I first heard of Photo Jenny thanks to their 2000 7″ EP on Elefant Records titled “A Japanese Present For You” (ER-222). I thought it was the band’s only release for years. I never looked into it. Now I look at Discogs and I notice I’ve missed many records, many songs, by this Japanese band that took their name from a Belle & Sebastian song.

The 7″ I mentioned had four songs, “Rainbow Dolly” and “Clover Chain” on the A side and “Beautiful Girl” and “Painted Knees” on the B side. This band was actually a duo that formed 3 years before, in 1997, by Satomi Takeuchi who sang and played the melodeon and metallophone and Tetsuya Kobayashi who played  guitar and bass.

Previously, in 1998, the band had self-released a tape titled “Ladybird Go Home” that I’d love to listen one day as it includes a cover of one of my favourite bands, The Would- Be-Goods. This tape had these songs: “Do Me a Favor”, “Trip Pop”, “Watermelon Crush”, and the aforementioned cover of “Perfect Dear” on the A side. The B side had “Blow Up Your Funny Face”, “Skinny Guinea Pig”, “Umbrellas Go Round” and “Ladybird”.

The band also started to contribute songs to compilations in 1998. “Blow Up Your Funny Face” ended up on “Sunshine Pop Show!! Vol. 2” released by Sunshine Pop (SP-008) aand “Watermelon Crush” was on “Pop Japanese Style!” released by Flavour of Sound (TFCC-87589). Both were Japanese releases.

The following year, 1999, the band would release a mini-album titled “Tier Quartett” on the Left Bank label (LBCD-03). This mini album included 8 songs, “Do Me a Favor”, “No One Brings a Flower”, “Clover Chain”, “Watermelon Crush”, “Blow Up Your Funny Face”, “Window Painting”, “Ladybird” and “Y’Aura T’il de la Neige a Noel?”. Many songs from the tape. I wonder if that tape demo served the purpose of getting the attention of the label?

In the year 2000 the band started working with Minty Fresh Japan. With them early that year released thee mini-album “Painted Kites” (MFJ-1001). Five tracks appear on this CD, “Painted Kites”, “Waiting for the Dawn”, “Rainbow Dolly”, “Umbrellas Go Round” and “Beautiful Girl”.

“Beautiful Girl” also gets included in Minty Fresh Japan’s compilation LP “Get Yer La-La’s Out 2000 Vinyl!!” (MFJ-2000). On the same label, this same 2000, we find the song “Teenage Phase”. It was on the compilation CD “Minty Fresh Japan Compilation Vol. 1 A Small, Good Thing” (MFJ-1002).

That same year on the CD comp “Trolley Bus Music Tour” released by Trolley Bus (TB-001) they contributed the song “Winchester Monday”. Trolley Bus was the label ran by Yoshi from Aikagi!

2001 sees the band release a split CD with the wonderful Birdie (that band fronted by Debsey from Dolly Mixture that I dream of seeing live one day). The split CD was released by Minty Fresh (MFJ-1006) and It Records. Photo Jenny contributed 2 songs, “Bizarre Dream” and “Marshak”. Both were mastered by Tetsuya Kase at Bazooka Studio. Birdie also contributed two songs.

“Marshak” was an EP that came out in 2001 on Minty Fresh Japan (MFJ-1007). Again five songs, “Bizarre Dream”, “How Much Do I Love”, “Teenage Phase (Album version)”, “Marshak” and “Empty Church”. I see ‘album version’ so I wonder why they never released a proper album?

Lastly in 2016 the band had the song “Beautiful Girl (2000)” on “Everybody Knows? Radio Sessions 1997-2014″ a 3CD boxset that came with a DVD that was released by Travelin’Word (QFCT-1001). For those unaware Everybody Knows was a radio program on Shibuya FM.

But wait, there’s another release that came out on Lil’ Red Wagon. It was a split 7” titled “Slumber Party EP” (LRW 08). This came out in Canada but I don’t know what year it was. The interesting thing here is that they shared the split 7″ with the great All Girl Summer Fun Band. And it is on the A side that Photo Jenny appears with two tracks, “Winchester Monday” and “Umbrellas Go Round”.

There is a Tetsuya Kobayashi that is a producer/composer/lyricist. Could it be him? He has worked in a lot of Japanese shows and animes. Would it be the same one as in Photo Jenny?

What about Satomi Takeuchi? I couldn’t find anything else about her, at least related to music.

As with Japanese bands it is a bit difficult to track the musicians down. I don’t know what happened to the duo of Photo Jenny. Why did they call it a day? Did they play many gigs? There’s barely any info on the web, so any help will be great.

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Listen
Photo Jenny – Watermelon Crush