The sprawling Tokyo indies scene is almost impossible to sum up, although the new compilation CD, Japanese Homegrown: Hardcore, Punk & Junk Vol. 1, certainly makes a start. Released on the Orange Label at the end of last month, Homegrown piles 14 songs from as many bands into a diverse, subjective sampler of independent Tokyo rock. With global distribution assured through Tower Records, which runs Orange from its Tokyo office, Homegrown could provide the spark that some of these bands need to get firing abroad.

Homegrown's high points include Tokyo Journal's punk/funk favorites Super Junky Monkey, with a new version of "We're the Mother" and the hard-rock band Wrench's cacophonous cover version of Frank Zappa's "I'm So Cute"--a song with which Wrench often closes its live sets amid apocalyptic echo and wicked guitars. Other highlights include all-girl four-piece The 5,6,7,8s' hilarious "Teenage Cleopatra," Blood Thirsty Butchers' "402," the ska-rock Gumboil's "The Worst Bitch in the Andromeda Galaxy" and The Jasons' Beastie Boys-esque "Everybody Wants His Hair." There are, of course, some duds--like the insufferable Garlic Boys screeching "Banzai! Banzai!" over a lame heavy metal backing--but this may be just the compiler's idea of "throwing a bone" to the foreign redneck contingent. Any compilation like this is bound to have its moments, and the mere fact that Homegrown has materialized is an encouraging sign.

Apart from the rather droll cross-cultural aspect of Japanese youths putting their own spin on American cult and retro music (sometimes with unwittingly funny results), a more likely reason why local underground bands excite audiences abroad is their fresh and gutsy approach to music itself. They have a directness--a kind of innocence--which shows in their rough edges, willingness to experiment and the sometimes loose structure to their songs.

If Tokyo's indies bands could be hailed abroad for these qualities alone it would be cause for celebration, but as usual, commercial forces suggest differently. For example, take the artificially inflated career of Pizzicato Five--a band that has been promoted in the U.S. at reportedly huge expense to its major label sponsors as an exotic, nerdish group of yuppies, on the cutting edge of Tokyo indies pop. Now, Pizzicato Five is notching impressive U.S. sales of over 120,000 and scoring swooning reviews peppered with adjectives like "dreamy" and "innocent."

But there was little innocence to Pizzicato Five's U.S. "debut"--instead of the fresh new "indies" thing it was touted to be, it was, in fact, a repackaged compilation of songs recorded for Nippon Columbia in the late '80s, for Japan-only release. The "new" Pizzicato Five U.S. album, out last October, is a similar rehash job. Where to now? Can this "new" band from the '80s still cut it? Or will it take the money and run? We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, we're hoping they don't drag down the indies neighborhood.