What A Time To Be A Rock Fan
When I moved this year and our moving boxes were less than organized, the first major thing I hunted for was my records(plus player)and tapes(yes TAPES). The second thing my clothes and the third…my cd collection. Maybe a few of those are still hiding in the ruckus but the bulk of it is safely set up.
Everything else…eh…it can wait.
So I guess you can say physical music collections are pretty important to me.Which is the long way of saying hey I’ve known some pretty cool bands and that’s going be a major plot point here.
Flashback two or three years ago. Through the wonders of old and new technology, their powers united and I discovered one of the greatest Japanese punk bands. The Blue Hearts.
Famous enough to be on MTV News back in the day and they came here on a brief USA tour. Maybe you even know them already. Maybe you just heard Linda,Linda once or twice. That aforementioned song is here:
Sadly they eventually broke up and it seems like very few people in the states have kept track of them afterwards. Good news tho! This is not where their story ends, at least for singer/superb harmonica player/ball of energy Hiroto Kohmoto and the talented guitarist Masatoshi Mashima.
What you might not know is they have had not one but two other great bands since that time and one of them is still ongoing: ザ・クロマニヨンズ.
The Cro-Magnons or Za Kuromaniyonzu in Japanese romanji. These veteran artists have had thirteen beloved albums with this band and barely any popular overseas notice, compared to the hordes of Japanese idol group fans that can be found. It’s really too bad because the melodies and the guitar hooks are just as amazing as in the old Blue Hearts days.
I understand it’s another time in this modern world of streaming vs actually collecting records. People like the online everywhere listening of You Tube, Spotify, Apple Music, the list goes on. Plus their records are hard to get unless you live in Japan, but its not impossible. Let me tell you…I am by far no vinyl collecting wizard and I have three of the most recent CD albums.
It feels like the internet rules are broken when I’m the expert.
More on that later, for now let me leave you with a sample from The Cro-Magnons selection of Vevo video clips they have made available.
