Three Music Thingz with first president of japan
Hey, you don't say, it's another rendition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their music-making.
Today we have first president of japan! first president of japan is a band in Brooklyn, NY led by Non Kuramoto, a "clown [who] started a punk band" according to their Instagram bio. TBH they had me at clown punk from the very jump. This is the season of the clown and I have been waiting patiently for it to begin for quite a while. There have been signs that clowns will have a place in society and culture once again—last fall I watched a clown/mime named Meadow perform from a balcony at a Sunday Bruch Collective event, that was awesome...I've been hearing about a band called LSD Clownsystem down in New Orleans, billed as "America's Premier Clown-Themed LCD Soundsystem Cover Band"...we don't even need to get into the Joker: Folie A Deux of it all...anyway, SEND IN THE CLOWNS!
Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 21, 2024
first president of japan put out an EP called The Most Important Meal of the Day is first president of japan in September. Do you like charismatically frenzied singing? Do you like math punk riffs tangling with glam rock attitude? Do you like lyrics about foods and drinks, including a song about eating fries with mayonnaise and another song called "how do you like your eggs" that ends with a screamed chorus of "I'M STICKY WITH YOLK!"? Good, you will like this EP.
Besides being a clown punk frontperson, Kuramoto is also a comedian and actor, and the Spirit of the Theater (the...Phantom of the Opera?) is never far from the music; you can imagine the EP being performed under a massive spotlight, the kind so hot it'll really make your grease paint run. The rest of the band—Akifumi Nagae on guitar (Dave Strawn plays guitar in the live lineup), Yoko Sawai on bass, Duncan Lockard on keys, and Zeév Banks on drums—plays with great vigor and scrappy zeal. Ah shit, I thought, listening to this EP from the sunny swaddle of Los Angeles, I wish I could see this band live in New York City, I bet they would rip.
Non Kuramoto was kind enough to share three music thingz with the blog and they are just as hilarious as you would expect...onward...
- Food
I might even go so far to say this could be included in Three Human Thingz. We want everyone in our band to be well fed. It's pretty hard to rock the fuck out when you're hungry. Any Tuesday evening you're likely to find us in our studio “practicing.” Zeév with a deli sandwich shoved up his mouth, Duncan and his “Duncan Bowl” (a bowl from Brooklyn Suya), Aki pounding a lamb over rice, and my hands deep in a bag of chips. Yoko asks “Are we practicing or are we just eating?” To which I reply “Don't worry I can sing in between chewing!” Priorities!!!!!!
A lot of people seem to think we have a lot of songs about food and that they're meant to be cheeky and funny because I am a comedian. People chase me around the city asking, “Why are all of your songs about food? Why are you obsessed with eggs?” Excuse me, why is nobody asking alllllll musicians why they keep writing songs about love? Is food not as universal as love? Is food not as erotic, visceral, passionate, succulent as love? I find hunger and the sensuous potential of eating to be so essential to tapping into truths about being human.
In high school AP lit we had to read a book called “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster. Chapter 16 is titled “It’s All About Sex…” and Chapter 17 is “... Except Sex.”
So, are all of our songs about food? Or sex?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT. - Pretentious Clown Shit
I have spent more of my life being a clown than having a salary. To be fair, I have never successfully been hired for a salaried job because my education and resume both have “clown” in them and that's probably the first thing AI was taught to put in the NOPE pile.
The worst part is I'm not even a technically skilled clown, like a circus clown. I can't do anything exciting like juggle or ride a unicycle. I knoooowwwww I'm one of those philosophical Clowns. Ask me what that is and depending on how my brain’s doing that day I'll tell you “It's basically about always being a baby, ya know?” or “So you know how the court jester was the one person who could talk shit to the king but that also meant they HAD to be good at their craft because they're also always one word away from getting beheaded?” Perhaps most annoying is “So like Pierrot is the commedia dell’arte classic sad clown, and a lot of the time it's attributed to him losing the woman he loves to Harlequin. But I actually think he's heartbroken because he knows he's only given life to be laughed at for his misery yet he romanticizes this world enough to keep playing the part to stay alive. This knowledge puts him in a liminal space between the work and audience. It's alienating and freeing to be destined to play in purgatory. You know what I mean?”
NO NON, WHAT THE FUCK. I can barely stand the mouth that dribbles such bullshit but unfortunately it's stuck to my face. And that face is the logo of this band. So being led by neither a technically skilled clown nor musician, first president of japan is built on a foundation of this silliness. - Minding our Own Business
This band was created by me repeating more or less the following scene with a hundred people all around New York and Brooklyn. Anyone who'd make eye contact with me at a bar or show or match me on Hinge, I’d segue all conversation to…
Me: “I want to start a band, do you want to be in my band?”
Stranger: “What do you play?”
Me: “Nothing.”
Stranger: “... So… No?”
And, scene.
There were four people who said,
“Um, okay I guess, take my number.”
And surprise, the five of us is, first president of japan.
This inevitably curated a group of people who are all willing to fuck around and find out. Nobody has an adamant vision for what our sound is, so our songs are built up of whatever each person feels is the best for their part. I will occasionally be a bratty baby and be like “This doesn't feel good, I want it to sound more beach and less horse” and somehow they all know what I mean and humor me until I say “Yayyyy thisssss!!” I think it's actually important that I literally can't tell anyone how or what to play. You know how annoying I am based on my earlier clown behavior—can you imagine what a monster I'd be if I knew anything about music? No thank you!
This potential cacophony of everyone doing their own thing puts us in a teetery place. It could go really bad or be super satisfying. In fact, when it does work out our sound becomes the surprising and perfect liminal space that I'm allowed to clown around in. Wow, see how I tied that bow? 😘
Thank you Non! Listen to first president of japan's EP here and check out their link aggregation here.
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