Tim is a good friend of mine from back in the day when I studied Fine Arts in University. He joined the JET Program (in Japan) at the beginning of my final year (in Japan). We got together a number times and relived a number of good times as well as new ones that only a place like Japan could provide. Now, I'm back in Manitoba and am largely cut off from the Japanese music scene, a scene that should be evident by this blog, I am pretty fond of. Recently, Tim offered as a "hi" gift to send me the Japanese CD of my choice. Finding a CD that I want while being so disconnected from the scene prompted me to search deeper on the net to find a new source of Japanese music to enjoy. I hit paydirt (whatever that actually means) of sorts through Live365.Live365, for those of you who don't know, is a streaming radio service and boy does it ever have a huge selection. While I haven't explored many of the stations yet I gather the main focus is on lesser known independent bands. This is probably not because they are ultra-hip but rather due to the RIAA. But one man's trash...
Radio Eigekai Indie TYO is an Indies Radio Station out of Tokyo. And this is indie as in probably nowhere to be seen in the stores but maybe as CD-Rs being handed out at live events. Not always true cause they're playing Murr*Murr's absolutely beautiful "Azayaka na sora" right now. But by and large, most of the stuff spinning on this station will spin nowhere else. Which is neat because not only does it give me hip new Japanese music to listen to but it's so hip most people even in Japan will have a hard time finding it. This isn't so much music snobbery as it is, "you heard it here first". I am on top of my game, too bad no one gives a shit but evs. The nice thing is when you are a Japanese up-and-comer you will do ANYTHING to get your self heard. Japan has the second largest music industry in the world and all that competition leads to some pretty interesting innovations like: giving all the music you ever made away for free on sites like MUZIE and NextMusic. Two bands struck my fancy on last weeks Radio Eigekai Indie TYO program: DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! and Tomato Star.
DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! formed in 2001, has achieved as fair degree of mainstream success and is even known by a number of western listeners, an accomplishment that many of the biggest Japanese Pop Stars struggle to realize. This is what they have to say about their musical style on their MySpace Page: "DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!!'s sound is a mix of hard, happy, Bakibaki, upper, emotional, shoehazer, pico pico and pop!!! We are trying to produce a new sound like none heard before!" 
Admittedly, I don't know what the hell half of that is supposed to be but if I ever start my own band I'll be sure to refer to my work as "upper, shoehazer, pico pico, baki baki". Jokes aside, this band is pretty weird, effortlessly jumping from twinkly girly mainstream J-pop to Alec Empire inspired cyber-noise terrorism (in the same song). One highlight is in their song "Silence" where female vocalist is singing in her sweetest, most sincere voice and all of a sudden the bands male vocals begins to scream "DIE!!DIE!!DIE!!DIE!!DIE!!" over and over again. It's wacky, just a bit awful and totally worth listening to at least one time.DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! - Are You Ready?
DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! - Silence
DIE!!DIE!!COLOR!!! - Pressure Ver. 2
and more...
Being largely unknown doesn't stop Tomato Star from being a hugely prolific project with well over a hundred songs available for free. Not all these songs are really album worthy in my opinion, but the 25% that are... uh... are! It's all loose and fully sloppy skillfulness. Part Beck, part Weezer, part Zoobombs; Tomato Star has a lot going for itself when Itokey, the band's only member, has his shit together. While not surprisingly unsigned I predict big things for Itokey in the future. He doesn't seem at all concerned with J-pop conventions and that will ultimately be his biggest asset. I wish I could find more information but his music says more than I can anyway.Tomato Star - Plastic Ni Kimete
Tomato Star - Petra
Tomato Star - Achiki No Teenage World
and more...
So did any of this help me choose a Japanese CD as my present from Tim? Not really, I want the new Bonobos single. I love it.
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