Zazen Boys formed in Tokyo in the early 2000s with Keigo Oyamada on vocals and guitar, Hiroyuki Yoshino on bass, and Yoshihiro Hanno on drums. Their music pulls from punk and noise, but they've always been hard to pin down. They put out their first album in 2004 and followed it with 'I Want You to Die' the next year.
In 2005, the band was arrested for allegedly distributing unlicensed copies of that album, though the charges were eventually dropped. They kept releasing records like 'Kannon' and 'Hard Liquor', which became one of their better-known songs. Other tracks like 'Himitsu Girl's Top Secret' and 'Brain Construction' show their range from catchy to chaotic.
They've put out albums fairly regularly since then, including 'Spectre' in 2014 and 'Dip' in 2020. Their sound stays restless, and they've built a reputation for being unpredictable live.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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