The Seatbelts

The Seatbelts were a band formed and fronted by Yoko Kanno for the purpose of recording the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. They were less of a "band" in the strict sense of the term, and rather a Dream Team of musicians assembled specifically for the project (much like This Mortal Coil or UNKLE).

The musicians of The Seatbelts were recruited from Japan, New York and Paris, not including guest vocalists. If you want a full list, it's over here, courtesy The Other Wiki. Notable musicians that contributed to The Seatbelts include: current New York Dolls guitarist Steve Conte, jazz drummers Bill Stewart and Al Foster (Miles Davis), Return To Forever bassist Stanley Clarke, and saxophonist Gary Bartz (Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Max Roach).

The band's style is pretty much textbook Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly, ranging from all sorts of Jazz to Blues, Blues Rock, Country, straightforward Rock and Roll and Heavy Metal, Funk, Electronic Music, Pop, pounding Techno and ballads. The main distinctive trait of their material is its total awesomeness. A large majority of it is made up of Instrumentals, but there are more than a few tunes with vocals performed by guest vocalists - the most frequent used of these being Steve Conte and Mai Yamane.

The Seatbelts basically disbanded once the Cowboy Bebop franchise ended, but some members have gone on to work with Kanno or each other on other projects.

Discography:

• Cowboy Bebop (1998)
• Cowboy Bebop Vitaminless (1998)
• Cowboy Bebop No Disc (1998)
• Cowboy Bebop Blue (1999)
• Ask DNA (2001)
• Future Blues (2001) - soundtrack to The Movie
• Cowgirl Ed (2001) - limited edition single packaged with Future Blues
• Future Blues DVD (2001) - live recording
• Cowboy Bebop Boxed Set (2002) - combines previously released songs, new songs and live recordings
• Cowboy Bebop Tank! THE! BEST! (2004) - Greatest Hits Album

The Seatbelts provides examples of the following tropes:

• Common Time: Averted in some songs like "7minutes".
• Dream Team
• Engrish: The text on the back of the Cowboy Bebop CD swerves between this and Surprisingly Good English.
• Genre Roulette
• Instrumentals: Many of their songs.
• Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly
• Power Ballad: "Blue" (arguably), "Call Me Call Me", "No Reply".
• Singing Simlish: "Green Bird", "Powder", parts of "Blue".
• Stop and Go: "What Planet Is This?!" seems to grind to a halt around the 3 minute mark, but then it re-starts with another solo and repetition of the main theme.
  • "7minutes" does the same, pausing right before the 5:15 mark before jumping into the loud chorus.
• Word Salad Lyrics
• Word Salad Titles