One Step Further On The Ketchup Mania Journey

This week I received my second Ketchup Mania CD...U.R.G.E

 

I loved "Greetings From Tokyo" so much, that it seemed fitting to sample their second full length CD.  I made many comments in the first review that their debut CD reminded me a lot of the first CD by The Ramones.  In many ways their second CD is reminiscent of The Ramones second CD, "Leave Home".  Where the first disc is straightforward punk/rock in successive short bursts, this CD is a bit more experimental.  KM keeps their basic sound, but branches out into different punk/rock styles and sounds.  This was definitely an attempt to "spread their wings" creatively.  The result was a couple of "near misses" surrounded by some creative gems.

This album had me thinking back to all of the punk bands I idolized so much in my youth.  Yes, like Nakazawa Yuko I was a bit of a punker in my formative years.  And it's easy to hear many punk influences above and beyond The Ramones on this album.  There are definitely some Dead Kennedys and Sex Pistols influences.  But what really grabs me are the similarites to my all time favorite L.A. punk band, "X".  HIRO has a tendency to sing a little "flat" on many of the tracks.  And no one sings flat quite as well as Exene Cervenka!  It's interesting, when I saw Ketchup Mania live I thought of them more as a straight rock n' roll group.

 

KM starts the album with a wierd intro (Welcome to the Ketchup World) much like their first disc.  It seems to be their signature bit.  But to be honest, it's my least favorite part of both CDs.  It then goes straight into their only "all English" track I've ever heard., KISS. (press the little button, it's the link to the song on lastfm)

 

This song reminds me a little bit of Hole (Courtney Love is another "flat" singer), but it's a great punk track.  There is no band quite like them, and they use a heavy echo dub on Hiro's voice.

 

The third track, Handcuffs of Love is pretty good.  Track 4 is the song I fell in love with at Japan Nite 2008.  Real Yaayo is a great example of the overall sound of the band.  I really love this PV (the only video I could find from the album)...

Track 5, TOKYO almost sounds like the rally chant for England's national Footie Team.  The musicianship on Doubt Mail sounds like like the classic sound of the Dead Kennedys.  All OK! is a pretty cool track, but the last two songs on the CD are by far my two favorites.  The first is Juicy Candy.  It's extremely fast-paced, and at the same time very melodic.  It's the one song on the CD I love listening to over and over again...

LAnd the CD ends with another great track, POP POP POP POP POP POP POP LOLLIPOP, which starts off like The Ramones' Rock and Roll High School.  I'm glad to hear them get back to their roots...

Although this CD holds up pretty well, I still prefer "Greetings From Tokyo" because I simply love more of the songs.  But I am really falling in love with this group (and obviously their lead singer)!  They sound great, and are a lot of fun to listen to.  And I'll give a little plug to japanfiles.com, where you can not only download their music, but listen to a one-hour block of KM every Monday night on their live365 radio show.  I hope they make it back to the U.S. very soon.  But I am planning to make two trips to Japan in the next eight months.  So I won't be too heartbroken if I have to see them on their own turf.

 Anything you say HIRO...CK in California