Natsuko Terada

Osaka rockabilly. Slap bass and appetite.

No Origin Myth

Natsuko Terada bought a cracked 1962 upright bass off a divorcing salaryman at a Nipponbashi pawn shop before she could play a single note, then taught herself to slap it from bootleg VHS tapes, towels stuffed around the strings so the neighbours wouldn't complain. Sixteen years later she still plays that same bass — refinished twice, stickered from every Osaka live house — three nights a week, between shifts selling creepers and pomade in Amerikamura. Her songs catalogue what's in front of her: thirty kinds of sushi, the five acts of a rainstorm, the botany of wasabi. Every set ends on a minute she makes up on the spot.

"I play bass. I eat well. I ride my bike. What else is there?"

"Why wouldn't you respond to what happened? That's what happened."

Discography

Play the discography — or tap a cassette for that track.

Omakase Beat
Rapid-fire sushi rockabilly, slap bass
折りたたみの道 (Oritatamiho Michi)
Zen rockabilly on twenty-inch wheels
大阪の雨 (Osaka no Ame)
A rainstorm in five acts
スーパーキレン (Superkilen)
Punk rockabilly in pure onomatopoeia
チタンの手 (Titan No Te)
Upbeat rockabilly, metal learned by touch
Hon Wasabi (本わさび)
Full-throttle rockabilly at 185 BPM
一号を南へ (Take One South)
Slap-bass country, autoharp, pedal steel
春隣 (Harutonari)
Slow rockabilly, winter's thin light

Appears On

TITAN — チタンの手 (Titan No Te)

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