I have been hearing about Sandii & The Sunsetz for decades but never got around to hearing their music until now. But then, last month a commenter for another article by the name of Terry Platt mentioned about how much he liked this unsung band, and I do remember seeing the striking face of Sandii (Sandy O'Neil/Aya Suzuki) on a number of albums. Plus, Sandii herself (as the commenter also stated) has had a long friendship with the good guys at the Yellow Magic Orchestra, even providing some spirited voiceover on one of my favourite tunes by the technopop trio, "Absolute Ego Dance".
So, with all that impetus, I decided to hit YouTube and came across their 4th single from 1986, "Battery". Listening to the song and watching the video brought back a flood of images of the old music videos. And even though this song was from the mid-80s, the video itself looked more like something produced a half-decade earlier (and I'm not saying this in a bad way since I've got a fair amount of sepia-and-rose memories for ancient music videos). "Battery" has that New Wave vibe, and although the Wikipedia article for the band mentions that Sandii and leader Makoto Kubota（久保田麻琴）became good friends with Deborah Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie fame and even stated that they were influenced by them, this particular song reminds me of a less sultrier and more poppier version of an old Canadian band, Rough Trade. In addition, I gotta say that Sandii's outfit in the video is so very, very 80s. I hope she returned it to Pat Benatar after the video shoot.
The Wiki article for Sandii & The Sunsetz is right here. And now that I've gotten my feet wet with the band and have enjoyed the swim, I'd like to take a bit more of a look. Any friend of YMO is a friend of mine.
Well, I honestly didn't know what to expect but this song hooked me for sure. The Medieval vibe to the chorus was a nice touch! I heard of this band for a while, though I always bypassed them. Glad I gave them a try and will be on a lookout for more. Sandii reminds me of Kate Bush for some reason. Another great song of theirs I came across on Youtube just now is "Sticky Music" from 1984: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxSV8Xu0RUk
ReplyDeleteI also saw a part of the "Sticky Music" video on YouTube and thought that it was also pretty catchy. Speaking of Kate Bush (also a fan of hers), I think there's a current British act by the name of Marina & The Diamonds which has a certain resemblance to Sandii.
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