Happy 2014!
It’s
been quite a while since I have last upped anything here simply owed to the
fact that “Old Fashion” is no longer issued. Apparently it simply didn’t add up
in the end. Not that any of the people involved were into it for the money but
if you invest that much work and money into something, you want at least your
expenses covered.
The reason I didn’t just up something by myself is my
private situation. The last months have been full of changes: having only just
moved to Germany from Japan a year ago, my company called on me to work at
their London headquarters. And despite the fact that I was not necessarily
eager to work in an open plan office, the opportunity was just too good to turn
down.
So here I am, in Walthamstow, East London, getting adjusted
to UK life.
Walthamstow, proud home of 90s bad-boy-teen-idles East 17,
is quite a fun place. Up till now all I had seen of London was posh downtown or
almost-Essex-suburbs, where my company is located. Although not too far away
from those suburbs, Walthamstow has its own feel. More like a city of itself,
in which residents are required to wear track pants and honk at least once
every five minutes when driving. Even at Driving School vehicles (yes, I did actually
experience that).
The track pant guys are called “Chavs” and they are
ethnically as diverse as it gets – not just the average English hooligan. This
ethnical and also religious diversity results in street lined with shops
offering either Halal food or fried chicken, the one food followers of any
(meat-allowing) religion can agree on.
Lining up at the register of the local Lidl, you see
orthodox Jews waiting in line behind Takiya-wearing Muslims. I’m sure there is
a catholic priest around here somewhere too, so we have the world’s three major
funny-hat-religions represented, all in peace and harmony.
More or less at least – when I moved here I bought a local
newspaper reporting on the “Muslim Patrol”, a gang of three guys in their twenties
who believed their mission from Allah was to abuse and hit drunks for
“polluting their body” and girls for “indecent” clothing - and if you pick
drunks as a target you will be one busy patrol in England, for sure. The same
goes for “indecent” clothing, considering the fact that 5 degrees Celsius do
not stop English girls from wearing a mini skirt (nor do 50kg overweight).
One thing I like about the area is that it is quite easy to
socialize. We have met more people here in two weeks than in one year in the
German countryside. And mostly more interesting people too.
I do not so much like the next door crazy cat lady’s feral
creatures peeing on my motorbike and that I am not supposed to keep my bicycle
in the front yard, since everyone keeps telling me that it will be stolen.
At the moment I am pushing my luck simply because I don’t
have anywhere else to put it and eventually everybody will probably tell me “I
told you so”…
But anyway, since this blog is dedicated to music, back to
subject.
Up until now I have merely written about German bands, since
the texts were published in a Japanese fanzine and to most readers they were
probably new. However, publishing in English now I might as well pick some
Japanese bands to introduce… and to start I will go with one of the big names
in the Japanese Punk scene: the Ryders.
In the early 90s Punkrock in Japan experienced its biggest
boom up till date. Street Punk with sing-along choruses was as big as it gets
with Oi-band “Cobra” as forerunners, even making it to MTV Japan and some
international acknowledgement.
Some other big names of the time were Laughin Nose, the Star
Club, the Strummers and the Ryders. All these bands have been around since the
80s and in The Star Club’s case since the 70s (they even claim to be the first
Japanese Punkrock band at all).
Anyone who visits Japan and looks at the gig listings will
be surprised that all of these bands are actually still playing.
One of my first shows in Tokyo was the Strummers in Shibuya
and I was afraid I wouldn’t get a ticket since on a live-DVD I have, they were
playing a huge hall with about 1000 people.
However, getting the ticket wasn’t a problem at all and
there were only about 40 people at the venue they played at. So things had
changed since the early 90s obviously…
To be fair, the show I went to was especially poorly
attended but it’s like with most of the bands I mentioned above: there’s a
loyal following and apart from that it depends on the day how many people show
up. Still, I know for a fact that for some of the original members the live
shows are a regular income.
During my time in Japan, the bands I saw live on a regular
basis were the Ryders and the Star Club, because of our common circle of
friends. I would eventually have stopped going to Star Club shows if I would
have had to pay, but would happily have bought tickets for the Ryders even for
seeing them the 10th time.
This is simply because Ohno, the front man is such a great
entertainer and the general atmosphere at their shows is very relaxed. There
are always the die-hard Ryders fans in the front who will start to pogo as soon
as the first chord is played, but while there is a lot of tough-guy posing at
Star Club shows, Ryders shows just offer the better party.
Musically all those bands are straight forward Punkrock but
The Ryders are just perfect at it. They have their fast 1234-two minute
smashers as well as mid-tempo melodic songs with sing-along choruses and a romantic rebel feel to them.
So the show is fun and like with most Japanese bands the
looks are right too, including Mohawks and spiky hair.
Let me clear up a widely spread prejudice here: Japanese
Punks are as “real” or “fake” as their Western counterparts. Over the years I
have heard over and over again that for the Japanese it’s all style over
substance and that they were only copying the English or American originals,
which is just rubbish!
When bands like the Ryders sing working class songs it’s as
real as it gets.
Most of the Punks in Japan consciously turn down any chance
of getting a regular office job or “making it” when they get their first tattoo
or bleach their hair - Japan is in that respect still very traditional.
The two remaining original members, Ohno and Kouji are both
Tokyo working class and this is a lot tougher than in most industrialized
societies due to the working hours that are expected from you.
It is true that the Japanese are very style-conscious but I
certainly prefer that to fat and bald English guys on stage.
Yes, superficial, I know. But the show is also part of the
entertainment and it is ok for me if band members only do their hair for the
stage. I don’t expect to meet a fully dressed up Michael Monroe in the
supermarket but I don’t want to see him on stage in track pants!
Also, the fact that there are bands like “The Tokyo Sex
Pistols”, “The Tokyo Cramps” and so on has to do less with copying than much
more with paying tribute.
To me it seems that double standards are applied to Western
and Japanese bands, which are easily accused as copy cats who never come up
with anything original, be it musically or fashion related.
That said, the Ryders have style and substance and as far as
I know (and I do not know all since there are quite many) any of their records is
definitely worth checking out.
My yet to beat favourite is definitely “Bringing out Myself”
from their 1993 album “All the Way”. Check their homepage for the whole
discography:
http://www.the-ryders.com
Unfortunately, as with most Japanese Punk bands, their
records are probably not easy to find outside Japan. They are easily ordered
from Japan though.
That's it for now - if I keep getting my two klicks a day, I will keep posting stuff from time to time.
Tada,
Chris
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