Eastern Youth

What Can you See From Your Place (Five One, Inc.)
by Tim Den

As one of Japan’s most highly-regarded post-punk bands, Eastern Youth have been championed (and brought along on U.S. tours) by everyone from Jimmy Eat World and At The Drive-In, to Cursive and No Knife. Finally, What Can You See From Your Place brings the band to U.S. audiences (’02’s split with Cursive, 8 Teeth to Eat You, was a mere EP), and the hype does not lie.

A hybrid of Leatherface’s tough-and-gruff, Fugazi’s hyper-emotionality, and an innate Japanese ability to contort melodies into visions of blood-dripping cherry blossoms, Eastern Youth vibrate with earthquake honesty and pure effort. The over-the-top earnesty here, even in Japanese (what’s more punk fucking rock than refusing to sing in a foreign language?), spells out images of youths stuck between technology and nature, tradition and commercialism (common themes of struggle in Japanese society). The band seem to channel all these questions and anxieties into bursts of articulate noise, never failing to place humanity at the forefront of the sentiments. The result is an insight, not only into Japan’s underground youth, but into the magnificent force that acts as their spokesmen. This is music that defies language barriers.
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