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This great song is a collaboration between 吉田兄弟 (the Yoshida brothers) and Monkey Majik!

Baby Metal

Do you know the Japanese band Baby Metal ?

They are a unique “heavy metal” meets J-pop band that consists of three junior high school girls!
The girls are ages 13, 14, and 15…and they’re not even actually heavy-metal fans. They prefer pop music (as most girls their age do).

Not your typical metal band. And, to be honest, I’m not really a big fan.
But, it is an interesting concept for a band, I have to admit.

If these girls aren’t really “metal heads”, then why are they in a band called “Baby Metal”?

They were in a pop band together but their producer, who is a metal-head had an idea to fuse their music with thrashing guitars and metal growls!

Unsurprisingly, the girls weren’t keen to becoming a heavy-metal band at first. In fact, the youngest member asked “What’s ‘heavy metal’?“. But they say that they’ve warmed up to it and enjoy being a totally unique act…and also being able to act “wild” on stage.

The even do a unique spin on the “metal horns” hand gesture that they call “kitsune” (which means “fox” in Japanese).
The reason, actually, is because on their debut photo-shoot, their producer told them to do the “metal horns” (which they had never seen before)…and they mistook the hand gesture for the one that became their signature hand gesture.

They have songs with titles such as 「イジメ・ダメ・ゼッタイ！」, which means “Absolutely no bullying!” (which, although has a good message, I don’t enjoy much), and 「ヘドバンギャー!!」 (“Headbanger!!”) which is a lot better.

Their newest song, titled 「メギツネ」 (“Female Fox”), is their best so far.

Here is the video for Baby Metal 「メギツネ」 (“Female Fox”):

Domination of Japan!

Last June I wrote a post about upcoming heavy metal shows in the Tokyo area.

Some of the concerts I wrote about in that post have already occurred but Metallica will have a concert in Japan later this month and next month will be the annual “Loudpark 2010” heavy metal festival with bands such as Ozzy Osbourne, KoRn, RATT and Motorhead scheduled to perform at this year’s event.

But before either of those concerts, the “Thrash Domination 2010” festival is coming to 川崎 (Kawasaki, Japan).

This is a two-day event with five thrash metal bands scheduled to perform.
Saturday, September 18 is called “Kill Night”…Agent Steel will go on stage first, then Outrage, followed by Nevermore, then Exodus and Overkill will headline.

Then, Sunday, September 19 is called “Brutal Night”…the line-up is nearly identical but rather than Nevermore, Sanctuary will be the third act on the bill and then Overkill will be fourth, with Exodus as the headliners.

Also, on the day before the festival, Overkill will have their own concert in Osaka on September 17th…and Exodus will have their own concert on September 20th (the day after the festival) in Shibuya, Tokyo.

The official "Thrash Domination 2010" T-shirts

Do you like heavy metal? How about “Thrash Metal”? Would you attend this heavy metal music festival?

The Demons have returned to Earth

I like to listen to heavy metal music. I enjoy most all “genres” of heavy metal (as “heavy metal” itself is a “genre” of rock music, you may be surprised that there are different “types” of heavy metal music).

Some of my favorite bands are KISS, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Megadeth and “pre-1991” Metallica.

But I’d say my favorite heavy metal genre is “Shock Rock“.
Bands that have a shocking* or “over-the-top” image and stage-show to go with their excellent music.

Bands in this genre includes acts such as KISS, Alice Cooper, Lordi, GWAR, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, W.A.S.P., etc.

The concerts by these bands include frightening costumes and/or make-up, fire, blood, guillotines, snakes , and bats (one even had it’s head bit off 😉 ) all while playing the type of music I enjoy.
It’s a much more entertaining concert than is common by musicians of other types of music.

And of course since I’ve been living in Japan for the past twenty years I listen to a number of Japanese bands as well.
I wrote a post about the Japanese hard rock band X-Japan. I think they’re okay.

Then there’s the Japanese band 「カブキロックス」 (Kabuki Rocks). Probably inspired by the American band KISS (who, ironically, were inspired by Japanese 歌舞伎 (Kabuki theater)), Kabuki Rocks dress as Japanese kabuki actors while they’re on stage performing.
Here’s a video of them performing their most famous song 「お江戸」 (“O-Edo“):

But probably the best Japanese band in this genre is 「聖飢魔 II」 (“Seikima-Two“).

「聖飢魔II」 ("Seikima-II")

Their name is kind of a Japanese play-on-words. It’s spelled to say “The Holy Starving Demons (II)” but is pronounced “Seikimatsu”, which means “The end of the century”.

The reason for their name is because their gimmick is that they are a band of demons who came to Earth from Hell to punish humans for destroying the environment.

The band was formed in the 1980s and they intended from the beginning to take over the world and disband on New Years Eve 1999 at 11:59:59PM (the “end of the century”), and that’s what they did.
(Well, they didn’t take over the “world” but they were popular in Japan in the 1990s).

I remember at the height of their popularity in the ’90s, the lead vocalist “Demon Kogure” was doing funny TV commercials for Fuji Film.

"Demon Kogure", lead vocalist

In these commercials, the “demon” with his spiky hair and make-up was the “father” of a kindergarten-age girl.
Instead of his usual outfits that he wore, in these commercials he dressed in regular “human clothes” and he’d have some humorous adventure and his “daughter” would snap a photo of his facial expression with a “Fuji Film” disposable camera.

I liked these commercials a lot.

Here’s one where his “daughter” is on her school bus and he’s trying to give her her lunch that he forgot to give before she got on the bus:

And another one where he’s trying (and failing) to fly a kite with his “daughter” at New Years time (which is a tradition in Japan):

These commercials were so popular in Japan in the ’90s that Fuji Film began to offer “Demon Kogure” alarm clocks and pajamas (with “spiky hair” night-cap).
I remember that I wanted the alarm clock…but I didn’t buy film often enough to acquire the necessary “points” to get one. Oh well.

Here’s the commercial for the clock and pajamas:

Anyways, as I mentioned above, 「聖飢魔 II」 (“Seikima-II“) disbanded on New Years Eve 1999 at one second before midnight…but this year they had a reunion concert (including a show in America and one in France) and a new album.

I intend to get their new album.

Here’s a promotion video for a song by them that I like. It’s called 「蝋人形の館」 (“House of Wax”):

“Summer Sonic Boom” and Marty Friedman in FANTA band

The American rock band KISS released a new album last autumn titled “Sonic Boom“.

And every summer for the past ten years or so, there is a rock festival in Japan called “Summer Sonic” (actually this is one of the numerous rock festivals in Japan every year).

Well, my good friend Masa told me today that KISS is planning to play at this year’s “Summer Sonic” festival near Tokyo this August to promote their “Sonic Boom” album.

Maybe they’ll call their shows at the festival the “Summer Sonic Boom Tour“. 😉

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If you like heavy metal music you probably recognize the name Marty Friedman.

He used to be the guitarist for the American heavy metal band “Megadeth“.

Marty played on Megadeth's excellent "Countdown To Extinction" album.

Marty Friedman has a Japanese wife and can speak Japanese. When he was a member of Megadeth, he would do all of the band’s media interviews in Japanese when they toured here in Japan (usually Dave Mustaine, the lead singer, does the interviews).

After he quit Megadeth, he and his wife moved to Tokyo (now, like me, he’s an American KISS fan living in Tokyo with his Japanese wife 😉 ).

Now that he lives in Japan, he makes a living by occasionally co-hosting music shows on TV, writing for music magazines, playing in a variety of Japanese bands, and he has released albums of remakes of Japanese songs.

Most recently, he has recorded TV commercial for the Fanta soft drink with three Japanese musicians and Akenono, the former 横綱 (Sumo Grand Champion).

In these commercials, Marty Friedman and the others (who are all famous in Japan…actually, Marty Friedman is the least famous of the five in Japan) are in a “FANTA” rock band.

Since they are all musicians in real life except Akebono (the former sumo champion)…in the commercials, Akebono plays the drums but always messes up.

The reason that these five celebrities were chosen for the “FANTA band” is that the first initial of each member’s name spells F.A.N.T.A.
They are: Marty Friedman (guitar), Ayanocozey (sometimes called “DJ OZMA”) (bass), Nana Tanimura (vocals), Takamizawa (aka: Takamiy (of the Japanese band “The Alfee“)) (guitar), and Akebono (drums (and “bodyguard” 🙂 )).

These commercials are to promote the new Fanta drink in Japan…”Moo Moo White“.
(Click here to read the post I wrote about this drink.)

Here a video of the TV commercial that Fanta released (it doesn’t show who the band members are…in an attempt to build up anticipation):

And here’s the latest one (Akebono, the sumo wrester / drummer drops his drum sticks):

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Also, in Japan, yesterday was the holiday “White Day“.

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Japanese Books, Snacks, CDs…

I just added a page on my main website called “Japanese Stuff”.

It has links to buy Japan-themed books, snacks and DVDs that I recommend.

On this blog, I’ve recommend books like Jerry Yellin’s book “The Blackened Canteen“, and CDs by Japanese bands like Monkey Majik, and Japanese movies like Quill.

Now, I’ve decided to make it easier for visitors to my site to buy the books, snacks, CDs and DVDs, etc that I recommend by providing a link to buy them from Amazon.com.

Click here to visit my new ““Japanese Stuff“ page.

Koto concert

Today was my youngest daughter’s 御琴 (O-koto) concert.

(O)-koto is a traditional Japanese musical instrument sometimes called, in English, a Japanese harp…although it sounds nothing like a harp—but it has many strings like one.

Here’s a video I took of a group of 御琴 (O-koto) players at the concert…(my videos of my daughter’s performance aren’t online):

Background music

This is a song from my Sony Walkman MP3 player.
Click the Play arrow if you want to listen to it as background music:

The song’s title is 「空はまるで」 by Monkey Majik.
I like this song.

Here’s the lyrics (as with all 漢字 (Japanese Kanji) on this page, hold you mouse over them to see the ふりがな (Kana characters to show the proper reading):

空はまるで君のように青く澄んでどこまでも
やがて僕ら描き出した明日へと走り出す

旅立つけど looking in the rear view mirror
I got you here 少しだけ clearer
I know with you 全てが広がっていく
All we need is just a little more time 流れてるから
Everyday look at yourself and smile
Hoping things will go your way.

確かなことなど何も 誰にも分からないから
どんなことが起こるだろう 手を繋いで I’ll never let you get away

空はまるで君のように青く澄んでどこまでも
やがて僕ら描き出した明日へと走り出す

Hey I wish we hadn’t departed,
But now your life has started,
We met at the shop, and still have something in common.
そしていつかわかる？
I’m hoping everything is fun,
季節が巡るよ
互いに過ごした日々があるから
I’m happy ya had the time to stay.
Letting it back, to chat, chillin’ and bringin’ it back.

確かなことなど何も 誰にも分からないから
どんなことが起こるだろう 手を繋いで

空はまるで君のように青く澄んでどこまでも
やがて僕ら描き出した明日へと走り出す

Everyday I wake up thinking of you
You make it all clear to me
What I want you to do
Leave it up to you
I always knew you’d make it somewhere
You’re pushin’ it for the top
You never can stop
Enjoy the ride
And you know I’ll always be there for you
So make every moment true

‘Cause we all grow up and and our time is running out
(But) we can teach our youth
That’s what life’s all about
Maybe you’ll fall in love
I maybe be your guide ’till then
気持ち抑えきれずに… yeah

空はまるで涙のように溢れ出すよいつまでも
出会った日々の喜びも いつの日か いつの日か