Banned in the US!! Part 2

Bleach, Bleachmobile, Bleach03. Whatever the name, it’s three Japanese girls from Okinawa (their words, not mine) who’ve been making an unholy but surprisingly catchy racket for years. It’s tempting to not take them seriously, between the model looks of their lead singer, the fact that they’re an all-chick band from Japan (nothing against Shonen Knife, but you know…), and the initial impression that you’re listening to an epileptic fit by three teenage girls. The multiple names are the result of a vastly inferior Christian band also called Bleach, but let’s just ignore that.

On closer inspection, the Japanese Bleach are musically tight as hell and it’s becoming harder to deny that their bass player Miya is world class. The drummer’s no slouch either, with a double-bass setup that she works about as well as any of her heavy-metal heroes. Lead singer Kanna continues to look cute as hell, and her guitar playing is starting to catch up to the rest of the band as they plow through an oddly catchy mix of hardcore and noise with jazz tinges.

As far as I’m concerned, their 2006 album was my favorite release of last year, though it’s likely to appear in zero US year-end polls. Wikipedia translates that as Again, The Head, Which Controls Both Right And Left, Slobbers The Meat but who really knows. Anyway, as a very nice bonus, it comes with a 3 song DVD that actually plays in my non-fancy American DVD player. To get the CD/DVD, you’ll have to go through Amazon Japan or the like, but as of press time that means spending about $25 and waiting three days for delivery. About the same cost/inconvenience factor as buying the new Joanna Newsom album and a bottle of whiskey (to help you forget the Joanna Newsom album).

To fill in your Bleach collection, those of you unfortunate enough to live in England or America will want Three Girls From Okinawa which came out on a subsidiary of the UK based Cherry Red label (you would be well-advised to ignore everything in that site’s promotional blurb) and 2005′s Bleach03 which appeared in the US (hooray!) on a tiny label. More info (in English) is here.

[Review by guest contributor Dana Paoli.]

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