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Returning Japanese
A raucous, one-third naked, Japanese punk trio called Electric Eel Shock makes yet another attack on the city.
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
(Originally reviewed at "Japan Smacksdown NYC" in 2000.)
So I'm in the Continental Club one night, waiting for one of my favorite bands to come on, when these three young Japanese guys get on stage. They play a few seconds at a time and stop, chatter incomprehensibly into the mike, fiddle with their instruments occasionally, and I'm thinking, are they tuning up or is this the actual show?
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| ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK |
Akihito Morimoto (guitar, vocals)
Kazuto Maekawa (bass)
Tomoharu "Gian" Ito (drums)
Also appearing:
Bossston Cruising Mania
Do Thank Anal
Mong Hang
Peelander-Z
Cunt 55
10yen Anakinoko.
Related links:
Official site
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| AUDIO |
| Bossston Cruising Mania: |
| New 2 | RA | | | |
| © 1999 Bossston Cruising Mania. Used by permission. |
| Do Thank Anal: |
| Slasher Ban Ban Bigaro | RA | | | |
| © 1999 Do Thank Anal. Used by permission. |
| Electric Eel Shock: |
| Kaza-Machine | RA | | | |
| Let's Go to the Beach | RA | | | |
| Orange Is Back! | RA | | | |
| Puma | RA | | | |
| © 2000 Electric Eel Shock. Used by permission. |
| Mong Hang: |
| Pang Japonica | RA | | | |
| Zimbribosso Ribano | RA | | | |
| © 1999 Mong Hang. Used by permission. |
| Peelander-Z: |
| Panda Punk | RA | | | |
| © 1999 Peelander-Z. Used by permission. |
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After five minutes of this, the drummer stands up, takes off all his clothes, and sits back down wearing only a strategically placed strip of paper. I'm thinking, man, is this going to suck.
Then Electric Eel Shock start playing for real, and to my surprise . . . they rock! While naked drummer Tomoharu "Gian" Ito pounds out a fast and furious beat, singer-guitarist Akihito Morimoto and bassist Kazuto Maekawa bounce off each other and scramble up the walls while kicking out heavy-duty riffs worthy of this historic punk neighborhood.
Meanwhile — in that typically Japanese way of adopting Western cool and uncool simultaneously with casual disregard for which is which — they're cheerfully singing, "Let's go to the beach! Let's go to the beach!" (hear it here). I picture Annette and Frankie dancing to the Blasters in a Godzilla movie. What's not to love?
Electric Eel Shock is back from Tokyo — along with seemingly half the rock bands in Japan — to overpower more New York skeptics as part of the "Japan Smacksdown NYC" series, overlapping with the CMJ Music Festival. Organizer Aya Sekine promises: "I have about six different shows in 10 days, and they are all going to be really . . . kicking . . . ass!"
Among the dozen or more bands on the docket: Bossston Cruising Mania (hear it here), who alternate between all-out dissonance and crazy rap. Mong Hang (hear it here), the most eclectic of the bunch, who combine industrial sounds, punk, surf, jazz and traditional Japanese. And Peelander-Z (hear it here) — a New-York-based, possibly Dead Kennedys-inspired, punk outfit whose bassist Muneto Maekawa is the brother of Electric Eel Shock's bassist — is playing the "Japunks" show at CBGB's at the same time as the Oct. 14 "Smacksdown" show at CBGB's Downstairs Lounge, with a special combined cover charge.
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OCTOBER 1, 2000
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
Reader comments on Electric Eel Shock:
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| • | [no subject] from , Oct. 21, 2001 |
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| • | usagi chan from Paul the P-funk Fresh, March 8, 2003 |
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| • | \m/ ROCK ON! from Henry, July 31, 2003 |
| | • | HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! from Kasie, Aug. 3, 2003 |
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| • | [no subject] from Rosalyn, Aug. 3, 2003 |
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| • | Electric Eel Shock from Bonz, Nov. 24, 2004 |
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