When he was older he lost them all in a battle with a mildew giant. When he was a little one he would draw detailed crayon renderings of all his favorite Star Wars figures. This is koji’s first venture in to toy design.īwana Spoons was raised in the woods. Koji has worked on several projects with Gargamel, and is fast on his way to master sofubi painter. Koji Harmon is a zine maker, photographer, and collector. His work has appeared in publications like Craphound, Juxtapoz, Pencil Fight, The Stranger, Portland Mercury, and Nickolodeon Magazine, as well as awesome books like BEASTS!, The Darkening Garden, Neither Here Nor There (Melvins), Qeedrophonic, Dot Dot Dash and others. His many many years of pop culture emersion and empirical knowledge of useless trivial information have somehow paid off in spades. He lives in an awesome basement apartment that he shares with his cool son named Felix and two cats not named Felix. But he is getting paid to do what he enjoys, and he’s been doing it for years now. Graduated CalArts in 1996 with a Bachelor’s degree in Experimental Animation. Martin Ontiveros grew up in San Diego, California. Koji, Bwana, and Martin make art and toys that explode with color, depth, and endless imagination.Ĭollector and fan Takaomi Fujiki put it best when he said “Happy Beam Discharge!”įor more info as it becomes available, interviews and photos please contact Grass Hut in the U.S. Gargamel makes toys that look like Jolly Rancher coated diamonds.
Thrash Out is the Flagship store and gallery of mind bending vinyl pioneers Gargamel. I will fully be attending this opening and insist that you do the same!įeaturing all new works by Koji Harmon, Bwana Spoons, and Martin Ontiveros.Ĭome join us for good times, art, toys, prizes, and a few big suprises. And as far as kaiju go, these Portland/Tokyo guys make some of the most tripped-out, interesting kaiju out there today. I normally am not a big toy fan, but I do approve of old school-style kaiju. Denki Groove are a band that contributed to the idea of “Japan Cool,” and they seem to be the only ones these days performing up to the promise. When you think the entire exercise of “contemporary art” is pretentious fakery, you limit your creativity to a small scale that will not impress anyone outside of your peer group.
#DEKLINE BWANA SPOONS HOW TO#
The problem again is Generation Y’s failure to know how to remix, sample, and recontextualize their own Japanese pop heritage. You can’t be earnest and ironic at the same time, and they’ve chosen the former.Īlthough I have blamed Gen Y’s cultural malaise on their navel-gazing insularity, Denki Groove shows that you can create gold out of exclusively domestic source material.
Everything’s gotta be “real” - like Let it Be over Sgt. This ragtag mopey Generation Y has basically rejected any sort of artistic pretension on the grounds that it gets in the way of fraternal compassion. Maybe the latest Cornelius stuff is less essential, but he’s still schooling everyone else. We tend to discount bands once the members start hitting their late 30s, but Denki Groove, Scha Dara Parr, Cornelius, and other core members of Gen X keep providing a level of pop music and visual that strives towards artistry and critical irony. The more this decade progresses, the more I realize that the quality decline of Japanese music in the last 7-8 years has been essentially a generational problem. Imagine the entire label filled with acts like this (Judy and Mary, Supercar, Sunahara Yoshinori, Puffy, the Chappie album etc.) and you’ll realize why the mid-to-late 1990s showed such creative energy in the mainstream arena.
Now this is the J-Pop I remember! The video shows Sony Music Japan at its best: slightly alternative production and catchy melodies mixed with high-level art-driven visuals.
#DEKLINE BWANA SPOONS PRO#
An homage to the Japanese 1980s pop moment, directors Prince Tongha (DG’s Pierre Taki and Super Lovers/Super Milk Chan art director Tanaka Hideyuki) collected a large and diverse group of intentionally-unremarkable girls to act out Matsuda Seiko, Pink Lady, Pro Golfer Reiko, Sukeban Deka, and other iconic aesthetic moments of the “idol” era. Denki Groove are back with their first single in eight years, and the accompanying video is so good that it makes me want to throw a temper tantrum.
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