DAVID BOWIE

MUSIC
BO-PEEP
The women-led J-rock group aren’t sheep
BY DAN GRUNEBAUM
Bands come and go, but some manage
to show remarkable staying power.
One such group is Bo-Peep, who along
with acts like Lolita No.18 and Seagull
Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her are among
a number of women-led Japanese alt-rock
bands to have had an outsize impact on foreign
fans in recent decades.
The trio celebrated its 15th year by releasing
Thank You, which indomitable singer Mika
Yoshimura explains is their thank-you letter
to listeners for supporting the band over a
decade and a half.
The album sees the band with a new (male)
bassist and a fresh member of the extended
family in the form of drummer Ryoko Nakano’s
newborn child, who appeared as the band
took an extended break following the release
of its last album Vibe five years ago.
Thank You doesn’t waste any time getting
straight to the goods. The opener, “Hello,” is a
greasy slab of two-chord punk underpinned by
Nakano’s industrial-strength drums, Yoshimura’s
vocals squealing above the whole affair.
Following that is “Renso Game,” a shaggy,
leering affair that shines the light on new
bassist Yuki Sujaku. After years as an all-girl
trio, Yoshimura explains that previous bassist
Kaori “Take” Takebayashi had to exit Tokyo
for her hometown. She apparently happened
across Sujaku at a bar and, taken with his performance,
invited him to join the band.
The third and title track takes Bo-Peep
into more melodic territory, but it’s only a
detour on a road of pleasantly unsettling
drum and guitar riffs and chunky funk-punk.
As another song insists, the basic ethos is
“Let’s Go Bananas!”
But as uncompromising as their recorded
music is, Bo-Peep really have to be appreciated
live, where the full-force of Yoshimura’s
rock god personality has enough space for
expression; she’s been known to break a bone
or two jumping around on stage.
The band are a favorite overseas and have
performed at Austin’s vaunted South By Southwest
festival twice, most recently in 2015.
Back home, they can be found haunting
dive-y live houses like Heaven’s Door in Sangenjaya
and Club 251 in Shimokitazawa.
Bo-Peep can be seen as poster girls for
long-lived yet noncommercial Japanese rock
bands who manage to exert a strong international
pull while providing a stringent counterpoint
to the overdose of kawaii “idol” acts
that Japan’s talent factories continue to churn
out. But for Yoshimura and Nakano, there is
no master plan for feminist global domination.
“We just continue to rock hard,” Yoshimura
says about the new album, “and throw in a
few pop twists.”
Roppongi Club Edge, Feb 12 and Sangenjaya
Heaven’s Door, Feb 14. http://bo-peep3.com
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