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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Randall J. Paske" <panacea42@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Re: J-rock |
| Date | Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:18:50 -0700 (PDT) |
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Robert Berry asked some questions about Japanese pop. I'm no expert, but I've dabbled and am going to share some info that may or may not be of use to you.
* It's far from comprehensive, but the Japan Files website offers paid downloads from a few hundred Japanese acts, as well as physical CDs from some of them. I didn't check for any of the bands you mentioned, but I've liked a few of the bands that offer material there: Advantage Lucy, the Clicks, Swinging Popsicle. There's also plenty more to explore. See http://www.japanfiles.com .
* The US label Good Charamel (which I believe is owned by Robby Takacs of the Goo Goo Dolls) has been releasing CDs and DVDs by Shonen Knife and a few other Japanese bands. Being domestic releases, they're much more reasonably priced than Japanese imports. See http://www.goodcharamel.com/ .
* On occasion, I like to listen to Japan Live Radio on the Internet. It's a Live365 "station" curated by Ken M., who writes the Japan Live blog about the bands he sees in Tokyo. (He leans more toward indie-pop than power-pop or pop-punk for both efforts.) See http://www.live365.com/stations/japanlive for the radio station and http://japanlive.blogspot.com/ for the blog.
I hope that gives you a few leads.
Randy
--- On Wed, 8/17/11, Robert Berry <rberry@gandronics.com> wrote:
> From: Robert Berry <rberry@gandronics.com>
> Subject: J-rock
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 3:38 PM
> So my daughter has recently become
> obsessed with the manga series "Fullmetal
> Alchemist" and its two anime adaptations (which, I must
> admit, are really
> good).
>
> One thing that has struck me is that both anime series use
> some really great
> Japanese power pop as opening and closing theme music. My
> daughter, who
> (bless her) has good musical taste, is almost as obsessed
> with this music as
> she is with the shows themselves. And judging by what I'm
> hearing, there
> must be some great, Audities-friendly music being made in
> Japan.
>
> But from I can tell, most of this music is virtually
> impossible to get in
> the U.S. (legally, at least) unless you're willing to pay
> exorbitant CD
> import prices. Yeah, there are a few artists that have U.S.
> releases (e.g.
> Shonen Knife, Puffy AmiYumi), but those seem to be the
> exception. I've had
> very little luck finding the artists from the "Fullmetal
> Alchemist" show
> (e.g. YUI, NICO Touches the Wall, SID, Miho Fukuhara, Porno
> Graffiti, Yellow
> Generation, Asian Kung-Fu Generation ... those are just a
> few).
>
> What's the deal? Why is it relatively inexpensive to get
> hold of, say,
> Swedish power pop, but so difficult to find anything from
> Japan? Why isn't
> this stuff downloadable from somewhere? (This is 2011 ...
> it's silly to ship
> a disc halfway around the world!) Or is there some great
> domestic source for
> Japanese music that I just haven't found yet?
>
> Somebody out there must know more about this corner of the
> music world than
> I do...
>
> Robert R. Berry
>
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