Half Japanese
Half Japanese at the SXSW Festival, March 2008
Background information
Origin	Uniontown, Maryland, United States
Genres	Art punk indie rock experimental rock lo-fi
Years active	1974–present
Labels	50 Skidillion Watts, Safe House, Alternative Tentacles, Joyful Noise Recordings, Fire Records (UK), Emperor Jones, T.E.C. Tones, Psycho Acoustic Sounds
Members	Jad Fair John Sluggett Jason Willett Gilles Reider Mick Hobbs
Past members	David Fair Mark Jickling Howard Wuelfing Don Fleming Jay Spiegel Henry Beckmeyer Rick Dreyfuss John Dreyfuss Moe Tucker Kramer Rich Labrie

Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in 1974,^[1] after their family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. The brothers' original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playing; vocals; and an out-of-tune, distorted guitar. Both Fair brothers sang, although over time Jad held the frontman role. As of the band's last several releases since the 1990s, according to the album and CD credits, Half Japanese composes and plays the entirety of the music while Fair, eschewing his role as guitarist from earlier albums, plays almost no guitar but is responsible for the vocals and lyrics, which typically divide into either "love songs or monster songs." The band, still a vital art-punk unit, has released six albums since 2014 with the same personnel that recorded Hot in 1993. Three recent releases—Why Not?, Invincible and Crazy Hearts—received four-star reviews from the U.K. magazine Record Collector, while The New Yorker also praised the 2021 release Crazy Hearts. The band members are John Sluggett (guitar), Gilles-Vincent Rieder (drums), Jason Willett (bass), Mick Hobbs (guitar), and Jad Fair (vocals and guitar).

Band history

Jad is well known for playing an untuned electric guitar. After more than 40 years, he still does not play in any traditional manner; in the documentary Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King he states that "you do need cords to plug the guitar in but that's pretty much it."

Their lyrics often deal with monsters and the supernatural (especially as influenced by "creature feature" and sci-fi movies), in addition to more conventional themes, such as young love. They have stated that all their songs are either "love songs or monster songs."

The band released their first single, "Calling All Girls", in August 1977, followed by a triple album, 1/2 Gentlemen/Not Beasts,^[2] that gave them a near-instant cult status. It is possible they were the first band to debut with a triple album.

The band played and recorded as a duo until the early 1980s, when they began incorporating additional members into the group: Mark Jickling (guitar and vocals) and brothers Ricky and John Dreyfuss (drums and saxophone). Since that time, dozens of musicians have come and gone under the Half Japanese banner, including Howard Wuelfing, Don Fleming and Jay Spiegel both from the band Velvet Monkeys, and Shockabilly bass player and Shimmy Disc impresario Mark Kramer among others. Jad is the only member who has been with Half Japanese from the beginning.^[2] David Fair left the band in the early 1980s to focus on his family. He has continued to make guest appearances with the band from time to time.

The next line-up of Half Japanese came together in the late 1980s, proving to be a long-lasting and stable unit recording several albums and touring frequently throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. This incarnation featured guitarist/multi-instrumentalist John Sluggett (also a longtime member of Moe Tucker's band), multi-instrumentalist Jason Willett, Mick Hobbs, and drummer Gilles Reider. Since then, the group has worked with Moe Tucker from The Velvet Underground, who produced and performed on Fire In the Sky (1992), as well as The Band That Would Be King, and with Fred Frith, and John Zorn, among others.^[2]

Fans and supporters of Half Japanese include Penn Jillette, who helped the band release some of their albums on his label, 50 Skidillion Watts, and Kurt Cobain, who had them open some dates of Nirvana's 1993 In Utero tour. Cobain was wearing a Half Japanese T-shirt when he died.^[3]

The band's history and influence are chronicled in the 1993 documentary Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King by Jeff Feuerzeig.^[2] The band was chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead.^[4]

The 1995 album Hot was one of their noisiest grunge albums with heavily distorted vocals and guitars. In 1997, the band released Heaven Sent.^[2] The title track, over 60 minutes long, was a live recording for a radio broadcast on Radio 5 VPRO's De Avonden.

In 2011, the band toured through Europe with the line-up of Jad Fair, John Sluggett, Jason Willett, Mick Hobbs, and Gilles-Vincent Reider. Once a year David Fair is in charge of the ShakeMore Music Festival in Westminster, Maryland. Each year the start-up formation with the Fair brothers, the Dreyfuss brothers, John Moremen, and Mark Jickling perform at ShakeMore. Early drummer Rick Dreyfuss died on March 14, 2013, and was replaced by Skizz Cyzyk and Chris "Batworth" Ciattei from the band Go Pills.

In October 2013, longtime band members John Sluggett, Gilles-Vincent Rieder, Mick Hobbs, Jason Willett, and Jad Fair toured with Neutral Milk Hotel. In 2014 a new album, Overjoyed, was released on Joyful Noise Recordings.

Discography

References

External links

• The Half Japanese Fan Site
• Half Japanese entry at the Trouser Press website
• Half Japanese band page at Alternative Tentacles label website
• Jad Fair's official website
• Interview to Jad Fair
• Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King
• The Shakemore Festival image collection at the Internet Archive featuring Half Japanese & friends