Adventures in Japan

Catchy Pop Songs With An Extra 'O'

Afriampo and Deerhoof were on Saturday night. After the show the skeezy Colin Farrell guy, name of Tom, and his friend, name of Lathe (or something like that, soft 'th') started talking to us. Tom was from Idaho and Lathe from Minnesota. Tom was a jackass and Lathe seemed really nice. Tom wanted to stay out all night but we did not. Well, I never have a problem with staying out all night, but we had plans for the next day so we thought it best to get a decent night's sleep.

The next day we went to a massive flea market. Massive as in really big. It filled the Osaka Dome. As the name suggests, the Osaka Dome is a massive domed building in which a multitude of sports are played. Today's sport was bargain hunting. I'm gonna say we lost. We got a late start and the market ended early. Well... it ended on time, but that time was earlier than we had expected. And people always start packing up their goods before the market is officially over.

We had barely over an hour to browse through all the stalls. I'm gonna say we hit a good 85% of 'em. But we didn't get to take our time and poke around. And that's how you find all the cool swag, when you're poking.

It wasn't a total loss. We got some good postcards and buttons and I picked up some videogames. But everybody else (Ben, Kishin, Yayoi, Yusuke, Atsuki) left with much more merchandise. Next time, next time we'll totally get there at a decent time.

Right after the flea market we made our way over to Club Quatro to experience another Aka Inu gig. Man, they rock. I've tried to describe them before and failed. I'll fail this time as well, and I will keep on failing. This is a band that you need to see live. It doesn't matter if you don't speak the language, any language, music is it's own language. When those horns start blaring and the violin kicks in and everyone around you is dancing in time, you will too. Even if the song is about poop.

I've mentioned before that the four lead singers like to dress up, well this time one of them came out dressed up as a referee and another game out dressed up as a wrestler. Between the second and third song, there was a wrestling match. The dude dressed up as a wrestler took on the mic stand. It was fantastic.

He circled the stand, looking for an opening. But the stand was cagey, ready for anything. They locked up a couple of times, but neither could get the upper hand.

The audience was in danger of hyperventilating from laughing so hard. As were some of the band members. Finally the lead singer got the upper hand, he gave the mic stand a couple knee lifts and knife edge chops. But the mic stand retaliated by using its cord to strangle him. Then it headbutted him! Wrestler guy was down! The referee began to count him out...

Wrestler guy staggered to his feet! His forehead was bleeding! Could he continue?

The drama!

Wrestler guy pointed towards the violin player in the poofy pirate shirt! The referee went to investigate! Wrestler guy stabbed the mic in the head with a fork that he pulled out of his tights! The referee turned around just in time to see the mic stand fall down. One! Two! Three!

I love this band.

And I love unco. Unco is one of their songs. Great use of the horns, the violin, the... everything. And like a lot of their songs, their is a dance that goes along with the song. This particular song is quite like YMCA in that it's all about holding your arms above your head and spelling along with everyone.

U!
N!
C!
O!

Then there's an optional little hip boogy move. I usually opt for the hip boogy.

Most of the band members are in their underwear by this point.

Most of the audience is female. That is a delightful bonus.

Ben finally figured out what the chorus is, we can usually just sing along to the spelling part. Here's the chorus:
U! N! C! O! Unco! Unco daisuke desu!
Here's the translation:
U!N!C!O! Unco! I love unco!
Here's the translation of unco:
poop

It's a song about poop. A song about loving poop.

I love this band.

Oh yeah, they've added a bagpipe.

And the dude who plays the cow bell rocks it harder than Will Ferrell.

I love this band.