Just in time for Christmas, it's a MAGA-crushing Mamdani mug from Gary Taxali

You've seen the poster, now you can get a Mamdani mug directly from Toronto artist Gary Taxali right here.

Jad Fair shares new Half Japanese video for "We Are Giants"

The new Half Japanese album Jump Into Love is out July 21st. Check out "We Are Giants"

Here's the scoop from Fire Records...

It’s a meeting of minds, a coming together and a coming-of-an-age from the world’s favourite indie-alt-rock outsiders. Jump Into Love is “possibly” the 20th studio album from lo-fi royalty Half Japanese. Atypically out there and off-kilter, it wears its heart on its sleeve through a cascade of new, dark and brooding songs from the band who would be king.

Loved by Kurt Cobain, Daniel Johnston, Penn Jillette and outsiders everywhere, Half Japanese continue their quest for answers; creating a soundscape for a post-zombie land where bells chime and it’s OK to say “Yes”. It’s another adventure; series 20 from an introspective parallel world where the super prolific Jad Fair cogitates on life, love, giants, the possessed and even bigger issues that simply swell the brain.

Half Japanese currently includes Jad with John Sluggett, Gilles-Vincent Rieder, Mick Hobbs and Jason Willett, a veritable who’s who of DIY indie culture. Recorded at Tempo House, Baltimore, Russian Recording, Bloomington Indiana, Studio de la Trappe, Donneville France and la Casamurada, Tarragona Spain. The album was mixed by long time Half Japanese sparring partner Jason Willett at his home in Baltimore, Maryland.

Pre-order 'Jump Into Love' – featuring sleeve art by Toronto's own Gary Taxali – right here: https://halfjapanese.lnk.to/JumpIntoLove

“The band members live such a far distance from each other. John is up in Asheville area. Gilles is living in Switzerland. Mick lives in London. It's such a distance that we're not able to rehearse so of course it's going to keep a kind of rawness to it,” says Jad.

Jump Into Love follows a string of excellent expanded re-issues of classic Half Japanese albums on Fire Records and Jad’s release of some 15 solo albums between 2020 and 2022.

“I feel a need to do music and do songwriting. It's something I really miss when I'm not doing it. There's a certain amount of tranquility that's obtained from the fact that you can be working on songs each day. I think you use that certain portion of your brain that is otherwise not used. I kind of kind of prefer using it than not using it.”

Check out "We Are Giants" following the track listing for Jump Into Love below.

Half Japanese – Jump Into Love 

1. It’s Ok

2. We Are Giants

3. True Love Will Save The Day

4. Listen To The Bells Chime

5. Jump Into Love

6. The Answer Is Yes

7. Shining Sun

8. This Isn’t Funny

9. Step Inside

10. Here She Comes

11. Shining Stars

12. Zombie World

Toronto's Gary Taxali creates sleeve art for new Half Japanese album

Here's Gary Taxali's brilliant artwork appears on the cover of the new Half Japanese album "Jump Into Love" and gig posters.

Here's the scoop...

"I've always loved the art punk band Half Japanese, led by brothers Jad and David Fair.  I saw them perform several times over the years and have always enjoyed their shows.  The Fair brothers have collaborated with musicians including Daniel Johnston, Moe Tucker, and Kurt Cobain, who was such a big fan, asked them to open for Nirvana's In Utero tour. (When Kurt was found dead, he was wearing a Half Japanese t-shirt.) Jad Fair has been leading the band for decades and is releasing their new album "Jump Into Love" this July. I was pretty elated when Jad asked me to do the album artwork. He wanted the whole cover to be my art (the band's name/album title will be affixed to a sticker on the shrink wrap)." – Gary Taxali

Get tickets for the Half Japanese show at the Moth Club in Hackey on March 25 right here.

Tav Falco enlists Gary Taxali to create 2022 tour poster

There's no Toronto date scheduled as yet but Tav Falco will be rocking Buffalo's Mohawk Place on Sept. 12th. 

Here's the scoop...

         photo: Eugene Baffle

Tav Falco and his band Panther Burns have announced dates for a U.S. summer tour. Falco started his musical career playing alongside Big Star frontman Alex Chilton in the first lineup of Panther Burns in 1979. In more recent years, he has been backed by a trio of Italian musicians for both recording and live dates. The "Rogue Male" tour will run from August through October and include favorites from throughout Panther Burns' four decades of recordings.

 

The most recent addition to Falco's discography is last November's Club Car Zodiac EP. Released for Record Store Day by ORG Music, the vinyl and digital release features five tracks, including an electric cover of the traditional folk song, "House of the Rising Sun." The same musicians featured on the EP — producer/guitarist Mario Monterosso, bassist Giuseppe Sangirardi, and drummer Walter Brunetti — will appear on the concert dates.

 

The primary opening act for the "Rogue Male" tour will be this trio, performing selections from Monterosso's debut instrumental solo album, Take It Away. The album is available now digitally with a CD release following August 12. Last month, Monterosso traveled to Los Angeles at the invitation of Priscilla Presley for a pre-release screening of director Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. This Friday, July 22, he and his band will perform at a black-tie tribute to Priscilla Presley, honoring her efforts to preserve Graceland and promote Memphis music worldwide. The event takes place at Theatre Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

In 2019, Falco released his fourteenth studio album, the critically acclaimed Cabaret of Daggers. Upon its arrival, Mojo Magazine wrote, “Four decades into a career which began alongside kindred spirits Alex Chilton and the Cramps, Tav Falco’s new album conjures up a potent mix of blues, jazz and tango rhythms in which 1920s Vienna café culture seamlessly rubs shoulders with Beale Street juke joints.” At the time of the album's recording in Rome, Falco's home base was Vienna, Austria. This past January, he relocated to Bangkok, Thailand.

 

Falco was born in Philadelphia and raised in rural Arkansas. As a young man, he worked as a railroad brakeman for the Missouri Pacific Lines before studying theater and film at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He moved to Memphis in 1973. In the middle of that decade, he co-founded the nonprofit Televista video art-action group and filmed many notable blues musicians. His documentation is now regarded as historically significant and his footage of R.L. Burnside appeared in a CBS Sunday Morning segment in 2021. While with Televista, Falco also trained in photography and filmmaking under William J. Eggleston.

 

Falco is the only constant member of his band, Panther Burns. The group played its first show in a cotton loft in Memphis on February 10, 1979. Early years featured a revolving door of underground rock luminaries entering and exiting the band, including noted producer/session musician Jim Dickinson (Mud Boy and the Neutrons, the Dixie Flyers), and multi-instrumentalist Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch). Panther Burns thrived on the early 1980s music circuit and were a popular draw at such storied New York clubs as the Peppermint Lounge and Danceteria. Despite Chilton’s exit from the live lineup in 1984, the band carried on and has released a vast discography of albums, EPs, and singles for such crucial independent labels as Rough Trade, New Rose, In the Red, Sympathy for the Record Industry, and now ORG Music.  Watch the short tour preview clip below. 

 

PRAISE FOR TAV FALCO

“Tav has long been a hero/inspiration to Primal Scream. A true master of rock and roll and a cultural ditch digger on the same level as The Cramps. Thanks for all the great music, Tav. Stay Free!” — Bobby Gillespie, PRIMAL SCREAM

 

“I have been listening to Tav Falco’s Panther Burns since his first LP, Behind the Magnolia Curtain (1981), when Tav, along with The Cramps, turned a whole new generation onto the twisted pleasure of rock ‘n’ roll. He’s got everything... rock ‘n’ roll, blues, tango, style in abundance, and most important, but never overrated, SOUL.” – Jason Pierce, SPIRITUALIZED

 

“I don’t think folks give Tav Falco and the Panther Burns enough credit... Tav Falco is hip!” – Jon Spencer, BLUES EXPLOSION

Unfamous: The Works of Gary Taxali opening reception @ FCP Gallery, Thursday

Behind The Scenes: Gary Taxali art show

Dan Neumann snapped this intriguing shot at a recent art opening for celebrated Toronto artist Gary Taxali. 

Happy New Year from Gary Taxali

Gary Taxali: Steward of Canada's Mint