Japan's Petty Booka is pretty in punk
First a reggae rhythm kicks in. You're grooving along when a horn appears with a double toot; the notes are oddly familiar. What is that? Then, suddenly, there's a perky voice with a Japanese accent, singing: ''I come home in the morning light, my mother says when you gonna live your life right . . ."
It's Cyndi Lauper's ''Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," of course, performed island style by two cuter-than-cute Japanese women who wear hula skirts and cowgirl outfits, strum ukuleles, and know no boundaries when it comes to musical genres.
This is Petty Booka, a duo from Tokyo that covers songs by Madonna, the Ramones, Junior Brown, and Patsy Cline with equal glee. The results often sound nothing like the originals (a country western ''Material Girl," anyone?). Sometimes they sound better. Petty Booka's harmonies are as appealing as their lyric-garbling accents.
The band plays the Abbey Lounge tonight, headlining the Japan Girls Nite US Tour 2005, a bill of acts from Japan that also includes Titan Go King's, Tsushimamire, Puppypet, and the Emeralds. It is sponsored by their record label, Benten, which focuses on female artists. With the exception of male openers the Emeralds, the lineup is, as Benten founder Audrey Kimura describes it, ''girl punk rock from Far East."
''None of them are well known in Japan," Kimura says. ''They are all new or small bands in Japan. All the bands enjoying to play in front of people who appreciate their music without prejudice."
That certainly seems to be true of Petty Booka. ''We love America!," the duo says via e-mail.
The love is mutual. The band, whose members call themselves Petty and Booka (their given names are Naho and Maiko, respectively; they don't reveal their last names), has become a cult favorite here, playing on radio shows and at venues including South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Rita Houston, music director of New York public radio station WFUV, has hosted Petty Booka on her show ''The Whole Wide World With Rita Houston." ''Listeners flipped," she says. ''It's the kind of thing that gets your attention. If it was just kitsch, it would be just kitsch. But it's more."
That kitsch factor is balanced by the band's sincerity and skill. ''Basically, Petty Booka's sound is very simple, but great songs played on ukulele and sung by twin vocals is a quite irresistible combination," says Keith Cahoon, head of Tokyo music publishing company Hotwire Inc., who has profiled Petty Booka for the online Japanese-music resource Nippop. ''The ukulele is almost a magical instrument. It creates a great tropical yet down-home sound."
But beyond the swelling Hawaiian rhythms, bluegrass hoedowns, and matching outfits lies a punk rock spirit. When asked to describe Petty Booka's sound, Petty says, ''Ukulele punk!" Every once in a while, as on a cover of Brenda Kahn's ''I Don't Sleep, I Drink Coffee Instead," a punk sneer emerges in the vocals. In fact, Petty Booka's beginnings trace back to the endings of a punk band, Flamenco A Go Go, an all-girl outfit that achieved some notoriety in Japan but broke up in the mid-'90s.
When Flamenco A Go Go split, it had already committed to recording a cover of Culture Club's ''Karma Chameleon" for an '80s compilation. Two of its former members, a singer nicknamed Petty and a guitarist nicknamed Booka, decided to record the song with a Japanese Hawaiian band, the Toconuts. Something clicked, and the newly formed Petty Booka went on to record an album, ''Toconuts Hawaii." Five more records followed. But Petty was busy with other projects, and so a new Petty -- Naho -- was recruited. Petty #2 learned ukulele and played with Booka for three years. Then, in 2003, Booka had a baby and took a break from the musical life. And along came Booka #2 -- Maiko, a friend from another band.
The current incarnation of Petty Booka has just finished recording a bluegrass album. Two Petty Booka records have been released in the United States, ''Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian" and ''Christmas Everywhere." The former includes ukulele standards and covers of ''Tide Is High" and ''These Boots Are Made for Walking."
Not surprisingly, the band has been influenced by artists as diverse as the songs it covers. Petty cites Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, and Dan Hicks as favorites. Booka adds Judy Garland and '50s girl groups to the list.
''Their accessibility is probably in the material," says WFUV's Houston, ''because they do it as such music fans."
And then, of course, there's the sheer fun of hearing ''Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" sung part in Japanese and part in English by two performers who can't really speak English.
''They will not make you want to overthrow the government," says Cahoon, ''but they likely will make you forget for a while about your taxes and tensions and lend you a smile." 