Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Sunnychar 7" ep (1994, Shredder)

I'm not about to purport to have any firsthand knowledge, or even a rudimentary awareness of Japanese indie rock and/or so called "J-Pop" in general.  In fact, my only entry for a Japanese artist, The Playmates, stretches all the way back to 2008 for their stupefyingly impressive Short Wave album.  It's not so much a matter of prejudice, rather utter lack of exposure that would point to a deficit of music from the nation with that nice, plump red dot on their flag.  Sunnychar were a coed five-piece from Tokyo, whose chipper punk-pop conveniently brings to mind one of the only Japanese acts I am notably familiar with, Shonen Knife.  On what is presumably their only stateside release, Sunnychar ooze vivacious charm and vigor, decked out in harmonies and cutesy pizazz that only a female-fronted combo from the Land of the Rising Sun could so capably deliver, particularly on the leadoff cut, "You're My Battery."  Two more originals ensue, as does a cover of Yoko Ono's "Sisters O Sisters."

01. You're My Battery
02. My Little Girl
03. Sisters O Sisters
04. La-vi La-vi

Hear

5 comments:

Steve said...

Thanks for the post - I've got this already in vinyl (so that's at least two sales!) but this will save me trying to dig it out.

theodore said...

they had a cool track on the Slice of Lemon comp, too (which actually led me to pick up this EP). thanks for posting it!

spavid said...

You're welcome. Just FYI my copy had a lot of pops and snaps, but I was able to remove the bulk of them.

Groover said...

There's a "Complete Collection" CD available in Japan (though I think it's out-of-print now) which has 14 tracks including the tracks from this EP.

Timmybear said...

I love that EP. I got it in a bargain bin at a record store in Ottawa that was closing (along with a Potatomen 45).