swampgirl you have no idea who this guy is, do you?
don't worry, i did the 30 seconds of wikipeding for you.

"He was a member of Fat Les, a band which also contained Britpop artists Damien Hirst and Blur bassist Alex James. Allen was also closely associated with the band New Order. He co-wrote their only UK number one single, World In Motion, and occasionally performed with them live."

"on the BBC's arts & culture programme The Late Show when Keith Allen as a guest on the show got into an extremely heated row with the panel over his view that comedy was now being hamstrung to appease rules of political correctness. Just before storming off the live broadcast, Allen - a veteran of the early 1980s wave of UK "alternative" comedians that had shocked many - had stormed at an Asian member of the panel that was for tighter controls that "It's not a chip you've got on your shoulder, it's a fucking vindaloo!" Allen later explained to press reporters that a vindaloo is as faux ethnic (this piece of Indian cuisine actually originated from Portugal) as those who masquerade as self-appointed spokespeople for ethnic minority communities' rights in order to censor arts and culture according to their own pet prejudices."

over your head, eh?

Thanks!

Yeah, Japanese rock is heavily influenced by Western rock (of course: the West invented rock'n'roll, after all). To be specific, the modern Japanese bands tend to be influenced mainly by 60s-90s rock and britpop, and with such good influences, it's no wonder there's a wealth of good rock and roll to be found in the East right now. (There's tons of crap too though, lol.)

I'll try to sift some more interesting bands and some that retain a more traditionally Japanese sound to them sometime as well.