album of the week: 7.2

つしまみれ

Sex on The Beach

Victor Entertainment (2010)

why you'll love it - noisy fun. not afraid to be too cute or too ugly

why you'll hate it - hella japanese. Not as crazy as past releases

つしまみれ (TsuShiMaMiRe) has got to be the most polarizing band I listen to. They somehow manage to combine two of the most extreme cliches of popular Japanese music, to create a lovable abomination. This is a noisy distorted band. The singer, Mari, is not afraid to lose control of her voice as she rants and screams like a schozophraniac about body image, sex, and food. A flood of noise like surf punk on crack usually accompanies her.

That is satisfaction enough for me, but not enough for this band. What is apparent to anyone who has heard them before, is their tendency to drop straight into full-on cute overload at any given moment. I am not kidding around here. It is total stereotypical anime and candy bars nonsense. You may be confused at first as to how intentional it all is. Make no mistake, they do it on propose, and in doing so make very memorable and psychotic music.

The weird thing about Sex on The Beach is that it's a bit of a sophomore jinx album. Despite being around for nearly a decade, last year's あっ、海だ。was actually their full length debut. あっ、海だ。was also an incredible obscene masterpiece. I even loved the bad songs on that album, because of how risky and expressive they were. Taking on another full album in just a year, the band has fallen short of their typical mental explosions this time out.

Don't be let down yet, つしまみれ will still annoy you and tug on your nerve endings. "おばあちゃんのBrasserie" has a relentless chorus and intense vocals. I'm hoping "J-POP" is a cheeky criticism rather than a tribute song, as I find that to be the most stupid and pointless genre term ever (Nerdcore in a close second). Knowing them, it's probably the former. "Strobe" is a pretty damn good pop song once removed from the context of its awful PV. "Nezumi Sensation" is nothing but wonderful noisy garage rock. "桃だろう" walks the line between the two styles as well as they ever have in the past.

This is the most consistent つしまみれ release for sure. There are no clunkers on this, which is a first worth mentioning. It just doesn't live up to the reputation that precedes them. Either they have lost a bit of their mojo, or they are becoming better lyricists, and being more subversive in that area instead. That would be good for them, but not so much for me, because their sonic atrocities are what makes me love the band so much. There just aren't any memorable songs on this album. Good ones, for sure, that rock; but none that really slap you in the face.

Newcomers will still be taken aback by this though, and they're still a tough sell of a band. Whenever they tour here, it's always part of some awful lousy "Check it out, we're from Japan!" kind of gimmick festival. This is probably because most people won't give this band a chance outside of weeaboos. Trust me though, there is more behind the surface with these girls. The best kind of punk rock are attempts to walk outside of the oppressive chauvinistic mohawk bully tropes. つしまみれ gets under the skin better than most punk bands do. Give this bitter pill a chance.