Kemuri
Little Playmate
Roadrunner Records, 536 Broadway 4th Floor, New York NY 10012
Release Date: August 26, 1997
Sometimes a punk song is just a punk song. And sometimes it's a ska song, too.
Japan's Kemuri offers up Little Playmate, a genre trainwreck that sends a punk engine headlong into the bubbling swamp of ska. Crispy horn arrangements sink into sludgy guitar stew, with the occasional 80s throwback hair-metal solo (so surreal when it happens that there's no time to do anything but be amused). Put the Mighty Mighty Bosstones into a mosh pit with the Mr. T Experience and see who bleeds first. It won't be pretty, but it'll sure be cool to watch.
Despite the violent tendencies of its musical lineage, Little Playmate is a Power of Positive Thinking for the underground. Kemuri is smiling at the sun the whole time that their guitars are snarling and their trumpets are snapping. The lyrics of songs like "Rainy Saturday" and "Circle of Life" are optimistic, exhort-the-kids sentiments that boast as much gumption and never-say-die as they lack poetry and subtlety. But then, that's never been the particular specialty of either ska or punk.
Sometimes punk is a political statement. Sometimes it is an explosion of personal rage. And sometimes, it's just three chords and a singer who can't carry a tune. Who says that punk can't be fun?
-- Lindy Powell
powell@outersound.com
