Crazy Ken Band

Ken Yokoyama has been involved with a series of projects (including heading Pizza of Death Records), but one of the few to hold strongly was the Crazy Ken Band, a large contingent of musicians clustered around Yokoyama who perform something of a parody-based pop music. The music is at its core a bit retro, with elements of pre-J-Pop (and pre-J-Rock) standing as the main components of the group’s output. There’s sentimentality exposed in the lyrics as well, references to a less sanitized Japan of the past and to the vices attached to it (as well as to muscle cars, a particular hobby of Yokoyama’s), paralleling developments in other parts of Japanese culture (notably the noir elements of the extremely popular anime series Cowboy Bebop, and the close ties to jazz, blues, and rock infused in the series by Yoko Kanno). Though the band began forming in 1991, it wasn’t until Yokoyama’s return to “solo” projects around 2002 that the group took off as a force unto itself. The band’s live performances have garnered most attention, though album releases have consistently performed well, with 2008′s Zero easily staying in Oricon’s Top Ten for an extended period. ~ Adam Greenberg