You can say whatever you want but the Bee Gees has its influences span all over the world, thanks to their disco songs. This includes having 40 singles and 11 albums released in Japan. We cannot say that they don’t have a fan base there. Bee Gees is a group that no longer exists after the death of one of their band members/brother. But their songs are evergreen - meaning they will never die. I grew up with this band because both my parents are their avid fans. I also grew up with Elvis but that’s another story. The melodies by the Bee Gees are simple and good, unlike the techno and pop crap we get today. Suffice to say they have been very influential in the music industry world wide.

Just ask your parents if they knew the Bee Gees. I’d place $100 bucks here that 99% of them have heard of them, if not loved them for their music. I love almost all their songs old and new. The band is made up of three brothers; Barry, Morris and Robin Gibb, but the main singer/songwriter of the group is Barry Gibb, the oldest of the brothers. If you want to know more about the details of their band, read up on them HERE.

I am here to revere their music all over again. My favorite songs of all their hundreds is - Melody Fair, How Deep is Your Love, Words, You Should be Dancing, Too Much Heaven, Stayin’ Alive and their duet with Celine Dion called Immortality.

Here are some of their songs:

Immortality

Stayin’ Alive

Too Much Heaven

How deep is your love?

RIP Morris Gibb, for the death of you becomes the death of the Bee Gees :(

Luckily, we still have hundreds of their songs to content with. :)

Source: wikipedia

Here’s a band that’s no longer around but their music has influence Japanese pop so much, it is worth the mention. You know how it is that a legacy is always more important that living in this world sometimes :P

Plastics or, alternately, The Plastics were a short-lived Japanese pop group prominent in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Though they were short lived, their music was a major influence on Japanese pop music and have been covered by many bands, most notably Polysics, and Pizzicato Five (covering the song “Good” from Origato Plastico). The bands Talking Heads, B-52s, Devo were big fans of Plastics, and may have helped get their albums released in the US. Their mainstream exposure began when Toshio Nakanishi designed a tour program book for Talking Heads and slipped David Byrne a tape of Plastics demos. Byrne promptly sent it to the B-52s’ manager who offered to represent them internationally.

Look, they’re so cute!

Song title: Copy

Boredoms (ボアダムス) (or V∞redoms) is an avant-garde rock band from Osaka, Japan. They were officially formed in 1986, although some date the band to bedroom tape experiments beginning in 1982. Their varied output is difficult to pigeonhole, but is usually referred to as noise rock or sometimes Japanoise, though their more recent records have been largely based around repetitive minimalism and tribal drumming.

The band has a vast and sometimes confusing discography. Many band members have rotated through the group over the years, often using a number of various stage names. Singer Yamantaka Eye is the closest they have to a frontman; his style includes a range of baffling screams, babbling, electronic effects and very heavy post-production. Drummer/singer/trumpeter Yoshimi P-We has been featured on many Boredoms recordings as well.

Critic David Sprague describes Boredoms as resembling “a head-on collision between … free-form Sun Ra’s Arkestra and the scatological nihilism of early Butthole Surfers — fronted by the hollers and gibbers of a couple of guys who can’t decide whether they’d rather be Beastie Boys or Residents. But even that doesn’t really describe the sheer sense of otherness that pervades the Boredoms aesthetic.”

Take a look at some of their songs:

Super Go!!!

Live in NY

Source: wikipedia

The band Guitar Wolf, founded in Japan in 1987, are known for their piercing vocals and extremely loud style of garage punk that emphasized heavy distortion. They coined the phrase “Jett Rock ‘n’ Roll”, which they also used to describe their musical style — an energetic cross between The Ramones, rockabilly, classic punk, and noise rock.

Guitar Wolf originally consisted of Seiji (Guitar Wolf), Billy (Bass Wolf), and Narita (Drum Wolf). Narita quit the band to be a fortune teller. They asked a different band for a new drummer, and they found Toru. Billy/Bass Wolf died in Tokyo on March 31, 2005, presumably from a heart attack after coming off the last leg of their U.S. tour. In September of 2005, Guitar Wolf played their first show with their new bassist, U.G. Guitar Wolf presently consists of Seiji, U.G. and Toru.

Guitar Wolf was predated by a series of similar Japanese bands such as Teengenerate and Supersnazz, although none achieved the cult status this trio did. Since their inception, they have influenced a neo-renaissance of punk rock in Japan.

Jett Rock ‘n’ Roll is a term coined by Guitar Wolf to describe their musical style. It is conglomeration of punk, traditional rock, heavy distortion, and screaming that has only ever been applied to their band.

The name is derived from the last name of musician Joan Jett, whom Guitar Wolf frontman Seiji considers his greatest influence.

See King Brothers for one such band that is influenced by Guitar Wolf.

Guitar Wolf often touts itself as “The World’s Greatest Jett Rock ‘n’ Roll Band”. Matador claims their Jet Generation album is the loudest CD in history

The band have their own line of Jett clothing consisting of jackets, pants, T-shirts and belts. The Guitar Wolf motorcycle jacket, a variation of the 613 Perfecto called 613GW, is manufactured by Schott NYC.

Time Machine of Tears

I love you OK

Source: Wikipedia

BENNIE K is a J-Urban female duo that consists of rapper CICO and vocalist YUKI, both of whom love American hip-hop music. They met while YUKI was in Los Angeles undergoing voice training. They made their debut in January, 2001 with the single Melody, released on the For Life Music label.

Bennie K’s songs usually combine Japanese and English — their English more fluent than most Japanese singers’. BENNIE K is a very popular band in Japan; it has attained high positions on the Oricon charts. Japana-rhythm, their 4th and latest album, debuted at #1 on the Oricon Album charts. DJ HI-KICK (high kick) the manager and DJ of BENNIE K he graduated at Tokai University, Nagano prefecture.

Check out their official website: Bennie K

Bennie K live - Sunrise

Dreamland

UNITY

Source: Wikipedia

eX-Girl is a Japanese synth pop band. They claim to hail from the planet Kero Kero. They are described as psychedelic, space rock, jazz fusion, jagged alternating vocal harmonies, sugary synthesiser pop, punk, prog, epic/atmospheric, noise-rock, wavering 3 part a capella, borderline operatic vocals, often in the space of a single song. Live performances are known to include home-made costume during the show, synchronised robot dancing and frog-related items. Enthusiastic supporters include Mike Patton and Jello Biafra:

“eX-Girl are a beautiful example of information overload. Jagged 3 part vocal harmonies, adventurous arrangements, and songs that hook you like the sucker that you are. Take all of these treats, wrap it in an ultra-bright technicolor live show with surreal homemade costumes, and you’ve got the sensation of being strapped in on an out-of-control carnival ride that will leave you standing in line waiting for another turn.” - Mike Patton

Alternative in every sense of the word they bear no direct similarities to other artists as a whole.

eX-Girl formed in late 1997, the brainchild of Hoppy Kamiyama who gathered a trio of females, each with a strong singing background. Despite having no previous musical instrument experience, the girls were already touring after a minimum of practice, even releasing their first album Heppoco Pou in 1998, six months after being founded by Kamiyama. A brief tour to the United States followed due to Heppoco Pou being accepted warmly on a San Francisco college radio station.

By 2002, eX-Girl had a new lady on guitar in the form of Keikos, formerly of Super Junky Monkey and were touring Finland to support the release of “Back To The Mono Kero” over there. Following this was possibly the biggest break for the band, being invited by Siouxsie & The Banshees to open for them for their United Kingdom tour, after having impressed them during their opening slot in the US tour leg. Further solo touring came afterwards along with recording of the Luna Rose single, used in a COSE lipstick commercial in Japan.

2003 saw another member, drummer Fuzuki, part ways with the band. Her replacement was Chapple, who brought another new dimension to the band’s sound. Keikos too parted ways after new material for the fifth album was completed, being replaced by Zorek. During a festival in San Francisco, former Dead Kennedys frontman and Alternative Tentacles label owner, Jello Biafra saw eX-Girl’s performance and praised the band greatly, offering to release their next album in the United States. In 2004, eX-Girl’s latest (and most polished) album, Endangered Species was released on the AT label.

This year sees the return of Keikos to the fold and new drummer Yoko, taking over duties from a departing Chapple.

Kirilo/Kirilola - Bassist, synth player, vocalist and co-writer of all material with band manager/producer Hoppy Kamiyama. The only remaining original member left, she tends to be the leading figure of the group and comes up with most of their costume designs.

Keikos - Guitarist and vocalist. Her entrance into the band brought a meatier guitar and more aggressive guitar sound, most likely due to her time in Super Junky Monkey. Replaced Chihiro, departed, returned to the fold again.

Yoko - Drums and vocals. The latest addition to the eX-Girl lineup, replacing Chapple.

eX-Girl in Helsinki

pop muzik

Tofu Song

Source: Wikipedia

Yui is a Japanese pop artist who writes her own songs and plays acoustic guitar. Since the age of 16 she’s been writing her own songs and performing. She hails from Fukuoka, Japan. She is still relatively unknown outside of Japan, but her song “LIFE”, from her single by the same name, was the 5th ending theme for Bleach, a popular Japanese anime series, which has brought her some international fame.

Upon leaving Fukuoka for Tokyo, YUI wrote the song “feel my soul”. She was planning to release it on an indie label as a tribute to her hometown, when the song caught the ears of Fuji TV producer, Mr. Yamaguchi, who happened to see the demo video clip. He claimed YUI’s voice haunted him so much that he went out of his way to visit the recording studio himself. He even made his channel’s prime-time drama “Fukigen na Gene” an extraordinary tie-in with YUI’s debut track.

Check out the official site of this beautiful 20 year old artist: Yui

I also brought some of her youtube videos to you:

Title: Life

Title: Feel My Soul

Title: Rolling Star

Source: wiki.theppn

My first encounter with this band was in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 1. They were doing a rendition of an oldies. It wasn’t bad. This all girl band wore dresses that looked like the costume of Liz Hurley in Austin Powers I, at the end when they were suppose to be eaten by mutated seabass courtesy of Dr. Evil :P

Anyway, The 5.6.7.8’s are a female, three-piece, Japanese rock and roll band, whose music is reminiscent of American surf music and garage rock. Each member is from Tokyo, Japan. The group have so named themselves because they play music reminiscent of 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s rock. They frequently cover songs from American rock and roll records.

The 5.6.7.8’s first started performing as a quartet in Tokyo and were recruiting many guest performers during their Australian tour, once even recruiting a male member, “Eddie”. They first officially became a trio in 1992 before touring Australia.

The 5.6.7.8’s recently became known in the West after their appearance in Kill Bill Vol. 1, in which they performed “I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield”, “I’m Blue” and “Woo Hoo” in a Tokyo club, “The House Of Blue Leaves”. On the Special Bonus Features of the Kill Bill Volume 1 DVD, one of the specials features a live performance which shows the 5.6.7.8’s singing “I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield” and “I’m Blue” during filming of the movie. The 5.6.7.8’s song “The Barracuda” is featured in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Soundtrack.

They also became renowned for the use of their cover of The Rock-A-Teens song “Woo Hoo” in advertisements for Carling lager and Vonage VoIP service in 2004. The song reached #28 on the UK Singles Chart in 2004. The follow-up song was “I’m Blue”, but that only reached #71 on the same chart a few months later.

The 5.6.7.8’s also tour in numerous countries including China, Australia, the United States, and their native Japan.

As you can see, this Japanese rock all-girl band is very international :)

Check out some of their music videos:

Song: Woo Hoo

Song: Ghoul A Go-Go

Source: Wikipedia ; The 5,6,7,8 official website

MONO is a post-rock group from Tokyo, Japan that formed in late 1999/early 2000 and has since become a highly influential band in the Japanese underground and post-rock communities.
Work on MONO was started in January of 2000 by guitarist Takaakira Goto. Working by himself, Goto completed most of MONO’s demo tracks, partly influenced by guitarist Loren Connors. By late 1999 Goto was searching for band members, the first of which to join up with him was fellow guitarist and long time friend Yoda. Soon afterwards the guitarist duo linked up with bassist Tamaki and drummer Yasunori Takada and MONO was formed. On small-time label Forty-4, the newly coalesced quartet released a 4 track EP entitled Hey, You. Following Hey, You MONO put together its first full length album in 2001, Under the Pipal Tree on the prominent label Tzadik. During this album’s time in the recording studio the attacks of September 11th took place. This was to have a deep affect on MONO’s later work. Under the Pipal Tree, along with the EP, introduced MONO’s style which is focused on layered guitar melodies. All of MONO’s songs are entirely instrumental, and Strings and pianos are also prominently featured in several songs. This album was met by generally good reviews but despite its bold sound was referred to by Goto in a 2006 interview with Phil McMullen as a “very, very young album”[1], just the beginning for the development of the band’s sound. Many critics agree with that statement and for the most part they have given MONO’s following three releases better reviews each time.

In 2003 MONO finished its next album: One Step More and You Die. The album takes on a much darker tone than its predecessor, perhaps because MONO’s members were still affected by September 11th. Music critics largely see this album as much more matured than Under the Pipal Tree, and of a more unique sound. Touring at this time, however, was not quite so fruitful. MONO made an abbreviated tour following the One Step More’s release with performances in parts of New York and Sweden. The length of the tour and the behavior of some of the American crowds, who Goto said in the McMullan interview were “always talking a lot and drinking beers and making a lot of noise”[2] left the band somewhat unsatisfied.

Undaunted, MONO moved on to a new project, which was one directly in response to the aftermath of September 11th. This album was titled New York Soundtracks and was done in collaboration with several important members of the New York experimental scene such as DJ Olive, Jackie-O Motherfucker, and Loren Connors (a guitarist that Goto has respected for years). New York Soundtracks consists of remixes of all of One Step More and You Die’s tracks. Following Sountracks MONO embarked on the production of their next album, Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined which was released on October 5th, 2004. There is much backstory to this album, especially behind one of its songs A Thousands Paper Cranes. The inspiration comes from Goto’s inner searching about what defines the Japanese as a people. The first thing that came to his mind was the fact that Japan is the only country to have been on the receiving end of an atomic bomb. To help ease the intense feelings still surrounding the event in Japan Goto suggested that the Japanese “should be expressing more hope”[3] and embrace their culture. And “The paper cranes story is a very very typical piece of Japanese culture”[4]. The story to which he refers is formally called Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in which a young girl, Sadako, attempts purge the leukemia from her body by appeasing the gods through folding a thousand folded paper cranes. Following the release of this album, which received even more critical acclaim than the one preceding it, MONO began a lengthy tour which was much more satisfying than the previous one.

MONO’s next solo musical escapade was with their intense, yet optimistic 2006 album You Are There which was released on June 24th. However prior to this critically acclaimed and highly successful album, MONO collaborated with renowned Japanese post-rock band World’s End Girlfriend (the solo project of Katsuhiko Maeda). This collaboration, titled Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain was released in 2005 and was met with rave reviews. Ian Mathers of Stylus Magazine praised the album as “the single most magnificent piece of music” he’d heard all year. Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain makes much use of string instruments such as the violin and the cello but also features an instrument with prominent usage in MONO’s music, the guitar. You Are There met similar success and is seen by many as their most powerful album. Since its release MONO departed on a six month long tour, drawing faithful crowds all over the world to their melodies. Currently the band is gearing up for a North American tour in the upcoming spring of 2007.

The Kidnapper Bell

Yearning

Source: Wikipedia, Mono

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant (also known as TMGE) was a Japanese Garage band of notable popularity in its country of origin. Their music is known for the loud guitars of Abe Futoshi and lead singer Chiba Yusuke’s loud, gravelly yet melodious vocals. The other members of the band were drummer Kuhara Kazuyuki and bass player Ueno Koji. They have cited bands such as Johnny Thunders, The Stooges, Iggy Pop, The Damned, The Clash, The Addicts, The Who and Dr. Feelgood as their influences.

I frankly think they sound a lot like The Ramones.

The band was formed while the band members were students at Tokyo’s Meiji Gakuin University, and their name came from a combination of the name of Billy Childish’s offbeat band Thee Headcoats and a former bassist’s mispronunciation of the name of The Damned’s album, Machine Gun Etiquette.

Their first major label release, Wonder Style, was released in 1995, and produced in London, United Kingdom, by Chris Brown, who previously engineered albums and tracks for Radiohead and Pink Floyd. The band was later spotted by The Brian Jonestown Massacre during a gig in Los Angeles. They were so impressed by the band that they told Alive Records owner Patrick Boissel about them, who then sought them out and signed them to his label. This led to the American release of Gear Blues in 2000, an album which had already proved to be their breakthrough album having sold 4 million copies worldwide.

Around 2002, vocalist Chiba Yusuke and Blankey Jet City bassist Terai Toshiyuki formed ROSSO, which is currently active. The band announced that they would break up on October 11, 2003, after their Last Heaven tour of Japan.

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant frequently used the The Godfather theme song as opening during their shows.

You can go to their English fan page by Troy Johnson

and their VH1 bio for more information about the band.

Here are some of their videos:

Candy House

Thunderbird Hills

Lily

Source: Wikipedia