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February 6, 2012 - Otoboke Beaver: Layers Upon Layers of Meaning.

I'm one of them writer types, so I like something I can sink my teeth into. Metaphorically speaking, you know? Something like an onion: peel away one layer, and another layer reveals itself. Getting to the heart of the situation is gratifying, but really, it's the journey.

First, I saw the EP artwork:


OK: stripper, with pole. Said stripper is wearing a rabbit mask, and said pole is a pole on a horse on a merry go round. And the background is all psychedelic and stuff. So far so good.

The band name: おとぼけビ～バ～. For those of you who have no idea what that says, that's phonetic Japanese (as opposed to Kanji, which you just have to know already before you can read it.) Anyway, I initially read that as Otoboke Fever. Otoboke basically means "idiot," so, Idiot Fever. Good name for a band. But a search for a band page revealed something magical: it wasn't Otoboke Fever, it was Otoboke Beaver ("fever" and "beaver" are almost indistinguishable in tiny Japanese writing.) Idiot Beaver. With a stripper on the cover.

OK, this is either going to be utterly brilliant, or it's going to be a bunch of virgin teenagers from Butthole, Japan who have never touched a girl in their lives. Which would make it even better. Well, Otoboke Beaver aren't a bunch of teenage boys.


Uh-Oh. And when I say "uh-oh," I mean "Hell Yeah." Maybe BiS has gotten my hopes up in terms of girly Jpop bands hiding transgression in cute packages, but damn, I'm intrigued.

Then there's the requisite home made YouTube video, and well...


They had me at "1-2-3-4!"

So basically what we're looking at so far is a gunk punk version of Tsushimamire (not that Tsushimamire don't fit that description as well.) And it really, really doesn't hurt that, in live performance, the guitarist is basically a Japanese schoolgirl version of Rick Sims from The Didjits, both in terms of the sunglasses at night look and the obnoxious rock 'n' roll snarl. Seriously, check out the official video for "Ultra Miracle Super Saiya Psych" (don't ask, I dunno.)


She's not actually wearing sunglasses, she just gave herself raccoon eyes. But still.

Their debut EP came out last week, and it's called (deep breath) Konya Kagiri Nante Zettai Honto Ni Iwa Senaitsu, which basically means Tell Me Only What You Really Mean Tonight (not quite Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight, but I'll take it.)

There are other samples at their MySpace page, you can get a hard copy at Amazon Japan, and...well, this is interesting. You can download this from the Japanese site Ototoy. Usually, Japanese MP3 sites won't allow downloads out of Japan, but I had no problem ("joining" Ototoy is free and has English guidance, although you'd better make sure your card will allow out of country purchases.)

Oh yes, and one more shot of awesomeness. They took their name from a local no tell hotel, where you can spend a "waonderful" time.



Greetings, and welcome to jrawk.com, phase three...

Jrawk.com is an appendix, a side project with several intentions. Primarily, it provided structure for research for an upcoming book on Japanese rock music that will (hopefully) be out mid 2012. That was phase one. Phase two is Jrawk Radio, which you can access here. The work from phase one remains in our archives, where you can see reviews and interviews from the three years spent doing research while in Tokyo.

So, phase three: throughout the week, we'll put something up on this front page that demands your attention: video clips, rants, updates, whatever. Monday through Friday, check back to see what's up.

Yep,
-Chad
February 3, 2012 - Phaidia: Where'd (Almost) All You Guys Go?

Well, here's something I didn't expect: famed drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, he of Acid Mothers Temple, Ruins, YBO², and a whole bunch of others, used to be in a goth band.

L to R: bassist Ron, guitarist Kawamoto (aka Karrin,) vocalist Gilly and drummer Yoshida, or "Tatuya," as he was known.

That there's Phaidia, one of Japan's handful of "positive punk" (aka "Pojipan") bands that appeared in the aftermath of Madame Edwarda's highly influential 1980 goth/punk crossover. Of course, it started elsewhere first (Bauhaus, for example, formed in 1978, and "Bela Lugosi's Dead" came out the next year,) and even the term Positive Punk originated in the UK (and that term is insane, considering the genre's fixation on darkness, fear, and death.) But Japan has a habit of picking up on outside trends and morphing them into specifically Japanese forms. I don't just mean they inherently sound different by virtue of being a different set of people, I mean they start their own scene and shape it in ways that eventually become definitively Japanese. In Pojipan's case, what started as a few ex-hardcore guys moving into UK inspired spookiness quickly became Visual Kei.

So yeah, this stuff is kinda important.

Phaidia were one of the first wave of Pojipan bands, and they've been called the Japanese Christian Death. It always annoys me when Japanese bands get called "the Japanese _____," but the band seemed to be OK with it, so I'll throw that in there anyway. Phaida's first recording was a flexi single ("Rakuen," i.e. "Paradise,") included with the magazine Marquee Moon, that was a split with the mysterious Gilles De Rais (not the current VK band.) I get the (strong, but infuriatingly unverifiable) feeling that Gilles De Rais is none other that Phaidia vocalist Gilly (he's the blonde one, although you probably guessed that.) Band info is sparse, sometimes contradictory, and occasionally verifiably wrong (for example, some sources say Yoshida stared the band, but his own discography page lists his first recording with the band as 1984's Dancing Death EP, a full three years after that debut flexi, and four years after the band's 1980 formation.) Reinforcing that point, Gilly wrote everything, and he's the only guy (outside producer/engineer Toy) on 1983's "Future Days" (presumably not a Can cover, although who the hell knows.)

Yeah, confusing. But appropriately mysterious. Anyway, they swapped out Ron and Kawamoto for bassist Masa and guitarist Naliquis after a few singles, and the Gilly/Yoshida/Naliquis/Masa lineup recorded their one and only album, the appropriately titled In The Dark, which has the extremely evocative opening track "Dark Side." And by "evocative," I mean it sounds an awful lot like Killing Joke's "Eighties," which came out a few months before.


That's just fine with me. And damn, Yoshida was already an amazing drummer.

In The Dark is a solid album in a genre that has a lot of crap and a handful of full blown classics. Unfortunately, not only are all things Phaidia not in print (and only available for about 20 minutes when they were,) nothing was even reissued at any point, much like Madame Edwarda's entire catalog. The sole exception is "Jubaku" (i.e. "Curse") from the Dancing Death EP, which can be found on Yoshida's compilation Devil From the East - A Decade of Tatsuya Yoshida. The unavailability sucks, but don't despair too much, as some guy named Cultpunk1 posted the whole freaking thing on YouTube (I'm assuming it's a guy... record geeks of that magnitude are always guys.)

I've been unfairly focusing on Yoshida for this entry...but I kinda had to, since everybody else up and disappeared. Well, OK, Kawamoto occasionally hung out with his old drummer, appearing in the ever rotating lineups of Ruins (1985-1987) and YBO² (1987-1988.) THEN he up and disappeared. And Gilly went on to form Sex Android (not the band I wrote about the other day, coincidentally enough.) Sex Android released the single "Sexaroid Capsule Schneider" (huh?) and the EP Planet Venus in 1987/1988, respectively. Then HE up and disappeared.

So here's what I got for y'all: a fan MySpace page, a fan Facebook page (both by the same guy,) the title track to the Dancing Death EP...


...and a live version of "Chikashitsu No Akumatachi" (i.e. "Basement Demons") recorded at Shinjuku Loft, and released on their 1984 untitled flexi (In The Dark has a studio version.) Oh yes, and an entire show from the same year (which may or may not be the same show as the flexi) uploaded in six parts by someone named Lilikatsushi (unfortunately, the angle all but obscures Yoshida. But it doesn't take X-ray vision to tell its him.)

Man, this stuff needs re-release. I dunno why it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I need to start up a label again.

February 2, 2012 - Crayon Eater: Freebies, Pirates, Iggy Pop and Horses.

Bear with me. This gets complicated.

There's a lot of stuff I don't really follow. Still, I (and presumably everyone else) nonetheless compile weird little slivers of information about all sorts of stuff that you'd never think I'd actually use. Of course, like the thing you throw away the day before you need it, occasionally there is an actual a use for some of this weird-ass info, even if only as a reference point. For horse racing, I know that naming horses has some pretty strict rules: no more than 18 letters, no initials, no naming them after people without their written consent, and, most relevantly for today, the name must be 100% original.

This has led to all kinds of borderline brilliant horse names: Bodacious Tatas, Panty Raid, Junkinthetrunk, and the single most glorious horse name in the history of the known and unknown universe, Hoof Hearted. That may not look impressive typed out there, but, well...

I hopefully don't have to explain what this has to do with a band named The Iggy Pop Kyou Charcopencils (i.e. The Iggy Pop Fan's Charcoal Pencils. Yep, that's the name.) While I was digging through stuff in Japan, I constantly had the thought that somewhere, there was some authority that didn't allow bands to use a name that didn't fit some insane criteria: The Great Funny Pant Sound, Emily Lettuce, The Screaming Frogs, Green Milk From the Planet Orange, The Flakey Moles, etc. But The Iggy Pop Kyou Charcopencils is far and away the single most fucked up band name I've heard.

Then I heard them. As one might expect, they've got a healthy amount of garage in them. But I wasn't prepared for how bizarre "The Sweet Poison of the Rock 'n' Roll" really is: I have no idea what or where the chorus is supposed to be, it seems to have twice as many parts to it as you'd expect in a four minute song, the band occasionally adds an extra two or three bars at random intervals, and the vocalist sounds like he doesn't have any real idea of how the song goes.

Obviously, this is fantastic.


I'm less enamored with their pop song, "si-si-si-pi man," which has a video filmed during what they called their Pop Fan Pop Pop Pop Tour. I'm likewise annoyed that I somehow went this long without hearing about them (or even noticing them in the record bins...how the hell did I miss that?) They appear to have stopped way back in 2009, just after releasing a demo. Weird thing is, they actually released an actual EP before that demo, called Ultra and the Miracle, and it got enough of a push to be available as a cheap download in the US.

While the band may (or may not...see below) be around anymore, IPKC vocalist Makoto Ishikawa has been known to show up at people's gigs and weird them up for everybody. Here he is singing (?) "You Risou" ("The Ideal You") with a band called (here we go again) Son Son Bentobako (i.e. Son Son Lunchbox.) There's also some guy named Keita Suzuki (not the soccer player) on guitar, who's from a band called Jinkou Bakuhatsu (whose name means, somewhat disappointingly, Population Explosion.) This thing is a hot mess.


That's from October 2009, after IPKC and before...well, Ishikawa's new band is called Crayon Eater. They started up about seven months ago, and they're even better.

They're better because they're all pirates.

How close can you come to ripping off The Stones without actually ripping off The Stones? Watch this video for the gloriously titled "Red Bull Junkie" and find out!


Now, despite the reported June 2011 beginning, I'm not actually sure is this is a new band; IPKC actually has a song called "Crayon Eater," complete with a video that features hot crayon eating action. Whoever they are, they still do that "keep going past the point you'd assume they'd change parts" thing. Ishikawa still can't really sing. You should probably like them on Facebook.

OK, one thing I can't let pass: Ishikawa's blog lists his sex as "male, probably," and his special talent as "peeing." Once you get past that vital information, he mentions that he used to be in a band called B-Breakers. They have nothing on YouTube, which is just dandy as with a little elbow grease you can download everything they've done for free. They're obviously no budget demos, but hey, freebies (see below for how to navigate the site...it's not TOO difficult.)

I'm proud of myself. I found someone more slobbery than Droog.

OK, the downloads (I promise this is easy, just do this step by step.) 1) Go to that site linked up there, and each disc will have one of these buttons beneath it. There are five buttons total, which will put a grand total of 10 tracks in your cart. 2) Click this button, which will take you to your cart. Towards the bottom, there's a button with this text: ダウンロード手続きへ. Click that, and it'll take you to a very simple registration page that looks like this. 3) Ignore the orange box on the top: it's the grey one on the bottom you want. Put an email address in the first field. Repeat the address in the second. The third is for a nickname, which can be pretty much anything you want. The last one is whatever password you feel like putting in there. 4) Below the last box are two options: male (left button) and...take a wild guess what the right button is. 5) When you've finished deciphering the answer to that one, click the button on the right that's under those two options. 6) You will now be presented with a list of ten songs, and to the right of each is an icon to click for downloading. You know what to do.

February 1, 2012 - Sex-Android: How Much do I Love You?

This much: I willingly did a search on "sex android." Do you have any idea what horrors that search reveals?

Don't try it yourself, both for your personal sanity, and so I didn't go through all that in vain. Sex-Android (if only I had known about the dash sooner) is a Visual Kei band. Well, actually, they're a rock band. Observe:


Now first off, I don't mean to imply that Visual Kei and rock are mutually exclusive, although some VK bands do seem to avoid rock like the plague. What I'm saying is that Sex-Android have an undercurrent of smart-ass that really has more to do with cock rock bands than it does the typically theatrical/persona heavy VK approach. And not only is that song up there pretty good, they've got a bunch of people in the video that have absolutely no makeup on at all. Which isn't very VK of them.

OK, the tune's called "Omekashi No Charisma" (omekashi is basically "dandy," as in a guy that dresses like he likes Oscar Wilde a bit too much,) and now that I've gotten my bullshit prejudices out of the way, let's look at the band. That song is from their most recent album The White Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (Sex Pistols reference = encouraging, and the title track is pretty good.) Like I said, they've definitely got a sense of humor that makes them stand out. And they have respect for The Rock. They've also got this guy:


It's one thing to dress up, but quite another to commit to that haircut. It's not like he can just smooth it down when he goes to the office.

So anyway, rock. They've got a shitload of videos, one of which is this one. Obviously. There's a long intro, but the song starts at 2:30.


That there's the single "Jet Stardust Cabaret," which is about as VK a title as you're ever going to see (as a side note, I'm 95% sure I interviewed Panta in that bar.)

I'd like to tell you more about the band, but their bio page consists entirely of a list of past gigs. Digging a bit deeper, they started in 1995 in a Harajuku-ish area (big shock there,) and the current lineup was solidified in 2006. Their first release was a mini album (apparently a concept album...oh, joy) which reportedly didn't list the songs, title, or even band name on the artwork. And nobody can seem to remember anything about it, band included, which I find endlessly amusing. It's just kinda floating out there. Shit, maybe I even have it, and I just don't realize it.

They use that galloping rockabilly-esque beat a lot, which I'm all about. The vocalist's name is Yu-Dai, and according to their Wikipedia page, in 1997 he appeared on a variety show called Mita Me Ga Shoubu (i.e. See the Game) as a motorcycle punk, and he retired from bungee jumping that same year. The next year, he and his band decided to dress up as doctors so they're...wait for it...Doctor Rock.

This is the greatest band ever.

As a side note, they released a live DVD last month (which won't play on non-Japanese players, unfortunately) called Live at the Isha Rock: Nakano Ishikai Natsu Nou Matsuri Killer '11, which means Live Doctor Rock: The Nakano Medical Association Summer Festival 2011.

This is the greatest band ever.


January 31, 2012 - The Golden Cups: Nice Boys Don't Play Rock 'n' Roll.

This site hasn't done all that much in terms of the 60s. There's a reason for that: the 60s were a time of massive change and growth within the music world, but Japan, if you'll pardon my saying so, had some catching up to do. The glorious twang of Takeshi Terauchi's guitar, among (precious few) others, had provided Japanese rock with plenty to admire and aspire to, introducing Eleki to the Land of the Rising Sun, which is arguably the first truly Japanese rock music. Well, OK, not arguably: it was.

I've done a piece on Terauchi (scroll down a bit on this page,) but it's worth noting that he was unique in...well, being unique. Still Eleki, despite it's unique Japanese origins, simply sounds like surf to Western ears. Of course, the album that broke Eleki, Terauchi's Korezo Surfing, has surf right in the title, so that just reinforces it. But Terauchi's grounding in the Japanese traditional instrument shamisen influenced his playing in ways that become readily apparent when you listen closely, and his pioneer status is as firmly established as any musician you care to name.

In contrast, Group Sounds, Japan's answer to Beatlemania and the movement that followed Eleki, can't come within 50 yards of this claim. The vast majority of it was pretty much Merseybeat with an accent, sorely lacking in originality (as many Group Sounds musicians will now tell you, if you give them half a chance.) Group Sounds (aka GS) was pop, and there's still good stuff to be had, but it ain't rock. In fact, the New Rock movement that followed/replaced GS was basically comprised of GS musicians saying "screw this, let's branch out."

And nobody branched out like The Golden Cups. The Mops gave it a shot, and took it to some pretty interesting places, but their exploratory nature was often (usually) a product of Horipro, the production company that cast them as rebels in the first place. The Golden Cups...well, that's not how they rolled. They were real life scary. Keyboardist Mickey Yoshino (who joined for their second album and remained through the group's demise in 1971) said this flat out: "The Golden Cups were really bad! They really had a bad reputation. Tough guys in the band."

They were also one of the precious few GS bands that made attempts to grow artistically within their band dynamic, rather than simply split up and form a new group. Their previous albums were solid, if imitative, blues rock rave-ups: where most GS bands would sing about love and gooshy crap, The Golden Cups did...this.


Yes, that's really called "LSD Blues," and it's from their debut, The Golden Cups Album. And here's "This Bad Girl," The B side to their debut single "Jezebel" (the first two are on their best of comp Blues of Life.)


Yeah, markedly different than the fun but ultimately generic mush GS usually put out.

The Golden Cups soldiered on, racking up a chain of successes and pushing boundaries as much as they could manage in the still quite restrictive, production company based GS scene. They wrangled enough trust from their overlords to make The Fifth Generation, aka The Golden Cups 8, an album which was totally original, except for a cover of The Band's "Tears of Rage" (itself a ballsy choice in early 1971. The album is annoyingly out of print at the moment.) The Fifth Generation included the intriguingly titled, and seriously fucked up, "V.D. (Vernard's Going Doomed Again)." Make sure you hang around for the bad trip at 2:15.


Their sound at this point was more Vanilla Fudge than mop top, and much of The Fifth Generation is still intriguing today. Unfortunately, on the eve of the album's release, assorted band members were busted for possession. That might have earned cool points in the West, but in Japan, it put the kibosh on the album before it even came out. So much for that.

The Golden Cups split, and went their separate, and quite productive, ways: keyboardist Mickey Yoshino somehow managed to wrangle his way out of a jail term to fly to America and study at Berkley, eventually returning to form the massively über huge pop institution Godiego (who are mostly known in the West for the theme to the TV show Monkey Magic, and the score to the spectacularly insane film House.) Bassist Masayoshi "Louis Louis" Kabe took on the nickname Glue and became one third of the duh-rock trio Speed, Glue and Shinki. Guitarist Eddie Ban formed The Eddie Ban Group, which often included ex-Cups in the ever shifting lineup. And vocalist Dave Hirao kept the fire burning, resurrecting his band every few years (as I've mentioned before, Japanese bands don't really split, they just kinda take a break.)

As a live act, they're still going. Oh hey, look at that, they just played about a month ago. Keep on truckin' guys.