Small Fish, Big Pond

First Kayo leaving Polysics and now Etsuko leaving Shonen Knife; it’s just not shaping up as a good year for Japanese musicians.

The Shonen Knife lineup has changed quite a bit since they we’re opening for Nirvana back in the 90’s; Naoko (the lead singer) is the only original member left. However when I saw them when they toured the US a few years ago Naoko’s sister, Atsuko the other founding member played with them since she now lives in the US (might as well kick it with the old crew I guess). But when the came through the member that really stood out was their new drummer Etsuko, here’s the quote I made in my last.fm review of the show.

…I ended up totally being taken by the new permanent drummer Etsuko Nakanishi (total hottie) who was a wizard on the drums.

What a bummer, I hope she finds her way back to another band to put those drum skill to use. Plus it’s always comforting to know that somewhere in the world there is a Japanese hottie working herself into a sweat rocking out on a set of drums.

BTW: The picture at the top reminds me of the Little Drummer boy on Robot Chicken.
Caution Dragonball-Z and Akira spoofing.

A3H7VGQ8QJJP

A few weeks ago one of my favorite Japanese bands, Polysics, said they’re touring the US on a new tour, unfortunately they’re not passing though here. The closest shows are about 650 miles ($120 in gas) away by car ($250 by air).

I wasn’t really sure if I was going to go but they just announced Kayo (the girl doing weird synth voices and playing keyboard) is leaving the band, now I’m thinking I might go since this will be their last major tour before a farewell/10th anniversary concert in Tokyo.

Kayo is not my favorite member (Fumi rocks the bass!), but she’s an integral part. A lot of their unique sounds comes from her influence, however some of their more “unique” songs aren’t my favorite I prefer the more recent mainstream punk style they’ve been getting. The question is how much more will they drift into the mainstream without Kayo? They very easily can go from innovative to boring depending on how much she influenced the band.

On the plus side, I’ve wanted to go on a long distance road trip in the new car for a while, this would be a fun way to do that, escape the freezing Utah winter, and see a good concert in one fell swoop. And with car camping I could probably keep the price under $200.

I hate to say it but it’s been apparent for a year or so and it’s getting worse, Kaori Mochida’s voice is dying. I mentioned it in a previous post but it’s becoming more widely noticed now.

As linked on FG recent performances are nothing like they were in their hey-day. Her vocals are flat now.

And Then:

I used to like ELT but you could tell back then that from the way she sings, even though it creates and interesting and unique sound it’s killing her vocal chords and has been all along. The comparison to then and now is about the same as listening to hear somebody sing before and after they go through puberty. And even though you can force your voice to reach pitches it did before you really have to strain to do so.

It’s not really known generally among many music listeners but singing is a lot like any other workout, if you don’t have good form it puts you through more stress. Stress that can eventually wear you down before your time.

Kaori is was a huge pop singer and should have been exposed to many professional voice trainers that could help her maintain her singing in a way that is less destructive to her vocal chords. But being one of the main draws for the label she was likely pushed to keep straining to keep albums sales high without worrying about the long term effects. A prime example of a label riding their talent hard to bleed them dry.

And considering ELT is part of Avex that’s hardly a surprise; they have been riding the Ayumi train so long they’ve let a lot of good talent fall under the wheels. Talent that could have stepped up to take the reign now that Ayumi and Kaori are fading stars.

Recently Every Little Thing has been less prolific than they used to be, the only time they get air time is for 1 or two songs during A-Nation and the occasional TV appearance. I’m not sure if it’s because Kaori knew her vocals were going and is fading out or if Avex has seen ELT’s sales drop and are shuffling her off to pasture but lack of practice and a high strain method of singing has taken it’s toll. It’s too bad to see somebody who had a lot of talent get used up and discarded due to burnout.
I’m guessing Avex’s cash cow Ayumi will be next, she’s already lost hearing in one ear due to the “Rock and Roll” lifestyle of constant performance with no break. I hope they can both get good gigs as TV tarento where they can reminisce with viewers back to the new millennium when they dominated Japanese music.

I was more of a fan of the more upbeat songs rather than the ballads.
4Force was the album that first got me interested.
But I like the Super Eurobeat remixes the best.
Or just hedge your bets and get the Best Singles compilation.

Yes, another collaboration “Youth on the Road” to be released 10/21. This time with “The Collectors”. Here’s a translation from Google (I’d clean it up but my Japanese isn’t great and you can get the gist).

“Rock plan titled” BEAT CRUSADERS, New Rote’ka, the first anniversary activities Mellon has collaborated with artists Midori 4 has decided to collaborate Collector’s series.
Single “Youth on the Road” to 10/21 (Wed) will be released nationwide at Tower Records. Lyrics / Music: Hisashi Kato, produced: Hitoshi Yoshida, music: THE COLLECTORS by Pre-one songs.
Melon Kinenbi’s official blog, click here.
Melon Day Event hosted by the conjunction “MELON LONGE” also appeared in the decision. 10/17 (Sat) will be held at Harajuku Astro Hall. See “SCHEDULE” Please see the page.

The last few collabs have been with Punk bands and I’ve loved them, The Collectors (not the 60’s Canadian psychedelic group) are more of a Mod-Rock group that has been playing in Japan since the late 80’s. I’ve never heard the The Collectors so it will be interesting to see if it appeals to me as much as the recent Punk bands.

I’m just really shocked how Mellon Kinenbi has gone from being a part of one of the most over produced organization in Japanese music to jumping with both feet into more independent rock scene. It’s hard to think of an American example that would be as drastic of a change. Maybe if Justin Timberlake started touring with Iron and Wine or something like that.

Check out the Previous Collaborations here and here.

I’ve been listening to the last few singles and album of the new Avex artist “Girl Next Door” at first they really seem similar to the upbeat (non ballad) songs and remixes by “Every Little Thing” that I like with an upbeat dance pop sound. These dance/eurobeat style songs are the easiest Japanese pop music to get into since you can still tap your foot to the beat even if you can’t understand all (or any) of the words.

The problem is that beat is horribly repetitive with these guys. I’m not sure who arranges the music but the walking dance beat is identical for 90% of their songs. 1 song at a time it’s not bad at all but listening to their whole album all together is mindlessly repetitive.

So why am I talking about them. They are a produced pop group, they’re basically guaranteed placing on the Oricon just because they’re hand held to the top by big name producers, remixers, and arrangers. So it seems their first few songs have bee kind of a warm-up to get a feel for where they should be positioned musically. Their last single would arguably be considered their breakout single by hitting the #1 slot in the charts (it’s an anime intro, that gives a bigger “bump” than anything in Japan), but I still wasn’t impressed and was about to write them off and quit listening. The latest single on the other hand finally has some variety to it and may be a sign that they’ve found a niche and may be able to carve out a corner of their own in the Avex roster.

Check it out, it’s pretty good stuff. Again it really reminds me of the “Every Little Thing” except the singer Chisa has a more natural sound to her voice unlike Kaori who sounds like she’s doing damage to her vocal chords everytime the performs. Maybe that will a lot Girl Next Door to continue on now that ELT is slowing down.

Ugh, I’m sick again. At least this time it’s a real flu and not from shitty mexican food from a cheap restaurant.

To tell you the truth it’s probably from going to the free Iron & Wine concert at the Galivan on Thursday (after the Rifftrax show, which was awesome!!). The Galivan plaza was packed shoulder to shoulder, the biggest I’ve seen this year and probably ever. I’m not a fan of Iron & Wine and this show confirmed that, but I do like going to big events to do some people watching. However it looks like this time it bit me in the ass, somebody there had a bug and it’s probably spreading like wildfire among the indie-yuppies of Salt Lake City now.

Anyway reading through some news today was an article in the Mainichi News that swine flu is approaching epidemic levels in Japan. The part that got me was this:

Between Aug. 3 and 9, when the average reached 0.99, the total number of infections in Japan was estimated to be over 60,000. There is a high possibility that the figure has been increasing since then.
…
Analysis by public health institutes across Japan has determined that roughly 80 percent of cases are swine flu cases. Most of the remaining cases are infections of the Hong Kong A strain. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases estimates that almost all of the people infected from July onwards have been infected with swine flu.

80% of the cases are swine flu! If that same stat holds true for America that mean I have a 4 in 5 chance of having swine flu!

Although I’m not too worried according to the CDC about 36,000 people in America die every year from flu-related causes. I’m not sure how many people have died nation wide from swine flu but considering how big of a deal the news makes when people become infected with it I think it’s still well below 36 thousand deaths. In which case I’m lucky to have swine flu, it’s less likely to kill me than the regular flu.

Anyway it seems to be hitting pretty hard in Japan too (not surprising how densely packed people are there). Maximum the Hormone had to cancel a few shows because the lead singer caught H1N1 (check’em out, it’s one of my favorite Japanese bands). And six of the thousands of AKB48 members have been stricken with the flu as well (they’re an Idol Group similar to Hello!Project).

This is an excellent music video by the Japanese band Sour. Low budget indie style like the Ok Go “Here it goes Again” (the treadmill video). Using webcam shots from people all around the world to work together across the screen ala Brady Bunch intro style (buy way cooler!)

I’m not very knowledge able about Sour’s music but it seems to be indie pop music. I’m not a big fan of the genre; the song is good, just not my taste.

If you like it their EP is for sale:

SOUR – Water Flavor EP (Japan Version)

The kind of good news is that they’re a MySpace band and so there is the remote chance they may be invited to tour outside of Japan. Although MySpace will likely hose it like they did when Polysics toured through.

Via Gizmodo

A while ago I thought if Morning Musume ever came to America I’d drive to where they were playing and go to see them to show support even if I only really like about 20% of the songs. Driving around the city today A href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUmcalXzoB8>Shanimuni Paradise came up in the random playlist (From the “happy” playlist) and reminded me that they’re in the US this weekend.

Funny how things change over 5 years, although not too surprising with a musical group whose roster is constantly rotating. All I could think was, “Too bad they waited till their popularity was waning before they tried to get more overseas fans”. It seems all big label bands wait until they’re in dire straits until they start reaching out to larger audiences to try to stabilize sales. Not surprising MM has painted themselves into a corner in Japan by appealing to only whacked out idol fans. Too bad too, they have the ablility to broaden their fans there if they didn’t keep sticking to the whole idol image.

So good luck in the US, but I won’t be there. They killed or cut off all their groups they have an appeal beyond giggly prepubescent girls, unless they grow up their fans overseas will be the same narrow genre they have in Japan, and there are even fewer idol otaku here.

Now bring back Biyuuden, bring over Melon Kinenbi, or create a group with the maturity closer to what Morning Musume had during Daite Hold on Me, and I might be bothered to take notice.

Besides it seems like UFA is keeping a tight leash on their products on a tight leash even over here where 0.00001% of the people know who they are.

Update: Hmm… I bad mouth the Cutsie ,idols path that Hello Project takes but I was just listening to some blacklog of my music and “My Boy” by Buono is pretty good (PV is a little absurd though)… I guess I’ll shut up now.

I always figured that if done right there are a few Jpop/Idol groups that could do well collaborating with more underground rock and punk bands; seeing idols let loose, drop their cutesy persona’s and go wild would seem a bit more real to me than the typical wota pandering that most spend all their time doing.

Hello Project’s (former?) girl group Melon Kinenbi (メロン記念日) is going to see if it’s actually possible just having done a collab with <Beat Crusaders (Good, Lightweight, not quite “Pop Punk”, Punk) and now one with New Rote’ka (ニューロティカ) (more underground, energetic punk).

Beat Crusaders Collaboration
New Rote’ka Collab

Of all the Hello Pro girls, Kinenbi seems most likely to fit in at a punk show but that’s still not saying much. I know Japanese punk shows are usually a bit more tame than some here in the US (no brass knuckle fights for one) but I still wonder what happens when you drop a few idols in the middle of a screaming Punk show.

Still I hope it works good because I think seeing the wild side of some idols would be great. Besides the fact that it’s been over a year since Kinenbi had a release. What’s really shocking is that Kinenbi formed shortly after Maki Goto joined Morning Musume and are still the same group! Ok, maybe that was too much of my personal H!P nerd knowledge coming out, but seriously when you understand how they work it’s amazing. Up Front Agency always kept them on the back burner and now that they’re free they’re taking their act in a direction I really like. Hopefully this is just the first of a new image for them.

The only trouble now is getting hands on these singles over here in the US. Like a tragically overlooked idol group isn’t hard enough to come by they’re teamed up with punk bands that are unknown in the US.
Come on Japan! You did a good job of starting up a Ska movement. Show us the wild punk scene that’s hidden behind Japan’s conservative image!

Melon x Crusaders on youtube (which means nothing when you have a CD collecting personality like me).

Good but doesn’t stand out other than sounding like Melon Kinenbi with that “Beat Crusaders sound”. Chorus still sounds like an idol group song.

Melon x New Rote’ka

Bad recording. Melon is straining in a format they’re not used to but I think they could defiantly go in this direction and do great.

If UFA had taken Hello Pro in a direction more like this I don’t think I would have given up on them. But The New Rote’ka collaboration “Pinch wa chance,baka ni narouze!” is an excellent start (we hope!)