Linus' Blanket at Kuchu Camp (Seoul)

Street outside Kuchu Camp in Seoul.

Plectrum was in Seoul six months ago, so knew what to expect of the Korean audience -- lots of love. For Swinging Popsicle, on the other hand, it was their first time to play in Korea (first time to play outside of Japan, actually). The cheers that greeted them as they walked to the stage and the roar of approval that came after every song must have been a very pleasant shock.

After all, they had never played for a Korean audience before. They probably didn't even know if anyone knew who they were.

Plectrum's and Swinging Popsicle's sets at the Soundholic on Saturday night were excellent. But the best playing by both bands came the next evening, at a little bar called Kuchu Camp on a little street filled with Korean barbecue joints. Kuchu Camp is run by a Korean guy nicknamed Sutekky (Japanese for 'dandy' or 'handsome') who is a J-pop nut who flies to Tokyo several times a year to buy new CDs. As a result of his shopping trips, his bar has an impressive collection of Japanese music. In fact, the name of his bar, Kuchu Camp, comes from a song by his favorite Japanese band, Fishmans.


Instruments and CDs at Kuchu Camp.


Kuchu Camp is a small basement bar. The bands and audience shared this tiny space, boosting camaraderie. Up first was a lovely local band named Linus' Blanket.


Singer Gene and guitarist Minsung of Linus' Blanket.

Linus' Blanket has just released their debut album 'Semester' in Japan, and apparently it has climbed to the top of one of Japan's indies music charts. It's no wonder Linus is popular in Japan: their delicate blend of Swedish pop and bossa nova sounds is the sort of thing Japanese listeners lap up.

'Delicate' is also a good word to describe Linus singer Gene and her singing. She must be the most lady-like pop singer I've ever seen, as if a young heiress of some aristocratic family was magically transported in front of a keyboard in a smoky bar to play a few tunes.

Like Mongoose, Linus ended with a cover song: 'something new' by Swinging Popsicle. It was a beautiful rendition of the song, and set the stage for Swinging Popsicle's set.


Wonyul of Julia Hart, supporting bass for Linus' Blanket.

Swinging Popsicle Live at Kuchu Camp (Seoul)

Mineko of Swinging Popsicle.

I have to confess, Japanese pop band Swinging Popsicle hadn't left much of an impression on me before I saw them in Seoul, even though I owned one of their albums and went to a show of theirs once in Tokyo.

That changed when I saw them perform during their Korea trip. They played two fantastic shows that I won't soon forget.

Singer Mineko Fujishima is the band's star, and the Korean audiences loved her. It isn't hard to see why. She is perkily cute and has an amusing double personality on stage: while performing, she's a soulful singer with a powerful voice, someone who becomes totally absorbed in the music and draws listeners into her world. But as soon as a song is done, she changes to something like a school girl, punching peace signs in the air and smiling broadly.

After each song, before the last note had even sounded, the crowds erupted in cheers and applause. When the band played the tune 'I just wanna kiss you' from their latest album, Transit, the crowd at the Kuchu Camp sang along to the chorus. Bassist Hironobu Hirata said that brought tears to his eyes, because he wrote the lyrics to the song. I understood why he was moved; these were strangers in another country singing along.


Swinging Popsicle at the Kuchu Camp.

The Korean audiences' ecstatic response to their music must have come as a happy surprise for Swinging Popsicle. Back in Tokyo, they play to fans who are much more reserved. Japanese rock music fans are like classical music fans sometimes. They may wait until the last note of a song has faded away, and even then might not move, waiting until the singer thanks the crowd to start clapping and cheering.

Not so for the Koreans: if they love a piece of music, they will let the musicians know, whatever point in the song the band is at. The Japanese musicians are flattered and energized by this.

For the Japanese crowds, I think group psychology is at work. No one wants to be the nail that sticks out of the board, because that nail will get whacked by a hammer, as a local saying goes -- the Japanese make a big effort to avoid sticking out in the crowd. That may be the reason why they try not to clap prematurely even at the conclusion of a rock song.

(I love Japan, but still, nothing is perfect, and the truth is that many Japanese are quite uptight in peculiar ways. I once got into an argument with a Japanese guy because he was unhappy that my friends were TALKING during a PUNK ROCK SHOW.)

I don't know enough about Korean people to explain the roots of their passion. But, and being aware that this may be a misguided cultural cliche, I do wonder whether food is a factor. Does not their fiery cuisine of hot peppers and garlic heat up their hearts? By contrast, the Japanese eat stuff like tofu and raw fish. Delicious too, true, but maybe not the most efficient fuel for passion?

Plectrum Live at Kuchu Camp (Seoul)

Plectrum (Naoki Kishihara, aka Kicchon, on right).

"That might have been the hottest show I've ever played," said Akira Fujita, Plectrum's lead guitarist after their Sunday show at Seoul's Kuchu Camp. Hot both in terms of temperature and the audience's excitement level.

The Korean crowd at the show was the sort of audience rock musicians dream of. They were already warmed up and fully prepared to party after Swinging Popsicle's great set. When Plectrum, the night's third and final act, got up to play, the roar of the crowd felt more like what you'd hear when a big-name artist appears on a stadium stage than an indies band starting a set at a basement bar.


Akira Fujita and Taisuke Takata.

Plectrum did about eleven songs, but it's a blur.

The Japanese band played at their joyous best, and the crowd answered by shouting their approval after every song, solo, stage antic and comments in Korean by Plectrum members. Members of Linus' Blanket and other bands danced next to the bar.


The crowd at the Kuchu Camp.

So that everyone could see the band, the audience in front sat on the floor for the first half of the show. But when singer Taisuke Takata urged the audience to dance to their song 'Uptown Girl', the crowd got to their feet and never sat down again.

At one point the sound system broke down. Takata went on singing and moved forward from the mike into the audience and sang with them. The sound guy soon found out what the problem was, got the sound back up and gave the OK sign, and at the exact moment the guitar and bass came back to life with their amplified noise again, Takata jumped back to the mike to sing. It was an electric moment, in both senses of the word. The crowd went wild.


Mikiya Tatsui, Plectrum's drummer.

Spectrum Live at Kuchu Camp (Seoul)

The Grande Finale - a Beatles Cover.

For the grand finale, Plectrum, Swinging Popsicle and Linus' Blanket played a Beatles cover together.


The show's over.

I see a lot of strange and funny thing going to rock shows, but what I witnessed at the end of the Kuchu Camp show must be one of the funnier and stranger things I've ever seen.

Their name was Spectrum.


Spectrum!!!

Composed of Kuchu Camp owner Sutekky, a female drummer and a guitar and a bass, they were a cover band of Plectrum. Hence, 'Spectrum'.

Only six months ago, there was probably only a handful of Koreans who knew about Plectrum. Now there was a bar full of admiring fans, and a COPY BAND.

Spectrum played one Plectrum song. Their performance was pretty rough, but full of spirit. Sutekky threw the mike stand down to the floor the second he started singing. And he sang the entire song in Japanese. It was wonderful to watch. The members of Plectrum loved it.

***

So ended Plectrum's and Swinging Popsicle's Seoul shows. But the night wasn't quite over yet. There was still the uchiage, the party that all Japanese bands throw to celebrate the success of shows, where booze flows freely. That night it was beer and soju over Korean barbecue.


Uchiage, the post-show party.

Clisms at Shinjuku Marz

Clisms at Shinjuku Marz

Clisms electrified the Shinjuku Marz tonight. They converted me. My second time seeing them, this time at this rock club in western Tokyo, I've officially become a fan of the rock quintet (whose name is properly pronounced Chlistmas).

There are many radical things about this band. Let's start with the drums: they have two drum sets, one drummer facing the other. They make a ruckus, but a very musical ruckus. The two pound the drums so hard you can feel air hit your body like shock waves from artillery fire.

Then there's the music. If the Clisms were a college course, Post-Punk 101 would be a prerequisite. It's not required that you take Modern Jazz 10 and 20th C. Avant Garde Music 101 beforehand, but it's highly recommended in order to get the most out of the lectures. This is like fusion-era Miles Davis meets Captain Beefheart meets Spinal Tap Mark II.


But don't let me get carried away. This is just great rock 'n' roll, and anyone with ears should enjoy the Clisms.

The band is also a lot of fun to watch on stage. They're all clad in white cardigans. There are the two drummers, of course, who bang away like tomorrow won't arrive. There's the keyboardist, playing with an unperturbed expression in the midst of sonic chaos, as if he's walking down the street to the corner shop. The guitar and bass are long-haired hipsters, but the bass talks with a disarmingly soft and gentle voice.

If you ever have a chance -- have yourself a merry Clism.

Vasallo Crab 75 at Shinjuku Marz

Vasallo Crab 75

Vasallo Crab 75, playing at the rock club Shinjuku Marz in western Tokyo, was great as always, though it wasn't the best performance I'd seen of this quintet. I didn't feel sucked into their music like I have in the past.

Maybe I'm still reeling from the shock of Orange Plankton's last show, making me unable to dig other bands as much. (Orange Plankton's show was incredible. A bunch of new fans have written in their home page to say how the show moved them.)

But I did figure out one thing tonight -- why Vasallo Crab always hangs a disco ball in front of one of the amps. They do that because it looks cool when a spot light hits the disco ball, rays radiating outwards like a sea urchin of light.

When singer Daisuke Kudo stood in front of the lit disco ball, the lights looked like they were coming out of his back. He was like one of those Buddhist sculptures with a thousand arms.

***

Because Vasallo Crab 75 is a bands' band, their shows attract a lot of local musicians.

In the audience tonight: girl members of Lost in Found, and a guy from Swinging Popsicle. Both are Tokyo indies guitar pop bands.



Vasallo Crab 75

G-ampere at Shinjuku Marz

G-ampere

G-ampere (pronounced, ahem, 'guitar ampere') was another Tokyo rock band playing tonight with Clisms and Vasallo Crab 75 at the Shinjuku Marz. The thing that stood out about this group was its drummer, who was the most out-of-control, tornado-like, hyperactive drummer I'd ever seen. She attacked the drums like it was a form of Scream Therapy.

***

It was my first time to go to Shinjuku Marz, which is on the same street as the Loft and ACB Hall, and inside Kabukichou, the adult entertainment capital of the world. If you're a guy, unless you choose your route to the club carefully you will quickly become the target of touts.

The Marz is a nice, new club, however. It has an amazing light system for a club of its small size (maximum capacity is probably a couple of hundred people), the stage lights shooting around the hall in vivid colors. And the staffers are actually friendly. Unlike some of the older clubs, where the employees are apathetic or worse when you try to make money for their establishments by buying tickets or booze.

Orange Plankton's 4th Album

Orange Plankton's 4th Album, Wakusei Note

The two girls and two guys that make up the Tokyo pop band Orange Plankton are in the midst of a tour of small Japanese rock clubs to promote their new album, Wakusei Note.

Their fourth album, Wakusei Note is a dazzling work (the album title translates to something like, 'Notes from the Planet'). It is my favorite new Japanese pop music album so far this year. It's dominated my home stereo and iPod for the last couple of weeks.


Yumi and Yuki of Orange Plankton.

Orange Plankton's distinct sound is created from the classically-trained piano playing of Yuki, and Yumi's singing. Yumi doesn't have a naturally powerful voice. As with some female Japanese singers she sounds almost like a child at times. But she does wonderful things with that voice; she can express so much with a whisper.

That singing is on full display in Wakusei Note. At first listen the album may sound laid-back, but dig deeper and it overflows with rich emotions.

Its main themes are the big world that surrounds the musicians, their longing to see more of it, and the emotions that come and go as they plan their grand travels.

"How many times can we circle the earth/Meeting a friend of a friend of a friend," Yumi asks in the song "Weather and Music".

Or, "Wave your hands big/With the image of going over the ocean's waves in the horizon", she sings in another tune.

And, "The shape of the world I created in my head/It wasn't under a faraway sky/No, it was made of things that are always near me", another song says.

Singer Yumi writes almost all the lyrics, and they are shining pieces of Japanese poetry. Like in the ethereal final song of the album, 'Mebuki' (meaning 'a new shoot' -- all these translations are mine), in which she sings: "From a fallen tree, a new shoot sprouts/Somewhere again in a life that repeats itself".

***

I talked before about how this album was made. They recorded most of it in a small apartment during a hot Tokyo summer. They turned off the air conditioner while recording, to keep out of the tracks the noise of the machine. That they were able to create an album that is this beautiful, inspired, varied, this plain FUN to listen to, feels miraculous.

***

I love this album and want it to be listened to widely, but as things stand it's not available on Amazon Japan or anywhere but the biggest record stores in Japan. If you, however, read this and become interested in the album, please write to me and I'll try to arrange something. (And you can hear some samples of their past tracks by following the link from this post, though it's impossible to get any real sense of Orangle Plankton's music from those thirty-second snippets of songs.)

"Weather and Music"

'Wakusei Note' Album Progress Chart (click to enlarge)

In an earlier post I mentioned that I played a minor role in the making of Orange Plankton's fourth album, Wakusei Note. Now that the album is out in stores, it's time to reveal my exact role: I translated the band's first-ever English song, called "Weather and Music".

The mini-project came up because one night I chatted with the band members, and in one of those random things that come up in small talk, I described a guitar shop in Santa Monica, California called McCabe's.

That conversational topic somehow got the gears of singer Yumi's musical creativity going. She said it made her think about how in distant countries, people lead lives much like hers, with music a constant presence. That thought eventually grew into an idea that became a song.

I also said to her that at some point Orange Plankton should do a song in English so people abroad could understand the words, and offered to do any needed translation.

In a few weeks' time, she took up my offer. Yumi sent the lyrics in Japanese to me by mobile phone e-mail. It was a nice song about her dream that music be everywhere there are people and weather, and her belief that by connecting the friends that you meet through music, you can circle the world. I translated the song into English and also helped her with the pronunciation of the words. (A semi-amusing aside: I found out that Orange Plankton's working title for this song was my family name.)

It's the eighth song of the album Wakusei Note. I was thrilled to participate in an Orange Plankton project to begin with. I was even more excited to find out, finally listening to the entire album, that I had provided the words in English to a song in an album that is really, honestly, great. An album that I will be listening to many times in my life.

Yumi's Rock 'n' Roll Scream (Orange Plankton)

Yumi of Orange Plankton.

A feeling of being on mild narcotics after Orange Plankton's show last night. Warmth. Happiness. Satisfaction.

It was one of the best Tokyo rock shows I've been to this year, and I've been to dozens. The show was to celebrate the release of their fourth album, Wakusei Note.

Orange Plankton's piano-bass-drums ensemble playing was tight and joyful as usual. But what stood out was singer Yumi's performance.

Ever in motion, she hopped to ring bells tied around a wrist and an ankle, crouched to make her tiny frame even smaller, then, energized by the music, burst out her limbs. All the while singing with unrestrained passion.


Orange Plankton at Deseo.

At the end of the show, looking up and facing away from the audience, she let out a scream.

A rock 'n' roll scream, like Janis Joplin's.

She said the most important things for Orange Plankton are things that can't be seen. Last night, something unseen was moving her.

They play pop music that is gorgeous and relaxing, but at live shows the rawness of rock 'n' roll comes out. It's invigorating.


Yuki of Orange Plankton.

Rock 'n' Rollers in Kimono

246 live at Deseo, in a yukata.

I was at the Tokyo rock club Shibuya Deseo tonight to see Orange Plankton's show, which blew me away. Before I get into that, here are photos of a cool female pop duo that was playing before them, called 246. Both members are wearing light summer kimono called yukata.

The kimono has been making a comeback in Japan among young people , but even so, you don't usually see girls rockers with guitars wearing it on stage. 246 said this was the last show they will play this summer, and they wanted at least one chance to put on yukata before the end of the season. The yukata is something Japanese girls wear in the hot months to show off a bit, just as an American girl might show off her prom dress. It combines dazzling colors with the solemnity of tradition.

246, made up of the two female musicians, is named after national road 246 which runs west from Shibuya. The last time I saw these two, they said that as soon as they learned a couple of chords on their guitars they started to play outdoors along road 246. That was how they came to be called 246.



246 at the Deseo.

They are a nice, retro duo, playing acoustic guitars, wearing yukata and singing folky songs including one that uses baseball as a metaphor for life. One of the girls turned out to be a receptionist at the gym that my friend Jonathan goes to. Chatting to her I soon found out these gals are very friendly and down to earth. As most pop musicians in Japan are.


246 at Shibuya Deseo.