5 posts tagged “ketchup mania”

Surveys are fun!  This one is from Cutie Party, here goes...

1. What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to?

I'd like to answer this question last (see below)

2. Did it inspire you to like that group/singer, or did it turn you away?

Yes, I would say it made me a fan

3. What is the one song that you have been listening to for the longest time?

The J-pop CD that has been in my collection the longest AND I still regularly play is Pipo Angels' "Luvly Merry-Go-Round"  I love that song.  And I love that group!

4. What group/singer have you liked the longest?

That would have to be Shonen Knife, because I have liked them consistently since I discovered them while I was in college...

5. What is the song with the most plays on your itunes/media player?

I can only base this on memory, since I don't use a media player other than CD's and YouTube.  But the song I have listened to the most would have to be Ne~e by Matsuura Aya

6. Is that song your favorite?

I've never thought about it, but it might be

7. If not, what is?

Difficult question.  Ne~e is my favorite Ayaya song.  I'll list my favorites of a few UFA groups:

Morning Musume:  I Wish

Berryz Koubou:  (tie) Berry Fields or Fighting Pose wa Date Ja Nai

C-ute:  Ookina ai de Motenashite

Melon Kinenbi: Kokuhaku Kinenbi

W: Shiroi Iro wa Koibito no Iro

Mini Moni:  Mirakurun Guran Purin

ZYX: Shiroi Tokyo

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

The only J-pop artist I can think of is Buono!  But they have only produced one album and one additional single.  As for J-Rock, I have three Ketchup Mania CD's, and I like just about every song on them

9. What is your favorite agency?

Up Front Agency, I thank heaven for their existence!

10. What is your favorite group/singer?

Matsuura Aya

1. What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to?

I had to think about this for a minute.  The first Japanese pop song I ever heard (and it came out long before I was born!!!) had to be "Sukiyaki" by the great Kyu Sakamoto.  It is such a beautiful song, and proof positive that it IS POSSIBLE for a Japanese artists to "strike gold" in the west as it was a #1 song on the billboard pop charts in 1963!  And it is probably the best known Japanese song in history.  Sadly, he was taken away from us too soon in the 1985 crash of JAL Flight 123 in Gunma...

Rest in Peace, Kyu-chan

CK in California!

Tomorrow is going to be great!!!  It is my best friend Dan's birthday, and we are renting a limousine and spending the day in Napa Valley cruising from winery to winery.  Just one of the many cool things about living in Northern California.  The tough part is picking the appropriate gift.  I am very bad at gift giving, and always put it off until the last overly-stressful moment.  On Wednesday I finally broke down and asked Dan what he wanted for his birthday.  He plainly stated, "I want you to take me to see Iron Maiden tonight!"  Little did I know...

Maiden Killers

Dan has always found my transformation into a J-pop fan a bit...comical???  Dan is strictly a Maiden, Priest, Metallica, Ozzy kind of guy.  Dan also knows that I used to be a big fan of those groups many years ago.  So in his mind this was going to be as much of an intervention for me as a birthday gift for him.  Unfortunately for Dan I was the designated driver for the event, which meant one thing...

I control the CD player in the car!!!

Yes, the conversation during the car ride to the show was pretty interesting.  It must have gone something like this...

CK:

Reina 5

Dan: Yeah Chris, But...

Lemmy

CK:  I know Dan, I know, but...

Double You

Dan: Whatever Chris...

Maiden1

Okay Dan, fine.  I'll continue to fantasize about Reina, Ayaya and Nacchi while you fantasize about Bruce Dickinson and Sammy Hagar.  And anyway it's my car so Mr. "Metal for Life" gets to be the latest lab rat in the Western J-pop experiment.  I honestly didn't hold out too much hope to convert him, but at least I would get a chance to share why I like these groups so much.  I decided to ease him into it...

Ketchup Mania ~ I figured musically they would be pretty palatable for Dan.  And I was correct, although it took a few songs for him to get used to Hiro's high pitched voice, which Dan compared to "Chip n' Dale".  But overall he liked them, and thought the drummer kicked a$$.

The Possible ~ Of the two singles I have, I think he preferred "Happy 15", as he laughed everytime they screamed "HAPPY!!!"  Plus he preferred the "slutty" (his quote) outfits on that CD to the cuter look in "Love Message".  His best observation being that Kanami looks like she is "begging for it"

Kanami

Buono! ~ He got a kick out of the cover, but that's about it.  He thought they were just o.k.

Perfume ~ He hated!!!  And I think he found AKB48 only slightly more tolerable, only because I was telling him what some of the lyrics meant.

Morning Musume ~ He seemed to find surprisingly listenable.  As I mentioned before I didn't have high hopes, so anything he didn't hate was a victory!  So much for the experiment, onto the show...

Now to be honest with you, this was actually the SIXTH time I had seen Iron Maiden live, although it was only the second time I had seen them in the last twenty years!  Boy do I feel old, and boy do they look old!  And the girls in the audience were probably pretty cute in 1985.  And now...sheesh they all look old too!  But it was really a great show!  Musically speaking, Iron Maiden is an amazing band.  They are all terrific musicians, and the songwriting is so creative!  Their lyrics can best be described as "an evening watching the History Channel".  There is no group quite like them.  Then again, there is nothing quite like a Hello! Project concert either.  But the motivations for seeing each respective show is quite different.  Personally I'd rather stare at Charmy and Maimi than Jannick Gers and Nicko McBrain any day of the week!  Then you have the fans...

Most of the fans of the 80's metal scene have grown up and gotten responsible jobs...MOST of them.  Yeah, they bang their heads and flash the "Lucifer's Horns" hand signal, but it's all so "kitschy" now!  The audience in general looked like stockbrokers in Halloween costumes, and many of them even brought their kids to the show!  I found them a lot less scary than the rabid J-pop Wota-gei Otaku's.  Now those guys are scary!

So I'm glad I have a varied musical taste.  I can have as good of a time going to a concert like this as any J-pop group.  But as for which one I prefer?  My vote is for the "kawaii"...

Sorry Dan, the intervention didn't work.  The biggest lesson learned here?  Henkka aka H!P Metalhead is an amazing anomaly.  Trying to convert a true hard rock fan to J-pop can be sort of fun, but it's mostly frustrating and painful.

Oh yeah...Happy Birthday Danny-Boy!!!

CK in California 

This week I received my second Ketchup Mania CD...U.R.G.E

Ketchup Urge

I loved "Greetings From Tokyo" so much, that it seemed fitting to sample their second full length CD.  I made many comments in the first review that their debut CD reminded me a lot of the first CD by The Ramones.  In many ways their second CD is reminiscent of The Ramones second CD, "Leave Home".  Where the first disc is straightforward punk/rock in successive short bursts, this CD is a bit more experimental.  KM keeps their basic sound, but branches out into different punk/rock styles and sounds.  This was definitely an attempt to "spread their wings" creatively.  The result was a couple of "near misses" surrounded by some creative gems.

This album had me thinking back to all of the punk bands I idolized so much in my youth.  Yes, like Nakazawa Yuko I was a bit of a punker in my formative years.  And it's easy to hear many punk influences above and beyond The Ramones on this album.  There are definitely some Dead Kennedys and Sex Pistols influences.  But what really grabs me are the similarites to my all time favorite L.A. punk band, "X".  HIRO has a tendency to sing a little "flat" on many of the tracks.  And no one sings flat quite as well as Exene Cervenka!  It's interesting, when I saw Ketchup Mania live I thought of them more as a straight rock n' roll group.

Hiro4

KM starts the album with a wierd intro (Welcome to the Ketchup World) much like their first disc.  It seems to be their signature bit.  But to be honest, it's my least favorite part of both CDs.  It then goes straight into their only "all English" track I've ever heard., KISS. (press the little button, it's the link to the song on lastfm)

This song reminds me a little bit of Hole (Courtney Love is another "flat" singer), but it's a great punk track.  There is no band quite like them, and they use a heavy echo dub on Hiro's voice.

Hiro2

The third track, Handcuffs of Love is pretty good.  Track 4 is the song I fell in love with at Japan Nite 2008.  Real Yaayo is a great example of the overall sound of the band.  I really love this PV (the only video I could find from the album)...

Track 5, TOKYO almost sounds like the rally chant for England's national Footie Team.  The musicianship on Doubt Mail sounds like like the classic sound of the Dead Kennedys.  All OK! is a pretty cool track, but the last two songs on the CD are by far my two favorites.  The first is Juicy Candy.  It's extremely fast-paced, and at the same time very melodic.  It's the one song on the CD I love listening to over and over again...

LAnd the CD ends with another great track, POP POP POP POP POP POP POP LOLLIPOP, which starts off like The Ramones' Rock and Roll High School.  I'm glad to hear them get back to their roots...

Although this CD holds up pretty well, I still prefer "Greetings From Tokyo" because I simply love more of the songs.  But I am really falling in love with this group (and obviously their lead singer)!  They sound great, and are a lot of fun to listen to.  And I'll give a little plug to japanfiles.com, where you can not only download their music, but listen to a one-hour block of KM every Monday night on their live365 radio show.  I hope they make it back to the U.S. very soon.  But I am planning to make two trips to Japan in the next eight months.  So I won't be too heartbroken if I have to see them on their own turf.

Hiro3

 Anything you say HIRO...CK in California

Ketchup Mania

A couple of days ago I posted this review of Ketchup Mania's first full-length CD AND their newest single/PV.  Yesterday I e-mailed the link to the article to KM's site, this is the response I received...

When Radicalpatriot invited me to Japan Nite in San Francisco last March, the only band that really interested me was SCANDAL.  And why not?  AKB48 rocking out with guitars?  How hot is that?  SCANDAL was pretty cool, but what I didn't know was that I would leave the concert as a huge fan of another group all together.  And that band is Ketchup Mania!

Ketchup

Like Henkka, I can also be described as somewhat of a "metalhead"  The list of groups I have seen live includes Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy, Motorhead, Van Halen, Dokken, Twisted Sister, Guns n' Roses, Dio, and W.A.S.P..  Outside of J-pop and Hello! Project, My all time favorite artists are The Ramones, The Surf Punks, X, The Pixies, and 311.  I'm also a huge fan of The Smiths (I know, pretty random for this list)  I've now received my first of hopefully many Ketchup Mania purchases, their first full-length CD...

Greetings

 Greetings From Tokyo - 2006

This is an unbelievably great album!  Every track is fast, furious, and features the amazing voice of the ultra-sexy HIRO.  There are many groups in the J-rock universe that have a punk/thrash sound with an Anime-styled lead singer.  Berry Roll is one I've heard, The Soap is another.  But no singer has the command of HIRO, and her sound is so unique.  The musicianship is ultra tight.  DAI's guitar work and WANI's drumming are lightning quick, but very crisp.  And they sound great live too!

The CD is a set of twelve under-2 minute songs in rapid succession.  In a way, their style could be described as repetitive.  But I love their style, so it doesn't bother me at all.  The CD in many ways reminds me of The Ramones first album.  Pretty much every song is great!  My favorite tracks...

Track 2 ~ BES-POSI  They go into a reggae style on the bridge, which is a great variation!  Like an amped up version of The Specials.  HIRO goes very high in her vocal range on the chorus. 

Track 3 ~ NAMIDA VACUUM SOUND  The guitar solo is a great variation of Wipeout by the Ventures.  Their second PV...

Track 7 ~ SUN FLOWER  This is my favorite song on the CD.  On almost every track, HIRO harmonizes with herself.  I'm pretty sure it's an overlapped track.  Twice the HIRO, twice the fun!  Many songs on this CD are just fast, but this one is one of the most melodic.  I wish I could find a video of this!

Track 8 ~ YOUR WORLD  For some reason, the guitar work on the chorus reminds me of the 80's alternative sound.  BTW, The sound on the PV is kinda low...

Track 9 ~ CANDLE ON THE BIRTHDAY CAKE  This song is so reminiscent of Bow Wow Wow, especially the intro guitar.  It's very melodic, with a caribbean rhythm to it.  My Japanese is weak at best, but I've never heard so many phrases end with the sound "lu"  What does that mean???

Track 10 ~  JINGLE BERRY  is my other favorite song, and just might be the best Christmas song ever made!!!  Sorry Bing!  Although it's slightly more "Christmas-y" than Spinal Tap's "Christmas with the Devil" and Dread Zeppelin's "Christmas in Las Vegas"  I'll be alternating between this and Sayumi and Koharu's "Merry Pinku Kurisumasu" this holiday season.  To me this is their best PV, simply because it is almost exclusively closeups of HIRO...

I love just about every song on this CD.  I highly recommend it.  I found it for a very reasonable price (new) on EBay, and YesAsia has a CD/DVD version.

You can hear Ketchup Mania every Monday night (10 eastern/7pacific) on the Japan Files channel on live 365.com.  There's a link posted on their MySpace page.  By the way, here is their brand new PV, Please! Marry Me!!!  Oh HIRO, if only...

I was surprised by the comparative "softness" in the beginning, but the song "rocks out" more as it progresses.  It sounds A LOT more polished and produced than "Greetings From Tokyo".  I believe they might be grooming them for a more mass market appeal!  The purists might not like it as much, but it is a step forward in their career.  When they become huge stars, I'll always have the memory of hanging out with them and having a smoke on Divisadero Ave. in San Francisco!  DAI's "Wedding March" guitar solo in the middle is awesome!  I just love when guitarists do "classical favorites" as solos.  The video is a continuation of the theme from their previous PV, BAD BAD BAD.  And I love the R. Crumb-styled animation!  Ya know, after listening to this song a few times, it's really starting to grow on me, very cool!

HIRO So Sexy

And by the way, did I mention HIRO is too friggin' HOT?  Even if she does deserve a Hall of Fame spot on my "Great Orthodontist Adventure"!!! 

CK in California