Several of the bands I like posted new songs (or new versions of favorites) in the last 7 days, so I wanted to share a few of them here. First up is SCANDAL from a concert they did on April 18th of this year, a medley of two of their hits, Tonight and Eternal. The next track is BISH (sometimes referred to as the Punk band that doesn’t play any instruments) doing a live version of their song Sparks from their new release Stacking. After that BAND MAID cranks it up to 11 with live versions of their hits Manners and BLACK HOLE recorded at the Day Of The MAID concert back in May and posted 5 days ago. Enjoy!
It has been a while since I posted about ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, so it’s time to look at a few of their recent pieces. The first track is their new song Empathy, posted about a week ago on July 22nd and already pushing the 400K views mark. Since this year marks the bands 25th anniversary, the cross-generational message embedded in this video seems most appropriate. The next track is their classic hit Soranin, the version from THE FIRST TAKE project, posted on July 23rd, and already exceeding 1.5 million views. Not bad for under a week, but then it is a long time fan favorite recorded in a single take, with no do-overs. The third track was posted October of 2020 (nine months ago) and roughly translates as I want to touch I want to confirm, and sits at just over 500K views.
The last post I did for AKFG was in 2019, but like a third of the posts from that year and all but about 6 posts I did for 2020, it evaporated when I tried to migrate the site to the new servers. My best guess is the pandemic lockdown interfered with the hosting services on site backup processes for the 2020 entries, the way it has been doing with all aspects of everyone’s daily life since it slammed into us a year and a half ago (with no end in site as new infection rates once more skyrocket). But I did find several earlier entries survived just fine, if you want to check out a few more tracks out of the hundreds this excellent band has put together you can See Them Here.
Belle herself, voice actress Kaho Nakamura, sings in Millennium Parade’s song U in Mamoru Hosoda’s latest masterpiece Belle. The film opened at the Cannes festival on July 15th, where it received a 14 minute standing ovation! It opened in Tokyo the following day, immediately taking the number one spot at the box office. The second track here is a song from the film just posted online yesterday by Toho Studios, and the third is one of the trailers. It made me smile to see the Beast to this Beauty was a dragon this time around. While I don’t know the opening date for North America, I do know it will be in the hands of G-Kids, who I trust when they say it will be coming soon to theaters here. After all, it has to play before we run out of December in order to qualify for the next Oscar nominations; and considering the reception it received at Cannes I would say Hosoda is an even more serious contender to bring home a bunch of Oscars than he was when his last film Mirai was nominated for both the Oscars and the Golden Globe Awards.
She Knows Tech is an organization of women professionals in the music industry, and if that immediately makes you think secretaries, receptionists, and gophers, you completely missed the point. The She Knows Tech Summit is a multi-day all-female line-up conference to celebrate International Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8th. The Summit happened this year from March 5th through the 8th, and brought together a new generation of multifaceted producers, artists, songwriters and music professionals. Their goals include:
1) To provide a platform for women to give and receive training in music technology.
2) To highlight female-identifying professionals in the music technology industry as role models.
3) To create a safe space for open discussion in closing the industry’s gender gap.
This year some of their members created music live from their homes and studios, which was hosted at the Spitfire YouTube Channel. That link will take you to their full playlist, but I wanted to share a few of my favorites here. The first tune is from Dominique, her song Use Me, a very tasty role reversal. The second track is from Ling Ling, and I love the fact the skyline behind her is also something she created electronically. I thought I recognized several of those buildings, and if so they came from different cities. Next we have dolltr!ck with her song Destiny. The final video is one of their promotional spots, telling you a bit more about the organization.
One OK Rock’s song Renegades is not only their latest and greatest, but also one of the most socially important songs they have ever done. And this time we didn’t just get the final product; we got a small selection of Making Of videos that cover the engineering and artistic aspects of the creation process. And trust me when I say you need both of those aspects to get an actual viable product by the end of that process.
What you also get a sense of here is just how international a musical project of this magnitude is. When you get beyond a certain point, you aren’t looking for the best folk to collaborate with among your friends or countrymen. You need the best team members from around the world for your production to have a hope of making an impact on a global scale. I think Taka and his band mates have pulled together just such a team for this release. If you have any doubts, watch the second video followed by the final video for the evidence.
Scott Bradlee’s PostModern Jukebox have been around for years playing todays music in yesterdays styles, and they have created a lot of quality music in that time. It has been a while since the last time I have included them here, so I thought we were due for another few tracks. The first song is Blondie’s Call Me featuring the vocals of Tess Mohr in Marilyn Monroe mode. The second is Aerosmith’s Dream On sung by Morgan James in Blues style, while the third is Wham’s Careless Whispers sung by Robyn Adele as a 30’s Jazz piece with a side riff by Dave Brubeck. Some excellent vocalists working with some great musicians, you can catch a lot more by stopping by their You Tube Channel.
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