AMV – Anime Music Video – Is one of my favorite art forms. It includes the obvious, animation and music, but also the detail that makes it art; the ability to combine any two of those sources into something wholly new. These are a few recent AMV builds that I particularly liked.
I didn’t really think that Steampunk Rap was a category, but then Nerdcore caught me flatfooted as well when I stumbled across it in 2006. But I was just introduced to Professor Elemental, and now I know it exists. My favorite song out of the group so far is Fighting Trousers, from his latest release The Indifference Engine. Not his Tea Trousers, not his Time Travel Trousers, but only his Fighting Trousers will do for this song. After I got my laughing and cheering under control I found more than a few additional songs by the same artist, and a few more from related musical teams like the wonderful presentations Come Into My Parlour or Chap-Hop History. A serious tip of the hat to the Seampunk Workshop for the entry into an aspect of steampunk music I never suspected!
One of my favorite J-Rock bands of the last decade has been Go!Go!7188, although no one but the band members themselves know what the name refers to. It is a trio, two gals and a guy, that do Ska, Punk, and Alt songs that are top of their class. Imagine my delight to learn there was a collaboration between Yuu (the lead singer of that band) and The Boom. They play together on J-Melo every so often (including the shows from the last two weeks), and since The Boom also play a wide range of music they sound good together. Here is a taste of a few of the original tunes from Go!Go!7188 to give you a feel for the band…
The Steampunk Fortnight continues over at TOR, with multiple articles stories and presentations posted each day. One I particularly like is the The Amazing Fantastic Steampunk Timeline of Music and Things by Evelyn Kriete. This presents a very nice chronology of the various Steampunk bands, and ties it to some other events and milestones of the subculture, liberally sprinkled with links to most of the mentioned performers and publications.
One of my favorite J-Rock groups is Scandal, who started out as four actresses in training. Each was advised to learn a musical instrument to round out their skill set; so they chose 4 different ones and formed a kick-ass band. You mostly only hear them in North America on Anime DVDs, when they come through on tour, or periodically on a J-Melo broadcast. And while over here they are best known for their contributions to K-ON and other anime, they have a ton of top quality non-anime music as well, and more fans than you might suspect (some of whom can sing their entire catalog in Japanese). Did I mention the have won some awards, including the Viewers Choice Awards on J-Melo?
Daft Punk will be doing some music (and making an appearance) for the upcoming TRON: Legacy, and now you can hear about 90 seconds of it to give you a taste…