The 5, 6, 7, 8s’s most famous song is Woo Hoo, a.k.a. “That song in the Vonage ads.”
They aren’t quite breakthrough, but Dir en Grey is picking up here. They toured with koRn last year, and sold out crowds in NYC, Austin and LA (albeit with a tour aimed at j-rock and anime fans, but you gotta start somewhere, right?).
Hi-Standard is a Japanese punk band on the Fat Wreck label.
Okay, this is basically my favorite topic ever, so… forgive the rambling.
First, a few notes: there are a few bands that have released cds in America. Tofu Records is a label that specifically publishes Japanese music for the USA. They’ve managed to get quite a few famous acts, including L’arc en ciel, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, X-Japan, High and Mighty Color, etc. In addition to this, Dir en grey (whom Kushiel mentioned) just had a cd released by Free Will America. There’s a few other misc. bands whose music can be had in the USA–Thee Michelle Elephant Gun, for one. This subject is important, because imported Japanese music is crazy expensive–I mean, it’s expensive in Japan, and even more expensive when you add shipping on to that. Consider that a new cd in Japan can go for upwards of $30 and you will understand the pain of the Japanese rock music fan (When I was in Japan, I was overjoyed to score a used cd that had come out a few months ago–for only $20!).
Needless to say, there are some strictly not legal ways to get the music, but we won’t mention any of those. I’ll just mention that YouTube has a great many lawbreakers on it.
Most Japanese bands have at least a few songs in English, or partly in English. Some of these would include:
L’arc en ciel These guys are actually one answer to both of your questions. I’ve heard them quoted as the best selling rock band in SE Asia; it might even be true. They have at least 2 albums that sold more than 2 million copies; almost every single member of the band has done successful solo projects, and they’ve now been around for almost 15 years. They are now quite normal, but hyde used to wear a dress… He looked like a tiny lil’ white girl. sniff Those were the days. Anyways, they’ve written quite a few songs in English. For example, the song “Countdown” was released in both an English and a Japanese version. Again, some of the English is quite dubious. I personally don’t like them–they sound very American-pop-rock these days. But Hyde is crazy hot, so I have some cds.
Zilch. This band wrote their songs entirely in English–somewhat dubious English, occasionally, but always entertaining. They has a long and somewhat complicated history, but to make a long story short, after the incredibly famous Japanese 80s rock band X-Japan broke up, their members started solo projects. The most interesting ex-member was hide (bright pink hair, original career goal: stylist), who did a few solo albums before teaming up with a number of American musicians to attempt the infiltration of the English-speaking scene. It didn’t actually succeed–never really got a chance, in fact–because hide offed himself before the album was ever released. It was eventually released in Japan, but never in the USA. Not too easy to get your hands on, but I love it. Catchy industrial stuff, with bizarre random disco parts, strange sexual lyrics, weird as hell.
There’s also a Japanese rock band called Fake? which has a really interesting history. Basically, it has a white dude in it–a guy named Ken Lloyd, who is actually Japanese-British, and totally bilingual, along with a really famous Japanese musician–an ex-member of the legendary rock band, Luna Sea. So a lot of the songs are in perfect English. Never been released outside of Japan, though. They’re pretty good, although I wouldn’t qualify them as “can’t be missed.” Note: they’ve broken up now.
It’s actually really interesting how Japanese bands use English. It’s often incorporated into the otherwise Japanese lyrics–with varying levels of skill. Take the hip-hop/B&B song “Miss You” by m-flo loves melody (long story…) It’s basically bilingual. The English isn’t perfect–but look at these lyrics…
“Ooh, baby can’t you see
wakatte hoshii [I want (you) to understand]
this is my kimochi [feeling]
Ooh tell me, tell me 'cause gendo nante nai [there is no limit]
suki na mono [things you like] buy shite [I will buy]”
It’s like some kind of weird pidgin language. It’s even more fascinating to listen to, because both the Japanese and the English is pronounced almost perfectly–Melody, the female singer, is Hawaiian-Japanese. Sorry, this was a huge digression but I find it totally fascinating. Moving on!
Oh, what a question. Heh. Well, it really depends what kind of music you like. For this post, I’ll stick to rock, since it’s what I like.
Asian Kung-Fu Generation : mentioned above, they’ve been licensed in the USA, so you might actually be able to acquire an album. They are pretty big in Japan–inevitable favorites in my karaoke bar experience. Some people say their songs all sound alike–not an unfair criticism, but I like how they sound. They’re very old school emo and very 90s British rock. (The band’s favorite artists include Radiohead and Oasis, so no surprise there.) The covers to their albums are mostly done by the same artist, and really awesome. Actually, they sound a lot like the pillows. It’s a common theme in Japan rock at the current time. In fact, the next band also falls into this genre…
Bump of Chicken : Despite the unfortunate name, really extremely awesome. Their most famous song is probably Tentai Kansoku–a really beautiful song, and one of the few Japanese songs I’ve heard where I genuinely like the lyrics. They usually don’t translate too well… The title means “Star Gazing.” I also like “best picture” and “Glorious Revolution.” Their latest CD, Yggdrasil, was really good too.
Personally, my absolute favorite Japanese musical genre is visual kei. The wiki article doesn’t really do it justice. If you’ve ever been to Tokyo, you may have been to Harajuku and saw all the crazy kids in the square outside Meiji-jingu. You see travel guides claiming that they are dressing up like “anime characters” all the time, but this is false. They are dressing up as their favorite vk musicians. I could even identify who, sometimes. Visual kei is an acquired taste (they tend to crossdress), and a kinda guilty pleasure for me. But I will unashamedly recommend the following bands:
cali gari : named after the old movie “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and they basically started the visual kei sub-genre of eroguro (Japanese for “erotic grotesque.”) They’re really obscure–I never managed to find a single cd while I was in Japan–and they broke up quite a while ago, but I love everything I’ve heard. Like many eroguro bands after them, they mix jazz, garage rock, new wave, weird experimental stuff… it’s awesome. I especially love the songs “Erotopia” and “Maguro.”
Merry : one of my favorite bands ever. Also eroguro. They do some really gorgeous retro-jazz-rock stuff. Considerably less obscure, but not released in the USA. They did this song I adore, called Tokyo Telephone, and then released a beautiful, downtempo acoustic “jazz piano” version of the same song. Also do these crazy, frenetic, manic songs like “Violet Harenchi.” They recently did a collaboration with Mad Capsule Markets, BTW.
Quaff: I really do like them a lot, but I especially mention them because they have a number of songs up for free download. (Under discography). I actually got to see them when I was Tokyo, and the lead-singer (with awesome hair) was almost comically amazed and grateful when I bought his CD–they are not very famous at all, and often have to play second-fiddle to all these terrible VK bands. Anyways, their music is really interesting, actually–Japanese-inspired rock, with random bits of rapping/chanting thrown in.
I need to shut up and do my homework now, so if you managed to finish my post, I applaud you! I hope some of it, at least, was useful to someone… :o
Japanese mixed with some Engrish:
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant: hard rock similar to Guitar Wolf, with more of a Who and Damned fetish.
Husking Bee: indie rock.
English:
Sigh: a very good progressive black metal band, and this is coming from someone who generally dislikes that genre.
Melt-Banana: an acquired taste, to say the least.
Boredoms: they change styles a lot, but are usually quite experimental.
That was a stellar post. Well done. I’m off to search for new music now!