Osaka Recording Stores

The Japanese capital of Osaka has a lot to offer visitors, from its traffic-congested streets and shopping malls to the more hidden neighborhoods and alleyways with restaurants and small stores. It also has a lot to say about music and has a long history of being a hub for underground, alternative and independent music.

In this episode of the podcast Dan Drago (of the band Yawning Man) takes us on a tour of some of the city’s best record stores. From the famous Nipponbashi neighborhood to more obscure stalls in the Den-Den Town district, Osaka’s stores are sure to surprise and delight any music lover.

Founded in 1998 by Koki Emura (the 'Em' in EM Records) EM Records is an eclectic music label that releases CDs, vinyl 大阪　レコーディング and digital formats. Spanning from a 60's British sunshine pop reissue to a sparkling cyber-ambient-Mandarin pop hidden gem from the 1990's, EM Records is a label that loves music in all its shapes and forms.

The deep 1993/12/10 MJMA = 7.1 earthquake (at 388 km hypocentral depth) generated surface waves in the Osaka basin, which are recorded by a relatively sparse temporal seismic network in Japan. The analyzed data provide a unique dataset for understanding the interaction between local seismic structure and the propagation of surface waves in the Osaka basin. In this paper, we analyze the amplitudes and phase content of the observed surface wavefield with the 3D velocity model Vsmin250 (Hatayama et al. 1995) with a single top layer of 500 m. The simulated results show that the amplitudes of the surface waves vary with the depth, whereas the phase content of the surface wavefield remains constant.

In addition to publishing and printing, Osaka has a large number of TV and radio stations. Five major television networks are based in the city: Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, Kansai Telecasting Corporation, Mainichi Broadcasting System Inc., and Yomiuri Television Corporation. Five regional FM radio stations also operate in the Osaka area: NHK, Allkore, FM OSAKA, and FM 802.

The label's longstanding connection with punk rock culture extends beyond its music with limited edition vinyl toy releases, collaborations with Topps bubble gum company (appearing in their Garbage Pail Kids & Wacky Packages series) and animated music videos. Frontman Cafiero has continued to work with the Misfits two decades after the band’s breakup and authored the bestselling book "Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone". He also edited their chart topping "Ramones Raw" book, and directed the cult classic modern day exploitation film Big Money Hustlas starring the Insane Clown Posse, Rudy Ray Moore (aka Dolemite) and WWE superstar Mick Foley.