Voluntary Mother Earth

From Aural Innovations #39 (May 2008)

This is some strange and nasty at times, Japanese rock music. Frank Zappa is cited as a main influence. The bio says they are from Tokyo but formed and recorded in Texas?c. This stuff is a little X-Rated at times and they really go for some crazy song titles and lyrics. It is made to provoke. The CD starts with Give us a Tomato which is quite a crazy song with a lot of different styles of music from like dramatic prog music with a bit of Mars Volta like influence to really heavy metal riffing and a strange accordion section. Free Head for a Free Ride is a weird bluesy track with a bit of Weird Al Yankovic thrown in. The last part of the song features an amazing psychedelic guitar jam. I said just water and she gave me Sprite is next and another strange one with a heavy riff and strange story. They use the keyboards in an interesting and strange way in this music, usually just to fuck it up and make it strange. Valley Girl meets Angela and a Long Thing Person somewhere in the Orient starts slowly and is a sort of weird ballad about having sex with the valley girl. One of the weaker songs. Jeremy Thorn 2007 really rocks like hell and features a quite strange keyboard line to balance against the hard rocking guitar. The band go into Sweet Home Alabama at one point in this track and other strange parts with piano jazz, etc. A story of a typical week of a Starving Musician is a funky number with some really cool guitar playing, but again, the band take the track in all kinds of directions including a middle part with a strange country like piece. Makes me Wonder starts off with a great guitar solo before coming down and some spacey keyboards in the background balance the track. The guitar solo section is most excellent. The CD ends with two Penis songs; Forgive my Penis and You got my Penis Hurt. Strange numbers but the last one is 7½ minutes and becomes musically very interesting halfway through with a part that reminds me of Black Sun Ensemble. One thing about this band, which some compare to Zappa (only in a small way), is this band is never predictable. You never know what is going to happen next. This makes the music exciting and strange as well. Excellent band.

-Scott Heller May/08
http://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue39/voluntarymotherearth.htm - Aural Innovations (USA)

Eccentric, hilarious, absurdist rock from Tokyo.

What do you get when you mix powerful rock with funk and hilarity? A tomato, actually – which is, more specifically, an Unacceptable Vegetable. This album from (http://www.myspace.com/voluntarymotherearth) Voluntary Mother Earth is insane and satirical, but also has a strong rock foundation.

Unacceptable Vegetable begins with an ominous bell tolling, but then launches straight into heavy rock. They make the hilarious demand of “give us a tomato” in the opening song of the same name. By this point, it has definitely stopped sounding ominous, and has instead set the album’s rock-oriented sound. It also makes it clear that this band does not take themselves too seriously. The balance of head-nodding heavy metal sound and goofy lyrics in “Give Us a Tomato” is certainly original, if a bit disconcerting at first.

“Free Head for a Free Ride” is a funkier song, with more of a jam-band feel. The subject matter of this tune is blatantly sexual, which is another common motif of this album. Take, for example, the last two tracks, which are respectively titled “Forgive My Penis” and “… And You Got My Penis Hurt.”

Frequently on Unacceptable Vegetable, Voluntary Mother Earth expresses the strangeness of everyday activities. This is especially true on “I Said ‘Just Water, Please’ and She Gave Me Sprite,” which is about, well, just that. The entire song discusses someone who goes into an IHOP and orders water to drink, but, alas, gets a Sprite instead. Its extremely dramatic interpretation of the event is far funnier than its apparent ordinariness. This song isn’t simply funny though – the theatrical rock accompanying the lyrics suits their satirical style.

Another standout track is “A Story of the Typical Week of a Starving Musician.” This fast-paced song is not as hard rock as some of the rest of the album, but has more of a danceable sound, with the use of synth keyboards and funky guitar riffs. There is also a surprising honky-tonk break in the middle (which is not meant to be completely serious, of course).

Overall, Voluntary Mother Earth manages to combine heavy rock music with crazy lyrics and subject matters on Unacceptable Vegetable in a way that really works – as long as you don’t take music too seriously.

-Megan Morgan April/08
http://independentclauses.com/2008/04/voluntary-mother-earth-unacceptable-vegetable/ - Independent Clauses (USA)

Tokyo’s Voluntary Mother Earth are the sound of Acid Mothers Temple, Led Zep, Frank Zappa and They Might Be Giants encapsulated. Taken twice daily they’ll entertain and bemuse. Exceed that dosage and you could well find yourself trapped inside their mad and mangled cartoon world for good.

‘Unacceptable Vegetable’ is presented as a sequence of generally hard rocking skeletal structures dismantled and reassembled in true Zappa style, throwing in jazz, lounge, country and whatever else is at hand - the more unlikely the better. Add to this bonkers lyrics and song titles the likes of ‘Give us a Tomato’ and ‘Forgive my Penis’, and the bands’ own rather natty genre classification of ‘Eccent-rock’ becomes something of an understatement. But the minds of madmen are encased inside the bodies of some very able musicians and, on this recording at least; they’re as tight a band as you’ll encounter. Amidst the hard rock bluster, cosmic effects and comically lunatic interludes there are moments of fine virtuoso guitar playing.

But equally they prove that they can play loose, as for the bulk of ‘Forgive my Penis’, in which their humour comes to the fore with a spoof of the chorus to ‘Beat it’, substituted with the words ‘so she can eat it’, and it'd be worth a guess that what they’re alluding to would be sure to make your granny blush. Weird Al Jankovic would approve and Michael Jackson’s been well & truly out Wacko’d. This band are out there, although there is evidence that VMF do at times inhabit the same world as the rest of us, adding colour to everyday banality at every corner with lines such as 'I said “Just Water, Please” and She Gave me Sprite'. As an antidote to the mundane there can be few to match them.


RICHARD STOKOE -December/08
http://www.losingtoday.com/reviews.php?review_id=4918 - Losing Today (UK)

This rock band from Japan certainly is out there with its crazy lyrics over rock music. Well, that is not exactly true in that two of the members are Japanese, but the band was formed in Texas of all places. Then they moved back to Tokyo after releasing their first CD.

Definitely nothing predictable with all the style changes going on in this album. Strange yet exciting. It will leave you wondering what is coming next. You can have a Weird Al Yankovic sounding songs and with in it you'll get a bluesy sounding section. Excerpts from "Sweet Home Alabama" mixed with some weird jazz piano section. Some of the lyrics are quite frankly a little bit racy, but nothing worse than what you've heard on many hip hop albums. They obviously mean to get a reaction from you and they most certainly will. I mean, c'mon they have two songs with the word 'penis' in the title.

-Carey, August/08
http://www.orcasound.com/orc/features.php?s=1&id=2126&n=0 - Orcasound (USA)

It's almost impossible to mention Tokyo, Japan's Voluntary Mother Earth without referencing Frank Zappa, but it seems unlikely that the self-proclaimed "absurdist rock combo" minds. The band shares Mr. Zappa's penchant for wacky, multi-faceted compositions, half-spoken vocal delivery and quirky song titles ("Forgive My Penis," "Your Mother Is Only a Voluntary Mother"). The latter of these tracks may serve as the band's most definitive mission statement: The song collage interrupts Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" riff with lounge-jazz swing, alternates wah-wah guitar solos with Rick Wakeman-esque organ shredding and tells the story of a promiscuous mother complete with disturbing sound effects. Clocking in at a shockingly un-prog four minutes, the song proves Voluntary Mother Earth's ability to showcase stellar musicianship — while planting its tongue so firmly in cheek that it practically bursts through the flesh on the other side.

By Ryan Wasoba, March 2009
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2009-03-18/music/voluntary-mother-earth/ - Riverfront Times (St. Louis MO, USA)

"Embracing the Weird with Voluntary Mother Earth"

Voluntary Mother Earth band leader, Akihiko Hayahawa (a.k.a. “Aki”), thinks that we live in a weird world.

“The world we came to know is an extremely absurd place, where a humongous aluminum pipe is flying in the sky with people in it,” Aki says. “We roll a chain around an animal’s neck and call it a family member. People paint their faces and call it beauty. We tend to take these things for granted. But if you take a look around and really think about it, this place is f***** up.”

However, life’s oddities don’t drag Aki and Voluntary Mother Earth down. In fact, this satirical, insane, genre-diverse group gets their inspiration from our weird world.

“You can take what’s f***** up and get angry, feel depressed, go crazy – it’s your choice. I just decided to laugh at it. And that’s how the songs are born,” Aki says.

Claiming to be one of the weirdest bands to ever exist on Earth, Voluntary Mother Earth is a three-piece rock group that formed in 2004, originally hailing from Denton, Texas. They released an album (Voluntary Invasion) there, but soon relocated to Tokyo. Withstanding several lineup changes, Voluntary Mother Earth toured the U.S. and released a new album (Unacceptable Vegetable) in 2007. Now, band members Aki Hayahawa (guitar and vocals), Noriff Micky (bass), and Fujita Fajita (drums), are going on another U.S. tour and bringing their unique blend of musical styles with them.

“It’s like Frank Zappa meets Jimi Hendrix in a playground where serious right brains are hanging out and having a great time,” Aki says of their sound.

The group’s music is frequently hilarious, with song titles like “I Said, ‘Just Water, Please,’ And She Gave Me Sprite,” but Voluntary Mother Earth is not merely funny. They glide effortlessly through many genres – hard rock and funk, to name a few – showcasing a wide understanding of music and sophisticated songwriting from Aki.

When their music is played live, Aki says that there are usually two “tribes” of reactions from the audience. One tribe, he says, is called “Idigthistus,” and consists of people who “really go for it,” dancing, screaming, and occasionally giving painful high-fives.

“What can I say, love hurts at times,” Aki adds. “When I find folks from this particular tribe during our set, I tend to invite them to come up onstage and have them dance with the band. As it turns out, America is the home of this tribe.”

Unfortunately, the second tribe, “Idontgetthistus,” does exist in some towns, Aki says, but VME doesn’t let these non-right-brainers bother them. In fact, during one set, a woman named Sandra from Connecticut began as a member of this latter “tribe,” but was soon converted. Aki says that Sandra, who he dubbed “the drunk woman from hell,” was loudly yelling “Booooring!” in between the songs of the set, and causing a lot of trouble for VME.

“I was on the verge of making full use of my right to free speech, and telling her to go have intercourse with her good self,” Aki says of the incident. “That’s when Zen came down on me all the way from the East, and spoke words of wisdom. The answer, my friend, was surely blowing in the wind. Instead of shouting at her to get lost, I asked her, as politely as I could manage, how she’d like to come join the band onstage and sing a song with us. She thought it was a great idea.”

Impulsive, audience-engaging actions like this one are common during Voluntary Mother Earth’s live shows.

“Expect to be brought up onstage and be asked to dance like there’s no tomorrow to a song that’s not danceable,” Aki says, also adding that sometimes it’s push-ups instead of dancing.

And as for their live music, Aki says that they like to play different versions of the songs on their albums.

“Expect higher-energy versions of the songs with live-show-only arrangements,” he says. “You can hear a punk version of what was on the record a ballad, and things like that. Expect FUN.”

Aki adds that these live performances are a part of what makes them one of the weirdest bands on Earth.

“It’s the atmosphere we create together with the audience that makes us one of the weirdest,” he says.

So, this March, if you need to exercise your right brain, if you need a heaping dose of the absurd, or if you feel like dancing like a maniac, check our Voluntary Mother Earth on their tour, which is listed in full on their myspace. And for those who can’t attend one of these locations, they will be releasing a new “official bootleg” live album on March 11, which even includes the incident with Sandra, the drunk woman from hell.

“Have you ever heard ‘field recording’ of local tribes living in the depths of a jungle singing their local folk tunes, and stuff like that? Take this album as the field recording of a low-budget touring act,” Aki says of the live album.

The band will also be releasing a new full-length studio album sometime this year. In the meantime, - Independent Clauses (USA)

"Fate brought them together voluntarily — to make music"

Voluntary Mother Earth is a three-member, avant garde, “oddball rock combo” from Tokyo. The group recently kicked off its U.S. tour on March 11 in Pittsburgh. The band’s name derives from the band’s lead singer Akihiko Hayakawa’s universal belief that “everything is voluntary.”

The band was formed in 2004 in Denton, Texas, where Hayakawa was studying music at the University of North Texas.

He moved back to Japan after college, and the band was reformed with new members. Hayakawa believed that the band members were “brought to each other by ‘the Force.’”

Hayakawa describes himself as musically driven, laidback, and sedentary. His main musical influences are the late musicians Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix.

Bassist Noriff Micky and drummer Fajita Fujita are the other members that make up the band. Hayakawa describes Micky as the “nice guy of the band.” He joined the band in late 2006. He is described as the typical Japanese shy guy and “the one to cool things down when things get heated.”

Fujita, 21, is the youngest of the trio and has a background in punk/hardcore music. He used to be in another avant garde band until Hayakawa recruited him to join Voluntary Mother Earth. According to Hayakawa, Fujita is “very well-rounded and always eager to learn new things,” and is an “excellent keyboardist.”

The band comes up with strrange song titles that tend to turn heads when read aloud. “Forgive My Penis” and “I Said ‘Just Water, Please’ and She Gave Me Sprite” are examples of their odd titles. Hayakawa said that the band’s inspiration derives from “life’s absurdity, the weird, the odd, the abnormal, and the atypical.”

“I’m just documenting these absurdities [of life] through music, and the music that goes along with the documentation becomes absurd accordingly,” he said.

Hayakawa describes their music as the band taking different threads of cultures and creating a musical quilt.
Unlike other bands, Voluntary Mother Earth’s sound has some “Oriental flavor” incorporated. According to Hayakawa, it takes ideas from the Asian culture and ties them into its music.

For example, a heavy metal song can be mixed with some Asian melodies to add contrast and dimension. At other times, the songs have a more conceptual Asian meaning to them. Hayakawa pointed out that one of their recent songs, called “Just Another Nice Guy from the Orient,” is based around the concept of Zen.

“The guitar keeps playing the same dreamy arpeggio over and over while the bass plays the same riff again and again. Both of them make it sound very meditational. But the drum pattern and its rhythmic accent keep changing, and this represents the changes of your life cycle. Towards the end of the song, the three come together and explode — the enlightenment,” he said.

The band sometimes uses many repetitive song phrases to make its music sound richer in sound and tone.
Voluntary Mother Earth cannot simply be labeled as a punk rock group or a rock band. Hayakawa doesn’t believe in labeling his band under a specific genre. In fact, it creates a genre of its own. “Voluntary Mother Earth is trying to achieve ‘musical peace’ through ‘voluntary connections.’”

However, it does acknowledge that the concept is sometimes hard for others to understand. “It’s the atmosphere we create together with the audience that makes us one of the weirdest bands that has ever existed on Earth. Seriously, what other band brings a bunch of girls and boys from the audience onstage and have them do push-ups while playing a slow ballad about teenage love, lust, and fornication?” Hayakawa said. (end)

Voluntary Mother Earth will perform in Seattle on March 26 at the Comet Tavern, 922 East Pike St. For more information, visit www.voluntarymotherearth.com.

By Nina Huang, March 2009
Northwest Asian Weekly
http://nwasianweekly.com/2009/28_14/pages/arts_voluntarily.html - Northwest Asian Weekly

Voluntary Mother Earth

To have the distinction of oddest on this bill is quite the feat, but that's exactly where this Zappa-inspired Tokyo-by-way-of-Texas act ranks.

On its website, Voluntary Mother Earth bill itself as "music for weirdoes, non-conformists and other highly-oppressed individuals." I'd add malcontents to that list.

The band got its start in Denton, Tex., a small college town and music hotbed (google Centro-matic now) north of Dallas where the band amassed a loyal following. In 2006, when band leader Akihiko Hayakawa's Visa expired, the group relocated to his native Japan where they've been based ever since.

Voluntary Mother Earth's lyrics alternate between nonsensical and pointed social commentary, but whatever they're saying should be secondary to the spaced-out, prolonged guitar forays so many of their songs offer.

By Jesse Chadderdon, Oct 2009
Community News
http://www.communitypub.com/arts/x576544754/World-of-Rock - Hockessin Community News

Des oreilles attentives nippones m’avaient alerté sur l’existence de ce groupe originaire de Tokyo qui, dès sa formation en 2004 s’efforçait de défendre son propos en concert tant au Japon qu’aux USA où d’ailleurs en 2007 ils montèrent une tournée de 14 dates.

Ce fut donc une bonne surprise quand je découvris dans ma boite aux lettres ce "vrai" premier disque que Akihiko Hayakawa son leader, chanteur, guitariste et compositeur nous adressa sollicitant une chronique.

Le nom rappelant les projets satellites de Gong m’avait émoustillé et quand je lus dans son "dossier de presse" qu’Akihiko présentait son disque comme un album d’excentrique-rock, d’avant-rock, d’avant-progressive et de rock expérimental, le tout mêlant le classique, le jazz, l’avant-garde, le classic-rock, le country, le métal moderne et la musique de pub, le tout concocté dans une voie que Frank Zappa aurait aimé faire, prétend-il…, j’avais hâte d’entendre ça !!!

De fait ce cd n’est pas aussi ardu ou austère que cette longue description laisserait entendre, il est même un jouissif moment que je vais vous détailler après vous avoir donné le line-up.

Outre notre ami Aki, Voluntary Mother Earth est constitué de Chunko à la basse, de Shon Mage à la batterie et de Yuko Iwasawa aux claviers qui a déjà quitté le potager au moment d’écrire ces lignes.

"Give us a tomato" est le premier des 9 morceaux pour un peu plus de 51 minutes et ça démarre par un truc hard atmo façon Threshold où premier constat, le chanteur assure bien et ce sans accent, puis ça délire genre la BO d'Amélie Poulain pour rebasculer vers du Pain of Salvation musclé où on nous sonne même le glas sur le final.

"Free head for a free ride" a une bonne intro jazz-rock à la basse, le reste suit et on se retrouve d’un coup chez les Deep Purple, puis chez Gong par les vocaux plus parlés que chantés et je commence à comprendre ce à quoi ils pensent quand ils citent Zappa. Bien qu’il ne suffise pas de mélanger les genres même avec talent pour s’en revendiquer , il faut reconnaître que c’est très bien fait et je n’ai encore rien vu (!). Ils vont même jusqu’à copier des phrases de Rick Wakeman de "Yours is no disgrace" sur un mode déjanté ! C’est électrique et drôlement bien foutu leur mix ! Ca vire même en blues à la fin...!

De l’humour sur bien des titres, la preuve avec "I said "Just water, please" and she gave me Sprite" où l’intro est terrible à la Molly Hatchett, du bon rock sudiste bien gras à souhait avec toutefois une ligne de clavier en fond bien rentre-dedans, des vocaux en choeur à la Quiet Riot (!) pour partir sur du barré façon King Crimson, quand ce n’est pas du chant style indiens d’Amérique ou effectivement des développements à la Frank Zappa assez symphoniques !

"Valley girl meets Angela and a long thin person somewhere in the orient". Ca c’est du titre ! Du Clapton en intro puis un univers plus Giant ou Mr Big avec une belle guitare acoustique pour une ballade hard mais en partie seulement car ils y ajoutent une pincée de jazz et de goth (!) ; ce sont des fous, tout le temps, cette propension à se servir du shaker est remarquable !!!

"Jeremy Thorn 2007" écrite en 2004 évoque un personnage réel, il fut le voisin de palier puis l’ami de Akihiko lorsque celui-çi habitait au USA (ce qui explique le très bon anglais pratiqué). Ce type était obsédé par les nanas japonaises bien qu’il ne s’en soit jamais tapé aucune ; aujourd’hui en 2008 il en a trouvé une à marier et il vit à Osaka !

Le côté métal en intro est juste un alibi pour balancer de l’énergie, s’en suit en aparté des percussions traditionnelles japonaises et des ingrédients à la King Diamond pour faire peur, une passe jazz au piano et même quelques mesures de "Sweet home Alabama" de Lynyrd Skynyrd (!) et la cohésion prodiguée inspire le respect.

"A story of the tipical week of a starving musician" y voit du Blondie (!) sous amphétamines rencontrant Judas Priest, Willie Nelson (!) (oui le country man), leurs allumés compatriotes de Ruins et une bande de hooligans anglais saouls, et comme à chaque fois il y a une continuité, une cohérence incroyable !

Le morceau le plus sage est "Makes me wonder" quoiqu’un mix de Billy Idol, de Dave Edmunds et de Rammstein se révèle forcément bizarre. Un prétexte pour le guitariste et le clavier pour nous sortir de vieilles sonorités psychés et souffler sur les braises du feu évidemment pas éteint du tout depuis le début.

Avec " Forgive my pénis" nous est servi un truc Beatles ou Oasis (ce sont les mêmes, il n’y a que Oasis qui ne le sait pas !), assez humoristique, bien british, ritournelle imparable jusqu’à ce que Larry Carlton s’en mêle et qu’ils reprennent "Beat it" de Michael Jackson (!!!) ; sont fadas vous dis-je !

"...and you got my pénis hurt" pour finir, plutôt mid-tempo, façon Versus X des débuts, puis un passage mi jazzy mi reggae en un mélange à la Act en plus punchy ensuite une partie davantage Led Zeppelin, Plant et soulignons le encore - Koid9 (France)

I’d like to think I have a pretty good sense of humor. I’m certainly not easily offended by song subject matter, but I have to admit I just don’t get this album. I guess Unacceptable Vegetable was supposed to be funny, but not so much. The vocals are lacking in all areas, the lyrics are pointless, and the music uninspired.

With track names like “Free Head For a Free Ride,” “Valley Girl Meets Angela And A Long Thin Person Somewhere In The Orient,” and “You Got My Penis Hurt” I was thinking I’d at least be in for some slight amusement. That’s definitely not the case. Each track is more grating and tragic than the last. Imagine a Japanese vocalist singing in a sort of high pitched nasal voice, poor production quality, substandard hooks, stereotypical bass lines, and all around awfulness and you get the idea.

Maybe my lack of appreciation stems from my lack of a penis. Apparently this album is designed to ADD INCHES. Reading about the CD on the band’s website is like one of those annoying spam emails everyone gets. Apparently just listening to the track “Forgive My Penis” will totally add inches. If that’s the case, I worry about your state of mind, because there is nothing engaging or sexy about Voluntary Mother Earth’s music.

I’m also assured that this is “Right Brain Music” and that if I can’t appreciate what they’re doing, I must be one of the “brainless masses satisfied with the worthless background noise provided by your magnificent record companies and radio stations.” Really? I think someone has a jumped up sense of what their music sounds like. All that resides here is a gimmick that just isn’t working.

If you’re curious enough to give them a shot, you can preview their music via Myspace, where one or two people have actually left them positive feedback. At least they have some sort of fan base going on. I just can’t imagine ever counting myself among the ranks.

-Sebastianna, March 2008
Delusions of Adequacy (USA)
http://www.adequacy.net/2008/03/voluntary-mother-earth-unacceptable-vegetable/ - Delusions of Adequacy (USA)