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I kicked myself, hard in the ass, when I realised that Zazen Boys had come to Sapporo last autumn and I missed them. As always bears restating, they are not only one of the best bands in Japan, but in the world, because no-one else in the world sounds like them. And when I saw them at Rising Sun last year they were awesome. Then I noticed they were playing some dates in Hokkaido this May... but not playing Sapporo. Nuts. Then Yuki, who was an instant convert at Rising Sun, said... well we both have a day off on Sunday why don't we just go to Tomakomai? And she offered to drive coz she's awesome. So as kind of a last minutish thing - we did.
It was pissing down with rain all day, a two and a half hour drive to Tomakomai on the South coast of Hokkaido and I had to do some very dodgy Japanese A-Z reading, but we got there. And when we got there, what a there it was:
I'm not sure if that photo adequately conveys the sheer "middle-of-nowhere" backwater-ness of the venue. There was no parking anywhere, we just left the car in a video store parking lot and hoped it wouldn't get clamped or towed. It was way out of central Tomakomai (which I didn't see, but if the rest of Tomakomai is anything to go on, I'm in no rush to check out, sorry Tomakomaians) and basically a kind of live/rehearsal space above a guitar shop. Zazen Boys are a pretty big band, it was awesome so see them in a venue about the size of the ones I used to play in.
Close enough for the bassist to spend a long time staring at me really hard in a really strange way. They were incredible, even though they ended their set on an actual free-form jam (ugh) and the timing and interplay live makes them one of the best live acts I've ever seen. I'm still harboring a secret hope that they'll be added to the Rising Sun bill this year, but if not, well, I'm glad we hit "Toma" as Mukai Shutoku called it.
Recently I had to teach some very young kids, which necessitated the use of wax crayons. Now, it's been many, many years since I used wax crayons, and the moment I touched them to the paper the sheer joy of making those big streaks of colour was wonderful.
Also, today I looked at my last.fm page for the first time in months, and was surprised to see that my recent all-out adoration of Mukai Shutoku and Zazen Boys has rocketed them to the top of my favourite artists list.
How could I possibly combine these two apparently chalk-and-cheese concepts? Easy, I went to town and bought some wax crayons and drew a picture of Yoshikane Sou a.k.a. Casio Man, the lead guitarist of Zazen Boys.
I kinda went a little overboard on the colours there. Then again I do have twenty different colours to choose from, how could I be expected to stick to just black for his clothes and pink for his ridiculous sun glasses?
a.k.a. "J-rock Weight-loss!"
Zazen Boys... week?... continues tonight as we look at their awesome drummer Matsushita Atsushi (Atsushi is his first name). Mukai, the Zazen Boys' main guy always seems to introduce him as "Judo ni-dan Matsushita Atsushi", meaning he's a second dan blackbelt in Judo, meaning he could probably fold you like a napkin. Matsushita was a session drummer who joined the band after their second album, when their first drummer Inazawa Ahito (formerly of Mukai's previous band, the legendary Number Girl) left. He's an astounding drummer, but today we're looking at the notches on his belt, rather than those on his sticks.
On his first release with the band, 2005's Himitsu Girl's Top Secret, he was... paunchy to put it lightly:
That's right porky, hang your head in shame...
God! I don't know what came over me! It's never fun to make fun of fat people. That one just slipped out. I swear. No more cheap jibes. Anyway, on Zazen Boys III in 2006, his first full album with the band, he's looking a little lighter and that chin is coming up...
No jokes about how many cows gave their lives to put that jacket together. Fast forward another year and a bit, to Zazen Boys' last single I Don't Wanna Be With You at the very end of 2007:
HOLY FREAKIN' CRAP! That lanky fellow in the orange jacket is the same guy that was in the cowskin tarpaulin less than two years before! Now that is some impressive excercise/diet regime right there. Was it just drumming? Zero carbs? God, that's pretty inspirational - he should do infomercials or something! Last month at Rising Sun I told a couple of people "Yeah, Zazen Boys should be good. They've got a fat drummer too", and when he walked out I assumed they'd changed the line-up again. NO! Not a double, or a twin - the same damn guy!
Their new album is out next week, and I'm assuming that the band photo will be three guys and a stick figure. Judo ni-dan Matsushita Atsushi, I applaud you.
This is what happens when you put love out there - you get love back. Even the crazy Tower Records guy camped outside my appartment know this, but it's not getting him anywhere yet. Chris emailed me that the NME featured a bunch of live Zazen Boys clips from when they were recording their album in New York with Dave Fridmann. Wonderfully, they played a free show at a nearby bar and so now I (and, by extension, you) can watch them kicking the crap out of a bunch of people who have no idea who they are. It comes in seven chunks, I'll link to part 2 here because it's Himitsu Girl's Top Secret which is awesome, but I strongly recommend you check out the whole thing, especially part 3, which is Daruma, the best track on their last single and awesomely you can hear someone yelling "Freebird!" just before it starts. Also part 5, Cold Beat is phenomenal:
The new Zazen Boys album (produced by Dave Fridmann interestingly enough) comes out on the 17th September! Hot damn I'm excited, and even though I'm pretty sure it's not gonna match up to their previous records, at least they're taking their sound on some kind of geek odyssey into the heart of 1980s hedonism. Their new video is also awesome:
