishima did some outside work during the time he was in Flower Travellin’ Band. In the summer of 1970 (July 25 to August 31), Flower Travellin’ Band and Tenjo Saiji collaborated for the rock musical ブラブラ男爵 “BuraBura Danshaku” and performed … Continue reading

Posted in New Rock | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Hideki Ishima 石間秀樹 The Flowers

At the end of 1969, Ishima joined Yuya Uchida and The Flowers and got to put his sitar practice to quick work, as the first thing he recorded with The Flowers, Rock ‘N’ Roll Jam ’70, included him on sitar … Continue reading

Posted in Group Sounds, New Rock | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Hideki Ishima 石間ヒデキ Solo Album

Flower Travellin Band broke up in April 1973 and Ishima couldn’t seem to wait to move on, as his solo album was announced the next month. He even changed the writing of Hideki from 秀樹 to ヒデキ. He gathered up … Continue reading

Posted in New Rock | Tagged , | Comments Off

Hideki Ishima 石間秀樹 The Beavers

Hideki Ishima was born and raised in Hokkaido. After graduating from high school, he joined a band called Jarows. Jarows played in clubs around Hokkaido and their act featured covers by the Zombies and Them. The group’s line up in … Continue reading

Posted in Group Sounds | Tagged , | Comments Off

Gedou 外道

After a long search, I was finally able to track their debut album down. It is really amazing that an album that is consistently listed in Top Japanese Rock Album lists has been out of print for so long. (2002 … Continue reading

Posted in New Rock | Tagged , | Comments Off

Ranmadou 乱魔堂

Ranmadou’s story starts with guitarist Eiryu Kou 洪栄龍. (He’s the guy on the far left on the album cover above.) Kou joined a band called The Vickies as a guitarist in 1966. (A few sources claim it was 1967 or … Continue reading

Posted in New Rock | Tagged | Comments Off

Where have all the good times gone?

The other day, I picked up レコードマップ+CD, a listing of most of the used CD and record shops in Japan. This year’s edition is about 20 pages shorter than last year and there’s an article in it lamenting the number … Continue reading

Posted in Books, CD/Record shops | Tagged , | Comments Off

Another Top Rock list

The May edition of Playboy Japan has a Top 100 of Western rock list. While the list includes the usual suspects (Beatles, Zeppelin, Stones, Dylan), I was pleasantly surprised to see The Allman Brothers’ At Fillmore East at number 5. … Continue reading

Posted in Lists | Tagged | Comments Off