Fun Fest Artist Profiles: Night Marchers and Melt-Banana

Let’s turn our attention now to a pair of bands we’re excited to see on the first day of Fun Fest's aught nine edition, San Diego’s Night Marchers and Tokyo’s Melt-Banana. Both groups, despite playing two very different styles of music, are touring veterans with highly respectable punk pedigrees.

You may not be familiar with the Night Marchers, but you should certainly know their lineage: Singer/guitarist Speedo (John Reis) has made a career out of playing loud, fast rock & roll, both on his own and with on-again, off-again partner in crime Rick Froberg. His resume is beyond impressive: Reis started out with Froberg in the seminal post-hardcore band Pitchfork and then the legendary Drive Like Jehu before striking out on his own to front the long-running riff-powerhouse Rocket From the Crypt. In the middle of RFTC’s 15-year run, Reis reunited with Froberg in the excellent Hot Snakes, and when that group disbanded in 2005 (incidentally, the same year RFTC broke up) Reis spent some time away from performing to concentrate on his Swami Records label, his family, and running his Bar Pink in San Diego. Last year, Reis returned to the stage with two other former members of Hot Snakes (Froberg now fronts the Sub Pop act Obits) in Night Marchers, a hard-hitting quartet whose sound is best described as a succinct distillation of Reis’ previous bands. They have one LP under their belt, last year’s See You In Magic, which like their live sets, is full of satisfying and workmanlike rock & roll.

Night Marchers [Official] [MySpace]

Later on Saturday afternoon, the delightfully spazzy Japanese noise rock trio Melt-Banana will be doing things a little differently (we’ll explain in a moment). They’ll still be doing what they do best: playing a visceral set packed with 30 or so of the rapid-fire electronic noise ditties they’ve perfected over years of incredibly extensive touring. The band’s played literally thousands of shows since their inception in 1992, and most of their very ardent fan base agree that its better to experience Melt-Banana live than on record, with singer Yasuko Onuki barking out exuberant nonsense and guitarist Ichirou Agata shearing the air with razor-sharp guitar runs. But in the middle of their sets on their upcoming American tour, something the band is calling “Melt-Banana lite” will take over and, according to the band’s web site, play something that’s more “free minded, flexible, and more noise, but you can hear Melt-Banana taste in it.” We’re not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds fantastic and even more of a reason to catch the band doing their thing on FFF Fest’s black stage.

Melt-Banana [Official] [MySpace]