Spread the word, Buttersprites are on the rise

Sure, they're as fresh as sushi and catchy as the flu — but what does it all mean?

The Buttersprites sound like a fun, happy, quirky pop band ... but what is Haruko Nishimura singing about?

Don't feel bad: Most of the time, the other four Buttersprites, an all-female Seattle band, have no idea what Nishimura's lyrics mean.

At the Beacon Hill home/studio of founder-guitarist Elizabeth Jameson, the five Buttersprites chatted with a reporter over sake. Singer-lyricist Nishimura said she writes "Japanese tongue twisters — they just kind of come together. I never wrote songs before."

She explained that the song "Fresh Mochi" is about "sharing with the person you love," and "LuvLuvLuv" concerns "being in love with a gay boy who can't love you back."

The other Buttersprites listen with as much interest as the reporter; none of the others are anywhere near fluent in Japanese. They typically lay down the music for songs and trust that the singer will find words to match the beats.

Most of the audiences they sing for can't translate the Japanese lyrics, although Nishimura says, "I've seen people giggling — the ones who understand [the lyrics]."

Musically, the Buttersprites range from light punk (they cover "Happy Birthday" and Iggy Pop's "Dog Food") to artsy rock to Japanese pop. Definitely not your average T-shirt-and-jeans wearing Seattle indie band.

A few months ago, the Buttersprites traveled to New York to play the CMJ festival, with a late-night slot at CBGB. "I think it opened people's eyes," said Nishimura. "The other bands were all in T-shirts, and we wore beautiful Chinese dresses ... I feel like I wanted to wake people up who were used to 20 different bands doing blah blah blah indie rock."

"We have a lot of different influences," said Jameson. "We have punk rock, we have J-pop, we have costumes ... ."

Jameson, a visual artist, and drummer Jen Gay design the Buttersprites' show costumes, most commonly nurse outfits and Chinese dresses. They've tried others, said Gay: " 'Soccer hooligans' was a mistake ... And 'punk tennis' — people were like, 'When are the cheerleaders going on?' " (Collective groan of memory from the other Buttersprites.)

This year, the band released a debut, self-titled full-length album, with charming mini-gems such as "Love Call" that suggest a long, successful career.

The feminist magazine Bitch reviewed "Buttersprites," saying, "If you could eat this music, it would melt in your mouth."

Allmusic.com calls the release an "infectious and ultimately irresistible debut that is musically fulfilling well beyond what may be its perceived novelty value."

Jameson started the band, half-jokingly, for a cabaret party at a West Seattle bar (Admiral Benbo) in 2000. The original band played just a few shows before members went their separate ways.

When she restarted the band in 2003, Jameson recruited Nishimura, a Butoh dancer and founder of Seattle's Degenerate Art Ensemble, bass player Lunarre Omura (also a member of the lounge-pop band Lushy), keyboard player Julie Grant and Gay.

Tonight, the Buttersprites do double duty, playing at 7 p.m. at Belltown gallery Roq la Rue (all ages, free), then heading over to Fremont for a 10 p.m. show at the High Dive ($8). The latter has the Buttersprites playing with Japanese girl bands Megababe and Red Bacteria Vacuum, as part of the ROCKRGRL Conference.

• The ROCKRGRL event is a "conference" by day, music festival by night, taking over a dozen or so venues around town. Concrete Blonde and Go-Go's members perform at 8 tonight at the Triple Door ($18).

The great Patti Smith, a conference keynote speaker at 11:15 a.m. today at Madison Renaissance, performs at 8 tonight at the Crocodile ($25). A few-score female rockers from near and far will be jamming around this weekend. See www.rockrgrl.com/conference for the complete schedule.

• Local rocker-girl continues to advance: Brandi Carlile taped a performance on Amy Grant's new NBC show "Three Wishes," an episode scheduled for tonight.

And Carlile's poignant "What Can I Say" was featured on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." The entire song closed the show.

The Maple Valley phenom returns home Dec. 16 at the Moore Theater, the annual holiday show of radio station 103.7 KMTT ("The Mountain").

• Juliette Lewis — a Patti Smith disciple, in addition to being a film actress — brings her band Juliette & the Licks to Neumo's at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday ($15, all ages).

• Chop Suey has Wu Tang Clan member GZA ("Genius") at 9 p.m. Sunday ($16).

Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com