When The Plastics Reigned Supreme

It's official Gain Ground, is the most underrated Genesis game of all time.
Alright band time. A short one today

When The Plastics Reigned Supreme






The Lineup:
Chica Sato--vocal
Toshio Nakanishi--vocal, guitar & percussion
Hajime Tachibana--guitar & vocal
Masahide Sakuma--keyboards, guitar & bass programming
Takemi Shima--rhythm box

Here's the part where I say shit about the band:
Basically Japan's version of Devo or the B-52's, the Plastics used herky jerky rhythms, synths, and playful vocals that would become a hallmark in like every J-pop album ever to form an irresistable poppy artificial mess. They made an impact and Japan and soon were holding court in NY as a part of the so-called no wave scene. In fact the Plastics probably steal the show in the one real document of the no-wave scene, Downtown 81 (for a fictionalized film that also boasts Basquiat, DNA, Tuxedomoon and Deborah Harry on the screen, that is no small feat.) In a short brilliant 2 year period they put out two albums, Welcome Plastics and Origato Plastics, both of which have some of the finest no wave/new wave tunes recorded, such as Copy, Robot, and Complex. And then it was over. They had made their point and even with such a short discography, they assumed their place alongside Yellow Magic Orchestra as being the two most important early Japanese new wave bands.

So what happened:
The rest of the eighties. The whole no wave scene pretty much disentegrated as soon as it started. While some got mad famous and rich, others died, and some kept going. Others fell back into obscurity.
The Plastics themselves broke up and some members went on to produce other Japan groups like YMO(the later years), Judy and Mary, and Buffalo Daughter.(I credit rockofjapan.com for their fine date/post Plastics info, cuz even the vaunted allmusic doesn't have much info.) Chica and Toshio ended up in a band called Melon, which spawned 80 side projects with 80 names that will probably cost u a small fortune with import prices the way they are. However the band definitely had an impact on the next generation of band, such as Pizzicato Five, even inspiring a tribute album.(In fact Pizzicato TOTALLY homages/rips off the Plastics "Nice to meet u, Nice to meet u, see u again, see u again, repeated 85 times" song on the Sound Of Music album.)

Availability
Ha, so now u want some Plastic records. It is absurdly hard to find them. You'll either find them in some discount bin at the back of a old record store in Tokyo or Brooklyn or you'll pay a fortune for them online. They barely exist on CD, primarily in import copies, and even the beloved torrent school of music doesn't turn up anything. So how do i have a compilation? Well it took me a LONG time and ALOT of searches on some p2ps to assemble the collection I got. Perhaps that is the best way. As long as u have patience.

Vids
I found an interesting NHK show on youtube that had the Plastics playing Copy on it. However, they are WAY better in my opinion once they get slightly more punk/angular in their playing during their NY stint. But, this is before that, and it is still fantastic(but the Downtown 81 performance may be better, if u are willing to sit through it at home or on youtube.)

Copy