Japancakes - The Sleepy Strange - Kindercore

Review by: Jennifer Perkins

Japancakes were not what I was expecting. This seems to happen to me a lot. I hear a band name and see the label they are on and assume all these things about them. Japancakes, is no exception. Japan, I thought of all those cute little Anime cartoons like Oopsie Daisy and Sailor Moon. Cake, well hell, I thought of a child’s party with hats, piñatas and fun stuff like that. Japancakes, did not live up to it’s name, there was nothing fun about this. The Sleepy Strange didn’t make me want to gouge my eyes out with lit birthday candles, but after all I was expecting I was a little let down to say the least.

Once I came to terms with the fact that my pre-judgement was wrong, oh so wrong, I tried this whole listening process again. This time I realized that the band really sounds more like a country band with a strings section and not an aim or a goal in sight. They have that whole rambling thing down pat, Hank Sr. would be so proud. These songs kind of meander and run into each other. Thank God for the 3 second pauses in-between or I would think it was all one giant lump of subdued sounds. I can appreciate their whole idea about going into a recording session without ever practicing together, the whole impromptu thing. Sure that is novel, but these songs could be so much stronger if the got rid of the gimmick and started practicing together like and acting like a real band and not an art project.

These songs are all just kind of there and passive, like background music. I can appreciate a good instrumental band as much as the next guy, hey I own Pele records. However, the songs that Japancakes write seem to beg for some vocals. I keep waiting for someone with a Georgia peach accent to chime in, but I am left waiting. Maybe it is my preference for bands that work on creating melodies and not just playing the same thing over and over again for several minutes and then calling it a song. I can even appreciate the alternative country thing, I like lap steels, hell did you read my rave review of Shearwater. There are a couple of standout numbers on this 7 song CD, like “Soft N EZ”. No wonder this is the free MP3 on the Kindercore site, it’s their best song. This ditty seems to be fuller and has some groove to it. There are some Sea and Cake influenced keyboards added in, and that really improves things.

If there is one thing I got out of this record, it is the reminder of an important life lesson, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Just because a CD has a fun sounding name and a perky orange pear on the cover by no means is indicative of what lies inside. Maybe next time, I should take into consideration the name of the actual CD, they hit the nail on the head with The Sleepy Strange.

Read where Kindercore got their name from here.