Undoubtedly and unashamedly, Tsushimamire are the best band in the world. Our obsession is justifiable with the Japanese rock trio’s career, which spans almost 2 decades with an extraordinary output of an album out almost every single year since 2007. Unbelievably, there’s not a single dull moment across their entire discography.
Their most recent LP NEW sees the departure of longtime drummer Mizue with not one, but two replacements. With the introduction of new drummers Maiko and Shigeru, guitarist Mari and bassist Yayoi have created two concurrent projects, Tsushimamire and Tsushimamigeru. Astonishingly, both projects have released albums simultaneously through TSMR’s self-run record label, Mojor Records.
TSMR’s brand of rock is forever eclectic, electric and a hella good time. Their favourite themes of human anatomy and food, as seen on tracks like “Parmigiano Reggiano”, goes weird enough to be on the avant-garde side of punk rock, but filled with killer riffs and pop hooks big enough to fill a stadium. Their latest album NEW features all the fun and mayhem on tracks like “Lazy Marriage with Kitty Hairs”, an oddball song that can-cans with TSMR’s signature ska and rockabilly erraticisms.
In fact, the sheer array of styles that TSMR take on is breathtaking, with the album radically swerving from classic pop song “Crazy For You”, to disco dance number “Don’t You” and onto post-punk driven, spoken word track “Hello World”.
TSMR’s calamitous world is insatiable, riding the rollercoaster of highs and lows that is much attuned to life. Transitions throughout the album occur with no grace whatsoever. Sweet moments like slower ballad “One”, abruptly switch to the shrieks of next track “Mr. Punk 2”. For TSMR, life is full of colour and energy, whether our days are painted with joy or sadness, anger or fun, or whether all of the aforementioned comes splattering down at the same time. It’s in the “all of the above” category that the Chiba art-punk trio finds their creative groove to craft yet another incredible album.
You can stream NEW in its fabulous entirety on Spotify, and buy the CD with English translated lyric sheet through Bandcamp.
Featured Image photo credit: Aniruddha Das (Asian Dub Foundation).