I don’t know what street musicians are like in other cities of the world, but here in Tokyo, I’m sad to say, most of them suck.

There are exceptions to the rule. I always like to brag about the one time I saw PE’Z, before anyone knew who they were, play at that square off the east entrance of JR Shinjuku station. Needless to say, upon seeing them my mind was filled with a cornucopia of expletives, all of which run somewhere along the lines of “holy fucking shit!” That’s an extraordinary example of course, but PE’Z aside, it’s not entirely impossible to encounter music that’s actually worthwhile on the streets. Just don’t go out expecting to, because those instances will be rare and few.

Of course, most people in this day and age are equipped with the ability to tune out distractions of this sort, so they are mild annoyances at worst. But it does leave you wondering - can’t Tokyo do any better? The music scene here has got to be one of the most vibrant in the world, so why can’t some of that awesomeness trickle down to the amateur-level street musicians? Or more to the point, why can’t those said street musicians, in light of all the exposure to their better peers that this city affords them, realize how much they suck and keep their shitty music to themselves?

This rant was inspired by one such experience I had yesterday at Kichijoji, on my way from Tower Records to the JR station. It was a typical rock band arrangement - a three-piece consisting of a guitarist/singer, a bassist, and a drummer. I’ll admit to being predisposed to assume they suck, but I can assure you that a more open mind on my part would not have proved me wrong in any way. I couldn’t have spent more than a few seconds listening to their music to (whilst still walking of course, I’m not going to waste any amount of time on these fuckers), so none of this would’ve been worth noting in a blog, except I witnessed something for the first time - though I suspect it’s actually a common occurrence. The musicians have suddenly stopped playing, and are exuding an “oh shit” vibe. I whip my head around to notice that a couple of policemen are walking towards this direction. The rest you can infer.

Seriously, I don’t like policemen in general, and I’m pretty sympathetic to musicians, but the fact of the matter is that the band was horrible, and had resoundingly failed to earn my support. So instead of “come on boys, stick it up to authority” I was thinking “haha.”

Sure I may be a jerk, but at least I don’t engage in indulgent noise pollution, right?

You may be a jerk, but you’re OUR jerk.

It might make them hire a practice space.

I think PE’Z should go back to the street where they belong.

James: Hahahaha

Yoyogi Park has some bearable bands playing from time to time.

Yoyogi has some enjoyable drum circles and elvis impersonators, but I’m not sure about bearable bands. And yeah, the Japanese street musicians performing within a rock/pop context uniformly suck.

hi, i’m a writer from Bombay, India. I’m writing a piece on street music of the world, and a google search got me here. Pretty good writing. Cheers.

That’s strange. I thought the police were pretty lax in Kichijouji; one policeman even waited for a band to finish their song before telling them off.

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