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What’s up Sorry Staters?
Gloomy ass day here today. I kinda like it tho. So long as it doesn’t mess up my hair haha. Gives me the feeling that Fall will be right around the corner. I went to go see the Iron Lung show here in Raleigh last night. Gotta say, it was a pretty good show! I don’t intend to say that with a ton of surprise underneath, but the energy level around punk and hardcore shows in Raleigh has felt pretty depleted lately. Really enjoyed Hologram’s set. Nice to see a good chunk of people fill up some space and even dance and buck wile a lil bit.
So, for my staff pick today, I’ve got something that’s relatively new to me. But before that, I don’t how much we’ve made it clear here in the Sorry State newsletter, but WE WANT TO BUY YOUR USED RECORDS. If anyone is looking to sell all or part of a collection, particularly if it’s heavy on punk & metal, you should reach out to us. It doesn’t matter if you’re near Raleigh or many miles away. Recently, we got this dude to ship us 5 huge, well-packed boxes of his old records. Lots of cool stuff in there. One record in particular, which I decided to set aside for myself on a whim, was this LP by an old Japanese punk band called Skin.
Are any of our readers familiar with this band? After a little research, I learned that this band was active in the late 70s/early 80s and only released 2 LPs, along with a couple singles. This record I’m talking about Zun-Zun is actually the band’s second LP from 1981. Something about the presentation really caught my attention, with the obi and dayglo colors really standing out. At first, because the record looked obviously fresh and new, I wasn’t sure if the record was an old band or something more contemporary with a retro aesthetic. Turns out, this is the Record Shop Base reissue from 2021, a label I mainly know from selling kick ass records on Discogs and putting out more garage kinda stuff like The Baby Shakes.
It's cool that these Skin records got reissued, because as far as I can tell, they had an initial printing in Japan in the early 80s and then were never repressed. And looking at the members of the band on Discogs, kinda seems like no one went on to be in any other bands. Kinda weird to be a little blip on Japanese culture and then just disappear. Listening to Zun-Zun, what struck me immediately is how amazing the production sounds. Like suuuuper crisp, loud, punchy recording. Beautiful guitar tones. Also, the band is just tight as hell, incredibly competent players. Most of the songs are super upbeat, high-energy, fun, sing-along melodic and rockin’ punk tunes that don’t overstay their welcome. Most songs are under 3 minutes, and with them being so tuneful and easy on the ears, it makes the record super accessible. I mean, for example the first song’s sentiment is “JUST GO!” in a quick and exciting 1.5-minute opener. I was hooked immediately. Just well-written melodies, cool riffing, kinda funny unexpected instrumentation, woodblock, synths, tons of great layering in the production, lots of ear candy, great “oohs and aahs” backup vocals. Great stuff. They mostly sing in Japanese, but they have that thing a lot of Japanese punk bands do where part of the hook is in English, like “I’m a Fashion Boy!” or “You drive me mad and crazy, babe!” or “I love S-E-X, EXCITEMENT!” Hahaha, killer. Very edgy for the time, I’m sure.
To my ears, while the band was surely informed by early English punk and probably the first couple Ramones records, the super approachable melodic songwriting and brightly colored presentation makes me feel like this band leans a little more toward new wave. Maybe I’m wrong? I would love to know from punks in Japan contextually whether Skin records are considered all-time classics, or they’re more like kinda lame “even your mom likes Skin” type of band. ‘Cause I’m just lovin’ it. But I think about other early Japanese punk bands I know like Anarchy, who even with their grittier aesthetic basically just sound like The Clash, and even covered them on that first LP. Then there’s a band like The Plastics, who were like a quirkier and weirdo new wave kinda band. To me, Skin falls somewhere right in the middle. But funny enough, it looks like one of the dudes from The Plastics produced both of Skin’s albums and contributed some guest keyboards. Pretty cool little cowinky-dink.
Zun-Zun was originally released on a label called King Records in Japan. Seems like this is almost like a major label, or at least is not just a punk label. Looks like all kindsa music came out on King Records, like jazz vocal, easy listening, city pop, but then also like early Japanese punk rock. Not unlike how Anarchy was on Invitation Records, I suppose. But doing a little further research, Skin appeared on a Japanese Battle of The Bands music contest TV show, not unlike Star Search or something, and that’s how they got their record deal? Or that’s what I’m guessing. Amazingly, the footage from that episode is on YouTube, you can watch that here. Unfortunately, the audio becomes unsynced at some point in the video. Skin is only in the first half of the video, unless you care to see the other bands they competed against. Looks like in this episode, Skin was up against other two bands, one of which was like a pseudo-mod 60s revival band, and the other was like a lame balladeering band in matching pink shirts with neckties. No contest, if you ask me. Looks like the song Skin won the contest with ended up being their first single. Guess I’ll need to track that down eventually.
Anyway, thanks for indulging my completely unqualified history lesson haha. I’ve been really enjoying this discovery. Just about every song on this Skin record kicks ass. Check it out if you’ve never heard it.
That’s all I’ve got this week. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff