This week I'll be posting some more "hardcore" releases. This is one of the CDs I got when FC Five was doing their US tour a few years back. I guess the guy from Alliance Trax was one tour and brought some of his releases. I grabbed this and a couple others just because they were Japanese. And Believe plays old school, fast, youth crewish hardcore. I'm not sure the best comparison, but it's pretty good.
This debut EP from Birth pretty firmly cemented them in the hearts of all the 3cm tour fans out there as a band to watch out for. They definitely take a cue from 3cm tour, but then they kind of go off on their own direction. Their music is abrasive and explosive, but there's also this killer ghetto-beat rhythm in most of their songs that just make me want to dance.
This EP went through two sold out pressings in a few years, which is amazing. Birth released a new EP this year that is pretty fabulous, and seem to be doing really well. Recently I got a free magazine that had an interview with them, which seemed like a big deal. Their live shows seem really raw and emotional, just the way they should be.
Oh look! It's a Japanese band with a really simple name! Surprise surprise. I really can't wait to move to Japan so I can start a band. I was think of naming it "Is." Well, there might be some copyright infringement thing with Was, but surely past tense and present tense is different enough, right?
Anyways, Bed was another random order from a few years ago. I didn't know anything about the band, but was just grabbing anything unheard from Oto Records' distro. What a frickin find this was. With such a simple name, you don't always expect the most, but bed delivers on so many subtle levels. It could be argued that there aren't many world-class emo bands in Japan. Toe comes to mind immediately, maybe Malegoat. I would say that Bluebeard's pronunciation is too bad and Curve's voice too whiny to stand up next to their counterparts. But Bed is certainly on that level.
Here they offer their first three songs, full of smooth, jazzy emo. You can tell Karate is a big influence, by the jazziness and rhythmic quality of the music. But beyond that, there is just such a nice cohesiveness to the music. Nothing is jarring or sounds out of place. Even when the band gets slightly heavy, it still just feels so right.
I haven't cared much for Bed's output after this. It isn't bad, but it just doesn't approach how amazing and out-of-nowhere this EP was. Maybe I'm just super picky and only want bands to record short outputs and then break up and be completely unheard. Yeah, I think I'm just a sadistic bastard after all...
Another week has passed. Now here's Friday where I post something I really, really, really love.
Infro has been playing for years, but this is their first album. 7 songs of emotional, fun, hardcore punk stuff. For fans of 1000 travels of Jawaharlal or Turbostaat. If you haven't heard of them yet, you're a nut, so please download this now. Anyways, back to playing video games. Have a good weekend!
5 years ago, the zine Give Me Back was just starting up, and Killie was preparing to release their After All... LP on the world. I conducted an interview to submit to the zine with Yoshi, who translated for the other guys in the band. What followed can be generally labeled as a clusterfuck. I rushed the interview to make the deadline for the zine, they decided not to publish it, I got really pissed. Yoshi and the other members were upset, but seemed to take it in stride. I, however, was caught in the middle, feeling like it was my fault and trying to deal with both sides. It really sucked. Killie's response to the debacle can be read here: http://killie.jp/archives/interview_july_2007.html. I thought it might be fitting to just publish the email exchange, though. It was a pretty rough time for me, as I'd just come back from touring Europe with Cease Upon the Capitol, and was trying to figure out what to do with my life. Looking back, I wonder if I could've handled it differently, asked different questions, pushed a bit harder. Either way, it's in the past now, and all I have are these memories. I'm throwing in a jump break, cause this thing is really long. Enjoy!
First, I have to apologize. This release was really hard to get a good picture of. A combination of my scanner destroying colors and the three-dimensional nature of the release itself. But, I tried.
This is a CD single thingie that Killie released in 2007. They made 100. Yoshi was nice enough to stuff one in a package when we did a trade. There's only one song on it, but some noise fills up the rest of the CD. The actual CD itself was also made available without the nice fabric packaging. I have one of those, but I'm not quite sure how they gave that out to people. Then there's the insert, which is a form of some sort. I didn't bother to translate it to figure out what it is, so I'll let somebody else do that. Or you could just use your imagination. I think it's a form to get a license to sell ice cream.
Anyways, I'll be posting Killie stuff all this week, except for Thursday, which will be something special. Enjoy!
Here's one of the first videos I saw of Killie. That's Yuichi from Gauge Means Nothing in the corner:
During my month visit to Japan in 2003, I visited with Ponchi, from Gauge Means Nothing/Nitro Mega Prayer, down in Kobe. We wandered around town, chatting about Evangelion, music, and other things. It was really nice talking with him about music, because he was interested in some "lighter" musics. Syrup16g, 24 pe-ji, and others were similar likes. And Ponchi made me copy of a Kiwi Roll album, その青写真, which had just been released. Over time, I listened to the album over and over again. The smooth melodies and guitar heavy songs were executed perfectly. They easily became a favorite.
When I got this CD from Oto Records distro, I knew nothing about it. The packaging was odd, but the singing was instantly familiar, considering how much I'd listened to Kiwi Roll. Surprisingly, Discharming Man is essentially a one-man band. The style on each track is different, the first almost a noise-ish indie rock track, the second pretty straight forward emo, and the last a minimalistic indie pop piece. Each has the same great song-writing and vocals.
The video below is more recent, and it looks like Discharming Man is still on the same track, focusing on solid song-writing. Hope you enjoy the EP!
There is a band that I love. I met them in their hometown of Okayama after hearing about them from every Japanese friend I knew. I'd seen their patches on shorts and backpacks. They were spoken of like some legendary, mythical entity. When I met the guys & girl from Dip Leg, they seemed pretty normal to me. Their music was truly other-worldly, though. Unfortunately, after a split, full-length, and EP, they took an indefinite hiatus that seems to have turned into a definite one, 5 years later. Their sound was one of passionate vocals, unaware of trends and fads, angular and tense guitars, rumbling but jazzy bass, and complicated drumming. They were a tight four-piece that were all playing with one accord. Since their EP, it seemed that their unique sound was gone, forever hidden in the bodies of the members who were moving on with their lives.
When I first listened to this Document Not Found (DNF) demo, I didn't really make any sort of connection. At first, I thought of 3cm tour or black film dance because of the vocals and heavy bass lines. But after watching the video I'm including below, and re-listening to the demo, I get it. This sound is reaching for the same thing that Dip Leg was doing. On this demo, DNF are still finding their voice, but they've since released a split and if the video below is any indication, they seem to be hitting their stride. I wouldn't say this is a Dip Leg copy band, but the pieces that made Dip Leg so great are present in DNF. As they write more songs, their unique identity solidifies and seems to make a great companion to Dip Leg and even some Nitro Mega Prayer.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. I really have to go buy their other stuff now!
Atlas the Alone was a band the played one of the most amazing shows I saw while I was studying in Japan. It happened at this weird practice studio in Osaka. The above little ticket thing is what I got at the door. I only knew After Forever and R3-N7 coming into the show, but got many surprises. I think I have Atlas the Alone footage somewhere, but I'm not really setup to rip video right now (hopefully soon!). Instead, when I was trying to find more info about the band, I found that someone posted 5 songs on youtube years ago. The audio is pulled from a live show, but isn't the worst thing ever. I've heard worse demos. They play a sort of hybrid between Japanese new school hardcore and envy-style screamo. I thought it was pretty interesting when I saw them, and these songs reaffirmed that decision. Check it out!
