(Scott)-Forgive me for taking a day off from posting on Thursday? I'll still hit well over EIGHTY posts in the merry merry month of May, so I can at least get one day's indulgence, can't I? And of course, I couldn't get anywhere NEAR that number without my wonderful team of contributors, you know the list by now, but I have some guest submissions to lead off the Memorial Day weekend, perhaps a thing or two of my own (I've got one I'm DYING to put up if I can find the CD, just heard it on IPOD today and forgot how fab it was)....Anyway, let us begin with part 4/4 of Jonder's fantastic Japanese rock series....... just FYI, the very FIRST album I posted on this blog (SO long ago) was "Thee Michelle Gun Elephant"..... so, here is Jonder, telling you about part IV of his latest submission..... MANY thanks to him for these (Links in Comments section)
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Thee Michelle Gun Elephant's name came from a mishearing of the Damned's album title Machine Gun Etiquette (just as Radio Birdman misheard "radio burning up above" -- a Chuck Berry lyric quoted by the Stooges).TMGE were Tokyo college kids who started playing in 1991, influenced by punk and garage rock. The great Futoshi Abe (who died in 2009) combined classic Detroit axemen (Ron Asheton, James Williamson, Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith) with influences from surf, spy films, Link Wray, and the Pirates' Mick Green (who made a single with TMGE).TMGE vocalist Yusuke Chiba has an incredible raw-throated sound, and sings in a word salad of Japanese and English. TMGE drummer Kazuyuki Kuhara later played reggae and ska, and Chiba now sings for rock balladeers the Midnight Bankrobbers.2000's Gear Blues was their breakthrough to a US audience hungry for more Japanese punk/garage bands like Guitar Wolf. TMGE's attitude was always more serious than Guitar Wolf, despite the elephantine name and song titles like "Satanic Boom Boom Head", Here are Gear Blues and my favorite, the ominous Rodeo Tandem Beat Specter. I added a top-notch cover version of "Soda Pressing" by British punks The Boys.TMGE broke up in 2003. Check out the manic brilliance of "God Jazz Time" from their final concert, beautifully filmed for the DVD Burning Motors Go Last Heaven. They were definitely "big in Japan": youtu.be/2a67-mvGTQo-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GEAR BLUES-01 West Cabaret Drive/ 02 Smokin Billy/ 03 Satanic Boom Boom Head/ 04 Dog Way/ 05 Free Devil Jam/ 06 Killer Beach/ 07 Brian Down/ 08 Hotel Bronco/ 09 Give the Gallon/ 10 G.W.D/ 11 Ash/ 12 Soul Wrap/13 Boiled Oil/14 Danny Go/15 Jenny
RODEO TANDEM BEAT SPECTER-01 Citroen No Koduku (The Loneliness of the Citroen/ 02 Alligator Night/ 03 Abakarta Sekai (The World Exposed)/ 04 God Jazz Time/ 05 Baby Stardust/ 06 Rita/ 07 Beat Specter Buchanan/ 08 Turkey/ 09 My Heart With Its Brakes Broken Loose/ 10 Margaret/ 11 Bird Land Cindy/ 12 Beat Specter Garcia/ 13 The Redhead Kelly
Gear Blues (Japan 1998/ USA 2000): http://www79.zippyshare.com/v/5gdiYSRE/file.html
ReplyDeleteRodeo Tandem Beat Specter (2001/2002): http://www79.zippyshare.com/v/LNeCCj33/file.html
Since you mentioned it, I loves me some King Brothers, the above mentioned Guitar Wolf, let's not forget the Plastics(I have their first? LP but nothing else) and even though they've been posted (although all the links are dead) my first taste of the land of the rising sun's finest was The Sadistic Mika Band
ReplyDeleteI stupidly passed up a chance to see the King Brothers last year. Concert footage on YouTube made me wanna kick myself. Plastics was a fun band. I need to check out the Sadistic Mika Band. Thanks for the suggestion!
ReplyDeleteI stupidly passed up a chance to see the King Brothers last year. Concert footage on YouTube made me wanna kick myself. Plastics was a fun band. I need to check out the Sadistic Mika Band. Thanks for the suggestion!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jonder/Scott for these. Never heard of them but look forward to investigatin'....
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