BUDDHISTSON will be having their 10th Anniversary showcase in their hometown of Kashiwa on December 5. They plan on playing over 30 songs. I’m surprised to hear they’ve been around that long, and that I’ve been listening to them for at least half of that. This is a band that has flew under the radar for far too long. Let’s get them more listeners for 2010.
Most music blogs give you their year end lists days before Christmas. Not here at J-rock Explosion. We give it to you at Christmas in July. There’s really no excuse for me this time. I had the list mostly finished by the end of January, I was just too lazy to put pictures and words. But I think it gave me enough time to fine tune the list, kick off the albums I never listened to since, etc. Have fun!
With Terra incognita, perfect piano lesson has successfully fused indie and post-rock. From the quiet and reflective “stew,” to the slow building “untitled,” this is perfect piano lesson’s finest offering to date. But we still have a couple of their upbeat rock songs, including the excellent closer “Electric City.”
http://www.myspace.com/perfectpianolesson
With duel male/female vocals, winnie’s first release is a memorable one. Their English vocals and pop rock tendencies are similar to bands like Jimmy Eat World. It can be sweet (but tonally dark), as in “lost your sky” and “only time will tell,” or aggressive as in “suck my brain.” I’m not impressed with the single “Starlike Radio” and it’s all male vocals but the rest of the EP makes up for it.
http://www.myspace.com/winnieweb
Temporary Residence really knocked themselves out on this release. Not only did they bring over one of the best hardcore bands from Japan, but also one of the best from America (New Jersey to be exact). As a fan of Thursday previously, I was impressed with their post-rock offerings and “As He Climbed the Dark Mountain,” which made it to their newest album. Envy’s side started off slowly with a nice post-rock intro and then burst into full on post-hardcore for the rest of their material. I was surprised, there wasn’t much screaming on Insomniac Doze and then they start resembling the band I loved on All the footprints. It will also be memorable to me for two reasons, 1) It’s the first album I bought on vinyl and 2) I made a music video for envy’s “an umbrella fallen into fiction” for my television production class (more on that in another post!).
http://www.myspace.com/thursday
http://www.myspace.com/officialenvy
The Telephones took us to the urban disco on their debut mini-album and now they bring us back to their home country on their debut album. I was surprised how chill some of the songs on this album were, in particular the single “Free Throw.” However, there’s plenty of crazy songs like “DaDaDa” and “sick rocks.” 1, 2, 3, 4, can’t you understand?
http://www.myspace.com/thetelephonesjapan
Ever since post-rock became scene a couple of years ago, bands have constantly tried to infuse different genres into it, jazz being prevalent. Well, most of these bands just ended up sounding like…jazz. To this day, sgt. has been the only band that has successfully incorporated jazz and post-rock. “Saisei to Misshitsu” is a prime example of how to combine horns into a perfectly good post-rock song.
http://www.myspace.com/sgtofficial
Why are you including a Chinese band in your top 10 Japanese albums? Because I love Joshua Wong. Not to mention, their song “A Minor To A Major” made it’s way to MTV’s Real World (it’s true, I sat through a full hour of this show. It was horrible.). Can you say that about any other Japanese band I posted on this blog? Nope. Noughts and exes isn’t as good as Wong’s previous band, Whence He Came, but it serves up some nice indie rock. And I already decided “Everything In You” will be my wedding song, in like 20 years.
http://www.myspace.com/noughtsandexes
It’s been ten years since the band (or just Toru Hidaka) have been together, time to put out a new album! I’m actually surprised how quickly this album came out, since “Winterlong” was the only single (EPopMaking had soooo many more). Despite the rush job, there’s plenty of classics on here, like “Time Flies, Everything Goes,” “Chinese Jet Set” and “Work It Out.”
Kana Otsubo has a truly beautiful voice and ISOLATION proves it. During the fall semester, I went through 2 or 3 straight weeks of listening to this in the morning on the way to school. There’s nothing like watching the sun rise up with ISOLATION as the soundtrack. It’s impossible to listen to this and not be put in a good mood.
http://www.myspace.com/spanglecalllilliline
Grower. Not a word I thought I would associate with a Polysics album. I was disappointed with the J-pop direction they seemed to be heading with in “Rocket” and “Pretty Good,” not to mention “You You You” and “Catch on Everywhere” from Karate House, but this album is just as crazy as any of their others. We ate the machine includes the band’s first endeavor in disco (“irotokage”), breakcore (“arigatou”), shoegaze (“Blue Noise”), and their biggest breakdown yet at the end of “Dry or Wet.” Yeah, the Polysics are just as spastic as ever.
http://www.myspace.com/polysicsna
If you’re looking for another Japanese hipster band ala Cornelius, Zazen Boys is up your alley. Zazen Boys 4 is the Zazen Boys’ fourth self-titled album and my favorite to date. They hooked me right away with the electronic “Asobi.” The rest of the album is full of eccentricities, the funky “Weekend,” the speak easy vibe in “Taratine,” and the 10 minute dance track “I don’t want to be with you.”
http://www.myspace.com/zazenboys
The first name that pops up when I think Japanese shoegaze is kacica. Mosaic is simply beautiful. Misato yamanaka has a way of sounding like an angel through peaceful musical landscapes or chaos. Just hearing her voice amidst the hardcore tribal drumming in the title track “mosaic” gives me shivers. And I don’t even care if the only way I can understand her English is if I’m reading the booklet alongside it. I highly recommend buying all of their CDs off CD Baby.
http://www.myspace.com/kacicajapan
Capsule only had time to record one album in 2009, but it’s one of their best. I knew I was in for something special when I watched the 7 minute “JUMPER” music video. They have successfully transitioned from shibuya-kei to techno/dance and I’m surprised they haven’t attracted Daft Punk fame yet.
http://www.myspace.com/capsulemyspace
Opera. Death Metal. Post-rock. Just some of the genres mutyumu clashes together on their sophomore album. Throw in guest appearances from midori and World’s end girlfriend and you know you’re in for one hell of an album. Il y a has garnered some praise in the west via the post-rock blogosphere. In a few years, I think they may even have a large cult following like Mono or Envy.
http://www.myspace.com/mutyumujapan
Akeboshi- Roundabout- If I had to pick a top artist of the year, it would be Akeboshi. Like many others, my first introduction to him was Naruto years ago. Despite loving “Wind,” I have largely ignored him until now. Akeboshi puts most folk musicians to shame. Meet Along The Way is one of the best albums of the past five years. Unfortunately, Roundabout is the only material he put out in 2008. Even though it’s just b-sides, it includes two of my favorite songs of his, “One Step Behind the Door” and “Along the Line.”
avengers in sci-fi- Science Rock- Dance to the sci-fi music! http://www.myspace.com/avengersinscifi
Comeback My Daughters- EXPerience- An excellent mix of folk and indie rock from the Pizza of Death veterans. http://www.myspace.com/comebackmydaughters
Cornelius- Gum EP– The best song off of 2006’s Sensuous was not on the album. Thankfully, “Cue” made it to this little EP. Not to mention the “Eat White Paint” remix of “Fit Song.” http://www.myspace.com/corneliusofficial
enie meenie- Fantasy of Life– Enie meenie has been known for synth crazy powerpop, but they take it down a notch on their latest album, substituting some synth with saloon style piano. One of my favorite punk-pop bands. http://www.myspace.com/eniemeenie
GALLOW- Too Virgin!!– It’s no secret, I love the Beat Crusaders. GALLOW is Toru Hidaka’s and Yukio Iwahara’s “neo-acoustic” side project. If you’re familiar with the Beat Crusader’s synthesized horns, imagine them over acoustic guitar and you have GALLOW. In the short month between the release of this and popdod, Toru Hidaka’s English improved ten times. Peculiar. http://www.myspace.com/gallowjapan
Mass of the Fermenting Dregs- Mass of the Fermenting Dregs– A powerful debut mini-album from the female duo. The girls can rock. http://www.myspace.com/motfd
midori- Aratame mashite, Hajime mashite, Midori desu– Okay, I admit, one of the reasons this didn’t make my top 10 is because the album cover is a naked anime character. But midori is still as crazy as ever. Who doesn’t love girls screaming over jazz music?
Muon- The New Mutants- This deserves a mention just for “This Is Not the End.” Not to say that’s the only good track on the album. Did I mention it’s free? http://www.myspace.com/muonmagick
Saw Loser- Hits Hit the Fan– 2008 may have seen the last of Saw Loser, but not before releasing cover album genius. From old school hits “Karma Chameleon” and “Fly Me To the Moon,” to James Blunt’s recent pop sensation “You’re Beautiful,” Hits Hit the Fan is a blast. They even made the Friends theme song tolerable. http://www.myspace.com/sawloser
For more close calls, check out my RYM list! http://rateyourmusic.com/list/slickwataris/best_of_2008
Now I hate to leave you without a look at 2009, so here are my top 5 albums at the moment:
5. Ogre You Asshole- Pinhole– A single, but my favorite release of theirs so far.
4. FACT-FACT- Uneven at times, but I’m glad there’s another band that managed to crack into the American market.
3. Utada- This Is the One– I didn’t like this one as much as Exodus, but it’s still pretty catchy. I think she even managed to crack the Billboard 100 with this one.
2. 80kidz- This Is My Shit– If you like Daft Punk or Justice, you’ll love this band. A lot of fun techno songs.
1. buddhistson- SLOWDANCE ~wisely and slow they stumble that dance fast~- The second I heard buddhistson was recording a new album, I knew it would shoot up to the top of my list. Two perfect records in a row, congrats.
Well, that’s it for this year. Hopefully next year’s will come earlier. If you want a leg up, here’s my 2009 list on rate your music. Or come back for the return of This Month In J-Rock (next week?). Here’s some great 2008 music videos to tide you over: Read the rest of this entry ?
Surfing the internet, it’s obvious we have a severe deficiency of buddhistson lyrics on the web. After receiving my copy of SLOWDANCE in the mail yesterday, I thought I’d do the world a favor and post their brilliant lyrics.
Buy album at:
feel, cold
wind touched your cheek
again
hear, you can hear
footsteps from the dark
can you
imagine if you can break the
world?
is it impossible?
eyes
in the dark looking at us
and
growling so loud
feel, pain
while mountains burning
there
see, there are some who
don’t want to see
careful
there’s fire from both
sides
but you have to keep going
through
can you imagine you can
save the world?
is it impossible?
eyes in the dark looking at
us
and growling so loud
you
still believe you can leave here?
you have no way to
go
suddenly we’ve gotten here
it
wasn’t coincidence
eyes in the
dark looking at us
and growling
so loud
I awoke this morning to find out that buddhistson has a new song up on myspace. It is called “Bearcave fadeout” and is their first new song in three years. I’m liking it a lot, especially the violin intro. It does fadeout in the end, I don’t know if they’re being corny or if this isn’t the final version of the track. Either way, I’m excited for their new album, SLOWDANCE, which will come out next year.
Following is a live video for “Bearcave” filmed at Kashiwa ALIVE over Halloween. The band is wearing polar bear masks. Once again, probably being corny but it was a Halloween gig after all. I’ve never seen them wear masks in any of their other live videos.
Just wrapped up my second week of the new semester. Not bad so far, even though I’m taking 18 credit hours. I also just turned in my graduation dues, $125 down the drain! Sigh…I’ve been forced to take 2 night classes this semester which means 2 nights off work a week. My wallet’s just about empty. It doesn’t help that the Christian bookstore by my house is going out of business and that they have such great deals on my Tooth and Nail bands! I bought 8 CDs today alone, for about $20. Might take me a while to get to the new Japanese music now…
–parms (ex-DRUMKAN) will be recording their debut album in Louisville, KY with Kevin Ratterman this month.
-Sawao Yamanaka from the pillows is in a new band named The Predators with members from GLAY and straightener.
–MUCC will be headlining 2 shows in LA and New York.
–girugamesh’s self-titled album will be availabe at Hot Topic by the end of the month. Their discography is also on JapanFiles.
–TsuShiMaMiRe have a new song up on myspace named “Hyper Sweet Power” that has some connection with the Powerpuff Girls. They are currently on a US tour.
–buddhistson have uploaded studio updates.
New on JapanFiles:
LOVE PSYCHEDELICO- This is Love Psychedelico
Tokyo no Records pre-orders:
The Captains- I Love GS (10/22/2008)
Thee 50’s High Teens- Punch De Beat 9/9/2008
It’s been a while.
–Dir en grey is now on Facebook and VampireFreaks. They will also participate in a 22 stop North American tour this fall.
–Bomb Factory’s new album Moshing Through Tokyo came out in Japan and the US on August 19! You can buy it off amazon or these other places.
-School starts on Monday. GAHHHHH.
–Tokyo no Records is coming back this September! They will release Thee 50’s High Teens’ Punch De Beat on September 9. A compilation called The Time Was Then Is Now will drop on the same date featuring tracks from the 50 Katienz, Mayuko Sakai and 7 other unnamed bands.
–buddhistson is writing and recording their new album! They plan on releasing it January 2009. Should be epic.
–Saw Loser have a new video update here. Who is the internet president?
-Looks like Cornelius’ album Sensuous is getting a rerelease with a DVD.
The fine folks of buddhistson have released a new music video for “falling.” As a Christmas gift, you can download the Quicktime video from their website (click the red ornament).
J-Rock Explosion 