JAPANESE UNDERGROUND BANDS

eX-Girl: Three beautiful girls making incredible music. The 
result is very avant-garde, but seems to come naturally from 
a simple desire to write songs. In other words, there's not 
a shred of pretension, a remarkable feat considering the sort 
of stuff they produce: Sometimes rocking, sometimes droning 
and trance-like, sometimes a cappella madrigals.



Click the photo to see more eX-Girl photos!
 
The more times I listen the grander and subtler it becomes. 
On stage they wear campy, glam costumes, and perform with 
the air of a band playing conventional pop songs, which 
their music resembles here and there, but mostly it tran-
scends layers of the stratosphere and makes one feel like 
the hero returning from a mythical journey. Learn all about 
these gorgeous and gifted nymphs at their official website. 
They come from the planet Kero! Kero! ("Kero!" is Japanese 
for "Ribbet!")

Ghost: I didn't get Ghost at first. It took a live perform-
ance to turn me around. I bought the self-titled CD thinking 
it would be psychedelic, and some tracks are, but the others 
sounded like badly executed folk songs (my initial impres-
sion). When they played at the Kilowatt in San Francisco, I 
decided to check them out, at least to hear the psychedelic 
stuff. I was not at all prepared for what I experienced. 
There was something of a warning, when I overheard someone 
say this show would be as cool as the jam at the end of 33 
1/3 Revolutions per Monkee. Yeah, right, I thought. But 
damned if he wasn't right! That was one of the most amazing 
performances I ever witnessed. A slow, steady crescendo that 
suddenly exploded into mighty, heavy art rock. I was a be-
liever ever since. Now I love ALL their songs. They play a 
variety of instruments from every century. I would categor-
ize them as Renaissance psychedelia. They have several CDs 
out, each is a portal to mystical wisdom. The leader, Masaki 
Batoh, lives with his collective of musicians in abandoned 
sacred sites. Perhaps ghosts are inspiring the compositions.

Nelories: Alas, the Nelories are no more. They put out some 
wonderful music before they broke up. A duo that featured an 
accordion, they remind me lyrically of Shonen Knife in that
the songs are quite inventive and idiosyncratic. One major 
difference from Shonen Knife is that the songs are more grown 
up, by which I mean they contain sex. "Banana" and "Blue Flow-
er" are about fellatio and cunnilingus respectively, for exam-
ple. The real charm is in the way the Nelories celebrate the 
mundane to make everyday life seem special and magical. And 
the melodies are divine. 


Unfortunately, Nelories CDs are extremely hard to come by. The 
only method I can suggest is a trip to Japan. I got most of 
mine by ordering directly from the label (the Japanese record 
store didn't have them in the catalog), but that was back in 
1995 when the group was still together. Keep an eye out in the 
used bins, you might get lucky. Mellow Yellow Fellow Nelories 
is the masterpiece, Daisy and Starboogie are also splendid. As 
are the EPs and singles. Happy hunting. Jun Kurihara, the sing-
er and writer of the Nelories, has a solo career. Her stuff 
sounds great, but she sings in Japanese now, so I can't comment 
on the lyrics. The above picture was scanned from a promotional 
booklet for Daisy.

OOIOO: Yoshimi P-We of the Boredoms formed this all-girl band, 
after putting out a few solo 7"s that are very cool. In the 
Boredoms, she is one of two drummers, also contributing trum-
pet and Liza Minnelli vocals. In OOIOO (pronounced "oh-oh-eye-
oh-oh"), she's one of two guitarists, as well as singer, trum-
peter and general noisemaker with various electronic toys. The 
music is fantastic. Definitely avant-garde and very compelling. 
The sound is distinct from the more famous Boredoms. Yoshimi 
has created something of her own, something amazing. If the 
Boredoms ever do dissolve, it will be a sad day, but the pain 
would be alleviated knowing OOIOO is still around. The first 
CD, Eight, is hardcore, the second, Feather Float, is spacey 
and mellow, and the third, Gold and Green is somewhere in be-
tween. All are fascinating, and moving. Yoshimi asked Eye Ya-
matsuka (Boredoms founder/leader) to name her band. He said, 
"Pink Sabbath." She said, "Give me another name." He said, 
"OOIOO." That one she liked.

Little Fujiko: I had never heard of them when I first went 
to see them. I was pretty well blown away by the mellow psych-
edelia mixed with punk and playful electronics. Their outfits 
are cool, too, as you can see in the photo. I picked up their 
self-titled CD, which has some long, heavy, trippy tracks as 
well as short rockin' numbers and some fun with electric key-
boards and toys. Later I got their first album, White Peach 
Jellyfish, it's also excellent. A very cool band, high up on 
my list of favorites. 


They come from Tokyo, and there is no Fujiko in the group. The 
name comes from Lupin III, the TV version. There was a charac-
ter called Fujiko who wore a turtleneck, and when the band's 
guitarist had a turtleneck on, everyone said she looked like 
"little Fujiko." They've been around since 1994. The photo was 
taken May 4, 2000, at the Silverlake Lounge in L.A. Order their 
stuff from Benten Label.



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