18th September 2025
Hi everyone... We meet again at last... Before this article I'd like to make a little annoucement about how often I will be able to post on this site in future. As you may have noticed, it's almost been a whole 3 weeks since I've posted... Whoops... Summer has ended now, so I've been settling in to my new university and so have had much less time to do fun things :( I'm all settled in now, so hopefully I won't keep you all waiting 3 weeks again lol. But unfortunetly I will be busier, so posts will be less often from now on... Sorry... But I'll try my best, because I enjoy writing on this blog in my free time!
With that out of the way, please enjoy this article about Japan's Honey Skoolmates and their second release insomniac :p
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Honey Skoolmates is a band that my last.fm homepage has been pestering me to listen to for quite some time now. "Similar to Red Go-Cart, Teeny Frahoop and Peatmos" it would tell me... Well after I finally decided to give the band a listen, I found it was similar to none of those three and in fact it felt most inspired by a different band entirely. Sifting through Honey Skoolmates discogs page, I found they appeared on many compilation tapes in their early days, the late 90s. They appeared on Anorak Must! 4 (FIF2-008) with the likes of Dizzy Joghurt and Tirolean Tape. So they must fit in with that crowd instead, right? Still, no. I started with Honey Skoolmates' debut mini-album, Your Aquarium (71-LDKCD). It's a pretty good debut on a bigger label, Living, Dining & Kitchen Records, home of Citrobal, Fukamidori and Mint After Dinner. And before you ask, no, they don't fit in with those three either. Your Aquarium receives its fair share of attention these days. I found it was a simple record, by a new band still finding their footing. Although I did really like how the CD was shaped like a star. But it was their lesser talked about second mini-album that really caught my attention. And that's where you can really see who Honey Skoolmates was really most similar to.
But before that, because I love to keep you all waiting, just who were Honey Skoolmates anyway? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Not much really exists about them online, I can only find one photo. According to the insert from Your Aquarium, Honey Skoolmates consited of Yuko Takemoto (vocals and keyboard), Keita Takatori (guitar), Atsushi Nakai (drums) and Shozo Hashimoto (bass). Other than that, I don't know much else. They're Japanese, but I don't know their home city, or if they were related to any other bands...
Coming just 8 months after their first, Honey Skoolmates second mini-album, insomniac (87-LDKCD), released in Janurary 2000 on the same label as before. It receives far less attention than its predecessor, which I think is unfortunate because in my opinion it is the better of the two. For a start, insomniac seems much more sure of what it's trying to be from the word "go". On Your Aquarium, their were times that felt like it didn't know whether it wanted to be indie pop or indie rock. On this record, Honey Skoolmates have it figured out. Instead of going down the Shibuya-kei route, like most Japanese indie pop bands were doing, they instead embraced Shibuya-kei's alternative cousin - Shimokita-kei. In short, Shimokita-kei was a scene which blended together alt rock and J-Pop and it is a label which describes insomniac perfectly. Rock-y, sure, but unmistakably indie pop. Music even rock-ophobes like me can enjoy....
I think it's time I finally dropped who this band sounds the most like. To my suprise, as soon as I put on Your Aquarium and even moreso with insomniac, I was instantly reminded of advantage Lucy. I mean, just listen to "Think of the Rain" or the last bit of "Room Number 202". They've got that same "big" sound that I like so much about Lucy. Both songs are undeniably original, yes, but still have a bit of that much welcomed Lucy DNA. I don't have any evidence to say they were inspired, but I would not be suprised in the slightest if they were. insomniac isn't a souless imitation, however. Think of the Rain, the opener, is definetly the best track in my opinion. I love the repeating chorus, and I admit that I'm partial to some overdrive jangles from time to time... Their single from 1999, "Ryme to the Ocean", makes an appearance and it's a cute, shimmering little summer song. The only track I didn't really like was "lonely", but the rest are all great.
Despite being only their second "full length" (if you can call it that, it's only 20 minutes long) release, insomniac was also their last. It's sad, because Honey Skoolmates showed a lot of promise which I wish we could have heard more of. But at least we can be thankful we got something, and that something is well worth a listen if you have the time.
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