Logo #63: Hanatarash

Designed by Yamatsuka Eye in 1985, this logo appeared on the "ハナタラシ" LP, the debut album for this Japanese junk and electronics unit. A focused effort, its titles include the vaguely Yiddish-sounding "Ultra Cocker", the ballad "Domination In Spunked Cock," and the always inspirational "Cock E.S.P". Their latest, the longform "Hanatarash 5: We Are 0:00" CD, came out in May on Japanese label 3D System to criminally little fanfare. Hanatarash means "snot-nosed", a phrase that inspired busy British composer Michael Gillham, whose extortionately extensive MySpace page covering the band is from whence this vividly lime-green cover comes. Using a construction backhoe, Eye-san once demolished part of the venue in which Hanatarash played. This is what that looked like, and here is how they sound. More rock and punk than any endless loop of "Yeah yeah yeah" or the posturing of lyrics and fashion, Hanatarash are to music what John Wesley Hardin was to the Old West: so mean he once shot a man just for snorin'!