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 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Fans of original punk rock rejoice! Osaka Popstar and the American Legends of Punk might be the best ‘punk’ labeled product to appear in ages. Their pedigree is infallible, featuring ex-Ramones (Marky), ex-Black Flag (Dez Cadena), ex Misfits (Jerry Only) and ex-Voidoids (Ivan Julian). They are indeed legends, but more than anything else, Osaka Popstar is a high concept project that bashes through generational barriers. They combine roots-punk style music a la the Buzzcocks, The Undertones, the Ramones, and the Misfits, and then incorporate this into Japanese Saturday morning cartoon imagery. It’s sort of like the Archies on steroids, or the Fountains of Wayne on amphetamines. Pop it on and it is easy to imagine that it’s 1978 all over again. I dare you not to smile when listening to this CD. The disk opens with an absolutely perfect pop song written by ‘outsider music’ legend Daniel Johnston, called “Wicked World.” John Cafiero merrily sings “We have sinned so many times before we see no reason to turn back now, cuz we’re the world, the wicked world, marching to hell. We know what we’re doing and we’re marching to hell,” while a wickedly joyous guitar riff rips its way through the rollicking rhythm. The energy never lets up, either. This isn’t your teenager’s second-generation variation on punk; it’s the real thing. Marky Ramone is on drums and he plays with an energy that is…superhuman! The rest of the band is just as remarkable, playing with an abandon that betrays the sheer joy of playing together.
Partially due to the cartoon imagery, and partially due to the infectious nature of the band’s performance, “Osaka Popstar” makes punk rock sound like pure fun. They cover two old Richard Hell songs (“Blank Generation” and “Love Comes in Spurts”) and make them sound brand new. Do you remember the hullabaloo that was raised by the “O Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack a few years ago? Remember the key track from that collection called “Man of Constant Sorrow?” I’ll bet you never imagined that it would make a great punk tune. Osaka Popstar imagined it, and then they achieve it. Best of all is a track that was written by a bunch of school kids, called “Insects,” which is destined to be one of the best summer songs of all time. While the band plows along at 100 MPH, Cafiero sings about the perils presented by the insect world (“Bees will try to sting you hard, all over, your body. Bugs are in the trees and they’re watching you”). This track is so good that it makes bug-phobia fun.
A DVD containing two videos (“Wicked World” and a hysterically funny “Insects”) accompanies the CD, and I’d suggest watching the videos ASAP, since it will help to convey the playful, artistic vibe that defines Osaka Popstar. In typical punk-rock fashion, the disk contains thirteen tracks that plow by in less than thirty minutes, but it is all meat and no filler. It ends too soon, but that’s okay, because it means that you have enough time to play the entire disk again! After all these years, it is a pleasure and a surprise to hear a band that can stay true to their punk-rock roots and enjoy every second of it. Seemingly out of nowhere, Osaka Popstar have perfected a near-miraculous combination of fun and catharsis that leaves you breathless, exhausted, and completely satisfied.
Grade: 
 
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