The Kiddie

The Tokyo oshare-kei band The Kiddie had an immediate impact on the scene upon their formation in 2007, rising quickly from relative obscurity to sign a major-label deal even before releasing their first album. Their bright, colorful, yet relatively casual looks and cheerful, optimistic pop/rock sound won them legions of young fans both at home and around the world, despite their albums not being released outside of Japan. The Kiddie was formed following the disbandment of the talented and popular indie band Kazoku, which gained a global cult following despite never releasing more than a handful of singles. Kazoku’s vocalist Yusa, lead guitarist Yuusei, and drummer Yuudai recruited bassist Sorao from the band Shelly Jazz Funk Children and rhythm guitarist Jun from Maruru and, taking the chunky, melodic pop-punk of Kazoku, stripped out the more melancholy elements of their sound, added slight metal and jazz-funk influences, and created an infectious, winning style. Their first single, "Little Senobi" ("Little Overreaching"), was an instant success, selling out almost immediately and necessitating a second pressing. In 2008 the band self-released two more singles, "Plastic Art" and "Sayonara Setsuna" ("A Goodbye Moment"), increasing their visibility and cementing their position in fans’ hearts through heavy touring. In 2009 the band signed with the indie label Timely Records, but ended up releasing only two singles for this label, as Yusa had to take time out to recover from surgery to remove vocal polyps. However, the two singles, "Noah" and "Elite Star," boasted much-improved production and showed the band tightening up its songwriting. A brief flirtation with the major-label Vap (then-home of fellow visual act Nightmare) resulted in three singles -- "Soar," "Black Side," and "Poplar" -- and a compilation album imaginatively titled Single Collection, which featured re-recorded versions of all the songs from their first three self-released singles, as well as two previously unreleased tracks. Shortly after its release in early 2010, the band announced they were signing to the major-label King Records, home to many of Japan’s biggest domestic acts. Their first singles for the label, "Smile" and "Calling," showed a change in their sound, trading in the punk and metal influences for more straightforward pop/rock and a radically different, much lighter production style which worried some fans, who declaimed it as "tinny." Their debut album, Brave New World, bore out these concerns to some extent, but the continuing high quality of the songwriting meant it was generally warmly received, and big major-label marketing bucks meant the band’s media presence was greatly increased, leading to more sales. In 2011 the band released three more singles -- "Sun’z Up," the peculiarly titled "Nutty Nasty," and the crunching "Utsukushiki Redrum" ("Beautiful Redrum"), which some fans hailed as their best song yet. Their second full-length, MaStarPiece, which followed early in 2012, was a better and more well-rounded album which saw more variation in their songwriting and brought back a touch of their prior heaviness, featuring some lush string and horn arrangements which tipped a hat to '70s soul and funk. A third album, the heavier-yet The Five, was ready just nine months later. ~ John D. Buchanan