Hystoic Vein's lead singer INKO performing at last year's Japan Preview Day Show at The Typewriter Museum.

An unfortunate bridge that must be crossed, whether you’re writing up bands on your own Japanese music blog or simply trying to get a friend or two interested in a new band, is the Western band comparison. If you like Japanese music, it can be painful to rely on the old standby of “they sound just like (insert English-language band) only Japanese.”

Yet the comparison exists on both sides. I’m not sure Polysics would confortable identify themselves as “the Japanese Devo,” but they have expressed ad nauseum how influential the New Wave foursome was for their music. Shonen Knife certainly owes a great deal to The Ramones and have said as much. Hell, I’ve even met a few indie Japanese bands who straight up told me they are trying to be the Japanese version of the premiere Western band from whatever genre they were representing.

So it exists. That doesn’t make the practice right or excusable. One should describe a given Japanese band’s sound by, you know, listening to their music and trying to put those impressions into words. As such, I’ve made it a rule not to use the comparison. Call it a little promise to myself that I would like to keep for the sake of this blog’s integrity. There’s just one obstacle in my idealistic vision: Hystoic Vein sounds pretty much exactly like Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first studio album, Fever To Tell.
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