LAST YEAR'S MODEL

My last post about Japanese music explored some influential bands in the Shibuya-kei scene of the 1990’s.  This time, I wanna talk about the bands that crossed over from the world of lounge pop into the world of punk rock.  Which is where my heart lies.  Psyche.  I have no heart.

While many of the “new wave of new wave” bands had their strongest influences in late 70’s and early 80’s American punk and new wave, several of my favorite J-pop acts transitioned very obviously from the bossa nova heavy music of the 90’s straight into electro punk.   Among these bands are Macdonald Duck Eclair, Hi-Posi, and one of my very favorite bands, Plus-Tech Squeeze Box.

Here’s a couple tracks by Macdonald Duck Eclair.  Sorz, no real vids for these.  Both songs are off  their first full length, “Short Short” (2004).  They cite both french pops and Atari Teenage Riot as important influences.  You can hear this quite clearly on the album, and on these two tracks.  more after the break so click it dbag. Read more

PIZZICATO FIVE, PLAYBOY & PLAYGIRL

Okie doke!  Time for some more music history.  Let’s talk about Japan again, cuz they make the best music.  I like it really busy, and this is where my love for all things fast and punk and poppy and cute got its start.  I was in my late teens.  I discovered Shibuya-Kei (Shibuya style, so named for it’s location of origin, the Shibuya district in Tokyo), a genre of music that mixed jazz pop and synth pop, and which later gave birth to Tokyo new wave of new wave as the scene cafe music scene moved towards more punk stylings

Two of the most influential bands to first be given the name of Shibuya-kei were Flipper’s Guitar and Pizzicato Five.  I was very much in to P5 at the time, first discovering them do to their signing to Matador Records in the mid 90’s (p5’s first releases by Matador were all compilations of older Japanese releases, beginning in 1994 with “5 by 5″).  There’s a lot of 60’s/70’s lounge influence–they owe quite a bit to artists such as Burt Bacharach and, especially, Serge Gainsbourg–but with a heavy electronic edge, like The Cardigans bought a drum machine and got hyped up on sugar.  Though P5 got their start as early as the mid 80’s, it wasn’t until Maki Nomiya became the front woman in 1990 that they created their best work.  If you are looking to check out some good pop from p5, I highly recommend their 1999 Matador release, “Playboy & Playgirl”. One of their most accessible pop records, it sounds like the Japanese soundtrack to Austin Powers but in a good way.  My friend Deborah once described it as game show music hell… (PBPG’s USA release is slightly altered from the original 1998 Japanese release, “The International Playboy & Playgirl Record”, but not much).

Now, on to Flipper’s Guitar.  Flipper’s Guitar were less electronic than P5, instead combining Read more