Photos by Geoff Henao On Tuesday, July 14th, Japanese noise-core band Melt-Banana returned to Chicago’s Empty Bottle for the first time in 15 years. Touring across the country with them is stoner metal band, and genre-defying Hot Nerds opened the show. For months since the show was announced, my expectations were extremely high. 2015 marks […]
[Review] Melt-Banana: “Return of 13 Hedgehogs”
When you’re an independent punk-ish band that’s been around for 20+ years, a long catalog of splits and singles are amassed over time… especially when a lot of your early catalog features songs that clocked in at an average of 90 seconds. Over their long career, Melt-Banana has entranced (and confused) many an ear, and […]
[RH Interview] Melt-Banana
Melt-Banana has been creating aggressive noise-core for more than two decades now. However, through the band’s career, they’ve changed their sound a bit, experimenting with electronica and pop instrumentation to complement vocalist Yasuko Onuki’s iconic, high-pitched screech and guitarist Ichirou Agata’s multi-layered scratch/slide guitar. Their most recent album, fetch, retains the band’s signature discordant sound balanced […]
[Album] Melt-Banana: “fetch” + 2 do what 2 fetch North American Tour dates
It’s been six years since Melt-Banana’s last studio album, Bambi’s Dilemma, and a lot has changed for the band in the interim. 2011’s Tohoku earthquake stalled fetch‘s release, then the band’s long-standing bassist, the diminutive Rika mm, left the band in 2012. Deciding to continue on as a duo (the band hasn’t had a permanent drummer for […]