Shibuya's finest and funnest import record store, Ganban, will celebrate five years of giving pop people exactly what they want with a special all-night party Jan. 13 at the Ageha complex at Studio Coast in Shin Kiba Tokyo. Given the amount of entertainment firepower that will be filling the three venues (Arena, Rose Room, and a special tent) it would be impossible to pick a headliner, but Seattle's United State of Electronica are always worth staying up late for. Having reclaimed for the home team the electronic disco sound appropriated by Daft Punk and other Eurobeatsters, U.S.E., an instrumental quintet-plus-two (dancer-singers), has reintroduced the form to American kids who probably thought dancing and raving was for airheads. Their love of unabashed bubble-gum, not to mention the syrupy sentiments that drip off the lyrics ("let's get under the umbrella of love") replace Continental irony with good ol' Yankee optimism. That's why Noah Weaver isn't afraid to use a vocoder in every song; why the female background singers try hard to sound younger than they are; and why there's the canned sound of a crowd screaming and chanting throughout their debut studio recording. Substitute the latter with your own voice and you get an idea of what to look forward to at their concert.
Other things to look forward to: a live set from Brit beatmeister Mylo, and DJ sets by Space Cowboy, The Glimmers, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Takayuki Serino, Atomic Hooligan, Captain Funk, Newdeal, Agero and much, much more.