By Alex Palmer

DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR

apalmer@media.ucla.edu

  www.girlieaction.com/puffy

Japanese superstar duo Puffy play their brand of genre-breaking, catchy pop tunes at the Roxy on the first stop of their U.S. tour.

Japanese duo Puffy Amiyumi march to the beat of their own drum. Actually, they march to a sugary blend of everyone else’s drums. But it works, and boy do the Japanese love it.

Puffy Amiyumi will be playing their first U.S. concert this Saturday night at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood. It will give American audiences a chance check out Japan’s biggest musical act.

But audiences be warned: Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura, the members of Puffy, aren’t used to small clubs like the Roxy. In their native country, the two regularly sell out entire arenas. They also move millions of albums (over 14 million sold), their songs appear in more commercials than Moby’s, and the two host their own hugely popular TV variety show “Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy.”

Known simply as Puffy in Japan (but urged by a certain P. Diddy to change their name in the States), the two were brought together by a record label in 1995. By 1996 they had a massive hit, “Asia No Junshin” (“True Asia”) on their hands. Their popularity has only grown.

But, as is the case with so many foreign acts, Puffy has yet to break into the U.S. market. Their tour that kicks off at the Roxy is part of Puffy’s push to capture Americans’ ears and promote their second stateside album, “An Illustrated History.” But the women aren’t that worried about succeeding in the United States.

“We are really looking forward to playing in front of an American audience, but we do really well in Japan, so it’s not like it’s do-or-die or anything like that,” the non-English speaking Onuki said to Flaunt magazine.

The duo is aiming to get America’s attention on their own terms, in their own language and with their own style. The petite pop stars shy away from the Britney/Madonna formula of innocent ballads and raunchy dance tracks. Instead, Puffy throws itself into a hodgepodge of genres and styles.

“An Illustrated History” jumps through more musical eras than Britney’s Pepsi commercials. Borrowing the sensibilities of songs as far-ranging as “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Ticket to Ride” and “Dancing Queen,” Puffy devours it all, seeing no difference between Robert Palmer, the Who or Gloria Estefan. It’s all just about hooks and the catchy chord changes to them.

“The music I want to make is anything that I can have fun with and enjoy listening to,” the non-English speaking Yoshimura told AP magazine.

The result is pop music that is instantly familiar and joyously silly. You know that the background “la la la’s” are going to kick in on verse two, but that’s the point.

Puffy’s sound is fine-tuned by Andy Sturmer, the former drummer of ’90s pop group Jellyfish, and Tamio Okuda, a Japanese rock star in his own right. These varied talents and cultural influences come together to form the hard to define Puffy sound.

Like any decent pop group, Puffy’s look is as crucial as its sound.

The J-pop princesses are just as indiscriminate in their fashion influences as they are with musical ones, sporting artfully ripped jeans cuffed up a few inches, along with the occasional cowboy hat or fuzzy pink sweater. Their video for “Boogie Woogie No. 5” unapologetically mirrors a Gap commercial with its white background and choreographed dancers.

“An Illustrated History” doesn’t take long to make one forget that the girls are singing in Japanese. The riffs and hooks are meant to be so toe-tappingly catchy that the listener gets lost in the sugar rush. You aren’t supposed to think about the meaning of the lyrics, just that the group doesn’t care about the historical or cultural meaning behind the styles from which they borrow.

That’s because amid the musical pilfering lies an innocence and genuine joy to Puffy Amiyumi that contrasts with America’s image-conscious, barely-legal divas. Saturday’s show at the Roxy will be a rare opportunity for American audiences to see exactly that – that what’s cooking in Japan is a little sweeter than American dishes, but without all the artificial flavoring.