It came as something of a surprise to me when I realized I have never done a post on Man With A Mission, the famous wolf-headed J-Rock band. Today I am going to correct that by posting a few tracks, but if you like what you hear be aware there is a lot more to listen to. The first track was posted two days ago, Dog Days and was produced by MWAM and Masayuki Nakano of BOOM BOOM SATELLITES fame. The second track is Dead End In Tokyo from January of this year, and the third is their killer 2015 hit Raise Your Flag. Normally I stop at 3 tunes from any one band per posting, but the bonus track tonight has two bands; Man With A Mission share the ring with American rockers Zebrahead for this 2015 rock anthem Out Of Control.
It has been a while since I have featured Bump Of Chicken here, so I thought I would share a few tracks released since my last posting. The first track this time around is called Answer the theme song for the anime Sangatsu no Lion, AKA March Comes in like a Lion. The second is called Ribbon, both were posted this April, while the final track is Go from their Stadium Tour 2016, recently released on DVD.
The Gayageum is a multi-string instrument from 6th century Korea, and artist Luna Lee has been using the instrument to play rock songs to very good effect. So good that she plays festivals around the world, including SXSW in Austin this year. Here are a few tracks to give you a taste, I bet you can name every one of these songs with no help from me.
Just posted yesterday, a brand new live track from The Wagakki Band I wanted to share here, even though it includes a commercial at the end for the new DVD the track will appear on, being released on June 21st. There was a 2 day celebration held in Tokyo in February, all the tunes on the new release were recorded there. If I am following this correctly, I believe it includes the Wagakki Band teaming up with a major Taiko Drum Troop for at least one performance. In English Wagakki Band means a band playing traditional Japanese instruments, which this band does with a unique style. The live track is Snow Dancing, the studio track after that is 2014s Senbon-Zakura.
Posted on May 10th the new Radwimps song Brain Washing passed 1,600,000 views at the two week mark. Two days later they posted Saihate Aini, the second track here, and that one hit 1,700,000 views in that shorter time. Which is pretty amazing, but don’t expect it to stop there. Their song Zenzenzense from last year’s runaway hit movie from Makoto Shinkai Your Name was at 133,356,652 views as of this morning. If you missed the multi-award winning film when it was in US theaters last month, they are now streaming it on Funimation; Radwimps translated four of their songs for it into English just for that release.
It has been a while since I posted about the Ulfuls, a band who got their name got their name because back in 1992 one of the band members misread the word Soulful on his favorite album and they went with it. They have put out a lot of great music over the years, so I thought I would re-share a few of my favorites, and finish up with their latest release. The first track came out in 2014 and seems to be channeling the Beatles and/or Chuck Berry, while the second, Bonzwi Wayawai has them Muppitized. The third is Baka Yaro, a track posted on May 9th from their latest album. In North America you can pick up their music through iTunes for MP3s or Amazon for import CDs.