Saturday, April 21, 2012

The Urchin


For those who don't like to read: Arguably one of the best pop-punk bands out of Japan.

When it comes to late 90s to Mid 2000s Japan, there had to be something in the fucking water. I say this because in that era, Japan put out some of the most killer pop-punk that I've ever heard. I want to say The Urchin is my favorite out of all these bands, but it's really fucking hard when you have to compare them to bands like: The Because, Pear of the West, Minority Blues Band, Cigaretteman, and that is just off the top of my head. Whatever though, I can't complain about this at all, Snuffy Smiles records is one of the best record labels that ever existed, and continually killed it as far as putting out music goes.

The Urchin has been around since 1998 apparently, and they've put out a few 7"s, a couple split 7"s, and 2 full-lengths (as far as I know). Everything I can get my hands on so far is gold, but I'll have to keep looking out for their other releases. I honestly have no idea if they're together anymore, but smart money says that they most likely aren't.

With The Urchin's music, it's the standard affair of melodic as fuck pop-punk. The difference between them and all the fantastic pop-punk bands in Japan, is that they somehow do this simple style of music way better. The easiest thing that I could say for this is that The Urchin contained some ex-members of "Blew," and everything that has to deal with Blew (Disgusteens, others (I know this is really lazy, but I don't feel like digging deep in horse shit to find out every single band these dudes played in)) is fucking incredible, and I can't stop listening to it all.

The Urchin- "Chairman of the Discount Liquor Store"

Expect a lot more Japanese pop-punk bands over the coming days/weeks, it's about all I can listen to right now, and I don't really see myself stopping anytime soon. Hopefully I can make it to Japan some year, and then I'll just buy every Snuffy Smile record I can get my grubby little hands on.

First Recording by the Band Using the Old Weapon 7"

as I find some of these records, I'll throw them on here

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