In September last year I walked into a bar called Poor Cow, tucked away on the fourth floor of a nondescript building in Tokyo’s hip neighbourhood of Shimokitazawa. A Japanese girl with dyed blue hair was spinning US garage rock and British invasion singles from the ’60s. The small space was hopping, packed with people having a good time, drinking and smoking (yes, you can still smoke in many Tokyo bars) – they were mainly Japanese, but there was one table of gaijin (foreigners).
Behind the bar, wearing sunglasses and a T-shirt that depicted Joey Ramone drawn as a Peanuts character, was the owner. Fifi – he only goes by the one name – is a bit of a legend in Japanese underground rock circles, having played in cult bands such as American Soul Spiders, Teengenerate, The Tweezers and Firestarter. After ordering a beer, I introduced myself. He asked where I was from, and then proceeded to proudly show off posters featuring Australian bands such as Radio Birdman and The Eastern Dark.
“Australia rocks!” he said, raising his glass in a toast.
Increasingly, Japan also rocks – and not just in places like Poor Cow. The Japanese garage rock scene barely registers as a blip on the country’s pop culture radar compared to J-pop, and even though locals who follow it are fanatical, many of the bands are more popular in the US and Australia than they are at home.
Guitar Wolf in action on stage.Credit: Shinz
Two of the more established acts are touring Australia this month. Guitar Wolf are a leather-clad three-piece that blasts out turbo-charged rock and roll, while The 5.6.7.8’s, a veteran female trio that formed back in 1986, are a delightfully off-kilter surf-rock/garage rock hybrid who gained massive exposure when Quentin Tarantino put them in Kill Bill: Volume 1.
Bruce Milne, who co-owns Melbourne’s Greville Records, estimates he has travelled to Japan a hundred times since he first visited in the late ’80s. He goes on record-buying trips, performs DJ sets, checks out bands and regularly attends underground rock festivals such as the annual Halloween Ball.
“The Japanese garage rock scene is small and it’s not represented in the Japanese media at all,” he says. “Also, it’s difficult to organise gigs in Japan and it’s often a pay-to-play situation, so it’s much harder for a band to play than it is in Australia. But despite that, everyone in the scene looks after each other and helps each other out. And the one person who has really helped create the scene is Daddy-O Nov.”
Daddy-O Nov’s name comes up early in any conversation you have about the scene.
“He’s the most important person in Japanese garage rock,” says music promoter Toshi Maeda, who was born in Japan, has lived in Australia since 1996 and is a member of punk band Mach Pelican. “He’s a music maniac and he started a regular garage band event called Back From The Grave in an underground club in Shinjuku in 1989. It’s still going.
“The bands he brings together are very different from most Japanese rock or pop. The unique thing about this scene is it doesn’t follow rules. Daddy-O wants people to be free to express themselves in any style. He doesn’t want bands that all sound the same. He wants them to each have their own character.”
And they certainly have character in spades. The 2017 documentary Garage Rockin’ Craze, which features Guitar Wolf and The 5.6.7.8’s, also showcases Texaco Leatherman (who are not fond of wearing shirts, but are fond of noise and chaos), Jackie And The Cedrics (who dress in snappy dinner suits and bow ties, but play gnarly surf rock), Saturns (who wear German army helmets and are intense, fast and confrontational) and The Fly And His One-Man Garbage (a bloke who plays electric guitar and drums simultaneously while wearing a giant fly mask over his head).
The documentary features lots of sweat, wrestling and bondage masks, samurai swords, tossed microphone stands, and, sometimes, smashed guitars. Along with more recent high-energy acts that formed in the 2000s, such as The Bawdies, The Fadeaways and The Highmarts, these bands really let loose, playing with abandon and flinging themselves around the stage.
“It does challenge the stereotypes of what others expect of Japanese people,” says Milne. “When I started seeing these bands in the late ’80s and ’90s, what set them apart was that they would walk on stage and hit it hard, be entertaining, have a great time, and be on and off in 20 minutes. Instead of wearing flannel shirts and staring at their feet, they had these wild costumes and tons of energy and smiles on their faces. I found that really appealing.
The 5.6.7.8’s are veterans of Japan’s equal-opportunity garage scene.
“Another thing I love is that there are probably more women than men in these bands. A recent festival line-up was something like 60 per cent women. And it’s also across all ages. You’ll see bands with 19-year-old girls, and others with women who are 60.”
There is one more thing Milne has noticed in over 35 years of following this scene.
“I used to be literally the only Westerner at these shows,” he says. “But now festivals like the Halloween Ball have become something for people all over the world. I’ll meet people from Norway and Spain, and at the last one there must have been 50 Australians there. Now there are people who will travel to Japan to see the cherry blossoms, wear a kimono and go to see some Japanese garage rock.”
Guitar Wolf’s tour includes Melbourne’s Curtin Hotel on March 21; Brisbane’s Crowbar on March 28; and Sydney’s Factory Floor on March 29. The 5.6.7.8’s tour includes Sydney’s Crowbar on March 20; Brisbane’s Powerhouse on March 21; and The Tote, Melbourne on March 25.
