Turning Japanese-A Capsule History Of J-Pop: 1990-2005

By David Bash

            Yessiree Bob, Japanese pop has come a long way from “Sukiyaki” and Pink Lady.  Over the past 15 years, primarily, there have been a bushel and a peck of wonderful pop bands from The Land Of The Rising Sun.

I’m sure most of you reading this already know about Puffy (along with their association with Andy Sturmer), Shonen Knife, and The Pizzacato Five, so I won’t be writing about those bands.  Also, I’m sure there will be a handful of bands missing from the article, which will make you say “why didn’t Bash include them??”.  Well, that’s why it’s a capsule history, my friend!  No matter, you probably haven’t heard of most of the following, but I’ll wager that you’ll have a yen to spend some yen on many of the bands you’re about to discover.  Sometime in the future, I’ll capture some of the more recent bands that have come onto the scene since 2005, so stay tuned!

So, in alphabetical order, I give you…(where possible, if a band still has an active web site, I have listed it below)

Beagle Hat-No, they’re nothing like the great Swedish band Beagle, but if you’ve yearned for prog-pop sung completely in Japanese, then look no further than these guys as their two CDs are filled with keyboard-laden nuggets not unlike a cross between Pilot and Queen.  Cool stuff! Sadly, the band is no more and their web site has been taken down.

The Flying Elephants-I’ll never forget it: it was in early 1993, and my good friend Steve “Spaz” Schnee, who was working at an Orange County, California CD shop called Digital Ear, told me about this band.  He said “you’ll never believe it, but these Japanese guys sound just like the early Beatles”!  I came down to his shop and saw a copy of the debut Flying Elephants CD, The Confident Eleven.  What a great name, presumably reflecting the confidence they had in the 11 songs on the album.  The cover was great, too: a complete rip of the U.S. A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack LP!  Then, the music: they’ve got two lead vocalists, and it’s amazing: one is a dead ringer for Lennon, and the other a dead ringer for McCartney, complete with just the right vocal nuances, made all the more remarkable when you consider that some these songs are sung partially in English and partially in Japanese.  Yes, that’s right!  The Flying Elephants had three more albums; Second Flight, which aped the later period Beatles, Brick Road, which was more of a hybrid of the two styles, and Live At Carnegie Hall which, as you might have guessed, wasn’t.  I’d love to know what became of these guys.  Did these guys actually take their name from the 1928 silent movie??

It’s Kitchen-Not actually a band, but a great compilation of J-pop (also titled A’s Kitchen on some pressings), featuring some really cool bands doing two songs each, like the very Beatlesque Heart Of Gold, the Oasis-influenced Guitar Fish, and Feather, featuring the lead vocals of Chiaki Icads; you gotta listen to her practically reach aur-gasm on “When I Feel Small.”  There’s also the snappy power pop of Vox Tones (whose tunes apparently resemble “the world of Mother Goose”) and the best band on the comp, The Pinapples, who practically out-Badfinger early Badfinger on “In A Fog”.  Man, if there were only some full-lengths by these bands!

L↔R-Their full name was Lefty In The Right (don’t even think of asking me what that means), and they were pretty popular in Japan, releasing several albums of well-sung (in both Japanese and English, a la The Flying Elephants), well played, and well produced ‘60s and ‘70s inspired pop, and building legions of fans in the process.  One of these was Darian Sahanaja of Wondermints, and the feeling was definitely mutual.  L↔R was led by brothers Kenichi and Hideki Kurosawa, who also released solo albums after the demise of the band.  Kenichi’s debut, appropriately enough, called First, is especially great, sounding not unlike, appropriately enough, a Japanese Wondermints.  www.k-kurosawa.com and http://www.ourhouse-net.com/hideki/

The Neatbeats-A fab foursome who do that early Beatles thang just fine on their CD, Mercurial, which was one of two Neatbeats discs released by none other than Get Hip Records…in mono, yet!  Mercurial is a cool combination of covers like ‘Reelin And Rockin” and “Farmer John”, along with original tunes.  Suffice it to say that if you like the raw Merseybeat of bands like The Kaisers, you’ll like this, too.  www.gethip.com

The Oranges-“Let’s Have Fun!” is the battle cry they used at the International Pop Overthrow festival appearance in Garden Grove, California, and it definitely suits these disciples of The Bay City Rollers and all things early ‘70s glam-pop!  Each of their three CDs are loaded with upbeat, glorious pop tunes that will make you reach for your bell-bottoms and lava lamps!  Plus, one of their members went by the monicker “Pee” which, apparently, isn’t quite as silly in Japan as it is in English speaking countries.  He must have been informed of this fact, as eventually he changed the name to “Pea”.  http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~rabbitrc/

Salt Water Taffy-A cool band with a charming lead vocalist named Iris.  Their sound is an engaging blend of distorted riot grrrl and modern indie-rock.  Check out their track, “Mr. Barbara”, on the Wizzard In Vinyl compilation.

Sunbeams-A purposefully goofy trio whose Ramones-ish, summery pop will put a smile on your face, some bees in your butt, and will get you on the dance floor before you can say “Rockaway Beach”.  www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~sunbeams

The Wizz-These guys with the great band name do very authentic, ‘60s influenced power pop. The cover of their latest CD, The Wizz Sings Mr. Blackman is greatly reminiscent of that of The Who’s My Generation.  Plus, their lead vocalist goes by the name of “Jack”.  I wonder if he’s happy?  http://www.aozora.net/wizz/

 THE K.O.G.A. Records label

All of the great music mentioned above notwithstanding, there can be no doubt that the one label who should rightly wear the title of “King Of Japanese Pop” is K.O.G.A. Records.  Mr. Koga has amazing taste, plucking from obscurity the best pop bands in the area.  Among the finest are:

Chelsea Times-A trio who do pure power pop all the way.  Lead vocalist Hiroyuki bears a bit of a vocal resemblance to Spinning Jennies/Well Wishers leader Jeff Shelton, and the songs on the Chelsea Times disc, Partly Cloudy, Partly Sunny, are somewhat reminiscent of early Spinning Jennies and The Lolas!

The Clicks-A trio of girls whose updated take on those classic ‘60s girl group sounds can be heard on their innocently-titled CD, Magic Of White.  Once you hear it, you’ll want to give these gals a great big hug…or something!

Extension 58-Bouncy pop a la ‘70s Brit bands is the ticket on this band’s debut CD, The Days In Water.  Although the CD is done almost entirely in Japanese, the guys write such good songs you won’t care.  Plus, how cool is it that they do a cover of Pilot’s “Sooner Or Later”?  The answer is “very!”

Fabulous Planes-Among the hardest edged of the K.O.G.A. bands, but without ever sacrificing even an ounce of melody.  The songs on their CD, Little One, range from Mott The Hoople styled rockers to balls out power pop.  Great stuff!

Nudge ‘Em All-To quote Kool Kat’s Ray Gianchetti, “wow!”.  On each of their three full length CDs and several EPs, Nudge ‘Em All sound like The Bay City Rollers as produced by Phil Spector!  Just amazing stuff, with mind-numbing chord changes and just the right combination of guts and goodness!  Where do these bands get these names, anyway??

The Playmates-In my humble opinion, the best Japanese pop band to ever walk the face of the earth!  Absolutely perfect hooks, crunchy guitars, a bounty of harmonies, and killer songs with just the right distillation of influences can be found on all of their CDs, including their latest, Listen!  Their performance at the International Pop Overthrow festival in New York a couple of years ago left everybody slack-jawed!

Prambath-This quartet comes off as a deft combination of Shonen Knife and Puffy on their smokin’ CD, Sweet & Hot!!, and the playful pipes of Chihiro Isadora kinda remind me of Susan West of Sparkle*jets UK!  The only male member of the band is their lead guitarist, dubbed “Captain”.  The fact that he’s the “captain” of a band with three girls does conjure some interesting images!

Ron Ron Clou-The cover of their Second Runner CD says it all: 12 great fast pop tunes!  Indeed, all of them sung in Japanese, and all of them fun, fun, fun!  Plus, whouda thought a Japanese power pop band would have the temerity to cover My Bloody Valentine, but they do!

Samantha’s Favourite-The title of their CD asks the musical question, Whatever Happened To Power Pop, but they answer it themselves with a disc full of “Maximum Power Pop”!  It’s fun, unabashed, and pretty damn catchy!  I’ll never forget the band’s performance at IPO Los Angeles: one of their musical idols, 20/20 main man Ron Flynt, was in the audience, so they yelled for him to come up and join them for a rousing version of “Remember The Lightning”.  After the song was over, they gleefully shouted “Ron Frynt!  Ron Frynt!”.  As a bonus, their drummer, Takashi Ikeda, is a dead ringer for Walter Clevenger & The Dairy Kings drummer Mike Fernanadez…all the way down to the shape of his head!
The Squeaks-This quartet specializes in Ramones-styled pop, which they do really well, but to make things interesting they feature a female singer on some of the tracks!  Talk about your Rock ‘N Roll High School; they actually got some chick!  Not only that, but their CD has one of the best titles you’ll ever hear: This Is Only Rock ‘N’ Roll?  But You’ll Like It!!

Treeberrys-Another great one, similar in style and execution to The Playmates.  Their self-titled CD from 2002 is just wonderful, and the single from it,  “My Girl”, will definitely make you reach for the Kleenex.  They’ve also got another full-length on K.O.G.A., as well as one on the U.S. label 1+2 Records.

All of the CDs by the above K.O.G.A. artists, and many more, can be found at http://www.koga-records.net/

Big “thank yous” must go out to Mr. Koga, Daisuke Kambe of the sadly departed Wizzard-In-Vinyl Records, and all of the great bands who do their part in keeping the spirit of J-Pop alive.

David Bash is a freelance writer, noted long-time power pop enthusiast and the founder and CEO of The International Pop Overthrow Music Festival, which is currently held annually in 16 cities around the world, including Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Dallas, Austin, Boston, New York, Toronto, Vancouver BC, London, and Liverpool UK (at The Cavern Club)