How popular are Polysics in Japan?
 

Are they huge over there?

No. They're not HUGE. They're probably as popular as Fugazi is here or something. Or, hey, they're probably as popular as Devo currently is here. They should be way more popular, even though I kinda burnt out on them years ago, they still are really good, considering they've been together TEN years...

I'm currently listening to Karate House. My favorite album of 2007. Although I think I only listened to about 5 or 6 other albums from 2007.

Yeah, honestly, it's probably their best, besides a.d.s.r.m! which is amazing. I preferred them more when they were weirder/noisier. But the new one has lots of cool shit. And it's odd, because it's a followup to their worst album (an album I don't like ANY songs on) Now is the Time!.

I like the song I My Me Mine off of Now Is the Time! a lot.

...yeah.. it's.. okay.

Fun to watch 'em play it live. I thought that was some keyboard thing but she pulled out a recorder and started playing it.

I love Polysics. Neu! and Hi! Bob! My Friend! are my favorites.

I heard one song that made me feel sick. Nope.

like most underground japanese bands that make it to europe and the u.s., they are not that popular, underground phenomenon.

i love them, although i don't think i have heard any album by them yet that's great from start to finish; they start amazing and then by the middle, the songwriting quality starts to slip.

1. a.d.s.r.m.
2. 1st p
3. karate house
4. neu!
5. for young electric pop
6. kaja kaja goo ep
7. national p
8. eno
9. now is the time

ive only heard my friend bob or whatever its called, i need to know more! blog search now!

ok ive done my search and now got neu! polysics must die and at the mo listening to karate house... fucking excellent album!

ive said many times on here that i love polysics and have for a very long time, but im starting to get annoyed that everytime i go to a record store and look under 'polysics' all they have is compilations. thus, forcing me to special order their new records. embarassingly, i hvnt even been able to hear karate house ( a link to find a place to order it would be appreciated), cmon homeys! start releasing your shit in the u.s.!! we love you here!

do any of you guys like Ex-Girl?

There are videos for two of the songs off of Karate House on youtube.

Look up Electric Surfin' Go Go and Catch On Everywhere

i had never heard of them and i just went on itunes (which i have hooked up through my stereo by the way and it's awesome...try it.) and looked them up and they are crazy. it sounds like video game music on crack. it's great.

http://www.stage6.com/user/squeezed/video/1449054/I-My-Me-Mine-(STRONG-MACHINE-2-Ver-)
classic.
+
http://www.stage6.com/user/jubjub/video/1121674/

polysics or die is a very so so compilation that's been released twice already, the last time by myspace, what the fuck?

catch on everywhere it's probably the best song i've heard by them. karate house is probably the best i've heard by them.

Well, the compilations are worth noting specifically for the re-recordings of some of their songs. like for example, the polysics or die (original, not VISTA) version of buggie technica is way better. On the other hand, the version of "modern" isn't as strong.

I forgot to put "lo-bits" in my list. It's a great ep. I really enjoy Polysics' rarer songs, like "cherry" and the stuff off of their japan-only singles. If you ever see something on soulseek called Polysics - "Rare, Covers, Etc" (shared by i300e and Robe Flesh and Brokecore John and unsensicalness .... etc), it's this thing I put together of all their comp appearances and the remixes Hiro does as Poly-1. Check it out.

I'm glad they're on myspace records, because me and my girlfriend went and saw them play and shit a few months ago which we'd been waiting to do for years.. maybe I'm not happy they're affiliated with myspace but the fact that they could play here is great. It was great. I already had all their Japan DVD's and their only US DVD Pippikkippi P in USA but I couldn't imagine how actually great they were until seeing them live. We left right after they played since it was just a bunch of idiot myspace scene bands. We hung out with Polysics and I bought a shirt and some stickers. They sell these huge sticker sheets for $3 and it's got tons of Polysics stickers and other stickers that have nothing to do with the band. It was great.

"Hey Bob! My Friend!" is such a stupid compilation from the otherwise excellent Asian Man Records. Why put BITS AND PIECES of A.D.S.R.M/1st P on there when both albums EASILY fit onto one disc? They removed the best songs too! Fucking ridiculous.

As for Ex-Girl, they're good, if a bit boring. I prefer shit like Hoahio for avant-Japan girl pop... for straight up amazing Japanese rock (with chicks), check out Bleachmobile (otherwise known as Bleach '03).. one of the most brutal bands I've ever heard, somehow?!?!

what i meant is that, since myspace are putting out polysics shit, why not issue karate house in the u.s. or something else? why polysics or die yet again?

True, I don't understand the point of those compilations in general. If anything, just keep compiling their albums together; you could put every single one of their albums (minus singles but including ep's) on 4 cd's easily. Compile neu and eno onto one disc; that'd be great. When I saw them live, they only played songs off of polysics or die vista, which was basically a greatest hits... so, not a single song off of karate house except ELECTRIC SURFIN GO GO. So, I think that was the point: compile their "greatest hits" for the myspace enthusiasts. Whatever.

i just wish i could go to a local record store and look under polysics and find something else besides compilations with the same songs on it, i dont see why they dont release their alblums over here. it totally bums me out.

It was cool, at a local store, I found all their domestic CD's for $5 used. Don't know who the fuck sold all those there, but..

Neu and Now is the Time are the only albums completely released here, I think. Which is sad. No songs at all from For Young Electric Pop on ANY of their albums released here -- the fuck?

For a band similiar but.. a bit better.. than Polysics, check out Spoozys.

spoozys eh? are they japanese as well.

japan is really owning the competition for great art as well, not just even talking about music, but so many fantastic painters/drawers/filmakers etc... are blowing minds in the western hemisphere. i subscribe to juxtapose magazine, seems like everytime i open it up it mentions multiple japanese artists.

and the music scene, just amazing. noise, spazz, psych, electronic, thrash (FUCK ON THE BEACH), just so many interesting bands coming out there. it seemed the boredoms had a lot to do with the huge influx of underground musicans in japan, but please correct me if im wrong.

Sure, I think Boredoms have a lot to do with it. I also think John Zorn's label has a lot to do with it (Zorn is pretty mainstream, afterall; he won the genius grant!).

Japan really is the best, I don't want to sound like a Japanophile because I don't love shit JUST BECAUSE it's Japanese.... but pretty much the only music, movies, art, cartoons, comics, video games, electronics, television shows, books, etc etc etc come from Japan or Japanese people. I don't know why....

On the other hand, there is a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE amount of just straight-up awful shit there. More so than we have here, probably. I mean, their society is extremely fucked up... what the majority of people like over there is just awful, awful J-Pop (not good J-Pop) and .. Britney Spears. Japanese people LOVE Britney Spears and our American actors and stuff. Their whole CULTURE is fucked up but respectable. Their views on honor and tradition and respect.. I think we could learn a lot from Japanese people...... but yeah.. the so-called "underground" shit there is amazing. In fact, I often wonder if bands like Boredoms are actually more popular here than over there (obviously, they're more popular over there just because of the higher population, but I dunno... they certainly have toured outside of Japan a lot more than in Japan, for example, no doubt because of the costs of touring there but still..). I also have noticed that Japanese music is SO fucking .. tight. Or tightly loose, but.. it's always so, so ... maybe not technical but.. it always really seems to achieve its goal. Regular "rock" bands over there are what we refer to as "math rock" over here, for example. I think the word I'm looking for is "dedication".

..........Miike said that all extreme Japanese art made in the last few decades are in response to the nuke dropping. I always found that interesting.

You guys are forgetting japanese porn.

www.jheat.com

:D

Yeah, I thought that went without saying though?

I almost exclusively watch Asian porn stars, and my favorite porn genre is bukakke..

well its the same as the u.s. pretty much, people like "us" make up a much smaller group of people than people who bought the new britney spears alblum and worry about what brad pitts relationship status is yknow, haha

the boredoms had definitely an impact on the scene (for once, they were one of the first bands to make an impact coming out of osaka instead of tokyo) and it's opening to the western world (bringing pussy galore, zorn and sy to play), but they themselves were already affected by many things that impacted japanese underground music.

les rallizes denudes, the free jazz scene, ybo2 and hijokaidan had a bigger impact as a whole.

still, polysics are more like a pop band, aren't they?

I never thought they were pop. They have some straight-up pop songs, but I guess "new wave" fits best.. eh?