Outsider Music & Half Japanese Live In Hell
Outsider music, a term coined by Irwin Chusid in the mid-1990s, are songs and compositions by musicians who are not part of the commercial music industry who write songs that ignore standard musical or lyrical conventions, either because they have no formal training or because they disagree with formal rules. This type of music, which often lacks typical structure and is emotionally stark, has few outlets; performers or recordings are often promoted by word of mouth or through fan chat sites, usually among communities of music collectors and music connoisseurs. Outsider musicians usually have much "greater individual control over the final creative" product either because of a low budget or because of their "inability or unwillingness to cooperate" with modifications by a record label or producer.
The band Half Japanese is the very essence of outsider music. These guys are interesting. Consider this frame of reference material. Here they are in Live In Hell which MTV refused to play... MTV was so VH1 even in the early days.
It is not hard to tell that they aren't musicians in the classic sense. In fact Jad Fair plays an untuned electric guitar and brags "the only chord I know is the one that connects the guitar to the amp".
If your into this sort of thing you should check the Half Japanese documentary The Band That Would Be King.
The band Half Japanese is the very essence of outsider music. These guys are interesting. Consider this frame of reference material. Here they are in Live In Hell which MTV refused to play... MTV was so VH1 even in the early days.
It is not hard to tell that they aren't musicians in the classic sense. In fact Jad Fair plays an untuned electric guitar and brags "the only chord I know is the one that connects the guitar to the amp".
If your into this sort of thing you should check the Half Japanese documentary The Band That Would Be King.