Otoboke Beaver - Don't Light My Fire

I'm not sure how I missed this in 2019 . . . but miss it I did.



That's great, great stuff.

J-Ska? - HEY-SMITH - "Let it Punk"

I was listening to some Hi-Standard and Ken Yokoyama the other day and this popped up in my recommended videos on Youtube:



Japanese ska-punk? How is it that I'm only just now aware of these guys?

Polysics - Lucky Star

Polysics just keeps cementing themselves in my head as "Japanese Speed DEVO meets Art of Noise."



None of that is a bad thing.

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant - Birdman

The same Japanese guy who introduced me to Maximum the Hormone also introduce me to Thee Michelle Gun Elephant.

If you've got 9 minutes, this is a good way to get introduced to them as well:

Polysics - I Me My Mine

This band and this song were introduced to me yesterday by my new friend Eh-chan, who described them as the weirdest Japanese band she knew.

She's not wrong about weird.

She likes punk, especially Rancid and Green Day, so I introduced her to Ken Yokoyama. I featured him on this blog, so what the heck, here is Polysics. I think weird fits. Catchy, though.



Just keep checking out Polysics videos if you want more of the same kind of thing. It's not a one-off oddity from this band. They've got just enough Devo going to suck me in.

Odd Japanese band names

I swear these are real Japanese band names. For every "Blue Hearts" or "Hi-Standard" there are others with names that . . . sound odd in English.

These aren't necessarily bad bands. I really like a lot of Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, for example. But they're still kind of odd names to a native English speaker.

Maximum the Hormone

Bump of Chicken (do they mean goosebumps? Maybe.)

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant

Babymetal

Radwimps

Urufuruzu

At least if you go maximum Japanese, like Arashi or AKB48, you're in the clear. Personal names, too, just naturally work. It just sounds foreign. Or if you go one-word English, like Exile or The Pillows, you're generally okay, too. It's the more creative choices that often sound so, so strange. They aren't names aimed at English-speakers but rather Japanese - but like oddly-chosen words on t-shirts, the English-speaking world still consumes this stuff.

What saves a lot of these bands (and others, with equally odd names) is that they are totally sincere and enthusiastic about the music. They're really into it, and they really want to entertain you. They aren't necessarily rock-and-roll like I like it, but they do try, and that counts for something. A band like Babymetal might not really be metal as much as metal-tinged J-Pop, but it's still music with good intentions behind it.

But yeah, you do get names like "Bump of Chicken." Better than Ezra and the Goo Goo Dolls must high-five each other over their name when they hear that one.