Supercar

The northern Japanese prefecture of Aomori gave rise to Supercar, a melodic rock quartet assembled in 1995. Guitar and vocals rest with Nakako, bass and vocals with Miki, additional guitar with Junji, and drums with Kodai, forming a group centered on those instruments. Their opening single, Cream Soda, appeared in September 1997. April 1998 brought the first album, Three Out Change, which gathered Cream Soda together with the earlier singles Lucky and Planet. Jump Up followed in 1999 and carried the band to second position on the Japanese domestic charts. A limited-edition compilation of outtakes, OOKeah!!, surfaced in May 1999. Several months afterward an expanded domestic pressing of OOKeah!! accompanied the fourth album, OOYeah!!. Traces of the Jesus and Mary Chain and Echo and The Bunnymen surface in Supercar’s work, which favors densely layered guitar distortion and melodic vocal lines. Admiration for the Chemical Brothers and Primal Scream has steered the band toward techno methods, including the exchange of sound files with remote collaborators and heavier reliance on drum loops and samples. Live engagements included opening for Pavement in Tokyo during 1999 and performing at Austin’s SXSW on Sony’s Japan Not For Sale artist showcase in March 2000.