Love Love Straw

To this day, seven years after I first heard them, Love Love Straw continues to baffle me. The first album of theirs I heard was their first major label (I believe) release Why Not? It's an album full of upbeat, massively distorted yet poppy and full sounding songs. Much like Puffy Ami-Yumi (who I was also just discovering at the time,) their songs were fun and positive sounding, yet Love Love Straw infused their pop harmonies with a large amount of grunge and indie rock, much like Mo'some Tonebender and early Supercar. Why Not? is non-stop raw rock pop. It's a shining representation of a mature band in control of their own sound and their own vision.

Their next album Terranova, released the following year, is totally different. With only one or two exceptions ("Mother Sky" and maybe "Wadda Style,") it's full of quiet, dark and frankly just plain bad songs. The hooks are missing, and in their place are lazy and ugly chords along with uninspired vocal performances. This isn't the sort of Nirvana brilliance-disguised-as-lazy, this is just plain lazy. (Side note: they quote Nirvana often.) It's not a horrible album, it's just not a good album. Nothing even close to Why Not? "Mother Sky," the opening track, is actually very good, but it's a trap. It's all downhill from there.

Since there is very little information about the band (even in Japanese), it's impossible for me to know what may have caused this drop in quality. Speculation would only be a disservice to the band, so those of us who love Why Not? will just have to find solace in the fact that it's a great album on a major label (Sony), and that's a hell of a lot more than most bands ever accomplish. Good for them.

It also looks like they are making a a bit of a comeback. They recently released a "best of" CD, and they are once again (maybe the never stopped?) playing shows. Thanks to reader "A" for sending in these videos of some recent live shows.

Gonna Take A Miracle (Live at Zher The Zoo - 2007-10-28




Live at Zher the Zoo (2007-11-24)


Official Site

Members
Hitoshi Nonaka - Vocal, Rhythm Guitar
Tetsuo Kitame - Vocal, Lead Guitar
Yoshitaka Asano - Bass
Taro Ishikawa - Drums

Major Releases
Dream All Day(01-01-1995)
Flame On (03-01-1998)
Why Not? (05-24-2000)
Terranova (11-28-2001)
Decade [best of] (05-16-2007)