"It's odd that it took so long for a Japanese mainstream band to make it to America,'' reports Kirsty Evans at the San Francisco Weekly.
In my tardy bard opinion, America was not ready for J-Rock until the last few years. The only J-Rock band to garner some airtime during the rock era was Shonen Knife, with their rendition of Top of the World.
There is a lot that America has been missing. Take a listen to "Winter Again" in Glay's 1999 album, Heavy Gauge. It has a haunting melody, with hard driving rock beat driving its chorus. If one were to decipher the Nihongo, one might see pure poetry in the lyrics - a passionate call to the band's roots in Hokkaido, the northernmost island in Japan reminiscent of Siberia.
The ballad to top all ballads is entitled "Zutto Futari De" from their 1995 album Speed Pop. I can't stop playing it over and over again in the deep recesses of my cranium. The melody will enchant, the lyrics will make you turn Japanese.
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