20/12/07: The Golden Cups
Read the chapter on the late '60s Group Sounds explosion in Julian Cope's new book last night.
A lot of Group Sounds records are either sappy ballads or cheesy pop, but one exception was Yokohama's Golden Cups. By far the wildest of the GS bands, a lack of any mind-expanding drugs in Japan at that time meant that the Cups turned to sniffing glue and paint thinner to get high before putting their own unique spin on American garage punk. The insane version of 'Hey Joe' in particular absolutely reeks of Bostik...
The Golden Cups - 'Hiwa-Mata Noboru'
The Golden Cups - 'Hey Joe'
The Golden Cups - 'Got My Mojo Working'
The Golden Cups - 'LSD Blues'
There's a full biography of the band at the great Japrocksampler site, but basically guitarist Dave Hirao was the first person in Japan to own a fuzzbox - and it shows. A Japanese-language documentary about the band was released in 2005.
A lot of Group Sounds records are either sappy ballads or cheesy pop, but one exception was Yokohama's Golden Cups. By far the wildest of the GS bands, a lack of any mind-expanding drugs in Japan at that time meant that the Cups turned to sniffing glue and paint thinner to get high before putting their own unique spin on American garage punk. The insane version of 'Hey Joe' in particular absolutely reeks of Bostik...
The Golden Cups - 'Hiwa-Mata Noboru'
The Golden Cups - 'Hey Joe'
The Golden Cups - 'Got My Mojo Working'
The Golden Cups - 'LSD Blues'
There's a full biography of the band at the great Japrocksampler site, but basically guitarist Dave Hirao was the first person in Japan to own a fuzzbox - and it shows. A Japanese-language documentary about the band was released in 2005.
