Taking both and putting them together. In the same song. Yeah, I didn't think it'd work either. Actually, when I first heard it, I didn't think too much about it as I was watching a television series as fast as time would let me. The series in question? Death Note. Somewhere around Episode 24, the opening theme changes from a typical dramatic anime opening with some Japanese style song to a psychadelic...something. Generally I just skipped the opening anyway, and given my aversion to screamo, which this song had in its first few seconds, I was even more inclined to now than I was before.
But for some reason, that ended up changing. I must have gotten that opening stuck in my head at some point, because I found myself listening to it...and enjoying it. I didn't like enjoying it because I was supposed to be hating it. And then I found a video like this....and I couldn't hate it under any circumstances.
Now, this wasn't the exact video (especially the second one...but we know how youtube is about removing videos we love), but close enough. Suddenly this band, Maximum the Hormone became the greatest thing in the history of man. They were funny. I mean, Japanese people aren't supposed to scream and rap and all of that stuff. I'd heard the pillows do some great 90s alt rock music, but this? No, this was off the scale. I devoured misheard lyric videos, laughing my ass off at each mondegreen to come up. The greatest part was that later on, I'd figure out from videos and appearances that this band had a bit of a humorous twinge to it even in its native language. I mean, you only need to watch half of this music video to get a feeling for it.
Seriously, when they first appear, look at how much they're kicking ass and rocking out. Then realize that their singer raps low and high. Notice their girl drummer...it was easy enough to believe that they brought in some J Pop girl singer to do the parts they needed for that song. Nope, she's back there on the drums (and to this day she is the best girl drummer I've ever seen). And Ryo, the guitarist. The way he stares cross-eyed at the mic? Classic. And where did this get better? When I heard Black Yen Power G Man Spy and realized that their bassist is Japanese Flea.
You'd think from seeing him that he was just some imitator, using a similar bass and having a similar tattoo on his chest...but the man holds up the House of Flea better than I've ever seen anyone do it (yknow, outside of Flea's contemporaries and elders like John Entwistle and Victor Wooten). After quite a bit of this, I realized that Maximum the Hormone was truly brilliant. Normally you can back up your hatred of a certain musician by citing lack of talent, but with MTH you can't do that. Their bassist kicks ass, their rapping singer hits some pretty wicked notes and switches styles on a dime, their guitarist holds everything together while looking like a beast doing it, and Nao keeps up on the drums...which wouldn't be all that surprising, except she also joins in singing, and not just for backups. No, what we had here was an incredible fusion of styles backed by some really great players.
Tsume Tsume Tsume is the 2nd most played song on my iPod because it's a song that really shows off how MTH works. There's rap, there's screaming, a great guitar riff in the verse, and Nao killing it on the drums and still throwing out a verse in the process. There's really no way to describe this group, and it amazes me how they cram all this sound into so small a space. Oh, and bear in mind that all of this judgment is occuring without lyrics to save any unpleasantness in other areas of the song. My listening experience with MTH is all music baby, and that's kind of the way I like it. MTH don't even need lyrics to make them great.
Apparently this song is about a menopausal robot. Awesome, right? Not as awesome as a song about Frieza from Dragonball Z.
Not only does this song manage to be awesome on the merit of being about a Dragonball Z character, it's freaking awesome on its own. There's that slap bass again, and Ryo's going all out on guitar. You don't see this stuff anywhere else in the world, which is a damn shame, because it crosses genre boundaries so well. If you happen to hate anything they do, it's okay, because within the next few seconds they'll be switching styles and kicking more ass. They're built on a foundation of punk with floors of metal, walls of screamo, windows of funk, and ceilings of rap, with posters of every other genre they dip their feet into. And the best part is that they don't really of this facade of darkness and anger that forces a gimmicky, unpleasant presentation from most other bands that try to do the modern metal/screamo thing. No, Maximum the Hormone knows how much they rock. Even in a music video centered around a funeral, MTH hammers out the headbangs:
This band taught me a whole lot about music, namely that you should always listen before you leap, as behind the screams there's a hella good band that doesn't pride themselves on how inaudible they can make their words (American screaming makes lyrics more Japanese than these guys do!). They use all of these genres in a smart and explosive way that takes the music over the top, as the Japanese tend to do, and makes it incredibly awesome. You can dance, you can headbang, and you can shout along. If you ask me, MTH is just what the doctor ordered in a world where indie's quiet beats manage to reign supreme. Seriously. these guys need more love. So, if you've beared with me this entire time, and watched all the videos, thanks. Hopefully you've discovered a pretty awesome new band. The only thing I regret about this entry is that I couldn't find any good live stuff.
(and if you want to hear the whole version of the song at the end)
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