Have you read the Pitchfork article The Story of Feminist Punk in 33 Songs? If not you should read it now in honor of International Women’s Day, and then watch the songs themselves; you just might learn some interesting things.
OKAMOTO’S formed in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan in 2006, and got their major record label deal in 2010, when they signed with Ariola Records Japan, an affiliate of Sony Music Entertainment. Everybody in the band is a fan of world renowned artist Tarō Okamoto, so when they chose stage names they all went with his last name. Their music is kind of acid garage band, with a lot of energy. The first track is the Google Translate version of their hit Lagoon posted about 4 weeks ago, the second is 2015’s Waratte Waratte, and the third is Sing A Song Together, also from 2015. If they sound familiar it might be because their debut hit single Shout Out Your Desires was the 18th ending theme of Naruto: Shippuden.
There are some new songs from Fukuoka prefecture art-rock band PolkadotStingray (yes, it really is one word run together), the first one here is ELECTRIC PUBLIC posted last Sunday and rapidly approaching half a million view in just 6 days. That is the opening song of their 1st Mini Album Great Justice, which will be released on April 26th. The next track is the mermaid from their first E.P. release last year, Boneless E. P., and I almost put a pretty interesting Google Android commercial they did for an app that would let you search for photos of yourself. The song on that one is great, but I can’t see posting a commercial.
Hello Sleepwalkers has a new mini-album that came out this week, and the first track is the song Sundown from that release. After that is Rollin and New World, also both from the new release. They have another recent mini-album called Unplugged Demos full of acoustic tracks, but I couldn’t find any of them that had permission set to stream in North America.
Tessa Violet gives us her take on gaining skill sets that have a serious learning curve, in this case the Japanese language. The bottom line is recognizing when your performance at a given task isn’t the performance at all, but just the practice you need to graduate to the next learning plateau. After that, a cover of one of the songs by the band she is currently being the warm up act for on her first tour of England.
The wonderful voice of Yūko Suzuhana has been driving the Wagakki Band for years, a band blending traditional Japanese musical instruments and Western rock in ways never heard before. This past November, she finally got her first solo mini-album, Cradle Of Eternity, with a different musical sensibility but that same powerful voice. Here is a taste of each, first the song Cradle Of Eternity from the album of the same name, then the track Strong Fate from the Wagakki Band, and finally the more mellow Wagakki Band track Okinota yu, just posted Tuesday. Enjoy!