Ian Vanek and Matt Reilly formed Japanther in 2001 while at school at Pratt Institute, NY. Since then they have had over sixteen releases with the indie-labels Tapes Records and Menlo Park Recordings, including the full length albums: Leather Wings (2003); Dump the Body in Rikki Lake (2003); Master of Pigeons (2005); Wolfenswan (2005); Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty (2006); and Skuffed Up My Huffy (2007). Japanther were on tour promoting their album release by Wantage USA: Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt, which Village Voice featured as one of 10 albums to get excited about: “Vanek and Reilly are the right kind of art-school damaged: impatient, ambitious, visual, interested in spectacle and circumstance.”
Neither punk-act nor art-band adequately describe Vanek and Reilly, who play to audiences as diverse as the Art Basel Miami crowd and electronic/indie music festival goers in Juárez. They are known for very original collaborations, among them: Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty, a musical rock puppet show with Dan Graham, Tony Oursler, Rodney Graham, and Laurent P. Berger; Dump the Body in Rikki Lake, a collaboration with Being John Malkovich puppeteer, Philip Huber; and, Dangerous When Wet, where the duo teamed up with New York University synchronized swimming troupe, Aquadoom. Japanther first performed in Marfa in 2007, debuting “Laugh Dance” with the movement artists Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs.
On their Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt tour, Japanther were joined by Killer Dreamer who celebrated the release of their action zombie punk album, 1,000 Years of Servitude.
