Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama

I just got a stack of 45s in the mail today.

Fifty of them.

All Japanese. and dating between 1968 and 1990.

I’ll explain quickly: A couple of weeks ago, I won an eBay auction for a lot of fifty Japanese 45s. The seller, very helpfully, provided post-it notes on each single with the artist and titles written in romaji, which is a big help to this gaijin who is practically illiterate in the language that fascinates him so. I spent the past 90 minutes or so cataloging all 50 of these singles into an Excel database file.

Now the real fun part begins.

As often as I can, I’m going to write about each of these 45s - both sides, what I think of the songs, and whatever I can find out about the artists. I’ll even share vinyl rips of these recordings. For anyone interested in earlier Japanese pop/enka/kayokyoku, this should be a treat. It sure is already one for me as a collector of records and a fan of Japanese music and culture.

Memes by both Misa and pengie within the IW blogosphere have turned up. I’m doing Misa’s first since pengie’s seems to call for a more detailed explanation and my response won’t be ready to be posted on here until later this weekend.

1. What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to?
“Kiss In The Dark” by Pink Lady. I still have the 45 somewhere in my house.

2. Did it inspire you to like that group/singer, or did it turn you away?
I liked them a lot. Never bought the full album though… I’m surprised that I haven’t rectified that by looking for the album on eBay, but I do have a double-CD anthology of Pink Lady now!

3. What is the one song that you have been listening to for the longest time?
Both of Whiteberry’s albums.

4. What group/singer have you liked the longest?
Group: Whiteberry. Singer: Yui Horie.

5. What is the song with the most plays on your iTunes/media player? As of today, Morning Musume’s “Egao YES Nude” with 140 plays.

6. Is that song your favorite?
Definitely one of my many favorites. “Resonant Blue” is right behind it with 136 plays.

7. If not, what is?
No answer.

8. Is there any one group that you can listen to all/most of the songs by? If so, who?
Morning Musume/Hello! Project.

9. What is your favorite agency?
Some might say Hello! Project/UFW but I don’t have a “favorite” agency.

10. What is your favorite group/singer?
It’s a tie between The Stooges and Morning Musume.

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:

News broke this afternoon that Maki Goto signed with Avex’s Rhythm Trax imprint, which is also the home of Koda Kumi. Maki’s new label-sponsored site is here; hopefully she will not be giving up her own blog in the process. Apparently the vocal and dance training Gocchin was going through in Los Angeles earlier this spring was in preparation for her move to her new label. That training as documented on her blog, plus her being on Rhythm Trax has folks already predicting that Maki will be going down a J-Urban path not dissimilar than Kumi’s. And judging from the picture above, Maki seems to not only be sharing the same label as Koda Kumi, but also the same wardrobe department and nail artist. I like a lot of Kumi’s stuff, and Maki’s already flirted with that musical road before early on in her H!P days (with “SHALL WE LOVE?” in Gomattou), then started learning heavily towards the urban pop side of things with much of her last Piccolo Town/King album How To Use SEXY), so her first Rhythm Trax singles should be very interesting records indeed. Release dates, anyone?

From Ai Kago’s blog entry for 6.10.08, translated by Hello-Online.org:

Sammo Hung smoked cigars, which made him seem even more like a father. After eating, I’d be offered cigars or cigarrettes, and it was hard for me as the youngest one… I did smoke a little. But I just couldn’t handle a cigar… I’m sorry, everybody. I smoked. When I left Japan, I was adamant I wouldn’t. Really, that wasn’t cool of me. I kind of hate myself for that (;_;)

Dear Aibon,

Excuse the angry tone this starts off with, but what in the flying motherfucking fuck were you doing smoking a cigarette again?!? It pissed me off back in 2006 when you did that the first time, and it pissed me off all over again when I heard about it today. The fact that you’re legally old enough to smoke a cigarette now still doesn’t make it right.

Suffice it to say, as one of your fans, I am extremely disappointed. I’m sorry if I come off so hardcore straight-edge, but professional singers shouldn’t be smoking anything if they expect to have a long enough career in the music industry… not because of what their management and agency would do as punishment, but because of the damage to their larynx and their lungs that regular tobacco consumption can cause.

Contrary to what Frank Zappa said once, a cigarette is NOT food. Please wise the fuck up before this song starts to ring true in your case:

Sincerely,
CJ Marsicano

A couple of weeks ago (the first week of June, to be exact - Hello! Online only posted the translation a few days ago), Morning Musume were asked this for their Pocket Morning Weekly Q&A:

If you were asked to release one Morning Musume song overseas, which song would it be?

(Presumably, this question is being asked of the band regarding the musical merits of their songs, perhaps also disregarding language issues under the admittedly utopian, but still refreshingly open-minded belief that no one really gives a shit what language a song is sung in. The language issue is another column entirely.)

Some of the ladies had their own answers. Eri Kamei suggested MoMusu’s ska-punk chestnut “Koko ni Iruzee!”, citing (for obvious reasons) the line “A song passing over borders” and adding the reason, “Because it’s a very powerful Morning Musume song.”

Sayumi Mishichige picked “Aruiteru”, a song she acknowledges as one of her personal favorites, also citing an appropriate line of lyric in what she refers to as “the second refrain” (actually, it’s the first prechorus) of the song: “We’re at the distance where the we can hear the songs of the whole world.”

Koharu Kusumi picked “Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari” for a more personal reason: “It’s the song where I introduce myself, so I want to introduce myself like: ‘This is me!’” (Presumably, she is referring to “Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari 3″, which closes out Rainbow 7.)

Li Chun went old-school, picking without explanation the MoMusu standard “Furusato”. (Is JunJun looking to cut a solo version of the song for the next Best Shot DVD?)

Reina Tanaka had two choices, both personal favorites. One was “Shadondama”, which she had already picked as her top favorite Morning Musume single in the 17th installment of her CDData column last October. The other choice was one she shared with the rest of the band: “Resonant Blue”.

Risa Niigaki and Qian Lin both cited a similar reason for picking “Resonant Blue”: The fact that (as of this writing), “Resonant Blue” is the band’s current single. Gaki-san wants overseas fans “to see the recent us” while LinLin “want(s) more and more people to hear (the song)”. Aika Mitsui picks the song as an example of what she calls “the cool Morning Musume”, while Ai Takahashi gives no reason whatsoever for picking out the song.

Admittedly, I’d pick out “Resonant Blue” as an introductory American single myself, simply because it’s such a solid song and performance. Longtime readers of this blog already know my affection for the song, so I won’t risk boring anyone with a recap.

According to iTunes, “Resonant Blue” is already the most downloaded Morning Musume song on the American iTunes service. The young ladies of Morning Musume just might have something there. It also makes me wonder, yet again, how aware Morning Musume and Up-Front Works are of the band’s non-Asian cult audience. That, of course, is another column entirely… maybe part of a certain ongoing series.

Check the size of the coffee mug being wielded by Mr. Fripp - it’s bigger than his book! I could sure use a mug that size most mornings…

(Photos borrowed from here.)

Man, what took me so long to check out this PV? Actually, more like “watch it again and then write about it” would be the correct second part of that question…

I do admit, an H!P side project involving my favorite MoMusu is going to get my attention no matter what anyway, but I still have to withhold further comment until I’ve actually listened to the song a couple of times.

Well, the time for comment is now. I love the song. Yes, I’ve said this before when I did the Ri-Sa.J review this past weekend, and the TLC tribute episode of the Pagoda Podcast last month, and it bears repeating: Urban contemporary music in America has gone down the shitter. What was once the edgiest and best non-rock-based pop music on the American airwaves between 1991 and 2002 is now simply a repetitive and uninspired bastardization of both R&B and hip-hop with very little in the way of creativity or content either musically or lyrically. If I hear one more repetitive “hip-hop” song with lyrics about being “in tha club”, or about somebody’s clothes, or with some asinine deliberate mispronunciation of any word in the English language that makes Ebonics look like Shakespearian verse, I’m liable to call an air strike on the Island Def Jam offices or make Akon wish he really had gone to prison for car theft.

Hearing “C/C (Cinderella Complex)”, an R&B song which actually has defined verses and choruses (a rarity in current American urban pop), reminds me musically of a lot of some of the tracks on what I think is TLC’s finest studio album, Fan Mail. The musical arrangement of “C/C” reminds me a lot of the “grooving robotic” (my term) sound that Dallas Austin (the George Martin to TLC’s Beatles) concocted for many of Fan Mail’s pivotal tracks - so much so that it’s almost a shock that Reina Tanaka and Ai Takahashi aren’t singing “Silly Ho” or “I’m Good At Being Bad” instead, or that one of the H!P Kids joining the sempai Musume on this track aren’t making with a Left Eye-styled rap interlude.

The video’s pretty damn good for what is supposed to be a one-off side project tied into a MoMusu-involved stage play. My fellow Cancerian Vee lamented in her recent review that Reina could have worn a hairstyle other than her trademark tails in the PV, which may be true. But I think in Reina’s case, given that she’d worn different hairstyles in the “Mikan” and “Resonant Blue” PV’s and sported a transitional hairstyle during Morning Musume’s recent Taiwanese TV appearance, her wearing her everyday “Wonkytails” in a PV situation seems a shade redundant, but it doesn’t matter since, thinking back to the past couple of years of Morning Musume PVs, Reina doesn’t sport her trademark tails in any of those clips.

Takitty’s touching her face and fooling with her hat seem to get a little tedious as well, but probably only because she was doing something similar (sans hat) in the “Mikan” PV. The hat looks good on Takitty - it makes up for the fact that we don’t see much of her badonkadonk. (Vee is to blame for that word being in my vocabulary in relation to Ai Takahashi!) The three H!P Kids involved, Saki Shimuzu of Berryz Koubou, Maimi Yajima of C-ute, and H!P Egg Yukka Maeda, all do well in their slightly limited roles on the song as well.

The single comes out next week, and I’ve already had my pre-order in for weeks, but no doubt I’ll be checking the torrents this weekend for an advance tideover.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock ‘n’ roll whose distinctive “shave and a haircut, two bits” rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.

Diddley appreciated the honors he received, “but it didn’t put no figures in my checkbook.”

“If you ain’t got no money, ain’t nobody calls you honey,” he quipped. The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview.

“I don’t know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name,” he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow. His first single, “Bo Diddley,” introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as “shave and a haircut, two bits.” The B side, “I’m a Man,” with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.