Japan Rocks!

To commemorate my one-month of no blogging, may I present to you:
Erica's guide to the J-rock scene, Part 1

There's a lot of crap music out there, especially in Japan. Like in the US, Japanese "artists" are created by the record label, manufactured, and slapped with a barcode.

So my task was simple: find music in Japan that doesn't suck. Lucky enough, Suzie's cool DJ friends and Maakun (our guitarist) have helped me with this conundrum. Here is part one of a list that I hope will grow:

Number Girl
My favorite - they have been compared to Sonic Youth and the Pixies. Just watch this video to see how cool they are. Unfortunately, they disbanded a few years ago so I'll never get to see them!

Polysics
A few of my friends went to see this group perform in Nagasaki last month. They were raving about it...it's because of the orange jumpsuits. And robot girl!

くるり (Quruli)
This band has a funky, groovy sound and is very popular.

8otto
How often do you see the drummer of a band who is also the singer? We discovered 8otto last year at Summersonic, when Suzie bought a T-shirt from these guys. We found out later that they are amazing! I loved this video so much that I ordered the CD on the Internet the same day.

Love Psychedelico
Some JET friends discovered them - we listened to them the whole ride up to Hiroshima last year. The lyrics contain a blend of Japanese with some interesting tidbits of English - "Martin Luther King flies." Her voice reminds me of Sheryl Crow.

Cornelius
I loved him instantly when I heard he named himself after the character from Planet of the Apes. He's an experimental electronic artist kind of like Beck.

Shonen Knife
Very famous all girl band that's been around for a while. Nirvana raved about them and they influenced a score of female rock groups in the 90's. I like banana chips too!

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In other news...
Sorry for the long time with no update! May has so far been a blur - I went to a hippie festival for part of Golden Week, then it was Sports Day at school, and now my band is getting ready for our Battle of the Bands competition next week. I've also been updating my resume to prepare for the inevitable...but I don't want to talk about that now. I want to enjoy every last minute of my time here, because it is precious!