Skuffed Up, Skuzzed Up Masters of Pop

The Buzz of Japanther Lands at the Aquarium

The Japanther aesthetic is perfectly realized on “Summer of ‘79.” They sing: “It’s the summer of the ‘80, and you were just a tiny baby. No idea of what you’re part of. Or what the president has started.”
For some reason, themes of childhood, adolescence and growing up in the 80s are abundant in Japanther material. Songs and lyrics reflect it (Cable Babies, Fuk tha Prince a Pull is Dum, River Phoenix, etc.) as does the constant, buzzing whirl of sampled ephemera throughout: old hip hop, movies, laugh tracks, sound ffects, profane comedy.

Even their sound, a raw core of pure shining pop, obscured by murky, low-fi recording and fuzzed-out bass, is as colorful as an old, battered Rubiks cube laying covered in dust and hair under the bed.
It all sounds like someone pushing 30 who is trying to make sense of a decade filled with BMX, pervasive Kool-Aid advertisements, arcades, and reruns of Sanford and Son.

If that sounds pretty awesome, then Japanther is for you. And you’d better be at the Aquarium on Monday, September 22.

The New York City duo, consisting of Ian Vanek on drums and Matt Reilly on bass and a Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard, has been around since 2001, recording albums and singles with great names such as Master of Pigeons and Dump the Body in Rikki Lake, for many obscure and cool labels, such as Plan It X, Tapes Records and Menlo Park.
They’ve been known for indoor fireworks, puppetry and providing musical accompaniment for a synchronized swimming group among other things, but their stock in trade is sloppy, energetic experimental punk that makes the goosebumps stand at attention.

The sum ends up being more than its parts.

The dominant bass sounds like a raid of mutant bees, while the guys’ singing sounds something like the warbling of a muppet trapped in the depths of a cavern.

Whether it’s an ode to willful unemployment punctuated by Jimmy Carter samples (“Midtown from Master of Pigeons”) or a vibrating cloud of noise with inexplicable laughing and scratching, their profuse collage of sampled soundbites from TV shows, movies records, and other media somehow adds meaning and interest to an already first-rate musical combination.

Japanther is a loud, sludgy gray soup of pop culture and restless energy, and they’re as chaotic and endearing as the city they call home, yet the music is as comfortable and nostalgic as the old Huffy you rode around on as a Kid.
It’s just what you need to get the blood pumping on a Monday night.

You should not miss this band that Art Forum said “conveys what I would call springing life.”

If You Go

What: Japanther
Where: Aquarium
When: Mon., Sept. 22, 10 p.m.
Info: 701.235.5913