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| Thee Michelle Gun Elephant - Sabrina No Heaven |
| On
July 22, 2009, musician Abe Futoshi died from an acute hematoma
resulting from a head injury. As guitarist for the legendary Thee
Michelle Gun Elephant, calling his work influential is a bit redundant:
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant were one of THE most important bands in
Japanese rock, taking the snarling garage punk of the 90s underground
and, inexplicably, achieving major mainstream success within their home
country. The "inexplicably" in the above statement may seem strange to western music fans, considering the fact that the 90s were the era of grunge, which itself was simply heavy garage rock. But the pre-Nirvana/post-Nirvana split that changed the face of occidental rock 'n' roll didn't really happen in Japan. There were rock bands, of course, but they still kept the focus on professionalism, spectacle, and slick power, and while there was no shortage of outstanding garage rock in the underground (Teengenerate, The 5678s, Supersnazz..the list is endless,) it mostly remained underground. Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, along with Guitar Wolf, were lone voices of abrasiveness and dirt in a mainstream Japanese rock landscape that remained unapologetically commercial (if somewhat sidelined, as this was when bouncy Jpop started to come into its own.) TMGE's 1991 debut at Shimokitazawa's legendary Shelter (and their self released debut Maximum! Maximum!! Maximum!!!) led to a contract with Sony offshoot Triad, and the band well and truly exploded. While they were considerably rougher than the acts they often shared stages with, they developed a conceptual sophistication in their compositions and arrangements that took garage punk ideals and wedded them to a more streamlined, progressive attack. While there's not much of a resemblance in terms of plain sonics, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant were much like glam era Roxy Music in that they introduced an arty musical intelligence to a flashy, hedonistic idiom. By the time of the band's final album, Sabrina No Heaven, Futoshi had become the unifying element that made that possible, reconciling the absurdly harsh vocals of Yuusuke Chiba with the Peter Gunn cool of rhythm section Koji Ueno and Kazuyuki Kuhara. This is most evident "Pink," where he avoids the obvious, opting for a fuzzed, almost melancholy attack where lesser guitarists would have simply gone with power chords. He takes a straight ahead punk song and infuses it with a mysterious, atmospheric tone that elevates the proceedings from solid rock 'n' roll song to goosebump inducing, widescreen meditation that flirts with a sonic haze bordering on shoegaze. On the first track, "チェルシー" ("Chelsea,") Abe walks a tightrope between sinister psych and cathartic volume before he splits everything in half, with his solo, first rising from the song's dark, cool power like an infuriated alley cat, then settling into a Buzzcocks-simple one string wonder. "ミッドナイト・クラクション・ベイビー" ("Midnight Klaxon Baby") would be just another rewrite of "Kick Out The Jams" without Abe's subtle shading and unexpected turns. Which is not to say he ignores the thumping riff's obvious power: he goes from moody jamming to foot-on-the-monitor kickass without missing a beat, somehow uniting them. "Sabrina No Heaven" was Thee Michelle Gun Elephant's swan song. Vocalist Yuusuke Chiba would go on to Rosso and The Birthday, while Abe would score a minor hit with his post TMGE band Koologi ("Dear Bob," which was used for the second season of the anime "Witchblade.") After Koologi, Abe formed Carrie, and was most recently guitarist for former Complex vocalist Koji Kikkawa. He casts a long shadow over the Japanese rock landscape: his blend of the mystical and visceral has yet to be matched, but strong echoes can be found in everyone from Number Girl to Envy to 9mm Parabellum Bullet. |