Food hackers at Obacchi Jacket Lunch Box cut and arrange ordinary bento lunch box ingredients to recreate famous album covers.

Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire: Egg, paprika, nori (seaweed sheet), kamaboko (fish sausage), carrot, potato, ham, black sesame, rice

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland: Nori, paprika (red & orange), egg, rice

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album: Potato, umeboshi (pickled plum), fish/vegetable flakes, nori, kamaboko, rice

KISS - Destroyer: Egg, nori, ume (Japanese plum), kamaboko, rice

King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King: Mentaiko (cod roe), kamaboko, ham, nori, rice

Weezer - Green Album: Cabbage, nori, ham, kamaboko, paprika, rice

The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground: Nori, egg, rice

Public Enemy - Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age: Nori, kamaboko, umeboshi, rice

See more than 25 pages of these bentos at Obacchi Jacket Lunch Box (use the “Next” link at the bottom of each page to scroll through the site).

[Via: Zaeega]

Denki Groove’s video for “Mononoke Dance” is yet another masterpiece by manga artist Masakazu Amahisa. Using stick-puppet animation, the video tells the story of a couple who crash their car on a dark forest road and encounter a Konaki-jiji (monster baby with the face of an old man) that leads them deep into the woods to a wild party for yokai, or traditional Japanese monsters. (Watch it.)

Guests at the party include Hitodama (fireballs), Kyonshi (Chinese vampire), Onyudo (shapeshifting monk), Jizo (guardian deity of children), Noppera-bo (faceless ghost), Rokurokubi (long-necked monster), Kappa (water imp), Hoichi the Earless, someone who dances like Yoshio Kojima, and many others.

Incidentally, the song “Mononoke Dance” is used as the opening theme for the “Hakaba Kitaro” anime series now airing on Fuji TV (the video here is completely unrelated to the TV show).

In 1973, Japanese psychedelic prog rock pioneers Flower Travellin’ Band played their last show at Maruyama Park in Kyoto. The show came shortly after the release of their final album “MAKE UP,” and after the cancellation of their scheduled Japan tour with the Rolling Stones (immigration officials refused Mick Jagger a visa). Pieces of the wild final performance were captured on 8mm film. The music here is “Satori - Part II” from the legendary Satori album (1971).

A 1969 Chunichi News piece entitled “Rock and Youth” profiled eccentric frontman Joe Yamanaka, who was 22 years old at the time. In the report, Joe — a former professional boxer and fashion model who says his African-American/Japanese blood flows with the essence of rock ‘n’ roll — professes a deeper love for explosive rock than for sentimental enka. The music here is a supercharged version of Muddy Waters’ “Louisiana Blues,” from Flower Travellin’ Band’s “Anywhere” album (1970).

Flower Travellin’ Band reunited this year — 35 years after their last show in Kyoto — and are putting together a new album. They are scheduled to play at Fuji Rock Festival this summer.

[Photo: Joe Yamanaka]

This minimalist version of “Smoky Bubbles” by Denki Groove (from the “A” album, 1997) was performed on a jailbroken iPod Touch 1.1.2.

Bass: Pocket Guitar (Electric Bass)
Synthesizer: iPhone Synth
Drums: BeatPhone
Guitar: Pocket Guitar (Acoustic Electric Guitar)
Piano: iAno (now known as “Pianist”)

On March 8, pianist Yosuke Yamashita donned a fireproof suit and played a burning piano on a beach in Ishikawa prefecture. The improvised jazz performance went for about 10 minutes until the flames rendered the piano silent. This video shows a few excerpts.

Yamashita’s performance was a reenactment of a similar one he gave in 1973, which was made into a short film by Japanese director Kiyoshi Awazu. You can see the complete 1973 performance on Awazu’s website.

[Source: Sankei]

The music video for Ken Ishii’s “Space Invaders 2003” is a touching, behind-the-scenes look at a Space Invader family torn apart by war.

The promo video for “ILL MACHINE (x ULTRA BRAiN),” a track off the recently released Nu Riot CD by Wagdug Futuristic Unity (a project involving Kyono of the Mad Capsule Markets), is set in a world 50 years hence (according to Kyono’s blog), where heavily armed gas-masked clones battle giant machines that assemble themselves from trash and set out to cleanse the planet by blasting everything to smithereens. Directed by CG artist Satoshi Kuroda.

[Link: ILL MACHINE (x ULTRA BRAiN)]

T-shirt retailer Beams-T is handing out a free art-themed DVD magazine to customers in Japan. The DVD showcases the work of five artists from around the world, including this incredibly loony scrolling video-collage of found GIF animations put together by international man of mystery Subway Lung (a.k.a. Tokyo Windbag).

You can see the other DVD magazine videos on kurandofuruya’s YouTube page (the light-based graffiti video by Kieph/Atsushi Sasaki is also recommended).

Omodaka’s 21st-century disco version of Kokiriko Bushi — an ancient folk song that Gokayama (Toyama prefecture) villagers used to perform for the local Shinto deities — combines synthesized vocals with a Stevie Wonder-ish bassline and ’80s video game chiptune sounds, and the wonderfully quirky and surreal video (animated by Teppei Maki) features a fragile skeleton dancer that shares the floor with lots of disembodied hands and floating eyeball-headed ladies. [Video]

Incidentally, the kokiriko is a type of percussion instrument made from old bamboo used in the roofs of traditional farmhouses. After being all but forgotten, Kokiriko Bushi was revived in the mid-20th century and has become one of Japan’s most well-known folk songs.

Teppei Maki also directed the animation for DJ Kentaro’s Tasogare Highway High…

…and he has worked on videos for Kaskade (Be Still), the Beat Crusaders (Your Song Is Good) and Fuuri (Nana Song), none of which appear to be available online.

On December 6, several months after Toyota’s DJ Robot ditched its entertainment career for a job as a receptionist and renamed itself “Robina,” the auto giant unveiled a new, musically-inclined Partner Robot that can play violin. A total of 17 computer-controlled joints in its flexible arms and agile fingers allow the robot to hold the violin and correctly press the strings against the fingerboard with its left hand, while gently drawing the bow across the strings with its right hand. In a recital held at a Toyota showroom in Tokyo, the 152-centimeter (5-ft) tall humanoid entertained guests with a slightly robotic but technically adept rendition of “Pomp and Circumstance.”

The robot violinist is the latest addition to Toyota’s ensemble of musical androids, which can also play trumpet, tuba, trombone, French horn and percussion. In addition to further developing its musical skills, Toyota aims to continue improving the robot’s dexterity and coordination so that it can one day perform household chores.

Also unveiled at the demonstration was a new mobility robot — a motorized chair that balances itself on a pair of self-adjusting Segway-like wheels that can roll smoothly over uneven surfaces and rough terrain. Intended as a personal transport system for the elderly, the mobility robot can run at a maximum speed of 6 kilometers per hour (3.7 mph) for 20 kilometers (12 miles) on a single battery charge, can handle 10-degree slopes, and is outfitted with sensors that allow it to avoid collisions with obstacles. Users can also summon the robot by remote control and use it as a porter to carry luggage.

Toyota plans to begin testing the robots at hospitals next year, with the hope of putting them into practical use by the early part of the next decade.

(Watch a news report about the robots.)

[Sources: Toyota, NHK]