Italian Japanese: The Lush Romantic Weirdness

Echoing-but-not-faraway guitar segues: Plenty of room for songs.

There are times when I should seriously not throw bio sheets into the great paper abyss of this desk when an album comes in, and this was seriously one of those times. Being self-released, this has really only sort-of been released, as it were, or so it seems; having to weed through the band’s Facebook nonsense to get a grip on who and what they are was a tragic misadventure I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Talk about un-pro; I mean, a pack of stupid tweets are pretty much what these LA boys have as far as evidence they’re even a fricking band in the first place.

The thing is, they’re quite good, which was why I forced myself to go on this info hunt. Don’t go in expecting a Vampire Weekend trip, despite their self-run label’s name or the cockeyed, blurry shot of a ceiling on the album cover – there’s a little Wilco, a little Goo Goo Dolls, some Death Cab, that stuff, but it’s very accessible, radio-ready tuneage. They have a fetish for echoing-but-not-faraway guitar segues that lend softness and a lot of space (that’s the Wilco) but they’ve obviously looked long and hard at the current market and seen plenty of room for, you know, songs.

They’ve got a DIY fail going only so far as basic PR stuff, but with college-media-beloved Planetary Group recently taking over the PR end you may be hearing more, not that muscling their way into the CMJ 200 chart is anything to sneeze at.

By Eric Saeger

Homepage: Italian Japanese
Homepage: Vampire Media Group Records