Mikabomb - The Fake Fake Sound Of Mikabomb

  by Cara Ross

published: 12 / 3 / 2002

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Review

On the Damaged Goods Records label, from out of England, comes the first full-length from Mika Bomb, purveyors of garage-pop at its finest.  The London-based band has had three singles out previously (2 of which were on the now defunct Beastie Boys label,Grand Royal), and now finally we have this full-length, 'The Fake Fake Sounds of Mikabomb'.  And are the sounds fake?  That’s hard to say.  Lyrically a lot of these songs read like a bad translation, but truly I must reveal, that’s part of their charm.  At one point I paused to say “Wait a minute, did they just rhyme underpants with ambulance? Perfect.  This is exactly what I was looking for. Members of this band hail from Tokyo, Beijing and Norway, and are kind of an eclectic mix of early New York Punk meets Asian pop. But, if you’re expecting something as saccharine as Shonen Knife here, you can forget it, something more along the lines of Japan’s SuperSnazz though is more like it.  It’s easy to get a clue of what you’re in for with song titles like 'Garage Superstars', 'Super Sexy Razor Happy Girls', and 'Yellow Danger Babies'.  MikaBomb are more a sped-up version of the Shangri-Las, and often the lyrics are simple in just that same way: “You’re the kind of boy that I really like, let me take a ride on your motorbike”.  These are the kind of lyrics that endeared the Donnas to us before they went all metal, and this is the kind of simplicity that always worked well for the Ramones. I like to showcase “girl bands” wherever possible (I use the term loosely, given that there is a male member in MikaBomb), because apart from the Elasticas and Veruca Salts in the world, they really don’t get enough exposure.  And while this album can at times be silly-fun, it’s also not stupid-fun, and does find them poking at and disparaging certain Asian stereotypes, in their tough, cute-girl way.  I’m sure it can’t be easy to make voices this sweet sound tough, but they try.  It’s more about how this record sounds than anything else, and subject matter and lyrics aside, it’s pretty serious rock-pop.  Pick it up, this record’s a lot of fun.

Track Listing:-

1 Garage Super Stars
2 Hey Man
3 Contact Tokyo
4 Super Sexy Razor Happy Girls
5 Stick Around Jo
6 Heart Attack
7 Super Honda
8 Armageddon
9 Never Gonna Push Me Around
10 Underwear
11 Love Factor Five
12 Snake And Crane
13 Magic Boots
14 Sweet Peach
15 Don't Say
16 Yellow Danger Babies

Label Links:-

http://www.damagedgoods.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/DamagedGoodsR
https://www.youtube.com/user/Damgoodre
https://twitter.com/DAMAGEDGOODSREC
https://plus.google.com/10811642622648