Special Call And Response event with the focus on bands from Kyushu, in a wild parade of Mentai-Rock, Kabosu-Pop, and Kurobuta-Punk.
Most of the bands on the lineup for this show are either travelling from Kyushu to take part or musicians with roots in the area, with able assistance from some of the hottest sounds from the Tokyo underground scene.
Place: Shinjuku Motion Date: Saturday June 12th Time: 4:00 p.m. Cost: 2000 adv / 2300 door (+ 1 drink)
-Hyacca (百蚊): Gloriously fucked up yet undeniably accessible post-punk band from Fukuoka, with great songs, a wicked sense of humour, and fearsome energy to spare.
-Zibanchinka (地盤沈下): Eccentric garage punk quartet from Kagoshima, with one of the fiercest all-girl front lines in music.
-Bo-Peep: Originally from Fukuoka, Bo-Peep have carved a place for themselves as Tokyo's leading exponents of heavy garage punk, with successful tours all over the US and Europe to back them up.
-Me I Sashimi (ミー愛さしみ): Sharp edged Fukuoka instrumental post-rock trio.
-ruruxu/sinn: Pronounced "lulue-shin", experimental indie popsters ruruxu/sinn are one of the hottest young bands out of Fukuoka now, with last year's excellent album "Picnic" one of the finest Japanese indie debuts in recent memory.
-Puffy Shoes: Representing the Tokyo area, and formed only last year, Puffy Shoes are the perfect collision of chaotic lo-fi scuzz-punk discord and sweeter than honey 1960s girl group melodies.
-FUN☆ANA: Featuring guitarist Yoshida Hajime from Fukuoka/Tokyo experimental Beefheart-punk legends Panicsmile, FUN☆ANA are a psychedelic kaleidoscope of post-punk guitar, vintage 70s Japanese hairy alt-rock, and pure, unreconstructed hard rock.
-Chewz: At the forefront of Tokyo's current new wave of no wave, Chewz are angular post-punk sex at its fizziest, fuzziest and funkiest.
-DJ Hiropo: Originally from Oita Prefecture, formerly of new wave "Nintendo-Punk" outfit Binary Kidd, and currently of new project Dotama Kachi World, DJ Hiropo promises "Humour and pathos comedy DJ". Be afraid...
Looking at the Japanese pop charts nowadays, with the ugly, airbrushed tedium of Avex Trax and the waxy creepiness of Johnny's Jimusho, it might seem hard to believe, but for a brief period in the 1970s Japan was home to some of the greatest pop music ever made. With its roots in the 60s Showa Pop scene, the 1970s was dominated by a succession of brilliant female idols, from the ambiguous charm of the glorious Yamaguchi Momoe to the spicy, saucy, and outright sexy Yamamoto Linda.
It wasn't just solo stars though. Before the embarrassment of their early 80s U.S. TV series, Pink Lady were laying waste to the Japanese pop charts of the late 70s using a combination of eye-mounted laser beams and goofy yet insanely catchy pop music, and for a period of five short years the Candies were releasing a string of the most extraordinary pop singles Japan has ever seen.
Back in those days the ideal size for an all-girl pop group was two or three members rather than the absurd idol inflation that came to characterise the industry from the late 80s when Onyanko Club went through more than 50 members in the space of about two years, and now leaves us in the dizzying position of seeing behemoth clone armies like the slick, horrifying AKB48 with their cold, dead, fishlike eyes battle it out with the forthcoming, and frankly terrifying sounding, HRJK96. Where nowadays you need a degree in advanced life-avoidance to memorise the names of every member of an idol group, back in the 70s everybody in Japan could name Ran (the romantic one), Miki (a little bit boyish) and Sue (slightly sentimental). Not only that, but every member of your family, from baby sister who's just learned to speak to grandma who's rapidly going deaf, could sing along to songs like Haru Ichiban and Shochū Omimai Mōshiagemasu.
The 1970s was a strange time in Japanese postwar cultural history. The excesses of left wing radical group the United Red Army culminating in the 1972 Asama-Sansō Incident marked the end of ideological student radicalism in Japan, and the initial airing of Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979 helped kick off the explosion of otaku culture that in many ways replaced the unifying narrative and lifestyle offered by radical politics with a safer, fictional narrative and associated lifestyle among awkward, alienated youth. Into the hole dividing these two social movements came the explosion of 1970s pop culture, filling the ideological void with superficialities, confections, and, most importantly, Candies.
With a career lasting from 1973 to 1978 the Candies could almost have been designed to ford this particular Rubicon on Japan's journey into postmodernity, and their combination of innocent charm, simple yet affecting lyrics, and sweet, sweet melodies was the perfect antidote to the turmoil of the dying days of the student movement. They were also the product of an era before pop culture became the Balkanised mishmash of subcultures that we have today, all hiding in their niches, eyeing each other suspiciously, communicating only to shout over the Web at the aliens in the cave next door. This was an age where pop music was a uniting cultural force, not a divisive one.
The group released 18 singles including the posthumous Tsubasa, although only the farewell hit Hohoemi Gaeshi reached number one in the charts. Nevertheless, every one of them is a stark naked, face-melting classic. A few highlights of the highlights (and I can't express strongly enough, every song is a highlight):
Debut single Anata ni Muchū (above).
Sono Ki ni Sasenaide (above)
Heart no Ace ga Detekonai complete with extended intro (above).
Through my label, Call And Response Records, I've been gradually over the last couple of months collecting a number of cover versions of Candies songs by Japanese underground musicians for release on a limited edition compilation CD/R. The results have been fascinating, with fourteen songs now in, from technopop to garage rock to avant-garde electronic music to guitar pop to noise, reflecting the fractured musical times we live in, but also joined in a fierce appreciation of the frivolous-yet-unifying power of pure pop.
V/A 「Valentine's Candies」 Call And Response Records (CAR-91)
Valentine's Candies is Fashion Crisis' first ever event at a "proper" live house (one with a PA, a stage and all the gear), as well as functioning as a release party for Call And Response's first new release of the year: an album of Japanese indie and underground bands covering the legendary 1970s idol trio The Candies.
A number of Fashion crisis favourites have contributed songs to the CD, including Yamaco (formerly of Her), Umbrella-X, and Candies' near-namesakes Candles. Fashion Crisis/Switched On's regular Slovenian collaborator N'toko and Call And Response's Ian Martin both feature as members of the band Trinitron.
Other bands contributing songs to the CD include eccentric pop duo cottonioo, Fukuoka's ruruxu/sinn, noise trio Jahiliyyah, experimental something or other snip n` zener, post-punk band Uruseeyo, up and coming girly garage punk duo Puffy Shoes, electronic genius Yamanoi Yuzuru, electro rock band Killer Condors, and more super musical things.
The release event will be this coming Friday, featuring some of the musicians who contributed to the CD and all the regular Fashion Crisis people in a broad celebration of the ordinary girls of The Candies.
It's anniversary time again for C.A.R. with the fourth annual Koenji Pop Festival, as usual featuring a wealth of musical debauchery amid fountains of low quality alcohol. In total there will be ten bands performing, including three from the southern rock and roll Eden that is Kyushu, augmented by a wealth of local talent.
Along with a number of familiar faces like MIR, tacobonds, The Mornings, ruruxu/sinn (pronounced "lulue-shin"), Grouncover. and Zibanchinka (地盤沈下), the event will also feature Fukuoka instrumental trio Me I Sashimi (ミー愛さしみ), the fierce and sexy Hemay (悲鳴), the glam rock/kayoukyoku stylings of Momoiro Ageha (桃色アゲハ), not to mention old co-conspirators Abikyokan, who return to C.A.R. to dazzle you with their science.
Info and artist links below:
Place: Koenji 20000V Date: October 10th 2009 Open: 16:00 Start: 16:20 Cost: 2,000 yen + 1 drink adv. / 2,300 + 1 drink door
Call And Response's live showcase event Telephone Club is taking its yearly trip to Fukuoka tomorrow to continue our association with this amazing punk rock city. Coming with us from Tokyo will be the dark and fragile Mir, and helping us sort things out at the Fukuoka end are the amazing Hyacca (百蚊).
Also on the bill are ruruxu/sinn (pronounced "luluu-shin" for reasons only they are party to), who played at the last Telephone Club at Koenji Roots in March; Chow Chow (蝶丁), a psychedelic/dub band featuring Ruu from Masadayomasa; and Meats, who are apparently a "Vietnamese music band from Fukuoka".
DJs will be my good self and Miyagawa Electric 808, and Game Centers will provide their VJ experience.
Place: Fukuoka Public Space Yojigen Date: July 11th 2009 Open: 18:30 Start: 19:00 Cost: 1,800 yen + 1 drink (500 yen student discount)
Call And Response is a Tokyo-based independent record label and event organiser, specialising in post-punk, new wave and assorted experimental pop trash.
