October 16, 2005
I Love Onoching
Let me tell you about my good friend Onoching. He is sometimes referred to as “Assman Ono.” He likes to get drunk and tell loud jokes about shit, assfucking, shit-eating, piss-fucking, eating ass and pretty much all kinds of fucking shit. Basically, everything that involves the anal region is a major part of his art and comedy.
He’s a humble guy. His personality encompasses a distinctly Japanese self-deprecating (and defecating) humor and a deep love of most things American. His religious icons are Bruce Lee, Johnny Thunders and Dee Dee Ramone. He claims to be as old as me, but I’ve never met anyone else who’s kept his mental attitude and physical body so young for so long. (In the world of rock’n'roll, it doesn’t often work that way.)
The Jet Boys, which over the years has featured various Boys and more than one Girl, seems to disband every year or so, to promptly reform with new members, but Assman’s patented Ramone crunch and Thunders-on-78 guitar breaks are always constant and never go out of style. I included the (1994?) Dionysus 45 “I Wanna Die” below because it rocks so uncontrollably, but Jet Boys are still putting out cool records. That website looks like it hasn’t been updated in a while. There’s a very incomplete history and discography here.
His day job is working as a comic artiste and graphic designer. Besides the art he’s made promoting his (and others’) bands, he’s sculpted and painted numerous one-of-a-kind guitars, jackets and toys, and has shown in several Tokyo galleries. His personal website provides more info and lots of pictures. He just released a miniaturized collection of 12 years’ worth of Jet Boys flyers and cartoons. He is devoted to his intelligent and lovely girlfriend, Masami-chan.
Onoching’s latest band venture is called Onanie Machine. That’s オナニーマシーン. Their sound is vintage, fist-in-the-air, anthemic streetpunk, with a peculiar lyrical twist: The song below is “I ♥ オナニー,” or “I Love Onanie, ” which means “I Love Masturbation.” All their songs are apparently about masturbation. Sing along, won’t you?
I took some of the above photos at an Onanie Machine concert in Tokyo last year. Onoching is infamous for rocking sans clothing - I’ve never seen a Jet Boys show where he didn’t get naked, except for a radio station gig at KXLU (and you could kind of tell that he wanted to). As you can see from the pictures, he’s even gotten his bass player into the act. That’s what ya call the power of persuasion. Even offstage, Onoching will use the presence of a camera - or just about any public excuse - to expose his genitals. It’s not a sexual thing or a competitive, macho exhibitionism; he just knows that everyone will find a skinny Japanese fellow showing his bare ass to be inherently hilarious, and he’s right.
So what’s the appeal here for ex-rock’n'rollers like me who hardly ever go to concerts anymore? To me, there’s a kind of spiritual wisdom in Onoching’s fart humor and well-honed innocence. Those crazy antics are an “act,” sure, but they really do come from the heart - rocking, for him, is an end in itself, not just a means. Onoching has a sense of the wildly ridiculous, yet he is utterly sincere. Watching him onstage always makes me smile.
Jet Boys - “I Wanna Die”
Onanie Machine - “I ♥ Onanie”
UPDATE 3:20 pm: David T. leaves a nice comment with a link to loads more photos. Rock on!
Rick at 1:47 am
4 CommentsÈ
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Wow….I found this page a few weeks ago and bookmarked to check it out at a later date…I am glad I did….Ono-ching!!! Haha…Great guy…always has looked out for me when I have gone to Tokyo.
Check my page for some pics of them live…he did get naked on the radio at WFMU last year. I am trying to get him to come back and show his art in NYC some day soon. It’s been a crap week, but your words here made the day. God bless the Jet Boys….God bless Ono-ching!!
Later,
David T. > NYC
Comment by david t. Ñ October 16, 2005 @ 2:51 pm
Ya never saw Tetsu Yamauchi have to resort to this kind of behavior, did you?
Comment by Myopic Floyd Ñ November 1, 2005 @ 5:23 pm
Rick, can you believe I checked this out a few months ago? I had no idea it was this site when you told me about it. Spooky!!! Cheers, see ya! XOXO Nikki Corvette
Comment by nikki corvette Ñ April 13, 2006 @ 5:28 pm
hi i think your cool
but please put some clothers on
Comment by leanne Ñ March 14, 2007 @ 1:40 am