The Next Wave ( part 2 )
There is a good chance I will do NMFT 16 next year but a stripped down version with only three bands. I presented my three favourite bands under consideration in the previous post. Here are the contenders that hope to supercede them before I make my final decision.
kurayamisaka
When I went to watch Hammer Head Shark perform at Chikamichi in Shimokitazawa, I ended up in a conversation with the owner of Chikamichi who highly recommended the band kurayamisaka. I had actually seen kurayamisaka’s name bounced around in my Japanese friends’ twitter feeds and had already given them a cursory look on Youtube but didn’t pay much attention until Chikamichi’s owner stressed that they are definitely one of the best up and coming bands.
So I gave them a deeper listen on Apple Music and fell in love with the “君を思っている” ep. The entire ep is solid from start to finish but I especially enjoyed the tracks ‘cinema paradiso’ and ‘curtain call’. The songs are fairly simple instrumentation-wise but they really nail that thick MBV distortion/reverb. I sometimes wish they showed a bit more nastiness and aggression but that side may show when the songs are performed live.
They’re fun and energetic on stage, have a few really great songs and seem like they would be really cool to hang out with.
If inflation and travel costs weren’t so bad I wouldn’t hesitate to add kurayamisaka to the roster. Unfortunately, having five members is a huge problem since they cost almost as much as bringing 171 and Nikoん combined. Don’t even get me started on whether I think the band really needs three guitarists or not lol! And from a musicianship standpoint, they’re nowhere near as tight or proficient as Hammer Head Shark who sound even more amazing live compared to their studio recordings. Judging from the Youtube clips I can tell that kurayamasaki are a bit sloppy but they’re still a young band and the mistakes just give their sound more of a punk edge.
Interestingly, in the Weekly Shonen Jump edition where they asked the mangakas for their top 3 favourite bands—Kohei Horikoshi the mangaka for Boku No Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) listed kurayamisaka #2. And he had a previous NMFT hopeful Oh No Darkness!! ranked first. Horikoshi has some great taste in music!!
My friend Sebastian (NMFT15 videographer) says his two favorites out of the bands in contention for NMFT 16 are 171 and kurayamisaka. I’ll take his nod for kurayamisaka under consideration.
But any five member band is going to make it much more expensive for me. So if you guys want. to see kurayamisaka in Canada next year you better make your voices heard loud and clear.
傷女融解 (Shojo Yukai)
Shojo Yukai is a 2pc garage punk band with Utada Maki on guitar/vocals and Ito Hinano on drums/chorus.
Maki is only 18yo but has been writing and recording music solo on acoustic guitar since she was fourteen. A big inspiration in her music is both Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. Though her guitar skills are still rudimentary she practices everyday and once tweeted she wishes there were more hours in the day because she loves playing guitar and 24 hours isn’t enough. In September of this year, she challenged herself by performing either solo or with Shojo Yukai every single night at a proper live venue or in front of a live audience in the streets. Not only that, some days she performed more than once and in total did over 40 gigs in September 2023 alone. By the end she had almost no voice (and I’m sure the fingers on her left hand were raw too) but soldiered on.
Hinano works as a model (?also acting) and drums for at least three other bands: Mahoraba, Asoko Spot and mote mote band. So she’s a pretty hard worker as well.
A huge fan of Shojo Yukai named Hiyoko approached the band and asked if she could play support bass for them. By the way, Shojo Yukai are based in Tokyo and Hiyoko lives near Kyoto!! For about a month and a half, Shojo Yukai became a 3-pc band with Hiyoko commuting all the way from the Kansai area to do occasional shows in Tokyo. But I heard that Hiyoko actually got married (whaaaat?!) and Shojo Yukai is back to just the original two members.
Shojo Yukai’s music is straightforward garage rock and the vast majority of bands I choose for NMFT tend to be math rock, emo, post-rock, shoegazer, or punk/HC with more intricate instrumentation. Mainly, I try to avoid music that is generic at all costs. Utada Maki has a great voice with loads of character that can be charismatic and powerful as well as beautiful in its softness and fragility. She has a knack for crafting songs with awesome vocal melodies and the music has enough character to elevate it from being too generic. These two girls are really busting their asses for the joy of playing music and would love the chance to perform abroad. The fact they are only two members makes it super affordable plus there is the added bonus of Utada Maki performing solo as an opening act and even on the streets of Toronto/Montreal/Canada to draw people in.
ひとひら (hitohira)
hitohira is a 4-pc band playing a combination of post-rock and mid-west emo. These days they play more of the latter in the Cadwallader Football vein just like 500 other bands around the world with many of them in Japan (eg downt, ANORAK!). For me it’s the wall-of-noise, chaotic post-rock elements on their first release “Seasons of Someday” that made their music exciting. Unfortunately, the androgynous vocals with a flat, nasal tone are not my cup of tea.
D.B. Inches
D.B.Inches is short for dead by inches which is a fairly cool name imho. They’re a 4-pc band with female vocals mixing indie-pop, shoegaze and post-rock.
These guys were a frontrunner for the obligatory shoegaze/post-rock band of the tour but then got bumped by Hammer Head Shark and kurayamisaka. I’ve seen D.B. Inches live three times already and they definitely put on a solid performance whereas HHS completely blew me away. kurayamisaka’s “Kimi wo Omotte Iru” ep is also a much stronger release compared to D.B. Inches “Instinct, Filter Bubble’ Still, I like D.B.Inches’ music quite a bit and they’re definitely under consideration.
yu’re
yu’re (pronounced yuwa) is a 3-pc band who are heavily influenced by Rin Toshite Shigure albeit mellower and mathier.
I love their studio recordings but the one time I saw them live at Kichijoji WARP the performance was decent but a bit underwhelming. For one thing as a whole the band is fairly shy and introverted and their stage performance reflects that. Hopefully they’ll grow to be more animated and passionate as performers because their music is excellent.
They’re a bit of a long shot since I just missed their last show of the year on Dec 16 so I won’t get a chance to see if they’ve improved since I last saw them in January. But I’m definitely keeping an eye on them especially since they would be a lot cheaper to bring than the actual Rin Toshite Shigure. LOL.
Fallsheeps
This 4pc band based out of Yokosuka was recommended to me by an NMFT fan named Yu. Although, it turns out Fallsheeps’ gt/vo Junta Kawaguchi and I were already following each other on twitter hahaha. These guys play pop/rock without any hard stylistic boundaries. At times they can sound like Smashing Pumpkins, Helmet, Ride or the Beatles. A fun band with lots of variety to their music. They even have a stripped down version of the band with one less member called Fallsheeps_mini although I’m not exactly sure who’s missing but my best guess is the 2nd guitarist.
I actually could see them live tonight in Yokosuka but I promised Natsuko I’d go see Mass of the Fermenting Dregs at Shindaita FEVER with SAGOSAID, and Fennel (tricot bassist hirohiro’s band). But Fallsheeps have another show on the 28th at Kichijoji WARP which I hope to catch.
puleflor
puleflor is a 3pc shoegaze/post-rock band with female vocals from Gunma. Their drummer recently quit so they’ve slowed down activity and are doing shows less frequently with a support drummer. If Hammer Head Shark nails the mid to later pop/rock sound of Kinoko Teikoku then puleflor carry the more earnest and melancholy side of early Kinoko Teikoku without sounding too much like Chiaki Sato et al.
I was supposed to go to a show with puleflor, D.B.Inches and NOUGAT(band with members of oneinamillion, NENGU and Lucie,too’s original bassist) last year but my girlfriend asked me to take her out so no puleflor. They later had a show with Breakthrough Memories (ex Bakyun the everyday Yuji Ino’s new band) at Yokohama BB Street in January that I travelled an hour to get to just to find out puleflor had to cancel because one of the members got COVID. Yuji Ino highly recommended puleflor as a band I should consider bringing to Canada. In fact if I had seen puleflor live and loved them they might have been the band I took in SEAPOOL’s place instead of FURUTORI.
So twice I missed an opportunity to see puleflor perform live. Just a few weeks ago on Nov 26 they played a show with Nikoん and Kougou-no-Goraiko-Z (NMFT 14) and serendipitously my friend and co-worker Paul was visiting Japan and he went to the show to scout puleflor and Nikoん for me.
Paul liked puleflor quite a bit but that was before Kogou no Goraiko-Z went on next and blew him away. Then Nikoん went on last and thoroughly impressed him as well. So Paul’s verdict was that puleflor put on a decent show but don’t have the skill and stage presence of Kougou or Nikoん and that they probably need a couple of years honing their craft before I consider bringing them on NMFT.
It sucks because puleflor also played their last show of the year on Dec 16 the night before I arrived in Tokyo. So I won’t get a chance to see if Paul was right in his assessment. Paul’s opinion clashes with Yuji Ino who was pretty confident that puleflor was an NMFT-worthy band and he’s been to Canada three times with Bakyun the everyday and arigarnon friends.
Anyways, I can’t really choose puleflor over HHS or even kurayamisaka not having seen them perform live but they are a band I have under consideration.
変心芙蓉 (Henshin Fuyou)
Henshin Fuyou is a young 4pc band who combine straightforward rock with post-HC, emo and post-rock. The music is a bit too straightforward and predictable but I can see the songwriting improving as they experiment with new ideas. I’ve seen them perform live twice and they put on a decent set with an absolute f*cking banger of a song called “Narcolepsy” to end things off with a chaotic storm.
Haha. I added both my live videos of Narcolepsy because I like it that much. Henshin Fuyou is almost worth bringing to Canada for that song alone!
The band plays with a lot of heart and energy. Gt/Vo Chishiyo has an awesome voice with great range. She might have some anxiety towards public speaking but tries her best to say something interesting or profound in between songs. Lead guitarist Iwasaki can definitely shred and the band overall is fairly tight already.
If anything Henshin Fuyou would be a great band to bring along with Hammer Head Shark since I can picture the two bands getting along really well together.
サバノオミソニー (Saba no Omisony)
This band was introduced to me by the guitarists of shuto as the coolest new band coming out of Utsunomiya. Utsunomiya is a small town about a 95min train ride north of Tokyo. It is famous for its gyoza and also for being the hometown of NMFT alums Lucie,Too.
Saba no Omisony play a fantastic blend of math-pop and shoegaze.
I done f*cked up. They curated a show with Lucie,Too and kurayamisaka on Dec17 and my plan was to try and make this show. Unfortunately, the show was in Utsunomiya and on the day I arrived in Haneda airport at 4:30pm. I reached my hotel in Tokyo at around 6pm and it would have taken 2 hours to get to the venue by train and bus/taxi. Since the show had doors open at 5:30pm and a 6pm start I would have missed kurayamisaka which was my main reason to catch the show so I ended up not going. In hindsight I might have been able to catch the tail end of Saba no Omisony but I didn’t know anything about them at the time. Actually, I think I checked out one of their videos and by chance it was one of their less impressive ones so I had no interest in travelling 2 hours to catch 15 min of a band that seemed meh.
And it turns out I almost saw them earlier in July because I was going to watch omeme tenten at Club 251 and Saba no Omisony were on the same bill but again, at that time I didn’t know them and there was a chance I might have timed it so I watched omeme tenten and skipped SnO. Actually, I ended up not going to the show altogether because I was too tired. lol.
But after having my friends recommend them to me (at the end of my trip) I am now kicking myself for not seeing them live when I had the chance.
Their December ep released just a couple weeks ago is sublime. Emotive with solid musicianship. Classic Telecaster clean shoegaze tones mixed with some meaner distortion not often equated with shoegaze and some mathiness as well.
I haven’t seen them live yet but they’ve catapulted themselves into the top 3 contenders along with hitohira and kurayamisaka.
siraph
siraph is a 5pc super group formed from the ashes of Haisuinonasa and School Food Punishment with Annabel on vocals. Haisuinonasa was a band I tried multiple times to bring to Canada but their drummer could never get enough time off work.
They are all excellent musicians and play an intricate combo of soul, jazz, funk and post-rock set to visuals streaming in the background. Yeah, I neglected to mention their VJ is the sixth member of the band (yikes! there goes the airfare budget). Thank god they are DIY and don’t have a manager as a 7th member to bring.
Siraph have been around for a while and I’ve been wanting to bring them to Canada for a long time. They used to have a manager but now they run things on their own and I think it would be possible for them to be part of an NMFT tour. Unfortunately now the problem is they have 5 members, likely six if they insist on the VJ coming as well. That means they are twice as expensive as Nikoん or 171. However, I am working on a project with the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and with their help I might be able to bring siraph but it would only be in the Toronto area (sorry Vancouver and Montreal).
宇宙団 (Uchuu Dan)
Uchu Dan is a 5pc band who combine a strong dose of Japanese folk with pop, rock and funk. Their sound is definitely the most profoundly JAPANESE of any band on this list. They’ve also been around for quite a while with multiple member changes with the biggest addition being a male guitarist who shares lead vocal duties. The addition of Yutaro adds some guitar punch and interesting male/female vocal dynamics.
Again, having five members they’re a bit of a long shot but they’re the perfect fit for a Japanese culture festival that I might get the opportunity to curate in 2025. They also have Haruna, ex-午前3時と退屈 (Gozen Sanji to Taikutsu) on bass and she’s a good friend of mine.