Rock (6): Don’t tell me rock is dead (This is especially for people who love 1960’s and 70’s roots rock)

It is tempting for people of a certain generation (mine) to bitch and moan about how great music (by that, they are usually referring to rock) is dead, or at least neglected.  Well, as you know if you have been reading this column, I disagree.  Yes, in America it certainly can seem that way, and if people are going to call our popular music empty and vapid, I’m not going to argue. Like many of my generation, my fallback for a long time was my precious vinyl from the good old days.  And so it still is for a lot of folks.

But America is not the world.  The seeds planted around the rest of the planet by the great British and American rock bands of the 1960’s and 1970’s took root, and oh boy, did they bear fruit. 

I’ve recently posted several columns on Band-Maid, the progressive hard-rock band from Japan which is in many ways redefining rock music—some say creating their own genre.  This post is going to focus on another band taking a different approach. 

Glim Spanky were formed in 2007 as a quartet; the only constants since then have been Remi Matsuo (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Hiroki Kamemoto (lead guitar, multi-instrumentalist).  They have had a rotating cast of musicians filling out the other positions in the band.  Where Band-Maid are aggressively experimental, Glim Spanky are almost a roots-rock band. They may be based in Japan, and sing in Japanese, but listening to them can often feel like being drawn right back into 60’s and 70’s Americana. 

They channel influences from blues, folk-rock, early hard rock and Southern rock.  Their songs variously hint at Jefferson Airplane, early Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Joan Jett, and even the Allman Brothers, among others.  It’s all done with a modern edge to the instrumentals and Remi’s unique, raspy voice. 

美しい棘 ("Beautiful Thorns")

The first time I heard this, I felt like Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era) and the Allman Brothers had done a song together, with a mysterious female singer, and we just found the tapes.

“Breaking Down Blues” 

The Blues were invented in America, and then abandoned.  John Mayer, Gary Clarke and Kingfish Ingram are among the few who are trying to keep the Blues alive here.  So this clip just about knocked me over.  Remi’s voice sounds like a blues singer you’ve heard before but can’t quite place.  The guitar licks are decidedly modern, the main giveaway that this is recent.