TOKYOMANGO

Get your hand-printed limited edition TokyoMango t-shirt now (2 weeks only)

My friend Ben and I made a test run of TokyoMango t-shirts on Saturday. They're really nice, do you want one? If so, you can buy one here. Below are the details:

- All shirts are 100% cotton.
- Each t-shirt will be hand-silk screened by me and Ben on his Yudu machine. The shirt logo was custom-designed by Ben. Mango design courtesy of my web designer James.
- The Women's tees come in a t-shirt style (pistacio and white) and a spaghetti strap ribbed tank (yellow).
- The Men's tees come in orange and white. In the pic above, Ben is actually accidentally wearing a girl's tee, but you get the idea... the sleeves will be more manly on the one you get.
- You can choose a custom colored tee for $25. Just shoot me an email with your preference after you place the order.
- The sizes tend to run a little big (except for the tanktops). They might shrink in the wash.
- Some of you will receive a free surprise Japanese toy or gadget with your t-shirt! I'm just gonna randomly stick them into bags, so keep an eye out.
- We're taking orders over the next two weeks only, at least for this first printing. They'll ship at the end of those two weeks, when Ben & I will silkscreen them by hand.
- Last day to order is Monday, October 5th.

UPDATE: T-shirts are no longer for sale. Maybe we'll do another round sometime!

Judith Hill, the half-Japanese woman who sang at MJ's memorial

Last night, I watched This Is It, the movie that documents Michael Jackson's final days of rehearsing for the big comeback concert that was slated to begin just days after his sudden death this summer. If you haven't seen it already, you really should. It was kind of amazing to see how he worked behind the scenes.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce the woman who was supposed to sing with MJ on tour. Her name is Judith Hill, and she's half Japanese, half African-American. From what I could see in the film, she was the only female background vocalist chosen and she had a lovely rendition of I Just Can't Stop Loving You that she was planning to do with MJ on stage. She also led the final Heal the World rendition at the memorial service held right after he died.

Her own music is a super cool, too — she's still unsigned, but I'm willing to bet she'll become reasonably famous.

JudithHillMusic.com

Video: Funny people running in slo-mo to Nujabes song

This video features about a dozen Japanese people running like crazy — literally — in slow motion. It's quite entertaining! (Speaking of running... I just got back from running my first half marathon this morning.) The music is by Nujabes featuring Shing02.

(Thanks, Larry!)

Video: Keromin and Maywa Denki perform duet at Engadget party

At a party held for Engadget in Roppongi last night, Maywa Denki's newest quirky instrument, the Otamatone, did a duet with the famed theremin-like frog puppet, Keromin.

Music video by Sour features fans on webcam

I love this music video from a song on Sour's new album, Water Flavor EP, that David posted on Boing Boing. The people in the frames are fans from all over the world, filmed on their webcams.

Otamatone, Maywa Denki's new instrument, looks like a tadpole

In this video, inventor Novmichi Tosa of Maywa Denki demos his new instrument, the Otamatone, which looks like a tadpole (otamajyakushi) and sounds like a theremin. I met Tosa about a year ago to interview him for an upcoming story in Make Magazine — he's a super awesome, fun guy, and I encourage you to check out his work online or to try to go to one of his nonsense toy workshops at his studio in Tokyo.

Maywa Denki main page

Bach's Cantata No. 147 electropop remix

Here's another strange, funky music video from Omodaka, the electropop band that did the awesome 8-bit music video of kimono-clad women for their song Yosawya-san that I posted last August. It is called Cantata No. 147, and it's a remix of the song by the same name by JS Bach.

CDs catered towards relaxation sessions with dogs and cats

From the company that makes Bowlingual comes a new product on August 26, a pair of CDs called Relaxing with Dogs and Relaxing with Cats. The two contain classical music tracks with beats that match the heartbeat of dogs and cats, respectively &mdash 80-100bpm for dogs, a little higher for cats. How awesome is that? My mom always makes fun of me because I used to play the classical music radio station for Ruby when she was a baby. I don't know if that's the reason, but she is super chill.

via MySpi (Japanese)

Thriller figurines made in honor of MJ's life

This wonderful duo of Michael Jackson figurines a la Thriller were found by @Densho at WonderCon. (At least I think that's what the Spanish says...) The text on the poster reads "King of Pop Forever, 1958-2009." I am not a figurine collector, but if I was, I would totally get these.

When I was in Japan in February doing research for the 2D love story, I talked to several figurine makers and collectors. It's amazing how much detail goes into making them look perfect.

via Paiki.com

Curumin, a cute Brazilian musician with Japanese roots

Brazil had some of the neatest music clubs I've ever been to, but it was only recently that I learned about Curumin, a Brazilian artist with Spanish and Japanese roots whose real name is Luciano Nakata Albuquerque. He's 32, from Sao Paolo, kinda cute, and I'm loving his CD, which is called Japan Pop Show.

Get Japanpopshow on Amazon

Curumin's home page (Thanks, Mai!)

Related stories:
10 reasons why Japanese people should emigrate to Brazil
A quick photo tour of Sao Paolo's Japanese district
Brazilian soccer, the predecessor to J-League
Where's Lisa? I'm in Sao Paolo looking for LoveFoxxx

Billie Jean performed in Tokyo, circa 1987

My friend Alyssa said the first concert she ever went to in her life was this one, MJ's appearance at Yokohama Stadium for his 1987 Bad Tour in Japan.

Michael Jackson Live in Japan DVD came out three days ago

I don't know that much about this DVD, to be honest, but it's called Michael Jackson: Live in Japan, and according to Amazon it was released on June 23, 2009, two days before he died.

Michael Jackson: Live in Japan [Amazon]

Japanese comedy skit from the 80s parodies Michael Jackson's Thriller

I've posted this before, but here it is again because it is, in my humble opinion, one of the best tributes to Michael Jackson originating in Japan. Around 1:58, Ken Shimura, who has just confessed to his girlfriend that he becomes a henna ojisan (a weird middle-aged man) when there's a full moon, jumps out of the bushes and starts dancing to the chorus of Thriller played on a Japanese flute. This clip is from the late 80s, I think, or possibly the early 90s.

Rest in peace, MJ.

RuPaul's new music vid has NND-syle mash-up porn (NSFW, maybe)

In his new music video for the song Jealous of my Boogie, famed drag queen RuPaul takes inspiration from the otaku community's obsession with American porn star Billy Herrington. The video sharing site Nico Nico Douga has tons of mash-ups of Herrington's old porn flicks; RuPaul tapped into this and made his own. I'm sure it will be huge in Japan.

By the way, someone just told me that RuPaul's new America's-Next-Top-Model-for-drag-queens reality show is really good. The first season just ended, so I'm going to splurge on reruns.

Video: Jesse rapping at Club Asia

One of the few non-work-related thing I did in Tokyo this past trip was go see some of my kohai from high school perform at a night club in Shibuya. They're actually pretty famous—the guy in this video is Jesse, he was the lead singer in a band called Rize and now has a bunch of outfits that he raps with, including
GICode, which has a new album coming out mid-month. My good friend Colin is their sound engineer, so he made me a CD and got us backstage. That's where I took this video from.

Jesse, my friend Lara, and I always took the train to school together. I had no idea then that he had so much passion for music. After the concert, I was like, hey! You became so good! And he was like, Right? This is all I've been doing since high school! That, and he got a ton of tattoos.

Music and subcultures at the Japan Society tomorrow

I'm moderating a panel discussion on Japanese contemporary society & subcultures & music tomorrow night at the Japan Society of Northern California. It's only $15 to attend, so come by if you can!

Japanese teens and pre-teens are helping to boost Japan’s sluggish economy as they devour popular culture, from electronics and fashion to books and music. Others are expressing themselves through less mainstream behaviors. How does today’s youth culture reflect deeper, more complex issues—such as race, gender and cultural politics—in Japan? Two experts on youth culture will discuss current trends in music and alternative subcultures as they forecast how these trends may shape future generations.

Details here.

Ayumi Hamasaki to release her next album on a USB drive

Super-famous Japanese pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki has just announced that she will release her next album, which comes out on March 25th, on a USB stick. The diamond-studded heart-shaped pretty little thing is the first album in Japan to ever be released in this format. It's a 2-gig drive with the album taking up about 800-megs, so you get to use the rest of the storage space for whatever you want. Interesting concept. I bet it will sell out really fast since it has that collector's item look and feel.

Link (Thanks, Rik!)

Guy plays Christmas songs on a broccoli flute

Emily found a YouTube video of a guy playing Angels We Have Heard On High on a broccoli head. It looks like he made the instrument himself; his wife is accompanying him on an electronic keyboard.

Artist creates music, electrocutes face to the beat

Daito Manabe is a thirty-something year old artist/programmer/composer who is best known for his "electric simulus to face" test—he hooked his face muscles up to electrodes that were synced up to some electronic music he created himself. Every new beat electrocutes a different part of his body, making his face do a crazy twitchy dance.

Link (Thanks, Angela!)

Kenzo Saeki and Toast Girl's tributes to Claude Francois

I had the great pleasure of hanging out with and interviewing Toast Girl on Tuesday night in Golden Gai. She works in a tiny Chanson-themed bar on the corner. The whole evening was pretty rad, and around 11PM, the dude in this video walked in with MatsuYou, one of the celebrity bloggers I interviewed for Wired a few months ago. (I thought I'd posted this video on Mango before, but I was wrong—I wrote about it on Boing Boing while I was guest-blogging there.)

Clo Clo Made in Japan is this neat collaborative CD that celebrates the French sixties pop star Claude François, most famous for the song My Way, later popularized by Frank Sinatra. They're having a concert in Tokyo on 11/27 if anyone's interested. I'd love to go, but I'm heading back to SF on Sunday.

Toast Girl's Chanson Populaire video and a pic I snapped of her behind the bar at Soiree after the jump.

Ex-Megadeath Guitarist is now a Japanophile

Marty Friedman was the lead guitarist for Megadeth, but after he left the band in 1999, he moved to Japan and is now a TV celebrity/musician there. Who knew?

Apparently, he now lives in Shinjuku and guest stars as the guitarist for lots of Japanese bands. He was a regular on a TV show called Hebimeta-san (Mr. Heavy Metal), and gives YouTube guitar lessons. Pretty random!

Marty Friedman's web site (Thanks, Mary!)

ToastGirl's Awesome Bright Red Performances

ToastGirl is a fun singer/performer in Japan who likes toast and the color red. She started off singing with a toaster on her head; now, she tours internationally in her bright red wig and vacuum cleaner slippers and sings pop-y tunes. I'm not crazy about her music, but I love her look. She's fun, she's sexy, and she's totally domestic.

ToastGirl main page (via NotCot)

Cool Electropop Music Video Featuring 8-Bit Kimono Women

Check out this cool music video for a song called Yosawya-san by Japanese electropop group Omodaka from Far East Recordings. I like how the whole time, they make it look like the little kimono-clad 8-bit ladies with the shamisen are the ones playing the song.

I posted another Omodaka video on Boing Boing.

 

(Thanks, Matt!)

Kome Kome Club's Fantastic Voyage (Music Video)

I just found this crazy little music video for a popular 90s song by a band called Kome Kome Club (Rice Rice Club). It's called Roman Hikou (romantic journey in the sky) and it looks like this video may have been used as a Japan airlines promo for trips to Okinawa. Their other hit single, Kimi ga iru dake de, was the most popular song of the 90s. The band broke up in 1997, but this song is immortality awesome. And this video, well, it kinda takes it to a whole other level.

Southern All Stars, My Favorite Japanese Band, to Semi-Retire

Some of my all-time favorite music is created by a five-man pop-rock band from a beach town near Tokyo. They're called the Southern All Stars, and their music kicks ass across multiple generations the way the Rolling Stones do in the Western music world. They debuted in 1978, and on Saturday, they kicked off a concert series spanning two weekends that precedes a long indefinite break.

Keisuke Kuwata is the band's 52-year old lead singer, and you can see him here singing Ellie, My Love, a 1979 hit single that Ray Charles covered a decade later. His wife, Yuko Hara, is also in the band, and the guitarist is my friend Hayato's uncle. I've always, always wanted to see these guys live, but sadly it looks like I might never get to. My dad once bought me a concert DVD and I watched it all the time. Check out a video of one of his more provocative songs after the jump.

Acoustic Singer Marie Digby is Stuck in My Head

I have a song stuck in my head. It's a cover of Rihanna's song Umbrella by Marie Digby. Digby is a 25-year old half-Irish, half-Japanese acoustic guitarist/singer from LA. She is (or was? -- these numbers are moving targets) also the #2 YouTube singer celeb (after English/Portugese musician Mia Rose). If I have the story right, she recorded this song herself, uploaded on YouTube, and it totally went viral, ending up on MTV's The Hills, on iTunes, and leading to the release of her first album in April.

I spent some time surfing her YouTube channel last week. You can listen to a lot of her songs there, and you can also check out numerous videos of her talking to the camera about how excited she is about her accomplishments and expressing gratitude to her fans. Some of her mannerisms are very Japanese (like how she thanks the fans profusely) and it's kinda cute.

She's actually performing in San Francisco today, at the Alice concert in Golden Gate Park. Ooh I'd love to go but it's gonna be so crowded!

Joi Ito's Bamboo Shoot Tutorial

Want to learn how to cook bamboo shoots? Joi Ito shows us how on BoingBoingTV—from finding the right shoots in the woods to completing a pretty, tasty appetizer dish at home. The coolest thing about this video is that BBTV and Joi managed to convince renowned composer Ryuichi Sakamoto to write an original score for it. Wow. Joi explains on his blog that he'd asked his cousin Cornelius first, but Cornelius said, nah. Not my thing.

Link

Lunch Boxes Featuring Popular Album Covers

Check out these crazy, intricately made lunch boxes that mimic popular album covers from the US. Here's a replica of Public Enemy's Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age, made of seaweed, fish cakes, sour plum, and rice. Continue reading for a couple more pics.

Pyromaniac Pianist Plays a Burning Instrument on the Beach

Yosuke Yamashita likes pianos and fires. He's a pianist by trade, pyromaniac by hobby. So it's fitting for him to play a flaming piano on the beach in a shiny silver fireproof suit while a crowd watches in awe.

Apparently, Yamashita did this back in 1973, too. That performance was made into a short film by director Kiyoshi Awazu.

via Pink Tentacle

Pittsburg Boy Tears Up Japanese Country Music Scene

Jero is a 26-year old African-American enka singer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He's a quarter Japanese, and he promised his now-deceased Japanese grandma that he would become a famous enka singer. In 2003, he moved to Tokyo and started entering singing contests. Soon enough, he got picked up by a record label and some really famous songwriters helped him kick off his career.

Here, he performs his debut single, Umiyuki, which broke the record for debut enka single on the famed Oricon charts this week with 3.5 million copies sold.

I Met Cornelius! (And Video Commentary on MangoBot)

One of the coolest things about being in Tokyo this time around was that I got to meet Cornelius. I think if I had to choose one musician to represent Japan in the summer Olympics or something, I'd pick him. Or the Southern All Stars.

We met at his studio in Nakameguro and hung out for a bit, and watched mash-up videos people made with his music.

He also gave me live commentary of his Fit Song video, which I put up on my io9 column today.
See it here!

Oh! And I decided to call my io9 column Mangobot. 

Video: Roboticized Folk Song With Funky Beats

Check out this animated, synthesized version of an ancient Toyama prefecture folk song called Kokiriko Bushi.

via Pink Tentacle

Japrock Christmas Wishlist

So my friend Lisa does this blog, which I secretly love along with Liz Phair, Welsh Corgis, back rubs, and other things I don't talk about around town. So when I suddenly I had the urge to contribute, I was stoked to hear an immediate yes come back along wih a Typepad password...

Julian Cope is an author and musician best known for chronicling (and thereby popularizing) old German prog and hard rock albums in the 1990's compendium Krautrocksampler. So why namedrop Cope on TokyoMango? Because the prolific blogger and rocker just did it again for Japanese rarities of the 60's and 70's!

Japrocksampler: How The Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds On Rock N' Roll is actually way duller than what I expected, especially after lifting the BEST ALBUM COVER EVER for the artwork from the Flower Travellin' Band's debut LP Anywhere.

There are a couple of awesome stories weaved in with bands I actually care about, one of which involves a plane hijacking, so that was sweet. But the academic writing style mixed with two opening chapters revolving entirely around obscure minamalist Japanese composers influenced by John Cage and drugging it up with pre-John Yoko Ono, is enough keep this one off any casual reader's Oprah list.

Christmas Music Video Featuring My Mystery Friend

Check out this new music video by Tokyo/SF-based indie rock band The Beautiful Losers. One person in this video is an old friend of mine. Can you guess which one?

Mix-Like-A-DJ Instant Noodles

Ch-ch-check out these new instant brothless noodles from Maru-chan. Not only is it yummy, but it's been premixed and remixed by this professional DJ.

Link

Little Chinese Girl Rocks Out On Xylophone

This little Chinese girl, who makes an appearance here on a Japanese TV show, is really good at playing the xylophone. And she's having so much fun!

(Thanks, Cherlyn!)

Chicchi, 9yo Guitar Prodigy & Hard Core Ventures Fan

The biggest guitar sensation right now in Japan is a little girl named Cicchi. She's cute. She's underage. And she can play any Ventures song on request.

The Ventures are a 60s instrumental rock band from Seattle, famous among surf music fans, that had—still has, in fact—a healthy following in Japan. Little Cicchi got to meet them this summer. Look how happy she is!

 

Check out the video from their 1965 Japan summer tour after the jump:

Video: Yosuke Ochi, Reigning Air Guitar Champ

Last Friday, Japanese air guitarist Yosuke "Dainoji" Ochi won Finland's annual air guitar championship for the second year in a row. Here he is, clad in a sweater with a giant tiger on it, "played" Offspring's Keep Em Separated. What a guy! Love his hip movements. I wonder what he does when he's not playing air guitar. 

Takashi Murakami's Kanye West Cover

Rumors are flying about Kanye West's new album, Graduation, whose cover features a Takashi Murakami flying teddy bear spewing out of a giant mouth. People are psyched because the teddy bear is wearing those patented Nike's worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future II. Maybe Kanye's highly anticipated album will help those who have been fighting to get the "McFly 2015s" back into existence and onto the consumer market.

I love that pop culture has become so multidirectional that you can now combine American hip hop with Japanese retro cute art with kicks from an 80s movie.

For more Super Flat fun a la Murakami, check out this video.

Link

Depp Amazed by Little Girl's Crazy Pirate Performance

When Johnny Depp went to Japan to promote Pirates, he was blown away by this little girl with mustache and pirate hat who played some crazy tunes on an electric keyboard.

Depp's going to play a guest role in the upcoming Doraemon special about pirates. Exciting!

Link

Ulfuls vs. Cal White Boy—Who Sings It Better?

Here's the Ulfuls' music video for their hit 90s song "Banzai." If you don't know who the Ulfuls are but feel like you've heard this song on Tokyomango before, that's cuz you have. Remember this guy? He sang it perfectly in Japanese even though he's as white as snow. Which version do you like?

I love the original, the band is fucking rad and of course they get  mad props for coming up with and pioneering the song, but I kind of dig the Cal student's version a little bit more. But I'm biased. I love acoustic guitar, plus homeboy's better-lookin' than Totus Matsumoto.

 

Star Wars Theme Song in Japanese

I don't watch Star Wars, but this adaptation of the movie's theme song in Japanese is silly enough that even I can appreciate it. The guy in the afro is the singer/songwriter, and the music video is being introduced on a variety TV show.

Singer Dies, Record Sales Soar

Izumi Sakai, the lead singer of pop group Zard died on Sunday. The 40-year old singer/songwriter was an in-patient at the Keio University Hospital in Tokyo. She had been in and out of treatment for cancer since about a year ago. Police are investigating whether it was a suicide, but for now the story is that it was a freak accident. Freak accident indeed. Sakai was taking her daily walk on hospital grounds when she slipped and fell on an emergency staircase, slamming the back of her head and suffering terminal brain injuries.

In the 3 days since the tragedy, record sales for Zard's new compilation album skyrocketed, jumping to #6 on the Oricon music chart from nowhere (=not even top 100).

To pay homage, here's a clip of Sakai performing the band's inspirational 1993 hit, Makenaide ("Don't Give Up.") I think every Japanese person has a memory of using this song to keep his or her spirit up in sad times. I think I remember listening to it when boys didn't like me back in middle school.

White Guy Singing Japanese Pop Songs

Check out this video of a UC Berkeley Japanese major who sings cool Japanese songs and puts them on YouTube. He has a very Japanese way about him, including his sense of humor (as he says himself in the intro of another video: "I know I don't look it, but I'm actually white") and he sings pretty well.

This one is called "Banzai" by the ウルフルズ　(Ulfus), an Osaka band that had some kick-ass hits, including this one, from the 90s. Reminds me of riding the train home in high school.

Apparently, he takes requests, so send him a message with your favorite J-pop song and maybe you'll see it on YouTube soon.

(via Zaeega)

Rip Slyme's Galaxy In The Groove

Bored at work? Check out this awesome, colorful, happy music video for hip hop quartet Rip Slyme's awesome music video. The video's made by Koichiro Tsujikawa, the same dude who did this Cornelius video.

Portable Electric Drum Set

Next time you want to have one of those drum fests in the park, you can just take this portable roll-up drum set instead of hauling all that equipment around. Like the roll-up piano, it has preset tunes and rhythms to jam to, and consists of eight different "drums" all in the span of one 20-inch rubber mat. Available here.

Music Video Featuring Miss Mai Shoji

Check out Mai's music video. She used to drag me to karaoke all the time when I was in middle school, and I'd be like: "no...I don't want to sing...I suck." Now you know why I thought so. It's not cuz I REALLY sucked--it's because she's so damn good.

Watch the video: Prince Squad feat. Diva Rose, "Honey Bear"

Ultra-Thin Roll-Up Electric Piano

This real working electric piano weighs less than a kilogram and is only 3cm thick. It even has all those special features that its less flexible counterpart has, including multiple rhythm settings and cheesy demo music.

Utada Hikaru In Front Of A Mario Cloud

Five years ago, singing sensation and my high school "kohai"  Hikaru Utada married her photographer, Kazuaki Kiriya, at the age of 19. Kiriya was 35 and everyone was pretty shocked. Well, the two just announced that their getting divorced.

I love this girl, for three reasons:

1. She has an awesome voice, and had record-breaking sales despite being cutely awkward on stage.

2. In my brother's high school yearbook, she wrote: "Your sister is so pretty!" I will never forget that.

3.  In this picture, she's posing in front of a Mario Cloud.

Family Computer Guitar

 

Someone took Nintendo's old school Family Computer design and made a real working guitar out of it. Check out the "making of" in photos and Japanese captions detailing materials and method here. (via Korokorozaeega)

Cornelius Music Video For People With OCD

Listening to a Cornelius song is kind of like going to a circus and also kind of like having all your auditory senses picked on and toyed with. Watching this video makes me want to have obsessive compulsive disorder just so I can really truly enjoy it even more (like the guy in the combini man short film). Visuals created by designer/video producer Koichiro Tsujikawa.

(via Pink Tentacle)