GARAGE ROCKIN’ CRAZE

Raunchy, Raggedy, Real!

Venue(s): Shibuya Humax Cinema
Jan. 14 (Sat), 2017 to Jan. 27 (Fri), 2017: Late showing
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: garage-rockin-craze.net/
Theater website: www.humax-cinema.co.jp/cinema/shibuya/index.html
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0sfWeXrCXo

(Garage Rockin’ Craze)
Director: Mario Cuzic (マリオ・クジク)

The film’s tagline says it all: A savage journey into the heart of underground Tokyo rock and roll!!

If you’re looking for a spectacularly exhaustive peek into a little-known but thriving subculture, try this documentary on for sound. Crafted from footage shot over the past five years by Tokyo-based filmmaker Mario Cuzic (aka Tokyo Gorehound), Garage Rockin’ Craze is an impressively wide-ranging snapshot of the 1960s-spawned genre that is variously called “garage punk” or “protopunk,” but is forever accompanied by the adjectival phrase “raw and raucous.”

Garage rock started in the garages of North America, but it quickly found international practitioners and namesakes, and evolved into a variety of styles, from surf to rockabilly to psychedelic rock to alternarock. In Japan, it has experienced amazing longevity, despite the prevalence of the country’s homogenized J-pop, and better-known bands like the 5.6.7.8's have earned global fans thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill soundtrack.

Cuzic’s film makes it clear that the sound thrives in Tokyo thanks to early practitioners who continue to nourish the form, and devotes screen time to such talking heads as the legendary promoter Daddy-O-Nov (Japan’s garage-rock evangelist), as well as dozens of singing/screaming heads from Tokyo's premier garage punk event, Back From The Grave. Its moniker borrowed from the compilations of early garage rock put out by Crypt Records, a passionately devoted community has grown up around BFTG, and the film celebrates its diversity.

Reflecting the intercultural/intersexual/transnational nature of BFTG gatherings, the documentary is screening with English subs, and apparently, this even extends to lyrics! Get ready for the 5.6.7.8's, 20 Hits, Theee Bat, Baitones, Bobby's Bar, Daddy-O-Nov, The Drexel, Eddie Legend A-Go-Go, The Fadeaways, Firestarter, The Fly & His One Man Garbage, Gasoline, Great 3, The Great Mongoose, Guitar Wolf, Jackie & the Cedrics, Jet Boys, Machinacalis, Jimmy Mashiko, Los Rislaz, Minnesota Voodoo Men, Pinky Aoki, Rock-A-Cherry, Saturn, The Shallows, Supersnazz. Stompin' Riffraffs, The Titans, Texaco Leatherman, Tokyo Cramps, UIC, Vivian Boys, and Young Parisian.

SHIBUYA HUMAX CINEMA