Hello, hello.
This time I will keep the personal stuff at a minimum but since I promised you that I will complain about London's parking situation, here we go:
Within the last two months I have received three parking tickets - one for overstaying 5 minutes, the other for parking in front of my house while having applied for a resident permit and the other while actually displaying a paid ticket in my front window!
For a country in which few things work properly, an impressive efficiency!
Alright, that's it already - back to the music:
Japan is often perceived as a place where bands that were
once big still have the following to fill huge venues. You know, “Big in Japan”...
From my experience, this is true to a certain point but not
nearly as much as often thought. I find that the Japanese are very loyal to the
bands they love and would not abandon them all of a sudden because something
new and hip comes along. Also, Japan is still not the closest place for
American or European bands to play, which is why most bands don’t play there
that often.
But the most important factor is probably the sheer number
of people living in the major cities in Japan – there are simply enough people
to support any kind of music or band and to give them a little taste of the
Rockstar-life.
With 30 Million people in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area alone, it is
not necessarily funny that German 80s Metal is still passably big – it’s just
maths…
The downside of this is that bands resurface from oblivion,
just to do a few gigs in Japan and then go back to whatever else they are
usually doing.
The last display of this was a gig by 20/20 and The Records at
Shimokitazawa’s (one of the areas to spend a night out in Tokyo) famous “Shelter”:
overweight American housewives having their Crazy-Japan-High and behaving like
high school girls again, giggling and taking pictures of their equally
overweight husbands on stage.
The music was certainly still good but that was one reunion
I did not need… also considering that both bands were good in their days but
definitely not outstanding in any way.
The place was still packed and the audience kind enough to
give them a warm welcome…
What I am getting at is that there is no need to fly in
middle-aged American dads to play their old stuff when you got bands like
Firestarter right at your doorstep.
There are quite many Japanese Power-Pop bands that are worth
checking out, such as Teenage Confidential but for me Firestarter stand out
because of their garage edge.
They got the melodies but never sound too clean to be thrown
in with the likes of The Rubinoos. Firestarter is more late 70s UK Mod sound than
early 80s American Power Pop.
I guess this is also due to the fact that three members used
to be in Japanese Garage Punk legend Teengenerate - they carried some of the “roughness”
over to Firestarter.
The extra bit of noise in their sound also brings with it
the advantage of drowning singer Fifi’s voice a little, hiding the funny
English. However, they were still confident enough to print the lyrics on the
sleeve – so enjoy…
It’s been a while since I last heard anything but I believe Firestarter
are still around and also singer Fifi has his own bar in Shimokitazawa, called
the Poor Cow. It’s a little hidden on the 4th or 5th
floor in a building close to the station but if you find it you’ll be rewarded
with great music and nice people. There are also shows there from time to time.
Firestarter have two records out that I know of (selftitled & Livin’ on the
Heat), both equally great, though I prefer the first s/t
one. They have also released some singles.
I guess you should be able to get their records abroad since
Teengenerate were pretty big in America/Europe with their records being
released on Crypt. Firestarter should have been able to use those connections somehow.
