Acclaimed Japanese punk-rock-garage quartet Otoboke Beaver announced their new album Super Champon, out May 6 on Damnably. ‘Champon’ is a Japanese noun meaning a mixture or jumble of things of different types, as the band explains, “It’s a mixture of songs from love to food, life and JASRAC. Our music is genreless and has various elements. We hope that it will be our masterpiece of chaos music. It also sounds like champion.” To pair with the announcement, they also shared a new video for the album’s first track “I am not maternal,” created and animated by the band’s guitarist Yoyoyoshie.

At the start of 2020, the band quit their office day jobs in order to embark on a world tour. They completed a two-week tour in Europe and were getting ready to start their first US tour, when the world locked down due to the pandemic. With touring no longer possible during that time, the band worked on new music and recorded in between lockdowns at Osaka’s LM Studio. Super Champon marks the first release from the band since their early 2020 singles, “I am not maternal” and “Dirty old fart is waiting for my reaction,” both of which are featured on the new album, and 2019’s critically acclaimed Itekoma Hits album.
 
Otoboke Beaver, formed at Kyoto University’s music club, consists of Accorinrin (lead vocal & guitar), Yoyoyoshie (guitar & vocals), Hirochan (bass & vocals), and Kahokiss (drums & vocals). Acco’s off-kilter self-taught compositional and confrontational performance skills, together with the band’s incredible musicianship, make for a thrilling and unmissable live act.

Photo Courtesy: Mayumi Hirata