Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon

In 1967, Group Sounds superstars The Spiders recorded a song composed by their rhythm guitarist, Kamayatsu Hiroshi. Not much was expected of “Ban Ban Ban,” a crude three-chord rocker with throwaway lyrics and a riff supposedly lifted from a song by The Mindbenders. The tune was originally used as the B-side for a single and later included on the band’s fourth album. Here’s the original Spiders’ recording:

There was something about “Ban Ban Ban,” though, that made it stick in people’s minds: the rhythm, the catchy chorus, the sheer joy of it all. It’s become a J-rock classic now, one that every J-Rock band has to know, something akin to the status of “Wild Thing” or “Smoke on the Water” in the West.

Here are 1990s rockers Flying Kids performing the song on a drive through Tokyo. They get bonus points for digging up replicas of The Spiders’ old red doorman costumes.

And here are today’s fave-rave indie rockers Go!Go!7188 performing the song live.

Probably the most memorable cover of the song comes from “Monsieur” Kamayatsu himself. In early 1990, he was recording a new album in London. Word came down that all hell was breaking lose in Berlin, and so Kamayatsu headed over to Germany to see what was happening. The Wall had been breached, but not torn down yet, and there were still military patrols on both sides. Kamayatsu writes in his autobiography that he figured out that patrols walked by at two-minute intervals. Timing it carefully, he waited for one patrol to pass, then scrambled up to the top of the wall with acoustic guitar in hand. He dashed off an impromptu rendition of “Ban Ban Ban” for the assembled crowd, and luckily the moment was captured on video.

Back in Chicago now, I’m happy to report that the inimitable Shiina Ringo has a new single out (and a new album on the way next month). “Ariamaru tomi” （「ありあまる富」）is a mid-tempo number very much in her characteristic style, including an extended, complex coda. It’s also the theme song for the current hit TV series “Smile.” The song is currently #2 on I-Tunes Japan.　　Here’s the video:

Eels, one of my favorite bands, will be releasing their new album,Hombre Loco, on June 2. They are billing it as “12 Songs of Desire.” Until the album comes out, though, you can listen to it for free on their MySpace page.

Here’s the video for “That Look You Give That Guy” from the album:

I’m currently in St. Paul for a couple of days, taking care of a few issues related to my mother’s estate. It’s my first road trip since knee surgery; I’m a bit slow afoot, but so far so good.

Yesterday morning, before driving up from Chicago, I woke in the middle of a very odd dream. It was my own Tom Sawyer moment. I was attending a big-time funeral in Tokyo: guestbook signing tables outside, a large auditorium filled with mourners inside. As I looked around me in the hall, I recognized many old friends and family in the crowd, people who had clearly traveled from around the world to attend the service: my middle school principle, old workmates, friends from Sendai. It gradually became apparent that this was in fact my own funeral–but I wasn’t dead. The priest began the service and indicated to me that I needed to come up on the stage to explain to all of these good people why they had been summoned to attend my funeral when I wasn’t dead. I had no idea why this had happened and felt quite awkward and apologetic about the whole mess. I woke just as I was to begin speaking to the assemblage.

So why were people told to attend my funeral even though I was apparently in the best of health?

No, no, not the silly North Korean nuclear test….Ray Davies has a new solo album coming out next month!

The Kinks Choral Collection, recorded together with the Crouch End Festival Chorus, consists of a number of Kinks’ Klassics rerecorded with full choir backing. The CD will be out on Decca Records in the UK in June. The American release is scheduled for September. The vital details, plus a promotional video, are available on Ray’s website.

The album grows out of Ray’s 2007 joint appearance with the choir on the BBC Electric Proms festival. That concert was broadcast as an amazing television special, and now they’ve gone back into the studio to do things properly. The highlight of the 2007 concert was the astonishing take on “Shangri-la,” the brilliant cornerstone song of the 1969 album, Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire.

Here are Ray and the choir performing the song in that 2007 concert. As an added bonus, at 4:41 you can see my friend Olga, the world’s #1 Kinks fan (I’m #762). Enjoy –

The Asahi newspaper is reporting (Japanese-language only) that a new historical marker to singer Misora Hibari (1937-1989) was dedicated today in Isogo-ku, Yokohama. She was born and raised there, the daughter of a poor fish monger. There are many monuments to her throughout Japan, but this was the first one in her hometown. It was paid for with donations collected by a local fan club. Hibari-chan lives!

The summer sumo tournament ended a few hours ago in Tokyo with ozeki Harumafuji (the former Ama) taking the title in an exciting playoff match against yokozuna Hakuho. It was Harumafuji’s first championship since being promoted to ozeki last November. Both Hakuho and Harumafuji finished with 14-1 records, while yokozuna Asashoryu stayed a step back at 12-3 and spent most of the two weeks feuding with the media.

All in all, it was in one of the most exciting tourneys in recent memory. Over the last three or four days, the top-ranked wrestlers went after one another in a series of really thrilling matches. All of the ozeki reached winning records, including the battered Chiyotaikai. Entering the tournament with kadoban status (meaning he would lose his rank if he had a losing mark), he managed to eke out an 8-7 tally, although the last three wins had the distinct aroma of charity (or perhaps commerce) about them.

Several up-and-coming wrestlers performed well, too. Kakuryu, debuting at the fourth highest rank of komusubi, carried himself admirably to a 9-6 record. Kisenosato finished 13-2 and went into the final day with at least a mathematical possibility of taking the title. Kotoshogiku ended up 10-5.

In addition to the sumo itself, the tournament was notable as the final official appearance by Azumazeki oyakata, who reaches the mandatory retirement age of 65 next month. Back in the 1960s and 70s, he was Takamiyama, the first foreign wrestler in sumo history, an enormously popular figure. His top-ranked disciple, Takamisakari, finished with a fine 9-6 record and made it clear that he was trying to do something special to honor his mentor. Veteran Ushiomaru announced today that he will retire and eventually take over the Azumazeki stable, but it’s hard to imagine sumo without Jesse’s avuncular presence. At tournaments, he regularly manned the ticket booth and was famous for his friendly interaction with ordinary fans. お疲れ様でした。

A few CD’s I’ve picked up recently:

Mass of the Fermenting Dregs, Mass of the Fermenting Dregs (2008, Avocado Records). Debut EP by a promising all-female indies rock band from Japan. There are a couple of instrumental numbers that don’t do much for me, but the songs with words have a fine edge to them. Miyamoto Natsuko writes intelligent hard rock numbers with great pop hooks, and she sings them in an attractively straightforward manner. I’ve fallen in love with “skabetty,” a terrific mid-tempo number.

Love Live Life + One, Love Will Make A Better You (2009, King Records). Newly remastered reissue of classic 1971 album of avant-garde noise-rock-jazz, with pop singer Fuse Akira, of all people, on lead vocals. Julian Cope’s Japrocksampler book turned me on to this one, and it’s surprisingly listenable. The lyrics are all hippie-love, and the music can get lost in its own trippiness at times, but at other moments it’s positively gorgeous. The title track is a psychedelic remake of Sly Stone, complete with fuzz guitar.

Super Butter Dog, Super Better Better Dog (2008, EMI). 2-CD “best of” collection, 29 songs from one of the best (or perhaps I should say ‘better’) Japanese indies bands of the 1990s. They start with a funk foundation and expand in the direction of rock, folk, and a little bit of everything else. Very attractive. “Sayonara Color,” a 2001 recording, is a lovely ballad with a slow, melancholic swing to it. Who says a funk band can’t play country-rock music?

Over the past couple months, I’ve been leisurely making my way through 『可能性としての「在日」』 (’Zainichi’ as possibility), a collection of essays and speeches by Lee Hoesung (Japanese: Ri Kaisei), who in 1972 became the first ethnically Korean writer to win the Akutagawa Prize. It’s a fascinating read.

The earliest piece in the book comes from 1970, the latest from 2002. It’s particularly interesting to watch Lee’s position develop over the decades, from his decision to travel to South Korea in the early 1970s despite its still being under military dictatorship, to his decision to switch his legal citizenship from North to South Korea, to his enthusiastic support for Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy in the 1990s. In the 1970s, he seeks in Zainichi identity the possibility for a popular nationalism that preserves a critical distance from the governments of both North and South Korea; in the 2000s, he finds in it possibilities for a global coalition of minority cultures. Lee is keenly intelligent, honest, and constantly rethinking his own ethical responsibilities in response to the flows of power and history. He’s also not afraid to take his critics to task, often by name.

I’m also reading 「ムッシュ！Monsieur!」, the autobiography of Kamayatsu Hiroshi. Kamayatsu was born in Tokyo in 1939, the son of a Japanese-American jazz singer and a Japanese woman. In the late 1950s, he launched his musical career as a rockabilly and country-western singer. In the 1960s, he became the main creative force behind Group Sounds superstars The Spiders. In the 1970s, he remade himself yet again, this time as a brilliant New Music singer-songwriter, and he remains today a beloved elder statesman of Japanese rock. It’s an absorbing story, even if Kamayatsu refrains from spilling the real dirt: he could learn a trick or two from Lee Hoesung.

Finally, I’m just finishing up Nick Hornby’s first young adult novel, Slam! As usual, Hornby brilliantly captures the male protagonist, in this case a teenage skateboarder who finds himself stumbling into fatherhood. We see all of his vainglorious foibles, as well as his attempts to uphold something like honor. I don’t find it quite as compelling as, say, High Fidelity, but then again, I’m not really part of the target audience for this one.