It’s been about six weeks since Zazen Boys’ bassist Hinata Hidekazu announced he was leaving the band, and already ringleader Mukai Shutoku (restless as he is) has brought in a new bassist, Yoshida Ichiro. Yoshida was originally in the (now defunct) band 12939db (he also played in Nine Days Wonder), which appeared to be from Tokyo, so rumors that Mukai was going to hire someone from his home base in Fukuoka apparently didn’t pan out.

I’ve been surprised at some of the negative reactions over Hinata’s leaving, but I don’t think it matters who plays the instruments in Zazen Boys. This band is Mukai’s baby, and he could have Radiohead as the backing band without the results being much different. That said, there’s no way to even speculate what Zazen Boys’ next album will sound like, but don’t look for this new guy to be changing things.

I think I’ve mentioned to death how awesome I thought the HY and Doug E. Fresh performance of “Street Story” at New York’s Japan Nite concert was. It totally came out of left field for me. It’s not like Japanese and Western collaborations are not possible, but they are pretty rare. Sometimes they turn out great (Christopher McGuire in Quruli) and sometimes they don’t meet all the hype (Utada Hikaru and Timbaland). What do you think would make a good team up as far as some of your favorite Japanese and Western artists?

I don’t know what street musicians are like in other cities of the world, but here in Tokyo, I’m sad to say, most of them suck.

There are exceptions to the rule. I always like to brag about the one time I saw PE’Z, before anyone knew who they were, play at that square off the east entrance of JR Shinjuku station. Needless to say, upon seeing them my mind was filled with a cornucopia of expletives, all of which run somewhere along the lines of “holy fucking shit!” That’s an extraordinary example of course, but PE’Z aside, it’s not entirely impossible to encounter music that’s actually worthwhile on the streets. Just don’t go out expecting to, because those instances will be rare and few.

Of course, most people in this day and age are equipped with the ability to tune out distractions of this sort, so they are mild annoyances at worst. But it does leave you wondering - can’t Tokyo do any better? The music scene here has got to be one of the most vibrant in the world, so why can’t some of that awesomeness trickle down to the amateur-level street musicians? Or more to the point, why can’t those said street musicians, in light of all the exposure to their better peers that this city affords them, realize how much they suck and keep their shitty music to themselves?

This rant was inspired by one such experience I had yesterday at Kichijoji, on my way from Tower Records to the JR station. It was a typical rock band arrangement - a three-piece consisting of a guitarist/singer, a bassist, and a drummer. I’ll admit to being predisposed to assume they suck, but I can assure you that a more open mind on my part would not have proved me wrong in any way. I couldn’t have spent more than a few seconds listening to their music to (whilst still walking of course, I’m not going to waste any amount of time on these fuckers), so none of this would’ve been worth noting in a blog, except I witnessed something for the first time - though I suspect it’s actually a common occurrence. The musicians have suddenly stopped playing, and are exuding an “oh shit” vibe. I whip my head around to notice that a couple of policemen are walking towards this direction. The rest you can infer.

Seriously, I don’t like policemen in general, and I’m pretty sympathetic to musicians, but the fact of the matter is that the band was horrible, and had resoundingly failed to earn my support. So instead of “come on boys, stick it up to authority” I was thinking “haha.”

Sure I may be a jerk, but at least I don’t engage in indulgent noise pollution, right?

Sometimes when I feel like torturing myself, I’ll go on the Keikaku Myspace page and look through the tons of Japanese bands out there and add them as friends. It’s an arduous endeavor; not only do I have to sift through tons of fake band pages made by fans so they could host music for their friends, but I also have to go through many boring bands. Like there’s these metal bands. They all sound the same. I’ve decided to have a set of criteria when adding bands:

1. They should have an interesting or familiar name.
2. They must have some sort of band photo as their main photo. No bad logos, no pictures of girls they met in a bar.
3. They should have neat music samples on their Myspace page.
4. They have to stand out somehow.

This band applies to #4 perfectly.

Maybe I should do recurring blog posts listing some of the neat bands I find on myspace.