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The Moist Towelettes took the stage April 12th at Loop Shibuya and brought the audience into the multi-colored, sweet candy world of Nintendo pop music and choreographed dancing. The adorable singing front-women Emi and Yuko ran through dance moves reminiscent of Pink Lady, an unfathomably popular female duo in Japan during the 1970?fs.
Beach Boy-esque harmonies by guitar player Mike and keytar player Dave would often accompany the catchy lyrics of Emi and Yuko. Electronic beats laid the tracks for the candy train to bring smiles to the faces of everyone in the live house...
If the catchy pop sounds of The Moist Towelettes don't at least bring a smile to your face, I think you should check for a pulse.
~ April 15, 2007
from: www.livefromtokyo.net
- live in Shibuya, Tokyo
I spent the last week of June away from the seemingly-unending rain the UK is currently experiencing in sunny, sunny, incredibly sunny Toronto. While I was there, I did my usual holiday gig choosing formula - scanning through the local listings for anything that sounded interesting or unusual, and then going. This led me to see The Moist Towelettes, a Canadian/Japanese (really: two Canadian boys, two Japanese girls, formed in Tokyo) pop band.
Their emphasis is firmly on the pop, with harmonies and keyboards and co-ordinated dancing (thankfully, just from the girls); stylistically I suppose, they reminded me of The Pipettes, but there was something a lot more honest and fun and just plain adorable about them.
EP Review - The Moist EP
- it's self-released (and looks lovely!), so probably a bit tricky to get hold of, and while it doesn't quite capture the sheer amounts of fun that come spilling off the stage at one of their live shows, it's definitely a bundle of the small and joyous variety.
~ July 7, 2007
from: hell is chrome - Live @ Lee's Palace, Toronto
All the way from Tokyo, Japan, The Moist Towelettes are a four-piece j-pop (Japanese pop) band that feature a guitar, a keyboard and two adorably well-synchronized female vocalists. Clad in what looked like bedsheets and flimsy paper crowns, the girls waved their hands and grinned while singing lines like "you're my sunshine" and "hey hey hey!" It was adorable. It was also bizarre. Performance art at its best...
from: infomonkey.net
more:
http://halifax.infomonkey.net/nova.scotia.news.events.php?evid=11620 - Live @ Halifax Pop Explosion
Moist Towelettes song, Clap Your Hands featured as the opening track on CBC Radio 3 podcast (the most popular podcast in Canada).
Listen here:
http://radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2007/09/Podcast-120-Lets-Get-Moist - CBC Radio Podcast
The Moist Towelettes took their name to wardrobe. Clad in white shapeless and possibly moist garments with silver headbands, they chimed out "hey hey hey you're my sunshine" multiple rounds of times. Their songs were as shiny and happy as the whole band was, to the tune of what could have been the baseline for the Sesame Street theme song.
from:
The Hour's Blog
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/blog/2007/10/halifax_pop_explosion.html - Live @ Halifax Pop Explosion w/Zoobombs
Emi and Yuko are not only excellent fun time party dancers, they also make great band tshirts, some with hand-sewn ruffles and buttons. Here they are posing with what I think was one of the best band shirt designs at the festival.
from: 3/4 of way down the page
http://www.thecoast.ca/1bloglistingsbody.lasso?-token.blogref=3725.113118&-skiprecords=20#123
- the coast.ca - Halifax Pop Explosion
Discography
Girl Revolution (Single)
The Moist EP (EP)
Photos
Bio
When a group of DJs in Tokyo decided to start producing their own original tracks to spice up their club night, they inadvertently gave birth to The Moist Towelettes, a four-piece international group with a keen ear for pop, a good sense of fun, and a style all their own! Consisting of two Japanese girls (Emi and Yuko) and two Canadian guys (Dave and Mike), The Moist Towelettes are an unlikely team, bringing their varied backgrounds and musical tastes together to create some seriously catchy and addictive tunes. Like Junior Senior or Puffy AmiYumi before them, The Moist Towelettes manage to be cool and hip without being painfully ironic or apologetic about their music. It’s unabashed pop, plain and simple, perfect for dancing around your room in your underwear or playing at a stylish soiree.
The Moist Towelettes completed their first recording, See You Later Boy, in February of 2006. Within a month, they were the subject of a feature (”How To Invent a Pop Group the Easy Way”) on popular and influential British pop website, Popjustice. In April, the track was remixed by Portland, Oregon-based DJ Kid Whatever, and in early May it was played on Tokyo’s number one radio station J-Wave, by none other than Japan’s best-respected musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto. Not bad for the band’s first track.
Subsequent tracks, compiled on their December 2006 self-released EP, appropriately titled The Moist EP, received a similar reaction from all over the globe. The band got airplay in Canada (live-favourite Clap Your Hands was CBC Radio 3’s New Music Canada’s Track of the Day in August 2007, while the title of one of September’s CBC Radio 3 podcasts was “Let’s Get Moist“), the United States (on super-hip college radio stations coast to coast), and Australia (where they’ve been a staple on Australia’s only Gay and Lesbian radio station, JOY 94.9 in Melbourne). They’ve also prompted praise from fellow musicians the world over, including Denmark’s premier popsmiths, Alphabeat, Sweden’s hitmaker Bloodshy (responsible for mega-smash singles from Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and Kylie Minogue), and UK indie-dance hipsters, The Whip, to name a few.
2007 and 2008 saw The Moist Towelettes perfecting their stage shows at venues all over Tokyo, and abroad, with a now-legendary run of gigs in Canada — at Lee’s Palace in Toronto, where they shared the stage with Canadian indie-pop darlings The Bicycles, and a sold-out run at the Halifax Pop Explosion, paired with Japanese rock gods The Zoobombs. Dressed in adorable, sparkly costumes and often seen handing out balloons, stickers, and candy, the Towelettes inspire normally subdued and quietly appreciative Tokyo audiences (and already-rowdy crowds abroad) to sing, dance, and shout out in unison, rallied by the band’s mantra: “Konya mo issho ni, utatte, odotte, get moist!” Translation: “Tonight, all together, let’s sing, dance, and get moist!”
2009 brings the imminent release of their long-awaited first LP, Get Moist!, and a dedication to, rain or shine, make the whole world moist! Are you ready for a Moist revolution?
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