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List Price: $17.98 | | Label: Arrivederci
Salesrank: 473401
Released: June 25, 2002 |
| Our Price: $63.86 |
| Used Price: $26.62 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Red Talk Track Listing:
1. Sentimental Journey
2. Pink Soda
3. No Luck
4. A Shotgun And Me
5. Angel
6. Pretty In Pink
7. Chik Chik A.A.
8. Grapefruit
9. Asking For It
10. A Guitar For Me And Milk For Her
11. Count 0 Number 1
12. Psycho Melody
13. She
14. Sister Sister
15. 8
16. Mo' Mo' Gimi' Mo'
17. As Long As We're Together
18. If I Happen To Fall Down (In Your Arms)
Editorial Review:
Widely regarded as the best female rock band Japan has ever produced. Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her were discovered by Cornelius (Japan's biggest underground popstar) & signed to his stylish Trattoria sound label. Subsequently the band has built up a considerable catalogue of domestic releases & a fanbase of 50,000. SSKHKH are number 3 in Courtney Love's top 5 picks for 2001 & she is continuing to rave about them on the internet or to anyone that will listen. Seagulls have toured America twice (playing with the likes of Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo & Mogwai) despite their records only being available as expensive imports. 'Red Talk' is the first Seagull Screaming release anywhere outside of Japan 'Red Talk' is also the definitive Seagull compilation with exclusive design by el graphic & containing an exclusive video track called 'Sister Sister'. Digipak.
Red Talk Reviews:
Fine line between lame and cool 
2004-02-11 - I bought this album because my favorite little record store put it on one of their listening stations and it sold out. An odd way to make a purchasing decision, I know, but I was really curious to know more about "some of the coolest stuff coming out of Japan right now."
So what's the deal? Seagull Screaming sounds kind of like Sonic Youth mixed with Sleater Kinney and a teaspoon of sugar. Ergo, they lack the intensity and ugliness of Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth, and the bratty Sleater Kinney vocals.
The band is more or less a power trio consisting of bass, drums, and guitar, although other instruments make cameos on a few of the tracks. Most of the songs are energetic, sub-three minute, fuzzy Marshall amp, get-in-get out numbers, but there's enough riffing and and composition involved that I'd be extremely hesitant to use the term "punk" to describe them. The vocals are flat and unemotional -- a little bit Chrissie Hynde -- and a perfect compliment to the band's pared-down musical approach. Overall, the album is rocking, kinda fun, and a little bit weird in a Japan-trying-to-imitate-America way. It may also be a little overproduced and clean for the aggressive music it's trying to be.
I don't know what my friends are going to think of it, but I love "Red Talk." Unfortunately, the listening samples Amazon gives you aren't the most representitive. Try "No Luck" on for size because it's the closest to center. If you like it and you're not turned off by the song "Angel," pick this sucker up.
Hmmm....Not sure 
2003-01-06 - I actually quite like this record, but I'm uncertain what to make of it. It rocks, to be sure; but there's something strangely disconcerting about it. It's almost as if SSKHKH have digested the last 20 or so years of female rock and made an unwitting pastiche of it - "A Shotgun and Me", for example, sounds like a eerie, off-kilter PJ Harvey rip off. Lyrically, they seem to have been rifling through Courtney Love's lyric sheet - the angels, the sodas, the prettiness in pink, the asking for it, they're all there, but I'm kind of concerned that this time round, they're not ironic. Overall, though, they sound most like Elastica - a kind of lazy-sneery-sleazy-coolness. The guitars are great, by the way. So, while enjoyable, this album can only be appreciated on an weirdly gimmicky level for me - it's strangely devoid of context, deprived of cultural knowledge. I don't know enough about modern Japan to argue this with any real authority, but it seems to me like they often fetishize aspects of Western pop culture, but without placing any particular value-judgments on one cultural product over another; so this compilation comes off like a quirky, bouncy hodgepodge of references and influences, as well as an oddly angled mirror reflecting tidbits of women in rock over the past few decades.
Do believe the hype 
2002-12-08 - To call SSKHKH the best female Japanese Rock Band ever does them a massive disservice. After all, what's their competition? Shonen Knife? Don't make me laugh. No, far better to call them one of the best female rock bands of this or any other era in this or any other country. Alright, so using a best-of collection as a basis for judgement might be cheating, but Red Talk ('Sister Sister' possibly aside) is a jaw-droppingly magnificent compilation, full of crunchy guitars, magnificent hooks, and catchy choruses. And the thing is, the 'Screaming for Seagulls' import best of is supposed to be just as good - but only shares 6 songs with 'Red Talk'.... Just how good are these women?
Indispensable. Buy it.
