Saturday, March 17   8:30 p.m.
The Hideout   (617 Congress Ave)

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  Nekomushi - Waltz
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Sliding back the doors of anime and bullet trains, this Hiroshima four-piece haunts the darker backstreets of a bygone Japan. A world of lost souls and mutilated dolls, of a Sadako born to a sense of humor. Enter the mind of the stunning, if slightly unhinged, Goto Izumi and her carnival of spoiled innocents.

Stringing you out on Nekomushi's theatrical spectacle of sweetness and sideways glances, these are twisted nursery rhymes and perverted love-songs that would pull the legs off a spider.

Defying more than categorization alone, Nekomushi has been luring audiences out of their comfort zone since the turn of the century.

A tingling must-see for those with a taste for the different.

Izumi Goto started Nekomushi in 2000, with her first album 'Okusuribako' recorded in Okinawa, and established Nekotama Label in Hiroshima. Though 'Okusuribako' was her solo album (produced by Donto), she called up percussionist Yume-Q and bassist Matsubara to perform her music on stage.

As they toured extensively around west-Japan, their Japanese horror + freak show style performance was established and the maxi-single 'Kairanban' soon followed.

After Matsubara left the band in 2001, and was replaced by Paul Walsh - an Englishman living in Hiroshima who was a big fan of the band, but had never touched a bass guitar. While under training, the outfit performed as NEKOMUSHI-DAN along with Yamano & future member Horoko.

At this time, they were acting not only in live houses, but also at other kind of space like cafe, clubs, event spaces, bar, cinemas, etc. Their live video 'Mikkai' was recorded in 2002. ??????????????????????????????
Horoko from NEKOMUSHI-DAN joined the band officially in 2003. She was a student of Indian classical music, it added their the taste of Indian music to their sound. The new sound is darker, and although pop sensibilities remain, they are more subtle.

In the past, NEKOMUSHI have shared the stage with musicians such as LOIS (US), ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK (USA), PLANDER -Z (USA), ShonenKnife (JAPAN), PANICSMILE (JAPAN), afrirampo (JAPAN), Half Japanese (USA), R.U.B (nedRothenberg/ sammBennett/KAZUHISA UTIHASI)

Nekomushi's latest album is to be released in spring 2007 on Public Eyesore.???