深い森 covers...

Naree (vocal+guitar), cute British girl with a crystal clear voice


HIMEKA(vocal) + Mike (guitar), originality is bonus =D


Pazu-Chan & Elias, more emotional interpretations but I think the vocal sounds a bit weak.

Last.fm tricks and applications

The sporadic tech junkie post, heh heh. If you like what last.fm offers as much as I do and not afraid of the ‘geek’ label, children--here’s some stuff you may play with in your own idle time:

- Last.Fm Toolshed

Some rather handy small applications and greasemonkey scripts here, including Chart Changes, Recent Tracks Updater, 6 Degrees, Reverse Neighbours, and PyScrobble. (If you don’t know what greasemonkey is—it’s a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to specific web pages (wiki). Which means before you install any monkey scripts you’ll need the monkey itself--believe me, the magic is well worth the two clicks you need to execute!) I’ve had Chart Changes and Recent Tracks Updater for some time now--CC allows you to see the changes in artist and track rankings over time (7 days for the weekly charts, and for every update of the overall charts), and RTU updates your recently listened track list without you having to leave the user page--more details and illustrations in the links themselves. Work like magic. xD.

- Gijsco’s Last.fm Desktop Generator

Great little application here--downloads your personal chart data, and generates desktop wallpapers of various sizes from various schemes of your choosing. Very neat.

- Last.fm normalised rankings

"A little application to rank your favourite artists and albums by an estimation of how long you have spent listening to them" instead of number of tracks, which is often not a very accurately representative stat.

- Mainstream-O-Meter

Finally somebody thought of making another -O-Meter, lol.. A little blurb from the author: "The Mainstream-O-Meter calculates your mainstreamness by comparing the listener count of your favorite bands to the average listener count of the five bands who have the most listeners among Last.fm-users." More maths here.

Kotaro Oshio - Hard Rain

Oshio Official Site

Awesome guitar picking XD I think it should be renamed 'romantic rain' rather than 'hard rain'. It's nowhere close to a torrent.

Fromwkik
Kotaro Oshio (押尾コータロー, Oshio Kōtarō) is an acoustic guitarist from Japan. Born in Osaka, on February 1, 1968, he is most well known for his work on the steel string guitar.Oshio's music is classified within various categories including pop, new age, and jazz. His style has drawn comparisons with other highly regarded musicians such as Michael Hedges. Oshio's musical technique includes fingerpicking, slap harmonics, and precise strumming.

While his albums include mostly original material, Oshio is also well known for his covers and movie soundtracks. His unique skill in interpretation and arrangement can be heard in tracks such as "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" from his album "Starting Point".

Jeremy's Rock n' Roll list

Well...at the suggestion of Jady, I've put my list up here in a repost from my myspace page. In retrospect, it feels kind of retarded when I reread it. I guess I have to organize my thoughts somehow though. It's still not an exhaustive list on what makes rock music for me. Searching wikipedia with the names between the asterisks will give much better info...like...duh.
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It's probably no secret that I love rock music. I tend to like rock music that sticks to the independent spirit of 50's rock and roll and 60's garage, which punk rock does...although I also like certain offshoots like electro-punk, grunge, some progressive metal, etc. I thought maybe I'd list some of what I currently think makes the overall genre great in no particular order. It's by no means complete and mainly what's on the top my head right now. Feel free to disagree..., haha. I'm sure there are some, and I'm not naming names, that would want Garnet Crow and Love Psychedelico on here, but they get a lot of love on this site ;-)

*Chuck Berry* Without this guy, I don't think there'd be rock and roll as we know it...a great guitar player and singer. He's a legend...I don't think I can really say more. His peers like Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens also rank up there.

*Misfits* The original Misfits with Glen Danzig is probably one of my favorite bands of all time. Danzig melded horror/sci-fi themes, punk rock, doo-wop, and a catchy sing along chorus. He also had an awesome singing voice...probably unparalleled in the punk rock world. The only thing that came close to ruining the band (and I guess it did....) was their album Earth A.D., but I've gotten used to that hardcore mess.

*The Clash* Another of my most favorite punk bands, The Clash is probably the most musically diverse. Despite London Calling and Combat Rock being favorites among fans, I think that the UK version of The Clash is probably their best album because it was the "raw" Clash. Singer and guitarist Joe Strummer held a political idealism that I share...I like how they held up against the nihilistic Sex Pistols, whom I don't like very much.

*Joan Jett* Do I need to explain? She's also a legend in her own right and paved the way for the grrl next on my list....

*Kathleen Hanna* Er...controversial punk rock goddess that she is...she did a lot for women in rock music. She was unapologetic in spouting obnoxious riot grrl uber-feminism...but the male dominated punk rock scene probably needed that kick in the ass. While I don't always agree with her Bikini Kill work, her other band, Le Tigre is probably one of the best electro-punk bands ever and another of my favorite bands.

*L7* A band that took the riot grrl ideology and made it more accessible to everyone, sticking to a grunge/metal/punk hybrid sound. They just wanted to rock hard and be taken seriously...being male or female didn't matter much.

*Tool* Before Tool I hated metal. I thought it was all big hair, greed, ultra-long high pitched guitar solos, groupies, and narcissism (I am a fucking rock star!). Seeing the video for "Sober" way back when MTV still showed videos 24/7 changed my mind a bit. This band is awesome and always reinvents it's sound. Although it started out more in thrash metal territory...they've gone more progressive and experimental defying labels. They also do something very punk...they always advocate thinking for one's self and to not always trust the establishment. At least, that's what I got out of some of their songs.

*Bad Religion* Awesome hardcore punk band...melodic and abrasive at the same time.... Their lyrics are quite intelligent and they express their social commentary in a more subtle way than most punk bands.

*Black Flag* Well...early Black Flag...pioneers of the hardcore punk movement...they had do it yourself ethics and anti-establishment feelings in abundance and who wouldn't like a band once blamed for the decay of youth in America?

*Devo* They get points for being original. I don't know why, but their sound is infectious...not quite rock, not quote electronic, and definitely offbeat. You either get their brand of devolution or you don't.

*Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs* Well...there wouldn't really be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as we know it without her. Probably the most eccentric female performer to come out in rock music for...um, she may be unique. Her stage performances are awesome and quite spastic. They've got a cool, raw rock sound that was missing from contemporary rock music in general the past few years. Karen O is also one of the few singers to successfully integrate an orgasm as part of a riff in the song "Black Tongue."

*The Ramones* I'll probably be hung for saying this, but the Ramones probably weren't the best punk band ever. They were, however the hardest working and probably most influential. They galvanized the punk scene when it was still in its baby stage, producing bands like the Clash.... They still have some awesome songs though.

*Akiakane* I had been having trouble finding new punk bands that liked...then I heard this Japanese punk rock band and I felt reinvigorated. These gals are awesome! They have high energy and a "who gives a fuck!" political passion. Unlike many of their timid female peers in Japan, they don't seem to care about their image. Vocal for their support of Taiwan and love of their own country...the band has run into unfounded flak by a few misguided individuals who misinterpret the messages they take from Japan's WWII experience. Not that I agree with what they sing about, but I've never been big on always having to agree to like something. Man I want to see them live!

Wow, I think I was bored. Maybe I'll add to this list sometime as there's more to be said.

LOVE PSYCHEDELICO - Freedom

LP - Freedom (theme song for national baseball event)
I ran out of adjectives to describe this PV, surely one of the highest budgeted in LP history. Just right for the sweltering hot sports event.



Jady should've posted this lol (Check out her fansite Salut,Delico! ). Their new album 'Golden Grapefruit' will be on sale 27th June. Audio clips are available on their official website. I have a pretty good impression of this album, much anticipated!

Also check out the exclusive 'Golden Grapefruit' site on jvcmusic

Ross Copperman - All She Ever Wrote

Ross Copperman is an american singer-songwriter, a newbie who just released his first album 'Welcome to reality' in May this year. The most popular track 'All she ever wrote' is very pop and catchy. Although it doesn't sound much different from other punk (would it offend if I say 'teenage punk'?), I like the piano arrangements. I prefer a more mature voice but this one isn't bad.

Official Site http://www.rosscopperman.com/

The Bird and the Bee

One song a day is much easier than a review proper. If you like the song you can dig up the group on your own =D Still, some basic info on this indie group 'The bird and the bee' which I chanced upon on a chinese music blog trix.cn. The L.A. based duo consists of vocalist Inara George and keyboardist Greg Kurstin who worked with Red Hot Chilli Peppers before. Their style is a bit dance and electro indie. I'd say Inara sounds like Imogen Heap, but softer and more dreamy pop.

The bird and the bee official website

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I just knew this from one of their interviews: How does the band name suggest 'sex'? Seems it's a common saying in English.Someone enlighten me.

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Continue here,

They released the eponymous LP on Jan, 2007.



Here's the first track on the album 'Again and Again'


F*cking Boyfriend