Crazy crazy band

モーモールルギャバン - 裸族

Genre: experimental new-wave, electronic
Song style: crazy and erratic, sorta like Of Montreal

Here is a pretty new band, fresh off the press, with their first major album out today - "クロなら結構です". They have a very fun, crazy sound, though this song is by far one of their crazier ones. For a more normal electronicky one, check out ユキちゃんの遺伝子. As I'm writing this I just realized - here is yet another Kyoto band! Kyoto has really been active these days.

In other news, Asian Kung Fu Generation's new album "マジックディスク" is out today as well, with songs like 迷子犬と雨のビート. Not quite my cup of tea, but a respectable band, so check them out too!

We are here

Brahman & Ego-Wrappin' - We are Here

Genre: alternative
Song style: Brahman's heaviness + Ego Wrappin's jazziness

Wow it's great to see a collaboration like this, and it made it onto the top 30 Oricon charts! This totally came out of nowhere as there is very little information about Ego Wrappin's current events on their wikipedia article. The music video concept works really well for the mix of the two sounds too. This song is exactly how my life feels like right now - weekends working crazy ~16 hour days as a bartender, and then weekdays freely enjoying life and doing research here and there. This is a part of a newly released single, "Sure Shot", which came out the 19th. I look forward to seeing if the other songs are collaborations as well!

I My Me Mine

Polysics - I My Me Mine

Genre: synth-pop, noise rock
Song style: fun craziness!

This is an incredibly popular song that picked up audiences throughout the internet a couple of years ago because of the crazy catchy tune and the little girl's amazing dancing. Have you seen this before? I had glanced upon the video once but was really captured by the song while playing one of those fun music games at a game center with my friends - a game where you have to hit glowing squares along to the song, somewhat The Matrix-style. Despite the crazy song, not having much of a crazy day, just chilling at home postponing the things I really should be working on. I've only briefly taken a look at Polysics's other work, but it looks just as fun!

A followup on the previous post

High and Mighty Color - good bye

Genre: metal
Song style: heavy, with generic male shouting interspersed with female singing.

I have to say, I don't like this song that much. High and Mighty Color is an interesting band that sometimes has interesting ideas, but also often comes out as generic pop-ish metal. The female vocalist changed within the past two years, and this is the first (and I believe only) single that has come out with their new female vocalist. While I feel like I like their older stuff more, I like this gal's image (more streamlined, less cutesy). Anyways, this is the current sound of High and Mighty Color, to follow up on my previous post about their show in Seattle!

Telecastic Fake Show

凛として時雨　(Ling Tosite Sigure / Rin Toshite Shigure) - Telecastic Fake Show

Genre: Post-hardcore
Song style: Heavy guitars with wispy high-pitched female and male vocals.

This is one of those really impression-making songs that never gets old to me (it's been maybe 1 year now?) but I haven't managed to get fully into the band, even after listening to two of their albums ("#4" and "Inspiration is Dead"). If you like this song you may just like them though - it's a very similar sound. I have yet to hear their new album which holds this single (entitled "Just a Moment", came out 5/13/2009) and I look forward to checking it out. Their style is very unique and their sound somehow reminds me of Thursday mixed with The White Stripes. They do a good job of combining the female and male vocalists, and their similar-but-not-quite-the-same voices create an androgynous and surrealistic sound. Many people who like the heavier side of "Japanese Indies" (specifically, 9mm Parabellum Bullet) tend to also like this band.

EDIT (3/4/10): Their newest album "Just a Moment" is a MASTERPIECE. My opinion on this band has skyrocketed. Was a great song to reminisce while at the gym.

Now for a slight change of pace

Maximum the Hormone - ぶっ生き返す

Genre: nu metal
Song style: very heavy, mix of metal, rap, punk elements with male & female vocals

Long long ago, I used to be a big metal fan and so here is some recent crazy Japanese nu-metal to bring a mix to this blog (also was requested by a friend!) I remember going on a long 5-hour road trip along the East Coast (of the US) with my family and being surprised to hear Maximum the Hormone (MTH) come onto the radio after some very tame light-fare pop music. Turns out someone in my family used extra gift card money to buy a random CD and wow were they surprised (hehe)!

I am very impressed with MTH's variety of talents which lets them mix different styles (3 people in the band do vocals!). Tempos and styles often switch within one song, and the quirky lyrics also up the intrigue-factor. I don't recommend this band for deep introversion or those with more melodic upbringings. Unfortunately this band is temporarily out of circuit, with one singer recently undergoing throat surgery (the sad fate of many metal artists...) and the drummer getting pregnant. However, this band has been achieving a lot of success (Their video 爪爪爪 actually won MTV Rock Video of 2009, random!) and hopefully will keep churning along their high-energy stuff.