JapanNewbie » Music

Scars Borough

harvey — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:39:30 +0000

This music recommendation must be the most personal one I have ever done… Here’s the story.

So a long time ago in Japan I met a French dude. We became friends, time passed, I moved to Osaka and he was still in Tokyo, and we didn’t see each other so often anymore. Then a few years ago I was randomly back in Tokyo and we ended up seeing each other again at a big dinner party. He had a new girlfriend named Kyoko. She was this really tough looking Japanese girl. I remember she looked sort of metal and punk. Pretty hardcore. Anyway, apparently she was in a band.

Years passed…

Just about a week ago I had some friends in from Tokyo visiting and we got to talking about all of our peeps who were still in Japan. It turns out that my French friend and Kyoko are still together, and her band is doing live shows in Japan quite frequently and they have a few CDs out! My friends brought me their newest album as a gift. I’m liking it!

The band is called Scars Borough and they’re pretty awesome. Check out some of their videos:

Band Talk.

More Japanese music! And yeah so, I uh, had dinner once with the lead singer of Scars Borough. Yeah, I’m awesome. (hehe.)

Bright Siren by androp

harvey — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:54:10 +0000

If you’re into Japanese rock and… camera flashes… you’ll probably find this to be pretty interesting. This is the video for the song Bright Siren by a Japanese band called androp.

They used 250 cameras to set this up. Pretty impressive in terms of scale!

Fun stuff. If you check their official website you can even add your own light message to the end of the video! Yippie!

OMODAKA Video

harvey — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:00:14 +0000

A newish video from OMODAKA!

I really like OMODAKA’s style. He mixes traditional Japanese folk music with his modern digital beats and the results are really fun.

OMODAKA in action

Check out some of the links below for more OMODAKA videos and information.

Related Posts:
New OMODAKA drops Tuesday!

More OMODAKA

Get OMODAKA Albums on HearJapan!

TINA – I’ll be there

harvey — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:56:27 +0000

I was introduced to this song back in 1999 when I was living in Japan long term for the first time as an exchange student at Nanzan University. A pretty hip older friend turned me on to it, and later she also introduced me to a similar artist named Bird.

I remember I just loved Tina’s style. The majority of her lyrics were in Japanese, she pronounced her lyrics at an understanable speed, and it had her relatively deep voice and soulful style were in stark contrast to the other Jpop bands that my friends were listening to at the time.

Tina was awesome. I wonder where she is now? It’s been more than 10 years since she saw popularity in Japan.

Let me know what you think!

- Harvey

Japan Fan encourages you to donate

harvey — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 16:02:15 +0000

There are many many ways to donate, but here’s another one.

If you buy this girl’s songs on Band Camp she’ll donate 100% of the proceeds to Red Cross.
She studies Japanese too. Her songs only cost one dollar. Support her dream, support Japan, support a JapanNewbie. What more could you ask for? Go young people go young people go!

Great to see people coming together!

Other ways to donate.
Txt “JAPAN” or “TSUNAMI” to 20222 to donate $10 (Save the Children Federation)
Txt “4JAPAN” or “4TSUNAMI” to 20222 to donate $10 (World Vision)
Txt “MERCY” to 25283 to donate $10 (Mercy Corps)
Txt “SUPPORT” to 85944 to donate $10 (ADRA)
Txt “MED” to 80888 to donate $10 (Assist International Medical Corps)
Txt “JAPAN” to 80888 to donate $10 (Salvation Army)
Txt “REDCROSS” to 90999 to donate $10 (American Red Cross)

A list of short codes to donate to Japan.

がんばれ all those people in Japan and those affected by the quake elsewhere!

- Harvey