avandoned‘s leader-self-producer-and all-around mastermind Beni Usakura enjoyed a surprise hit earlier this year when she collaborated with the toy-instrument garage-punk band CHILDISH TONES! Aside from an acclaimed single, the 45 record sold-out it’s pre-sales, then sold out it’s extended press-run, and eventually got a second pressing to meet it’s demand! Of course it makes sense that the hippest idol in the biz would once again team up with rockin’ist toy band on the planet, and here’s their latest delicious pop nugget for our listening satisfaction!
https://twitter.com/usakura_beni/status/1178517922701955072?s=20
The A-side is called “Make Her Mine”, and there’s an appropriately lo-fi homemade MV to go along with it…
Like the previous single, this release contains two covers. “Make Her Mine” is originally a b-side obscurity by 60’s British mod band Hipster Image, who during their short-lived time picked up a huge club buzz, but never really broke into the wider audience that some of their peers achieved. A shame really, cause it’s a great stomper of a tune!
The Beni/CHILDISH TONES version is terrific, with a kazoo filling in for the horn parts! It’s pretty amazing to me that a band playing toy instruments can make such a rockin’ racket!
The b-side to the new record is another great piece of quirky pop: The theme song from the 1964 beach movie “Pajama Party”, originally sung by the legendary Annette Funicello!
Beni’s version with the band is also a lot of fun! It’s got a ska-esque arrangement, making it a danceable good time, and unless you’re a total fuddy-duddy, hearing Beni call out party dances like “Do the Watusi… the Mashed Potato…the Bugaloo!” will utterly charm you to the point that you can die happily.
The record’s out once again on the KilliKilliVilla label, but the distribution isn’t so easy for shipping out of Japan, so you’d need a proxy to get it. (And pay accordingly.) But despair not, the single is also out on streaming media such and Spotify and Apple Music, plus you can purchase it from iTunes! What’s also interesting is that, as with the previous single, the streaming and digital versions are sung in English, but the actual physical single is in Japanese. Variety abounds!
By the way, the “Cruel To Be Kind” single was also released on the label’s Bandcamp page, (With Japanese singing.) so watch out for the possibility that “Make Her Mine” will also show up on there a little later…
In the meantime, the amazing new incarnation of avandoned continues to captivate and win over hearts as the very best twee-indie idol unit on the planet. I can’t wait to see what’ll be next from them!
