5 posts tagged “go!go!7188”

GO!GO!7188 is one of my favorite Japanese bands these days, and for a number of reasons: the depth and complexity they manage to bring to a band that, I must often remind myself, is a three-piece rock set; the fusion of unmistakable surf-rock, traditional Japanese scales and enka/kayokyoku; their often quirky, coquettish lyrics; the clear influence of Shiina Ringo on lead singer Yuu's own vocal talent. Yes, there are plenty of reasons to like this band, but "subdued introversion" is not something that would've been on my list... until now.

In other words, "569" is a lot of rock, but peppered with just a tiny bit more introspective quiet than one might expect.  Take track 5, "Sekai no shasou" (世界の車窓 - "The world's car window."), where a chorus of soaring guitar and harmonies turns this jaunty 6/8 number into a clear blue sky. Or track 6, "Nemuri no asase" (眠りの浅瀬 - "Shoals of Sleep"), which, despite being a rock song, carries you on its subtle harmonies and blend of surf rock, spatial vocal delay, and pentatonic chorus -  this one's my favorite track, and reminds me of some of EGO-WRAPPIN'S more space-oriented stuff.

This album takes a little getting used to - you won't necessarily fall for it at first listen - but it definitely joins the pantheon of excellent GO!GO! fare. Now, in my opinion, of the band's five previous full-length albums (Ryozetsuran, Dasoku Houkou, Gyotaku, Tategami, and PARADE - not counting the cover album "Tora no Ana"), only "Ryozetsuran" has stood out as anything less than perfectly crafted. But all the same, 569 still takes a different sort of direction; still great rock, but at times, a little softer, a little more private.

And, at other times, it's the same ol' schtick: sassy, sophisticated, yet simple rock by two tiny, cute Japanese girls and their rad-dude drummer. And it makes sense that the album title, "569" is a cheap Japanese pun that is read "ごろっく", or "GO ROCK!" And the rock songs get a little dirtier; Track 2, "Nounai Travel" (脳内トラベル - "Travel within the brain") is plain-up dirty-sounding ska, track 4 "Sannin no Boogeyman" (３人のブギーマン - "3-person boogeyman") is a two-step number remnant of Shiina Ringo's "meisai," and track 7, "Rock Star ni natta nara" is tongue-in-cheek groove with an absolutely amazing chorus/refrain. But it's track 8, "Chain" (チェーン) where this album really stands out, owning us all with a fuzzy bass-driven groove in 11 (and, for the record, it's not the pretentious kind of polymeter, either - there's no sonic jam-band masturbation gracing this track, I assure you). And all that's ignoring the awesome that is the album's two flagship songs from their summer single - "Manatsu no Dance Hall" (真夏のダンスホール) and "I'm Lucky Girl" (アイムラッキーガール), which are both completely excellent - the former, a sweet surf-rock number and the latter, a schizophrenic, quirky upbeat rock.

All in all, this is a great album from a great band. I'd put up a few songs for your sampling pleasure, but Vox is keeping me from doing so.

-Tommy

The Japan Nite concert turned out to be so much more than just GO!GO!7188, and was so amazingly awesome. Six bands in one night is a painfully long process, yet EVERY BAND was good. Here's the rundown:

First of all, the crowd was hella refreshing - there weren't any loser otaku there, as the tickets had sold out and there were tons of Japanese kids attending. I had shabu-shabu beforehand withskademonx and fabulous_papaya which was quite awesome, then met David and Jesse at the concert.

1. Asakusa Jinta

Great band, or greatest band? I checked this band out a week or two ago since they were opening the show. When I heard their music, I knew it was one of those rare concerts where you need to get there when doors open. 30s-style revival with a brass and upright-bass twist and a ravenous pack of badasses. And a friggin' ACCORDION, which I so love. I bought a CD, had all of them sign it (and they were all out there), and four bands later, I struck up a conversation with the accordion player (we both have the same brand of accordion). By the end of the night she and I had exchanged emails, which was pretty sweet. She was also delighted and surprised when I said I liked their sound a lot better than the finishing band, HY. No joke there, either - they have a sweet blend of old and new, good musicians, and amazing energy. Best discovery of the week I think!

2. 50 Kaitenz

This was a fun and dandy set from the Kansai area. But I was totally busy pigging out on merch and, though they were great, I didn't pay too much attention to them, since I was chatting up Oreskaband and Asakusa Jinta. So all I can say is that they were simple and enjoyable, and very talented and energetic. And they dressed like talented, foppish dandies.

3. Oreskaband

I expected them to be great, but they were even more amazing than I'd anticipated. Opening with album order was a nice touch, as the energy between Pantime, Hana no Ska Dance, and Pinocchio kept the crowd really hyped. After that they did Almond and a few other tracks, all totally cute and awesome. The leader of the band, on trombone, was really cute and genuine in that teenage girl kind of way. She was trying to explain her feelings to us, but her English couldn't really cover it, and she started to tear up as she said "You... Los Angeles, you... love music. We, Osaka, also love music." And she was crying, out of trying to convey that concept of universal language and the depth of the thought, and the overwhelming nature of playing to a huge crowd in Los Angeles, and kids being rowdy and moshing and crowding the stage to their songs. (Seriously, WTF, guys, it's ORESKABAND. You mosh to cute ska-pop sung by high school girls?) Also, their T-shirts absolutely rock. I got to talk to the drummer and trumpet player, and talked quite a lot to their merchandise person too. Ska caught their wristband, which is totally amazingly sweet (has their logo and says "ORESKABAND"), when thrown into the crowd.

4. GO!GO!7188

I could write a lot about how much their set rocked, and it absolutely did, but the lowlight of the evening was being manhandled and beaten by the crowd. Seriously moshing and shit. Half the people there were only there for GO!GO! and the other half were just there for HY. The band actually got really pissed off and told people to not rush the stage, but that didn't stop them. They opened with Jet Ninjin, closed with Bungu (which psyched me out nicely), and also played Ukifune, Otona no Kusuri, and a few others. Pretty awesome, and they were really nice. The guitarist is a bit more reserved in person, but the bassist is super-friendly and chill, and the drummer really seemed to have a thing for fabulous_papaya (then again, who doesn't?) - we ran into him on the street after the show on our Famima!! jaunt and HE asked to take a picture with US. Yeah. He dug the blond girl all right. ;) In keeping with his grand tradition, Ska caught GO!GO!'s fucking CUSTOM TOWEL that was thrown into the crowd.

5. Pistol Valve

Although their tech was kinda badly mixed and I could not adequately hear their layers, I still enjoyed Pistol Valve's set. They are a 10-girl brass-and-DJing-samples band from Tokyo. They were in the worst position of the night, following Oreskaband and GO!GO!7188 but before HY (the other big draw), so the energy they had to contend with was really weird. Lots of people sitting with arms crossed and them begging everyone to dance. They are totally badass, with fashion sense, good music, and fun songs; they were almost a cross between Oreskaband and Polysics. Unfortunately the mix wasn't great, as I've said, so their set came out a little garbled and distorted. However, I still dug it, and dug even more the CD and DVD recordings. Now, Ska, Nat and I had done our homework and tried to research each band (with moderate success). I always like to know what I'm listing to so I can enjoy the concert a little more, after all. With Pistol Valve, all we were able to find was Fo-Fo, which, as the lead singer explained to me, is a .44 caliber, and, I greatly suspect, a metaphor for cock in this totally irreverent song. So, because we'd done our homework, we were totally ready to yell "FO FO FO FO" along with the lead - just Ska and I - in her call-and-response game. Afterwards I made it a goal to get all their autographs, but only managed five. However, they were milling about and hanging out in the crowd - so was just about every band except Oreskaband.

6. HY

HY is a band from Okinawa. This was maybe the most famous and popular Japanese band at the show, and I couldn't really have cared less. Their music is really sweet and kinda bland, and while there's nothing wrong with it, there's also nothing unique or special that really catches me. They are innately good musicians and there's nothing wrong with them, but they have a certain poppy kind of Jrock simplicity that reminded me of L'arc~en~ciel and other bands I hate. However, I stand by assertion that their keyboard player is awesome and has a great voice. The HY concert was a great opportunity to hang out with members of the other bands in the back of the room, and in fact was when I got my chance to have a relatively long, involved, and cool conversation with Hiro from Asakusa Jinta.

Long story short, all six bands rocked, but four of them were so amazingly good I would go out of my way to see them in concert separately. I came for GO!GO!, but they weren't even the biggest highlight of my evening, and that's always a great surprise.

Now, swag: I bought the following merch:

- Pistol Valve DVD
- GO!GO!7188 T-shirt & sticker
- Oreskaband T-Shirt (in a neat custom Oreskaband plastic bag)
- Oreskaband mints with a case (nice promotion)
- Asakusa Jinta CD

...and got the following autographs (never leave home without a Sharpie):

Asakusa Jinta: Whole band
Pistol Valve: 5 of them (including the super awesome lead and DJ), amounting to half. sorry, other half! :(
GO!GO!7188: Whole band
Oreskaband: Saki (the trumpet player) and Tae (the drummer)

Great concert over with, it's time to get up early tomorrow and visit a cottage in Echo Park. The only downside about going to concerts like this is that you don't have them to look forward to anymore after they've passed.

-Tommy

Go!Go! will be performing a live show in LA on 3/18/07 - here's the Go!Go! Tour Flyer. That's two weeks from Sunday!

Ore Ska Band (as well as like 4 other Japanese bands) will be opening for them. In case anyone is interested (also, in case anyone reads this journal) I'm putting up a sample from each band:

Fat-na kare

First up on the block is "Fatな彼" from GO!GO!'s 2006 album "Parade." The lyrics to this song are great. Especially the breakdown that sings about the fat guy having hamburgers in each hand.

Hana No Ska Dance

Ska and I are totally loving this song right now.

Bungu

GO!GO!7188

What do you get when you have an unusual thirst for light, happy driving fare? 12 years of light jrock, it seems. In a world and genre where it's easy to be inane and uninspired, how do you stand out with simple and fun? Answer: You borrow heavily from the pillows, probably.

...and now you think this post is going to be about the pillows, the prolific band I've finally given in and owned up to liking. You probably think it'll include some bitching about how a band that's been around for 15 years is known in the states solely for the FLCL soundtrack, or how their new and/or old albums are great, and you probably think I'm going to post a sample.

Your expectations are wrong, although I do recommend checking out their albums (especially "My Foot"). For today's sampling of music, we need to head back in time to the years 1997-2000. It was a different time musically in Japan; Shibuya-kei was in full bloom, with Pizzicato Five and Fantastic Plastic Machine peaking (though their later offerings were nothing to scoff at). Konami discovered a hit with Bemani games. The dance and rave scenes were at their peak in North America. In 1999, a younger Shiina Ringo released her second album. the pillows also released approximately 450 albums in this period, notable too because the three albums released in this period were raided for songs to use in FLCL, which would introduce the band to the US. Another strange new band called POLYSICS was re-exploring punk and nu-wave.

It's perhaps a bit understandable, with all these tiny fragments, that our Bands of Mention for today started out in such a climate. First up is GO!GO!7188 (go-go-nana-ichi-hachi-hachi), who come to me by way of Ska's apt introduction. Started in 1998 while fresh out of high school, their vocal stylings are a welcome discovery for anyone who loves early Shiina Ringo, but they don't end there. Their influences range from surf-rock to enka and I definitely suspect SR as well.

An early single from 2000, "Jet Ninjin" is a good example of everything stylistically the band does. James Bond, Shiina Ringo, traditional Japanese music, and the Beach Boys seem to come together in this song:

Jet Ninjin

GO!GO!7188

Now take GO!GO!, the pillows, and throw in a bit of POLYSICS for good measure, and you have the next band on the sampling block: Guitar Vader. You might know Guitar Vader if you own a Dreamcast; if you heard some catchy rock songs paired with nonsensical English lyrics while playing Jet Set Radio, you've heard them. Their tracks "Super Brothers" and "Magical Girl" graced the original Dreamcast version, while "I Love Love You" and "Baby-T" were featured in the X-Box's 2001 sequel Jet Set Radio: Future. (For the love of god, Sega, make a JSR sequel for the Wii!)

Now, you might say "Sure, Tommy, this band's music is great when it comes to grinding along the side of radio towers and spraypainting cops' faces, but why should I listen to it?" Paradoxically, you might absolutely hate this band if you had to listen to "Super Brothers" 50 times in a row on a stage you just couldn't pass. But if you display a little patience you'll find that some true gems lurk in their albums - catchy hooks, rockin' guitar, and awesome grooves. Their sound is deceptively diverse; some of thier songs have a POLYSICS feel (like the un-remixed version of I Love Love You, which also samples Yoko Kanno's SANTI-U), but tracks like "Heavy Metal Collector" and "The Time Slips Away" - a simple, clean rock track, are evocative of the pillows.

For your listening pleasure, I offer a track from their 2001 album, "From Dusk" - which is a bitch of an album to find. This track is called "Cutting Evil Smile," and it is a great sample blend of GV's penchant for simple verses, catchy hooks, and fun grooves - not to mention their signature male/female vocal doublings - a tactic Pizzicato Five was exploring in the same period, too. (Worth noting is that GV's music was chosen for JSR - a game set in and centered around Shibuya and its culture. Changing of the guard?) So, enjoy Cutting Evil Smile:

Cutting Evil Smile

Guitar Vader

Until next time, enjoy!