Pitchfork

Like a possessed drum circle conjuring UFOs with furious aplomb-- at least in their present live incarnation-- Boredoms are pretty much the most exhilarating weirdos you'll ever witness. Led by the sorta mysterious "Eye", Japan's premier noise experimentalists celebrate their 20th anniversary next year, and in honor of the occasion, they're taking a look back at what their noise-making hath wrought.

As previously reported, Vice Records will reissue most of Boredoms' Super Roots series-- making several titles available in the U.S. for the very first time. If you went poking around for them at your favorite indie record shop this fall, however, and came up empty-handed, that's because Vice pushed the release date back. The reissues, the original Super Roots (1994) now among them, drop in two waves: 1, 3, and 5 on January 23 and 6, 7, and 8 on February 20. And because they're just so damn ridiculous, we've done you the pleasure of reprinting all the tracklists below.

And because we know you're going to ask: Super Roots 2 is a limited edition 3" CD that apparently doesn't warrant reissue, and Super Roots 4 does not exist, because the number 4 is, in fact, evil.

What's more, Boredoms are said to be working on Super Roots 9, and will compile the entire series, along with the video for "Super Go!!!!!", as Super Roots 10.

Finally, Eye hopes to take another stab at his "77 Drum" art installation/performance piece, originally slated to open this year, but later cancelled. It's now billed as a single performance with Boredoms and 77 drummers, and will go down July 7 in New York City. As previously mentioned, Eye has some slightly less ambitious art showing right now as part of that city's "Music Is a Better Noise" exhibit at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, which runs through January 8.

Super Roots:

01 Pop Kiss
02 Budokan Tape Try (500 Tapes High)
03 Finger Action No5
"Chocolate Out":
04 Pitch at Bunch on Itch
05 Machine 3
06 Monster Rex and Sound'a'Roundus
07 Nuts Room
08 Ear?Wig?Web?
09 96 Teenage Bondage
10 Super Frake 009

Super Roots 3:

01 Hard Trance Away (Karaoke of the Cosmos)

Super Roots 5:

02 GO!!!!!

Super Roots 6:

01 01
02 0 (x12)
03 6
04 2
05 3
06 9
07 4
08 7
09 8
10 5
11 10
12 11
13 12
14 13
15 14
16 15
17 1

Super Roots 7:

01 7~ (Ewe Remix)
02 7--> (Boriginal)
03 7+ (Eye Remix)

Super Roots 8:

01 Jungle Taitei
02 Jungle Taitei DJ Let's TRY & D.I.Y. (Drum Machine Mix by Eye)
03 Jungle Taitei Laughter Robot's Hemp Mix (Remixed by Yann Tomita)