Very influenced by the 70's rock music, 8otto is an indie band composed of 4 members. The leader, Maenosono Masaki (マエノソノ マサキ) is the drummer and the main singer, RYO (リョウ) and Yoshimura Seiei (セイエイ ヨシムラ) are both playing the rythmic and lead guitars, while TORA (Yuuki Toraoka) is playing bass.

After releasing a couple of Demo songs, just like Asian Kung-Fu Generation, they officialy released their first album called We Do Viberation in 2006.

We do Viberation

I am sure you spot the mistake, "viberation" instead of "vibration". You must be aware of this: through out their discography releases, they are doing so many English grammar mistakes making us to neither understand what the singer is singing nor the lyrics.

I will come back later to this matter but please keep in mind that English is not their strongest asset.

8otto first appeared on the Nano Mugen Compilation 2008 with the song "Riwo", a very dynamic song that you can listen to it if you own the compilation.
The song "Riwo" is representative of what the album We Do Viberation is, the album has an indie sound with a professional recording,mixing and mastering. The sound is perfect in the way that there is an harmony between the voices and instruments, as if you were playing in your garage while a professional team was recoring everything and keeping your indie/garage style that isn't blowing your ears at all.

This album is a real tribute to the 70's rock music, for instance, the song "Easy Pop" is a pun with "Iggy Pop" and the music is just like Iggy pop "Passenger" song. Since it is intended, this is a tribute, not plagiarism. Listen to this:

Iggy Pop - Passenger

8otto - Easy pop

Your browser does not support the audio element.

I personally love this album, the variety of the songs in it is just the best to discover 8otto.

What is the connection with Asian Kung-Fu Generation ?

The main connection is simple, this is the bassisst Tora, who also played with Gotch. 8otto and Gotch did some concerts together (1st part for 8otto, 2nd part for Gotch/AKFG etc).

Then, many of you like the indie sound that has Asian Kung-Fu Generation, it can be found again with this band. 8otto also did appear on the Nano Mugen Compilation 2008 so we are sure you will be delighted to discover a new band.

Is English a problem for this band?

From what I know this is not a problem and I don't know if they are aware of their English mistakes in their lyrics. At first, it can be felt as awful, however since Maenosono Masaki has a good voice and that they are playing with this wrong English, the result is that they are loved and identified for this.

This is the first time I ever see something like this. We all know a very few bands singing perfectly in English, many singing with a strong Japanese accent (Hello Gotchi), and those who are not skilled in English are not even known from the public. 8otto is somehow an exception in this music world mainly painted with commercial and insipid music, an exception very welcomed that I am sure, you will all fall in love.

8otto other releases

8otto never appeared again in a compilation, their latest album is "Ashes to Ashes" (from David Bowie eponym song) and between 2006 and 2011 they released 1 mini album, 1 single and 2 albums, plus a live album with their very first DVD, live tour 2008 in Osaka (and also Remix EPs).

Ashes to Ashes is available on Itunes along with Real and Running Pop. If you want to discover the band and cannot import We Do Viberation, this is a good way to start with.