Beat Crusaders have been making their own brand of power-grunge/indie-rock since the late '90s. While their overarching style is quite simple, three chord rock, they manage to mix things up with lo-fi syths and some clever cover songs. Their love of UK and US rock is obvious, echos of which reverberate in several of their songs.
In general, they are very upbeat and catchy. Like early Green Day mixed with a bit of early Weezer and the Rentals. In typical punk style their songs rarely extend beyond the three minute mark. They hop in, play their super catchy tune and hop right on out again. Yet they're not overly fast or raw. They stick to the pop side of punk, a proclivity evident in the names of their more recent albums, all of which contain the word "pop" in one way or another. On the other hand, they aren't super saccharine or kitschy either. They manage to find a nice middle ground and hold it.
Around 2003, the entire band abandoned ship, leaving founder Toru Hidaka all to his lonesome. Ironically enough, right after this is when the newly staffed band released one of their biggest hits, the appropriately titled "Hit in the USA." The single appeared in the popular anime series Beck, a show about an Japanese indie band. Beat Crusaders went on to release several other songs to anime series, including the massive Bleach franchise.
Of course the band's visual projection also needs to be noted. Since its very beginning, each member of the band has kept their identities hidden behind old-school dot-matrix printouts of their faces. These paper "masks" are then stuck on, even during live gigs. It shows a strong dedication to an idea, something with is equally reflected in the band's unwavering adherence to its own musical style over the years.
"Hit in the USA"
Official Site
Members:
Toru Hidaka - Vocals, Guitar
Masahiko Kubota - Bass
Taro Kato - Guitar
Hirofumi Yamashita - Drums
Keita Tanabe - Keyboard
Albums:
HOWLING SYMPHONY OF...- 1999
ALL YOU CAN EAT - 2000
FORESIGHTS - 2001
SEXCITE - 2002
A PopCALYPSE NOW ~ jigoku no POP shiroku ~ - 2005
P.O.A.~POP ON ARRIVAL~ - 2005
EpopMAKING ~ Pop tono sogu ~ - 2007
popdod - 2008
"Phantom Planet"
"Windom"
"Firestarter"
"Arienai Kurai Kiseki" (with Tsuji Ayano)
"99 luftballons"
No comments:
Post a Comment