Being blind-sided by a new artist, by a new band, by a new landscape of sound …what a truly great feeling. Like a baptism of sonic rhapsody, purifying your attention, distilling your conscience, the sensation can wash over you like a shamanic wave, transfixing all your senses, illuminating your perceptions, calming your spirit, and soothing your soul. Ah, you’ve arrived at a new place of musical appreciation! Congratulations! A new band just found its way to your heart, planting a seed of curiosity for more, an interest to go immediately deeper, a smile on your face, a surprised widening of your eyes, a rhythmic tap to your foot, and maybe a little bang in your head.
I feel like this all-to-familiar feeling might have been the way Tomo felt the first time he heard American Indie-rockers Superchunk, and especially the opening track “Like a Fool” off their emotional 1994 classic, “Foolish”. The song does what any truly great opening track does, and that is grab the listener by the balls and never let go, neither for the length of the album, nor for the rest of this band new fan’s life. In fact, a song like that can change one’s life. Hell, it could grab you so hard that it inspires you to form your own indie band in highschool with your pals in rural Gifu, Japan, maybe a great band called “cinema staff” that would go on to move to Tokyo, become beloved by a loyal fanbase, have major debuts over a long and continued career, perhaps inspire you to even start your own record label, inspired by Steve Albini (in whose studio the album was mixed) to produce and release music for your other music making friends. For Chrissakes, a song like Superchunk’s “Like a Fool” could not only inspire you to give your record label the same same, but it could even inspire you to open you OWN record shop, also by the same name, and attach a little standing bar to it, where music lovers congregate daily and nightly, most often in the post-show afterglows from the legendary live house, “Fever” just across the street. A song like that could give you a whole new ethos on life, and have you basically surrendering to the gods of rock to light your way forward leading you on a path of infinitely deep, widely shared, and ever-expanding musical appreciation.
That’s all you really need to consider about this Tokyo Record Style post of “Like a Fool Records” proprietor, and “cinema staff” guitarist Tomotoka Tsuji, AKA Tomo. Though his focus is clearly singular, he’s the holy trinity of music loving and appreciation, a young but veteran producer and promoter, a humble and generous proselytizer of himself and others, and a damn good guitarist. Go see (and hear) for yourself by making a visit to Like a Fool Records where you just my find an opening track that blesses you with the same devotion as Tomo
More Tokyo Record Style on the way!
Ewoks
Released November 5, 2021
Ewoks are
Hayato Maruoka(Gt.Vo.)
Shuhei Nakamura(Ba.)
Momo Nakamura(Gt.Cho)
Daichi Inomata(Dr.Cho)
https://ewoks.bandcamp.com/album/ep1