It’s actually the very first song the band wrote, but wasn’t released until now.
Chu Chu Song is totally Otoboke Beaver, as we know them. Chainsaw guitars,
deranged drum attacks and scream-and-yell eruptions. Pure dynamite punk.
No brakes, no breaks, no snakes. A maddening missile this is. Holy moley.
For all of our Japanese-speaking readers, here’s the chorus…
Band: OTOBOKE BEAVER – おとぼけビ～バ～ Who: All-female riot grrl group from Kyoto, Japan Active: Since 2099 – 3 (new one included)
New album: SUPER CHAMPON – スーパーチャンポン Released: 6 May 2022 – order info here
Pitchfork: “Super Champon’ is crammed with noise: Hirochan sprints up and down her fretboard, Kahokiss punishes her drum kit, and Yoyoyoshie discharges endless rounds of screeching riffs. The lyrics, fired off in quick, sharp bursts, are both menacing and hilarious.” Score: 7.8/10.
Turn Up The Volume: This Japanese rainbow-colored punk bolide rolls faster
than a tornado through 18 whirlwind whoppers in under 25 minutes. The Ramones
sound like choirboys compared to these wackadoos.
Expect hard-punk-core uppercuts. Watch out, people, these riot Grrls attack with
peppery pizazz and have no mercy whatsoever for your ears and your stereo speakers.
I don’t speak/understand Japanese but it’s clear that they do not fume about the birds
and the bees. Holy moly.
Key singles/clips: Dirty Old Fart Is Waiting For My Reaction / Yakitori / I’m Not Material
Band: OTOBOKE BEAVER – おとぼけビ～バ～ Who: All-female riot grrl group from Kyoto, Japan Active: Since 2099 – 3 (new one included)
New album: SUPER CHAMPON – スーパーチャンポン Release: 6 May 2022 – order info here
New single: YAKITORI おとぼけビ～バ～
The fourth shared cut from the forthcoming LP
TURN UP THE VOLUME: As I said before, compared to these sharp-teethed
Japanese punkettes the Ramones sound like choirboys. Otobeke Beaver is
an unstoppable mean scream machine. Fuzzing and buzzing, smashing and
clashing, movin’ and groovin’.
YAKITORI is another very loud and very clear example of their post-hardcore-punk
bravado. After a funky flow start, this badass belter speeds up like an explosive and
volcanic fireball. Watch out, people, these riot rebels make your head rotate 360
degrees and they have no mercy whatsoever for your ears.
Disco-freak stomper of the month, hands down. This new punky-funky corker follows
the previous 2 shared crackers Wild Flowers and Fatso. They will all be on their upcoming album At the Hot Spot, out tomorrow, 1 April (no joke).
It’s a bangin’ beast with a screamin’ chorus. A perfect pick-me-up tune for all the weirdos
who are always in the kitchen at parties waiting for Warmduscher to kick their lazy asses.
Compared to this Japanese red-hot-bloody fury the Ramones sound like choirboys. Otobeke Beaver‘s race and rush in an overwhelming overdrive. No brakes, no breaks.
Their rabidity rolls like a tsunami through your ears. These perky punkettes produce
moshpit madness on the spot. The average song length is 2 minutes, 120 seconds
of clamorous pandemonium.
3. ‘Territorial Call Of The Female’ by BODEGA (Brooklyn, NY)
The New Yorkers still operate on Parquet Courts’ playground with their new,
2nd full-length Broken Equipment. But they supersized their jangly beats
and they turned up the temperature.
Territorial Call Of The Female is my favorite cut. It activates
every muscle and every nerve in my itching body.
Scott Kirkland (the remaining member of Las Vegas dance act The Crystal Method)
invited icon Iggy Pop (you can hear him almost any day on a new collaboration, the
past few years) and his British buddy, composer/DJ Hyper in his studio.
The raving result is a techno boom boost, bursting all the way, with Pop‘s voice
strangled by a blender. Sounds spooky, sounds wicked, sounds like lust for life.
Breaking news: Iggy says he’s not a punk anymore!
“I don’t want to be a punk
I don’t want to belong to any of it
I just want to be”
Busy blues-rock bee Jack White canned two new longplayers for this year, titled Fear Of The Dawn (out 8 April 2022) and Entering Heaven Alive (out 22 July 2022)
The hottest cut I heard so far is Hi-De-Ho (from ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ LP) featuring Q.Tip.
The by now legendary passion rockers from Cincinnati, Ohio with mastermind
Greg Dulli in control are back from being away for 5 years. Their last album In Spades came out in 2017.
I’ll Make You See God a striking steamroller, a red-hot-heated stunner, an unstoppable
cannonball going everywhere fast. It will feature in the upcoming PlayStation game Gran Turismo 7.
7. ‘Nothing Comes Good Easy’ by DEAD LEVEE (Canada)
Wowzer! This sickly uplifting belter (from upcoming EP Rise-Up) elevates your state of mind with fired-up dynamism from the get-go. Rapid-fire rawk and roll riffs switch on a fervent feel of euphoria. It did it in the past, it does it in the present and it will do it in
the future.
Despite all the BS we have to endure (pandemic, Ukraine, natural disasters,
and other threats) it’s never too late to get back on track and why not start
with 4 and a half minutes of heart-warming guitar-fueled boogie-woogie
that breathes hope and assurance.
Once I learned that this startling uppercut is about the horrible
exploitation of human beings by ferocious money sharks this
jagged jackhammer blew my mind even harder than I heard it
the first time before knowing about the band’s inspiration
for this standout.
Expect rabid guitars, doom and gloom vocals, and frantic twists and turns
until the chaotic finale. Post-punk at its razorblade best. Think fierce Canadian
turbine Metz and London‘s up-and-coming gunslingers Crows.
This fiery crackerjack goes forth and back with
turbulent velocity. Imagine the full of vim and vigor
intenseness and puissant vocality of The Afghan Whigs.
Anxious, unyielding, and ablaze.
Breaking Grounds races like a rush of blood to the head with
screaming guitars and propelling drum muscularity.
The first taster from the upcoming debut full-length Dancing On A Volcano.
Imagine the fervid fuzz of punchy guitar pop legends Buzzcocks, with The Stranglers’ Jean-Jacques Burnel on bass, combined with the cutting
verbality of today’s post-Brexit-punk rebirth and you know a frisky doozy
is coming your way.
Add some American-dream girls of the City of Angles on your imaginary
mind-screen and you’re about to start a champagne party in your head.
The combination of a nasty Gang Of Four bass riff,
frenzied Keith Levene guitars here and there and Skinner
hip-hop-rapping like Beck used to do, works like an ecstatic
upper.
This funk-punk stonker has an immediate intensifying impact on all of your
limbs and your bloodstream’s flow. Add some sexy sax thrills to the mix and
you’ll have all you need to jump out of your slump. Capice?
Cut from their sophomore album
‘Moon Reflections’, out on June 24
A rotating synth riff echoes British electro legends New Order and
is the beating heart of this new piece, yet the mood is meditative
and musing, strengthened by the near-whispering and eager vocals.
This darksome and soul-searching reverie gets under your skin after
a couple of spins.
This impassioned hard-luck story grows slowly but surely into a soul-stirring and mesmerising heartbreaker with an epic finale. Glowing guitars, a steady drumbeat,
and mixed emotions vocals all come together for a poignant performance.
‘Love Is Cruel / The Hurt Within’. You can feel it.
You’ll hear titillating electro-echoes of early Depeche Mode before
they became the darkwave Goth-esque rockers we all know. But
in an eye-blink White Skin becomes an infectious nightclub earworm
with an ecstatic chorus.
In a normal world (does that actually exists?) this adrenaline-infused
and hip-swinging spark should top the dance charts around the globe.
The musical project of singer/songwriter Jordan Speare
assisted by guitarist/bassist and friend Andrew Billone.
After a couple of EPs the pair’s canned their first longplayer
called Silhouettes. Release at the end of the year.
I don’t know if it’s the world-famous and historic museum in Paris
they want to burn, that wouldn’t be so nice. What I do know is that their
brisk and spirited sound is infectious and captivating with an immediate
impact on your body’s movements. Expect guitar pop electricity, extra
pushed by lively vocals.
16. ‘Life And Lies’ by LEE ROGERS (Northern Ireland)
The Americana voice of Northern Ireland releases
his new album Gamebloodon 13 May.
Ahead of it came this mixed emotions single with Rogers‘ sky-reaching voice as the star, once again.
It’s a bluesy goosebumps reflection. Wurlitzer jukeboxes should be reinvented
for these heartbreakers so moody minds can cry their eyes out (or cry in their beer)
at night in a downtown bar where lonely ones gather and chat about life and lies.
A poppy synth trip with a floating flow and near-whispering vocals. Both eerie and affecting, both dizzy and hypnotic with a frenetic guitar attack coming out of nowhere around the 3-minute mark.
It’s an epic ballad with a country feel. If this melancholic gem was written
in the 60s it would have been sung by Linda Rondstadt, Tammy Waynette
or Dolly Parton, anyway, by an angelic voice like Olsen‘s magnific one.
Band: OTOBOKE BEAVER – おとぼけビ～バ～ Who: All-female riot grrl punkettes from Kyoto, Japan
Active: Since 2099 – 3 (new one included)
New album: SUPER CHAMPON – スーパーチャンポン Release: 6 May 2022 – order info here
New single: I AM NOT MATERIAL
The 4th shared piece off the upcoming album.
Turn Up The Volume: Compared to this Japanese red-hot-bloody fury
the Ramones sound like choirboys. Otobeke Beaver‘s race and rush in an
overwhelming overdrive, no brakes, no breaks. Their rabidity rolls like a
tsunami over your ears. Awesome!
These perky punkettes produce moshpit madness on the spot.
The average song length is 2 minutes, 120 seconds of clamorous
pandemonium. These frentic champions rule.
