This One!!

If you're astute and followed this blog for a while you may have noticed that a couple of all woman bands from Asia featured in the form of Taiwan's BB Bomb and Japan's Thug Murder. The Gaia were an all female Japanese band that were knocking around in the mid 90's. They made their way over to the States and played Gilman Street(which is a legendary venue due to weighty fanzine status but probably a shithole that's actually no different to many other venues) and recorded a few live songs on this half studio album. Anyway the Gaia play speedy ripping punk rock which really should be heard by everyone interested in such things. It's a shame there's not to much info around about these girls.

It's this one!

Looking back at 2009

While this blog keeps marching on into the new decade, a few notables that were much better mp3 blogs than the one your eyes are currently feasting on have sadly disappeared. The German blog Garageland aka Lick My Pussy Eddie Van Halen that had a lot of garage rock, punk and Flying Nun music sadly disappeared. Thanks to Jorge, his uploads are already appearing on this blog with more to come.

Nuclear Farmed Fuck Frogs disappeared after Bernard the Librarian sold all of his record collection. However the posts still exist and the files may still available. Bernard posted great stuff like Ed Gein's Car , Th'inbred, Shattered Faith and his flyer collection. Check it out by clicking on the link.

Kick the homeless started with a roar with stuff from demos from Dag Nasty, Metallica, Exodus, Testament and too much other good punk, hardcore and metal that it's difficult to remember all of it.


Out of print punk aka Record Collectors are Pretentious Assholes- has completely disappeared as a labels were asking them to remove material they were re-releasing. I remember seeing Sloppy Seconds album Destroyed there which was recently released with bonus tracks by Kid Tested records.

While these blogs have hit the dust - all the ones in the sidebar are still active - check them out. After all, they're linked for a reason. These people generally have good taste in music and are capable of writing about it. Most of the stuff they post is out of print. If you just want a blog with a new album to download and no explanation of its content- use google, dickbrain.

Another thing that sadly disappeared last year was Futoshi Abe, who thrashed the guitar for the Japanese garage rock band Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. Thanks to Jorge and Garageland, here is their Rumble EP.




Rumble

To be continued:

Oscilator in Distortion

Japan's Mad Capsule Markets were another band I discovered whilst living in Asia. However, it wasn't from seeing the band or even from the Asian media. A copy of London magazine Rock Sound, which contained a free compilation CD, is responsible for the fact that this band ever reached my ears. The band could be considered cyberpunk as they combine elements of punk, electronica, metal and hip-hop sucessfully. Oh, there's also chirpiness (although it may be tongue in cheek) and anger.

Who didn't always want to be a stormtrooper?

Bansai!

Been a while

It has been a while since my post because I've been fairly busy with work-related courses and life's been too hectic to find time for a blog post. There was a plan for a Datsuns show review but that can be condensed into a sentence. Support band, The Randoms sounded like a mix of Fugazi and The Pixies while The Datsuns played a few good songs and took way too much time with a lot of only OK songs that made my feet hurt and feel like leaving. I

Here's another re-up

Last time I wrote

Now for something completely different. While I was living in Taichung, Taiwan I lived not too far from a Live House which was an underground music venue that not many foreigners frequented. After watching a Japanese ska-punkers Double Negative and glam metal influenced rockers Trashbox a woman with a keyboard, a microphone and an anime painting, played. She stood out because her music was different from the four on floor rock band format and she was a small woman with a fantastic voice. After seeing Ryoko Mizoguchi play I got her to sign my CD. It's the first time I've ever done this but I had to get the female singer from Japanese hip-hop group Poplar translate for me. I really wanted to know the artist's English name and also wanted her to know I really liked her music.

Here's a snippet of an online English review I found

Mizoguchi's mini-album 1, 2 no 3 de is short, but then my five foot two inch tall mother always told me that the best things come in small packages, and after listening to this record over and over for the past few days I'm starting to think she may have been right all along. Armed mainly with a piano and a voice pitched somewhere between Kate Bush and Cerys Matthews, Mizoguchi has crafted a collection of songs that burrow themselves deeply within your subconscious, then keep bringing you back to them even when you know you ought to be listening to other things.

Friends of mine say she reminds them of Bjork.


Here.

Memory Loss

Legonic Trap were one of those Japanese bands I saw in a small club in Taiwan. Actually thinking about it, I didn't actually see them but watched Taiwanese folk punk band Children Sucker, Japanese rock/rap crossover act Poplar and Taiwanese pop band Backquarter. I had hoped that Children Sucker had grown in popularity but the small club was packed with university aged Taiwanese girls due to the radio and magazine friendly Backquarter. I went with my recently arrived South African flatmate whose name now escapes me.

I remember talking wth the singer of Poplar afterwards as she spoke great English and talking to one or two of the guys from Legonic Trap. One spoke English and one couldn't. There was a banner up for the length of the show that Legonic Trap had brought with them that stated "Let's Punk Rock". Truth be told, their sound is closer to Weezer and some 90's pop punk like Blink 182 than the Pistols and The Stooges. The lyrics and song titles are in both Japanese and English.


Get Trapped.

Number Girl - Sappukei

I picked this album up in Taiwan from the sale bin due to my thinking that all Japanese bands relegated to the sales bin would either be punk, hardcore or metal. My foolish thinking gets you a Pixies sounding album although on another album gave their whole two influences away in a song entitled Pixie Dü.
Number Girl must have had their reasons for choosing the Pixies over Husker Dü.

Commit Sappekei

Grim Force - Circulation to Conclusion

I keep seeing Municipal Waste mentioned in various places that discuss punk and metal on the net. With Municipal Waste a fun game is spot the eighties influences. If their logo isn't a nod to Nuclear Assault then some of their cover artwork is although the cover to Waste 'Em All looks closer to Sodom's Persecution Mania album.

However back in the 80's a lot of Japanese bands were playing thrash metal and there were more metal bands around Japan than just Loudness. There was a Japanese black metal band called Sabbat, thrashers, Raging Fury, another called Sacrifice and a power metal band called Salem who were more on the Iron Maiden side of metal(I know this because I owned their demotape but it has unfortunately been misplaced).

Japanese band Grim Force are a lot like Municipal Waste in that they wear their 80's speed metal influences on their sleeves.
The band play Bay Area thrash not dissimilar to Exodus, Death Angel, Testament and early Metallica. I find the album cover reminiscent of Sepultura's Arise and the vocals are also reminiscent of Max Calvera's vocals on the Chaos A.D. album. Live Grim Force are very impressive and that motivated me to buy their CD after the first time I saw them in Taichung, Taiwan in a small club as part of a metal festival. The next time I saw them was on a bigger stage at the Formoz festival in Taipei. Both times their live act impressed me. The CD features riffing that the aforementioned 80's thrash metal bands would be proud of. To hear Grim Force try their myspace page.



Get the album. Arigato.



East meets West in Beijing. Testament with Grim Force.

Evance: Fucker! Fucker! Fucker! 7"

I can't find much English information about this Japanese hardcore band, Evance. A Youtube search turned up a Japanese Rolex TV advertisement featuring Brad Pitt and google turns up info about Evanescence.

This 2 track 1998 7" on the Fast Nail record label comes with not only Japanese lyrics but a separate insert sheet with English lyrics. Musically I'd say it falls somewhere between Japanese hardcore bands, GISM and Gauze The song Fucker towards the end features spoken female vocals. The English names of the other two songs are I wanna see the outside and Feel Pain?

The info below was provided by Kev Japan.

Evance were a great band. They split up quite a few years ago now. Kouki (guitarist) now plays in Warhead (another fantastic Japanese band) and lives in Osaka. Would also recommend the Evance/Jabara split 12" or the "False Peace" 7". Other members of Evance went on to play in the punkier-sounding Slowmotions.

Evance were a part of the "Burning Spirits" scene which is still going strong. Legendary Tokyo hardcore band Tetsu Arei first started the "Burning Spirits" tours 18 or 19 years ago and they would get a bunch of bands together and tour all over Japan. Some of the greats to feature on this tour are Death Side, Nightmare, Poison Arts, Bastard, Warhead, Judgement, Rocky and the Sweden, Order, Liberate, Paintbox, Extinct Government, Forward and even Melt Banana at one point. Due to serious and often very violent inter-band/fan feuds that created a rift between the Japakoa scene and the crusties, the hardcore scene in Japan remained quite segregated. About four years ago this division began to disappear thanks to the efforts of Framtid/Nightmare / Punk and Destroy Record's Shin Takayama who strived to encourage more diversity at shows in Osaka and gradually throughout the rest of Japan. A lot of the older trouble makers either settled down and had families, went to jail or died and with a younger, more open minded scene it continues to thrive today without violence or feuds. It is interesting to note that G.I.S.M and Gauze (two very well-known Tokyo bands the time) were seperate from both the Japakoa and crusty scenes and had their own thing going on. Burning Spirits have also brought over international bands to tour with such as Chaos UK, FUK, Disorder, Poison Idea and Tragedy and two years ago Forward and Warhead took the tour to the US where it was very well received.

Akiakane

Warning: This is a while I living in Taiwan post and features a Japanese all girl punk band plus self indulgence.




Before I left Taiwan I made sure I caught the 2006 Formoz festival in Taipei which is organized by Freddy Lin of the Taiwanese death metal Chthonic featured UK bands Dirty Pretty Things and Super Furry Animals amongst the swag of Asian bands.


I spent a good portion of the day walking around and checking out the metal/punk stage and caught the impressive Japanese all girl punk band Akiakane. Lead singer/guitarist, Moe Suzuki was originally in the hugely popular all girl pop punk band Softball I really wanted to check out Akiakane because I'd heard good things about Softball.


Akiakane play a more high energy pop punk than Softball. Akiakane are more politically aware than softball and this reflects in their lyrics and often the shows they play. The band claim the the political motivation was inspired by bands like The Clash and The Dead Kennedys but they really don't sound like either. Earlier this year they played the 2/28 show in Taiwan which celebrates Taiwan independence. The American punk fanzine Razorcake described their sound as Kix with a bunch of fruit loops thrown on top. Personally I don't really think they sound like a glam metal band at all.





Akiakane at Formoz 2006 Pic by Camilo

The band are currently signed to Korean American, Mike Park's Asian Man Records label. I picked up both a T-shirt and a copy of their album Kasumisou (which is also called Samurai Punk Rock Girls). According to Punknews.org there are two versions of this album, a Western release with both English and Japanese lyrics and a Japanese release with Japanese lyrics only.

Some of the songs retain their original Japanese lyrics and vocals (a version of this same album released in Japan is sung completely in their native tongue) and thus, their messages will unfortunately be lost to non-bilingual Western ears. What won't be lost to Western listeners however, is the music itself. The aggressive quotient of Ms. Suzuki's songwriting has been upped several degrees, but so has the melodic content.

If there is any true drawback to Kasumisou, it is only that in places, Moe Suzuki's vocal delivery on the English-language tracks may come off frantic or not easy to catch on first listen. Her English lyrics, apparently self-translated, tend to read awkward (a by-product of having to fit a translated lyric into a melody initially composed to go with a Japanese-language lyric), however the points she makes in those lyrics still come across fairly well.


Surfing the Akiakane's official site I came across this pic of some dumb white kiwi guy checking out the band's merchandise with a bunch of Taiwanese Akiakane fans.





Here's a couple of examples of Moe's English lyrics.

Uncle Sam

MacArthur to Bush
Skill aggression
Pull the wires democracy
Shame freedom Uncle Sam

Asia Arab Black Slaves
Do you still want stars? AMERICA
Terrible Take away Shot gun
Cruel history Anglo Saxons

Be conscious of that! Be Quick! Please my baby!
Before your heart is violated by his greed

Dead forest in Viet-Num Gray skies in Hiroshima
What did we lose? What did we leave for?
Sunny afternoon Young boys and girls
Maybe they have gotten use to giving away

Akiakane - Uncle Sam MP3

Fuckin' Media

Evil Robot of fuckin' media
I do not fear yeah - oh yeah!
Money and collusion fuckin' media
I don't give a shit yeah- oh yeah

Green pepper head crams dumpling into himself
Twisted common sense He stretch it to suit his purpose
Quotation childish mistake over and over
Shallow imitation and disorder peaceful time

He works himself to the born for audience rating
He waves his hand with forced smile on his face

Timid paracemium was wearing a lion
Platonic things die by the road side critically
Trouble hush-up it's useless match wits
An apple polisher turned his hand up side down

Here is a youtube clip of Akiakane playing Fuckin' Media and another song live in Liverpool 2007

There's also another clip of Moe talking in English to the English audience which is near incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't spent a good deal of time living in Asia.

Akiakane are due to play back in Taiwan next week according to their myspace site Then back to Japan and an EU tour in 2008. Incidentially the new song on ttheir myspace is very catchy pop punk and not like the material on the Kasumisou album. My favourite song on the album is '1945' which is also on the myspace plyer. Where Moe Suzuki puts herself in the shoes of a warplane pilot in "Kaze to Tomoni" and gives a 21st century young adult's view of World War II history in "1945." This song was apparently inspired by Ms. Suzuki's encounter with one Takeshi Maeda, a former WWII Japanese Navy pilot who became a peace advocate after the end of that war. It's just nice(sic) to hear a a song about World War 2 from a Japanese viewpoint. I'd really love to catch this band live again and definitely look forward to hearing from Akiakane.