To hear Ghost Towne is to hear old-time rock 'n' roll with a Japanese accent. Ghost Towne, who've been gaining a following around Los Angeles and all of southern California lately, is an Asian-American blues-rock trio who call their style, "Yellow Blues." Ghost Towne is Nobu the charismatic frontman, lead singer and guitarist, from Fukuoka, Japan, who came to America three years ago, along with drummer Yasu from Wakayama (a suburb of Osaka) although he's now been in the US for seven years, and Steven the bass guitarist, who was born in Hong Kong. Being on a first-name basis is easy with these guys as they all prefer to use their first names only.

Although many Americans call rock played by Japanese or Japanese-Americans "J-Rock," Nobu disagrees. "People may think we're a part of J-Rock but we're just like, American, really," he says. He describes Ghost Towne's sound as influenced by blues-rock and soul, "Old school, but also we have a taste of the eighties, kind of mixed up," he admits.
"Combine like blues, rock, and soul, but more eighties, hard to explain." Nevertheless a certain Asian aesthetic remains.

Ghost Towne's style is exemplified by how a Pink Floyd song fits neatly into their set list. Of his passion for Pink Floyd, Nobu says, "They're described as a progressive rock band but they don't play all that well technically. Very simple but, I don't know why, no reason, I just like the sound and the atmosphere." Other influences he names hearken back to a classic seventies' blues-rock sound and atmosphere--Free, Fleetwood Mac, The Band, and Jimi Hendrix--a typical KLOS playlist, in other words.

While talking at a Starbuck's in Hollywood, he tells how he wrote the song, "Ghost Towne" that gave his band its name, how he played his guitar as he often does for inspiration and, "It sounded really creepy ... like ghosts coming out to trick you or do something to you or something."

He turns to Ghost Towne's hip young manager, Jennifer Cody, for help with his still-halting English. "The song is about someone who's coming upon an actual ghost town and all the influences tricking him and trying to cause him to become a demon," she explains.

They met at a friend's party. "We just started talking for hours," she remembers. "He started playing guitar and we kept in touch."

She was already promoting shows for other rock bands, and saw in Ghost Towne an opportunity to promote her interest in Japanese music and culture, especially with her many Japanese friends and the burgeoning popularity of Japanese music in the US recently. "Like most things, it comes in cycles," she says. "I'm glad it happened because I was interested in the culture."

"The bands we're playing with don't necessarily have the same following as we do, but then the only thing Japanese about this band is that two of the members are Japanese. They do not sing in Japanese. None of the lyrics are in Japanese, the style is not Japanese," she says of the Japanese-American community's response to Ghost Towne.

She adds, "Their style is more like Western [European and American] rock bands, especially seventies' rock bands. It's easy to tell who is [at a show] to see this band, as opposed to who's there for the other bands. [But] every time we have another show we seem to be getting bigger and bigger."

For rock shows aimed primarily at the Japanese-American community, Cody also books two other Japanese-American bands, Vaidos and Rusika, who both sing in Japanese. Rusika, whose sound is punkier and more emo-like than Ghost Towne, performed at a battle of the bands in Long Beach in mid-April. Cody says Rusika's style results from the interplay between the frontman, Natsuo, who's more the emo fan, and the slam-dance drumming provided by Cody's roommate, Alfred, from Indonesia, whose soft looks appear ready-made for a teen mag pin-up.

"People who are really into, like, J-Rock stuff, that music style, or Rusika, they don't really like our music," says Nobu. "They're totally different, but people who are into Japanese bands which sound more like we do, like Western [rock] music, they really like us."

While Japanese-American bands like Ghost Towne are becoming more common on the American music scene, the reverse is also happening--Japanese rock is becoming more and more popular in America, as the recent "Taste of Chaos" show featuring a line-up of Japanese rockers at the Long Beach Arena illustrates. Perhaps because of the international language of rock 'n' roll, Japanese lyrics for an English-speaking audience don't seem to be a major hindrance anymore.

Cody credits the Internet with the breakthrough, "I know for a fact that the Internet has had a dramatic role, especially with Japanese music because it's very, very hard to find, and very, very expensive [through traditional outlets]. Downloading is really the only way most kids can get music and the bands that have followings over here, they come over and I know there's absolutely no promotion over here. The only way to get [their] music is to download it on the Internet." She thinks X-Japan may be one Japanese group about to break big in America.

Nobu thinks Linkin Park may be one American group that's currently popular in Japan. Cody adds, "A lot of bands who are popular here are popular there as well." When recording Nobu likes to do music in live takes, unlike the CD which includes "Ghost Towne" which the group recently recorded for downloading (look for them on iTunes or MySpace) and for promotion at their shows. "They mix it and they change the original songs around and to me it's not real music," he complains.

They're about to start recording a second demo CD at the Musician's Institute where they'll have access to state-of-the-art facilities, and maybe get more of a live effect. "Because like back in the seventies, sixties, people really liked to watch bands and listen to their music, so they can feel inspiration or something. Our [current] CD, it's not like our live music, it's different, just--different. I prefer old style, live, playing live and share with people what I feel through music. That's why I like music and playing music," is how Nobu sums things up.

Go to www.myspace.com/nobuyellowbluesband to check out Ghost Towne. Call Jennifer Cody at (858) 344-8523 to for bookings.