New Music (Or, at least, New-to-me Music)
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?
