"Last year we toured Japan with bands such as Mongol800, and while we were messing around with the other bands on stage, we came to rediscover how much fun it is to just make a noise," says Akiko Noma, better known as Akko, bassist with off-kilter rock band GO!GO!7188.

"We'd go 'One, two, BAM!' and everyone would react like 'Wah!' " she says, "It was such a basic thing, but we came to realize again how important it is to play with sound, and we felt refreshed."

Despite the excitable nature suggested by the punctuation in their name, GO!GO!7188, who formed in 1998, produced their six prior albums with sober attention to detail. Their best records — 2003's "Tategami," 2006's "Parade" and 2007's "569" — each presented a deliberate weaving of elegant melodies sung in helium pitch by guitarist-vocalist Yuu Nakashima, with intricate guitar lines and intense rhythms that created something unique. Flitting between genres such as Group Sounds, rockabilly, enka, punk, ska, psychedelia and more — but always with a pop sheen — their songs are occasionally playful but more often serious. And almost impossible to accurately describe.