JUDY AND MARY
One might ask how such an obscure
and wacky group as Judy and Mary (JAM) could become one of my
favorite bands of all time. Well heck, I've always been
interested in Japan, but I always thought of Japanese pop music
as too silly and too lame for me to listen to. I preferred
to focus on Japanese bands such as Kemuri and Hi-Standard who
fit into the general realm of what I listened to much better.
Luckily for me I was once a big Japanese anime fan, so when I
first watched the Rurouni Kenshin TV series back in late 1999
I was exposed to the pop stylings of Judy and Mary who provided
the series' opening theme.. Most of the time I used to laugh
at the cheesy dime-a-dozen theme songs that these shows would
have, but Judy and Mary's "Sobakasu" caught me off guard.
Despite the fact that the video I was watching was a third or
fourth generation copy "Sobakasu" proved itself to be
darned catchy and lovable. Then, thanks to the wonderful
proliferation of mp3's online, I was able to download a few Judy
and Mary tracks off of the internet. The first song I downloaded
was "Over Drive" and that has since been my favorite
song of theirs. Needless to say, I proceeded to download more
mp3's and eventually I started to spend my hard earned cash on
Judy and Mary's pricey imported albums. My bank account was drained
but it was worth it to experience the wonderful musical sounds
of Judy and Mary. Rock 'n' roll has never been as good as
Judy and Mary played it and may never be again.
First things first: There is nobody in the band named either Judy or Mary. The name Judy and Mary is supposed to represent good and bad. Judy is the positive and Mary is the negative... Heck, I don't really get it either.
Anyways, Judy and Mary formed in early 1992 several months after Yuki Isoya met Yoshihito Onda by chance. Both had been in other bands prior to Judy and Mary but hadn't been very successful with them. Onda recruited Kohta Igarashi, an old acquaintance, to be their drummer and soon afterward the band released their first EP Be Ambitious independantly. About a year after the band's core came together Takuya Asanuma joined on at guitar and the band was signed to Epic/Sony Records.
On September 22, 1993, JAM's first major label single Power of Love was released. It was followed by another single Blue Tears and then by JAM's first full length in January of 1994, appropriately entitled JAM. About a year later in December of 1994 JAM released their next full length Orange Sunshine. Between 1995 and 2000, Judy and Mary released 3 more studio full lengths, a 3-disc live album, and a greatest hits album. Then, in February of 2001, Judy and Mary released their final album Warp and announced that they would break up after touring in support of the new album. The band toured for several months and ended their final concert by playing "Over Drive", their best song (in my opinion at least!)
Judy and Mary's music could categorized
in the broadest sense as pop, but they jumped around from style
to style constantly over their nine year existence. Early
on with Be Ambitious and JAM the band played quite a bit of rock
with punk flair and the occasional ballad. With the release
of Orange Sunshine the band took the punk element to a higher
level while somehow also making ballads and wacky pop more prominent
parts of their repertoire. Miracle Diving was a big change
for JAM as it gave up the bright sound of the first few albums
in exchange for a more somber sound. The music was still
quite poppy, but I would describe it as pop for a cloudy day.
On The Power Source and Pop Life Judy and Mary experimented with
a myriad of pop sounds while still playing a few rock tunes of
the noisier variety. Warp brought the band full circle as it presented
their most rowdy punk songs ever as well as their lighest ballads
and pop numbers. 
Most of the music on JAM's first 2 or 3 albums was written by Onda (a big fan of the Ramones), which would explain the heavy punk influence on many of the tunes. As time progressed however, Takuya began to write more of the music, with Yuki and Kohta occasionally chipping in some here and there. Onda's tunes are generally more simple but nonetheless catchy and solid. Takuya's tunes, for better or worse, are often examples of technical wizardry. Takuya wrote the majority of the tunes by the band's end, but he carried Onda's punk spirit in his tunes along with the pop songwriting that he had shown himself to be a master of. Throughout it all Yuki's vocals did their thing. Her voice can be kind of hard to listen to sometimes but it is undoubtedly very cute and sweet. Kohta, seemingly the band's meekest member, played his drums behind the band's more rambunctious frontline but maintained his place in the spotlight just as well. As for the role each band member played... Yuki was the cute little girly, Onda was the creepy punk, Takuya was the pretty-boy and Kohta was the nerd.
Well, Judy and Mary are unfortunately no more. Takuya is now focusing on his other band Robots, who were just a side project before JAM's break up. Onda has gone into production and Yuki is moving into other musical projects. I'm really not sure at all what Kohta is up to but he just seems like the type of guy to lay low anyway, so I'm not going to worry myself about it. Judy and Mary are probably the best thing that will ever come out of the Japanese pop scene, but hopefully another great band like them will come along and prove me wrong someday!
Bob. V