First Brand -- The Other Side of Life

Gotta say that this may be one of the most obscure bands or singers, if not the most obscure band or singer, that I've ever come across in my travels through this blog. And that's saying something considering I just wrote an article about another singer deep in the underwater part of the iceberg earlier tonight.

I had to search like crazy through the Net and all I was able to find about this band First Brand was through auction sites and a Tower Records Japan description of a Light Mellow series CD that I have yet to add to my collection. From Tower, I found out that First Brand had initially acted as the backup band of 7 musicians for singer Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）who had just come back from wedding hiatus around 1980~1981.

From the same site and those auction sites, I discovered that First Brand put out their one and only album "Lovers In Office" in 1981, but I am not sure whether the song above is the actual title track or one of the other songs from the album. The Light Mellow CD "Wing" has the track "The Other Side of Life" included so it may be that one which is represented on the YouTube video (indeed it is, so I have made the correction above). Whatever the case may be, this particular track (sound quality isn't great) definitely has a Steely Dan vibe to it which is something that was also mentioned in the Tower description about them. The description also pondered whether First Brand had walked along the same path as current acts such as Kirinji and Tomita Lab.

I do wonder but I'm rather intrigued about getting "Wing" now. I'm also quite impressed by the fact that I've come across the only Japanese pop song to namedrop Neil Simon and Mel Brooks.