Boredoms were started in Osaka, Japan by Yamatsuka (later Yamantaka, now Yamataka) Eye (or eYe, depending on which album you're holding), best known for his noise project The Hanatarashi (later The Hanatarash) and his violent live shows performed under that name. Their first single, Anal by Anal, and album, Osorezan no Stooges Kyo [The Stooges Craze in Osorezan] seized local and international fans of the challenging side of rock music with their wild creativity, challenging sounds, stop-start-jump-over-here arrangements, Eye's extreme vocalizing, manic live performances and flashes of humour. By the time of their second album, Soul Discharge, Kramer of Shimmy-Disc turned his ear in their direction and released the album in America, to quite a bit of acclaim and some confusion as well (some people just can't be bothered to try to get it). Later, WEA Japan and then Reprise in the U.S. signed them, and Pop Tatari jumped up into the faces of alternakidz worldwide, sticking out from the pack like a steam table full of spicy hot Szechuan food in a McDonald's. And if that wasn't enough, Perry Farrell had them open the main stage for the first half of Lollapalooza in 1995. Their recordings, as well as the many released by their multitude of side project bands, continue to pry open the parts of my mind I didn't know were there and remind them that LIFE IS OK!
Super thanks to Gunbu for creating the kickin' page logo graphic!
BACK IN THE USSA!
Vice Recordings, the spinoff label of the irreverent magazine, has signed Boredoms to an apparent "long-term" contract, and started by releasing their most recent album, Seadrum/House of Sun. In January and February of 2007, they will be re-releasing the Super Roots series: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Since 1 and 6 were the only ones available in North America during their term with Reprise, and I still don't have 3, 5 and 7 in my own collection (I did get the rare #2, though), I'm looking forward to this--especially if they find someone to distribute them in Canada who doesn't deal in $7 markups (yes, Sonic Unyon, I'm talking about you).
SHINE ON: REGULAR FEATURES
Boredoms: How the Hell Can I Listen to This Crap?: Neil Ellard's article on the band for the e-zine Furious Green Thoughts. Imagine how fawning it would have gotten if he was paid money to write it.
Why Make a BOREDOMS Webpage?: Good question. An E-mail interview by Matt Exile of the killer zine Exile Osaka, who profiled this page in issue #5.
Pop Kiss: The unofficial discography. Last updated: 2006 12 30.
Sore Diamonds: The unofficial side projects/cameos discography. Last updated: 2005 4 14.
NOTE: This listing uses frames and has a lot of cover scans in it, albeit quite small ones. It is now divided into parts due to how big it's gotten.
Guitar Barrio: The unofficial side projects anti-discography. Last updated: 2003 1 30.
Yamamoto, Boredoms' ex-guitarist, has said that these lists are the most comprehensive he has ever seen. Check 'em out for yourself.
TV Scorpion: Photos of the band and a few of their side projects. Last updated: 2002 8 07.
Lyrics: Yeah, right. Most of the time, their lyrics are utter gibberish which makes no sense in either English or Japanese, and a few others have just the title as a real lyric. Oh, and the lyrics to "I Am Cola" (aka "Bocabola") are "Coke is it!" and a bunch of gibberish that resembles English verbal abuse, "Bo-Go-Bompoo/Bo Go"'s are "Black bastard," the word at the beginning of "Domsbore" is "Boredoms," and in "Catastromix 99'" it sounds like Eye is saying/bellowing "ka ta," which I've heard used in a fansub of an early episode of the anime series Maison Ikkoku to mean, "I win." I watched a bootleg live video in which they did "Bubblebop Shot," and it sounded like they were grumbling the exact same things during the parts when the band stopped, but I'll be damned if I can understand any of it. Super æ has a few discernable lyrics, and here they are:
Super Are: Are... / You are... / Our universe, B-O-R-E / D-O-M-S, in the star/moon/earth/sun / In the sun...
Super Going: Shine in / Shine on (Repeat) [According to the lyric sheet in the 12"]
Super Are You: Sounds like "Space [pronounced "space-o"] are," but who bloody knows?
Super Shine: My shine/My shine/His shine/His shine... [working in the odd "In shine" and "Me shine"]
Well, that was deep, wunnit? [Cola belch.] Right. That's it, as far as I can see.
Boretronix, Boredoms' manager/translator's office, has printed an E-mail address in the credits of Super æ. You can get in touch at boredoms@osk3.3web.ne.jp. I've written them twice myself and received one short reply offering to send me a current photo of the band, so I sent my snail address. Still haven't gotten the photo yet. dB)
BORING ALL OVER THE WEB: LINKS
Birdman Records: They released Super æ and Vision Creation Newsun in the States. Includes a mail-order page.
Official Warner Music Japan page: Only really covers the Rebore Vol. 0 release at this point. So what else is new from major label pages?
gravy paste's kang's Boredoms Temple of Worship: If you think my page looks bland, then this one will kick your eyes' asses (but take a bit of time to load). Includes links.
Improvised Music From Japan's Seiichi Yamamoto home page: Boatloads of info about Yamamoto (among many others in the Japanese anti-mainstream, if you go back to the root), with a lot of it available in English as well.
Seiichi Yamamoto Incomplete Discography: A Japanese fan page which gave me (A) a lot of information and scans to work with, and (B) a lot of headaches trying to translate some of said info using Jeffrey's Japanese to English Dictionary Server. If anyone with fluency in both English and Japanese (and as much time on my hands as I have) wishes to help me straighten out any errors I may have made, you will be canonized.
psychedelic BOREDOMS site is a Japanese page with some basic discography details (including some side project bands I hadn't listed here yet) and a Bore tape-trading section, which is also in English.
Boredoms page at UNSOUND: Includes a Shockwave plugin with samples of the band on it. Check it out.
Boredoms at I-radio: A Japanese streaming online radio show hosted by Yoshimi and chock full of interesting music.
Yahoo! Groups: Boredoms and The Boredoms: Discussion groups about the band and its side projects. I wish that Yahoo would ram those yay-million ads up their asses, though.
Goblin interview with eYe.
Here's a few photos by Andrew Hill.
SunShineShrine OKINAWA 1999-2000: What Boredoms did at the turn of the millenium was play this gig on the southernmost island of Japan. This site includes photos (one of them of Hira) and a short MPEG movie of a bit of their set.
It's a Beautiful Day: A festival in Japan that featured several Boredoms offshoot groups.
JapanConcerts: Peter Hoflich's page of reviews of gigs in Japan over the last few years, including the Bears' 12th Anniversary show I was at when I visited Osaka (BTW, I didn't torch my own hair, but Kawai's pubics, like he asked; I'm weird, but I'm not insane).
Japan File: Article about Seiichi Yamamoto that originally ran in Kansai Time Out, July 2000 (in English).
Smashin Mag: Rashinban: English review of their 2002 11 23 show at Shibuya Quattro.
Any other ones that you'd recommend I put here?
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