Bismarck, North Dakota - News

"I can't get no -- "

The Japanese teenager tuned in to a Tokyo radio station listens more closely.

"-- satis...faction!"

The boy, Hiro, turns the volume up.

"I can't get me no -- "

Eyes widen, he smiles.

"-- satis...faction!"

"Oh, my God, this is rock music!" he said.

And I try -- and I try -- and I try t-t-t-t-try try!

And by that point, really -- what else could the kid do but start a rock 'n' roll band?

"That song changed my life," said Hiro, who modeled his band, POLYSICS, not on the Rolling Stones, who wrote that song on his radio, but on Devo, the quirky new-wave icons whose cover version he heard.

POLYSICS plays wildly energetic pop-punk rock in matching red jumpsuits.

On its own, it's an exotic import, an eye-opening blend of the Ramones and Kraftwerk, to name a few more influences. But look beyond and you'll see an ever-increasing wave of Japanese bands on tour in the United States -- signing record deals with labels here, playing concert tours, winning over more fans to their unique twist on the American art of rock.

Listen and you'll hear heavy-metal bands, glam-meets-kabuki bands, bubblegum pop queens and leather-clad garage punks -- all of them absorbing Western influences, throwing it in the mixer with their Japanese style and sending it echoing back across the ocean like a gigantic power chord from the East.

"Maybe they can figure out a way to mix Link Wray with Devo with Van Halen," said Mike LaVella, owner of Gearhead Records, trying to explain the appeal of Japanese bands such as his own label's Electric Eel Shock. "And by the time you get it back, it's something you've never heard.

"That's the genius. It's familiar. But it's different."

One of the first Japanese bands to cross over to hip music fans here was Shonen Knife, three young women whose infectious poppy punk delighted American alt-rock stars such as Kurt Cobain, who invited them to open shows for Nirvana.

Two decades later, Shonen Knife is still playing here and winning over new fans with each tour.

"The first time, most of all fans are young people, but now not only young, but middle-aged and kids, too," singer-guitarist Naoko Yamano said via an e-mail from Japan. "I wrote a song for the Powerpuff Girls -- that's why kid fans were increased."

She said the huge popularity of anime -- Japanese animation -- has helped bands from Japan find fans here.

"It is one reason that Americans became more receptive to Japanese pop culture," Yamano said.

That's just how Vanessa Vengco, 25, an art student from Cypress, Calif., discovered the scene.

"I think initially, the appeal was that it was just so foreign, so Japanese," Vengco said.

As she heard more anime themes she liked, she researched bands on the Internet, and if, say, Buck-Tick listed Bauhaus, one of her favorite bands, as an influence, she'd try it.

"It just kind of snowballed from there," she said.

So is the day approaching when a Japanese rock band makes it big here?

Yaz Noya, executive vice president of Tofu Records in Santa Monica, Calif., said the label believes it is, noting that college radio already has embraced bands like POLYSICS.

"Those people are trendsetters and like the new stuff, and they all loved the Japanese music," Noya said.

LaVella, who signed the Hives in the United States shortly before the Swedish band became a buzz band here, said Electric Eel Shock can do just as well.

"I would just hope that it's not a fad," he said of the attention Japanese bands are earning now. "Because so many bands work and work and work to be here."

That's Hiro's dream now, too: "I really like fans to feel we are POLYSICS, not that we're from Japan or we play J-pop," he said.

"I want people to come to a show because we play rock."

A quick guide to Japanese music

It can be intimidating to dive into the Japanese music scene without a guidebook. A few terms to help get your ears on straight:

* J-pop: Its biggest stars include Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro. So far, it hasn't crossed over to the United States, though Hikaru Utada, the U.S.-born star of J-pop, took a shot last year with an English-language CD released on Island.

* Shibuya-kei: The term refers to the trendy Shibuya district of Tokyo and the hip bands influenced by its music, fashion and nightlife. Many bands tagged with this label have found fans in the United States, such as Pizzicato Five, Cornelius and Buffalo Daughter.

* J-rock: Harder-edge that includes metal, goth and punk strains. Includes bands such as X-Japan, whom many U.S. fans have discovered through anime soundtracks.

* Visual kei: The phrase means "visual style," and for bands such as Psycho le Cemu or Malice Mizer, it refers to a subgenre of J-rock in which elaborate costumes, hair and makeup are as important to many fans as is the music.

Where to buy

* Internet retailers such as Amazon.com carry most J-rock and J-pop albums, as do the bigger brick-and-mortar CD retailers. Other ways to buy music:

* Directly from the record label Web sites: For POLYSICS, go to http://www.tofurecords.com; for Guitar Wolf, http://www.narnackrecords.com; for Electric Eel Shock, http://www.gearheadrecords.com; for Shonen Knife, http://www.oglio.com.