TeslaGuy's YouTube Trove

[TeslaGuy]

justriingo invited me to post more "music from those bands you claim no one has ever heard before. " so I decided that rather than clog up the present thread I would start a new one. Keeping the theme that narrow would preclude posting anything Japanese, so the format will be pretty open here. Nobody will like everything, but I will consciously keep things mixed up enough that all will find something satisfying.

I'm going to start off with an incredibly cute totally cool relatively recent PV by Cornelius. The next post will be totally whacky.

Cornelius-Music

[TeslaGuy]

The Residents. The weirdest cool band to ever come out of San Francisco. This is embryonic Residents, around 1975. The quality is rather poor and the middle drags a bit but the last part is fun and worth the minute of possible tedium. And,no, they are not Nazis, note that the giant cuts of meat crush the swastika. More from these guys in the future, they're too much fun to only feature once.

The Residents-Third Reich and Roll

[TeslaGuy]

Here's a big hit from 1980 by pioneering new romantic/synth band Ultravox. Recorded in Germany with the legendary producer Conny Plank, father of krautrock, whose work in the '60s heavily influenced David Bowie's "Berlin trilogy" of albums, Low, Heroes and Lodger.

Ultravox-Vienna

[TeslaGuy]

Ultravox's Billie Currie and Midge Ure teamed up with club host Steve Strange in 1980 to create the side group Visage. This song hit the top 10 in England and the top of the charts in some European countries. I don't think it penetrated the US further than NYC gay nightclubs.

Visage-Fade to Grey

[TeslaGuy]

Moving back towards Japan, here's the band Japan, with the song that really made them famous. Vocalist David Sylvian would later collaborate with YMO keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto, and drummer Steve Jansen would tour with YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi.

Japan-Ghosts

[TeslaGuy]

Flipping things around and heading home, here's Yukihiro Takahashi playing live in 1986 with Steve Jansen on drums. The song is a cover of a '70's US hit by Starbuck.

Yukihiro Takahashi-Moonlight Feels Right

[TeslaGuy]

We'll end things for now on a happy high note with a classic from Tokyo's inimitable Pizzicato Five.

Pizzicato Five-Sweet Soul Revue

[TeslaGuy]

I originally thought I would wait a while and then do something similar to the first series of videos, but I YouTubed a favorite Puffy video tonight and then watched another one and another one and decided to do a block of early (amiyumi Jet Fever) Puffy PVs. I lived and breathed Puffy from '03 to '05, and doubt I will ever be as focused on a single band again. I just really like far too many groups now to concentrate on one of them.
I'll start off with my first exposure to Puffy, who were featured at the end of a Japanarama video. After playing the tape a few times I realized that the song was actually good. Little did I know then what a long journey that spark of insight would lead me on.

Circuit no Musume

And on we go.

Nichiyuobi no Musume

The next song is really mid-career Puffy (The Hit Parade) and not even a PV, but its the third thing I clicked on and I love this song. And its got lots of cute pictures of Ami, who is totally my favorite.

Ai ga Tomaranai

To illustrate producer Tamio Okuda'a arranging and production skills, here's a "live" robo-pop version of the same cover song. It sounds like the music was recorded in a stairwell down the hall from the vocal mikes, and the arrangement, well, it speaks for itself.

''Send in the Clones"

But enough about Tamio. Puffy's other original producer was LA's Andy Sturmer, who was in the band Jellyfish. He named the band and is known as "the godfather of Puffy". His roots are more in the '70's than Tamio's. He also lets the girls sing harmonies, vs. Tamio's inclination towards unison. I like that. Here's an early PV featuring a puzzlingly peripatetic polar bear.

Tararan

And we'll mix it up a little bit with one of my favorite Jellyfish songs. Very E.L.O. I love just about anything that Andy touches.

Jellyfish-New Mistake

The next Sturmer-penned song actually predates Puffy. Ami recorded a solo album before meeting Yumi, and the results were eventually paired with an album of Yumi's in the double CD SoloSolo, which officially is not a Puffy release. It features Ami's pet rabbit. Yumi had a cat at the time, and their pets inspired artist Rodney Alan Greenblat's book Thunder Bunny and Wonder Mew.
It was translated into Japanese by Ami and only distributed in Japan. Rodney did the cover art for all the band's 3" early singles.

Honey

It seems only fair to play Yumi's solo single as well. It was written by Pizzicato Five's Yasuharu Konishi. Her solo album was produced by some guy named Tetsutaro Sakurai, whom I know nothing about. A brief Googlesearch reveals that he did some work for the anti-band Morning Musume, and after learning that, I really don't care.

V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

We'll keep with the beach vacation theme with our next PV which was filmed in Thailand. I don't know why this particular version is subtitled in romaji, (karaoke?) but I'm not going to bother finding a cleaner copy right now. A piece of trivia that means absolutely nothing to me is that in the first episode of the Japanese drama "Love Generation", Matsu Takako and Kimura Takuya sing karaoke to this song while doing the punching moves from the music video.

Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Et Cetera

Just for fun, here's a live version, with kind of creepy bluescreen video effects. At this early point in their career, their handlers were trying to get them to do the traditional pop idol synchronized motions, but their choreographers could only teach them the most rudimentary moves because both of them are totally uncoordinated. But that was part of their charm. They became sort of anti-idols, which endeared them with their fans. Later on they just ran all over the place, wearing whatever they wanted to and doing whatever they damn well pleased. Which is how it should be.

Live Electric Beach Fever

Let's get out of the sea and into the clouds. I have no idea why they're up there, anymore than I understand why they were flying around in a low budget spaceship during most of my Jet Video DVD. But who cares?

Ai no Shirushi

As we wind this down we'll return to their first album. Even at this early stage, at least in their PVs, they were dressing casually and asymmetrically, and bobbing about in what their fans called their "drunken dancing" style.

Tokusuru Karada

We end where it all began. Their first single was a huge hit, launching them into geosynchronous orbit, where they have stably remained for over a decade whilst countless other Jpop bands have briefly shot up and then disintegrated in the atmosphere far below them. I think the song is about meeting people from other countries on the web, but there are lines like "Take every panda and line them up, every single white one". I wish I could find an FAQ on why Japanese lyrics sometimes seem utterly random.

Asia no Junshin

I just stumbled across this, a punk cover version of the song. Very cool.

Gigantor-Asia no Jinshun

[Lena-chan]

thanks for your efforts n_n
I love to listen to this forums's members musical recomendations, it's a good way to start my day X3

[justriiingo]

This was better response than I expected!
I assure you it's NOT a giant waste of time.
I'm gonna need a while to digest all that music.
Thanks Tesla!