Last night I pulled out a random CD and put it on. Buffalo Daughter, a Japanese band. After listening through "Earth Punk Rockers" (an all-encompassing title if there ever was one), I went on a Japanese band binge. Here's just a few. After these I feel into videos. I tend to forget to look for stuff by bands I like if I've already done exhaustive searches before. It hit me tonight that the last time I looked for stuff by any of these bands was years ago, up to fourteen in one instance. There's all sorts of stuff online now. Do a search for any any of the bands below and kiss your night goodbye.
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His name came up,...wait. He came up in conversation tonight but I butchered his name. It's Takeshi Terauchi. I got the Terauchi right, but couldn't remember his first name, so I came here. After reminding myself what his name was I thought I's play one of his cuts. Right in the first few seconds of "Kanjinncyou" where he starts with a "Yooooo" I knew where this night was headed. Before I fly off to to the rabbit hole of Japanese instumental rock, here's some by what's his name. Dig it.
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After the Ventures toured Japan in 1962, the place went instro crazy. Electric guitar instrumental bands were crawling all over the place. They called these bands "eleki", which sure is a good compact way of saying "guitar based instrumental bands". Most of it wasn't really surf music because there wasn't a whole lot of dripping reverb, but there was a whole lot of great pickin', and in quite a few some comical yelps and such. Check the beginning of Takeshi Terauchi's "Kanjinncyou". Right out of the gates. "Yooo!!" is right! There's a lot of his stuff below because, in that scene, he was the man. That's him above, the man and his Mostrite.
Eleki lives on. Check the video linked at the bottom of the post. Go! Go! Tomoko!, that's the name of the woman guitarist. She's got a colorful way of interpreting some of the standards. I swear that lady has some kind of relationship with her whammy bar.
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For whatever reason, last night was spent revisiting Japanese bands, starting with Takeshi Terauchi, then the Mops, Melt Banana, Cornielius, and so on. But with Buffalo Daughter, Guitar Wolf and the 5678s waiting in the wings, Cibo Matto derailed everything. It seemed like just a couple years ago that Cibo Matto were all the rage, but it was actually the late nineties (jeez, that went by fast), They were on the top of the college charts and in the front racks of independent record stores. After a couple LPs and a handful of singles they fizzled went their separate ways, going out if not on the top, close enough that they had built up a decent following. As someone that has developed skepticism towards new releases, I generally don't read up on much of anything current, figuring that if a band is good enough, word will trickle through soon enough. So, I had no idea that Cibo Matto reunited a few years ago, was playing live again, and had newer records out. Last night was catch up time.
Back when their first LP, Viva! La Women, was released in 1996, they got my attention right away for their music, a mix of keyboard driven synth heavy hip hop and pop (heavier than it sounds), and somewhat abstract lyrical content. How are you going to ignore a chorus that starts with "Shut up and eat"? Plus, dropping a few F-bombs here and there; that always wins bonus points in these parts. And all of the songs were food related, some more metaphorically than others. So, yeah, despite not really being the type of music that gets regular plays over here, I got sucked in like everybody else. Their followup LP, Stereo ★ Type A, was just as engaging as the first, if not more so. So when they went kaput, they left a lot of people hanging.
I still haven't heard much of the new stuff, but that way with words seems to be intact. To wit, "MFN" off their latest, Hotel Valentine: "MFN" is short for "mother fucking nature". Dang me, I love candy mouths. And lines like "Don't tell me "what the hell?" I'm a ghost. Don't throw the fucking oyster shell at me."? You could put that over Mantovani and I'd still eat it up.
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Oh man, here's a wild one. A musical theater troupe morphs into a band, a very noisy band called Les Rallizes Dénudés, in Japan in 1967. They make a name for themselves as leftists, and the Communist bass player hijacks a plane to North Korea. The guitarist and lead singer of the band becomes reclusive, and is practically invisible in ensuing decades. Rumored to be of ill health, in fear of the law due to his association with the bass player, or just trying to further his mystique, depending on who you ask. And no one seems to know for sure.
One of the first things I ran into said that they were influenced by the Exploding Plastic Inevitable and Blue Cheer. That would explain the musical theater troupe. It would also explain the long drawn out distortion and feedback workout that is "The Last One". It's a mother lovin' noise buffet. If you listen long enough you'll finally just succumb to the drone of excess.
If you're as intrigued as I was, let me save you the time. No one knows for sure about much of anything about these guys. Read the account at Red Bull Academy about one man's search for answers. Even with web searches, email contacts and responses from others within their circles of associates, and experts on Japanese rock music, the guy comes up with more questions than any speck of certainty. There ain't shit in the way of concrete conclusions. Just more bread on your head, dad.
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When the Ventures played in Japan in 1962, they probably never imagined what they would leave in their wake. Japanese kids went apeshit, ditching their formerly hip acoustic guitars in droves. Overnight there were all sorts of Ventures-like bands crawling out of the woodwork. And some of them were good, really good, particularly if you like your imitation Ventures a little over the top. Take a listen to a few of the Takeshi Terauchi cuts below. Clearly he can pick. After you hear a couple, you'll start to notice a bunch of other things. Things like the organ, which there is quite a bit of, really just an enjoyable diversion. There really isn't anything that can distract you from the fact that this guy loves his whammy bar. He also likes throwing an excited word in every now an then, often times a single "Yoo!!". I happen to like the beginning of "Caravan", an exchange that goes something like this: "Let's Go!" "Yeah, yeah, yeah!", "Heeyyyy" "Ya!!" Sparse as they are, I don't think you could possibly find more fitting lyrics.
To label Terauchi a Ventures imitator is selling him short. Sure, he's
got some of that in there, but he's got Dick Dale and Chet Atkins in there
too, whether he ever heard them or not. Phil Baugh or Jimmy Bryant? Hell, I'll throw in a Joe Maphis as
long as I'm dredging my memory for hot shit pickers. He made not have ever heard any of them, but that'll give you an idea of what he sounds like. He's nuts.
Beware of the Blog has posted quite a bit of his stuff over the past few years, but today I noticed one at Radio Diffusion International that I don't remember seeing, from the record awesomely titled Ultra Punch Deluxe. There's a few other Japanese eleki bands over there too. Though nowhere near as potent as Terauchi, they will give you an idea of why he stuck out like a sore thumb. Just plain nuts.
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Maybe you're not old enough to remember when oddball Japanese monster movies were on TV on a semi-regular basis. You might have grown up with CGI animation or some other funkless effect, so you might not see any charm whatsoever in cheap special effects, ridiculous monsters, poorly overdubbed dialogue or total city destruction. Fuck yeah, it was a different time. Your biggest decision of the day was whether to go outside and throw rocks, or finish watching someone from Godzilla's mob destroy Tokyo.
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It shakes me to my bones to think of what the earthquake and tsunami victims must be going through. This sort of thing should be humbling to anyone and everyone. I really have nothing to add, so I'll just post a bunch of Japanese music. This is just a sprinkling, but hopefully enough that a few of you will look into the agencies helping the victims (a list of agencies at the Huffington Post can be found here.)
I left out a few bands that I was thinking about posting, because I couldn't find any mp3s (Buffalo Daughter, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her, Jackie & the Cedrics, etc) and I left out Guitar Wolf, because I posted a whole thing about him (here) a while back (and the links are still good!). Hands down, my favorites below are the older ones (the single song artists interspersed below). If I was you, I'd start with fuzz: the Dynamites, the Mops, and Bunny. They're just some wild shit. Really, if I'd have found them first, I'd have stopped right there. Then there's the surf bands: Terry & the Blue Jeans, and Jimmy Takeuchi and the Exciters. After that, you can just dabble around. There's something for everyone.
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Takeshi Terauchi is a name that's probably only known to four types of people; guitarists, Ventures fiends, instrumental fanatics, and the people of his native Japan. Starting his career in a country and western band (Jimmy Tokita and The Mountain Playboys), he got the instrumental bug after the Ventures toured Japan in 1962, and left to start his own band, the Blue Jeans. In short order, he became Japan's first guitar hero. To the casual listener, his playing style is similar to the Ventures, but if you listen closely, there are a few quirks that set him apart. While his playing is exceptionally clean, he often squeezes in about four times the notes that are needed (think Dick Dale sans reverb), and he loves, loves, loves his whammy bar. His band has a cool farfisa thing going on as well. The hook? He's big on yelping things at the beginning of songs, and throwing in the occasional "yo!," which makes him just wacky enough to make it to the coveted Friday night slot here at Trastos HQ.
Someone at Beware of the Blog has it bad for Takeshi, because there's been a shitload of his stuff posted in the past few years, every one a hoot. Here's where:
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