There is no punk like Japanese punk. Probably the most whacked out gonzo band you’ll see this week, and yet still so adorable.

Mannie Fresh bum rushed the crowd and mugged for the camera. Soul Glo’s Pierce Jordan stunted on office furniture. Moses Sumney played our window-side piano. Some moments were staged and others spontaneous, but sometimes an artist just needs to “break the frame” of Tiny Desk. Case in point: Our puny shelves and cluttered junk could not contain Otoboke Beaver’s Yoyoyoshie, who literally lept out from behind the Desk, ran to the wide shot and shred a noisy guitar solo most triumphantly.

Kyoto, Japan’s Otoboke Beaver came into the NPR Music office with string lights color coordinated to the members’ floral print dresses, an edamame hair clip for our wall and a giant, inflatable beaver. In two-minute bursts of fast, furious and outrageously fun punk rock, the band’s music is a gleeful exercise in absurdist evisceration — of Japanese societal norms, gender roles, annoying trolls and bad boyfriends. Every song smirks as it explodes. At the Tiny Desk, Otoboke Beaver speeds and screams through its catalog — Itekoma Hits, Super Champon and its singles compilation Okoshiyasu!! — with acrobatic speed and intensity. An unhinged delight.

— Lars Gotrich | May 10, 2024

SET LIST
“Yakitori”
“Don’t Light My Fire”
“S’il Vous Plait”
“Pardon?”
“Bakuro Book”
“I Am Not Maternal”
“I Checked Your Cellphone”
“Akimahenka”

MUSICIANS
Accorinrin: vocals
Yoyoyoshie: guitar, vocals
Hirochan: bass, vocals
Kahokiss: drums, vocals

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Lars Gotrich
Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
Audio Technical Director: Josephine Nyounai
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Mitra I. Arthur
Audio Engineer: Kwesi Lee
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Michael Zamora
Tiny Desk Team: Maia Stern, Hazel Cills
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

#nprmusic #tinydesk #otobokebeaver