P. Amiyumi

How much music do you have to like from a certain genre in order to be considered a fan of that genre? What if it's only a couple artists? Can I still sign up? No? Oh well.

Anyway, while I may not be a big fan of the genre as a whole, the J-Pop group known as Puffy Amiyumi in the west (and simply "Puffy" here in Asia), is one of my favorite groups. In fact, after Jamiroquai, Puffy holds the most real estate on my CD shelf. I guess that has to do with three things, mainly: the largely US-based (at the time) P2P community that significantly hindered attempts to grab tracks for free, a trip to Taiwan in the summer of 2002 (blowing new taiwan dollars on CDs), and the wonder that is the SF Amoeba.

Puffy is Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura. 2006 marks their 10th anniversary. Here in Taiwan, they've long since been marked with one-hit wonder status and relegated to a forgotten decade (the 90s). In its (Taiwan's collective subconscious) defense, it is pretty hard to keep track of all the Taiwanese, HK, Japanese, and Korean - Pop acts arriving and departing from the shelves of the local record stores. You'd have to be super oldschool (like Teresa Teng) or super white (Rod Stewart) to really have staying power.

The two thirty-something j-pop stars have been doing a pretty decent job of putting out music that's fresh and different from album to album. I guess it could be the clever shenanigans of some behind-the-scenes producer to breath new life into a Puffy that is loosing steam in their native Japan... But it's also cool to give the two women the benefit of the doubt and speculate that they are maturing and evolving as a group. The past couple albums (Nice from 2002, and the new Splurge) have done a nice job keeping off the saccharine synth/midi drum loops in favor of some tasty guitars and drumkit. And while the 2004 album, 59, slipped under my radar, I'll be getting that soon.

Off of Splurge:
"Tokyo I'm On My Way" (music and words by Dexter Holland of The Offspring)
"Basket Case" (the bonus track on the asian release of the album is this Green Day cover)