Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama

Two parts of my musical world collided when I stumbled across this on YouTube yesterday: A video combining screencaps from Berryz Koubou’s “Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND” PV with one of Peter Schickele’s better PDQ Bach creations, the “1712 Overture”.

I saw Mr. Schickele when he was touring behind the 1712 Overture album in 1989, and this was one of the pieces he did that night, “The Farmer On The Dole” from the Four Folk Song Upsettings (which would end up on a later PDQ Bach album).

Stumbled across this clip while doing a little research for the Vinyl Pagoda Project. Don’t know what the TV show was or when this clip aired, but here Ayumi Hamasaki teams up with old-school J-Pop legend Akina Nakamori for a rendition of the latter’s controversial 1978 single “Shojo A”.

Yes, we will be hearing from Naka-san in the process of the VPP. but probably not until I decide on a final blog redesign for here. (If you can help, please e-mail me.)

ETA: Kd, formerly of Iro Iro Aru Sa!, tells me that this clip is from Ayu’s television show AYU READY?. which aired on Fuji TV for about a year and a half, and live collaborations like this were a regular part of the show (see her comment below).

“There should only be one version of the National Anthem - Jimi Hendrix’s version from Woodstock.” - Henry Rollins

The Vinyl Pagoda Project will resume Sunday night or Monday morning (just in time for Tanbata) - I was going to post one of the installments late night but didn’t have the energy, and I’m going to be away with my fiancee most of today. Be safe out there, will ya?

Having already known of Li Chun’s keyboard talents when her and Qian Lin’s addition to Morning Musume was announced last year, I wondered if she’d ever display her instrumental skills in a public setting. Apparently she has already in this video from one of JunJun and LinLin’s first public appearances. (Does anyone know the name of the piece JunJun is performing in this clip?)

Of course, Sayumi tries to show off her (more rudimentary) keyboard skills afterward, only to get thwarted by two roadies (one of whom is wearing a commemorative Panda Musume T-shirt). Hey, at least Sayumi didn’t do a hamfisted version of “Home Sweet Home” or “Runaway”!

For those of you (like me) who are in the mood for a little more classical piano greatness, here’s an intimate performance (right out of his New York townhouse) from the Jimi Hendrix of classical piano:

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Well, almost. ^___^

Came across this while looking for a different Whiteberry video entirely (unfortunately, no one has “Jitensha Dorobo” on there, at least not as of this writing). From one of the last episodes of Uta-Doki (I should start collecting the DVD’s), MoMusu 5th gen member Risa Niigaki performs “Natsu Matsuri” (mainly by way of the song’s original artist, Jitterin’ Jinn) with a more full-bodied and mature-sounding voice than that of the then-15-year-old (at the time Whiteberry recorded their version) Yuki Maeda. Eri Kamei, acting as MC for the episode, apparently couldn’t resist grabbing a mic and joining in.

…to all the mothers everywhere… especially these two new Morning MILFs:

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And to paraphrase Brother Ray, it wouldn’t be Stuck In A Pagoda without throwing in a different set of Mothers for good measure:
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My blogging brother Tim “Napalm” Stegall is having a huge garage sale in Alice, TX (his old hometown) where he’s unloading a ton of stuff left behind by his late mother (for details, message him through his MySpace page). In the spirit of DIY punk rock, he’s even made up his own commercial for it:

Tell him CJ sent you!

Since some of the descriptions of “Resonant Blue”’s music that I’ve seen on other blogs (Yes, Celestia and Yoshimi, I’m talking to both of you!) are inaccurately describing the musical style Morning Musume uses in their forthcoming single as “pop” or “hip-hop” (in both cases… WTF?), a little lesson in the funk is in order. And having grown up on R&B music, suffice it to say that I know my funk, OK. Let’s begin…

First, “Love Rollercoaster” by the Ohio Players. Where do you think the opening guitar lick in “Resonant Blue” comes from?

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Apparently, there’s a phenomenon online called the Rickroll, where someone will start out with a serious post and then at the last second, whip out a YouTube video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

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