In my search for new tunes, I re-discovered this satirical gem that is Kyuusonekokami–which might translate to ‘Rapid Cat God’ if the kanji is standard. The band is best distinguished by the melodic keyboard (Shinnosuke Yokota), against the hard-hitting vocals (Seiya Yamasaki), electrifying guitar progressions (Kazuma Okazawa), and contagious rhythm (Takuro Kawakubo-bass; Taisuke Sogou-drums). While they’ve stayed mostly in the ‘Indies’ of J-rock, they’re often praised for their quirky appeal and clever lyrics. Their band logo is a mouse for crying out loud! The song that hooked me was “Phantom Vibration“, which pokes fun at the fact that we’re all glued to our phones. 「真理；しんり; shin-ree」, or “Truth”, doesn’t ease up on the social critique, either. This time, with the message: Don’t believe everything you hear.
I feel like being an American gave me the advantage to get the gist of this song fairly quickly because we’re all pretty much brainwashed from birth to doubt authority. So when I found words like:
「陰謀論; いんぼうろん; in-bou-roh-n」conspiracy theory
「叡智；えいち; ei-chee」wisdom
「這いつくばって；はいつくばって; hah-ee-tsu-koo-bah-tteh」crawl on your knees
I was like “OOOOOOOOOOH”. You can start to shape the meaning as likely being related to truth, lies, and most importantly, lies from authority (crawl on your knees!). This is likely why Yamasaki starts adding ‘Why don’t believe me?’ to the chorus of “I know, I know! ) part. The magnifying glass he holds also adds a nice touch to all the voices he’s taking on: a kind of ‘cult leader’ who magnifies certain things so that the whole picture can’t be seen, and the skeptic who tries to look deeper into what is being said.
But, then again, who could doubt that face?
that foreign music blog🌎 
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