Cool & Strange Music Countdown June 20, 2017! Pinksideofthemoon, Japanese Led Zeppelin, Miami Dade County Police!

Welcome back to another episode of Cool & Strange Music for June 20, 2017!

Once again, it's time for our monthly dose of Cool & Strange Music.

Today I have a real variety of stuff for you... From Japan to the Super-Cool and the outright bizarre.

First up, let is take a trip to Japan and I do mean, "trip." The first song today was arranged by NHK. NHK is Japan's government run national TV station. I doubt I've had much good to say about them in the past (I don't know why the government taxes us to run a TV station - is this North Korea?)... NHK (like all TV) is bleeding audience, especially younger people. So they seem to have propped up a new company called "NHK Blends" whereby they take some of those tax monies and spend it on new projects. NHK Blends is described as: "A musical mix: East meets West." OK? Well, I do think the NHK Blends Youtube site is kinda cool.... Check it out. (NHK Blends Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUpWgbZCNH1bi7Zec_7tfNQ)

#3) Japanese Cover-Nijugen-Koto - Led Zeppelin-Stairway to Heaven:
https://youtu.be/nZPnt4tKGdU?t=1m (Song starts at the 1 minute mark.)

It's called, "Cool & Strange Music" for a good reason; some of the songs are really cool, like the Led Zeppelin cover above, and others... Well, there's "Strange" and then there's "WTF? Strange." The next song falls into the latter category. This is one of those, "Is this for real?" This time it's the Miami Dade Country Police Department wasting your tax monies on this video.

WARNING! Once you've clicked on the link below, you can never un-see what you have seen.

#2) Miami Dade Country Police Department - Sex Offender Shuffle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfCYZ3pks48

Oh, my god!!!! If you were able to watch that entire video above, then give yourself 100 points and go ahead, go take a shower now... We'll wait.

Finally, at #1 is Pinksideofthemoon featuring Lee Popa and Jolee. Their description of this video says, "Weather permitting, skygazers in America and Europe are in for a treat in the early morning hours of Tuesday, when the first total lunar eclipse in almost three years is poised to turn the moon pink   it was the first night of us recording music together we were watching a lunar eclipse and for a split second the moon turned a bright pink we had no choice we became the pinksideofthemoon." Check out their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Pinksideofthemoon-110587222355798/

#1) pinksideofthemoon - Lost Inspace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKtEKvIgHtw

Well, that’s it for today! Hope you have a great rest of the week and hope you stay Cool and Strange!

See more Cool & Strange Music countdowns here: 
http://robot55.jp/?s=cool+%26+strange+music

And if you like new music and alternative artists check out the weekly Top 3 here:
http://robot55.jp/?s=Top+3+videos

Female Japanese Jazz Musician Breaking into Italy and the West

Recently, I have been writing a lot about reasons why I think today's Japan is in the dumps both economically and spiritually. Please refer to "Japan's Mojo No Go No Mo!" or: Non-Genki Corporate Japan Culture Ver. 2012:

In my opinion, one of the big problems with today's Japan and the economy in general is the lack of "Genki" in todays corporate Japan. I think it is well agreed upon that mood is a very important factor in the market economy. And when mood is bad, how can people be positive? It's like Japan is under a curse or something.

Actually, everywhere I've looked recently, I've seen many people who seem tired and disillusioned. Perhaps the coming elections in Japan contribute to the sour mood. I'm not sure.... But to look at who people get to choose from, I could understand their depression.

Wow! What a sad state of affairs!

But the other day, I saw something that really made my heart sing and think, for the first time in a long time, "Wow! Here's some Japanese people who are really going for it and trying to sell their product, not only in Japan but around the world!" I went to a live jazz performance of a new artist named Julie.

It was a refreshing evening. It made my heart sing to hear REALLY top quality world-class performers doing music with style.

Julie on Facebook here

And I was so impressed with what I saw. And what really surprised me the most was this came from the Japanese music industry. That is a shocker! The Japanese music industry is synonymous with bland corporate crap and a distinct lack of imagination.

For decades, Japanese musicians have tried to break into the USA but have consistently (and predictably) failed. The list is long. Multi-million selling superstars in Japan who couldn't giveaway their records in the west: Seiko Matsuda, Utada Hikaru, Chage and Aska and Ayumi Hamasaki... They all failed... and that's even with a massive promotional budget and spending in the millions on advertising.

Of course they failed, though.

Just as companies in the west must adapt their products to Japan, so the Japanese must adapt their products to the west. Why the Japanese used Japanese producers, staff and management to sell in the USA is a question that I have always wondered about.

But the other night, I saw something that made me think, "Wow! Japan still has a chance. She still has people with big dreams and people who are trying for the world stage.

Meet Jazz singer Julie. Her latest EP (now on sale on Amazon) is a refreshing break from the typical pop music scene. Julie does Jazz and in the traditional mode. The EP has been released in Italy and was produced, directed, recorded, engineered, mastered by an Italian film director. The video was also shot on location in Italy.  And one can tell immediately that this is not a Japanese production.

This is world class quality. Watch it for yourself and see:

It's really nice to see a Japanese artist trying to make it in the west.... Especially when they recruit people from the west to make it happen. Good luck!

Here's more information about Julie and this video:

JULIE born in California and raised in Japan. She is a jazz singer with Hotei Tomoyasu's company (He played for the queen of England for her 50th Jubilee). Julie comes from a very musical family and has been around musicians and famous people all her life. She is a very big David Bowie fan. Her favorite movie is the Rocky Horror Picture Show. She speaks perfect Japanese and English.

DAVIDE SARDO Born and raised in Cagliari, Italy, Davide Sardo is a musician and sound designer. He is a classically trained double bassist and electric bassist. He plays several other instruments, as he sees fit for his productions. His activity is split in music scoring, audio production and sound design for theatre shows and short movies, and doing post sound (edit, sound design) for multimedia products, video and cinema. As a side activity he plays in a progressive rock band and produces his own electronic music. Davide is now Music producer and Chief sound designer at Welcome to my Mondo, the company he founded with Enrico and Piero. 

ENRICO CICCU After graduating in History of Arts and taking a master in Visual Marketing, Enrico was hired as Adobe beta tester and started to work as art director all around Italy, for big companies such as Benetton, Wind, H3G, Tim, and Luxottica. Enrico's dream was to run his own company in his home town, land of sun and sea, so he came back to Sardinia where he started his first creative agency and he began teachING digital animation in a local graphic and comics school. He was hired as channel designer for Tiscali IP-television, where he worked for almost 2 years developing his skills in animation, web design and graphics. At the end of this project, together with a group of colleagues, he created a collaborative team of young professionals who won the prize for the Best Italian Web Design in 2010 thanks to its Japanese-inspired design. Enrico is now Art director at Welcome to my Mondo. Japan was always in his heart, and now his dream comes true: signing a joint venture with a Japanese partner to lookalize and promote Japanese artists, brands and goods in Europe.

Here's the "Making of Lookalization" teaser:

Cool & Strange Music: Japanese Animation "Mach Baron!"

Ken Nishikawa, always on the lookout for cool stuff, send this along to me. Ken writes,  "Cool theme tune from 70's Japanese TV robot programme called "Mach Baron"!" これは本物のRock & Roll!

Wikipedia says:

Super Robot Mach Baron (スーパーロボット マッハバロン Sūpā Robotto Mahha Baron) is a Japanese tokusatsu series that aired from October 7, 1974, to March 31, 1975. It was a sequel to Super Robot Red Baron.

Somewhere in Asia, the series was adapted into a 86 minute feature film which used footage from the original series. That movie was also released in Spain (under the title "Mazinger Z - El robot de las estrellas") and Germany ("Roboter der Sterne").

Thanks Ken! If Ken's name sounds familiar to some readers, it's because Ken and I often make music videos and documentaries together.

We just finished the newest promotional video for Shonen Knife, "Ghost Train":

Pretty Cool, Moving Gif, Eh?

Found this on a Japanese music site called Qetic. Thought it was a cool moving gif and very cool graphics from Japan. Just a short time waster on a Saturday night.

CLICK THE IMAGE TO SEE IT MOVE

This actually has rhythm too. Some Japanese artists really make some great stuff - especially when it comes to animation type of things. 

Jyoubachi - Japan's Best New Rock Group?

The band's name is Jyoubachi. In Japanese it is: 女王蜂　That translates to "Queen Bee" but George Williams, the top Vee Jay in Japan tells me that he doesn't think the Japanese name is queen bee... Oh well, if George doesn't know then I don't know who would. 

Jyoubachi

From what little I know about this band is that they are fronted by a trans-sexual lead singer. Their online biography mentions nothing of this and says:

Ziyoou-vachi is a 4-piece rock band from Japan. They

formed in Kobe in 2009, and after playing together 
for about a year they were chosen to play on the 
extremely selective "Rookie a Go-Go" stage at Japan's 
mammoth Fuji Rock festival. Their performance there 
caught the ears of Japan's rock fans, but what really 
brought them to prominence was a landmark gig at 
a secret party held by the fashion brand Hysteric 
Glamour last November. After that night, they became 
the talk of Japan's fashion cognoscenti.

In March of 2011, they started selling their first  self-recorded CD-Rs at live shows. Those discs, "The  Mad Princess" and "The Wrath of the Royal Family",  quickly sold out, and allowed the band's label Ziyoou  Records to release their next recording "Witch Hunt"  nationwide. And now they'll put out their major-label  debut on Sony Music Associated Records in Fall 2011.  The night she announced their decision to sign with a  major, bandleader Avu-chan decided to share the

band's reasoning, which was basically that they'd "get 
to wear way more awesome clothes" and "push to even 
further levels of excess." That should give listeners some 
clue as to what sort of debut to anticipate.


The song I've picked for you today is called 待つ女 (Woman in Waiting)

Jyoubachi - Woman in Waiting

The shooting and violence reminds me of the Dead Weather's "Treat Me Like Your Mother" but it is different and fresh enough not to bother me with too much similarity. I hate it when I can say, "This band reminds me of (this or that) band."

Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother

Thanks to Ken Nishikawa