The punk cover is a staple of the genre, but it can often be blighted by hamfisted irony, even more hamfisted commercialism, or both. However, a lot of it is thoroughly sincere, and in Japan, the burning heart of this love affair is Momoiro Clover Z, a pop group who provoke squealing, teenage admiration from punks, indie kids, noise musicians and heavy-psychedelic longhairs throughout the Japanese underground music scene.
One such progressive rocker is Taigen Kawabe of U.K.-based psychedelic band Bo Ningen. More often seen in Tokyo playing alongside noise legends such as Keiji Haino, Kawabe's page on the website SoundCloud leads off with a curious mashup of his own band and Momioro Clover Z in which the former band's shifts in rhythm match surprisingly well with the idol group's distinctive penchant for chopping aggressively (and sometimes illogically) between seemingly unconnected melodies.
"Key to the appeal of idol music for noise or punk acts may be that both types share a kind of anarchic energy," Kawabe theorizes
Unless something is 'happening' like the awards last night, I don't really have much to contribute.
