Otoboke Beaver
Before playing a ripping version of “La Dee Da” at Roskilde Festival last summer, Dave Grohl roared, ”I would like to dedicate this song to the coolest fucking band I've ever seen. They're from Japan, they're called Otoboke Beaver, and I got to see them for the first time tonight.” It’s a fitting tribute to the riotous punk-y explosion of this frantic Japanese four-piece.
Named after an Osaka love hotel, Otoboke Beaver took shape in ‘09 when singer Accorinrin and guitarist Yoyoyoshie met at a music club at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University. Following several furious years of releases — including the single "Otobokebeaver Daijikenbo" on Jet Set Records and the 2013 mini-album Love Me Sign — the band broke through in 2016 with the album Okoshiyasu!! Otoboke Beaver on Damnably Records. This compilation served as both a record of the band’s early work and a mission statement of joyful hardcore delivered with the subversive precision of Manzai — a rapid-fire style of gonzo Japanese comedy that heavily influences the band’s neck-snapping tempo changes.
Adding bassist Hirochan, and drummer Kahokiss to the lineup, Otoboke Beaver has been unstoppable in the years since, embarking on several North American tours and bringing the house down at SXSW, Glastonbury, and Coachella. Their 2019 album Itekoma Hits further developed the band’s rat-a-tat take on noise punk, described by Pitchfork as “a tornado of defiance,” whilst 2022’s Super Champon takes a knife to tradition with sugar-coated girl-gang vocals across songs like “You’re no hero shut the f*ck up you man-whore” and a surf-y fuzz-punk meltdown entitled “First-class side-guy.” Their furious live show — which sold out some of the same venues in ‘23 that Nirvana did in ‘91 — has earned raves from the likes of Jack White (who recently named Yoyoyoshie his new favourite guitar player) and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band even found the time to compose the theme song for the Japanese TV show Susumu Inomata and 8 Mojo.
With ping-ponging melodies over shredded guitars anchored to the playfully confrontational delivery of Accorinrin, Otoboke Beaver’s Calgary debut opens a portal into punk’s future right here at Sled Island.
BB BOMB
Still thrashing harder than ever 20 years after forming, BB BOMB’s aggressive brand of punk rock feels timeless. Their second album, Practice Songs, is currently being released as four nugget-sized EPs of SST-style hardcore, featuring scorching tracks that rarely crack two minutes. Your new favourite band has been hiding in Taiwan all this time!
Brain Bent
A tightly wound machine of jagged art-punk menace, Brain Bent is four mysteriously uniformed individuals trapped in a capitalist nightmare, loudly trying to dance their way out with synthed-out bleeps and primal back-beats. Between ‘23’s Boilerplate EP and ‘24’s sardonic music video for “Quality Assurance Audit,” the Calgary-based quartet is exploring the 21st century with wit and relentless riffs.
About Sled Island:
Sled Island is an annual five-day independent music and arts festival in Calgary, Alberta that brings together a community of music, comedy and art with nearly 30,000 attendees in multiple venues across the city. For more information, visit SledIsland.com.
Upon entering a festival venue, the passholder agrees to being photographed, filmed or recorded in that venue, and agrees to the publication, reproduction, distribution and broadcast of all photographs, video or other recordings of the passholder's voice or likeness without further notice or compensation in any publicity, advertisement or other publication carried-out by, or on behalf of, Sled Island and in perpetuity in any manner and media whatsoever, including print, broadcast or internet.
Everyone has the right to feel safe and included at Sled Island. All festival attendees must abide by Sled Island's safer spaces and inclusion policy and agree to the code of conduct, which can be found at SledIsland.com/SaferSpaces.
Sled Island acknowledges Calgary as the traditional territory of the Blackfoot and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Ĩyãħé Nakoda First Nations, including the Chiniki, Bearspaw and Goodstoney First Nations. Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta (Districts 5 and 6).
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