The Bawdies

The Bawdies is a Tokyo-based, Japanese rock band that has been active since 2004. The band is heavily influenced by 1950s-1960s beat music, garage punk, and early rhythm & blues. Band members Ryo 'Roy' Watanabe (b.July 7,1983), Yoshihiko 'Jim' Kimura (b. May 26, 1983), and Masahiko ‘Marcy’ Yamaguchi (b. November 8, 1983) became friends while attending elementary school in Setagaya, Tokyo. They met fourth member Taku "Taxman" Funayama (b. November 21, 1983), when he joined the basketball team in which the other three were members. After retiring from the basketball team in their final year of high school the four switched their focus to music. While at Tower Records, Shibuya, Watanabe and Kimura discovered The Sonics, a 1960s American garage band, which influenced their musical direction significantly. The Bawdies are also well known for Watanabe's distinctive soul-infused vocal style, which is influenced by Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Ray Charles.While the band has been compared to The Beatles is some news stories, musically they share more commonality with American garage and rhythm & blues genres. The band was formed on New Year's Day in 2004. and released their first album, Yesterday and Today, a mix of the band's original tracks and covers, through independent label Seez Records in March 2006. Their first single ‘I Beg You’ was released from the EP of the same name in March 2007. The EP release coincided with their first sold-out headline show at Shinjuku's Red Cloth in April Their first overseas tour was in June of that year, with the band playing eight performances across Australia with Dallas Crane and The Basics. Upon their return, they had their first appearance at Fuji Rock Festival on the Rookie A-Go-Go Stage in July. Second album, Awaking of Rhythm and Blues was released through Seez Records in February 2008 and featured all original tracks. This was followed by their first national tour culminating with a show at Shibuya's Club Quattro. The Bawdies’ made their first appearance at ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL, playing the Seaside Stage in August. The band returned to Australia in November for their second tour with The Basics and played the Queenscliff Music Festival in December. This Is My Story, released in April 2009, was the band's major label debut on the Getting Better sub-label of Victor Entertainment. Produced in part by Naoki Sato from Love Psychedelico the album reached # 1 on the iTunes Store rock chart and # 4 on the J-Pop album chart soon after its release. The album featured the singles ‘Emotion Potion’ and ‘You Gotta Dance’ and received praise from English "modfather" Paul Weller. In January 2010, the band received the favorite Japanese act award at the CD Shop Awards. Second album There's no Turning Back followed in April 2010 and saw the band again working with Naoki of Love Psychedelico. The album was preceded by singles ‘It's Too Late’ and ‘Hot Dog’ (#7 Oricon Chart, #3 on Japan Hot 100 Chart). During the There's No Turning Back tour, the band was involved in a car accident while travelling between shows. They postponed five shows while Jim and Marcy recovered from injuries sustained. During this enforced break, Taxman and Roy attended the postponed shows and met with fans. The band returned as a foursome on October 11, the show was filmed for the DVD Live at AX 20101011.  That same year the band also started appearing a monthly segment on Space Shower TV, called Bawdies A-Go-Go. The segment ran regularly until 2014. Also in 2010, the band's single ‘Just Be Cool’ reached #8 on the Oricon chart, and #5 on the Japan Hot 100. The single was the first released from third album Live the Life I Love in June 2011, and was followed by 'Love You Need You', which featured singer and rapper Ai sharing main lead vocals. The track peaked at #3 on the Japan Hot 100 in April 2011. Production of the album was impacted by the Great Tohoku Earthquake and two tracks ‘A New Day is Coming’ and ‘Yeah’ were the last to be recorded for the album and were written in response to the disaster. The Live the Life I Love Tour concluded its 38-date run at Nippon Budokan where the band played in front of an audience of 12,898 people, marking a significant milestone for the band. During the show, the band announced that they would undertake a Japan tour with The Sonics. The tour took place in March 2012. According to Roy, the experience of playing alongside their greatest influence was ‘as if being blessed by the creator’. Single ‘Red Rocket Ship’ was released ahead of the band's appearance at Nippon Budokan and was the first from fourth album 1-2-3. The year-long production on 1-2-3 was longer than that of their previous releases and saw the band experimenting with both songwriting and recording. Released in January 2013, the album peaked at #2 on the Oricon Chart and featured further singles ‘Rock Me Baby’ and ‘Lemonade’, which both peaked at #6 on the Oricon Chart. The band expanded their audience throughout Japan as ‘Rock Me Baby’ was selected as the theme song for the 2012 Fuji TV drama Hungry! (ハングリー!). The song ‘1-2-3’, is a bonus track on the album and recording of the song is featured on the documentary A Day in the 1-2-3 that accompanied the original CD release. The 1-2-3 Tour began in February 2013 and was the band's first all prefecture tour totaling 59 performances, including Yokohama Arena, culminating at Osaka-jo Hall on June 28. The band followed the tour with an appearance at Fuji Rock Festival, appearing on the Green Stage. In October, the band undertook their first Asian tour, playing Grand Mint Festival in South Korea as well as shows in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Their 2013 touring schedule concluded with a three date co-headlining Japan tour with American soul singer Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed. To mark the band's 10 anniversary since formation and the fifth since their major label debut, The Bawdies released Going Back Home in March 2014. The album features covers of rhythm and blues artists that had inspired the band, including tracks from Ray Charles, Howlin’ Wolf, Sam & Dave and Sam Cooke amongst others. The double A-side single ‘Nice and Slow' / 'Come On’ was released in June that same year and was the first to be taken from their fifth studio album Boys!, which followed in December. The film clips for Boys! also marked the band's first collaboration with director Shogo Kusano. The Boys! Tour 2014-2015 concluded on March 29 with the band's second appearance at Nippon Budokan. In July the band embarked on their first European tour, playing shows in Düsseldorf, Paris and London as well as France's largest rock festival Les Eurokeennes in Belfort. In October the band embarked on the national Rock The House Tour 2015 and in the same month, the single ‘Sunshine’ was released with Ryosuke Nagaoka of Petrolz acting as producer. The band's next release was the split single ‘Rockin’ Zombies’ with labelmate go! go! vanillas, featuring both band's individual singles (‘45's' and ‘Hinky Dinky Party Crew’) as well as each band covering a song of the other (‘It's Too Late’ and ‘Counter Action'). The release was celebrated with a national co-headlining tour as well as a free show at Yoyogi Park. Sixth album, New was released in February 2017 and featured lead single ‘The Edge’. The CD release included an eponymous short film directed by Shogo Kusano. The release of the album coincided with their first solo headlining tour in two years. The New Beat Tour 2017 totaled 33 performances around Japan. This was followed by the See the Rock! Feel The Roll tour, which included the band playing alongside videos created by Kusano. This is the Best was released in April 2018 and includes all of their previously released singles as well as a new track ‘Feelin’ Free’. Upon the release of the compilation, the band completed their second all prefecture tour, totaling 49 performances. The tour culminated in their third appearance at Nippon Budokan on