SCANDAL are four women who can seriously rock, and they have announced there will be US dates on their upcoming world tour, Hello World. So far they only have dates and cities listed for Japan, with the tour there scheduled from January through March, to be followed by stops in Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, the UK, and the USA, not necessarily in that order. If you are wondering what they sound like, here is a taste; the first track is Shunkan Sentimental , the second is Awanaitsumorino; Genkidene (I Don’t Plan On Seeing You; Take Care), and the third is Kagen no Tsuki (The Waning Moon). Note that the third song title was the name of a Manga that was turned into a live action movie in 2004, and also the name of the opening song in 2007’s Princess Mononoke anime; this song has nothing to do with either of those things.
Passepied is a great little alternative band with a wonderful graphic sense and some good animation work that I have featured here before, but this is the first time I have heard an English vocal track on one of their songs. The song is Tokyo City Underground, and I posted the Japanese version back in June when it came out; I like it even more now that I know what they are singing about. If you are thinking about putting together your own short animation like the ones they create you might also want to check out their Making-Of video to get an idea of what all goes into the process. And yes, you can pick up a lot of their music at iTunes.
This is the first new release from Fungus in 3 years, entitled Dishwasher and Punk, or Punk and Wash depending on who is doing the translating. It just came out this past week, released on Space Shower Music, and this first track sounds pretty good in a Ska kind of way. There are 13 tracks altogether on the disc, so far this is the only one that has been posted online.
One of the best, and therefor longest lasting, Ska bands from Japan is Tokyo Ska Paradise. The first track is Diamond In Your Heart released in July, the second is SUIKINKUTSU featuring the Piano goodness of Hiromi Uehara. The third song is Sky without Canary with Chibayuusuke of Thee Michelle Gun Elephant fame on vocals from 2009, and the final track of tonight’s collection is Chuosame Yoshie singing Cat Playing in the Twilight. If you like jazz, or ska, or big band, this is a group you want to pay attention to when they come your way.
Panda Hero was going to be my first attempt to embed something from Nico Nico. Then I discovered on testing that you can only see the embedded video if you are currently logged into Nico Nico. So instead, another excellent live set from KEXP, this time featuring the band Rose Windows. KEXP is public radio out of the west coast, and they play some of the best music around. You can listen to them from anywhere through the internet, and if you like what you hear you should consider supporting them.
It is hard to get enough of this band, they are one of the best groups out of Japan. One OK Rock has a unique sound that puts them at the center of the J-Rock scene. Check out their new documentary FOOL COOL ROCK!, which follows them through their latest world tour and features a number of their best tracks. The first song here is their 2012 hit The Beginning, the second is 2014’s Mighty Long Fall which came out at the end of July. The third track, Clock Strikes is from 2013, which gives you a song from each of the last 3 years, all of them amazing. It used to be impossible to get music from Japan easily or at least without paying a premium price for an import CD, but of course these days you can just download the ones you like from iTunes for a small fee per song. Unfortunately, all their US tour dates this year are in California in October, too bad they won’t be coming to the east coast.