Blake Foster
Independent Study Contract, Winter Quarter
March 31 2011
Special Interest: Original Music in the Kobe/Osaka Area
Starting from a concert I saw in late December with a Japanese duo called “Lenny Finger”, I knew that there was a number of extremely talented artists in Japan that were still not on major labels or did not have a major pop presence. “Lenny Finger” came amidst a group of average punk bands and other duo sets that played acoustic ballads, and they immediately stood out, so much to the point that the audience nearly mocked them by hollering out during their set in obnoxious cheers, prompting the guitarist of the two to scream in Japanese something along the lines of “Shut the f**k up, we're trying to be serious here!!!” The style of the duo was very jazzy, with one guitarist and a female vocalist who sang in a retro jazz style. The guitarist played acoustic guitar in a complex finger-picking style that created a layered and atmospheric effect with just one guitar. Following the end of the set I immediately went to purchase a CD from them, which was published through an independent label. Lenny Finger broke up as a duo in early March with each of the two members pursuing separate musical endeavors. The fact that I was able to see them live once and purchase a CD of their music during their relatively short period of activity made it clear that many independent artists in Japan are short-lived in spite of the quality and vibrance of their work. Throughout the Winter quarter I made an effort, whenever possible, to seek out independent original artists in Japan. This topic would expand to jam session artists who, while not making focused song-writing efforts, would perform originally through jam sessions. Through the friends and acquaintances I was fortunate enough to make through the Folk Song Club, the bar Galop, the Jam Jam Cafe, among other places, I had plenty of opportunities to see original and creative music in Japan.
The most common slew of musicians in Kobe appeared in the Sannomiya area, playing every night around the train stations. Because all of them play the same kind of music (one or two acoustic guitars, vocals), it becomes difficult to differentiate between them. A lot older and more authentic musicians I had me in Japan complain about them in that they all try to write songs in the vein of major Japanese artists such as Yuzu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzu_(band)) and Kobukuro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobukuro) and rarely deviate from the mold. Most artists that get signed, too, have a similar style, which makes it obvious that street performers are looking to attract major labels into potentially signing them. At the start of my exchange I would pay attention to some of them, such as two female keyboardists that were sharing the same keyboard in an impromptu live performance outside of the train station who were doing something slightly different, but the problem would be they would sell their songs in CD form, often over-priced and shoddily recorded (such was the case with the keyboardists). While some acts that played around Sannomiya in Kobe would be more original, for the most part it would be the same old thing, and so they started to fade into the background. Aside from the artists who were trying to attract attention from potential record company members, some would simply play for the sake of playing, most commonly performing instrumentals without lyrics and focusing on the skills of the players. These performers would often attract listeners with more complex use of guitar effects-pedals, such as one performer in Akashi who used a chorus effect on a vocal microphone to change the tone of his vocals (nearby was a much less interesting artist selling his CDs and DVDs, likely created through an independent label). Since even independent records labels in Japan are usually formulaic (similar to the United States), and the artists that usually perform are performing music to attract formulaic labels, it can be hard to know where to look for originality in independent artists.
Earlier in my year in Japan I had experienced independent Japanese music mainly through a member of the Folk Song Club who played in three different hardcore/metal/punk bands, titled “Toylet”, “Vaginers” and “Anal Seed” respectively. The latter of the three was a band that played at the event with Lenny Finger in late December, with the lead (male) singer coming out completely naked and jumping around stage doing Michael Jackson impressions while singing. He also took time to throw veiled insults at the other acts performing that night during the emcee sections. Other similar bands that the aforementioned Folk Song member plays in are similarly outlandish in their performance styles, but with a degree of talent that brings the music above childish stupidity. The bands also play for beneficial causes, like fighting diseases in the third world (“Toylet” had their slogan for this cause as, in English, “Keep toylets clean!”) and other charitable activities. The more hardcore events are deafening to the ears but still maintain a quality and openness, with an event that featured as a headlining act a Chinese hardcore punk group that was touring overseas. The other interesting aspect of these shows is that Japanese people who do not take on appearances and styles related to music genres come to these events, eliminating the exclusivity and snobbishness that can be found in hardcore or punk venues in the United States. These events proved to be consistently educational into how Japanese people enjoy certain types of music and maintain their cultural and social traits even while behaving in socially inappropriate ways. Within the events and live house venues, these behaviors are not seen so much as offensive as people are free to enjoy themselves and the music without worrying about how others see them.
Around January 18th a friend of mine and a partner in music came to Japan for two weeks, and within that time we were able to play our original music at the Jam Jam Cafe. We assembled three other Japanese players, two from the Folk Song Club- my good friend Katsura, actually a former member of the club, whom I have mentioned before in the blog posts, who played lead guitar, and a first-year student who played drums, and a member of the other music club (Keiongaku) at the school on bass. The drummer from the Folk Song Club, used to playing cover bands in the club, was excited to play original songs where he had creative input on how we would drum. Being a highly-skilled drummer, his desire to branch out into different genres and playing styles was fulfilled in playing the show at the Jam Jam Cafe. The bassist from the Keiongaku Club was also excited by being given creative leeway on playing original songs rather than copying note for note, which is the standard practice in music club activities. The most rewarding aspect of playing the show was that through original music, each of the players were able to put their own personas into the music, creating a new interest in music that being in a club like Folk Song or Keion could not foster alone.
At the show at Jam Jam, another original band called “Helsinki Soul” played a shared billing with our group. “Helsinki Soul”, baring no relation to the city in Finland, played retro soul music in a similar style to “Lenny Finger”, but with more of a focus on instrumentation rather than defined song melodies. The amount of people that showed up to see them perform (and subsequently left when our set began) was surprising. Apparently they have a fairly large following around Kobe and Osaka. Originally, the band was supposed to play a single billing, but the master of the Jam Jam Cafe put us on the event when I told him my band mate was coming to Japan to visit back in December. The music “Helsinki Soul” played worked well in a live setting, but their songs as recordings lose a lot of the vibrance and energy of their live sets. With about ten people playing (a male and female duo sharing the main vocals), the band evokes a soul revival type of sound that has a major following in Kobe, a city with a long tradition of jazz and soul music. The band was kind enough to record our live set, and the concert experience created strong intercultural connections through music. Being able to play with an original band like “Helsinki Soul” proved to be one of the most rewarding musical experiences during my exchange in Japan.
After my friend returned to the United States in early February, I immediately had another opportunity to see original music in Osaka. My friend Katsura would play with his band among two other original bands. The event promised very experimental and avant-garde music, and the venue where the event was held certainly matched that promise. Located in an artsy district in the outskirts of the upscale Umeda area of Osaka, “Vi-Code”, the venue sported cyber-punk interior aesthetics and a crowd that represented Japanese hipster-ism to its fullest. The band that Katsura played in consisted of him, another guitarist, a saxophonist/keyboardist, and a drummer. They performed “one” song which lasted 23 minutes, ending with a speaker blowout noise-fest with both guitarists ripping the strings from their electric guitars.
The next group to perform was a band from Nagoya called “Ryorchestra”. The band consisted eight members who progressively made their way onto the stage. Three vocalists in strange Eyes Wide Shut-esque masks sang in some kind of gibberish, made-up language. The instrumentation of the band was interesting, but the overall first impression that they evoked was weird in a way that overcompensated for the lack of originality in its music. The made-up language consisted of Spanish words and other words from other languages. They played a fairly long set and explained they had a live CD for sale at the merchandise tables in the back of the venue. As I was interested in the music I purchased a CD, which was shoddily made and cost about a thousand yen (around ten dollars). While the performance of the band was interesting enough, the overall impression was a convoluted and unoriginal attempt at being unique, something that art students at Evergreen might put on and fail at. The members of the group came off as pretentious, showing that artists in Japan can still have a lot in common with artists in places like the United States in terms of their attitudes and the quality of their work.
The final group to perform a set, another original band whose name I cannot recall, went on for a long time, and their entire fan-base seemed to be in attendance at the show. The band consisted of five members, with a lead saxophonist. Their music could be described as jazz-fusion and dance, with constantly changing time structures and key changes. While everyone was relatively good at playing the band grew tiresome to listen to due to the sporadic nature of their music. Overall, the show had an air of arrogance to it in both its players and audience. The event itself was a look into the world of hipsterism in Japan. While the bands were original (Katsura's band being the highlight of the evening) they were not necessarily putting out anything too remarkable. Everything was memorable, however, and the drummer from the Folk Song Club who played with us at the Jam Jam Cafe for our original music was further inspired to move away from simply performing cover songs in the Folk Song Club and branch out into different forms of music.
Back before these music events, on January 14th, the daughter of the master of the Jam Jam Cafe performed a DJ set at a bar called “Chelsea”, a highly music-oriented bar in Sannomiya. What made the DJ event different from others was that there was no space to dance, and listeners sat and drank while three or four DJ s spun records. “Chelsea” had a very tribal theme to its inner-decor, with paintings of African and aboriginal tribes on the walls. This interest in tribal culture is surprisingly large in Japan. The day after the aforementioned event at “Vi-Code”, I was invited to another music event near the exceedingly wealthy area of Ashiya, located between Kobe and Osaka, held at a Turkish cafe (operated entirely by Japanese people with an interest in Turkish culture; it was also one of the few Vegan cafes, if not the only vegan cafe I saw in Japan). The event started off with a DJ spinning techno and other genres, before moving into a Japanese three-person group with one saxophonist, a drummer playing a tribal hand-drum, and another member who switched off between various tribal and Tibetan instruments. Their entire set was improvised in the style of jam session, and they were all quite skilled at playing. The event showed how Japanese can have huge interests in cultures outside of Japan, particularly indigenous cultures around the world.
Soon after the event at the Turkish cafe in Ashiya was a more bluesy jam session held at music-themed bar near the harbor in Kobe, a bar called “James”. The leader of this event was connected with a friend from the Folk Song Club who plays in all the hardcore/punk bands (Toylet, etc). I was unaware that they were connected before going to the session, and the fact that two different music communities knew each other showed how interconnected the music community is in Kobe. The session itself had several guitarists, a drum-set, tribal drums among other musical instruments so that more and more players could be involved. Many of the people who had attended the event at the Turkish cafe from the night before were also in attendance to the event, showing the strength of their interest in music and keeping up with the scene. While most of the beginning sets played were standard blues-type numbers, the latter half of the night featured more groove-based jams with use of effects-pedals to create a more psychedelic and experimental atmosphere. The master of the bar was heavily involved in the way the sessions played out and was enthusiastic about the music being played, making sure to stiffen the drinks that he served to customers to heighten their listening pleasures.
Not too long after the event at “James” came an event of an entirely different kind at the bar “Cosmic”, a country-music/bluegrass themed bar near “Galop” in the Maiko area of Tarumi in Kobe. The master of the bar held an event to celebrate his birthday in which several blue-grass, folk, country and blues acts performed, many of them regulars at both “Cosmic” and “Galop” (showing how tightly-knit music groups are even on the level of different areas within a city in Japan). The master of the bar, a late middle-age man with a long white beard, performed original songs in Japanese that sounded like American country standards from the 40s and 50s, drawing influence from rockabilly music, sung in Kansai dialect (the dialect spoken around Kobe and Osaka), which gave it an even more authentic folk feel. Most of the acts consisted of guitars (acoustic, electrics and bass guitars) with limited percussion. Several old American folk songs were covered with the players explaining that they had no clue that song lyrics described US presidents from the 1920s, among other eras. They performed them on a near professional level, however, with a sense of care and respect for classic American music that is hard to find in its country of origin today.
At an event in mid-February that featured the Folk Song Club among other music clubs from different universities around Kobe and Osaka, one original band performed (the rest being cover bands as usual for these kinds of clubs). Though some people enjoyed it, this band was one of the worst I had ever seen perform in Japan. A guitar/vocalist, bassist and drummer made up the act and performed what could only be described as noise, with no sense of rhythm and melody, and whiney, squeaky scream vocals from the eye-liner dawning lead singer. Their influence clearly drew from “nu-metal” and “screamo” acts from the United States, a style of music which also has a large following in Japan. Regardless of taste, the band was awkwardly bad, but it resembled the kind of music that can be commonly seen in younger bands in the United States, widening the scope of original music that I had seen in Japan.
A few days later I was at the train station near my school when I spotted some young men carrying guitar cases, ready to get on the train. I was carrying a copy of my album (containing songs performed at the Jam Jam Cafe with “Helsinki Soul”) and decided to give it to them, as they certainly appeared to be into music. They were a bit surprised at first, but then offered a copy of their original EP in return, and explained they had a show in Sannomiya that night. Since I was free for the day I decided to attend. Titled “Astro Attack”, the band described themselves as “stoner rock”, a genre which I had not come into contact with much in Japan as stoner culture is limited due to lack of access to marijuana (though the culture certainly exists, particularly in more artistically oriented communities). The event in which they played featured a few other original acts, one of note being a typical style of Japanese rock, playing whiney ballads that are typically heard from Japanese mainstream bands. “Astro Attack” and one other similar group, however, came onto stage with a visceral attitude, chugging from wine bottles and kicking down microphone stands (which assistants at the venue had to come onto stage to pick up, without complaint, something that would likely throw American venue workers into outright anger) while playing heavy, ear-deafening riffs. “Astro Attack” proved to be one of the more exciting and talented original acts that I saw in Japan, and I made sure to stay connected with them through the Japanese website Mixi.
Throughout the Winter quarter in Japan and most of the exchange, those were the major music events that featured mainly original material and talent. The most important lessons gained from experiencing these musical events was that Japanese have widely varied tastes in music, some obscure and some mainstream, but all with a degree of passion and dedication that remains uniquely Japanese. Music communities are also prevalent in Japan as seen with the jam sessions and live performances held throughout Kobe. The amount of musicians in Japan, performing original material or just covering other musicians, shows that music is an integral and valued aspect of Japanese culture. Being able to see the bands that I did proved to be educational in both Japanese culture and music in general. Acts like “Lenny Finger”, “Helsinki Soul” and “Astro Attack” were talented, original, and remain memorable to my musical interests, and I look forward to the opportunity of seeing more Japanese artists in the future.
