Yeah, they really are a pretty much more modern version of Shonen Knife, but with more of a standard pop-rock focus and less of the "cutesy" thing going for them (musically, at least).

Where are all the pop/rock singers like Morrissey hiding nowadays?

I really appreciate the compliments.

And yes, I have. My very first concert was when they played at the Ogden Theater in Denver, Colorado. That was back in 1995-96ish, and The Suicide Machines opened for them. I then saw them again a few years later when they opened for Bad Religion in the DU Arena in Denver.

The Ogden Theater was really cool because the place was just so small. And this was back in the day when they had the skeletal masked guy touring with them, and during their encore, he'd breathe fire across the stage, and the whole place would just go nuts. In a tiny, ridiculously hot room like that, the whole experience was just unreal. Definitely one of my best concert experiences to say the least.

How about you?



In reply to this comment by gorgonheap:
I give you props for writing something that long without spelling errors or unintelligent dribble. You belong here on videosift. And your totally right their more recent albums, they lost their upbeat bounce that they had going.
Ever been to one of their shows?
In reply to this comment by Abel_Prisc:
I've been a fan of Less Than Jake since I was in elementary school (not exaggerating, I'm 21 now).

Less Than Jake's sound comes from their magical ability to bring the crazy energy that you'd get from going to a ska/punk concert, and somehow expressing it to perfection on a studio album. A good example of this would be their album "Hello Rockview!".

The band's drummer, Vinnie, is also rather well known for being the co-founder of what is probably today's biggest pop-rock label, Fueled By Ramen (FBR) Records, who has signed and made such bands as Panic! At the Disco, Paramore, and FallOut Boy. After the label obviously became more about 'Style over Substance', and less focused on the music, Vinnie dropped out of it and went his own way, creating a new record label, of which he is now re-releasing all of Less Than Jake's old albums on.


This song is on their second most recent album (if you exclude their b-sides album that released afterwards), "Anthem". It pains me to say that the album following Anthem, and their most recent, "In With the Out Crowd" is a horrible abomination of everything that Less Than Jake is. It's so bad, that even Vinnie (The drummer) has spoken out saying that the album just 'didn't work'. It lacked the energy that was so excellently portrayed in the earlier efforts of the band, and came out flat, with a very cliche 'radio-pop rock', unoriginal sound.

They're currently in studios working on their new album, promising the great things that made their band original and unique to begin with.

All in all- outstanding band, with a very personal and unique lyricist in Vinnie, and a very fun, bouncy sound.

I give you props for writing something that long without spelling errors or unintelligent dribble. You belong here on videosift. And your totally right their more recent albums, they lost their upbeat bounce that they had going.
Ever been to one of their shows?
In reply to this comment by Abel_Prisc:
I've been a fan of Less Than Jake since I was in elementary school (not exaggerating, I'm 21 now).

Less Than Jake's sound comes from their magical ability to bring the crazy energy that you'd get from going to a ska/punk concert, and somehow expressing it to perfection on a studio album. A good example of this would be their album "Hello Rockview!".

The band's drummer, Vinnie, is also rather well known for being the co-founder of what is probably today's biggest pop-rock label, Fueled By Ramen (FBR) Records, who has signed and made such bands as Panic! At the Disco, Paramore, and FallOut Boy. After the label obviously became more about 'Style over Substance', and less focused on the music, Vinnie dropped out of it and went his own way, creating a new record label, of which he is now re-releasing all of Less Than Jake's old albums on.


This song is on their second most recent album (if you exclude their b-sides album that released afterwards), "Anthem". It pains me to say that the album following Anthem, and their most recent, "In With the Out Crowd" is a horrible abomination of everything that Less Than Jake is. It's so bad, that even Vinnie (The drummer) has spoken out saying that the album just 'didn't work'. It lacked the energy that was so excellently portrayed in the earlier efforts of the band, and came out flat, with a very cliche 'radio-pop rock', unoriginal sound.

They're currently in studios working on their new album, promising the great things that made their band original and unique to begin with.

All in all- outstanding band, with a very personal and unique lyricist in Vinnie, and a very fun, bouncy sound.

I've been a fan of Less Than Jake since I was in elementary school (not exaggerating, I'm 21 now).

Less Than Jake's sound comes from their magical ability to bring the crazy energy that you'd get from going to a ska/punk concert, and somehow expressing it to perfection on a studio album. A good example of this would be their album "Hello Rockview!".

The band's drummer, Vinnie, is also rather well known for being the co-founder of what is probably today's biggest pop-rock label, Fueled By Ramen (FBR) Records, who has signed and made such bands as Panic! At the Disco, Paramore, and FallOut Boy. After the label obviously became more about 'Style over Substance', and less focused on the music, Vinnie dropped out of it and went his own way, creating a new record label, of which he is now re-releasing all of Less Than Jake's old albums on.


This song is on their second most recent album (if you exclude their b-sides album that released afterwards), "Anthem". It pains me to say that the album following Anthem, and their most recent, "In With the Out Crowd" is a horrible abomination of everything that Less Than Jake is. It's so bad, that even Vinnie (The drummer) has spoken out saying that the album just 'didn't work'. It lacked the energy that was so excellently portrayed in the earlier efforts of the band, and came out flat, with a very cliche 'radio-pop rock', unoriginal sound.

They're currently in studios working on their new album, promising the great things that made their band original and unique to begin with.

All in all- outstanding band, with a very personal and unique lyricist in Vinnie, and a very fun, bouncy sound.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'pop, rock' to 'pop, rock, 90s' - edited by JAPR

In reply to this comment by Bleedingsnowman:
Bamdrew told me that you were into Supercar. I saw a video he had posted and got interested. It seems they have very little for sale on amazon and what is for sale is around $40-50 per album. What's going on with them?

www.hmv.co.jp
www.cdjapan.co.jp
www.yesasia.com

Amazon is the WORST place to get Japanese music (Amazon Japan is decent though). Use these sites, you'll find their albums for much better prices (and Yesasia gives you free shipping on orders over 25 bucks - a REALLY good deal; this is offset by their smaller selection and slightly higher CD prices). I use a combination of these when buying Japanese music.

As for Supercar themselves, they broke up in February 2005. The current projects are as follows:

Kouji Nakamura (vocals, guitar) is currently doing a solo project called iLL (http://www.illtheworld.jp/). It's electronic music, though in his latest single that came out last spring he did some singing (which really got me excited for what he's going to do next; I love his voice).

Miki Furukawa (bass, vocals) also went solo, under her own name　(Furukawa Miki/フルカワ ミキ). It's pretty interesting, a nice blend of pop, pop-rock, and electronic music. Nakamura plays guitar for her at live shows. (http://www.furukawamiki.jp/)

Junji Ishiwatari (guitar), who actually wrote all of their amazing lyrics, is currently not in any bands. He is, however, writing lyrics from time to time for various musicians, and does sound production for the bands Chatmonchy (http://www.chatmonchy.com/), a three-piece girl rock band with a great catchy sound, and 9mm Parabellum Bullet (http://9mm.moo.jp/), a high energy indie rock band.

Koudai Tazawa (drums) is currently doing some rather boring electronic music as aM (アム). I had a link to his MySpace at one point, but they weren't really worth checking out anyway, sadly.

Ummm...monster post. Sorry about that lol. I'm just a huge fan, so I've been following them since the breakup to see what they've been doing (Been a fan since I first heard them in early 2004). Of the solo projects, Miki's is the best, but iLL's latest release has me excited for what he'll do next.

Concerning Supercar itself, I have everything on my computer (as well as owning a decent portion of their releases), so if you want recommendations/a hookup, I can upload whatever for you. They're my second favorite Japanese band. If you're looking to buying things, the older singles are getting harder and harder to find, so I'd recommend starting there if anywhere.

I don't get where they emo comparison comes in, unless you're saying plastic-rimmed glasses equals auto-emo, but okay. These guys are actually one of the biggest pop-rock bands in Japan, and not at all part of the emo wave.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'the smiths, smiths, bbc' to 'the smiths, bbc, morrissey, johnny marr, pop, rock, documentary' - edited by JAPR

Tags for this video have been changed from '80s, classic, pop, rock' to '80s, classic, pop, rock, the cure, cure' - edited by dystopianfuturetoday

Yeah, he did miss a few, but they played it extra-fast. I actually mentioned this video to him and he said that they "played that song fast as shit, so it was kind of a mess."

They're more of a sort of throwback pop rock band? I'm not sure how to describe their style, but it's very much not metal. I'll edit the video description to include their myspace page so you can check out a few of their songs.

Their self-titled album is good for long car drives; they had a great unique ambiance/atmosphere to their songs and nice deliberate use of guitar feedback (thanks to Kevin Cadogan, shame he had to part ways with the band) to add to the swirling vortex bass of Arion Salazar. Their drummer is very underrated as he is low-key/restrained yet incredibly consistent as the pulse of the band, reminding me of Ringo Starr. Although it sorta sucks that they kicked off the whole alternative pop-rock craze in the late 90's and countless imitators followed suit and still are. Seeing them live at Merrimack College in 2003, which is about 10 minutes away from where I live, they were anything but poppy. The songs on their subsequent albums are hit and miss but it's hard for me to find fault in any of their songs from the first self-titled album.

Pop rocks and pepsi were enough for my generation.

This is the worst song on DDR Supernova. Not a fan of the song, or the group at all. I've no problem with mediocre pop rock, but the airwaves and MTV are flooded with stuff mediocrity, while all sorts of great bands are totally ignored.

Really awesome cover. Possibly the best cover of this I've seen, including a rather amusingly bad cover by a Japanese pop rock band.