The Thousands

From what I can glean, ‘Yura Yura’ in Japanese is an onomatopoeic term for ‘a wobbly, unstable feeling’. ‘Teikoku’ translates to ‘empire’. For a wobbly empire, Japan’s Yura Yura Teikoku is straight up one of the world’s most phenomenal psych bands. After keeping it together for a whole 19 years, they’ve finally been snapped up by a major and have delivered one of the best albums of 2008, HOLLOW ME.**With driving Kraut drums ala Can, wah wah melodies, sleazily restrained saxophone lines and the entranced vocals of Shintaro Sakamoto, Yura Yura deliver psychadelics without the freak outs. Outside of Japan this record has been achingly difficult to find, until now: New York’s ever-present DFA bring it to the world with a 12" released just last week. Get wobbly.