slunky side

had a very welcome surprise in the mail a few days ago -- a cd-r from my friend yukiko in japan, who runs the mc5 japan website (dig her splash page -- greatness!), of a japanese band called slunky side, who've been together for 15 yrs, have six albums, and whom i'd never heard of until their gtrst nabeji backed mick farren on a 2004 japanese tour. from the stuff on her cd-r, as well as the samples on their label's website and the snippets of vid on their own site, these cats are pert stupendous and i wanna hear more.

nabeji has crafted his sound from disparate materials -- cranked-up surf gtr moves; tribal, primal stooges drone 'n' thump; blooze-drenched rifferama direct from the hendrix-cheer school; in places, orstralia's new christs; and on "a letter to me," even the '67 kinks! -- so that the end result is much more than a hodgepodge of influences, and he has his own lyrical voice, as well (albeit in a language i can't understand); i'll let yukiko 'splain it:

he's one of the best three lyricists in the entire Japanese rock circuit. It's surreal, simple but profound, and most notably, this guy knows how to play with words to the extent of an art! Not knowing how much you understand Japanese, did you realize the seminal song "God" is comprised of a quite interesting word trick?

Kami-sama, Kami, Sakasama
(Kami-sama and Kami both mean "God", Sakasama mean "upside-down".)

Ma-ssakasama Kamisama
(Ma-ssakasama is used to describe "to fall upside-down".)

Also, the sentimental song, "Broken Hope", is a monologue of a teenage girl, which goes:

I hate me most
I hate me most
But I'm the prettiest girl

I believe nothing
I believe nothing
I distort myself
So that I feel nothing
Give me words
Give me you
Won't you fix it for me?
Won't you?
Give it to me right away
Give me everything
Won't you fill me?
Won't you?

I personally know the band and they are sweet guys. The bassist Totoki said he decided to stick with Nabeji because of his lyrics and song writing. I approached Patrick at Alive/Total Energy for a possible release of their album. He instantly admitted this is a great band (and as you know he's not a guy who talks empty compliments) but seems to have judged their commercialability in the U.S. is not big enough.

what else can i say? it's super-stylized, but in a totally organic (not cartoon-like) way; nabeji has the best afro i've ever seen on an asian dude; between these guys, pummeling power trio boris, and folk-bluesman kan mikami, maybe i need to start paying more attention to sounds from the ol' ancestral homeland.