Bleaching Out Kawaii in Okinawa

One of the more creative and definitely the most energetic punk band to come out of Japan lately is an all-female trio from Okinawa that goes by the name Bleach. Well, that’s their name everywhere except North America, where they go by the name Bleach03, thanks to the fact that the name Bleach had already been taken there by a Christian alt-rock band out of Kentucky. For a good time, check out the comments on Amazon for their first English-language release, Three Girls from Okinawa, by “Brother Chad” and “Dogtreat” Coldiron, who apparently saw the title and the cover (left) and still didn’t realize that the disc was not what they expected.

Doesn’t anybody remember CBGB? I weep for the young generation….

Anyway, this particular disc is English-language only in the sense that the liner notes are in English. None of the songs are in English. In fact, it’s hard to tell sometimes what language they’re screaming in. And isn’t that part of the punk aesthetic? Really, a brief listen to this disc and there will be no question that punk is the touchstone for their style. The first cut, “Width of a field of view,” features lead vocals by guitarist Kanna (“blood type A, hobbies: fishing, watching movies”), with the chorus lovingly shrieked by bassist Miya (“blood type B, hobbies: embroidery”). Nevertheless, across the various albums that have come out, they mix into the punk aesthetic shots of dancehall, electronica, a little surf (perhaps as a tip of the hat to punk-pop predecessors Go!Go! 7188), some acid jazz. They even do some gentle ballads. Well, relatively gentle, anyway.

I originally heard of them courtesy of a fellow graduate student, who had seen them at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, Wisconsin, the proprietor of which, Cathy Detmers, periodically books unusual Japanese bands. My friend snagged a copy of Bleach’s eponymous CD and then burned me a copy. Dedicated researcher that I am, I then purchased a copy from Amazon Japan. But in the intervening couple of years, more and more Bleach discs have been released with English liner notes and are available through Amazon US or Amazon UK. Be warned that they are not the same as the Japanese releases, which often have bonus tracks easter-egged at the end of the disc, or in the case of the most recent release, The Head That Controls Both Right and Left Sides Eats Meats and Slobbers Even Today (右も左も支配する頭は今日も肉を食いヨダレを垂らす), an entire DVD with live performances in Okinawan clubs filled with US servicemen. Ahem. The videos are worth seeing–nobody staggers around a stage shrieking like Miwa, trust me. Some of the videos from the Japanese releases (as well as the bands appearances at SXSW and the Knitting Factory) are available on YouTube, so check them out. You’ll never see the stereotype of the kawaii Japanese female the same way ever again, I guarantee it.

Systematicity and Serendipity

From time to time, after I play some offbeat piece of music or show a snippet of some offbeat video in a class, one or more students ask me “How did you hear about that? What’s you secret for finding new stuff?” The secret is simple: Systematicity and Serendipity, the twin cities on either side of the great river of media that girdles the globe.

Systematicity is the easy one: First, you find something you like. Then, you look into everything that touches that thing you like. For example, I discovered the Insist (韻シスト) EP Relax Oneself wandering through a little CD shop in the Hanshin railway station in Ibarakashi, Osaka. For those of you still benightedly ignorant of this group, it is a highly creative Osaka hip-hop band that, until the most recent album, always performed with the backing of a live funk band. Well, according to the liner notes on the EP, the horn line for the funk band backing Insist came from another Osaka institution, a funk band called Osaka Monaurail (named after the classic funk tune “It’s the JB’s Monaurail,” recorded as a side project by the band behind the Godfather of Soul, James Brown). I found their first full album, Rumble’n Struggle, and continued from there. I found my first album by Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her (led by Higurashi Aiha) in the same little shop, an amazing disc titled Future or No Future. Contributing musicians on that album came from the bands Buffalo Daughter and Museum of Plate, and off I went.

This is one reason I really prefer to get a CD instead of downloading tracks if at all possible. I can’t get enough information to feed my habit for new music if I just download tracks.

Serendipity often comes from my colleagues and students, who know I love hearing new stuff and lend it to me, or at least point me in the right direction. A colleague brought me Year of the Tiger by the Korean(-American) hip-hop duo Drunken Tiger as a gift from Seoul; a fellow student introduced be to the Okinawan punk trio Bleach (aka Bleach03) in my final year of graduate school. I discovered the joys of not-really-legally streamed Asian video when a student of mine got me watching the entwined love triangles of the Korean drama Coffee Prince. And of course I am indebted to the colleague who got me watching the Japanese drama Ikebukuro West Gate Park (IWGP), which I am only halfway through even as I write this.

So there you have it. Some stuff I finds, and some stuff I gets. And yes, this will be on the exam.