Punk trailblazers Half Japanese have announced that they will be releasing a new album entitled Invincible that will be released on February 22nd. A single entitled “Swept Away” has also been released, along with an accompanying music video.

This music video takes a minimalist aesthetic, with a variety of images that mirror much of the cover art from the band’s passed albums, such as 2016’s Perfect. This type of aesthetic, that uses cubists styles and paper cuttings has been used occasionally by the band for their album artwork since at least 1987. Jad Fair, the band’s front man, has done the artwork for most of these covers along with the art for the music video.

“Swept Away” utilizes the band’s well known art punk styles, with distorted and untuned guitars, background distortion, simple lyrics and a simple drum pattern. The latter half of the track hosts an  folksy solo, that melds in perfectly with the track’s punk feel.

While the band has been active in the punk scene since 1974, they are known for particular eccentricities such as Fair’s preference of performing with an untuned guitar, and the band’s minimal rehearsals. Despite these peculiarities, the band has attracted a strong following, and high profile fans which included Kurt Cobain, from Nirvana and Jeff Magnum of Neutral Milk Hotel. The band even got to tour with Cobain briefly during the early 1990’s.

“Nirvana always played well. It was a kick to be able to do the shows with them. At the first show we played some fast songs and some slow ones,” Fair recalled during an interview with Shannon Sweet. “Every fast song got a good response, and every slow one bombed. After that we only played fast songs and it was fine. It was funny how I found out about the tour.”

While the band is best known for having Fair in every single iteration, the band has had numerous lineups throughout the years. John Sluggett, Mick Hobbs, Gilles Rieder and Jason Willett have been with Fair the longest, making up the band’s most consistent line up for the passed 27 years.

“When the band started in 1974 it was my brother David and me. When David played guitar and sang I would play drums, and when I switched to guitar David played drums. David no longer records with Half Japanese, but we have released several albums together with a sound similar to what it was when we first started,” the front man explained in an interview with Soundrennaissance. “In the early 80s the band members were John and Rick Dreyfuss, Mark Jickling, John Moremen, my brother and me. In the mid 80s Don Fleming, Jay Speigel and The Work Dogs joined the band. John Sluggett joined in 1988, and Mick Hobbs, Gilles Rieder and Jason Willett joined in 1991. John, Mick, Gilles, Jason and I have been the line up since 91. It’s difficult to be brief after recording as many albums as we have. If you haven’t heard of Half Japanese look us up.”

In 2017 the band released Hear The Lion’s Roar, that took inspiration from the supernatural, like much of the band’s work throughout the years. “I think several of the songs have a humorous side. Most of the songs are either monster songs or love songs,” Fair elaborated in the Soundrennaissance interview.

Tracklist:

1. Swept Away
2. Indestructible
3. Love Explosion
4. The Puppet People
5. Return Of The Vampire
6. Or Ever Will
7. No More
8. All At Once
9. The Walking Dead
10. Forever In My Heart
11. What Are You Gonna Do
12. It’s Here
13. Invincible
14. No Wonder
15. It Has Me