dre in the morning

Over the years, a decidedly cyberpunk gene in my physical make-up has lead me to indulge in a smattering of popular Nipponese music. I’m willing to bet you have too. I mean, everyone’s heard The 5.6.7.8′s cover of the rockabilly song Woo-hoo. I mean everyone who’s ever seen Kill Bill 1, or those Vonage commercials.

According to director Quentin Tarantino, he discovered the music of The 5.6.7.8′s after hearing it in an urban clothing store in Tokyo hours before going to the airport. Tarantino asked if he could purchase the CD from the store, as he had no time to go to a music shop. When the store clerk on duty said no, as the manager was not present at the time, Tarantino offered double the retail price of the CD and acquired it.

Any Madison Avenue creative worth his black turtleneck and torn jeans worships Tarantino’s musical taste, thus the immediate licensing of Woo-hoo for a spate of TV commercials. The rest is history.

And all you audiophiles, surely you’ve listened to more than your share of Shonen Knife. They were so big back in the late 80s/early 90′s that over 20 alt-rock bands got together and recorded an entire album of adulation for the all-girl group.

Anyway, I love the stuff, though my favorite Japanese composer is Yoko Kanno, who is famous for being the driving force behind The Seatbelts, a band created to provide both the main theme and incidental music for Cowboy Bebop. Kanno was so instrumental (nyuk, nyuk) in defining the atmosphere for the TV show that the character of Edward, the hyper-active pre-teen female hacker, was based on her.

The name of the band, according to the fictional description given in the anime series Cowboy Bebop, derives from how the performers wear seatbelts to be safe while they play hardcore jam sessions.

The band performed the whole soundtrack of the anime series Cowboy Bebop and produced a total of seven albums and one live DVD. Their style is very diverse and ranges from straightforward big band jazz, blues, acoustic ballads, hard rock, country, funk to electronic, hip-hop and experimental compositions/elements.

Since the band was focused mostly on instrumental work, The Seatbelts had no lead singer. However, Steve Conte (from The Contes and Crown Jewels) and Mai Yamane participated and sang on many of their songs. The lyrics of these songs were written mainly by Tim Jensen and Yoko Kanno herself. Singers Soichiro Otsuka and Gabriela Robin (rumored to be a pseudonym for Kanno) were responsible for the backing vocals on songs such as “Blue”.

After a few years in hibernation, The Seatbelts regrouped in 2004 to perform the soundtrack for the second Cowboy Bebop video game, which is currently available in Japan. They all disbanded once they released the last album. (wikipedia)

If Kanno hadn’t found a niche scoring anime and video games, she could have been gen-X’s answer to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I recently stumbled onto two Nipponese bands I’d never heard of: one of which are direct descendants of The Ramones and another that has more of a NIN influence, though it might be better described as IDM.

Guitar Wolf is a self-described jet rock ‘n’ roll band, and in a move reminiscent of early New Duncan Imperials, they created comic-book-level characterizations of themselves, to the extent that they appeared in their own B-Grade sci-fi zombie flick, Wild Zero. A three-piece garage punk band, each member is named for the instrument they play; Drum Wolf, Bass Wolf and the eponymous Guitar Wolf. These guys are addicted to after-burner-speed punk; even their microphones have flame-thrower exhausts.

Sure, their music is over 10 years old, and the movie they made is pure shite, but they’re loads of fun. especially when Guitar Wolf pulls a katana out of his guitar and slices an alien spaceship in two.

Like I said, I don’t really know anything about music. I just kinda stumble across this stuff. Ever since I moved out of Hepburn House I no longer have a steady diet of new music shoved down my throat on a daily basis. But I’ll bet no one reading this (with the exception of Brent Starkey) has ever heard of Guitar Wolf.

The second Nippon band I stumbled across is more contemporary, and like The Seatbelts, has a strong connection to anime (are we seeing a pattern here?). Bespa Kumamero is so obscure, they don’t have a wikipedia page (yet). This two-piece appeared live at Anime Boston this year and performed to a packed house of over 1500 fans.

Bespa Kumamero was formed in March of 2001. The members Azumi (Vocals) and Monkichi (Programming/Guitar) call themselves a digital techno performance unit. Their unique group performs regularly in Tokyo but has toured in France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, etc. and been featured in many interviews and articles in those countries. In 2007, BESPA KUMAMERO toured and played 6 dates in the U.K., followed by 2008 appearances at Anime Matsuri (Houston, TX), Animex 2008 (Monterrey, Mexico), and Tokyo Cyber Eve (Moscow, Russia). (japanfiles)

They’ve got a seriously over-loaded myspace page where you can sample their music. Myself, I’m joining their Facebook page, cuz I dig them the most. Well, today, anyway.

Yeah, so I’m an otaku. Or a weaboo. Take your pick.

Here’s some kanji to liven things up:

主にボーカル・作詞等を担当する桑舘あずみと、主にプログラミング・作曲等を担当する入倉もん吉によるデジタルパフォーマンス系テクノユニット。
テクノ、エレクトロサウンドをベースに、日本舞踊、剣舞、自作マシーンによるパフォーマンスなど、様々な要素を取り入れたライブを繰り広げながら現在は都内デジタル系イベントなどを中心に活動中。

I don’t know anything about music. Real music, that is. It’s probably because I ‘m not a real hipster. I mean, yeah, I wore trucker hats back in the 80′s, way before Ashton Kutcher made them cool. But I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky where EVERYONE wore trucker hats. I never owned a full set of of ironic t-shirts, but I did shop for clothes at thrift shops, mainly because I needed to be thrifty. And yeah, I did drink PBR, but so did my dad, so did his dad, etc. etc.

Twenty years ago, the hipsters I knew and continually met in clubs like Tewligan’s and Uncle Pleasant’s looked just like the pictures I see of hipsters today. They’re easy to spot:

The American Apparel V-neck shirt, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and Parliament cigarettes are symbols and icons of working or revolutionary classes that have been appropriated by hipsterdom and drained of meaning. Ten years ago, a man wearing a plain V-neck tee and drinking a Pabst would never be accused of being a trend-follower. But in 2008, such things have become shameless clichés of a class of individuals that seek to escape their own wealth and privilege by immersing themselves in the aesthetic of the working class.
This obsession with “street-cred” reaches its apex of absurdity as hipsters have recently and wholeheartedly adopted the fixed-gear bike as the only acceptable form of transportation – only to have brakes installed on a piece of machinery that is defined by its lack thereof.

I’ve noticed a lot of aging hipsters are riding bikes, too. Me? I walk. That’s not hip.

What is hip? Check The New York Times, or better yet, the guy who wrote The Hipster HandBook.

I have no chance of being a real hipster, which is good, because evidently it can be dangerous. So, I’ve pretty much given up on being a true audiophile. Maybe if I got some better clothes? Probably not. Heck, I can’t even rock a Ralph Kramden:

THIS summer the unvarying male uniform in the precincts of Brooklyn cool has been a pair of shorts cut at knickers length, a V-neck Hanes T-shirt, a pair of generic slip-on sneakers and a straw fedora. Add a leather cuff bracelet if the coolster is gay.
In truth this get-up was pretty much the unvarying male uniform last summer also, but this year an unexpected element has been added to the look, and that is a burgeoning potbelly one might term the Ralph Kramden.
Too pronounced to be blamed on the slouchy cut of a T-shirt, too modest in size to be termed a proper beer gut, developed too young to come under the heading of a paunch, the Ralph Kramden is everywhere to be seen lately, or at least it is in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene, the McCarren Park Greenmarket and pretty much any place one is apt to encounter fans of Grizzly Bear.

But I have to be careful with all these arguments as to why I’m not a hipster. The defining trait of being a hipster is to deny hipster status. According to Adbusters:

“So… this is a hipster party?” I ask the girl sitting next to me. She’s wearing big dangling earrings, an American Apparel V-neck tee, non-prescription eyeglasses and an inappropriately warm wool coat.
“Yeah, just look around you, 99 percent of the people here are total hipsters!”
“Are you a hipster?”
“Fuck no,” she says, laughing back the last of her glass before she hops off to the dance floor.

No worries. The real reason I can never be a part of the musically elite has to do with my taste in music. You see, I’ve got some. And my taste is boringly mainstream, not to mention far too limited. If asked to come up with “The Top Tracks of the 2000s” I’d probably list 10, 25, maybe 50 songs. That’s not enough for a real hipster.

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