しあわせ

My friends Frank Chickens have become the obscure outsider candidate in a Rage Against The Machine style attempt to subvert the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy God Award public vote. It all started with a rant by Stewart Lee at the organisers where he mentioned the Chickens as possibly the most obscure act of the past 30 years. (They were nominated for a Perrier Fringe Award in 1984). Now it seems to have gained traction, via twitter and elsewhere, and the Chickens are currently number one in the online poll! Let’s keep them there. They are nice guys and would quite like to win an award.
In the spirit of Mr Splashypants –
Vote now – Vote often – Spread the word!

––update 01Sep10––
They won!
Yay for the skewed results of Internet voting!
I could hear the clenching of teeth in the Foster’s PR’s statements about the win.

PolarC (aka BigHeadedMan, aka Chika-san) is dj at a club night in Life, Old Street on the 11 May. Interesting music is guaranteed. Chika-san had this to say in her flyer –
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I found a new (for me, they disbanded in 2006) jPop group called “Zone” while browsing Stage 6 (now defunct). They were a manufactured band from Sapporo, of four high school girls. The idea was that this would be a new genre called “Bandol” — band idol; they’d look good, could sing and dance. Apparently they couldn’t play instruments at first but they learned how.

Japan Teen Idol dodgyness to one side, they had great stylists and amazing energy. This feel good pop is what I like about them. They feel much more fun and genuine than the similar English and American manufactured bands like S-Club, Steps, Spice Girls (ゲッ）or the original boy band The Monkees.

Wikipedia article

The bassist, Maiko, has gone on to be part of a group called Maria,; I must see what they’re like…

You Tube has a lot of Japanese Music videos as well as fan-subbed drama and anime and also some clips of TV programs. However as all this is copyrighted material, it’s anybody’s guess how long this will continue. Either the rights holders will complain or You Tube will have a clean out. Enjoy while you can I guess.

YouTube doesn’t allow you to download video. However… If you use Firefox the download helper extension will overcome that.

Other Interesting Music Videos on You Tube.
Not a lot at the moment. You Tube has been clearing house recently and a lot of things I found interesting have gone.

This guys videos are interesting. He tapes street performers in Tokyo.

Recently I’ve discovered the ウルフルズ。I have no idea what they are singing about most of the time but it sounds fun! The first track I came across was Banzai — Suki De Yokatta. I was given it on a compilation disc by a friend. I can now just about do a karaoke version! And have added to my repetoire with Ashita Ga Aru Sa.

Some Ulfuls videos are available on YouTube. And some have romaji and English subtitles. You will need Flash installed. However You Tube is cracking down and removing a lot of content that shouldn’t really be there, like these music videos.

My other source of Japanese music!

Some of the theme songs are ok, if short at 90 secs. But more importantly they are usually subtitled in Japanese (romaji) and English, so it’s easy to follow along.
I quite like John Denver’s Country Road in Japanese translation カントリーロード from 耳をすませば probably because the tune if not the words are familiar.

If you want the lyrics to Anime or Game songs Anime Lyrics (.com) is the site to head to.

Some anime title songs
damekko doubutsu