Pizzicato Five: This band broke up in 2001. They weren't really underground, in fact they had many hits, but I love the music so I include them here. The beautiful Maki Nomiya and the brilliant Konishi Yasuharu made a perfect team. They said they wanted to do more than create songs, they wanted to create another world. And they did! Combining music, fashion and video, they took you into the land of jet-set glamor, the grooviest party scenes from European sixties films, where James Bond might hang out between assignments. The music by itself is enough to transport you to that magical land. Did such a time and place ever exist? Perhaps for a moment. Maybe it's only a state of mind. In any case, Pizzicato Five will help you capture that giddy feeling. The live shows were phe- nomenal, with Maki constantly changing her gorgeous costumes and Konishi up to his comical antics, while the continuous video images and soundtrack sent your brain spinning. One could only relent and melt into ecstasy. Why "Five"? The group originally had five members, all male. Why end the party? Konishi didn't want to be like the Ventures, a band that never dies. Pity. Here's a fan site, which is part of a web ring. Mainliner: Heavy, noisy psychedelia. Messy guitars free flowing. I've seen them live twice. I let the sonic waves pass through me as my brain floated, bobbing on turbulent waters. The CDs are excellent. I like to imagine that a bunch of hippies on LSD in 1968 jamming all night would come up with something like this, but maybe the best psychedelic music came out in the nineties. After all, that was the decade that produced the precise, crafted greatness of Angel'in Heavy Syrup and the loose, almost industrial meanderings of Mainliner. Whatever. I'm grate- ful to own these wondrous sounds. Music for your head. Don't listen to Mainliner while driving. It might make you hallucinate. Shizuka: [Not to be confused with J-Pop idol Shizuka Kudo.] Funereal psychedelia. Long, slow, majestic marches that gradually build to heavy guitar freak-outs, lead along the way by the plaintive lamentations of the singer after whom the band is named, her voice rich and haunting. (Ironically, "shizuka" means "quiet," but it is also a common girl's name.) She's one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. Her hobby is making dolls of herself. When I got them all to sign a flyer for me, I went up to each member individually, and they all assumed I just wanted the singer's signature, and was enlisting their aid. When they realized I wanted their signatures too, they were quite overcome and thanked me over and over. For a dis- cography and lyrics and to see Shizuka's dolls, go to the Fear of Dolls Shizuka Page. 5,6,7,8's: Here's where the name came from: The fifties was Elvis, the sixties was surf, the seventies was punk, and the eighties was the 5,6,7,8's. Yes, they've been around awhile. The amalgam of punk and surf (I'm not sure where Elvis comes in, perhaps a spiritual influence) is unique. Live, they put on a terrific show. Singer/guitar- ist Ronnie "Yoshiko" Fujiyama is the main attraction, as she runs all over the stage mugging like a demon-possessed pixie. I must say I miss the original bassist (what is it with all these bands not hanging onto their bassists?) who had a cool way of swiveling her hips as she played. The drummer has the nickname "Salad." How could you not like someone with the nickname "Salad"? The CDs are fab- ulous, and live, well, let's say that no matter how good the other bands are that night,the 5,6,7,8's will be the highlight. Guaranteed. My favorite songs are "I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield" and "Ah-So!" The crowd favorite seems to be "Bomb the Twist." Visit their site: The 5,6,7,8's Playgirl Club. They are featured in the Quentin Tarantino movie Kill Bill. Superball: The legendary primo rulers of aho-core ("idiot- core"), Superball burned brightly but a moment, and luckily for us it was captured on video. They put out an audio cassette, too, but I never heard it. I do have the video, which contains forty minutes of their antics. Notice I didn't say music. This group was less music than perform- ance art. One girl carried a guitar as a prop and sang her ABCs. Another made piercing tones on a pennywhistle. A third skipped rope or blew soap bubbles. The fourth member was a toy monkey who kept time with a drum and whistle. Occasionally, the guitar girl would anounce, "Drum solo!" and they'd all stop so we could hear the monkey. I really love Superball. I pray for a reunion. JAPANESE UNDERGROUND BANDS
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