Photos by Mayumi Hirata

“…It’ll blow your mind, dude. It’s the most fucking intense shit you’ve ever seen…” 

Dave Grohl 

Otoboke Beaver おとぼけビ~バ~ are a punk-rock-garage quartet from Kyoto, Japan. The band’s name is taken from a local ‘Love Hotel’ and they describe themselves as: “Japanese girls ‘knock out or pound cake’ band”

Formed at Kyoto University’s music club, the band consists of Accorinrin (Lead Vocal & Guitar), Yoyoyoshie (Guitar & Vocals), Hirochan (Bass & Vocals) and Kahokiss (Drums & Vocals).  

Acco’s off-kilter self-taught compositional and confrontational performance skills, together with the band’s incredible musicianship make for a thrilling and unmissable live act. 

Damnably Records released the compilation ‘Okoshiyasu!! Otoboke Beaver’ in March 2016, which was championed by Gideon Coe and Tom Ravenscroft on BBC6Music & John Kennedy on XFM. 2017 was a breakthrough year for the band, with attention from Pitchfork, NPR, i-D and The Fader and more, acclaimed debuts at SXSW and FujiRock Festival, a sold-out show in London’s legendary 100 Club, and their ‘Love Is Short’ 7” charted in the UK for 4 weeks. 

In 2018 the band’s ‘ATTYUUMA’ tour saw them travel over 24,000 miles in a week, on a brief UK tour that was bookmarked by slots at Coachella Music Festival. Recent converts include Dave Grohl, Tadanobu Asano, Tom Moreno, Krist Novoselic, Aidan Moffat and The Cribs, the latter describing them as “PUNK AS F*CK”.  

After kicking things off at 2019’s SXSW music opening party and a run of wild showcases, the band released new album “ITEKOMA HITS” in April on Damnably, receiving widespread praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Stereogum, NYLON, BrooklynVegan and many more. They made their European debut at Lowlands Festival in The Netherlands, appeared as part of the line up at Koyabu Sonic Festival in Japan, and composed the opening theme song for Japanese comedy series “Susumu Inomata & 8 Mojo”.  

In 2020, the band quit their day jobs in order to tour the world and were announced for a slew of festival worldwide, including SXSW, Villette Sonique, Primavera Sound, Beaches Brew Festival, Eurockeenes, Green Man Festival and many more. But since the pandemic hit, live music has been put on hold, and you know the rest of the story.

Otoboke Beaver released their newest album, Super Champon, in May 2022 and have started touring again. They announced they would be touring the new album across Japan and North America later this year, marking their first full length tour of North America. The tour will continue across Europe into 2023.

“Sheer calamity and deliriously fun … recalls a lineage of patriarchy-scorching girl-gang shrieks, from the Slits’ ‘‘Shoplifting’’ to Bikini Kill’s ‘‘Liar’’ and beyond.”

Pitchfork 

“Their Riot Grrrl attitudes and passion for noise-rock make them stand out as true renegades in the underground scene.” 

i-D 

“Takes in the history of Japanese punk and runs with scissors in hand towards the bonkers-noise of early Boredoms, Afrirampo’s uninhibited avant-punk, and the revved-up garage-rock of Shonen Knife… Punk is rarely this charmingly vicious.”

NPR Music 

“A rhythm-twisting, no-nonsense, Japanese girl gang more than worthy of an invitation into the riot grrrl scene”

Stereogum 

“Vicious but tuneful punk-rock assaults’’

AV Club 

“A wild, raging knockout

The Fader 

“..with two really fantastic albums under their belt at this point, Is Otoboke Beaver not one of the best modern Punk bands that Japan has to offer right now” 

Antony Fantano, theneedledrop 

“The mixture of styles, both instrumental and vocal, is impressive.” 

Pop Matters 

“For those of us who missed riot grrrl at its true peak, especially coming from a country known for its reserve and concern for presentation, it’s not too hard to imagine that this may have been what it felt like”

The 405  

“The Japanese four-piece explain that dirty old farts are those guys on the internet who are certain that women on the internet are gagging to hear what they think about everything. Fortunately, thanks to Otoboke Beaver, they’re all dead now, slain by this perfect thrashing minute in which they obliterate ‘tenacious sulky troublesome ass’ men. RIP guys!”

Laura Snapes, The Guardian