From Japan With Love - The Zoobombs
By Hershell Baxter - 9/18/2005
Scott Winland's Blackout Productions brings at least a half a dozen international acts each year to The Union Bar & Grill (located at 18 W. Union in Athens OH). These acts are all a part of The Union's "International Underground Series". This year he's starting things off right with Japanese rockers THE ZOOBOMBS, from Tokyo, Japan. The Zoobombs have been described as "a little bit of Japanese noise plus plenty of Stonesy riff-rock and occasional rapping (in two languages)."
The Zoobombs were formed in 1994 by vocalist and guitarist Don Matsuo with keyboard player Mattaira, drummer Bukkabilly, and someone known as Moo-Stop. The band played around Japan and recorded a cassette EP for sale at shows. After supporting the Flaming Lips and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on a West Coast tour, the Zoobombs recorded their debut album Welcome Back, Zoobombs!, which earned distribution in America through Emperor Norton Records. The Zoobombs also publish their own newspaper/fanzine, Bozoobomb.
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"We like blues, soul, rock-bands like the Rolling Stones and James Brown," says the Japanese musician through an interpreter. Sound familiar? Perhaps, but their American debut, Welcome Back, Zoobombs! (Emperor Norton), is anything but. Marked by an unselfconscious sense of fun that's all but missing in most western bands, the album is a genuinely thrilling discovery. Imagine Jon Spencer without the irony -- or with a hint of Beck's slacker alchemy -- and you have some approximation of what the Tokyo-based quartet achieves.
Matsuo says the band's sound has roots in the Japanese way of looking at music. "There are no distinctions made between American or Swedish or African music," he explains. Given this blurring of genres, it's no wonder that his songs show no compunction about playing a distorted blues guitar against a bubblegum organ ("Jumbo") or coupling a screaming techno chorus onto a brooding instrumental verse ("The Swamp"). Even his more straight-ahead tunes, such as "Parking Rock" and "Midnight '69," are played with an energy and innocence that translates as charm. "We're so far removed from the styles in Japan, we have no idea of what's right or wrong [musically], so we just play whatever sounds good."
After years of only seeing America on TV and the movies, Zoobombs made their first visit to the States last spring, wowing crowds in Los Angeles and at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin. While Matsuo was impressed by the directness of the people he met ("They came right up to us after the shows and told us how much they like us. People would never do that in Japan"), he was less pleased by American record stores and radio stations, both of which he says give short shrift to the international market. "Very few people are interested in what's going on outside their own country," he says.
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While he insists there's no connection, Matsuo is starting to write songs for the next Zoobombs album in English (With the exception of "Midnight '69," most of Welcome Back is comprised of a high-octane hybrid of Japanese and English). "[English] just sounds good," he says. "Even in Japan, no one really listens to the words."
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The Zoobombs will be performing at The Union Bar and Grill on Sept. 27th (a TUESDAY). The show starts at 10pm with Kid Panda Hands, and The Makebelieves slated as supporting acts. Come out and help support a great live band from Japan.
