Back in March, I hit the Japan Nite 2008 at the Independent, an annual SxSW-affiliated tour of Japanese indie bands. One of the highlights was an all-girl Ramones-y band from Osaka called Scandal. They played in school girl outfits, but don’t let that fool you – they really rocked, with good melodies and harmonies and jump-around energy.
This month, following a trio of teaser one-song singles, they’ve finally put out a four-track EP called “Yah! Yah! Yah! Hello Scandal”, collecting those three earlier songs, plus one more. It’s a nice collection, well-constructed and catchy, if a bit less flat-out rocking than I remember their live set. It’s available on iTunes Japan, and supposedly in the US as well, though I haven’t been able to confirm that. I’m going to try to pick up a copy when I go to Tokyo in October.
