Through the years emo has often been considered a dirty word. Rights of Spring, who many consider the genre’s first band, famously rejected their emotional hardcore label, starting a rich tradition of bands asserting that they are most certainly alternate rock and definitely not emo.
However with the internet’s flattening of all niche cultures, the genre’s most recent wave of bands have proudly waved the emo flag. Fifth wave emo bands are citing bands as influences that would have been lame to celebrate in their heyday and are doing their best to create a community around their new crop of bands. That positive energy has made its way all the way to Nagano, home of 7th Jet Balloon who wear their emo lineage on their sleeve, in their song titles, and even on their album covers. The two piece band, made of Shun on guitar and leading vocals and ssm on drums and back up vocals, first met on the baseball field as middle school teammates, as they told me in our interview. Shun and ssm were both musically inclined and became quick friends, playing in a four piece band through high school. Everything changed for the duo when ssm showed Shun Origami Angel, a twinkly yet furious two piece emo band from Washington DC who were then rising stars in the emo scene. Shun and ssm were out of college, disillusioned as they were flung into the real world. They saw emo as an outlet and an escape, wholly different from the music they’d played previously. They were already more than proficient musicians and became devoted students of emo, particularly of emo revival bands like Snowing, Algernon Cadwallader, and Tigers Jaw.
The two proved to be naturals for the genre from the very start. Their 2021 debut EP i use a wooden bat when i play baseball starts off with “Snowing Day” who’s back half features not only an homage to Snowing’s “Sam Rudich” but both some ferocious drumming and some revved up finger tapping. They wanted to show homage to their emo forefathers but this was far from pastiche, the band was clearly a force to be reckoned with from the get go. While Nagano didn’t have much of a music scene outside of local legends Matsumoto Gorilla, 7th Jet Balloon was able to catch the ear of Kou Nakagawa, a stalwart of the Tokyo emo scene who both runs Ungulates Records and has played in over 500 emo bands so far in his short lifetime. He knew 7JB had an edge and put out their second EP, pleasant, sadness, and… on Ungulates Records last April. While their first EP was well received in the greater Japanese emo scene, their second EP was seen as a major step up, catching the attention of American emo fans. It was led by its rip roaring single “MGDYRKRNI”, which the group told me was named for the romanization of the consonants of the Japanese word “Maji de Yarikilenai” (feeling really uneasy). You’ll feel anything but uneasy listening to the track through. It is a massive anthemic romp, catchy beyond all belief, propelled by ssm’s relentless drumming. The rest of the tracks on the tape are more exercises in the band’s sonic and artistic range. EP closer “Japanese Gateball” in particular is a barnburner, starting slow and quiet before exploding into a massive fury that only gets faster as the track moves on. It starts off guttingly emotional before evolving into a fist pumping romp on a dime, like Shun had shouted everything he could and needed the catharsis of a good mosh pit. The tape was among my favorite EPs to drop last year, and left me extremely excited for what they had in store next. The tape solidified the group as one of the most exciting emo bands coming out of east Asia.
That leads us to last month, when the duo dropped their hotly anticipated debut album. The record is self titled, and its cover features Shun eating ramen in a t-shirt emblazoned with emo revival stalwarts Tigers Jaw’s legendary debut and its famous slice of pizza. While I now doubt know that 7JB meant the gesture as a respectful homage, it is still ballsy to put a 10/10 album cover on your own debut album cover. It reminded me of Captain Jazz burning down the American Football house on their album cover though I think 7JB had the opposite intentions. They want to show their reverence for the bands who came before them while proving why they deserve to be counted among those very same bands.
The record starts off with a rip roaring intro “Lets GO mother fxxker” which slides right into lead single “7”. The second track sees Shun and SSM playing off one another vocally like Run DMC, with SSM bringing the loud abrasive edge and Shun the more reserved retort. The track is carried with a catchy as all hell chorus, the group’s strongest since “MGDYRKRNI”. That being said the bridge between the choruses features some absolute machine gun drumming from SSM. It genuinely sounds like he went out and recorded a motorcycle engine until he got it on beat, it’s as loud and furious a drum sound as I’ve heard. I can see this one really getting the crowd going, it could very well end up being 7th Jet Balloon’s “I Saw Water” when things are all said and done.
The group then dips into “i’m yamcha, be always unrequited” a bubbly track that is the most Gami like of anything on the tape. While 7JB is called Nagano’s Origami Angel as they’re both two piece emo bands with noodly riffs, they can bring a fury that feels more like 5th Wave legends Guitar Fight from Fooly Cooly. That is particularly evident on the barnburning “www ape www” which feels like a minute long attempt to try and get a tornado going in the mosh pit. It seamlessly flows right into the appropriately titled “a gloomy spring”. 7JB have a bit of an experimental streak when it comes to song structure that reminds me of Weatherday or Queen Moo. That is particularly evident in a track like “FUCK SUMMER” which has a momentum to it unlike anything else I’ve heard this year. It’d be a disservice to call it a roller coaster, it is more like an epic sports movie or something. It starts hard and heavy, and quickly gets quiet at the minute mark for some exposition before then exploding back with the same headbanging rock we started with. There is a noodly riff and a respite a minute forty five in that feels like the team banding together after a tough loss and regrouping for the final push. They begin their ascent slowly and steadily before exploding at the 2:40 mark, leaving it all out on the field. It feels silly to even try and describe the track, loop this one back and let it wash over you like the summer waves. While not necessarily the catchiest track on the record I could still see it being the record’s stand out when its all said and done, it just has that extra somethin’.
7JB rounds out the record with two tracks that nod towards their friends in the emo scene. Album single “Grand Slam” features vocals from as a sketch pad and Worst Party Ever singer Andy, who has been living in Japan for some time. Andy’s music has been tremendously influential to both the American and Japanese emo scenes and it’s a joy getting to hear him play within J7B’s world, particularly with his can cracking interlude and back up vocals. It would be the most fun track on the record if not for the following track, 7JB’s cover of Origami Angel’s “24 Hour Drive-Thru”. The cover is fantastic and stands on its own. While the two bands are similarly proficient as musicians the 7JB rendition is looser and less produced than the Gami version. Where Ryland from Gami layers his vocals a dozen times to really send their version over the top, there is a charming scrappiness to Shun’s singing, particularly when ssm comes in on back up vocals. It just leaves a permanent smile on my face. I felt lucky when I interviewed Origami Angel all the way back before Somewhere City dropped as I knew in the moment it’d be a scene defining record, and this 7JB proves it’s somehow already classic rock.
In some ways the 7th Jet Balloon self titled record is a humble debut, rife with tributes to both their emo forefathers and their siblings in the scene. I don’t think the band sees it that way however, and I don’t think the scene will either. 7th Jet Balloon deserves to be seen among the best bands making emo music in the world right now because they absolutely are. The riffs are tight and noodly, the drums are rabid, the choruses are catchy as all hell, several songs take on a structure all their own. They are both wholly of the moment and wholly original. Unfortunately however, if I know anything about the emo revival bands they hold dear people won’t truly appreciate their greatness for at least ten years, but then again ten years ago emo was still considered a dirty word, maybe the masses will catch on while Shun and ssm can still smell the flowers. I just feel lucky to be here for them in the moment.
