Hanatarash (translated "sniveler" or "snot-nosed") is a Japanese duo active from the mid-1980's to the late '90's. Their music can be thought of as a point of convergence of their island nation's punk rock and industrial music/Japanese (if you like Akita "Merzbow"Masami, odds are you may enjoy Hanatarash). Before reading about them here, had you heard of Hanatarash?

Though it's easy enough to hear much of Hanaratarash's audio output online, they're an act whose visual element and concert presentation is intrinsic to experiencing them. This is all the more so for their early days, when bandleader Yamatsuka "Eye" Tetsuro would toss junk, including metal barrels and sheets of glass , from stage in a frenzied state. Provided you have any fondness for the kind of artistry the twosome (sometimes trio) made, the cacaphonous likes of which can make German industrial music pioneers Einsturzende Neubauten(at a concert of whose Tetsuro and musical partner Ikuo Taketani met, if memory serves) sound like Lawrence Welk's orchestra in comparison, would you like to have seen a Hanatarash concert?

Hanatarash was known for their extreme and often shocking performances, which included controversial acts such as using a machete to cut a deceased cat in half, strapping a circular saw to their back and inadvertently injuring themselves, and even driving an excavator onto the stage through the building's exterior wall.The incident which led to their banishment from live performance for several years was one for which the band had audience members sign a form relieving Hanatarash from any responsibility should anyone have be injured during the show. Just as Eye was going to throw a lit Molotov cocktail into the audience, however, he was stopped, and the concert was, too. How scared do you think you would have been had you been among that audience?

Hanatarash's early performances were known for their shock value, which they later toned down by the time the band disbanded in 1998. In addition to their provocative stage presence, their album and song titles, as well as album artwork, often embraced controversial themes centered around sexual obsession and exploitation. I'm unfamiliar with the full context from which Hanatash arose to know whether they're being ironic, misogynistic, or somewhere in between (however that would work), but, even as much of their music has no discernible lyrics, are you put off by the duo's sexual content to not want to hear their music?

I can understand how Hanatarash is the kind of band that can emerge as a literally violent reaction to a society conformist as was 1980's Japan. But I also have a hunch that the extremity of the act's early performances might be indicative of other issues going on with the band members. Do you think that could be true?