Happy Friday!

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to the BdBK holiday show and sock drive (big bag o’ socks donated!) and to the living-room show on Tuesday ($365 raised for Toys for Tots!).

Now allow us to hit you with the third/final RIDER of the week featuring Brooklyn’s first president of japan — origin story: “a clown started a punk band” — whose new album You Can’t Have Your first president of japan And Eat It Too is out now!

Of the record, the band shares:

“You Can’t Have Your first president of japan And Eat It Too is a live recorded EP of front-clown Non’s 30th birthday party show. As a band who feeds on live shows we’re excited to bring the chaos and frenetic energy of seeing us in person – warts and all – into your home, car, headphones, wherever. We hope Non’s out-of-breathness, the crowd’s laughter, and our drive to leave every bit of our soul on stage, fantastically recorded and mixed by Cole Makuch, feel like an invitation for you to come see us at our next show.”

As for that invite — TIME TO CASH IN! You can catch first president of japan playing their last show of the year (a house show!) TOMORROW NIGHT —

Find info + RSVP here.

And please read on for a top 10 list from Non of FPOJ featuring backseat karaoke, Japanese dad jokes and the band’s “strange but perfect” astrological breakdown.

Have a very nice weekend <3

FIRST PRESIDENT’S TOP 10

1. Philly Party Car

The last time we played in Philly, our friend we were staying with kindly offered to order us an Uber XXL back to his place. Mostly because we were like double-X is now an option? How much bigger than an XL can they be?

A decked out van covered in drawings, flashing colorful LED lights, with a full size skeleton in the passenger seat pulled up in front of the house venue. Is that our Uber? Does the second extra mean something more than size?

Oh yes it was our ride.

We load our gear, climb into the van, bewildered by the party we’ve found ourselves in. Kim points at the big screen attached to the back of the driver’s seat and says “Wow imagine doing karaoke here.” “You can!” without missing a beat, the driver throws one mic after another from under the skeleton. Each one of us gets our own mic. We sing The Killers, Sade, anime OPs, and beg the driver to do a couple more loops around the house. The GPS is talking in Japanese. The driver is a white person. They grew up in Yokosuka. I ask “Was someone in your family in the navy?” Their dad. I tell them I’m happy they had enjoyed their childhood in Japan but I don’t support the reason. Still high from van karaoke, we tumble into the house to a 15-inning game between the Mariners and Tigers (I love baseball iykyk) and order $65 worth of McDonalds. Fever dream. Five stars for Rei.

2. Band offsites

Duncan has a big-boy-job so he misses practices and shows for various “offsites.” I have never had a corporate job – I wish it were for a lack of need, but it’s because I have a theatre degree – so I am very tickled by corporate jargon. Everyone in our band has other projects: Nagaecstacy (Aki’s solo project), DJ Dustbunny (Zeev as a DJ), Duncan was a Moth storyslam finalist, Yoko and her million other bands, me and my clown/theater shows, etc etc. So we try to (very loosely) organize “Band Offisites” to support each other outside of first president of japan!

3. A beer for Yoko

Some say, “Happy wife, happy life.” We say, “Happy Yoko with a beer, happy first president of japan.” We are a generally low maintenance/low drama band, but when a venue doesn’t give bands drink tickets and Yoko hasn’t been offered a beer… has been the closest we’ve ever come to band crisis. We try to keep the machine well oiled but if you ever find yourself at a show thinking “Man, I’d love to buy this band a drink!” Please, start with Yoko!

4. DJ Zeev-chan

Yes, Zeev does actually DJ under the name DJ Dustbunny (book him for your parties!) but to us, he’s Zeev-chan. When you’re in a band full of Japanese people we will start talking to you in Japanese, and you will get a Japanese-y nickname. He is as good at gathering context clues as he is DJing. Sometimes he will respond to things aptly and we’re like “Did you understand that??” High intuition! Anyway, whether we’re packing up after band practice, or sitting in a hot tub in the woods, we know the vibes are going to be peak if Zeev has the aux. Beyond music, we can always trust him to pick the perfect campy movie to watch stoned at 2am (Big Trouble in Little Chinatown. Hard Boiled. chefs kiss), how much cayenne pepper to add to a giant vat of chili, and more. Intuition AND taste!

5. Sankyu Morokyu (Thank you, moro-kyu)

Aki insists on yelling this at the crowd at every show. It inevitably bombs because 1) our English speaking audience is simply like ???? and 2) our Japanese speaking audiences roll their eyes. It’s his “fetch” and it ISN’T HAPPENING! But enough people have asked me about it so here is the (completely unworthwhile, tbh) explanation to this “joke”: In Japan, we have a lot of dad jokes that are based off of English words, when pronounced ultra Japanese having similar sounds/cadences to a different Japanese word. Thank you turns into “San-kyuu.” Morokyu is a shorthand for “moromi kyuri” a barsnack. It’s cucumber dipped in moromi miso, a chunkier super savory miso. It’s delicious. But it doesn’t make “Sankyu Morokyu” get any laughs, anywhere in the world. A man who shreds while climbing fences, playing his way out of venues, running down whole city blocks, making the crowd go absolutely wild for him, can suck the air out of the room with just two words. He really can do it all.

6. Mark and Kim’s Firesale

Kim is our manager and Mark is our videographer and swing (keys/bass sometimes both). They are my soulmates, family, team-keep-Non-alive-and-from-crashing-out. Yoko needs her beer and I need my people. They are also secretly (or soon to be less secretly) the best singers in first president of japan. For my birthday, I asked them to give me the gift of covering the 1986 Ford Taurus commercial jingle to kick off my birthday show. I’m a Taurus. They nailed it, keytar, harmonies, and all. Yoko was so obsessed with this performance that she has since booked them on her monthly show at Grimm. They covered more jingles, wrote originals, gave us Ford Taurus again. Glorious. Please jump at your next opportunity to see them.

7. Mahjong

Yoko, Aki, and I collectively play so much mahjong. With each other, in our own circles (Yoko has a mahjong club, I play with my 103 year old (!) calligraphy sensei), and online. I love Mahjong but Aki and Yoko will play till the sun rises, I can barely keep up. If there are any Mahjong tournaments looking to book a band for mid-tournament entertainment, please reach out. Teaching Zeev and Duncan how to play is my next project, now that the EP is out.

8. nonsense

I would be remiss to not plug my substack in a substack. There’s band updates but also my musings on grief, climate anxiety, racial tensions in The Bachelorette and more! If that’s what you’re into, come on down. Physical nonsense zines are also available as merch ;)

9. Strange but perfect astrological makeup of the band

Just based on sun sign –

Me: Taurus

Aki: Aquarius

Yoko: Virgo

Duncan: Libra

Zeev: Aquarius

2 earth signs and 3 air signs. It’s a weird combo!

Our band group chat is very dry and clerical.

Everyone is well meaning but out of control.

It’s hard to get a rise out of anybody, for better or for worse.

We aren’t like omg bff luv each other 4evr but also there is zero drama.

Mark is a Pisces and Kim is an Aries so maybe that’s also why I need them to round out the elements haha.

A very strange and beautiful balancing act of personalities is going on here, please take note!

10. Bounenkai!

Bounenkai’s literal translation is “forget the year party.” Instead of celebrating any holiday, we celebrate leaving everything in this year, IN THIS YEAR. Joys, grievances, wins, and moments of stupidity all get washed away with good food, good drinks, good friends, so we can start afresh in the new year. Ingredients for an authentic first president of japan bounenkai: (1) Duncan’s place (big-boy-job!). (8) packs of Spindrift Hard Selzer and random beer Aki bought without looking (1) Zeev with the aux (1) Aki bragging about how good the food he’s going to make is all year and then not making said food. (1) drunk Non demanding everyone share their “first president of ja-dream” (20) minutes of watching videos from the past years shows. (4) rounds of Wavelength (best intimate party game, look it up) that has to end when I feel bullied and start crying. (1) Yoko insisting that we play mahjong till sunrise. (1) Happy band!!!!!

Share

Top 10 written + provided by First President of Japan. Follow the band at @firstpresidentofjapan, buy music on Bandcamp and add the songs to your Spotify playlists now!

Feature image (provided by the artist): Tyler Bertram