Myx -- Dance (Everybody Get Up)

 

As those lights on the side of this Shinjuku branch of Karaoke Kan will tell you, "Neon ga yonderu"（ネオンが呼んでる）. "The neon is calling" or perhaps the closest English-language equivalents are "Let's paint the town red" and "The night is still young!". Back in those nights in Japan, karaoke was more of the after-dinner activity for us rather than the discos since I guess that we were more willing to sacrifice our vocal cords than our legs. Whatever the case, fun was had by all.

I had never heard of this band called Myx until recently. However, there is one familiar name in there, and that is guitarist Junshi Yamagishi（山岸潤史）. As far as the blog goes, he's been known as a member of the fusion band Chickenshack but I gather that he also wanted to really get down and funk so he helped create this 7-piece group called Myx that had its time in the early 1980s at least.

And so in 1981, Myx came up with an 8-track album titled "Myx" oddly enough, and on it is "Dance (Everybody Get Up)" which is fortified with more than your daily dose of funk. Perhaps this got played at the discos in Tokyo at one point, and the song, I believe, could have gotten even the most reticent folks there to get onto the dance floor. It's definitely funky but there are a couple of points where some of the native City Pop peeks through.

To take a look at the tracks and a larger photo of the cover from "Myx", you can check out Hip Tank Records. Meanwhile, you can also check out the blog of one Disco DJ Aki to see a 1982 single that Myx put out called "Fightin' Megaforce" which has "Dance" as the B-side. From the cover there, I gather that maybe it had something to do with that notorious flick "Megaforce" starring Barry Bostwick. But the blog entry also has the list of the members of Myx. Along with Yamagishi, there was vocalist Joseph "Thunder" Wells, jazz drummer Masao Suzuki（鈴木正夫）, saxophonist/bassist Eiji "Eddie" Nakahira（エディ中平）, keyboardist Charles Shimizu（チャールズ清水）, and vocalists Chiaki Iwamoto（岩本千秋）and Fumiko Honma（本間ふみこ）. They were also joined by the Myx Horns.