Tomorrow is The Undertones gig here in New York! Pretty excited about that. And then on Saturday I get to see Okama Flannel Boy in Mexico City. It does sound like a good week, right?
Now here are some finds of course!
Kung-Fu Girl:I can’t wait to get a copy of the Japanese band’s brand new album. My excitement grows and grows. Especially now that the band have released a video for their song “Anorak” which is lots of fun! The album is out now on Testcard Records. Don’t miss it!
Hideki Kaji: the Japanese master is back with a new album called “Goth Romance” which will be released by Space Shower Music on CD and digital formats. There is also a version that includes a fanzine. So that’s the way to go. To hear a preview do check the superb song “Spray and Fanfare” which even has its own video!
The Trees: I look at more releases by the Space Shower Music and I stumble upon The Trees. They have a superb song and video for their track “Breakfast Club”. Don’t know much about them, but it does sound great!
Trillion: we leave Japan and head to Sydney, Australia, because that’s where these shoegazers are from. The band has just released a 6-track EP called “When I Wake” which is available on CD. First time listening to them and first impression is that I really enjoy the vocals, especially on the title track! Good stuff!
акульи слёзы: from the city of Uta, Russia, comes this dreamy pop band. Yes, I’ve featured Shark’s Tears before on the blog (I think their name translates to that? At least that’s what shows in the url!) and I’m happy to do so again as they have released their 7 song mini-album “Experience of the Charm” a week ago. I hope access to the Russian pop bands becomes easier to everyone, especially if there are physical records as lots of great stuff is coming from there!
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Time for the letter U. This was definitely one of the hardest. There aren’t that many bands that start with the letter U. But I thought of this Japanese band that sadly didn’t release any records but did appear on a few compilations. I know very little about Unknown Readymade but this will be a good time to find any interesting details about them.
It seems that under the name Unknown Readymade was a guy called Kumiko Ishikawa. And as far as I know, thanks to Discogs, there were two times when the band appeared on compilations. All of them in Japan.
The first compilation I was aware of the band was the 2002 “Pop Comes Up! Bluebadge Compilation Vol. 2” which has been mentioned before on the blog. On this CD released by the Bluebadge Label (BBCD-002) the band contributes the song “With My Favorite Camera”.
That same year, 2002, the band appears with the song “By Cycle” on the compilation “Good Compi (abcdefg*record)” that was released by abcdefg*record (a-g010). This compilation has also been mentioned on the blog when I wrote about the super Pitcher56 many months ago.
There is also a record where Kumiko is involved with. He sings on the third track, “粉雪”, on the album “崩壊アンプリファー” by the band Asian Kung-Fu Generation that was originally released by the great Under Flower Records (Flower-047) in 2002. There are actually three reissues of it too, a 2003 CD EP, just like the original, on Ki/oon, and later in 2017 another CD EP by the same label. The third reissue is a 12″vinyl released by Spectrum Management Co. Ltd. Seems this Asian Kung-Fu Generation was a much more famous band than Unknown Readymade.
I found too that Kumiko sang on Panic Pop’s “Baby P” song which seems to be an original by the great Japanese band Plus-Tech Squeeze Box.
And that seems to be it for Unknown Readymade. There is barely any information about the band on the web. It seems Kumiko was always up for working with other people from the Japanese pop scene. It also looks like Unknown Readymade was his band, his own band. Sadly we don’t know if he recorded more songs or why he never put anything out, just the two compilation appearances. I hope to find out more about him. Would be great!
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