Otoboke Beaver Announce New Maxi-Single, Share “I Don’t Need To Be In Your Strike Zone”: Stream

If you’re eagerly anticipating a new Otoboke Beaver album after 2022’s excellent Super Champon, the wait is over — kind of. The Japanese garage-punk outfit have instead announced a perfectly-titled maxi-single, “Is The New Album Out Yet?”

The single includes three songs: “I Don’t Need To Be In Your Strike Zone” (out digitally right now); “Hey, Where’s the Thank You” (out digitally on April 10th); and “Is The New Album Out Yet” (out digitally on April 15th). All three will then be released as a physical 4-inch on June 10th.

The songs, which the band recorded with engineer Ippei Suda at LM Studio in Osakaʼs Yotsubashi neighborhood, are the final recordings to feature drummer Kahokiss, who retired from the band following last yearʼs Fuji Rock Festival. Otoboke Beaver have since found a new drummer in Leo (Emi), a cofounder of Ni Hao! and a former member of Shonen Knife. The band also tapped Naoyuki Asano (Samurai Champloo) to create artwork for each song.

According to a press release, the resulting trio of songs expertly “deliver everything fans love about Otoboke Beaver: equal parts rage and humor, world-class musicianship, turn-on-a-dime tempo shifts, deceptively melodic gang vocals, and witty lyricism steeped in Kansai-ben dialect and wordplay.”

And that’s an especially apt description for “I Don’t Need To Be In Your Strike Zone,” which sees Otoboke Beaver challenge the “idea of a dude-centered fallacy to think that the laws of attraction are set by the manosphere.” Watch the corresponding music video below.

Pre-orders for the maxi-single are available now.

As previously reported, Otoboke Beaver will open for Foo Fighters during three European dates this June (get tickets here.)

“I Don’t Need To Be In Your Strike Zone” Artwork:

New Otoboke Beaver Band Portrait: