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

Cool & Strange Music Countdown May 17, 2017! Alexandr Misko! Vlad! Sesame Street! Stevie Riks!

Welcome back to another episode of Cool & Strange Music for May 17, 2017!

And do I have some hot tunes for you today. These tunes you can really dig and you can use to clear the dancefloor or have those pesky guests leave your place and go home when you are ready to sleep! 

But first up, let's get serious. First up is some awesome guitar playing from a 19-year-old guy named Alexandr Misko from Russia. He says: "My fingerstyle guitar world here - covers, originals and more. Hope you like it! Cheers from Russia!" Check out his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/alexandrmisko/ 

Holy shit! This guy is incredible! Tons more amazing stuff on his Youtube page: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdZe3OmKYiIwyrLFEEbNwVw) 

#4) Alexandr Misko - Michael Jackson - Billie Jean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx4okVd3K14

Next up is something that always makes me laugh. Back in the day, Sesame Street used to make some funny music video parodies. Besides that, Sesame Street was basically useless for anything but babysitting kids. It certainly didn't teach them anything (Trust me. I know the rights owners!) Anyway, they made some really great musical parodies. This was one of my all time favorites! It's the Beetles!

#3 Sesame Street: The Beetles - Letter B   https://youtu.be/WmVd9F1fW00?t=8s

OK? Cool, eh? OK, let's keep up the laughs. Next up is Stevie Riks. Stevie Riks is a Multi-talented Comedian and Impressionist, Comedy Writer, Voice Over Artist and multi-instrumentalist Musician from the United Kingdom. He does some really funny "Misheard lyrics videos." 

There's lots more funny stuff at his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MrStevieRiks/

#2) Stevie Riks: The Bee Gees Misheard Lyrics - Stayin Alive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtQmBQxcaEk

At #1 is a song that I picked especially for my friends Lee Popa and Jolee Popa of Pinksideofthemoon. Lee and Jolee were hanging out with me in Tokyo when I mentioned (for some reason) this song. I don't think they'd heard of it....Lee! Jolee! I think this is simply genius. Zlad is actually named Santo Cilauro. And this is the funniest parody of an 80s track you'll ever hear! Wikipedia says: Santo Cilauro is an Australian television and feature film producer, screenwriter, actor, author, comedian and cameraman, a co-founder of The D-Generation. He is also an author and former radio presenter on the Triple M Network, and achieved worldwide fame with the viral video Elektronik Supersonik. 

Pay close attention to the lyrics. This is hilariously genius.

#1) Zlad! - Elektronik Supersonik    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNyG-xu-7SQ

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

Organic Marketing: The Future of Advertising

The old order of marketing and advertising is falling by the wayside. The future of advertising is not tomorrow, it was a few years back. And if your company is not on it now, you are way behind the curve.

There are examples all around us of the new way to advertise. Some big (and fashionable and cool) companies are doing it. They are laying the foundations and showing everyone how it is done... Let me repeat that: They are showing everyone how it is done! Yet 95% of the companies see it but do not copy or follow or, well, maybe they "just don't 'get it.'"

These businesses are like dinosaurs. I reckon that when that huge-a*sed asteroid hit the earth several millions of years ago, the brontosaurus were standing there and, weeks and months, after the temperature had dropped dangerously low, they began to think, "Gee... It's getting awfully cold..."

Do you think the dinosaurs thought, "Maybe I'd better move to where it is warmer?" Nah. They didn't. It may or may not have helped. But certainly standing there and doing nothing, or doing the same thing they had always done, wasn't a good option.

My God! If I had a few dollars for every company I see everyday standing, there doing nothing, or doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, I'd be a millionaire! (Maybe only a million yen because I hate going outside too much, but you get the idea!)

The old way of advertising:

Talk to people in suits and give them money. They run a full-page advert in a newspaper. It says, "That's a great place to eat steak. It is soooo delicious!" Cost of this advertising: $5000.00 or more.

Joe Happoshu sees the ad. You see the ad. Do you go there? Nope. Why? No one believes this sort of advertising anymore. 

The new way of advertising: 

Your friend at the office says to you one day, "Say! Have you tried that new steakhouse on the corner? It's really good." Do you go there? Yes. you do. Why? Because you believe your friend. Cost of this advertising: Zero.

There's an old saying: "Credibility is very hard to get. It is even harder to buy."

So why does your company continually try to buy credibility?

The new way of marketing is to build a reputation by using organic methods to spread the word of mouth. Organic means that we use Social Media and blogs and we tie up other (cool) companies and make a mutually beneficial marketing programs that are very low cost and gets the word of mouth buzzing. It must be organic; it must make sense to the public... People interested in one aspect of the marketing will be drawn to another if we fit the pieces of the puzzle together correctly. And bloggers (that people like your friend in the office read) write about you.

Sure, sure... Your company and staff (and your advertising agency) pay lip service to blogging and Web 2.0 and 3.0, but if you were to actually sit them down and explain to you a concept like Web 3.0 I'd wager a donut that they can't do it and I'd wager a year's worth of donuts that they DON'T do it. 

The problem with most Japanese companies is their advertising people are so stuck with the old way of doing things, they just can't get their head around concepts like Web 3.0... Web 3.0!? You kidding me? Look at most company Internet web pages and you'll see that they are stuck with Web 1.0 concepts. Concepts that are nearly ten years old!!!

As a funny aside, I was mentioning to someone how it is a waste of money to buy advertising on the Internet to have a paid ad at the top of the page for results for a Google search. The guy told me that they were spending ¥2 million yen (about $25,737 USD) per month on that.* Inside, I cringed. I told him that he could do the same thing for free (it requires effort though) and he told me that he "had a good engineer." I told him that there is a big difference between an engineer and a blogger...

Stop for a second and think about that logically! Thinking that an engineer could be good at advertising and marketing is just laughable if you stop and consider it... If you are running a big company and spending a big budget on SEO or banners ads for top results on Google searches, then I ask that you do, STOP RIGHT NOW and think about that for a few seconds!

You have an engineer running your advertising and marketing promotions for the Internet? Quick questions? Do they blog? Do they Facebook, Twitter or do any other Social Media? And, the killer question; This person is in charge of your company public image and face on the Internet; would you be comfortable with that person speaking in front of a crowd of, say, 1,500 people? No? Then why in the hell do you believe this person carte blanche for the Internet where there are 500 million people?

Sounds pretty dumb, doesn't it? You'd be surprised at how often I see this everyday. In fact, this is not the exception, it is the rule. Any questions why business is down?

The new way requires ideas, creativity and effort. It doesn't require geeks who have poor social skills or huge sums of money to be thrown to wonks with stale ideas or your own company marketing people sucking a lot of air through their teeth. 

They require ideas and creativity. Here's one I arranged last year:

A major pizza chain wanted to promote their New York pizza and their new online ordering system. They've asked me for ideas. I have given them many so far. This was the idea I gave them this time:

Order a pizza online and get the chance to win a vacation for two, business class to New York for 5 nights in a 5-star hotel.

Simple. 

The pizza chain got a great 2-month campaign and visibility and buzz at no cost to them (I was paid a small coordination fee). The airlines? The hotel? They got their name, photos and advertising on 17.5 million flyers delivered to people's homes; 7.8 million menus inserted into newspapers; 3.8 million direct mailing to subscribers of the pizza chain; 250,000 flyers on boxtops delivered with pizzas to customers homes; top page visibility on the pizza chain web page which receives over 12 million unique views per month. And write-ups in major Japanese magazines as well as a huge buzz campaign on Twitter and Facebook. 

Cost to airlines and the hotel? Zero. Simply the cost of providing the gifts.

Not only did all three of these entities enjoy a great promotion that was organic (Makes sense, right? Everything is New York related) This campaign ran for two months. If you do an Internet search for this campaign in Japanese you'll will find over 606,000 results. Those results are almost all bloggers and mentions on Social Media about the campaign.

If any these entities arranged this promotion through Dentsu or Hakuhodo, it would have cost them at least $100,000. I arranged it for about 1/20th that price.

This campaign did not require any email registration or any actions by the end users at all. They didn't even need to order a pizza! All they needed to do was go to the website and become a member of the online ordering service that the pizza chain has started. No purchase necessary.

In spite of the fact that nothing was necessary to join the contest, purchase or enroll, the pizza company had over 16,000 direct email inquires from end users. Throw that in with the word of mouth promotion from innumerable bloggers and Tweets and you have a killer promotion. That is an awesome result!

Am I bragging? Well, thank you. Yes, I am. 

Is your company missing the boat? If you are in Japan, I'd wager that you are. It is funny that Japan is so technologically advanced yet we find that so many companies do not take advantage of all the tools available.

Is is laziness, fear or the hesitation to take responsibility? I'm not sure but some people are really blowing it for their employers. Don't believe me? Here's a recent article that talks about how a whopping 40% of Japanese companies don't even use Twitter. Of course, Twitter is a small part of the puzzle (and, actually, a very minor piece of a bigger puzzle) but the fact remains that such a high profile FREE media is not being utilized by Japanese companies shows that this is just the tip of the iceberg of a bigger problem.

Are you going to do something about it? Or is sucking air through teeth the best way to get the job done?


* = Advertising strategies do need to change with the times. Internet click ads had a click through rate of 3% when the idea was fresh and new in the 90's... By 2003 it was down to .28% ... Today? Last I saw, about two years ago, it was something like 0.07%.... And yet, it is still one of the most expensive methods to advertise. Go figure. 

Cool & Strange Music - Japan Vol. 6 - Ryukyu (Okinawa) Beatles & More! (Part 1)

This week I went to 76.1 InterFM to be on the show entitled "6 O'Clock Yatsura" and had a great time. While I was there I heard some very cool and strange sounds that I know you are going to dig!

First was a CD of instrumentals by a band named Soul Gakkudan (奏流楽団) which is also known as the Ryukyu Beatles. This is fab!

Also, recently on the show, Taro Furukawa has been playing a lot of old cool songs from Japanese sixties bands. There's a great compilation CD out featuring a bunch of them and it's called, "GS I Love You: Japanese Garage Bands of the Sixties." 

I've mentioned before how much western music has influenced the Japanese pop scene but these groups were totally crazy about the Beatles and the British Invasion of the sixties (Just like America!)... But some of them had enough good sense to know that, as long as the music is cool, Japanese lyrics were fine too!

Here's a few of my favorites: 

The Out Casts - Everything's Alright

I tried to find some info about the Out Casts, but nothing on Wikipedia so.... On to the next band. It's one of Japan's most popular sixties "GS" (Group Sounds) bands! The Spiders!

The Spiders - Dynamite

Wikipedia says about the Spiders:

The Spiders were a Japanese band in the Group Sounds era, who were one of the top three bands of that genre, a cultural pop music scene unique to Japan.

Band members were Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu (rhythm guitar and backing singer), Jun Inouye (singer), Masaaki Sakai (tambourine and backing singer), Shochi Tanabe (drums), Takayuki Inouye (lead guitar and backing singer), Mitsuru Kato (bass guitar) and Katsuo Ono (steel guitar and electronic organ). They had many hit singles, made feature films and were popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Japan. They toured Europe in 1966, and the United States, including Hawaii, in 1967. All of the band members are still active in the music industry.

Next up? 

The Terry's - Stop Dance

Playboy - Shevidevi De Yuko

The Swing West - Ajoen Ajoen

The Napoleon - Koe no Kesunda

Those are just a few of the cool track on this great CD. I'll be back next time with a few more tracks (as well as back to the Cool & Strange music for the world) next time.

Until then, stay Cool & Strange!

Cool & Strange Music Vol. 1: Japanese Sixties & Seventies TV Shows & Theme Music

(Secret surprise at very bottom of this post!)


Wow! Way cool! Japanese sixties and seventies TV and cool music! Retro world, here I come!

I stumbled on this a minute ago and my wife went crazy. She said that, "Oh! I love these shows! They would come on at night and those were shows for adults and not kids, so it was our bedtime. But we'd watch by peaking through the sliding doors as our parents watched in the living room!"


Funny, eh? Some things are the same all over the world.


Here's some that I found that look and sound really cool (or at least really sixties kitsch or campy). 

This looks like a classic... I can tell just by looking at this that it has superb script writing and acting....Anyone know what show this is?

Here's some that I found that look and sound really cool. I'll ask my wife for comments:

The first one makes me laugh. It's called "G-Men '75":

"G-Men '75" was a drama about, well, G-men. It ran from 1975 ~ 1982. The announcer says these folks were "Hard-boiled" (whatever that means!) My wife says that this drama made her heart "Doki-doki" (heart pound) because these guys were "so cool!"

Next up is the theme from Key Hunter (performed by the Tokyo Panorama Boys). This is definitely very cool and strange music:

What did I tell you? Is that a cool tune, or what? I love that! "Key Hunter" was a drama about international police and it ran from 1968 ~ 1973. 

Then, my wife tells me that the next really famous one was "Taiyo ni Hoero" (Howling at the Sun):

Wow! Taiyo ni Hoero ran for 14 years from 1972 to 1986. It was your typical police show... Well, I guess it can't be that typical, running for 14 years is amazing. 

OK, so let's really go down the rabbit hole. Remember The Guardman? No? Neither do I. But this looks pretty cool. Listen to the end because there are two tunes here:

God! I guess Tokyo traffic was bad even in the sixties! I like how all these police shows always have shot of all these cops walking along in a line. The Guardman ran from 1965 ~ 1971. It was a show about guys working for a private security company.

Sure seemed like the Japanese liked police shows!

Here's one with a really cool theme song. It's called "Hijyono License" (Rough translation: "License to Show No Mercy" or maybe "Cut-throat License"):

Hijyono License ran for seven years from 1973 ~ 1980 and was a spin-off from Key Hunter.

Finally, this last one is hilarious. It is called "Shonen Jet" (Young Jet). The music isn't all that cool but you can see what a creative director with little money but lots of ideas - mostly, er, "borrowed" - from American TV can do.

Cool (50cc) motorcycle, eh? Like the Zorro looking guy who is hanging out in the young girl-in-her-pajamas house!? Shonen Jet ran for 1.5 years from 1959 to 1960.

Hey! This stuff cracks me up! I like it a lot! This is going to become a regular series on this blog. I'm going to run this regularly until I find all the coolest sixties guitar themed songs I can.

Finally, may I brag? I think I am good to write this sort of thing as I used to be in some cheesy kid's dramas too in the eighties. No! Really! I was. This is me as Napoleon and Dracula in the popular eighties kid's program "Bishojokamen Poatorin." This particular episode was from 1989.

I also used to be in a bunch of other VERY embarrassing programs (much more embarrassing than even this one!) that, hopefully, will never ever see the light of day again!  

Have a great weekend!