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

A four boys’ band caught my attention with the name GLAY, it’s just one letter away from…being happy. Anyway, this band originiates from Hokkaido, the land of awesome creamy seafood noodles. Yumz. GLAY primarily composes songs in the rock and pop genres, but they have also composed songs using elements of different styles such as reggae and gospel. Although virtually unknown outside Asia, they are one of the most successful bands in Japan.

Apparently the name Glay was a deliberate mispelling for Gray….uhm…it’s no different from how trying to be witty can turn out to be either silly, funny or even ridiculous - esp with names :P

“We know it’s not how you spell the color in English, but it’s our way of being different.” - GLAY (Time Magazine, March 9, 1998)

Yes well, R and L are often mispronounced by Asians especially Japanese, Koreans and Chinese who are not english native speakers.

The band was formed in 1988 by TAKURO and TERU. HISASHI joined shortly after, when his band ARI broke up. The band became popular in their hometown. In 1990, when the members gratuated from highschool, they headed down to Tokyo to try and push their career even further.

However, things were difficult in Tokyo. The band performed for very small audiences, sometimes for only one person. They had to work very hard to be able to keep themselves and the band. It was not until JIRO joined the band, in 1992, that things started to change.

In 1993, YOSHIKI watched one of their performances and signed them under his label, EXTASY RECORDS. Since then, they’ve been very successful, doing remarkable events like the GLAY EXPO’s (they’ve done three editions so far), which always gather hundreds of thousands of people, releasing many #1 hits, million selling singles and albums and breaking some records.

I’m sorry, i just have to share that i couldn’t stop laughing reading “Glay Expo” for some reason….ROFL. Just for the record, I have nothing against homosexuals, my very good friend is gay and I LOVE HIM TO BITS. Okay back to GLAY.

Anyway, I thought maybe their videos and songs will amend things that their name commands, here’s some to share:

:)

I have to admit, they’re pretty good and not gay like the cookie cutter boybands/girlbands that America is generating these days. Their music is mostly a cross between alternative and rock - sounds like AFI/POD/Japanese culture all combined…bravo!

Source: Wikipedia

The Lonely Planet guide to Japan recommends in the entertainment section to go out and see some bands based on how silly their names sound. While I never got around to trying that myself, I did start collecting silly band names. Here are some of them:

• Ogre You Asshole - a pop/rock outfit from Nagoya
• Bump of Chicken - rock band from….somewhere
• Analog Fish - an indie group based in Tokyo
• ashphalt frustration - more indie musicians, this time from Chiba
• Chatmonchy - all girl indie group
• Thee Michelle Gun Elephant - now defunct rock band from Chiba
• Yum! Yum! Orange - “Girl pop meets ska”
• Missile Innovation - rock band with former Do As Infinity’s frontman
• Intestine Baalism - thrash and death metal band

There’s oh-so-many more bands I could list here, but I thought I would let you, dear readers, comment with more. Seriously, they must just go through an English dictionary and find some words they like the sound of to get their band names! Anyway, what strange Japanese band names have you heard?

From Wired via BoingBoing:

2,200 goths showed up for a show by the Japanese cosplayer band Dir en grey in LA, despite the fact that the band has never released a CD in the US, sings in Japanese, and has no US airplay. The fans organized elaborate, synchronized stunts via LiveJournal, and sang along phonetically with the words. “Half the songs, I don’t know what I’m saying,” admits Joy, one of the diehards.

Haha, ain’t that the truth. I often just mouth along phonetically with the Japanese music I have. To be honest, I’m not much of a fan of Dir en grey, being too heavy for my tastes. But I do like their Visual Kei dress sense. There’s a lot of kids in Harajuku that cosplay their favourite Visual Kei bands - here’s a wallpaper of two of them that Yves published a while ago.

There’s quite a lot of Japanese bands releasing albums in the States now. No love for Australia! This article was slightly incorrect as Dir en grey (yes, the lower case letters are deliberate) released their first U.S. album in May, about 3 months before the tour.

I’ll have to do an in-depth write-up about Visual Kei and bands like Dir en grey soon!

FUJI ROCK FUJI ROCK FUJI ROCK FUJI ROCK! Sweet googlymoogly YES! I can’t wait for this festival. The Fuji Rock Festival - Japan’s largest outdoor festival - gets in excess of 100,000 attendees and attracts big-name international acts. This year’s lineup include Franz Ferdinand, The Hives, Jet, Mogwai, The Scissor Sisters and this little band you may have heard of, known as Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Sweet googlymoogly YES!

But there’s also plenty of Japanese bands to go with the internationals. I’m looking forward to Asian Kung-Fu Generation, personally.

It’s a three-day weekend festival where you camp (or hotel, if you’re that type) in the forests of Niigata prefecture. Niigata isn’t actually anywhere near Mt Fuji as the name suggests. The festival used to be held near Fuji but was nearly destroyed by a typoon in its first year. Hence, it’s new, permanent home in Niigata. It makes for an excellent weekend out in the Japanese summer, with slight relief from the heat of Tokyo in the last weekend of July.

Now’s the downside…the three day pass is ￥39,800 (about US$400), or ￥16,800 for one of the 10,000 one-day passes sold each day. Add an extra ￥2,500 for camping, and ￥2,000 per day car park. The shinkansen there is another ￥6,000 or so, depending on where you’re travelling from. Then there’s food, souvenirs, alcohol…

It’s an expensive weekend out, for sure. But it’ll be a festival you’ll never forget, either.

Links:
Fuji Rock Festival - official page in English
Wikipedia article on the Fuji Rock Festival

When I first decided I was coming to Japan, I went out to buy myself a copy of the Lonely Planet. In the entertainment section was a funny suggestion: Go to gigs based on how silly the name of the band is. You’ll get some utterly crap music, but you may also get some corkers. I decided I would give it a go.

First strange band name that I came across, and possibly still the winner after 5 months in Japan, was BUMP OF CHICKEN. So, off to the gig I went. And it was rockin’. I’m a big fan of the Asian Kung-Fu Generation and the pillows, so since these guys have the same style (and in fact, BUMP OF CHICKEN did a cover of one of the pillows’ tracks for a tribute album) I had a brilliant time.

The story goes that the four members: Fujiwara Motoh (guitar, lead vocals), Masukawa Hiroaki (guitar), Naoi Yoshifumi (bass) and Masu Hideo (drums) all met in while in kindergarten but reunited properly in junior high school. It was then when Masu supposedly said to Fujiwara “Let’s form a band and change the history of rock”. Oooh.

They have been getting pretty decent coverage and popularity in Japan. Their shows sell out and they had even been chosen to feature in the fourth One Piece movie with their song “Sailing Day”. It seems kinda strange that they didn’t have more songs in anime, given that at least 2 of the members of the band consider themselves otaku.

I haven’t been able to find out why they called themselves BUMP OF CHICKEN though. They must know that their band name is silly, given that quite a few of their songs are purely English, or with parts of English. Oh well.

Somebody was cool enough to put up their videoclips at Google Video, so go check it out.

Links:
BUMP OF CHICKEN official website (mainly Japanese)
Wikipedia’s article on BUMP OF CHICKEN
Google videos

ORANGE RANGE are big. BIG! So big that their name must be capitalised! So big that they’ve filled up stadiums with screaming girls then wowed them with fireworks and drop-down balloons and streamers.

Maybe they are just another boy band that has grabbed the mainstream’s attention for a little while coz they’re young, sport goatees and are from Okinawa.

They’re younger than me and I’m 23. Good grief I feel old.

Anyway, despite possibly just being the Japanese answer to the Backstreet Boys, they won a few brownie points with me. The band was formed in Okinawa and were signed up to Sony Records in 2003 and made it big in 2004 when their song ‘Hana‘ (which means ‘Flower’) was used in the Japanese film “Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu” and went on to sell over 1 million copies.

They also appeared in the Kouhaku Uta Gassen of 2004/2005, which is meant to be a mark of an artist’s success in Japan.

I like them, of course, because of the two songs used as anime themes. ‘Viva Rock’ from NARUTO features a boot camp drill sergeant screaming at the marching boys, which is reminiscent of the American military bases in Okinawa. Some have speculated that the large presence of Americans in Okinawa may have influenced this J-Rock/J-Alternative band.

The other song used for an anime, “*~Asterisk” was the first opening theme song for BLEACH and was the highest selling anime song of 2005.

The current members are:
- Hiroyama Naoto - guitar (born May 8, 1983)
- Miyamori Ryo - low vocals (born October 1, 1985)
- Ganeko Yamato - high vocals (born January 14, 1984)
- Miyamori Yoh - bass (born December 11, 1983)
- Hokama Hiroki - mid-range vocals (born June 29, 1983)

The drummer Kitao Kazuhito left in 2005 after some problems, including tendonitis in his left hand.

Anyway, if you like rocky/alternative/poppy/rappy music crooned by fit, tanned and young Okinawans, then check out ORANGE RANGE.

Links:
Wikipedia’s article on ORANGE RANGE
Japan Zone’s article on ORANGE RANGE
ORANGE RANGE’s Official Website (in Japanese only)

I find it hard to categorise J-Music, based on genres we have in Australia, or the West in general.

Take Asian Kung-Fu Generation, for example. In Australia, you could possibly classify them as mainstream rock, alternative rock or occassionally almost Pop/Rock. So, are they J-Pop or J-Rock? Are they J-Pop/Rock? Does that genre even exist?? J-Alternative?

I think I’m going to stick with J-Rock, because they do actually use real instruments like guitars and not synthesisers and keyboards like your typical J-Pop idol.

Anyway, like most Japanese music I encounter, I first heard Asian Kung-Fu Generation (Ajikan for short) in the theme song to an anime - in this case, Naruto. Their track Haruka Kanata is a great song to scream along to, and although a bit unrelated, seems to fit the mindset of the character Uzumaki Naruto perfectly. It is my favourite of the Naruto theme songs, although there is a lot of great music in that soundtrack, which I’ll cover in another post.

But anyway, onto the meat of the story. Ajikan are 4 strapping young 20-somethings who formed in 1996. They comprise of Yamada Takahiro (bass and vocals), Gotoh Masafumi (vocals and guitar), Kita Kensuke (vocals and guitar), and Ijichi Kiyoshi (drums, and who actually joined the band later in their career). Their own personal tastes in music are definitely in the rock and alternative genres with Weezer, Oasis, Radiohead, Supergrass and even the Pet Shop Boys cited.

The band worked hard to get their fame. They sent out demo tapes to radio stations for free and could only afford to sell their music online at the start of their career. But after the 2002 release of the mini-album Houkai Amplifer, their mainstream success began. During the next year, Haruka Kanata would be licensed for Naruto and English-speaking fans started to become fans. This is slightly ironic because the first album they released back in 2000 had purely English lyrics.

The band built on their popularity by winning many awards and touring with a few summer festivals. They also released another single for an anime, this time the final ending song for Fullmetal Alchemist, titled REWRITE.

These are still early days in the career of Ajikan though. I’m sure more tracks will be released for anime and they might even reach L’arc en Ciel infamy (that is, release a track for just about EVERY ANIME EVER MADE >.< ) although they'll probably do it without the make-up.

Sources and Links:
Wikipedia
An awesome Ajikan English fansite by Izzy