Let Me Talk About THE HIGH-LOWS (4x5 Edition)
Hello. Let me talk about The High-Lows as I please. This is the third installment. Thanks for joining me. It's amazing that I can't even fully remember the title I gave this myself.
As I wrote at the end of the last one, this time I'll be talking about The High-Lows' mini-album "4x5", which I had completely forgotten existed. How sinful of me. It's read as "Four by Five", and it means "5 people playing 4 songs". The Stones also have an album called "12x5", and it has the same meaning.
Personally, I think The High-Lows started heading in a clearly different direction with their 3rd album "Lobster", but this mini-album isn't a prequel to Lobster; if anything, it feels like a work that is an extension of their 2nd album "Tigermobile".
Let's get right into the song commentary. There are only four songs, so it'll be over in a flash. Keep up!
1. Mushi (Bug) (Lyrics/Music: Hiroto Komoto)
A riff with high lethality that rivals Missile Man and Rockin' Chair. Awesome. I'm losing my vocabulary right from the start. The lyrics also feel incredibly random, but it feels like the performers just want to have a good time, so the lyrics are secondary.
Hey, it's fine, it's fine
Hey, it's fine, it's fine
2. Heartbreaker (Lyrics/Music: Hiroto Komoto)
A song with a mysterious atmosphere that sounds like a perfect fusion of Latin rock from Central and South America and Japanese Group Sounds. Another characteristic is the lyrics that hint at sexual innuendos, which Hiroto brings out from time to time in The High-Lows.
If you touch my pants a little, you'll know
If you touch my pants a little, you'll know
Won't you drag it out?
3. Carburetor Blues (Lyrics/Music: Masatoshi Mashima)
From here on, the two songs are by Marcy. A bluesy garage rock song that early High-Lows were good at. And Hiroto's blues harp is exploding.
4. Bura Bura Bura (Lyrics/Music: Masatoshi Mashima)
A psychedelic pop number by Marcy. Unlike the other three songs, the gritty feel is toned down, and it's a song style that the onomatopoeia "Bura Bura Bura" fits perfectly, but before I knew it, this song is actually over "7 minutes long". I didn't mind at all. The number of sounds and choruses increase towards the second half. Also, the bass is damn cool from start to finish.
Ah, these days are overflowing with words like a con artist
I thought of something super fun. Good job me, that's great
And after the release of this album, The High-Lows performed at the firstFuji Rock Festivalon July 26, 1997. As you probably know, Fuji Rock is one of Japan's largest rock festivals, held every summer at the Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata.
The first one wasn't in Naeba, but literallyat the foot of Mount Fujiand was held over two days. In addition to The High-Lows, it was a spirited event with an incredibly tough lineup of domestic and international acts, includingRed Hot Chili Peppers,Rage Against The Machine,Aphex Twin,The Yellow Monkey,Foo Fighters, and others. Unfortunately, a typhoon hit the venue directly. The venue fell into chaos, and the second day was forced to becancelled. By the way, the scheduled performers for the second day includedGreen Day,Weezer,Massive Attack,Beck, and so on. They were tough, too.
I also attended with my wife for two days each in 2018 and 2019, but except for the first day of 2018, it rained the whole time.It rained for 3 out of 4 days. Plus, a typhoon hit directly in 2019. I could only laugh. I stayed in a tent at the time, but it flooded normally and I couldn't sleep well. While scooping water out of the tent, I thought,Why am I sleeping outside in such heavy rain?but I thought if I came to my senses I'd lose, so I forced myself to sleep. Then when I woke up in the morning, it was clear, and when I bought a change of underwear and a Cup Noodle at a nearby convenience store and ate it, it was so delicious it made me cry. I feel like I'll never eat a Cup Noodle that beats that in my life.
Well, either way, watching a live concert in a storm is physically and mentally tough, but this first Fuji Rock was like the ultimate version of that. Many participants were dressed lightly, like they were just going to see a concert in the neighborhood in a T-shirt and shorts, and it was such a desperate scene that I thought people might die, but even in that, The High-Lows delivered their performance perfectly.
Looking at it again, the rain is crazy and the wind is crazy. There's so much trash between the stage and the audience. Hiroto is shirtless and his pants are about to fall off, and Mashie looks calm but is playing guitar with a terrifying intensity. And the audience, as if responding to that, gets incredibly excited in a desperate way. Personally, when Mashie starts playing the riff in 'Rockin' Chair' and the crowd is going absolutely wild, it's seriously like something out of a manga.
AndFoo Fighters'sDave Grohl, who saw this live performance, said in an interview
'Who was the band before us?'
- It was THE HIGH-LOWS.
'The High-Lows! They weresuper cooltoo!Deep Purplewith vocals likeIggy Pop. I liked them. I think that's an interesting description.'
I made a comment like, "Who are those guys? They're way too incredible!", but 28 years later, in the autumn of 2025, when the Foo Fighters came to Japan, they expressed their gratitude to the Japanese bands they had interacted with over the years (Shonen Knife, Boredoms, Guitar Wolf, Otoboke Beaver, etc.) during their MC, and they also mentioned The High-Lows, saying, "They played before us at Fuji Rock and they were seriously, unbelievably amazing.". It really touched me that even after more than 20 years, they haven't forgotten the intensity of the shock they felt from The High-Lows at Fuji Rock. And in the dressing room, Mashy had an unexpected encounter with
The Clash's Joe Strummer. There's also a heart-stirring episode where they had their first and last conversation. This is written in detail in Mashy's book, "Rock 'n' Roll Recorder", so please check it out. And Hiroto also
"But, Joe Strummer was in the dressing room! That's enough... that's all!"
he said, but I mean, if Joe Strummer is in your dressing room, that's definitely enough, isn't it?
I'll end it here for now. Next time, I'll talk as I please about the 3rd album, "Lobster", which was the first turning point for The High-Lows, and about The High-Lows around 1998! See ya.