Half Japanese were formed by brothers David and Jad Fair in Maryland in the late 1970s. Playing a gleefully off-kilter and amateurish version of jangly pop, the band brought a truly liberating philosophy to music-making: it's not how well one plays, but the simple fact that one is playing. Throughout decades of recording and performing, Half Japanese's music remained shambolic, noisy, and weird; however, this didn't stop bands such as Sonic Youth and Nirvana--who took the band on their landmark 1993 arena tour--from championing the idiosyncratic outfit.

Listen to Half Japanese at Finetune.

• U.S. Teens Are Spoiled Bums

• Daniel Johnston
• Sonic Youth
• The Residents
• Violent Femmes
• John Zorn
• Pere Ubu
• Swell Maps
• The Vaselines
• Yo La Tengo
• Beat Happening
• Nirvana
• The Pastels
• Ween
• Beck
• Teenage Fanclub
• Pavement
• The Velvet Underground
• Sebadoh
• The Shaggs
• Modest Mouse

• pandoradead
• ProleArtThreat
• ceefour
• festus_goombah

• festus_goombah on 2007-08-02 16:32:51.890:
  radio that is invigorating while swalling half your mind