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The Coctails, loungecore band
Big in Japan
In the fall of 2005, the Coctails were playing a show in Tokyo that band member Archer Prewitt later described as “electric.”
“If we jumped up and down, the audience jumped up and down,” he says. “It was one of the most exhilarating Coctails shows we’ve ever played. People were real fans.”
The thing is, the Chicago-based band had been broken up for ten years at that point (though Prewitt and Coctails bandmate Mark Greenberg still play stateside with the Sea and Cake and Eleventh Dream Day, respectively). But something about the Coctails—a “loungecore” quartet with members who freely rotate instruments—has endured in Japan. The founders of Japanese imprint Presspop were among the rabid fans and in 2005 created vinyl Coctails action figures designed by Prewitt, a book collecting the old Coctails show flyers and a new, limited-edition ten-inch record.
“It’s funny, you get letters from Brazil or Germany or wherever, and you never know if that person is one of 100 people or of two people,” says band member Greenberg, who notes they started receiving letters from Japan as early as their first self-produced record in 1990. “But the Japan thing kept happening, so it was kind of exciting.”
Prewitt notes that at the shows in 2005, fans brought along Coctails memorabilia that the band thought was long extinct: seven-inches that the band made themselves in 1990 and mailed to fans, plus old newsletters and handmade dolls.
“We did one show in Kyoto, and it was a good show, but not as crazy as the one in Tokyo,” Prewitt says. “We were thinking, Oh well, let’s just finish the show. And then the lights went up, and all these people had all of this ephemera, and there was this outpouring of gratitude, which surprised us because we thought we’d failed.”
Part of the Coctails’ allure in Asia stems from Prewitt’s other creative outlet, his intermittently published comic Sof’Boy, which features a cuddly Casper-like character who inevitably gets torn asunder on the mean Chicago streets. Prewitt has flown to Japan for signings, and Presspop even published a book of his abstract drawings, Work on Paper. He says he’s not sure how much crossover there is between fans of his comics and fans of the music, though he’s seen crossover at both signings and concerts.
Greenberg and Prewitt note that their Japanese audiences seem to be completists. “I think people in Japan are better collectors and musicologists about the U.S. than people in the U.S.,” Greenberg says. “Maybe because of their distance, they can see things more fully.”
“When I was signing books, the people would want me to draw Herbie or Funny Bunny,” says Prewitt, referring to lesser-known Sof’Boy characters. “They know about things you wouldn’t expect anyone to know about. They delve deep when they’re interested in something and surprise you at all turns.”
At some of the signings, fans brought Prewitt gifts: stuffed cartoon characters, candies, books, even a small handmade thumb piano. “They brought me all of these things that I had said in interviews that I liked,” he says. “They were just sweet, sweet fans of the work.”
Prewitt, who’s had art exhibitions in Japan, says he’s in talks now about returning to the Land of the Rising Sun soon to deliver lectures at art schools and put up two exhibitions. He’s also talking with folks over there to develop a Sof’Boy animation for a Sof’Boy Japanese phone app.
For now, the Coctails remain unreunited stateside, but there’s talk of bringing the band back just to tour Japan again. “[Japan] was awesome and flattering and great,” Greenberg says. “I hope they invite us back.”
Prewitt and Greenberg team up at the Hideout (1354 W Wabansia Ave, 773-227-4433) on June 20 to open for Liam Hayes and Plush.
