Saturday, November 26, 2011

Jyoubachi - Japan's Best New Rock Group?

The band's name is Jyoubachi. In Japanese it is: 女王蜂 That translates to "Queen Bee" but George Williams, the top Vee Jay in Japan tells me that he doesn't think the Japanese name is queen bee... Oh well, if George doesn't know then I don't know who would. 


Jyoubachi


From what little I know about this band is that they are fronted by a trans-sexual lead singer. Their online biography mentions nothing of this and says:



Ziyoou-vachi is a 4-piece rock band from Japan. They 
formed in Kobe in 2009, and after playing together 
for about a year they were chosen to play on the 
extremely selective "Rookie a Go-Go" stage at Japan's 
mammoth Fuji Rock festival. Their performance there 
caught the ears of Japan's rock fans, but what really 
brought them to prominence was a landmark gig at 
a secret party held by the fashion brand Hysteric 
Glamour last November. After that night, they became 
the talk of Japan's fashion cognoscenti.

In March of 2011, they started selling their first 
self-recorded CD-Rs at live shows. Those discs, "The 
Mad Princess" and "The Wrath of the Royal Family", 
quickly sold out, and allowed the band's label Ziyoou 
Records to release their next recording "Witch Hunt" 
nationwide. And now they'll put out their major-label 
debut on Sony Music Associated Records in Fall 2011. 
The night she announced their decision to sign with a 
major, bandleader Avu-chan decided to share the 
band's reasoning, which was basically that they'd "get 
to wear way more awesome clothes" and "push to even 
further levels of excess." That should give listeners some 
clue as to what sort of debut to anticipate.


The song I've picked for you today is called 待つ女 (Woman in Waiting)


Jyoubachi - Woman in Waiting


The shooting and violence reminds me of the Dead Weather's "Treat Me Like Your Mother" but it is different and fresh enough not to bother me with too much similarity. I hate it when I can say, "This band reminds me of (this or that) band."


Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother

Thanks to Ken Nishikawa

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad you dig Jyoubachi or Ziyoou-vachi as they seem to prefer to spell their name. They are also one of the best live bands I've seen of late. The trans-sexual frontman, Avu-chan, is "Jimi Hendrix meets Akihiro Miwa" (well, to me, at least...) and, by far, the best chanteuse in J-Rock as far as I can ascertain. All in all, a truly amazing experience not to be missed if you ever get the chance!

    By the by, 女王蜂 is, indeed, "Queen bee". 女王 means 'queen' whilst 蜂 means 'bee/hornet/wasp'. Enter 女王蜂 in any translation engine and you'll get the same result!

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