Miracle Chosuke

Named for the character who's an expert putter in the 1988 arcade classic Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf, Miracle Chosuke began cranking out spazzy, new and no wave-influenced indie rock around the turn of the millennium. The Costa Mesa, CA, sextet featured singer Jason Silen, guitarists Dan Gerchik and Brady Miller, bassist Jason Medina, keyboardist Rob Girardin, and drummer Andrew Taylor. On releases like their demo EP Chocodile Renaissance; Nothing Records' Five Band Comp #2; and "Gonk," which appeared on Dim Mak 2003 Sampler, Miracle Chosuke displayed a volatile sound that reflected the band's somewhat precarious nature. After touring and recording for the better part of two years, the group disbanded temporarily in 2002. However, they regrouped before Dim Mak released their full-length debut, 7/8 Wonders of the World, in spring 2003 for some possible tour dates in support of the album. Miracle Chosuke was also slated to appear on a Huggy Bear tribute album, along with the likes of the Gossip, Bratmobile, Paradise Island, and Sonic Youth, later that year.
- Heather Phares/ Allmusic.com

Dim Mak Releases:
DM052: Miracle Chosuke "The 7/8 Wonders of the World"; BUY CD

Press

Updated 07/15/04
SEMTEX
MIRACLE CHOSUKE: The 7/8 wonders of the
world
CD on dim mak records
Holy fuck. This is cool stuff. Energetic, a rocket
speeding forward towards its target, original,
very simple lines but very catchy. Every song
on this release is great without exceptions.
Miracle Chosuke is serving us nine spastical,
nervous short songs composed with the typical
line-up vocals - base -two guitars -drums and a
keyboard. Very simple but every note is the right
one. If you are into silly dancing, i guess this is
your occasion.



Updated 11/25/03
THE 7/8 WONDERS OF THE WORLD REVIEWS by Jeff Terich

ROCKPILE

Miracle Chosuke's nine song debut, The 7/8 Wonders Of The World, has a running lenght of about 13.5 minutes, and each minute is packed with super-fun, spastic Brainiac-style new wave. If you did the simple math in your head, you probably figured out the average running time of these songs is about one-hand-a-half minutes. The six members of Miracle Chosuke know their way around their respective instruments and an odd time signature (hence the title). The two instrumental tracks, "Vallejo" and "Nemesis", are guitar-driven match rock, quite unlike the rest of the material here. But on an album this short, not a single second is wasted, making for a truly enjoyable listen-from the catchy synth hook on "Francine" to the vocodered "fuck you" on "Cliffton".


Updated 10/23/03
THE 7/8 WONDERS OF THE WORLD REVIEWS

LA ALTERNATIVE PRESS

Legend has it that Miracle Chosuke were only together for a few months before the members decided to pack it in, with only an eight-track demo to show for their trouble. Steve Aoki, the tireless captain of Dim Mak records, heard the recording, tracked the members down and harassed them into letting him put out the music on his label. The ensuing nine-song album, entitled "The 7/8 Wonders of the World," came out in May of this year, and the reformed Miracle Chosuke has been sporadically supporting it ever since. Rumors surrounding the future of the band have been tossed about, most suggesting that the band is again finished, and some saying that the singer has moved to Philadelphia. Nonetheless, Miracle Chosuke were sighted in Long Beach less than a month ago, opening for Deerhoof at Koo's Café. The band is also scheduled to play throughout the rest of this month in New York, so place your bets on the future of Miracle Chosuke. Regardless of the outcome, what stands as concrete proof of the genius of the six-piece is the Dim Mak record. A caustic brew of jerky, Devo-esque math rock, the recording is a fine rendering of this band's incredible stage show. Chosuke's spastic live delivery enchants kids on the dancefloor in equal measure to the way the band's weird song structures cerebral head-nodders on the periphery. Bouncing off the walls and off of each other, the musicians that make up Miracle Chosuke look and sound as agitated as the music they create. You may have thought (or even hoped) that you wouldn't be hearing this again, but, like their press release suggests, this is the sound of the new New Wave. Check them out live if you can find them, because Miracle Chosuke's is one of the best live shows in L.A.
(Cory O'Malley)

Portland Mercury
Julianne Shepard

So many try it, but so few get it right. Uh-huh: the punk scum double-dipped in synth skree, then duct taped shut with screamy, urban angst and the willful collision of new-old technology (i.e. Commodore 64, yall). Granted, it sounded better last summer, when Los Angeles quintet Miracle Chosuke had released only two mp3s, and back before every boy band with a sideways trucker cap and a Korg started sweating noodly, futuristic, keyb-rhythmic punk rock out their macrobiotic asses. But this sounds the best to me; these fellas were like 19 when they wrote the songs, and there is a lot to be said for the pheromonal raging of youth. At the same time, their dynamic, multidimensional guitar noodling is hooked on musical maturity, suggesting a desire to carry the concepts behind Yes into the computer age. What's mostly lacking in similar acts is the ability to write good songs; for five tots on a virtual mini-thin binge, M.C. is doing just fine.

MIC
Positive Greek Review

AVOPOLIS
BEST OF THE MONTH!

SPLENDIDE
After a few years'-worth of Television, Gang of Four and Stooges retreads have dutifully shone the next-thing light for moth-like music critics and hipsters alike, it's about time Devo got a similarly-hyped second chance. Call me skewed and inconsequential, but the injections of otherworldy fun Devo always brought along to their animatronic shtick made them less detached, morbid and/or tedious than all those other important bands from the same era combined.

Miracle Chosuke aren't Devo resurrected in automaton form, but they're true to the spirit of devolution: they deliver more with less fuss and in less time (just over thirteen minutes, to be exact), they hide cheeky observations about society, specifically the SoCal society around them, under densely robotic, ass-shaking grooves, they're vaguely impenetrable and catchy at the same time, and they won't wear out their welcome any time soon. Everything on The 7/8 Wonders of the World is a tightly-wound winner, but opener "Gonk" is just supreme, riffing like a fast-forward B-movie monster and covering intro, rising action and climax in just over a minute. "Clifton" is similarly compressed, with a sharper taste of melody, and "Vallejo" and "Nemesis" add red-light-district sleaze to their less-is-more approach.

Basically, The 7/8 Wonders of the World is on par with the best wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am releases from the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars in pure post-punk distillation and whoop-ass, and the added Devo spirit takes Miracle Chosuke to another level entirely.
-- Matt Pierce


SUNDAY MAIL
July 28
4 out of 5 Stars
This Californian sextet go for a timechanging catapult of a ride around the Wack pop experience. It is a fine line between classic inspiration and cluttered irritation and there is enough melody here to ride out the difference. Carefree rhythm from zealously scraped guitars, happily squalling synths and broken microphone rough vocals make for a new wave
frenzy. These are jerked out rock operatics for the happily flailing of limb.

ARTROCKER

DIM MAK SAMPLER
If any of you have the Dim Mak sampler, you have had song #3 on repeat (Maybe we have a different version over here Emily but on my copy it is track 4. ooh. and track 5 by Die MonitrBatss is to die for. Tom) .It is the only one that calls for repeated listenings. (I could not even stick around for Bluebirds straight up Foo Fighters rip on the last track) It is Miracle Chosuke! Totally tinny and electronic punk rock with squawking vocals, the kind of music you put on at the beginning of the night while trying on clothes in front of the mirror, doing side twists, strutting, the whole deal. And after you end up dressed in something straight out of a nu wave Fiorucci Fantasy, the song gets played into your headphones, out onto the subways and sidewalks of the city: totally triumphant! Described as Queen, this band, is, in a word, challenging. It is like you learned in theory class; how certain chord progressions can make you cry: the guitar in Gonk is like a new wave Amadeus fugue. Luckily the next track is a spazzy plush peace sign pillow after you totally eat shit on the roller derby. The rest of their CD 7/8 Wonders of the World is just as baroque. You wonder if Yngwie Malmsteen has heard these guys.

>Record of the Summer: Miracle Chosuke The 7/8 Wonders of the World
Miracle Chosuke sounds like a Japanese band with a Japanese singer but no, really, they are from Southern California. Everytime I hear the vocals, I keep thinking it is a little too crazy to be American. That is a compliment. They are probably lumped in with Die Monitor Batss and Dance Disaster Movement, but there is just something weirder about them. I imagine seeing them live to be better than Lightning Bolt? Please! Watch out, they may very well be on the next Fast and the Furious soundtrack given the fact that Dim Maks label owner, Steve Aoki (son of Benihanas Rocky Aoki) is model/actor/hip hop singer Devons older bro. I do not care as long as I get to see them. I do not care if they play the Benihana Lounge. I can already guarantee lots of runny eyeliner and neu strutting, do not you worry.
EMILY RYAN


READMAG
Very, very cool stuff. Super fun 80s new wave microwaved on high, then run through a blender. Spastic guitars and vocals, purposely cheesy keys, and jazzy drumming combine for an avante garde pop album that WORKS. Think a more minimalist Oingo Boingo in todays musical landscape. Definitely the best Dim Mak release this year. Check out the bouncy Clifton, Clap (which sounds kinda like if PiL covered Turning Japanese), and the syncopated Francine.

LIGHTUPTHESKY
Similar Artists: Devo, Erase Errata, Man Or Astro Man?
Rating: 9 out of 10
Once upon a time there was a little known Costa Mesa band called The Pinkos whose fame was valid only in the arms of friends and classmates of the group. They gained a small notoriety around town with the help of some clever marketing (individually hand drawn patches) and a sound that was an ingenious cross breeding of the Dead Kennedys, Born Against and Billy Childish. Unfortunately, the band could not get past tiny squabbles and fell to pieces after recording only a couple of demos.

From its ashes rose Sarah Abrams Attack Tank, yet another clever concoction of a band whose influences lay somewhere in the mix of The Make Up and The Pop Rivets fronted by vocalist TJ Mendez, whom Hot Rod Todd from Le Shok owes a great debt to. But once again, inner turmoil dashed the near popular fate the band was heading towards and the group busted at its seems.

A little more then a year later, two members whom were seated in the aforementioned groups decided to give it one more shot. The two individuals, Andrew Taylor (drums) and Dan Gerchik (guitar), relocated to the gloomy city of Seattle and started playing again under the moniker Miracle Chosuke with the help of a few newcomers. After duking it out long enough to record a demo, the two founding members relocated back to their hometowns in Southern California and recruited new members to fill in the place of their old Drug addicted cohorts.

The new band, which featured multi instrumentalist and recording genius Jason Medina (bass), as well as Brady Miller (guitar), Rob Girardin (synth) and Jason Silen (vocals), began playing every show imaginable. They took on the Black Flag ethic of getting out there as much as possible, and it eventually paid off. Kids from Seattle to San Diego would attend shows in masses just to see the spectacle that was Miracle Chosuke. Eventually, they even caught the eye of Dim Mak Records and were offered to do a record with the label. But of course, as has been the case with the two previous bands, fights and arguments began to brew and the band ended catastrophically after recording.

The fate of the recording was put into limbo as Dim Mak was not sure they would be able to sell a record by a band that was not in existence anymore, as well as the fact that none of the members really cared too much to see its release. But just like an old married couple that bickers all the time and reconclied after time apart, the group just recently decided to get back together and are back in full force.

So now that all is well in Chosukeland, the record is finally out and the whole world can hear what Dan Gerchik and Andrew Taylor have been trying to get at all along - the music!

With the album opener, Gonk, you are immediately lambasted with their trademark wall of prog noodling guitars and fuzzed out synths, which lay behind the wailing vocals of Jason Silen. It is charismatic, crazy, and absolutely fantastic and with a running time of one minute and seventeen seconds, it is just right enough to leave you wondering what is just happened.

The next thing you know Do What You Pay Me For starts up. Packed with It is
gentle, swerving synth line and carefully plucked guitar interludes, you can easily be reminded of The Cars back catalog and how much you miss it. As Jason sings I'll do what you pay me for over and over again, you have to wonder whether he is talking about sexual prostitution or if he is implying a sort of self fulfilled prophecy of pleasing the albums purchaser. Although I got this for free, I am definitely satisfied, regardless, so I must commend him on a job well done.

The album rolls on into Clifton, the third track, which may be the song that inspired the albums clever title. It is odd time signatures and sudden pattern switches solidifies the fact that these kids garnered the prog tag.

Then on Clap, things slow down a tad and a bit of a Munsters theme song esque vibe rolls around as the bass and guitars, by Medina and Miller, wrap around the subdued vocals supplied by both Jasons. Silen channels the larynx of Mark Mothersbaugh while Medina lulls around in the background with his lower register. The combination of vocals is one of the discs high points as they truly compliment one another.

On 4/3/3 we are given a hint with the title that we can expect another Off timed number, and sure enough they follow through. The song rattles around back and forth between Andrews pounding of the tom toms and snare, and the classic 4/4 high hat tapping. It is proof that talent is present in all members because it seems virtually impossible to keep up with all the shifts and changes when trying to reproduce it ones self. But I think I have
just spoken to soon...

As the sixth track, the all instrumental Vallejo, starts up you may be thinking your ears are playing tricks on you, but alas they are not and the song really is that fucked up in a good way. What starts out like the previous tracks ends up becoming something like Servotron with ADD. It goes from some of the strangest guitar wanking into this police siren like synth roll and lunges full on into something straight out of Legend of Zelda. It is
bound to be a video game classic!

If this album is supposed to have a hit single, it is got to be the seventh track Francine. It is a combination of the first two tracks but with catchy as hell vocal hooks and a dancey vibe in the instrumentation. It is something Dan Gerchik seems to have instinctually implanted in his writing method, the combination of obscure style and insane hooks. Although the entire band is integral in the making of this music, he is the fearlessly deranged leader whos poised for underground stardom because of his unique ability and tireless determination.

On track eight, Loop, the band play their punkest sounding song on the disc. The tune may actually be a tribute to another overlooked band from their same locale, Costa Mesas very own Supernova. With all the spacey effects and Jason Silens spazzed out lyrical spitting it seems to be an homage to the rulers of Cynot 3, but it also might be a venting of frustrations on all parts. Either way, there is a lot of screaming and UFO tinged keyboards courtesy of Rob.

The disc closes out with another instrumental number that sounds like it was recorded outside of the rest of the albums original recording session. It is got a cleaner, more mellow sound, not unlike Trans Am or perhaps Tristeza hopped up methamphetamine. It is a nice way to close the album and calm the listener down, but it also sort of the throws off the vibe of the other eight songs. Perhaps it should have been saved for something else, but either way it does not do any serious damage to overall feel of the record.

The whole album is documentation of a band and, more importantly, the incredible musicanship of each member. It is original in its reclamation of classic sounds filtered through modern ideas and it offers kids something to shake their ass to as well, which in the current setting of music is a major accomplishment.

Although there is so much positivity in what is being done by this group, there is so much intellectual prowess going that you know these kids will most definitely disband again soon. With six people all trying to get their equal say, you know disagreements are going to plague them like STDs to cheap whores. It is a shame in that sense, but it is also a blessing because it means whatever does come out and is agreed on is completely grade A material. Enjoy it while you can is the best advice I can give.
Mehran AHZMA


BLANKGENERATION

Did you know that Devo are my second favourite band ever, next to the Ramones? Translation I dig shit like Miracle Chosuke big time. The vocals are total Devo, and the guitar/bass/synth/vocal line all playing the same staccato note at the same times is classic Devo. If it were not for the absolute frantic pace of most songs (9 in 13 minutes) I would have a tough time distinguishing between these guys and the also great Cripples. Simply put, if you dig any of the aforementioned (or stuff like Servotron and Polysics) you would be smart to pick this up as it is top notch synth punk mayhem. (JG)

LOGO MAGAZINE
The title alone will tell drummers and musicologists exactly what to expect from this debut from Californias Miracle Chosuke, a band tagged as the new Devo by label boss Steve Aoki, and who are we to argue? ΠThe 7/8 Wonders Of The World is an endlessly fruitful maze of sounds that makes you wonder whether the seven souls in the band own anything that was not recorded in a single square mile in downtown Manhattan between 1975 and 1978, but they score where the rest of the art rock, no wave pack fail in being neither art rock nor no wave. Rather, it sounds as though they have sat down and analysed exactly what made Devo tick, as well as Glenn Branca, ESG, Wire, Tangerine Dream and Spizzenergi. Having identified the roots, they have pasted them into new, ultra dense, hyper kinetic forms that take the form and force an evolution upon the revolution. File them well above and slightly to the left of Radio 4.

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