Here I was lamenting about how current J-Pop didn't have the old soulful groove tunes of the late 1990s and early 2000s when I encountered this band called Suchmos through a browsing of YouTube last night.
I decided to try out this one song of theirs which had come out in January 2016, "STAY TUNE", and suddenly the good vibes came back. Memories of Misia, bird, Sing Like Talking and Jamiroquai came flooding back into my head and Suchmos provided me with a goodly dose of endorphins. This is some fine groovin' for a Friday night!
According to the Wikipedia bio of Suchmos, the group started up officially in 2013 and consists of six fellows who have known each other since grade school. And in the J-Wiki article on Suchmos, vocalist YONCE followed in his older sister's footsteps by taking up ballet at the tender age of 3 and listening/dancing to her favourite singers who were the aforementioned Misia, TLC and other R&B acts.
Suchmos covers a number of genres: rock, hip-hop, soul and jazz according to Wiki and J-Wiki but after giving a few more of their songs a shot, I think they are quite comfy in that third genre. Certainly I hope they stay comfy there, too. Apparently, the origin of the name Suchmos was derived from jazz legend's Louis Armstrong's nickname Satchmo.
YONCE, bassist HSU and the rest of the band took care of words and music for "STAY TUNE" which got as high as No. 10 on the Billboard Hot Japan 100. It also went Gold as the song was also included on Suchmos' 2nd EP, "LOVE&VICE" which peaked at No. 15 on Oricon after its release in January 2016. The song was also on the band's 2nd album "THE KIDS" which was released a day earlier.
Gonna have to keep my eye on these guys!
 |
| The music video was partially filmed on the 33rd floor of this building in Roppongi Hills, the Mori Tower. |
Hi.
ReplyDeleteYou should dig deeper on Suchmos. They have everything to became a favourite of yours :)
This is their new song, listen to it and I'm sure you will dedicate it a post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHVyLSG6jaE
It is taken from the mini-album "The Ashtray", which just reached no. 2 on Billboard Japan.
Hello there.
DeleteI will give it a try. I wasn't too impressed with their "VOLT-AGE" for the World Cup, but I'm hoping this recent one will be fine.
"VOLT-AGE" is brilliant in my opinion, but it's basically a space rock song, which is a genre you are not very interested into as far as I can remember.
DeleteI have to say it is an exception in their catalogue, as I would generally define them a mix between Jamiroquai, indie-rock and city pop, with some spare hip hop influences here and there.
Yeah, I think there is definitely that Jamiroquai influence in there. Just listened to "808". Yep, it's good and more to my liking. I will see about writing about that sometime over the weekend. Thanks!
Delete