TOKYOMANGO

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)