Description
Triple cd in a trifolded digipak cover
The seemingly purposeful eccentricity of Jad Fair’s melodic sense, lyrical outlook, and willful ignorance about the guitar (he’s never made a secret of the fact he doesn’t really know how to play and doesn’t want to learn) would seem to be the key to the chaotic tone of much of Half Japanese’s recorded work. Or at least that’s how it seemed before David Fair, the co-founder of the band and Jad’s brother, left the group in the mid-’80s, making Jad the uncontested leader of Half Japanese. With their first album after David’s departure, 1987’s Music to Strip By, Half Japanese slipped into a period of relative coherence, with Jad’s world-view pretty much intact but the music taking on a new focus that was a distinct change from the cacophony of their first albums. Volume Two: 1987-1989 collects three Half Japanese albums from the late ’80s — Music to Strip By, 1988’s Charmed Life, and 1898’s The Band That Would Be King — and this music is far more accessible and conventionally melodic than anything on Volume One: 1981-1985, the first installment in Fire Records’ reissue series. Of course, the performances are still sloppy and spontaneous, even if the accompanists are more traditionally capable of working their instruments, and Fair’s obsessions remain constant on these albums — horror movies, wrestling, odd stories he found in the newspaper, and women above all. (Though his small level of fame seems to have brightened his hopes about the fair sex; the almost-funky “Sex at your Parent’s House” suggests he has no problem setting up a scenario, and when he threatens Sean Penn to a fight for the Material Girl’s hand in “Madonna Nude,” it’s not hard to imagine he might actually land a punch.) But there’s more joy and less meandering on these albums — the jazzy polish of “Silver and Katherine” would have been unthinkable on Loud or Our Solar System — and Fair’s stream-of-consciousness lyrics speak of a growing confidence and sense of purpose, even if his themes still present themselves in short, somewhat frantic bursts. (Keep in mind these three albums deliver a total of 109 songs.) For longtime fans, Volume Two: 1987-1989 is an impressive and well-assembled study of one of this band’s more interesting periods, and if you’re looking for a way into Half Japanese’s catalog, this a good place to start despite the heft of this collection.
Track list:
1. Stripping For Cash
2. Thick And Thin
3. Diary
4. Big Mistake
5. Hot Dog And Hot Damn
6. The Price Was Right But The Door Was Wrong
7. Blue Monday
8. U.S. Teens Are Spoiled Bums
9. Point / Counterpoint
10. Sex At Your Parent’s House
11. The Last Straw
12. Gator Bait
13. La Bamba
14. Colleen
15. Ouija Board Summons Satan
16. You Must Obey Me
17. Salt And Pepper
18. Ancient Life
19. Silver And Katherine
20. Money To Burn
21. Hidden Charms
22. How
23. My Sordid Past
24. Silver And Katherine
25. Dusk To Dawn
26. Everybody Knows
27. Go Go Go Go Go
28. Scratch
29. Every Hour
30. Hey
31. Mongolian Stretcher
32. Colleen
33. Salt And Pepper
34. T For Texas
35. Terminator
36. Sheik Of Araby
37. Said And Done
38. Penny In The Fountain
39. Evidence
40. Vietnam
41. Roman Candles
42. Love At First Sight
43. Snake Line
44. Bright Lights, Big City
45. Face Rake
46. Later In A Magazine
47. Red Dress
48. Charmed Life
49. Day And Night
50. 1,000,000,000,000 Kisses
51. Terminator
52. I’ll Change My Style
53. Charmed Life
54. Trouble In The Water
55. Miracles Happen Everyday
56. Fortunate
57. Poetic License
58. Day And Night
59. 1,000,000 Kisses
60. Madonna Nude
61. I’ll Change My Style
62. George Steele
63. Real Cool Time
64. How Many More Years
65. King Kong Burgundy
66. Something New In The Ring
67. Terminator
68. Open Your Eyes / Close Your Eyes
69. Daytona Beach
70. Lucky Star
71. Some Things Last A Long Time
72. My Most Embarrassing Moment
73. Buried Treasure
74. Open Book
75. Little Records
76. Deadly Alien Spawn
77. Postcard From Far Away
78. Ventriloquism Made Easy
79. Something In The Wind
80. Bingo’s Not His Name-O
81. Put Some Sugar On It
82. What More Can I Do?
83. Brand New Moon
84. Another World
85. Every Word Is True
86. I Live For Love
87. Werewolf
88. Ride Ride Ride
89. Sugarcane
90. I Wish I May
91. Ashes On The Ground
92. Curse Of The Doll People
93. Horseshoes
94. Bluebirds
95. Frankenstein Meets Billy The Kid
96. My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It
97. Africans Built The Pyramids
98. Better Than Before
99. Daytona
100. Back Home
101. Mule Skinner Blues
102. Sugarcane
103. Jump Up
104. Postcard From Far Away
105. Big Wheels
106. Ordeal
107. Jump Down
108. Cowboys
109. Man Without A Head