Plastics (band)


Plastics, or The Plastics, were a short-lived Japanese new wave music group prominent in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their music was a major influence on Japanese pop music and their songs have been covered by many bands, most notably Polysics, Pizzicato Five, and Stereo Total.
Perhaps their greatest exposure came from their appearance on the late night comedy show SCTV on NBC performing "Top Secret Man". In September 2007, Rolling Stone Japan rated their debut album Welcome Plastics at No. 19 on their list of the "100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time".
Stereo Total's cover of their song "I Love You, Oh No" was used in television commercials for Sony Ericsson in Europe around 2006 and by Dell Computers in the USA in 2009.

Biography

The bands Talking Heads, The B-52's and Devo were all big fans of Plastics and were instrumental in getting their albums released in the United States. Their mainstream exposure began when Toshio Nakanishi designed a tour program book for Talking Heads and slipped David Byrne a tape of Plastics demos. Byrne promptly sent it to the B-52's' manager who offered to represent them internationally.
The band used the Roland CR-68 and CR-78 drum machines for their early albums. In 1980, member Masahide Sakuma had some input on the Roland TR-808's development with Roland. When its development was complete, the Plastics had the first TR-808 model, used for their 1981 album Welcome Back.

Lineup

Albums