If you thought this band name didn’t look familiar to you, you are correct. Before today nobody knew about the existence of this band.
Even tracing for “Japanese Baseball” on several search engines will not give you more information about the band, but will inform you about the several Japanese baseball teams and the organisation Nippon Professional Baseball, the highest level of baseball in Japan.
But it is not even strange that you will not find anything about the band, since they opened their official website just today and presented their first music video for the song MEMEMTO today as well on the YouTube channel of indie CD/DVD distributor JMSTV1. To make it even better, also today the instrumental rock band released their first self-titled EP.
Visiting the website of the band Japanese Baseball will not give you a lot more insight; the band started activities this year and the band presents themselves as an unidentified four-piece instrumental rock band from Tokyo. A band photo of the four-piece has been shared, but the faces are unrecognisable as if they want to keep the mystery up and want the music lover to focus on their music.
The music video of the song MEMENTO follows a young man who seems to be struggling with everyday life and wanders around while the music of the band seems to be getting more uplifting and intense as time goes on. When the camera focuses on the band, you will see the backs of the four musicians or a close-up of their musical instruments. Supporting by beautiful open and wide views, the song gives a smooth and light vibe.
The comment section of the YouTube video is a mixture of Japanese and English comments, some are referring to the since 1999 active indie rock band American Football (from of course the US) as an inspiration for the band name. Others are mentioning the rock band and also four-piece KOTORI as being behind this new project or that the instrumentals and atmosphere are alike. If I search for “American Football” in the search bar on the channel of JMSTV1, then I will get one result, a music video of KOTORI that was published in November of 2019. That does not say much as it is a random search attempt of yours truly, but it was an interesting result to keep in mind. Since they release music videos on the same YouTube channel, it would not be difficult to just out of anywhere release a new video as a new mysterious band. But for now, let’s keep the mystery up and wait what the next steps will be.
The EP that the band Japanese Baseball has released, digitally, consists of 5 tracks including MEMENTO as the first song of the release. The EP can be found the major streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music. Follow the band on Instagram.
Rating: 70/100
