Japanese Breakfast isn’t here to be cutesy. The musical project of Michelle Zauner (who’s actually Korean, for reference) may emulate jangle and spark, but her musicianship has a distinct bite to it underneath all of its ethereal layers.
“Can I get your number/Can I get you into bed?/When we wake up in the morning/Will you give me lots of head?” Zauner quips on the opening lines of “Everybody Wants to Love You.” This campy lyrical trope is from the same musician who coos “Do you believe in heaven?” over twinkling synths. With the spring release of the Philadelphia songwriter’s debut album Psychopomp firmly in the rear-view, Zauner’s latest tour pulls into the Sinclair in Cambridge this Wednesday (October 5), opening for equally dreamy comrade Porches.
Zauner’s many facets come together in Japanese Breakfast, and sparkle like a fine-cut diamond. In her music video for “Everybody Want To Love You” alone, Zauner portrays herself as equal parts playful and raucous, vaping in a graffiti-covered bathroom stall and chucking her sandwich at basketball players as she passes by them. Wearing her mother’s dress from Zauner’s own wedding, she fills a motorcycle with gas and snaps her bubblegum and whams on a guitar from atop a tractor-trailer. All of these nuances of her personality gleam through the seamless tracks of Psychopomp, even on experimental instrumental ballads like “Moon on the Bath” and the title track.
While Zauner only has nine songs in her current catalogue (under the moniker Japanese Breakfast, at least), she offers enough airy depth to fill up ravenous audiophiles. From stormy shoegaze to fired-up lo-fi, Japanese Breakfast serves up indie that hits the sweet spot between pretention and virtuosity. Watch the “Everybody Want To Love You” video below, and scan the remaining dates of Japanese Breakfast’s current tour.
Japanese Breakfast on tour:
October 04: Burlington, VT — ArtsRiot
October 05: Cambridge, MA — The Sinclair
October 06: Brooklyn, NY — Baby’s All Right
October 07: Philadelphia, PA — Everybody Hit’s
