Archive for the ‘myspace band of the week’ Category

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recoride レコライド

June 22, 2010

Strap some neon glow sticks on your moped and ride on down to the Tokyo raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave.

recoride  レコライド formed in 2009 and is fronted by the Cyndi Lauper looking chick in the middle.  Their myspace features one and half minute samples from their debut album Zekkyo Midare Rally Land and a couple demos.  “Baseball Murder” has a nice 8bit intro and quickly morphs into electro chaos.  The rest of the samples follow suit with a mix of electro and new wave happiness.

Their album Zekkyo Midare Rally Land came out last November.  Buy it at Play-Asia now!

http://www.myspace.com/recoride

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Stompin’ Riff Raffs

June 15, 2010

myspace band of the week

Oh look, it’s the Japanese Charlies Angels.  No, it’s the Stompin’ Riff Raffs!  And before you ask, the girls are actual members of the band, not play things…you know you wanna.

Let’s travel back to the 60s with the coolest rockabilly act in Tokyo.  Stompin’ Riff Raffs formed a few years ago with slick-haired Nao in the center and his “shimmy shimmy banditas.”  The four songs on their myspace are taken from their out of print 2008 demo and they’re a rocking good time.  Nao could definitely keep up with Chubby Checker and Chuck Berry if he was born in that generation.  If you slipped “Horror Show” on a best of the 60s mixtape I don’t think anyone would notice.

Fans can buy a 45 RPM record featuring “Horror Show” and “Parabellum” at Pacifiction Records.  Rock n’ Roll on vinyl.  That’s how it should be.

http://www.myspace.com/stompin_riffraffs

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whiteroom

June 8, 2010

myspace band of the week

Put on your favorite sweater-vest and throw your guitar in the air it’s time for an indie-pop hoedown.

If you’re into indie-pop bands with a hint of piano you’ll probably love whiteroom.  “In My Life” leads off their myspace with an instrumental tune that’s both peaceful and nostalgic.  The lyrics to “In Your Life” are simple, but catchy and hopeful. It’s bound to be a youth anthem someday.  “A picture perfect” is  more mainstream pop-rock while “Lasting Moment” is almost garage rock.  The last song we get is “Red House.” It’s a quiet acoustic song that is again peaceful and nostalgic.  Whiteroom should have a bright future.

Whiteroom formed around 2003 and have been unsigned ever since.  According to their website, they have released two albums, both appropriately titled Unique (heh).  Naturally, a web search of  “white room unique” yielded no pertinent results.  I did manage to find a diskunion link on their blog, though.

http://www.myspace.com/whiteroomjp

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INCENSE

June 1, 2010

myspace band of the week

Girls like things that are pretty and smell nice, which is the only intro I can come with for the four girls of INCENSE.

INCENSE formed in 1998 with Aki and Maki and two other people who left the band.  They mix together ambient and experimental music with shoegaze.  It might come off as alarming that they just throw all those elements together in “Aquamarine,” but it gets better.   “If you (for Yoshiki)” and “I love you now” are nice ambient tunes.  You almost can’t tell that they’re whispering  in the background.  “I Miss You” and “Christmas” are borderline twee pop.  They’re not exactly catchy, but they’re trying. “I don’t care” probably describes their music best.  If you don’t like their music, they don’t care.

But my favorite song of the bunch is the appropriately titled “Backwards,” which plays the song in reverse (along with “Side B”).  It’s creepy, distortion filled, and fascinating.  I’m not sure where my love of songs played backward came from.  It must be from that classic episode of Eerie, Indiana when Marshall’s friend buys a record by some hair metal band and it starts playing backwards late at night and turns him into a rebellious punk rocker.

It doesn’t appear that INCENSE has actually released any albums in the past 12 years, which is a shame.   I guess the next best thing is to catch them the next time they play in Tokyo.

http://www.myspace.com/incensejp

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trademark

May 25, 2010

myspace band of the week

I’ve always been a sucker for a good indie pop band with a strong female vocalist.  And since I have to wait another month until Stars releases The Five Ghosts, I’ll check out the new Captain Haus band, trademark.

A biography is absent from trademark’s myspace and homepage, so yay for less writing.  Basically, trademark follows in the tradition of J-pop vocals over indie rock similar to polyABC or Sotaisei Riron.  “Music” starts off slow, but gradually adds in some nice boy-girl vocals.  The next song (無題-Untitled) tunes down the guitars to highlight Mie Ayako’s tender vocals.  It’s the kind of song you hear in your head when you watch the stars in the middle of a lake on your row boat.  “Umi” is an interesting experimental track, with a lot of glitches and ambient sound.  Hopefully, it’s not the last of it’s kind on the actual album.  “Sight” provides powerful guitar and vocals while “Scenery” could have easily passed for a te’ song if the vocals were removed.  Mie Ayako’s ability to provide sweet vocals through heavy and slow guitar work and the occasional chaos is a strong point of this band.

Gioia!, trademark’s first album in four years, comes out June 9 in Japan.  You can watch the video for the first single “circus” below.

http://www.myspace.com/trademarkjapan

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Alternative Medicine

May 18, 2010

myspace band of the week

Tired of hearing Japanese punk bands butcher the English language?  Alternative Medicine is here to save the day.

The band formed in 2002 while they were still in high school.  They named their band Alternative Medicine because they were really into alternative music such as The Smashing Pumpkins at the time.  They play pop punk and pop rock music, mostly sung in English.  Their vocalist lived in Chicago between the ages of 7 and 11, which makes his vocals so much more understandable than other punk bands in Japan. Their major influences are Fall Out Boy, Valencia, and The Starting Line.

Currently all of the songs on their myspace are samples off their upcoming mini-album Songs To Sing Along To.  Most notably at the top is their punk rock cover of Owl City’s “Fireflies,” which would be the first time I found that particular song listenable.  The rest of the songs are up-tempo pop punk songs, except for “On the Road Again” that has more of a mainstream rock vibe.  “Take Me Away,” “Sing Along,” and “Everything” are really fun songs, and are at least on Fall Out Boy level.  The only songs sung in Japanese are “Hang Glider” and “Talk 2 U Soon,” which kind of reminds me of Scott Murphy’s solo stuff.

Alternative Medicine is definitely one of the best new pop punk bands out there.  Not only do their English lyrics make sense, they are catchy, which is a rarity.  This should bring them some fame, if not in Japan, then at least overseas if they ever get the opportunity.

http://www.myspace.com/alternativemedicineemo

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Hot Hot Sex

May 11, 2010

myspace band of the week

That’s one way to get your attention.  Think of all the awkward stares you’ll receive when you tell people you like Hot Hot Sex.  If I didn’t know better, I would congratulate them for being daring, but it’s pretty obvious they named themselves after a CSS song (which was unfortunately used in a iPod Touch commercial).  And the CSS influence is pretty heavy here, from the vocals to the electronics.

The first song “Demon is here” starts with some nice electronics.  Then come the vocals, that sound so much like something Lovefoxxx would write I spent the next 20 minutes skipping through Cansei de ser sexy to make sure it wasn’t  a cover song.  It’s still a fun song regardless.  “Manhattan Chips” tunes down the keyboards a bit in favor of handclaps for more of a indie-rock approach. “Petrol Station Dislikes His Fashion” and “655321” almost sound like live recordings and follow in the footsteps of the previous songs.  Hot Hot Sex may not yet show much in the way of originality, but I do love my dance rock bands, and their memorable name will make them stand out in the future.

http://www.myspace.com/hhsexxx

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Carsick Cars

May 4, 2010

myspace band of the week

It’s been a while since J-Rock Explosion left Japan.  So I thought I’d check out the only Asian band on MTV Iggy’s 25 Best New Bands In The World list.

Carsick Cars has been gaining steady attention overseas lately, thanks to their appearance at SXSW earlier this year, not to mention opening for  Sonic Youth in 2007 in Europe.  The trio formed in 2005 in Beijing.  Their music sounds very much like their listed influences: Sonic Youth, Joy Division, etc.  So far they’ve released two albums, Carsick Cars in 2007 and You Can Listen You Can Talk in 2009.

The first song on their myspace “Zhong nan hai,” apparently their favorite brand of cigarettes, is a good place to start.  It’s catchy, if not overly repetitive, but succumbs to some nice guitar riffs in the latter half.  “Mo Gu” is another catchy Chinese song.  Songs like “Pan,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Hero,” and “You Can Listen You Can Talk” showcase their ability to write songs in English.  Luckily they’re just as catchy as their Chinese ones. Some songs are more experimental like “Invisible Love”  and “C,” but for the most part they play accessible indie rock.  Carsick Cars is one of the most talked about underground Chinese bands worldwide and I can see why.

Free mp3: You Can Listen You Can Talk

http://www.myspace.com/carsickcars

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HNC

April 27, 2010

myspace band of the week

Not really a band, but it kind of used to be.  HNC is the solo project of Yuppa of Hazel Nuts Chocolate.  Or you can say it’s the rebirth of Hazel Nuts Chocolate seeing as she didn’t bother changing her myspace URL or much else.

Hazel Nuts Chocolate formed in 2000 and was a major player in the shibuya-kei scene.  Yuppa was the founding member and both Hazel Nuts Chocolate albums featured different co-members/collaborators.  But she originally intended it to be a solo project so she officially renamed the group to HNC and released her first real solo album Cult in 2009.  HNC is more M.I.A.-like with cute, nonsense vocals and electronic beats whereas Hazel Nuts Chocolate was going for the cute French-pop theme that the contemode artists were going for at the time.

None of the songs from Yuppa’s Hazel Nuts Chocolate days remain on her myspace.  Instead we have songs from Cult, a few remixes, and a couple of unreleased songs.  The songs from Cult highlight the direction Yuppa is going in with HNC.  “Kitten Breaks,” which conveniently has cat sound effects in-between vocals, is easily the most danceable.  The calypso beat makes for a great entry on a summer drive mixtape.  The rest of the songs range from cute–“Girl Things”–to edgy dub step–“Arabian Nights.” And then we have the hilariously bizarre “Witches Party” (Go to human-hunt! Eat them from the hair to the bone!!!).  The remixes are mostly okay.  The only one I’ve listened to more than once is “HNC-TBA’s Dancing in the Blue Mosque RMX” which is a remix of The Brixton Academy’s “So Shy.”  It gives the song a creepy Arab beat that doesn’t trump the original but is interesting.  HNC may not be putting out the most original music, but it’s cute, and infinitely more listenable than Yuppa’s other project Love and Hates.

http://www.myspace.com/hazelnutschocolate

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deep frame

April 19, 2010

myspace band of the week

There are few songs in the Japanese language that move me to tears and “Lontano” by deep frame is one of them. This song makes me want to curl up in a ball and die.  Seriously.  There’s something about that melancholic piano, slow building violin, and of course Syuri’s beautiful voice that just gets to me.  Full song below:

Thankfully not all the songs on their myspace are depressing.  In fact, they’re somewhat cheerful.  “Color of wind” has a lot of cool flute action going on, while the other two clips from their new album are more calm and peaceful.  More clips from 日々のはざま can be found here.  The songs from their mini album fateful meeting, which came out far too long ago, are more of the same.  Some are more reflective piano driven songs, and others would work fine as an ending theme to your favorite anime.  In some ways deep frame reminds me a lot of Spangle call Lilli line.  And then there’s songs like “Lontano” and “透徹の朝” that would sit happily on a new mutyumu album with some added in pig grunts.  It’s a weird mixture, but I like it.

Deep frame consists of Syuri on vocals and Hideaki takahash on everything else.  Their debut album 日々のまざま comes out April 22 and includes seven tracks and a bonus DVD with four music videos.  Hopefully they’ll wind up on YouTube someday.  In the meantime, you can watch the digest version below.

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