Make Believe Melodies For May 17, 2021
Make Believe Melodies For May 17, 2021
Netlabel Classics Edition (Because I Blanked On New Releases Last Week / This Anniversary)
Mikeneko Homeless — KANEKURE E.P. (2011)
Nothing greys me faster than reflecting on when the internet felt like a utopia instead of a place you go to scream into the digital void, yet allow me this slow descent into the retirement home. Ten years ago, online spaces really did feel like they had the potential to be different, even if a lot of that hope soon fizzled out…especially true when zooming in on music. Yet some corners delivered on the idea of offering an alternative away from traditional media, with their own stars and hits providing another world separate (but often in communication) from what had always been there. Japan boasts two web-born communities capturing this sense of real alternate-dimension escape: the Vocaloid music scene that cropped up on Nico Nico Douga following the release of the Hatsune Miku installment of Crypton Future Media’s “Character Vocal Series” software…and the netlabel community, emerging in the early Aughts but achieving something special at the start of the 2010s, lead by Maltine Records.
My life really did change thanks to Mikeneko Homeless’ “KANEKURE.” Released in early April 2011, it’s a weird number to reference as a fork-in-the-road moment — it’s gentle 2-step pop split between effects-smothered singing and rapping, interrupted by a stray “Hadouken” here and there. The lyrics mostly translate into pleas for cash — the title is just like “give me some money” — punctuated by a point in the rap verses with instructions on how to send the members of Mikeneko Homeless dough via ATM transfer. It’s “subscribe to our Patreon” years before the internet became a side hustle — but I didn’t know that when I first listened to it after stumbling across the above SoundCloud embed a decade ago. All I needed was the music and the sense of freedom running through it.
By this point in 2011, Maltine Records had established a following and some buzz in the Japanese music industry. That was all in Tokyo though. For me, living in a bedtown on the Western edge of Mie Prefecture, “KANEKURE” opened a gateway into another musical world I never would have found in the box electronic stores and junior high classrooms where most music in the town traveled. Here was a whole other zone existing between the bulletin boards and stray Nico Nico channels clogging up the Japanese web, inviting anyone to play around and have some fun…regardless of how silly (rapping bank codes!)…with the sounds they loved, whether they be from the U.K. or Capcom. It was breezy but unafraid to get goofy, the rhyming reveling in its bedroom-fostered quality while surrounding it by something surprisingly affecting, without ever getting all that serious. Mikeneko Homeless went on to refine their sound and produce top-notch songs for the likes of chelmico and punipunidenki among others, while also dropping much bigger bangers (about wanting to eat soba). “KANEKURE,” though, captures the spirit that made netlabels so welcoming.
More and more prominent netlabel anniversaries are coming and going, highlighted recently by the 10-year celebration for fu_mou’s “Green Night Parade,” above, another number sampling video game sounds, this time in service of creating a lively dance number that also has the warming qualities of a marshmallow quilt. The internet — and the possibilities it brought with it, at least at the time — is becoming history, as all things do. The thrilling sounds of today eventually become the click-eyeing retrospective piece (or Substack edition) a decade down the line, and though that doesn’t diminish everything that came before or after (netlabels became way more influential in Japan and abroad!), looking back from 2021 feels…I don’t know, weird? I think that’s just aging.
What I do know is hearing “KANEKURE” for the first time was a personal paradigm shift, the free-wheeling and funny ethos of netlabels becoming clear and something I just wanted to dig into even more, not to mention offering some upbeat goofballery less than a month after the worst natural disaster in 21st century Japan. Ten years on, it remains one of my favorite songs
Oricon Trail For The Week Of May 3, 2021 To May 9, 2021
Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on the digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a drip down…the Oricon Trail.
Johnny’s West — “Something New” (217,895 Copies Sold)
It most certainly is not.
News And Views
This week in “Japanese pop culture — actually a juggernaut, part 1,” Terry Crews shared this fan made mash-up of Old Spice commercials he appeared in alongside anime theme songs, most notably “Renai Circulation” (among other, uhhhh I think Nichijou is involved, my wife watched that one) . If you dig into the details, this is like a two-year-old fan tribute resurfaced in 2021 by the actor himself, but that’s not really the point. We are here because…anime, J-pop and internet culture have collided once again.
This week in “Japanese pop culture — actually a juggernaut, part 2,” Katy Perry’s latest music video features her roaming about with Pikachu in tow. You see, because that Pokemon is electric type, and the song is called “Electric.”
I share both of these mainly because what the fuck, but also to underline something that’s become ironclad in the past 12 months — Cool, Japan! After a decade where the country’s pop culture game was seen as a flop (we are just past a decade of Cool Japan, the government program, by the way), it is pretty clear Japanese exports to the world are kind of smashing it right now. This was always the case…it’s just that trends have allowed video games and anime to not be cast aside but rather embraced as mainstream pursuits some of the coolest people in the world explore. On its own, Katy Perry galavanting around with a Raichu-in-waiting isn’t special, but taken as part of something bigger, it is another noteworthy development.
Sakure Miyawaki is probably going to graduate from HKT48, and…HMV had the scoop?
Speaking of former HKT48 members living their best life, Rino Sashihara recently hooked up with Fuwa-chan in a Denny’s (!?) for her YouTube channel.
I talked with Naoki Shimizu of Creativeman about the summer music festival outlook in Japan — it’s gonna happen! But it’s gonna be weird! — for The Japan Times. Having talked to him a bunch in the past, it was great catching up and learning other thoughts about where the live music industry goes next. Not featured in the article but interesting all the same — other Asian markets are growing, and that includes in terms of artists who could come into Japan and work with domestic acts.
I thought Kurupt FM was a real pirate radio station in England because I read that they had Craig David appear in some radio session, but no, they are just some jokesters. Jokesters with a Japan-based movie coming later this year, trailer below. I know nothing about this show, but the trailer presents this feature as a perfect time capsule of mid-2010s Tokyo pop culture. Robot Restuarant! Kyary Pamyu Pamyu! People apparently still caring about Western music!
Here’s some extreme music-biz minutiae that’s probably important.
There have been a steady stream of interviews with Ado over the last week — here’s one example — which seems like a good time to mention I have a feature on her coming out at the end of May.
The trends of 2014…dug up for today! Wait until I tell The Washington Post about the factory near Yokohama producing all those vinyl records, I’m gonna get great middle-of-the-paper placement.
CHAI featured in The New Yorker, though I already wasted my free reads for the month so uhhhh I don’t know what plays out in this piece. Maybe you can see it (obligatory support all Conde-Nast-related unions, because let me tell you, there’s some advantage being taken over there by the higher ups).
Spoiling the long-delayed 2020 list by saying the artist behind my favorite of last year, 4s4ki, has a new album out in July, meaning we might have a repeat situation on our hands.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
