Rock in Direct Translation with Osama
Posted by harvey in Language, Media, Music on 04. Feb, 2010 | 1 Comment
Get ready for Highway Star and Smoke on the Water Japanese Style!
Highway Star in DIRECT translation.
The musician went by the name of Ousama 王様 (king) and was a musician engaging in this style called “chokuyaku rock” 直訳ロック. Here is Ousama on Wikipedia (Japanese). The focus of this music is on the lyrics, because they’re just [...]
English Songs Translated into Japanese, and Sung
Posted by harvey in Language, Media, Music on 30. Dec, 2009 | 1 Comment
Have you ever thought about translating your favorite Japanese music into English, and then singing the translated lyrics?
That would be really tough right?
Well this guy is doing the reverse, English into Japanese. The difficulty of this task should not go unnoticed! He’s a total stud.
I learned of Choco from No-Sword, a great blog for Japanese [...]
We are Tanaka Hirokazu
Posted by harvey in Humor, Music on 10. Dec, 2009 | 3 Comments
JapanNewbies, I want you to do an exercise with me.
Close your eyes and imagine eleven people all named Hirokazu Tanaka singing a song together about their same-named predicament.
…
Good. Now, open your eyes… And watch this video of eleven people all named Hirokazu Tanaka singing a song together about their same-named predicament.
The track starts off with [...]
New Tunes from Nomiya Maki of Pizzicato Five fame
Posted by harvey in Music on 08. Dec, 2009 | 3 Comments
Maki Nomiya and Fernanda Takai – MAKI-TAKAI NO JETLAG
A new album called MAKI-TAKAI NO JETLAG by Maki Nomiya & Fernanda Takai came out just today on HearJapan.com.
I owe a huge chunk of my Japanese listening comprehension abilities to Nomiya Maki. I had Pizzicato Five on “heavy rotation” back when she was with that legendary band. [...]
New Omodaka drops Tuesday!
Posted by harvey in Media, Music on 20. Nov, 2009 | 3 Comments
New Omodaka on Tuesday!
This release snuck up on me, but I’ll be picking this album up from Hear Japan the day it comes out.
You can hear some clips of the new CD on Hear Japan’s website, and there is a slick video of the lead track, Plum Song.
Hrm… that was rather suggestive…
As you heard, Omodaka [...]
An Introduction to Visual-kei with Megamasso
Posted by harvey in Art, Culture, Music, Society on 18. Oct, 2009 | 3 Comments
I bet many JapanNewbie readers know more about Visual-kei than I do. Basically it’s a genre of music, usually rock, in which the “visuals” are extremely important in that the band members wear a variety of flamboyant and elaborate costumes.
Don’t take my word for it though – here is an exclusive interview arranged by Realway [...]
Flex Life
Posted by harvey in Media, Music on 06. Sep, 2009 | 3 Comments
Just sharing some music.
I’ve had this Flex Life track in my iTunes Playlist for a while now. Never got around to YouTubing them until now though. GREAT to finally see what they look like. They love music and it shows.
A good friend in Japan introduced me to Flex Life a few years ago. This [...]
Nekoyasha – Happy Kansai-ben Music
Posted by harvey in Media, Music on 03. Sep, 2009 | No Comments
Found this bubbly Kansai-ben (Kansai Dialect) single by a new Japanese band calledNekoyasha (猫夜叉) over on HearJapan.
Nekoyasha Nandeyanen Single
This hyper-cute (and I don’t use that term lightly) song has lyrics like:
なんでやねん、なんでやねん、なんでこんなにおもろいねん！
nandeyanen, nandeyanen, nande konnani omoroinen!
Why? Why? Why is it so interesting/funny!?
空が青いのはなんでやねん〜
空は青が好きなんだ。
sora ga aoi no ha nande yanen
sora ha ao ga suki nan da
Why is [...]
