Japanther, Skuffed Up My Huffy

Boy, did this CD get into the right hands! From what I’ve heard and read, I’m super impressed with the band Japanther from Brooklyn — they’ve played shows at art studios, put on punk rock operas with big puppets, played on a floating platform at a giant indoor pool, and just put on some crazy shows at more typical club venues. Really, what comes through on their live footage and on their recorded stuff is an incredible energy. Japanther is a duo made up of Matt Reilly on bass/vocals/tapes and Ian Vanek on drums/vocals/tapes. Check out their clips on YouTube — and you thought your band was doing cool stuff.

The latest Japanther CD, Skuffed Up My Huffy, straight up rawks, like back in high school when you rolled around in your beat up Chevette with the speakers blown out; the music was distorted and broken up but it still sounded great to you. Each song has samples from old TV/radio clips/weird beats/odd sounds that add to the chaos. The sound is lo-fi, poppy, fast-paced punk with cracked-up, offbeat melodies that will have you singing along. The vocals are Ramones-ish, and I’m also reminded of the New York Dolls, with sort of Dead Milkmen-esque humor thrown in. At the end of the day, though, it really is all Japanther.

Skuffed Up My Huffy starts up with “Summer of 79,” where we go back to Jimmy Carter and gasoline shortages. Japanther sings: “Now is the summer of the ’80s / And you were just a little baby / No idea what you’re part of / or what the President has started…” (Man, nothing’s changed, huh?) Then the song “Mornings” chants along about the morning after and has a Jim Carrey-ish chorus singing, “Good Morning, Good Night, and Good Afternoon.” Next, Japanther laments about the poor “Cable Babies” growing up in front of the TV and the advertising vultures, with some funny samples thrown in. “Vagabond” kicks in with a neato bassline, and the song “$100 Cover” will get all stuck in your head and you’ll be singing: “I wanna wanna be / Part of something / Revolution baby.”

The song “River Phoenix” reminisces about the actor dying way too young, while asking Joaquin “what happened?” “Challenge” finds the fellas screaming for positive change in their blighted hometown of Brooklyn. And then there’s the classic “Fuk Tha Prince A Pull Iz Dum” (come on, say it all together, class), about learning things while skipping school, and during the raucous chorus there is a perfectly executed stop, a pause, and then an awesome slap-to-the-arse sound effect.

Check out Japanther. They are artful, imaginative, creative, and a bit retro in their topics (it fits, though; they do play along with “cassette tape” samples), and they just come to rock out. And they do everything their own way, from their shows to their awesomely-awkward, lo-fi Eebsite. The CD cover is just weird art and collage; even though it’s a foldout cover, not one word is on it other than the 12 song names (even though there are 13 tracks on the CD). Japanther stands everything on its ear, and I say “heck yeah.”