Ian (F) Martin
@ianfmartin.bsky.social
Writer and indie music scene person, based in Tokyo. Author of Quit Your Band! Musical Notes from the Japanese Underground (Awai Books, 2016) / バンドやめようぜ！ (Ele-king books, 2017) and owner of Call And Response Records.
All these "bands I've seen live" posts going around today have me spiralling over "bands I don't know if I've seen live". My wife insists we saw Mercury Rev in 2003, but I can't summon the memory. And I've a really strong feeling that I saw Red Krayola in Tokyo in 2006 but may have fantasised it.
November 28, 2025 at 3:46 AM
All these "bands I've seen live" posts going around today have me spiralling over "bands I don't know if I've seen live". My wife insists we saw Mercury Rev in 2003, but I can't summon the memory. And I've a really strong feeling that I saw Red Krayola in Tokyo in 2006 but may have fantasised it.
I've only got this nine year old book available for now (new one coming next year), but people still tell me they get something from it. Obviously a lot in the Japanese music scene's changed since it was published, but a lot hasn't: awaimedia.com/quit_your_ba...
November 27, 2025 at 12:49 PM
I've only got this nine year old book available for now (new one coming next year), but people still tell me they get something from it. Obviously a lot in the Japanese music scene's changed since it was published, but a lot hasn't: awaimedia.com/quit_your_ba...
Suppressing an involuntary shudder any time I see that people on here are taking about that Nuzzi person again.
I call it my Olivia tremor control.
I call it my Olivia tremor control.
November 27, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Suppressing an involuntary shudder any time I see that people on here are taking about that Nuzzi person again.
I call it my Olivia tremor control.
I call it my Olivia tremor control.
1. A Salty Salute
2. Hardcore UFOs
3. Fair Touching
4. Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
5. Everyone Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking)
2. Hardcore UFOs
3. Fair Touching
4. Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
5. Everyone Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking)
November 27, 2025 at 1:29 AM
1. A Salty Salute
2. Hardcore UFOs
3. Fair Touching
4. Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
5. Everyone Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking)
2. Hardcore UFOs
3. Fair Touching
4. Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
5. Everyone Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking)
One upcoming release from my label will open with a song called "Vaporwave", which got me thinking about songs written about genres or scenes (usually to make fun of them). Krautrock by Faust is the first that jumps to mind, but this one's a little closer to my heart: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv75...
In Bristol With A Pistol
YouTube video by The Third Eye Foundation - Topic
www.youtube.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:20 AM
One upcoming release from my label will open with a song called "Vaporwave", which got me thinking about songs written about genres or scenes (usually to make fun of them). Krautrock by Faust is the first that jumps to mind, but this one's a little closer to my heart: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv75...
Reposted by Ian (F) Martin
What I love more than almost anything else on Earth is getting ready for bed of a Sunday night and only then, at that moment, learning that Monday is a Japan national holiday. It's like discovering a hidden world in Mario: a whole new adventure, where the dream continues beyond the borders of sleep.
November 23, 2025 at 4:13 PM
What I love more than almost anything else on Earth is getting ready for bed of a Sunday night and only then, at that moment, learning that Monday is a Japan national holiday. It's like discovering a hidden world in Mario: a whole new adventure, where the dream continues beyond the borders of sleep.
“If I lose you, if I lose you, if I lose you, if I lose you, uhuh, uhuh, uhuh…”
singingpope.jpg
singingpope.jpg
November 23, 2025 at 3:56 AM
“If I lose you, if I lose you, if I lose you, if I lose you, uhuh, uhuh, uhuh…”
singingpope.jpg
singingpope.jpg
Of the current of Guided By Voices lineup, Styles We Paid For isn't their best album but it's the densest-packed collection of individual bangers.
November 22, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Of the current of Guided By Voices lineup, Styles We Paid For isn't their best album but it's the densest-packed collection of individual bangers.
Robert Pollard is AI
November 22, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Robert Pollard is AI
Stuff that came home with me today. The Lush reissue was the whole reason I went out in the first place; the Helen Love was the happiest discovery; the Data album I’ve no idea about and just bought for the band name and artwork. If anyone wants to explain to me what mistake I just made, lemme know.
November 21, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Stuff that came home with me today. The Lush reissue was the whole reason I went out in the first place; the Helen Love was the happiest discovery; the Data album I’ve no idea about and just bought for the band name and artwork. If anyone wants to explain to me what mistake I just made, lemme know.
Anyone who wants to make a lot of money (from me, can’t guarantee anyone else), get to work making an actual real westcountry cider available on tap at Japanese pubs — and not just barely-ciders like Magners and Aspalls. Doesn’t have to be the very best stuff: just real westcountry and not Strongbow
November 21, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Anyone who wants to make a lot of money (from me, can’t guarantee anyone else), get to work making an actual real westcountry cider available on tap at Japanese pubs — and not just barely-ciders like Magners and Aspalls. Doesn’t have to be the very best stuff: just real westcountry and not Strongbow
Never seen my wife move as fast as when I told her Pulp were headlining EotR next year. Anyway, result is we’ll be in the UK for a coupla weeks in September. Mostly Bristol but probably a night or two in London for those who need us.
November 21, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Never seen my wife move as fast as when I told her Pulp were headlining EotR next year. Anyway, result is we’ll be in the UK for a coupla weeks in September. Mostly Bristol but probably a night or two in London for those who need us.
Having one of those days where I'm hitting refresh over and over again on social media, just to see if the AI bubble has burst yet or if Rupert Murdoch is dead or if the president of the United States of America has poked one of his eyes out trying to figure out which end of a biro you write with.
November 21, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Having one of those days where I'm hitting refresh over and over again on social media, just to see if the AI bubble has burst yet or if Rupert Murdoch is dead or if the president of the United States of America has poked one of his eyes out trying to figure out which end of a biro you write with.
In this week's instalment of "Oh yeah, that band I love is coming to Tokyo! I wonder where they're playing... Oh, the fucking Blue Note," that band is...
November 20, 2025 at 12:29 PM
In this week's instalment of "Oh yeah, that band I love is coming to Tokyo! I wonder where they're playing... Oh, the fucking Blue Note," that band is...
Love to have post waiting for me when I get home!
November 19, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Love to have post waiting for me when I get home!
Flicking the anti-football switch to “off” just long enough to yell “Cymru am byth!” and then flicking it back on again.
November 19, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Flicking the anti-football switch to “off” just long enough to yell “Cymru am byth!” and then flicking it back on again.
If small forces of bears can keep the perverts pinned down around Gifu City and Minokoma, the bears’ main mobile units can launch a flanking attack from the southwest and take control of the regional industrial and transport hub of Nagoya, leaving the perverts stranded with their supply lines cut.
Gifu Shimbun has a map which plots monthly bear sightings and reports of suspicious individuals. The result looks like a strategy game, pitting bears against perverts. www.gifu-np.co.jp/articles/-/3...
November 18, 2025 at 11:22 AM
If small forces of bears can keep the perverts pinned down around Gifu City and Minokoma, the bears’ main mobile units can launch a flanking attack from the southwest and take control of the regional industrial and transport hub of Nagoya, leaving the perverts stranded with their supply lines cut.
Name an artist with more outright, stone-cold, slay-you-dead-right-there-where-you-stand, melt-you-into-a-puddle-of-ecstatic-goo pop bangers than Erasure DON'T TRY YOU CAN'T DO IT IT'S IMPOSSIBLE THERE IS NONE.
November 18, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Name an artist with more outright, stone-cold, slay-you-dead-right-there-where-you-stand, melt-you-into-a-puddle-of-ecstatic-goo pop bangers than Erasure DON'T TRY YOU CAN'T DO IT IT'S IMPOSSIBLE THERE IS NONE.
"The next stop is Koenji, Koenji..."
(Flautist and acoustic guitarist pack up, and guy with a suitcase full of analogue noise modules and industrial welding equipment starts setting up in the middle of the aisle)
(Flautist and acoustic guitarist pack up, and guy with a suitcase full of analogue noise modules and industrial welding equipment starts setting up in the middle of the aisle)
Through November, JR East is hosting live music performances in a Green Car running on the Chuo Line. www.traicy.com/posts/202511...
JR東日本、中央線快速グリーン車で生演奏イベント 11月の土休日に、各日1往復 - TRAICY（トライシー）
JR東日本は、中央線快速グリーン車内で生演奏イベントを11月1日から30日までの土休日に実施する。 中央線快速グリーン車5号車1階にて、プロの演奏者による生演奏を行う。実施列車・区間は、豊田駅午後1時41分発の快速東京駅 […]
www.traicy.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:58 AM
"The next stop is Koenji, Koenji..."
(Flautist and acoustic guitarist pack up, and guy with a suitcase full of analogue noise modules and industrial welding equipment starts setting up in the middle of the aisle)
(Flautist and acoustic guitarist pack up, and guy with a suitcase full of analogue noise modules and industrial welding equipment starts setting up in the middle of the aisle)
-We're handcuffed together and must cooperate to evade your pursuers
-Nothing happens but it's eerie & beautiful anyway
-A monster or something but it’s more psychedelic than scary
-Various comic misadventures teach selfish person to be nice
-The film's lying about what genre it is 'til the last act
-Nothing happens but it's eerie & beautiful anyway
-A monster or something but it’s more psychedelic than scary
-Various comic misadventures teach selfish person to be nice
-The film's lying about what genre it is 'til the last act
Top 5 movie genres:
- Moving here was a bad idea
- I went away and now I'm back
- I am eventually vindicated for my weird obsession
- My weird obsession gets me killed
- Let's have some people over for dinner
- Moving here was a bad idea
- I went away and now I'm back
- I am eventually vindicated for my weird obsession
- My weird obsession gets me killed
- Let's have some people over for dinner
Top 5 movie genres:
- Does this robot / monster have a soul? (Yes it does)
- Sassy New York newspaper gal does not need love but finds it anyway
- I travelled in time or space. It was a mistake.
- You’re supposed to be the victim of my crime but I love you
- Being a detective is miserable but hot
- Does this robot / monster have a soul? (Yes it does)
- Sassy New York newspaper gal does not need love but finds it anyway
- I travelled in time or space. It was a mistake.
- You’re supposed to be the victim of my crime but I love you
- Being a detective is miserable but hot
November 17, 2025 at 11:05 AM
-We're handcuffed together and must cooperate to evade your pursuers
-Nothing happens but it's eerie & beautiful anyway
-A monster or something but it’s more psychedelic than scary
-Various comic misadventures teach selfish person to be nice
-The film's lying about what genre it is 'til the last act
-Nothing happens but it's eerie & beautiful anyway
-A monster or something but it’s more psychedelic than scary
-Various comic misadventures teach selfish person to be nice
-The film's lying about what genre it is 'til the last act
There are few things that make me happier when watching an American TV drama than Ken Marino showing up for a guest role.
November 16, 2025 at 5:29 PM
There are few things that make me happier when watching an American TV drama than Ken Marino showing up for a guest role.
Not proud but not entirely ashamed either that my initial reaction to this was “Oh yeah, the yuri manga by sketchy 90s legend artist Satoshi Urushihara…”
Chirality is such a useful word for how rarely it is used in normal conversation.
November 16, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Not proud but not entirely ashamed either that my initial reaction to this was “Oh yeah, the yuri manga by sketchy 90s legend artist Satoshi Urushihara…”
Think Glocally, Act Lobally
November 16, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Think Glocally, Act Lobally