I've been watching some of those new anime and one of them happens to be "Drifters" (ドリフターズ). Now, in terms of my pop culture, I've only known a couple of groups with those names. One is the famous Japanese comedic team that had been around for decades, and the other is a famous and also long-lasting doo-wop group from the 1950s.
However, this "Drifters" is neither wholly about comedy or music although the show contains some notable examples (the former of the dark variety). It's about some of the more intense characters from history such as samurai Toyohisa Shimazu (who would evidently prefer to decapitate/disembowel now and ask questions later) and Jeanne D'Arc being magically recruited to fight a war in another reality. Yup, plenty of blood and gore to gouge out by the bucketful here. This is not usually my thing for an anime but I've got to say that I've been enjoying things so far since a majority of the characters have made over-the-top an understatement.
Of course, there has got to be an opening theme that matches all of the coolness and craziness of "Drifters", and it has to be a growling rock song. The group Minutes Til Midnight provides it in the form of "Gospel of the Throttle: Kyohan [Wild] Remix ver.". I had never heard of these guys before but the site BandPage provides this description by Oona Garthwaite:
A symphony of vintage synth swagger, sexually charged electro & incendiary guitars.
A native of Detroit Mi, MTM vocalist Cliff Magreta, landed in Los Angeles on the heels a nasty mid-tour band breakup. Rising from those ashes; his next band, The Shore, sparked a bidding war and signed to Maverick/EMI after a single show. Soon after, an early MTM demo Caught the ears of Maverick President Guy Oseary, quickly turning into a pair of co-writes on Paul Oakenfold's 2007 Grammy-nominated album, A Lively Mind.
These days, Cliff is a fixture of the Los Angeles electro indie rock scene. You've heard his work everywhere from movie trailers to prime time dramas to Virgin Airlines commercials. His latest incarnation is Minutes Til Midnight, an irreverent electro rock act grounded in predatory basslines and throbbing grooves. Add Cliff's anthemic melodies and confessional lyrics, and Minutes Til Midnight sounds like what it very well may one day be - classic rock from the future.
"Classic rock from the future"? Yeah, that description may not be far off since when I heard "Gospel of the Throttle", I suddenly thought of The Ramones. The song itself could just be as comfortable as a theme song for a TV show about a biker gang roaming through the southern United States. Magreta not only sings it but he also wrote and composed it with Japanese musician R-O-N helping out on the music. Not usually a rock guy but those "Na, na, na" lines are habit-forming. At this point, I'm not sure how successful the song has been or even if it has been released as a single yet.
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