In the late 80s Penn Jillette (of the magic/comedy team Penn and Teller) did two things that may have saved the rock band Half Japanese from permanent obscurity. First he rescued the master tapes to the band’s landmark Charmed Life album from a label deadbeat in LA who sat on them for several frustrating years while the music languished at a pressing plant. Then he started his own label, 50 Skadillion Watts of Power, from profits earned guest-starring on an episode of Miami Vice, and proceeded to release the album himself, along with a number of the band’s other albums.
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The nervous and unassuming Jad Fair dates the band’s inception at around November or December of 1973. But it wasn’t until four years later that the Fair brothers self-released the prophetically noisy, chaotic Calling All Girls EP. That first record’s jarring sound proved the band was unconcerned with technical perfection, or even any musical training at all. As David Fair says in the film, “The little skinny [guitar] strings, they make the high sounds, and the big fat ones, they make the low sounds. That’s all you’ve got to know. . . . If you want to be fast, play fast, and if you want to go slow, go slow.”
In spite of indifferent commercial reception, Half Japanese continued to put out albums and toured both America and Europe. David Fair left the band permanently when he got married in 1986, right after the band recorded Charmed Life. Then came a lull in Half Japanese’s career, until Jillette came along.
Fair will perform after the Saturday-night screening of the film. It shows Friday at 8, Saturday at 4 and 8:30, and Sunday at 4 as part of the Film Center’s New Directions Documentary Festival. The Film Center is at Columbus and Jackson. Admission’s $5, $10 for the second Saturday show; call 443-3737. Fair will also give a free in-store performance Sunday at 3 at Ajax Records, 2156 W. Chicago (772-4783).
