The band consists of five members: Ichiro Yamaguchi (vocals & guitar), Motoharu Iwadera (guitar), Ami Kusakari (bass), Emi Okazaki (keyboard), and Keiichi Ejima (drums). Sakanaction is a combination of the Japanese word for fish, sakana, and the English word, action. Together we have Sakanaction. Or just Fish Action, but no not really – no one calls them that – that’s just silly name. Fish Action, psh.

The band claims the fish symbolism in their name reflects their wish to act quickly and lightly, like a fearless fish in the sea not fearing changes in the music industry. Sakanaction has been enjoying increased popularity lately, and has even achieved some mainstream success by appearing on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 charts.

Ichiro Yamaguchi, Sakanaction’s creator, was originally from a band by the name of Dutchman, which he started in 1998 with a few of his friends from high school including Motoharu Iwadera (the guitarist of Sakanaction). From 2000 to 2003, they released one maxi single titled Fly, one album titled Demonstration, and a single titled Mikazuki Sunset that was only sold at their live performances.

Unfortunately however, the band did not gain much recognition. In 2004, the members of Dutchman disbanded, leaving Yamaguchi to continue on alone with the project. Wanting to try his hand at something different, Yamaguchi then began performing as a live DJ at night clubs.

One year later, Sakanaction was born in 2005. When Yamaguchi was working at a record store, he heard the song Owari no Kisetsu by Rei Harakami and it inspired him to create a new, totally awesome band. Enter Sakanaction. Yamaguchi founded Sakanaction together with Iwadera, while Kusakari left another band to join the ranks of Sakanaction. Ejima was introduced by a mutual friend, and Okazaki was one of the other people working at the record store with Yamaguchi.

We made a new band together and named it “Sakanaction”. When I first suggested “What do you think of the name Sakanaction?”, he said “I hate it”, but I forced.
-Yamaguchi

Sakanaction first started to gain mass appeal during the 2006 Rising Sun Rock Festival and the band’s first physical release was Go to the Future in 2007. Three songs originally from Dutchman were also rereleased as Sakanaction releases. Mikazuki Sunset and Inner World were included in Go to the Future while Word was part of a digital download release, and later made it to the NIGHT FISHING album.

On August 9, 2008, Sakanaction performed as one of the main acts on one of Japan’s top music stations, “Music On!” in an event called Summer Sonic ’08. Sakanaction performed alongside Paul Weller, The Fratellis, Death Cab for Cutie, Cajun Dance Party, Band of Horses, Blood Red Shoes, and These New Puritans. Not too bad.

On December 26, 2008, Sakanaction made it to #9 on Billboard’s Japan Hot 100 list with their single Sentorei. The song moved from #91 to #9 in just four weeks. This was a big accomplishment for Sakanaction.

In December of 2008 the band announced their third album, Shinshiro, which ended up being released in January of 2009. The album debuted at #8 on the Oricon weekly charts. Sakanaction held a national promotional tour, Sakanquarium2009, in February and March of 2009. On January 13, 2010, the band released the single Aruku Around, which hit #3 on the Oricon weekly charts.

On August 8, 2010 they made appearances at both the Summer Sonic and the World Happiness 2010 rock festivals in Tokyo. I don’t know about you, but any rock festival by the name of World Happiness sounds like a pretty good time to me.

So far they have 5 full length albums and 3 EPs. I for one am very much looking forward to hearing whatever they have to offer in the future. I think my favorite song and video is the last one included on this page (I really like that one man dance line). What’s your favorite?

P.S. Did you know that Sakanaction has a Twitter? Well so does Tofugu.
P.P.S. Want to share some other lesser known bands? Leave us a comment on Facebook or Google+.

All band information obtained from Sakanaction’s Wikipedia and Last.fm pages.

Formed in 2005, the members of The Telephones include: Akira Ishige (石毛輝) on vocals, guitar, and keyboard, Ryohei Nagashima (長島涼平) on bass and chorus, Nobuaki Okamoto (岡本伸明 ) on keyboard and chorus, and Seiji Matsumoto (松本誠治) on drums. And now onto the music!

I found this band a while back while I was looking for new bands and searching around on last.fm and YouTube. I also think it was around the time I found out about Vola and the Oriental Machine, but I’m not sure, it was a while ago.

Anyway, The Telephones are really, really good. They have a great unique sound and their music videos are awesome. So please, continue on and feast your eyes!

After playing their first show together in January of 2005, The Telephones began to ring with resounding potential. The electronic rock quartet released their first demo in July of the same year and established their official line up not too long after that. With their roster set, The Telephones released their second demo in February of 2006 and followed things up with a short summer tour around the Kanto region of Japan.

The Telephones released their debut mini album, We are the Handclaps, with July Records in April of 2007 and have continued to rock the nation of Japan with their discotheque rock anthems ever since.

July 2009 saw the release of The Telephones’ first full length album, Dance Floor Monsters. The debut single from this album, Monkey Discooooooo, was in heavy rotation on MTV Japan. You can watch said video near the end of this post.

Band Information Source: last.fm

Pre-2010 Songs

I like their latest stuff the best, but here’s a few of their older songs. Which batch do you like better? The older stuff or the newer stuff?

Akira Ishige’s Solo Career

It would also seem that the lead vocalist has gone solo. I just discovered this a few days ago and it’s a real departure from the sound of The Telephones. What do you think? It’s much softer, relaxing, and not disco-like at all. How strange!

P.S. Already heard of the Telephones? Tell us what bands we’re missing out on over on our Twitter page.
P.P.S. Missed our other great band recommendations? Check us out over on Facebook and Google+.

In The Red Corner… Genki Sudo!

Genki Sudo was, at one time, a martial artist. He did mixed martial arts and kickboxing and competed in multiple tournaments and organizations. Unsurprisingly (since he’s doing dance stuff now), he was particularly known for his flashy entrances to the fighting stage. According to Wikipedia, one time he did the robot and operating levers that released a column of smoke from the top of his head while wearing a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket as a hat and a white plastic mask, in an homage to the musician Buckethead.

Sounds awesome, right? Well, he put all that awesomeness into music videos that will seriously blow your mind.

Genki Sudo’s World Order Music & Videos

In retirement, he’s been working with six awesome dancers, pushing the boundaries of dance and entertainment. I’m normally bored to tears when I have to watch music, dancing, or a combination of the two – but Sudo’s stuff captivated me. I watched video after video after video until they were done, then immediately started writing this post. I hope you like the videos too.

The best part about these, I think, is the first of all the dancing, but secondly the people watching them dance. They just go out in public areas for the most part, do their thing, and then leave. People walk by, look at them all confused, take video/pictures, ignore them completely, and all kinds of other hilarious things if you pay close enough attention. Try to watch and you’ll see some entertaining reactions.

World Order In New York

World Order’s Mindshift

World Order Live In Tokyo & Osaka

Dell Streak Man Project

World Order’s Machine Civilization

Live at the WPC

World Order’s “Boy Meets Girl”

Dell Streak Campaign

World Order 2012

I think that’s all of them! After watching these, I for one am ready to welcome my benevolent dancing overlords. For some reason I feel inspired when I watch them – maybe it’s the simplicity of the dancing… but a simplicity that’s impossible to achieve without tons and tons of practice. It’s easy to make something complex, but very difficult to make something really, really simple. Their’s a beauty in simplicity. I think that’s Genki Sudo’s Buddhism shining through, right there.

So what do you think? Incredible? Not so much? Be sure to let me know in the comments and share other things you think might be better. If you find me something that will blow me away more than World Order, you get a gold star. Let the challenge begin! …though I’m not sure if it can be done.

In the meantime, let’s all hope that Mike Tyson decides to take advantage of his retirement from fighting too in the same way as Genki Sudo, am I right?

P.S. To stay up to date with the comings and goings of World Order, you can find them on their website, Twitter, and/or their Google+ Pages!

Polysics or Die!!!!

Formed in 1997, Polysics (ポリシックス) hails from Tokyo and describes their sound as technicolor-pogo-punk (I describe it as super awesome). The band took its name from a favored synth, the Korg Polysix. They create super high energy music, fusing traditional rock instruments with synths to create a unique punk-rocky-synthpop sound, heavily inspired by the American bands Devo and The Tubes, and Japanese bands such as P-Model and Yellow Magic Orchestra. They are also one of my favorite bands of all time.

Polysics’ song lyrics are both Japanese, English, and neither. Gibberish and nonsense words make up a fair share of their lyrics. The band is also famous for their insanely upbeat live performances (one of which I was lucky enough to see. In Akron, Ohio no less. It was fantastic – best show ever). They are also easily recognized by their goofy matching outfits, most notably their trademark orange jump suits and their straight-bar sunglasses. A lot of fans will dress up in this same outfit when attending their live shows.

If you want to learn more about the band’s history, you can check it out here on their Wikipedia page. Otherwise, continue on below for more awesome music videos. Enjoy.

Sadly Kayo the keyboardist is no longer with the band (*sadface*) but they seem to be doing just fine without her (as you can see from the first PV posted). You can read more about her and her decision to leave the band here. And you can also read a full review on their latest album, Oh! No! It’s Heavy Polysick!!! here.

So what other cool bands doesn’t Hashi know about? Help his musical tastes mature in the comments below!

P.S. Already following Polysics on Twitter? Why don’t you follow Tofugu too?
P.P.S. Want to hear about more awesome Japanese bands? Check us out on Facebook and Google+.

Remember that sweet music that started playing when Koichi finally found the cats of the infamous Cat Island? Want to relive that feeling of stumbling upon a clearing of cats live, in person? Do you like noble light fixtures?

Then we have a treat for you.

The music in Cat Island was done by the awesome alt-pop band, Brave Chandeliers. These guys have always been great about letting us use their stuff for TofuguTV, and we want to make sure to help them out too! They’ll be touring the US from now till August, so we thought we’d get the word out for their US tour. Here’s when and where they’ll be playing:

Tour Dates

Tuesday July 26 – Charlotte, The Milestone
Wednesday July 27 – Chapel Hill, Local 506
Thursday July 28 – Philadelphia, Rusty Nail
Friday July 29 – New York, Sullivan Hall
Saturday July 30 – New York, Times Square Arts Center

Tuesday August 2 – Detroit, Magic Bag
Wednesday August 3 – Indianapolis, Birdy’s
Thursday August 4 – Chicago, Bottom Lounge
Saturday August 6 – Milwaukee, Shank Hall

Monday August 8 – Kansas City, Riot Room
Wednesday August 10 – Dallas, Double Wide
Friday August 12 – Albuquerque, el Rey Theater

So if you like their music in Cat Island, be sure to check them out in live.

And as a special treat, Tofugu readers can grab a free EP from Brave Chandeliers here!

P.S.: Like Brave Chandeliers? The let us know on our Twitter!

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Facemelting claims yet another victim.

Like many others, I have my fair share of fond memories and nostalgia when it comes to the many works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. So needless to say when I heard talk of an album consisting of reworks of the most popular Studio Ghibli tunes, I was a little bit more than excited. And then I found out that they were metal remixes. Guttural squealing, guitar shredding, double bass pounding, mosh-until-you’ve-lost-a-limb inducing death metal. Wait, what?

That’s right, Japan’s Media Factory has brought us 12 very famous tracks remixed by the likes of Blood Stain Child, Breach the Void, Destrage, Disarmonia Mundi, Living Corpse, and Neroargento. Skeptical yet? I too was like you once.

Nothing says metal quite like a flower princess

The collective project has been dubbed “Imaginary Flying Machines” after one of the many short films directed by Hayao Miyazaki and the album itself goes by the title “Princess Ghibli.” While some die-hard Ghibli purists may turn their noses up at this release, (Fie upon you! This album is awesome!) *ahem* the album has been receiving its fair share of warm reviews thus far.

The cover of (a cover of) Country Road was a bit strange if not unexpected, and at some points during the album things seem to get a bit… off, but for the most part the album is very solid. Then again, I am a fan of both melodic death metal and Studio Ghibli, so this album was more or less tailored directly to my interests. Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) is definitely my favorite track the album has to offer. Never have I smiled so much while listening to metal.

Here are the tracks available on the album.

1. Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)
2. Kimi Wo Nosete (Laputa: Castle in the Sky)
3. Teru No Uta (Tales from Earthsea)
4. Gake No Ue No Ponyo (Ponyo On The Cliff)
5. Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
6. Country Road (Whisper of the Heart)
7. Itsumo Nandodemo (Spirited Away)
8. Arrietty’s Song (Japanese version) (The Borrower Arrietty)
9. Yasashisa Ni Tsutsumaretanara (Kiki’s Delivery Service)
10. Toki niwa Mukashi no hanashio (Porco Rosso)
11. Sanpo (My Neighbor Totoro)
12. Nausicaä requiem (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)

However, if you have never seen a Studio Ghibli film, (shame on you!) then much of the hilarity and awesomeness will unfortunately be lost on you and it will definitely not be as enjoyable. If you absolutely cannot stand metal, screaming vocals, or pounding double bass, then chances are you will not enjoy this album. But regardless, if you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli, you owe it to yourself to at least check it out just to see what they’ve done with this release. And if you feel the need to watch all of your childhood favorites ten times over again to reaffirm to yourself that Totoro is indeed not a devil worshipping speed metal addict, then we understand.

You can actually purchase these in mp3 format, too. They’re available on Amazon as well as iTunes. Give them a little sample listen and tell us what you think!

P.S. Was your childhood just ruined? Tell us about it on Twitter.

P.P.S. Did your childhood just get better? Let us know on Facebook.

Kid’s songs are a wonderful resource to help you learn Japanese better. They are often overlooked because… well, they are a bit silly, but I think they are worth a second look. I’m going to cover a bit of theory here (I promise not too much), and then look at 6 kid’s songs you might use in your studies.

The How

Now I can see you scratching your heads. How can stupid kid’s songs help me learn Japanese? Right? Hold that thought. Let me ask you a question: Can you remember any of the children’s songs you learned when you were a kid? I’m guessing yes.

The basic problems with learning Japanese are pretty well known at this point. If you are a regular Tofugu reader, you probably know many of them. Two of the biggest ones, I think, are that we make our study too hard and we don’t have fun. These are actually two parts of the same problem.

The effects of these two problems are so common they almost go without saying: 1) loss of motivation and 2) burn-out. Kid’s songs help combat this by adding a bit of fun back into your study routine, and also by secretly working on your listening, recognition and (if you are brave and sing out loud with them) your pronunciation and speaking.

How’s that work, huh? Have you heard of a fella by the name of Alexander Arguelles. He’s a professor of languages, a polyglot who can speak some 30+ languages to varying levels of mastery (including some Japanese) . His primary method for learning is the shadow method. I’m sure you all have heard of this, right? This is where someone says something and we attempt to repeat it back at nearly the same moment, maybe only a second or two behind. Now the shadow method is common enough in language learning these days, but he recommends starting with a very strict version of it where all you do is shadow. No looking at text (reading), no looking at the translation to figure out what you are saying, just shadowing.

Crazy you say? How will I know what I’m saying/learning? That’s the point. By only shadowing you are narrowing your learning focus to just a couple things: listening, that is focusing on the actual sounds, and speaking. Interestingly, these are often the hardest areas for language learners to master. You can memorize as many words/sentences, as much grammar as you want, but if you have trouble understanding when someone talks to you or if you have trouble finding the right words when you speak, all that knowledge is for waste.

(If you want to know more about Prof Arguelles and his theories, start with this video on youtube, where he discusses his shadowing approach)

Still awake? Apologizes for all that boring theory. I think it’s useful to consider this stuff. At any rate, on to the list of songs. Most or all of these are very well known by the Japanese, so you will be sure to pleasantly surprise people if you manage to memorize any.

6 great Japanese kid’s songs

First, Mary had a little lamb.

This is about as easy as you are going to get. Unfortunately, the video has English in it. Remember, at this point we really aren’t concerned with what the Japanese actually means. Concentrate on the sounds, both hearing them and reproducing them as best you can.

The acorn song!

This is a fun song. Can you clearly understand the kids’ singing? Listen a few times before you try to shadow it.

Pushing the difficulty up a little, here is The Dog Policeman.

This one is one of those everyone loves. I hear kids singing it all the time in the stores. The video is funny, too. The kana is on the video, but remember, we are working our listening not reading. Try to use your ears to figure out what sounds they are making.

Both the songs from My Neighbor Totoro are fun and easy to learn. Here’s a video with both of them.

As an added bonus, the kids in this video are adorable.

Ah, the Taikaki Song. This song is long and a little challenging, but he sings slowly and you should be able to follow along after a few trys. Unfortunately the one I want to embed here has embedding disabled. Go watch that version at youtube for some animation that will help you understand the song. Here’s another version with the guy who sings it. Awesome hair!

Do you know what Taiyaki is? It’s kind of a hotcake with anko inside in the shape of a fish. This is quite an old song, but mention it or hum a few bars and you’ll bring a smile to the face of anyone over 30 .

Finally, the Japanese dub of one we probably all know. Challenge yourself and learn this version.

Want more?

Follow any of these videos to youtube and you should find a great many video links to other kid’s songs. Find some you like and learn them. You’ll enjoy yourself and it really will help your Japanese.

This post was written by Dave of JapanDave.com who Tweets and has a great newsletter full of amazing pictures of Japan.

Of course, there are plenty of ways to *cough* get Japanese music for free, but here is one legit method I’ve been using for a little over a year now, and it works really well. That being said, I’m not much of a music buff, so I have no idea what I like listening to (usually it’s not Japanese music, to be perfectly honest), but I know there are plenty of you out there jonesing to get your hands on more Japanese music, find new bands, etc., especially since iTunes makes it hard for non-Japanese-living folk to buy Japanese music (and CD prices are just plain outrageous).

The service I use to listen to and get access to new music (or, in my case, lots of really old classical music) is Last.fm. There’s a competing product out there, Pandora, but to be honest, I’m not a fan of their user interface. I like last.fm’s desktop app, and I like how there’s always a ton of information on the song / band that’s playing available at my fingertips. Plus, it’s a lot easier to use, and integrates some nice social elements (which I don’t use).

Last.fm is an “internet radio” service, which means it’s more like an actual radio as opposed to playing whatever you want on iTunes, though there are some things that give you a little more control over what you listen to (and more importantly, what you don’t want to listen to). Although you can’t actually play specific songs in most cases, you can listen to “stations” that you create either based around an artist or tag. So, for example, if I wanted to listen to artists similar to Orange Range, I’d type that in and my Last.fm radio would play songs by artists similar to Orange Range (or songs by Orange Range themselves). Conversely, if I wanted to put in a tag, I could put something like “Japanese” in there to listen to music that’s been tagged with the word “Japanese.” For example, here are the first ten songs I got when using this tag (Japanese):

1. How Beautiful by 土岐麻子
2. Morning After by Boom Boom Satellites
3. Love Forever by 加藤ミリヤ×清水翔太
4. 1970 by Boris
5. Nabbed by Yoshida Brothers
6. Kodou by Dir En Grey
7. Funky Town by 安室奈美恵
8. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni by 島みやえい子
9. Molecicco by Boredoms
10. Zombie by Versailles

As far as I can tell, this list of songs was pretty random when it comes to styles, etc., and to be completely honest, I wasn’t a fan of at least half of these, but that’s why you have the option of skipping tracks you don’t like, marking them as “hated” so they never show up again, or marking them as “loved” so you can keep track and listen later. Although the tag feature is a great way to find new music in a particular genre, to find stuff you like it’s probably best to play stations based off of artists you already like. That’s gotten me the most luck.

Another thing I like is the ability to see the top artists within a particular tag. For example, the Japanese tag.

I’m a bad music listener, so I don’t know who most of these people are, but I bet you do! Lastly, you can even see local gigs happening in your area by tag. Apparently Utada Hikaru will be coming to SF soon?

Anyways, I hope this helps some of you out there find some great new music to listen to. Of course, if you want to learn what people are singing about, you’ll probably want to learn Japanese.

Yep, that’s the same exact reaction I’d have if Akebono pulled that crazy stunt on me. WTF, Akebono-san? I’m just a kid (though I think Segata Sanshiro still wins in the unnecessary child-beating category). And is it just me, or does the “So Fun, So Fox” sound like something else? Now, you’ll have to forgive me, because I’ve really only seen part of one episode of Glee, so I don’t really know what it’s all about (they did well at the Golden Globes, right?), but I do know that they’re using one of my favorite people, Akebono Tarō, who is the first non-Japanese wrestler to make it to the top sumo rank of Yokozuna. That and he is a very large human.

I’m pretty sure this kind of behavior would be enough to put you in a psych ward, or at the very least out on the streets. Really though, who cares that Glee is coming to Japan? This is really just a great excuse to watch an (awesome) ex-sumo wrestler dance and sing. He’s looking good, too. I think he may have lost some weight.

It’s a bit interesting, though – we keep sending dramas their way (CSI, 24, Glee, etc) and they keep sending anime our way. Who will win this battle of television takeover, I wonder? Though, I can’t help but think that this 24 commercial puts America on the winning side.

My favorite line from the second song is “My phone bill is crazy, but my job pays for it…” Now that I actually watch it, though, I feel like there’s no way this could be an actual commercial… then again, Japanese commercials can get really, really weird.

P.S. Everyone’s gotta love Bob Sapp.

P.P.S. You should follow Tofugu on Twitter!

]]> http://www.tofugu.com/2010/01/20/glee-japan-with-the-help-of-my-big-friend-akebono-taro/feed/ 35 http://www.tofugu.com/2007/07/06/by-request-favorite-japanese-music/ http://www.tofugu.com/2007/07/06/by-request-favorite-japanese-music/#comments Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:20:10 +0000 Erin http://www.tofugu.com/?p=76 Hey, this is Erin. I bet you’re all tired of hearing from me, huh? Anyway, this article is about music (duh), more specifically, it’s about the Tofugu writers’ personal favorites. Since Viet is busy (I can only assume) and Koichi is traveling at the moment, you get to hear from me first, haha.

My taste in music is pretty eclectic. I’m usually not into the flavor of the month idol or boy band, though I do have my “pop” moments every so often. Anyway, here are some of my favorite artists:

Ayano Tsuji. If you’ve seen The Cat Returns (猫の恩返し), then you’ll recognize her from the theme song, Kaze ni Naru (風になる). She’s geek-chic, she plays the ukulele, she makes artsy music videos, what more could I want? The ukulele is my favorite part, as someone who grew up with it. She has that simple sort of untaught voice that’s absolutely charming, and consistently so, in all her songs.

The Pillows. As a professed FLCL fan, how could I not adore The Pillows (their songs were largely featured in the super-cool anime)? They do alternative rock, “alternative” being the key word here. They can be peppy or laid back, irreverent or inspiring, and their lyrics are generally a blend of deep thoughts and random engrish. That’s just the kind of randomness I love in my music.

Rimi Natsukawa. She sings Okinawan folk music, which is might not appeal to everyone, but is really comforting to me. My favorite song of hers is 月の夜 which is more upbeat, a departure from Rimi’s usual ballads. Unfortunately, I lost my Rimi Natsukawa CD last summer, and I’m too broke to buy a new one. So, yeah, if any of you out there have it, please share with me D:

m-flo. I like this group, comprised of DJ Taku Takahashi and emcee VERBAL, mainly for their collaborations with other artists. My favorite song of theirs has got to be Miss You (or m-flo loves Melody & Yamamoto Ryohei). The really addicting thing about their music is the fact that most of their lyrics are half English, half Japanese, which makes everything really fun to listen to.