Minor Musics Japan

From a distance, it can seem as if there are two Japans. There’s the surreally twee one of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and other spiritual descendants of Hello Kitty, and the land of weird darkness chronicled by Haruki Murakami—not evil, necessarily, just a bit…odd. Three acts from the latter camp are ending a quick American tour this weekend. Key to the two nights is Tori Kudo, who plays Sept 20 with his band, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, and will likely sit in on Sept 19 with Ché-Shizu, a group founded by singer Chie Mukai. Both bands date back to the 1980s and combine traditional Japanese song forms with a primitivist aesthetic and an interest in the fringes of Western folk music.